&content=For Immediate Release Contact David Billotti at 212.768.1560 PEOPLES' PORTRAIT A Globally Networked Public Art Project Artist Zhang Ga invites the world to actively investigate the aesthetics of portraiture in the context of speed and scale (New York, NY) On October 27th, 2004, media artist Zhang Ga will debut the public art project Peoples'Portrait simultaneously in cities around the world during SENI Singapore 2004 in collaboration with Multimedia Art Asia Pacific and the Dutch Electronic Art Festival 2004. SENI and DEAF04 commissioned this new work. Five photo-capturing kiosks, including the only United States location in the Times Square Alliance Information Center at 1560 7th Avenue, will be set up globally to capture a diverse range of people in their unique environments. Every few seconds, a central server at the Parson School of Design will retrieve the portraits and display them first in time stamped order, then randomly from the archive. People can view the display in Times Square, on the world's largest digital display system at the Reuters North American Headquarters; in the Central Business District of Singapore during SENI Festival and MAAP in Singapore; in Rotterdam's City Library and in the central festival location at DEAF04; as a large projection on the facade of the Museum of the Future of Ars Electronica Center, Linz (Austria); in the QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane, Australia. The Whitney Museum of American Art's portal to theinternet art, artport, and the Media Center for Art and Design in Barcelona will serve as web portals. Besides Times Square, portraits will be drawn from kiosks in Rotterdam, Brisbane, Linz, and Singapore. As the artist's continued search for a visual language and cultural metaphor in the age of internet and globalization, this project actively investigates the aesthetics of portraiture in the context of speed and scale. How would a public, fluctuating environment dramatically alter our notion of portraiture as the depiction of a fixed moment in a private arena? How would the "drawing out of a personality" magnified at such a scale affect the very nature of portraiture? How would a work of art in the age of internet regain an aura that once faded owing to mechanical "re-produceablity"? And how would data bytes and transmission speeds behave as substitutions for brush and paint to realize a pictorial space? People's Portrait harnesses the internet as a dynamic vehicle for creating global portraits of people rendered in real time and isplayed instantly around the world. By presenting these portraits on colossal video walls, in public spaces, and on significant museum web sites, the project not only viscerally empowers ordinary people from all walks of life, but also symbolically connects men and women of different races and cultures, In bringing about a self-endorsed, powerful and uplifting impact realized through technologically produced artifacts in relation to the dynamics of virtuality and reality, speed and time, local and trans-local, the artist also questions the notion of interaction and authorship and expresses a humanist concern Zhang Ga is a media artist, curator and co-director of agent.netart. He has exhibited in Europe and America in ephemeral domains as well as in tangible spaces, curated exhibitions, organized conferences and digital salons, written on new media art practice and criticism, and served on jury duties for media art grants. Zhang Ga lives and works in New York City where he teaches at the MFA Design and Technology Program @ Parsons School of Design; he also is a visiting lecturer @ Computer Graphics and Interactive Media @ Pratt Institute. He was nominated for the Rockefeller New Media Arts Fellowship and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts for Net Art Curatorial Initiative. He is the co-artistic director of the First Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition and Symposium. Most recently, he co-curated a new media exhibition titled "Passage of Mirage" which opened at the Chelsea Art Museum in September 2004 in New York City. The Times Square Alliance, founded in 1992, works to improve and promote Times Square so that it retains the creativity, energy and edge that have made it an icon for entertainment, culture and international urban life for a century. In addition to providing safety and sanitation services, the Alliance co-coordinates numerous major events in Times Square like New Year's Eve, manages an Information Center and advocates on behalf of its constituents with respect to a host of public policy, planning and quality-of-life issues. The Alliance celebrates the Centennial of Times Square with a special historical exhibit, Crossroads of Desire, opening at the AXA Gallery on December 9th. WHAT: People's Project – a public art project conceived by Zhang Ga WHEN: October 27th – November 28th WHERE: Exclusive U.S. Photo Kiosk at the Times Square Information Center, 1560 7th Avenue between 46th and 47th, New York, NY (open 8am to 8pm) Portraits displayed on the Reuters Billboard (42nd and Broadway) five minutes every hour, at random, from 6am – 2am WHO: Presented in conjunction with the Times Square Alliance. Use of the Times Square video wall made possible by the generous support of Reuters and Instinet. INTERNET: www.whitney.org/artport www.mecad.org www.timessquarenyc.org MEDIA CONTACT: David Billotti Times Square Alliance 212.768.1560 Credits: Conceptualized and produced by: Zhang Ga Advisors: Dave Jenssen (Instinet), Peter Lavery (Creative Industries), Kim Machen (MAAP), Sven Travis (Parsons), Frederick Jules (Professor Emeritus), Eddie Nelms (Times Square Alliance) Curators: Kim Machen (MAAP), June Yap (Singapore Art Museum) Alex Adriaansens (V2_ ), Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica), Christiane Paul (Whitney), Claudia Giannetti (MECAD) Production: MFA Design and Technology, Parsons School of Design Coordinators: Frank (Fang Yu) Lin, Christina Rueegg Server Side Scripting: Ossip Kaehr (firstGate) Software and Hardware Engineering: Marc Lin, Frank Lin Web Site Design: Marc Lin Graphic Design and Visual Effects: MFA Students, Design and Technology Program, Parsons School of Design (with Christina Rueegg, Tia Ji Young Kim, Miao Wang, Ming-Chun Chang, Rahul Spall, Randy Sarafan) Presented in New York City by The Times Square Alliance Presented in Rotterdam by DEAF04 / V2_the Institute for the Unstable Media Presented in Singapore by SENI: Art and the Contemporary Festival 2004, MAAP in Singapore Presented in Brisbane by MAPP / QUT Presented in Linz by Ars Electronica Center ------------------------------------------------------ International interactive art in Rotterdam during Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF04) Rotterdam, Thursday 9 September 2004 The seventh edition of the biannual Dutch Electronic Art Festival is taking place in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), from Tuesday 9 until Sunday 21 November 2004. DEAF04 presents a large international exhibition, events, conferences, music performances and workshops. Participating artists are the ChineseAmerican artist Zhang Ga, Seiko Mikami and Sota Ichikawa from Japan, British artist Luke Jerram, American architect Lebbeus Woods, and many others. Interactive art in the exhibition and in the public space The festival is a presentation platform for new media art – some of it commissioned by DEAF04 – and as a forum for critical debate and art education. Dozens of artists from all over the world present their work in the exhibition on the festival location Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek and in the public space throughout Rotterdam. People's Portrait, conceived by the ChineseAmerican artist Zhang Ga, is an ambitious public art project on two interrelated levels: video wall display and web portal exhibition. It is presented as a public project on a central square in Rotterdam during DEAF04 and as a large projection on the facade of the Museum of the Future of Ars Electronica Center, Linz (Austria). It also uses the Reuters Headquarters' massive video and data display screen on Times Square in New York. Peoples' Portrait uses the Internet as the underlying mechanism to create a global portrait of people. Passersby can make a photograph of themselves in photo booths located in cities such as Rotterdam, New York, Brisbane, Barcelona and Singapore. These pictures will be rendered in real time and displayed instantly and simultaneously on various museum websites and grand video walls in these and other cosmopolitan urban centers. In Gravicells – Gravity and Resistance by the Japanese artists Seiko Mikami and Sota Ichikawa the computer constantly measures weight, movements and speed of the participants who are themselves inside the installation. Through all kinds of calculations and analyses the computer causes the participants to perceive gravitation with all senses. The interaction between the visitor and the installation Run Motherfucker Run of the Rotterdambased media artist Marnix de Nijs is exceptionally immediate. While running on a conveyor belt, the visitor has to find his way through a city which is projected on a large projection screen in front of him. By diving into unexpected side lanes and streets, the visitor can partly determine the course of this thrillerlike film, but not altogether... Some other examples of artwork expected at the exhibition are Ohrwurmbeschleuniger by the Austrian Roman Kirschner is a magnetron which makes melodies that will never leave your head again, socalled 'earwigs'. The British artist Luke Jerram presents his installation Tide, an acoustic sculpture which reacts upon the attraction of the moon. In Mobile Feelings, by the international duo Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, information about the body, such as pulsation and body fragrance are passed on from one participant to the other using mobile telephony. Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems The interactivity of the artworks directly refers to the theme of DEAF04 – Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems, a theme that concerns feeling as a vital factor for interaction. Feeling is the driving force behind our actions. Recently it has become known that we never do anything purely rational. That applies to almost every human operation. Without your feeling or intuition to rely on, you can take no decision whatsoever. Open systems are continuously in interaction with their surroundings and are therefore partly shaped by human activities. Each interactive artwork is an open system, which tries to seduce the visitor to participate in certain operations, hoping that the work itself will reorganise itself into an unforeseen consistency. The artists participating in the exhibition have been selected on the basis of their congruence with the theme. The American avantgarde architect Lebbeus Woods will compile a full evening's program that showcases his personal outlook on DEAF04's theme. Japanese curator Yukiko Shikata and Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan were commissioned by DEAF04 as well to compile a full evening. The academic symposium Feelings are Always Local (12–13 November) brings together a high profile and interdisciplinary group of scientists, theorists, artists and architects around the theme of DEAF04. Among the eight speakers are Arjun Appadurai, Mike Davis, Loretta Napoleoni, and Alex Galloway. About Dutch Electronic Art Festival The Dutch Electronic Art Festival is a biannual international festival for electronic art. It is a presentation platform for new media art – some of it commissioned by the festival – as well as a forum for interdisciplinary cooperation and critical debate. DEAF04 is the seventh edition of this festival hosted in Rotterdam since 1994 by V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media. The DEAF04 exhibition takes place in the spacious Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek building and in the public space of Rotterdam during the entire festival. Apart from the exhibition, DEAF04 offers live (music) performances, evening programs, seminars and workshops, discussions and presentations, an academic symposium with a book publication, educational programs and an informative festival website which also functions as a platform for several online activities. DEAF04 Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems Date: Tuesday 9 November – Sunday 21 November 2004 Central location: Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek, Van Nelleweg 1, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) Festival website: www.deaf04.nl Contact: DEAF04 – Dutch Electronic Art Festival P.O. Box 19049, 3001 BA Rotterdam Tel. + 31 (0)10 – 206 72 72 Fax + 31 (0)10 – 206 72 71 Email:deaf@v2.nl Note for members of the press: For further information, image material and/or press accreditation requests, contact Richard de Boer (communication and PR), direct tel. + 31 10 – 206 72 77 or email richard@v2.nl. Press releases of DEAF04 can be received by email and will remain receivable through the press section on the festival website www.deaf04.nl. ------------------------------------------------------ 'MAAP in Singapore' 2004 "GRAVITY" Exhibitions: 1 October - 28 November Conference and Festival Focus Week: 27-31 October MAAP (Multimedia Art Asia Pacific) is an organisation and festival that explores New Media Art across a range of art forms and practices emphasizing interactive multimedia, broadband content, Internet, digital media, animation and projects integrating new media. MAAP was established to bring focus to the "unmapped" cultural new media content emerging from Australia and the Asia Pacific regions and is now an Asia Pacific touring new media arts festival and web site resource, partnering with key organisations in our region. MAAP's inaugural festival in 1998 was based in Brisbane and Online and continued till 2001 when it progressed its committment to regional partnerships. MAAP stepped offshore to Beijing in 2002 and after the resounding success of 'MAAP in Beijing' we are planning our next major program in Singapore. October and November 2004 will see 'MAAP in Singapore', partner with the Singapore National Arts Council and the Singapore Art Museum to produce a core New Media exhibition surrounded by a network of exhibitions and events. GRAVITY as the central festival theme will be linking the weightless code of digital media to the conceptual weight of ideas in a concentrated examination of New Media Art. This international exhibition will explore underlying themes of GRAVITY ?the gravity of real and virtual space, social gravity, and the ultimate gravity of ideas referenced and linked to the Conceptual Art movement. MAAP in Singapore has a range of Partner Programs sourcing content from MAAP's regional networks with additional exhibitions and screenings managed by cooperative local venues and collaborators. The Substation, The Earl Lu Gallery, The National Institute Education Gallery, The Esplanade along with other galleries and public events will combine to bring their GRAVITY program to the mix. Other events include a live broadband event linking Singapore and Brisbane, in an event that will see digital art works beaming and performance exchanges melting into a VJ/DJ event between the cities. Also programmed in Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University, a refereed conference focusing on New Media Art Education while further symposium and artists talks held at The Singapore Art Museum and The Substation examines the GRAVITY of other new media issues. A live internet public art project 'Peoples Portrait' by Zhang Ga will be rendered in real-time on video walls in public spaces in Singapore, Brisbane and other cities connecting people of different race and cultures to create a celebratory experience of 'self portrait'. As MAAP oscillates between the gravitational pull of online and physical spaces, MAAP is planning an online residency that will physically locate four artists in Singapore for the festival and then continue support and training over a twelve-month period - net/works.- will be calling for expressions of interest in December. 'MAAP in Singapore' is part of the SENI: Singaore Art and the Contemporary visual arts festival. Further information www.maap.org.au info@maap.org.au MAAP in Singapore partners with Singapore National Arts Council www.nac.gov.sg Singapore Art Museum www.nhb.gov.sg/SAM The Substation, Singapore www.substation.org Earl Lu Gallery, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts www.lasallesia.edu.sg/secondary.html Esplanade Theatres on the Bay www.esplanade.com Switch Media, Chang Mai http://switchmedia.culturebase.org Nanyang Technological University www.ntu.edu.sg The National Institute of Education Gallery www.nie.edu.sg Siggraph, Singapore Chapter http://singapore.siggraph.org The Year of Living Digitally, Singapore http://www.livedigitally.net The Australian High Commission Singapore www.singapore.embassy.gov.au MAAP in Singapore is generously supported by Australia Council www.ozco.org.au Singapore National Arts Council www.nac.gov.sg Arts Queensland www.arts.qld.gov.au Brisbane City Council www.ourbrisbane.com Australian Film Commission www.afc.gov.au Queensland College of Art, Griffith University QUT Creative Industries www.creativeindustries.qut.edu.au Partner Programs The Digital Art Museum of the China Millenium Monument, http://www.bj2000.org.cn Switch Media, Chiang Mai, http://switchmedia.culturebase.org Asialink www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au and Australian Centre for the Moving Image www.acmi.net.au Experimenta Media Arts www.experimenta.org DLux Media Arts www.dlux.org.au Videotage Hong Kong www.videotage.org.hk Art Center Nabi, Seoul www.nabi.org.kr