December 21 Energy, Mass and C

Einstein laid the groundwork for the standard model. It still holds, though models are a sticky wicket. For a lovely exposition, see the film Particle Fever.

The standard model runs the sun, which makes our life. And the Solstice celebrates our relationship with the sun in its cycle.



M.A.S.S. X celebrates Solstice with musical explorations by Michael Stirling + Matt Carlson + Doug Theriault, Fountainsun (Daniel Higgs + Fumie Ishii) and Douglas Mcgowan. www.facebook.com/events/1523155414604295/ Recommended. At Alberta Abbey 126 NE Alberta 8PM-11 Donation



Today is also the Worldwide Celebration of In C.

Composer and musician Terry Riley wrote the work in 1964. It is the first minimalist music work, though it has innumerable preceding influences. Today In C will be performed throughout the world, and streamed live to the Worldwide In C website. It will also be performed live at the Waypost at 7PM.

By coincidence, Portland musician Michael Stirling, performing M.A.S.S. tonight, has studied extensively with Riley and Riley's teacher, Pandit Pran Nath.

Worldwide Celebration of In C www.worldwideinc.org. All day. Free

December 20,22-5 Aliens Once All Mostly

Most all of us are aliens, or our predecessors were aliens.

Raises hand.

The concept predisposes borders and includes the future of outside-of-earthians. Of course, from space, there are no borders.

Artists Xchurch have been wryly commenting yearly on the phenomenon.

This year they add an Oculus Rift take on past years. Xhurch NTVTY opens a few days and hours for your contemplation on family, and the turn of the sun, and for baby Jesus, artists and aliens.

Here is a little more about the project vimeo.com/112521303. Tuesday evening goes later with live music.

NTVTY V at Xhurch xhurch.net 4550 NE 20th. Saturday, December 20 6PM-9; Monday-Thursday, December 22-25 6PM-9. Tuesday evening ceremonial and musical ritual. Donation appreciated, think $5

December 19 Whither Arts Education?

Jen Delos Reyes and Harrell Fletcher run the social practice art program at Portland State University. Jen Delos Reyes shares her thoughts this morning on arts education as a vehicle for worldchanging.

Academia is expensive and it is competitive, not only in a positive way. The same applies to the internecine warfare between faculty over appointments. And of course, those same primitive impulses play out in society at large.

What if art and design were human-focused? What would change in arts education? Could those creatives create a better world? That is this morning's discussion.

It is part of the always excellent Creative Mornings. Advance tickets are required http://creativemornings.com/talks/jen-delos-reyes, but the video will be up on the web to be seen for free within a few weeks.

At the Museum of Contemporary Craft 724 NW Davis 8:30AM Free

December 16 The Tool Array Has Landed

There will be a reception for the Brenna Murphy installation Central~Lattice Tool Array at Upfor tonight. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM Free

December 15 Body of Sound

Tere Mathern & Roland Toledo discuss collaboration between movement makers and soundscape makers. Mathern is a modern dance choreographer and Toledo is a sound designer. It is part of architects' Project Cityscope New Structure series. http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-new-structure-tere-mathern-roland-toledo-tickets-10739683683. At Shout House 210 SE Madison St. Ste. 11 7PM Free

December 14 Publication

The annual fair of small Portland publishers and bookstores is today. What a pleasure in an era of Amazon and short attention spans. http://www.publicationstudio.biz/events/ At the Cleaners at the Ace Hotel SW 10th and Stark. Noon-6 Free

December 12 Give, Take, Happen

Givers is a group show curated by Jesse Hayward. They are artworks Hayward has been given by their makers over many years. Artists include Olivia Brown, Elias Crouch, Sally Finch, Bryan Friel, Nathan Gibson, Bill Hayward, Midori Hirosi, Byron Kurtz, Hannah Lockhart, Mark Moore, Lisa Mir, Jarrett Mitchell, TJ Norris, Tim Schwartz, Sibelle Sunar and Liz Walsh. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org in the Ford Building www.fordbuildingpdx.com 2505 SE 11th x Division. Enter through the cafe on the corner if the main doors on 11th are locked. 6PM-9 Free



It's Really Cool To Be Here is Thomas J Gamble's response to recent citizen deaths at the hands of police. Many are drawings. At S1 www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map 6PM-9 Free



Time Arts Club mounts Happening #17 tonight at Composition Gallery in the Everett Lofts. The event includes an installation by K.C.R.Anderson, Hot in the Sack; video by Katie Holden, two waters; interactive Installation by Emily Lewis, The Ache for Home; video by Chris Freeman You're a Good Man, Chris Freeman at 8PM; installation by Joshua Raines; performance by Amanda Wilson; video by Skyler Wells, Superdrunk at 815PM; 8-Channel Boom Box Performance by Manny Layers, New Romancer IV at 9PM. RSVP requested, it is a small space https://orgsync.com/67394/events/932921. At Composition Gallery compositiongallery.tumblr.com in the Everett lofts facing NW 6th 7PM-10 Free

December 11 Precipice

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has a mission to birth more L'enfant terribles. Those artists gather around experimental art spaces, like The Factory in its time. So the foundation has created The Precipice Fund in Portland to give grants of $500-$5000 for a total of $75000 to those experiments. The Foundation operates similar programs in San Francisco, Kansas City, Chicago and Houston.

Last year rcipients included The Portland Museum of Modern Art, M.A.S.S., Multiplex/S1, Falsefront, Weird Shift Storefront, C.O.P.S., 12128 Boatspace and others pica.org/precipice-fund/2013-grant-recipients/.

Tonight the new Portland recipients will be announced. You can attend the announcement event with an RSVP to precipice@pica.org, or attend an annual party later. Precipice Fund announcement and art party pica.org/event/precipice-fund-winner-announcement-pica-winter-fete/ at 415 SW 10th, 3rd floor. Announcement 6PM Party 8PM Free

December 5 Eastside Art Opening Magic

"No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right." It is in the Oregon Constitution's Bill of Rights.

It is a stronger protection than the US Constitution.

In 2003, the Oregon Supreme Court broadly included exotic dance performances under the Oregon Bill of Rights. The rest is history.

The Magic Gardens opened much longer ago, in 1960, in an even older building. They are closing New Year's eve for the building to be redeveloped.

But tonight, over 50 artists contribute their memories in the form of commemorative posters. At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 6PM-10 Free



Northwoods Journals by Kurt Simonson are photographs inspired by the artist's family childhood memories. It is in the narrative branch of photography. Reathel Geary has photographs Waiting for Griffin, meditations on his relationship with his autistic son. Kudos for a solid December show. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map 6PM-9 Free



Mitsu Okubo, San Francisco Art Institute schooled, has a show at Worksound www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder Map 6PM-9 Free



All Play & No Work is work-play by Calvin Ross Carl and Matt Jacobs. It is at HQHQ Project Space in the Oak Street Building, 232 SE Oak St #108 6PM-9 Free



Daniel Long's I Hear a Symphony closes tonight with a reception. There is book release by Publication Studio related. At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM Free



The 811 building has some new shops and they will be celebrating.

Katherine Bradford and Sarah Gamble continue their previous show. At Adams and Ollman Gallery www.adamsandollman.com 811 E Burnside #213 6PM-9 Free


The Poetics of Light is a curated group show of photographs. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8 Free


Michele Maule has Into the Woods, fanciful illustrations of treehouses and woodland life. Octavia Hunter has photographs Letting Go, which are on display 24x7 through the rear window. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside 6PM-9:30 Free

All at 811 East Burnside Map6PM-9:30



Lisa Golightly has Fade Away, collage of found and made images transferred to canvas. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 6PM-8 Free

December 4 Westside Art Openings

Brenna Murphy has Central~Lattice Tool Array at Upfor. Some of the work will be recognizable as related to her work as MSHR. The work is individualistic, enigmatic and beautiful. Highly recommended. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM-9 Free



Master of drawing, Samantha Wall has a show this month at Laura Russo. At Laura Russo Gallery www.laurarusso.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-8 Free



Francine Fleischer has Swim, photographs made in popular Mexican swimming holes called Cenote. They are fresh water caves and sinkholes. Many go back to the early civilizations of the region as part of their spiritual rituals. Today they are a popular place to cool off. Portrait photographers Jaime Travezán and Morgana Vargas Llosa with art director David Tortora have made an unusual project for Blue Sky, Mírame, Lima. They worked with 50 families to realized staged portraits subsequently digitally composited. In the Nine Gallery, Postcards From Paradise is a show of faux tourist attraction signs staged along the route of proposed Wyoming, Colorado and Montana coal trains. It may not even be economical to export that coal from Oregon and Washington ports. Ryan Pierce takes the artist way in making light of the issue and includes a map of his locations. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9 Free



Michael Horwitz, Susie J. Lee, Marne Lucas and Corey Lunn share a group show You Don't Know Me, roughly portraits. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM Free



Visage Eyewear has a show by illustrator Lisa Holley. It admixes animal portraits with botanical illustration. At Visage Eyewear www.visageeyewear.com 1046 NW Johnson 6PM-9 Free



The PNCA MFA programs are weak at publicizing their shows. They even have a dedicated gallery, and probably more, but they ably keep secrets. Not tonight. Happy Hour: The Retrospective is a show by 2016 visual studies class artists Rebecca Rosen Carlisle, Maggie Condit, Alex Godbold, Aaron Johnson, Caitlin Rooney, BriAnna Rosen, Dylan Schietinger, Tait Brian Simonson and Lauren Kristine. At the PNCA Visual Studies Lodge Gallery, in the Allied Works Architecture Lobby, 1532 SW Morrison 6PM-9 Free



Everett Lofts are recommended as always. It's easier for you to see them all than for me to write suggestions. Some close as early as 9PM. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map closing ranges from 9PM-10:30ish

December 2 Stoned Curiosity

Our regional perch on the ring of fire contributes to the rocks and minerals we find. There are outstanding ones, agates, jaspers, petrified wood, zeolites, sunstones and thunder eggs. That has led to a community of collectors who love exploring the out of the way corners of the state. Some then fabricate jewelry from those findings.

Alison Jean Cole is one and she speaks about her explorations and lapidary adventures tonight. A presentation of the Curiosity Club, you can tune into the free live webcast off the Core77 site, see the video archive on the Hand Eye Supply Website or visit the talk and demonstration in person at Hand Eye Supply www.handeyesupply.com/pages/curiosity-club 427 NW Broadway 6PM Free

November 29 Old Town

This is a film curiosity, not a visual art event.

Once upon a time, some of Portland's spiffaritic neighborhoods were gritty. Arrive a young filmmaker, Gus Van Sant. He made his first released feature film in those backstreets, Mala Noche.

Speed up to today. The filmmaker is loved by actors for his subliminal directing style, to the Academy, and to audiences for heart-rendering films, some difficult.

Tonight there is a showing of Mala Noche. The film was based on the autobiography of wild man poet-artist Walt Curtis, who will answer questions at the screening. One of the film's settings was the Satyricon Club in Old Town. Bruno, the long time doorman there, also will be there to relate the stories behind the film and the neighborhood.

Mala Noche, Portland history, at the PSU Fifth Avenue Cinema. www.5thavenuecinema.org 510 SW Hall 7:30PM. Free PSU community, $3 other students $4 everybody cash only

November 28 Light

There is a closing for the Light Wash installation tonight, with performances on the installation by Jesse Mejía in collaboration with Lucy Yim, Christi Denton, Edward Sharp, Jason Plumb, Alex Norman and Charles Buckingham. At Composition compositiongallery.tumblr.com 625 NW Everett #102 (6th side) 7PM-10 Free

November 23 Blue Surface

Arielle Adkin has Blue Print Series. It resembles an archaic soft printing process, blue, on paper. One of the earliest photographic processes, invented in 1842, it was the method for reproducing architectural blueprints before pen and inkjet plotters. Also called cyanotype, it has a long history in the photographic world. Adkin makes her images with paint, many include wallpaper-like patterns in tonal blues. At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd. 4PM-6 Free



Pure Surface is a performance series combining spoken word reading, movement performance and video. Performers tonight are Kaia Sand, text; Catherine Egan, movement; and Hanna Piper Burns, film.
Pure Surface www.puresurface.info at Valentines valentinespdx.com 232 SW Ankeny. Doors 6:00PM, performance 7 sharp Free

November 22 Bouy

FRONT is a broadsheet about contemporary dance and ideas, primarily written by dancers themselves. Today they launch their latest edition ED4:BUOY! So despite that they, to our chagrin, hew to all caps text design tactic, we recommend the event as a creative meetup, and a chance to get a copy or distribute them to your interested friends. It's free. FRONT distribution at Ristretto Roasters LoBu 555 NE Couch. 4PM-7 Free

November 21 Awaken Last Summer Sitings

Holocene has always been entwined with Portland visual and performing artists.

Tonight they host a PNCA happy hour with performances and video by PNCA staff members: Weird Fiction, Dizzynest, Fasters, a Power Girls zine reading from Kinoko Evans and video by Jason Williams, Linden How, Jodie Cavalier and Linda Kliewer. Some of these are in the PNCA staff show Last Call at the school. At Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 5PM Free



Fourteen30 Contemporary has All Summer in a Day, a group show by Matt Connors, Kristan Kennedy, Owen Kydd, Diane Simpson and Erika Verzutti. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 11AM-6PM Weekends, tonight 6PM-8 Free



Nationale opens When We Dead Awaken by PNCA MFA painting grad Elizabeth Malaska. The work expresses the artist's critique of gender sociopolitics in the art world and generalized social apathy using surrealist tactics. At Nationale www.nationale.us 3360 SE Division Map 6PM-8 Free



Disjecta opens video works Sightings by Kevin Cooley and Jessica Mallios. Cooley has Skyward, an up shot from a convertible car which is projected on the ceiling above the audience and A Thousand Miles an Hour involving synchronized sun and moon images. Mallios has Rhombus and Tower of the Americas. This is the second show by the new curator involving video, a welcome trend. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-10 Free

November 20 Thanksgiving Before Black Friday

Thanksgiving. It has resisted commercialization with a focus on family.

The first peoples of the Northwest had a similar tradition. Potlatch.

People gathered with their surplus or lack and made gifts to one another over a feast.

The Museum has a nine foot long Kwakwaka'wakw Indian Dzunk'wa Feast Dish, used in potlatches. Artist Blair Saxon-Hill has chosen this piece from all of the collection as the focus of this month's Thursday artist talk and happy hour.

Blair Saxon-Hill speaks at the Art Museum happy hour www.portlandartmuseum.org/event/artist-talks-and-happy-hour-blair-saxon-hill. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park
6PM $5 members or regular museum admission

November 19 MSHR Potatoes

S1 multiplexes between a visual arts venue, a video/media art venue and a music venue. Tonight they cover all three. Hairy Food, Jessie Mejia and MSHR perform. And it's underground. At S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map 9PM $5-7

November 15 Flood Information Space

Portland is a river town. That is why we are here. But water is a powerful force.

Once upon a time, Portland, in a state which has a history unkind to African Americans, had a neighborhood, Vanport. It was in North Portland by now Delta Park. African Americans moved to Portland to work in the Swan Island shipyards for WWII. Inexpensive apartments for many were made in Vanport. But Vanport was known to be in a flood area. On May 30, 1948, the levies were overcome and the homes of many destroyed. Here is a short documentary.

This afternoon some of the first person survivors relate their experiences for the Vanport Multimedia Project. New videos gathering their experiences will be shown. More information is at www.facebook.com/events/673764226054360/.

Recommended for real Portland history we can learn from in our actions of the moment.

Vanport Multimedia Project at the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, 3138 N. Vancouver 2PM Free



Portland is a paper publishing town. In that spirit, YU presents a talk by James Hoff on his project Primary Information which prints artists works, current and past. At Yu Contemporary Art www.yucontemporary.org 900 SE 10th 5PM



This evening is also opening for the remaining Pioneer Place Mall galleries. The Mark Woolley Gallery has Carola Penn and Diane Avo-Augee. At the Mark Woolley Gallery www.markwoolley.com a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall. If the mall appears closed, enter the film theater building adjacent, travel through the tunnel to the Place mall, and take the elevator to the 3rd floor, sometimes the bridge on the 3rd floor is open too. 700 SW Fifth 5PM-9 Free



Art is all around us. It is a niche of everyday experience with its own semiotics. But to see it in person with others seeking coreaction requires space. Space as in rent, heat, staff. So yearly one space, Disjecta, mounts an art auction. It's an opportunity to see a cross section of local art, artists, and those passionate about art. This year's participating artists may be seen on the Disjecta website.

The Disjecta art auction www.disjecta.org/exhibitions-events/2014-disjecta-annual-art-auction at Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 7PM-10 $25 advance $30 door

November 14 Grow Canaries

Recent L&C graduate Tony Chrenka brings his installations to S1 tonight. Inspired by social commentary, sustainable architecture and constructed identity he has built Slow Grow. The S1 art events are always recommended. At S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map 6PM-9 Free



You can learn a lot about an artist-their art from a studio visit. It's a rare thing.

Artists can be the canaries in the coal mines. Sometimes they are inspired by the rivulets of culture before they coalesce into the great flood. So looking into what's going on in art school is a way of hearing some birdsongs of those canaries.

Tonight, PNCA MFA artists Amory Abbott, Sean Barnes, Rachel Brown-Smith, Rebecca Carlisle, Maggie Condit, Maria Davidoff, Liz Fuller, Alex Godbold, Anastasia Greer, Lucas Haley, Tessa Heck, Evan Isoline, Candace Jahn, Aaron Johnson, Marisa Lee, Kelly McGovern, Jung Min, Bertrand Morin, Annie Oldenburg, Nicholas Patton, Katie Piatt, Veronica Reeves, Caitlin Rooney, BriAnna Rosen, Dylan Schietinger, Micah Schmelzer, Tait Simonson, Lauren Stumpf, Jason Berlin Thomas and Nikki Vene open their studio warren to see work in progress, completed works and to chat.

Recommended. At the PNCA visual studies studios www.pnca.edu/graduate/c/vs 1830 NW 19th 6PM-9 Free

November 9 Heart of Darkness

Richard Mosse speaks today of his experience filming war in Congo.

We see with our eyes. But there are other "colors" beyond our vision. We call those ultraviolet, for light with shorter waves beyond violet, and infrared for long waves beyond red.

Mosse found an archaic infrared movie film stock made in WWII which was tuned in "color" to separate camouflaged military from plant life. The film prints the infrared reflected by natural plants as pink.

With a team of fixers, Mosse took his camera into Eastern Congo. The area is filled with warlords, remnants of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Today they continue their dirty little war by mining minerals, like tantalum, an essential ingredient in every electronic device made today. It is smuggled to China where it sells for $400 a pound.

His resulting video work, The Enclave, has just opened at the Portland Art Museum. The work comes from the 2014 Venice Biennale.

Many people are critical of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. But they miss that it is a meditation on the experience of the narrator, and not a judgement on a continent. I've been in North Kivu, in a time of considerably less risk, though we drove by vast refugee camps and heard gunfire nearby.

Nonetheless, the 20 year war in Eastern Congo, with more than 6 million perished, is reprehensible.

The war has also decimated the endangered mountain gorilla, a sustainable source of ecotourism.

Richard Mosse speaks www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-iavffjpZc at the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 2PM Members, free; otherwise regular admission - so you can see the show - seniors $12, else $15

November 8 Let's Get Conceptual

Late career British conceptual artist Terry Atkinson, cofounder of Art&Language opens a show recreating an earlier work using grease as the art medium. The YU website has a more detailed explanation. The artist speaks at YU on Sunday at 2PM. At Yu Contemporary Art www.yucontemporary.org 900 SE 10th 3PM-4

November 7 Eastside Art Openings+

Laura Hughes opens The Lines Along Which Anything Lies at the PSU Littman Gallery. Hughes is one of Portland's few light artists. The work is based on dichroic interference films which reflect color selectively based on the angle of reflection. There will also be an artist talk in the gallery November 21 at 6:30PM. At the PSU Littman Gallery in Smith Union. www.pdx.edu/littmanandwhite Littman Gallery, PSU Smith Hall, Room 250, 1825 SW Broadway 5PM-8 Free



The PSU Autzen Gallery has This is a This, returning MFA Studio Practice graduates. They are: Jea Alford, Chris Freeman, Katie Holden, Manny Layers and Pam Minty. At PSU Autzen Gallery, Neuberger Hall, 2nd Floor, Room 205, 724 SW Harrison 5PM-8 Free



Red Cloud Collective has a show of neon, Let’s Be Light, by Julia Calabrese, Derek Joyns, Adam Zeek, Daniel Long, David Wien and Perry Pfister
1454 NE Prescott 7PM-10


Worksound continues last month's show in their new compact space with a low key opening. At Worksound www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder Map 6PM-10



Black Box has Color Space, a group show of color photography. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8 Free



Katherine Bradford and Sarah Gamble have dreamy paintings. Themes include electromagnetic fields, floating and flying. At Adams and Ollman Gallery www.adamsandollman.com 811 E Burnside #213 6PM-9 Free

November 6 Westside Art Openings+

Hellion has Dreams Within Dreams by APEK. We like, and have covered this husband and wife kwai-style illustration duo for some time. Also showing is In The Toy Box with Ikumi Nakada from Japan. Hellion is looking for a new location, ideally inner East side. They will continue in a temporary smaller space on the same floor beginning December until they find one. If you hear of something reasonable, let them know. At Hellion Gallery www.helliongallery.com through the lobby of the arched brick entry, up the stairs and to the back. Very upper floor Japan-style. 19 NW 5th Suite 208. Map 7PM-10 Free



Corey Arnold is a photographer that catches fish for a living. And the reverse is true too. He spends some of the year in Portland, so he is a Portlander. Tonight he opens a new body of work, Wildlife, shot (with a camera) in Alaska. We will have to see how the Pebble Mine proposed upstream from a huge salmon fishery unfolds, or not. At Charles Hartman Fine Art www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th



Reed professor Akihiko Miyoshi has Pigment Migrations & Suspended Refraction. They are photographs inspired by science. He is an artist and engineer. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM-9 Free



It's always educational and often pleasurable to see a greatest hits - greatest hitter show. This is one of photographic self portraits by Delaney Allen, Chuck Close, Nan Goldin, David Hilliard, Justine Kurland, Isaac Layman, Robert Lyons, Robert Mapplethorpe, Vik Muniz, Alec Soth, Arne Svenson and Carrie Mae Weems. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9



Portland artist Roger Peet has Traps, Flows, Echoes in the PNCA second floor Gallery 214. It is related to his volunteer work and family history in the Congo. Fascinating. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map 6PM-9 Free



Jared Soares has Small-Town Hip Hop, his documentation of that world in Roanoke Virginia. Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu has Life on the Block, a view of families in Spanish Harlem, New York, New York. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9 Free



Abigail McNamara has a wall piece she has been installing in the gallery all month. Now it is finished! At Duplex Collective www.duplexcollective.com 219 NW Couch 6PM-9 Free



Everett Lofts are recommended as always. It's easier for you to see them all than for me to write suggestions. Some close as early as 9PM. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map closing ranges from 9PM-10:30ish



Native(X) is a contemporary visual arts and crafts show by Native Americans. It includes work by Yatika Fields,Toma Villa, Jaque Fragua, Cheyenne Randall and Sho Sho Esquiro. At Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine 6PM-10 Free

November 5 Eyes and Ears on Synths

An infinite symphony of musicians can be made in a laptop. Digital domain.

The analog electronics maker movement is going another direction.

They have adopted the tactics of musique concrète, a room full of analog oscillators and filters, on through to a rack full of miniatures of the same, which characterized the Moog era. These analog modules have knobs, switches, sequencers and colorful patch cables, sometimes even a chromatic keyboard.

A common format for all these today is the Eurorack. There are dozens of companies all over the world making Eurorack modules, including Portland's MiniGorille.

MiniGorille has a new species of hybrid digital-analog module, the Geometry Synthesizer. It has switches, dials and patchpoints to participate with the other sound modules in the patch. But it also talks by Bluetooth to laptop software, in this case, Grasshopper and Processing, generative visualization tools.

The music from the analog synth controls the generation of the visuals in real time.

I'm sure there are hybrid analog synth-laptop synth hybrids possible with the technology too!

You can see and hear the Geometry Synthesizer tonight. Geometry Synthesizer demonstration www.facebook.com/events/312810955568651/ at Control Voltage www.controlvoltage.net 3742 NE Mississippi 6:30PM Free

November 1 M.A.S.S. IX

Tonight is an all souls evening of music, visuals and reading. We are not saying its dark. But we are not saying its light. Grouper, Liz Harris, performs her abstract music. White Gourd, Suzanne Stone, performs music-art-movement inspired by the death card in her tarot deck, accompanied by visuals by vVv Stardust, Vivian Hua. Tyler Brewington provides readings.

M.A.S.S. is an ongoing series of events combining visual art, performance, music, readings and projections, in a church. Your own spiritual artistic experience.

M.A.S.S. IX https://www.facebook.com/events/1477119889221589/ at Alberta Abbey 126 NE Alberta Doors 7PM, show 8 Free, donations accepted

October 26 Utility Quilt

Artist Wynde Dyer continues her community quilt project. She worked with a group of 5-11 year olds to design and fabricate pattern quilts from poly tarp. There is more to this story too. Opening at Stumptown Coffee Division 4525 SE Division 4PM-6 Free

October 25 Spare Box

We have plenty of woods here. Enough to get lost in in a good way. (Lost) In the Woods is an art show on that theme by Shelley Jordon, sound by Kurt Rohde. It opens at the University of Oregon White Stag Building, whitebox.uoregon.edu 70 NW Couch 4PM-7



I'm Against It and Ad Hoc at Home is a punk art show. In Surplus Space, a home sometime art gallery, with stellar shows, Portland style!

I'm not going to rewrite this curious description: "Jodie Cavalier presents a series of sculptures informed by punk fashion and Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. Stephen Slappe brings us selections from his series of Situationist skate videos. Local acts Consumer and YAH-EEF-AY will perform with audio cassettes, blenders, and the weather to supplement the venn of authenticity, revolt, and appropriation. Thomas Gamble will be offering stick and poke tattoos of the CRASS logo throughout the duration of the evening."

Recommended! Surplus Space is taking a break until January after this, so see it! At Surplus Space www.SurplusSpace.info 3726 NE 7th 6PM-9 Free

October 19 Blue Zena Oops Xhurch

Julia Dolan, Ph.D., the Portland Art Museum Minor White Curator Of Photography and Christopher Rauschenberg, Blue Sky Gallery Cofounder, present a talk accompanying the Blue Sky at 40 show. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 2PM Members, free; students, seniors $12, else $15



Nee Yu, Sandra Percival, operating as Zena Zezza, opens a light and projection installation with You and I, Horizontal by Anthony McCall and 1857 Project by Laura Heit tonight. It is at the Hallock & McMillan building, Portland's oldest building. At 237 SW Naito Parkway x Oak 2PM-5



Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick has a family story. His grandfather piloted bombers filled with nuclear weapons on continuous attack patterns toward the Soviet Union in the 1960's. His grandfather survived a crash in 1964 of his plane in Maryland. The crash was caused by the tail fin breaking off. It was a known flaw in the Boeing B-52 plane, considered too expensive to fix. Neither of the two bombs detonated. The program was discontinued in 1968 after the fifth bomber crash with nuclear bombs.

Matt is making a film about the event, Buzz One Four, the plane's call sign. He has been able to gather first person materials, including interviews. and he is mounting a small Kickstarter to finish the film.

Tonight he speaks about the program in a small studio and shows some clips of the work in progress. Recommended. Buzz One Four at the Boathouse 822 N River 7:30PM contributions welcome



Ambient experimental music for church. We like. It's Sanctuary Sunday. This evening Mike Erwin, Montgomery Ward and Mori play. Visuals provided by Ritzy Sheens and Michael Green. At Xhurch xhurch.net 4550 NE 20th 7PM-10 Free

October 18 Fifty for Forty or Fight +

Blue Sky Gallery started as a clubhouse for photographer friends. They grew up and outgrew the treehouse. It is still a nonprofit, but it's known as one of the leading curators in the world of photography. The commercial galleries watch Blue Sky for what is new. They have put together a retrospective covering 40 years of shows. For several years, a gracious benefactor has been donating a piece of work from each photographer's show to the museum, that helps! That is over 400 shows and 600 photographers. This show is an opportunity to see some of that varied work, curated by the sharpest eyes in Portland.

The Portland Art Museum is the grand dame of the Portland art world. They are about preserving and contextualizing art through the ages. The Schnitzers are the art family in Portland. Arleen Schnitzer operated Portland's early contemporary gallery, the Fountain Gallery. The late Harold Schnitzer brought a passion for art and acted upon it. Over 50 years, the Schnitzers collected deeply in early pre-Han Chinese artifacts to contemporary Northwest work. Their son is carrying on the tradition, especially focused on prints.

Tonight a show of of some of the Schnitzers' collection, A Passionate Pursuit, opens. It is always a treat to see a collection guided by the collector's vision, over years, in one place.

Both shows open today and run through January 11.

At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park
Regular hours and prevailing admission



We used to cover fashion more. Others do it better now. But fashion is art. And it is a Portland creative vector, spanning to mass produced design. Content is a once a year event where designers each decorate a room as an installation. It is always fascinating. Arrive early. Content at the Ace Hotel, 1022 SW Stark 5PM-10 $15-20

October 17,18,24,25 Adaption +

Dance is expensive to make. It needs a large space, with a foot-friendly floor, heated or cooled, to jump around in for months to make a piece. That piece also needs costumes, sound, lights, and maybe video. Often there are multiple persons.

The idea of Flock is a space for it's member choreographer-dancers to jump around in for months in the making of performances. Adaption is one by Stephanie Lanckton of Flock. It has visuals by Stephen A. Miller, a live soundscape by Lisa DeGrace, costume design by Alenka Loesch and lighting by Daniel Meeker.

On the same bill is Requiem by Meshi Chavez and One Door Closes by Lisa DeGrace + Adrian Hutapea.

At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map. Doors 7:30PM, show 8. $12 students/seniors, else $15-20



The Blue Sky retrospective opening tomorrow, opens tonight for members, with a reception in the Miller Room at 5:30PM

October 17 Wild Wild West

The Western fiction is something built over years of writing and filmmaking. Early short works captured the oral narratives circulating in the US. But at each turn since, like the oral narratives, they were enhanced and exaggerated. Until today in film they have become parodies of themselves - see the film The Quick and The Dead, and there are novels in the same vein, like Robert Coover's Ghost Town. Artist Donald Morgan presents High Noon, contemporary sculptures and paintings inspired in an abstract way by Ghost Town. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 6PM-8 Free

October 14-15 Space Noise

S1 is one of three Portland galleries regularly showing video. And the Cinema Project is one of a handful of experimental film and video programmers in Portland. S1 & the Cinema Project present Makino Takashi from Japan with Space Noise. It reminds the seminal work of Stan Brakhage, updated with live video and ambient music. This is quite a program for little Portland. Recommended.

Cinema Project www.cinemaproject.org at S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map 7:30PM $8

October 11 Stream Kick Sense

In 1992 Ann Hamilton made Accountings at the Henry in Seattle at age 36. It filled the upstairs gallery with floors of steel tags nailed in an impenetrable fish scale-like pattern, walls smudged by candle wax and soot, a display case of wax heads used in Brazilian rituals and 200 canaries. The next year, she won a MacArthur Fellowship.

She continues to make idea-based minimal work with organic materials. It is all very lyrical.

Hamilton is recipient of a one million dollar public art commission for the city of Seattle. It will make a work on the waterfront at Pier 62/63, possibly powered by the tide.

In the meantime, she opens the common S E N S E this evening. It is a participatory work, with you providing literary passages themed on the senses, visitors assembling the passages into personal journals, readers reading in the gallery, and those readers transcribing their readings into a record.

Some elements are a continuation from the stunning the event of a thread at the Park Avenue Armory, NYC.

The show the common S E N S E opens this evening, and runs until April 26, 2015.

At the Henry Art Museum of the University of Washington www.henryart.org 15th Ave NE & 41st St, Seattle. Wed, Sat, Sun 11AM-4PM, Thurs, Fri 11AM-9PM. Free students/faculty/under 13, $6 seniors, $10



Krystal South is an artist and interactive designer. She combines both, in an online art sale by 11 artists hidden inside a Kickstarter. Each artist has made an edition of 10, priced at $35-$500, and distributed through the Backer Rewards. The Kickstarter ends tonight with a gallery show of the art. It is oversubscribed 3X with 3 days to go.

At Ditch Projects www.ditchprojects.com 303 S. 5th Avenue #165, Springfield, OR Map and Building Map 6PM-9 Free




Deepwhitesound, DB Amorin, Matthew McVickar and Dana Paresa present Stream Room at False Front. Hundreds of samples from the electronic works of 33 composers are randomly recombined on the fly and broadcast wirelessly to hand built receivers with speakers in the gallery. False Front Studio www.falsefrontstudio.com 4518 NE 32nd Map 6PM-9 Free



Daniel Long is a recent PNCA MFA painter. Working in oil, he samples historical painting elements into new work. He opens a show this evening at the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM-10 Free

October 10 New Nationale Ism

Photographer Delaney Allen has Getting Lost at the new Nationale space on Division. Allen has been with Nationale for some time. At Nationale www.nationale.us 3360 SE Division Map 6PM-8 Free

October 9 Design Video Architecture

As part of design week, Artist vs Designer is a panel discussion and shirt silk screening event. Adam Garcia, Damien Gilley, Calvin Ross Carl, and Phillip Stewart speak at 7. 4-7 is interaction, a photo booth and screen printing. Bring something to screen. At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 4PM-9 Free



Après-Upfor is a new evening dark time video programs available through the window from the sidewalk. The first is a 30 minute loop, Becoming is a Secret Process by Rose Dickson. It is a live painting video. Until December 10. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6:30PM Free



Architecture. It is ever changing, slowly. The modern international style, of Mies Van Der Rohe, dominated world architecture, and survives to today. Postmodern architecture and design attempted to break that mold by sampling and combining styles across eras. The Portland Building was the first example in the world. Frankly, I like it. It was designed by Michael Graves who later brought houseware in the postmodernist Memphis style popular in Italy to Target. At the American Institute of Architecture conference post the award of the design to the architect, buttons "I Don't Dig Graves" were in abundance.

Nonetheless, it is one of less than 5 buildings in the region of international architectural significance. (Portland Building, Commonwealth Building, W+K, Mt Angel Abbey Library)

Tonight the Portland Art Museum and Bright lights brings Michael Graves at 80 to speak about his design journey. Graves became disabled from an infection and has devoted himself to designs for enabling mobility. He also speaks on potential future modernizations of the building.

At the Portland Art Museum in the sunken ballroom of the Mark (Masonic Temple). 1211 SW Park 7PM $10

October 8 Lumber On

Dan Cameron, Tony Feher and Polly Apfelbaum speak at the Lumber Room this evening. They are a curator and two artists. The artists showed individually in the Spring and a joint show is up now at the Lumber Room. At The Lumber Room lumberroom.com 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map 6PM-8 Free

October 6 Design Tube

Getting to Know You(Tube) shifts schedule and time to sync with Design Week. At Getting to Know You(Tube) www.gettingtoknowyoutube.com at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard. 9:30PM $5

October 5 Humor Design

Paraprosdokians and Rubber Chickens is a group show based on humor and irreverence in the service of art. The artists are: Bruce Conkle, Jonathan Gitelson, Jamie Isenstein, Matt Jacobs, Alicia McDaid, Ralph Pugay, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Jordan Rathus, Patrick Rock, Ben Sanders and Lindsey White. At the Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 4PM-6 Free



Sometimes we list design events and sometimes not. But design thinking and ethnographic tools are in my repertoire. We are lacking the D-School here, but UO-Portland is attempting to fill the void. As part of Design Week, some of their students and faculty occupy the art gallery. Tonight they have works shown at the Salone Satellite at the Milan Salone Del Mobile during Milan Design Week 2014. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, whitebox.uoregon.edu 70 NW Couch 5:30PM-8 Free

October 3 Eastside Art Openings + Wires and Strings

Worksound is back with an excellent group of curators: Modou Dieng, Jason Doizé and Jesse Siegel. Their first show in the old space is Furniture Porn by Mark Takiguchi. At Worksound www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder Map 6PM-9 Free



Coral Brush Node, a series of five artists operating for a week of 24x7 viewing at Fourteen30 Gallery starts its last cycle with a show by Patrick Rock. There will be a reception this evening. You can come by the weekend open hours or just peer through the window an evening in the next 7 days. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 11AM-6PM Weekends. 6PM-8 tonight Free



Apple of my Iris is a show by Carly Mandel & Rebecca Peel. Their theme is material consumption and its associations. At S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map 6PM-10 Free



Punk seems remote. It does seem to be able to update itself to a degree. But the updates lack what must have been the original spirit.

Don Pyle lived in Toronto, Canada in the 1970's. He brought his film camera to Toronto's punk shows, sneaking in at age 15 from 1977-1979, and using his high school darkroom to develop and print.

He brings a book of images, prints and projected images of that place-time. Music by DJ's Candy and Justin of Dark/Light


At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM-10 Free



Paula Rebsom has the photographic documentation of a site-specific installation on her family's land, If We Lived Here: Then and Now. The description on the gallery web site explains a moving project. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 6PM-9 Free



Liv Rainey-Smith has woodcuts on a Halloween theme. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Snapshot Aesthetic: Domestic and Everyday is a group show. You can see it at Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8 Free



The cello range in pitch is like that of the human voice. Beautiful set of overtones we love.

Zoe Keating is a contemporary cellist. She lived in Portland for a time. She was a founding member of the Portland Cello Project and played in many other ensembles. Now she is known for her layered and looped solo work with electronics.

Zoe Keating plays this evening at the Aladdin Theater 3017 SE Milwaukie 8PM $18



Electronic music instruments go back almost as far as electronics. Early versions looked like a physics lab. In the 1960's and 1970's they resembled analog computers. Since then we have gone digital. The music is computed in bits in the embedded processors of Korgs and Yamahas; or computed in the processor and memories of laptops.

But there is a resergence of the "modular (analog) synth" of the 1960's and 1970's.

The documentary I Dream of Wires tells that story and the story of musicians who are passionate about it. Those include Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Gary Numan, Vince Clarke (Erasure), Morton Subotnick, Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle), Daniel Miller, Carl Craig, Flood, Cevin Key (Skinny Puppy), James Holden, Factory Floor, Legowelt, Clark, John Foxx and Bernie Krause, as well as manufacturers and modular industry leaders Doepfer, Modcan and Make Noise.

The Portland showing is sponsored by Control Voltage, a store with modular synths you can play with.

I Dream of Wires one night at the Clinton Street Theater 7PM $8

October 2 Fruit of Paradise

The Fin de Cinema is a series of beautiful vintage films with subtitles presented with live sound scores by Portland musicians. Tonight Fanno Creek, Ben Darwish & Coco Columbia and Murmur Ring - Jem from the Ghost Ease have composed a score. The film is The Fruit of Paradise (1970) by Czech new wave filmmaker Vera Chytilova. This NSFW opening sequence depicts Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden. These events are always fascinating. Fin de Cinema at Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison. Doors 8:30PM, film 9 promptly $7

October 2 Westside Art Openings

Critter is a new show by Ralph Pugay. He specializes in ironic, and even slightly disturbing, illustration-style paintings as social commentary. At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM-9 Free



Anna Fidler has painting collages with elements of her early work. The artist has ranged, successfully, from land-seascapes, to sports portraits to landscape installations. In this show, figures layered of paper cutouts, receding in dimension as they near the eye, are affixed in abstract painted fields, some almost landscapes. Recommended. At Charles Hartman Fine Art www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th



Storm Tharp is back with paintings ranging in approach and subject. It is not as severe as previous work in the Bacon style. So less bacon in PDX tonight. Recommended. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM



Carol Yarrow has One Mahogany Left Standing, a photo essay exposed in Nahá, Chiapas, Mexico, 1995-2002. It is a 200 person indigenous village near the Guatemalan border. Also Sage Sohier has photographs of same sex couples made in the 1980s. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9



Rainy Day With A Chance Of Sun by Yoskay Yamamoto opens tonight at Hellion Gallery www.helliongallery.com through the lobby of the arched brick entry, up the stairs and to the back. Very upper floor Japan-style. 19 NW 5th Suite 208. Map 7PM-10 Free



Tonight you will find contrasting landscapes at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Long time Portland painter and printmaker Stephen Hays has luminous colorist pastel landscapes in a dry brush style. Ryan Pierce of Signal Fire has large landscapes, still lifes and illustrations, not of the Northwest, in a flat style. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9



PNCA continues SuperTrash, cult film ads, 1930-1990 and the post apocalyptic Borderlander's Outfitter by Abigail Anne Newbold. They open landscapes Reflections on the Columbia River Plateau and Beyond Erotic in the MFA gallery. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map



There is no admission to the PNCA MOCC on first Thursday. At the Museum of Contemporary Craft www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org 724 NW Davis



Glyph has Entitled, a group show of roughly 10 inch on a side paintings titled by options picked at random from a hat. All works are under $50. At Glyph Cafe & Arts Space www.glyphpdx.com 804 NW Couch 7PM-9



Everett Lofts are recommended as always. It's easier for you to see them all than for me to write suggestions. Some close as early as 9PM. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map closing ranges from 9PM-10:30ish



Usually we are not interested in art about cats. It's not only jumped the shark, it has jumped the entire ocean. But our interest here is an archaic printing technology from Japan, the Risograph. Artist Jason Sturgill has a show of cat art printed on this more than 25 year old combination of a silk screen printer and copier. At Compound Gallery, Portland's unofficial Japanese embassy www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th 6PM-10



The Diode Art Gallery across from Ground Kontrol is having their rituals as we mentioned last week.



Hand Eye Supply is opening their new location 427 NW Broadway from 6PM-9.

October 1 Future Music

Music is one of the streams of culture. It is a stream ever flowing, and ever changing. It is possible to wade in and experience it. Or stay out for a while. You can wade in other streams. You can come back and it will still be flowing.

Some other streams of culture include the news, spectator sports, literature, technology, fashion, design. Each has a broadcast structure dedicated to making it easy to wade in.

The aesthetics of each stream are ultimately registered in each individual by the receptors for familiarity and novelty, pleasure and irritation. The familiarity-novelty response is informed by the sum of our past experience. Increasingly that cultural experience will be curated by our friends and less so by broadcast structures. Broadcast structures are difficult to support in the age of infinite reproduction for free.

Another attraction of cultural streams is anticipation. We each predict the future in a stream, and then are pleasured by seeing it come to pass. It is an equivalent neurological response across the cultural streams.

But music is different in a few ways. First, the neurological path for music through primitive brain structures brings animal responses and emotion. Second, the programming of the cortex and paths to it are determined by synaptic branching and paring. Most of that occurs in the late prenatal time and then from infancy to childhood. We are learning language with those same brain structures. So we are programmed to learn music at the same time.

Implanting an electrical interface to the nervous system changes things. Today we have cochlear implants for nerve deafness. In the deaf community parents have to navigate the conflict between a baby receiving and implant for an early start on learning local language verses that same baby not learning deaf culture, and its distinct language. In the novel The Terminal Man, an implant leads to an addictive and ultimately destructive neural pattern. The future of implants changes the programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer. That could impact the aesthetics of music, perhaps missing the emotional responses in the primitive brain.

....

Claire Evans @TheUniverse is a musician and futurist. She combines both in a talk today: Science Fiction and Synthesized Sound. The announcement wins the copywriting award for the month:

""Turn on the radio in the year 3000, and what will you hear? When we make first contact with an alien race, will we—as in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"—communicate through melody? If the future has a sound, what can it possibly be? If science fiction has so far failed to produce convincing future music, it won’t be for lack of trying. It’s just that the problem of future-proofing music is complex, likely impossible. The music of 1,000 years from now will not be composed by, or even for, human ears. It may be strident, seemingly random, mathematical; like the “Musica Universalis” of the ancients, it might not be audible at all. It might be the symphony of pure data. It used to take a needle, a laser, or a magnet to reproduce sound. Now all it takes is code. The age of posthuman art is near; music, like mathematics, may be a universal language—but if we’re too proud to learn its new dialects, we’ll find ourselves silent and friendless in a foreign future.""

...

My belief is that the question should be considered in the context of the above brain science framework. Unfortunately, the brain of the future is unknown. When machines replace parents in rearing infants, we will have different brains. Machines react more quickly. Today they interact much more predictably within a tiny universe of possibilities, compared to humans. They are absent facial microexpression and tone of voice, both extremely complex communication channels learned in infancy and developed onward. We will have to see how ToyTalk and childhood robots change human. Perhaps the future of music will be governed by childhood experiences with machines. Or perhaps we will develop a way to turn on at any time in life the rapid growth of synaptic connections and intuitive learning we experienced as babies without knowing.

...

Claire Evans speaks today at Xhurch xhurch.net 4550 NE 20th 3PM Free

September 27 A Lot of Lots

A few years back, Disjecta went to a rotating curator system. For a year or two the curator, often from out of town, discovers Portland artists, gives them an export channel and imports national and international artists.

This is the first show by curator Rachel Adams.

The show is Intimate Horizons: Claire Ashley and Bahar Yurukoglu. Ashley makes inflatable sculptures. Yurukoglu projects landscape she has videoed onto environments built in the gallery. They also prepare a work together for Disjecta.

At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-10 Free



There is an ambitious group show at Surplus Space opening tonight themed on the body, horror and industrial design by Tim Stigliano, Lauren Seiffert and Maggie Heath.

Video work by Omer Gal. As Surplus Space is a house, guest curator Kayleigh Nelson has programmed the kitchen, hallways and bathroom with Annalise Reinhardt, Hannah Andrews and Melina Bishop.

Maggie Heath performs her work at 6:30PM. At Surplus Space www.SurplusSpace.info 3726 NE 7th 6PM-9 Free

September 27 - April 26 Occupy Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei does not have a passport today. But he is mounting a large set of works on Alcatraz. It is really a poignant statement.

The works are With Wind, Trace, Refraction, Stay Tuned, Illumination, Blossom and Yours Truly.

With Wind is a large dragon kite and a collection of smaller kites painted by Chinese kite makers. It is a dying tradition. The kites are not flying free. They are indoors, captured in the New Industries Building. It was the site of prison labor for over 20 years.

Trace is a collection of portraits of 176 imprisoned or exiled people. They are prisoners of conscience. The portraits cover the floor of another part of the New Industries Building. They are entirely executed in LEGO® bricks. What is the relationship between the individual and bricks of their experience, between the bricks representing individuals and society?

Refraction is a flying wing constructed of Tibetan solar cookers. Viewers observe it from the gun gallery halls of the New Industries Building. There, armed guards looked down upon the prisoners working.

Stay Tuned are a series of recordings, spoken words, poems and music by people who have been detained for their beliefs. Some of the recordings were made in their prisons. The work is installed in 12 cells. The audience is invited to sit in the cells and listen.

Illumination, in the Hospital, has two sound recordings. One is from the Hopi Eagle Dance. In Hopi belief, the eagle connected the Hopi and the Creator. The second recording is of Tibetan Buddhist chants. The recordings are set in two tiled cells reserved for those deemed mentally ill.

Blossom, in the Hospital, encrusts the toilets, sinks and tubs used by prisoners with a dense installation of white porcelain flowers.

Yours Truly, in the dining hall is the final intervention. Here participants may write personal post cards to some of the prisoners in the Trace installation. The cards are illustrated with the plant life and birds of their homes each.

There is a nice article about the event at www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/arts/design/ai-weiwei-takes-his-work-to-a-prison.html. There will be more. The organizers are For-site Foundation /@Large, working in San Francisco.

It open today and runs through April 26.

Ai Weiwei @aiww showing @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz on Alcatraz Island. The ferry is $18.25-$30, but admission is Free

September 26 Art Music Video Motorcycles

The Projects #3 festival, organized by the IPRC, occupies S1 tonight with Undervolt & Co. Undervolt artists Johnny Woods, e*Rock and Peter Burr each have a program.

Johnny Woods presents a live video set and video works from Adam Ferriss, Suzy Poling, Cristopher Cichocki, Sabrina Ratté, A. Bill Miller, Giselle Zatonyl, Yoshi Sodeoka, Emilio Gomariz, and Jennifer Juniper Stratford.

E*Rock drops a dj set with visuals by Dane Overton.

Peter Burr has Green|Red, a 4chan video installation with the viewers inside a cube.

At S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map All Ages 8PM-late $5



To celebrate the close of the amazing Lonnie Holley installation, the Portland Museum of Modern Art has Neal Morgan and Lisa Schonberg drumming on a cymbal structure forged by blacksmith Angie Terry. Plus experimental music on Casio, trumpet and drop in instruments by Grand Style Orchestra.

At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM-10 Free



The dirt jumping, back road and back country touring crowd, centered around See See Motorcycles has a photo show about their adventures at Union|Pine as well. 7PM Free



The Portland Art Museum is open for Free 5PM-8.

September 24 Altar of Film

Diode Gallery is Portland's gallery dedicated to electronic art. Right across from Ground Kontrol.

The Church of Robotron is their current installation with interactive altars. The gallery is usually open by appointment and for events. Some work of the work is visible 24x7 through the windows.

The Church of Robotron presents its rituals tonight and first Thursday at 7PM. The Diode and Robotron website copy is worth a read.

The altars are based on pairs of game controllers versus the machines. The Church of Robotron www.churchofrobotron.com at Diode Gallery for Electronic Art www.diodegallery.com 514 NW Couch. Ritual at 7PM Free



The Cinema Project is a well curated presenter of experimental film on celluloid. Many of the works have never been telecined to video, an expensive process.

To raise funds for their season, they are showing loops by Mia Ferm and found footage by Stephen Slappe with live accompaniment by Matt Carlson of Golden Retriever.

The evening finishes with DJ DNA of xray.fm playing obscure 80's finds. Presented by the Cinema Project www.cinemaproject.org at Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 8:30PM $8

September 19 Ambient Noise

Xhurch is a live-perform space and a manifesto to document the reuse of places of worship, the ex-churches.

The Xhurch invites you into their home tonight for an early quietish musical experience.

Matt Jenkens from Dogheart performs solo. Then Catlin King-CKfirefighter, half of Planets Around the Sun performs her new unit Numbskull. Calvin Johnson and The Hive Dwellers finish.

Many may head over after to the MSHR live performance. MSHR has performed installations at Xhurch. At Xhurch 4550 NE 20th. 6:30PM-9:30 $5 donation



MSHR is Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy. They have made four installations, each about ten feet square, in an about forty foot square very dark room. Each pod is a geometric arrangement of Brenna Murphy's extruded patterns. Birch Cooper's analog synths, in primarily noise timbre, run in optical feedback-driven patterns. Some lighting free runs too, including white LED chasers, circling each pod.

Tonight they perform the piece in an interaction between their bodies and the sensors.

At 2010 SE 8th, 10PM $10

September 14 Enough Enuf

This one wins the copywriting award for the month: "Posters for nothing. Begetting and beheading. Breakout hits, not enough. Genuine excellence in cratering. Fake drips, late to the game. Everybody loves distribution. Brancusi playing golf. Maybe later for the win. Lost and found flavors. I want the information. Hooray no one’s here. Let’s rebrand them as terrorists. Production life. There’s always coffee. Everything takes forever. You/me a small part of forever, and everything."

It's an art show, Is it Contemporary Enuf: New Works on Paper, by John Brodie. Brody is a cultural force in Portland. One of his vectors is collage done well.

Recommended, and we hope he worked in larger format to take advantage of the wall height there.

At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd Reception 4PM-6 Free

September 13 Singing Mobile Sculpture

The Hawthorne Eagles is a meetup today of art projects in mobile trailers. Art cars too. 4904 SE Hawthorne 11AM-? Free



St Johns has a sculpture park. Who would have known? Now you do and can see it at Green Anchors Studios 8972 North Bradford. Noon-6 Free



Qawwali is the musical expression of devotional ecstasy in Sufism. The performers call themselves a party. I have been fortunate to see the great Qawwāl Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. There are some great remixes of his work available.

Fanna-Fi Allah is a party of Western Qawwali performers. They tour Pakistan and are making a documentary of their performances and meetings with musicians there. They are unusual in having a woman performing. And I have been fortunate to see Fanna-Fi Allah in a back yard concert.

The Fanna-Fi Allah Qawwali Party performs this evening. Presented by Kalakendra www.kalakendra.org at the First Baptist Church, 909 SW 11th. 7:30PM $20 advance, $25 door

September 9 So Many Microphones!

Have you ever thought where microphones come from? Well some come from Portland, Oregon, USA, where they are made in the workshop of Philip Graham at Ear Trumpet Labs. It makes sense, one of the great DIY efforts, Tape-Op started in Portland. Tape Op has instructed, documented and sponsored many microphone DIY efforts. So many microphones! Come hear Graham explain the in(side)s and out(sides)s of small scale manufacturing of microphones for musicians. A presentation of the Curiosity Club, you can tune into the free live webcast off the Core77 site or visit the talk and demonstration in person at Hand Eye Supply www.handeyesupply.com/pages/curiosity-club 23 NW 4th 6PM Free

September 8 DIY Science

Portland loves lectures. The Summer of Science is an example of crowd sourced talks on many, many topics in science and surrounds. It takes place in a backyard. It's Portland!

September 6 Publication Piano

Publication Studio is 5. So they are having a party! At Publication Studio www.publicationstudio.biz 717 SW Ankeny Map 8PM-late Free



We generally don't cover music here, there are others who do it better! We also have an interest in acoustic instruments of many varieties. One of the most expressive is the piano. Tonight Portland native in New York, Kathleen Supové plays. She is known for her performance of modern works. She performs tonight as a guest of Fear No Music www.fearnomusic.org in the Brunish Theatre, Portland’5 Centers for the Arts 1111 SW Broadway 8PM $15-30

September 5 Eastside Openings+

Jason Hirata from Seattle opens Coral Brush Node: Part I. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 6PM-8 Free



Primary Motions is an exhibition by Myranda Gillies. The show includes weavings of sunset images gleaned from the Internet, and brass castings of lava rock. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-8



Ellen Lesperance opens You & I Are Earth, paintings of sweaters seen on women at activist events. At Adams and Ollman Gallery www.adamsandollman.com 811 E Burnside #213 6PM-9 Free


Michelle Erickson has botanical watercolors, how perfect for Summer's swan song. At Haunt www.hauntstudio.blogspot.com 811 E Burnside Suite #113 6PM-9 Free


Black and White is a group photography show spanning landscape, portraits and interiors. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8 Free


Mary Tapogna continues mosaics at Redux. For many years, her studio and gallery was at 30th and Killingsworth. Until the neighborhood fancified. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside 6PM-10 Free

All at 811 East Burnside Map



Ready to Die is a large group show themed on a piece by Biggie Smalls at 20 years. At One Grand Gallery www.onegrandgallery.com 1000 E Burnside 6PM-10 Free



Will Bruno opens Comics With Still Life: Finding The Inevitable Place, work inspired by a residency on the Oregon Coast. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org in the Ford Building www.fordbuildingpdx.com 2505 SE 11th x Division. Enter through the cafe on the corner if the main doors on 11th are locked. 6PM-9 Free



Jeremy Rotsztain's Digital Gestures continues at Pushdot. It's electronic illustration, some based on photographic images. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 6PM-9 Free

September 4 Westside Art Openings+

Jenene Nagy has some stunning minimalist drawings and some concrete and metal leaf sculptures. Recommended. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM



Upfor has four videos by Ryan Trecartin from the Venice Biennale: Center Jenny, Item Falls, Junior War and Comma Boat. It is their first anniversary, they wanted to do something notable and they have! At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 6PM-9 Free


The Caldera offices have work from Baba Wague Diakite, James Florschutz, Eugenie Frerichs, Carolyn Hopkins, Jim Leisy, Patty Freeman Martin and Ben Rosenberg. Each artist worked in residence at Caldera in Sisters, Oregon. At Caldera Arts www.caldera.org 224 NW 13th 5PM-8 Free



Welcome Strangers, Paintings and Drawings of the Neighborhood is a show by Mateu Velasco. At Hellion Gallery www.helliongallery.com through the lobby of the arched brick entry, up the stairs and to the back. Very upper floor Japan-style. 19 NW 5th Suite 208. Map 7PM-10 Free



Lindsay Kretchun, coprincipal at the gallery shows her watercolors. At Duplex Collective www.duplexcollective.com 219 NW Couch 6PM-9



Michael Brophy is a painter of Northwest landscapes. Worth seeing. Also showing Rene Rickabaugh. At Laura Russo Gallery www.laurarusso.com 805 NW 21st 5PM-8



PNCA has Borderlander's Outfitter by Abigail Anne Newbold. It's survivalism lensed through art. At PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map 6PM-10 Free



Everett Lofts are recommended as always. It's easier for you to see them all than for me to write suggestions. Some close as early as 9PM. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map closing ranges from 9PM-10:30ish



A new Taiko is launching in Portland: Unit Souzou. They are playing an event with Korekara Taiko this evening. Unit Souzou www.unitsouzou.com at Zoomtopia, Studio 2 810 SE Belmont 7:30PM By donation



Anjali and the Incredible Kid are playing at the Saucebox 9:30PM to late, Free

August 30 Art Not Surplus

Tori Abernathy, Anna Gray, Ryan Wilson Paulsen and Jabari Jordan-Walker present work about unrecognized work. That's a lot of work! The FOuRT Collective also guest curates another part of the space which is a home. At Surplus Space www.surplusspace.org 3726 NE 7th 6PM Free

August 29 Dawg Rock Nativity

It's August and late August so everyone is out of town. But if you are in town, you can see a show Scenario Of Work, paintings by Eric W. Mast. https://www.facebook.com/events/373005752856184/ At S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map All Ages 6PM-10pm Free



The art collective FOuRT is also doing Neo's Nativity. https://www.facebook.com/events/351252978357725/ at 8, see their FB for details.

August 24 Pure Art Book

Delaney Allen, Ty Ennis, and Jaik Faulk, artists, are contextualized in a new book by Matthew Kyba. The book is published by Publication Studio and presented tonight by Nationale. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 4PM-6 Free



Modern dance. Some hate it. Some don't get it. Me, I love it, the result of a modern dance girlfrend, and I don't try to get it. An easy audience entre is just to let the watching create whatever impression. Don't try to force meaning, or impose narrative. Another approach is to imagine you making those moves. Be in that body.

Modern is upswinging in Portland. The Pure Surface events at Valentines are modern dance, literary and video -creator collaborations. They are free, and filled with interesting creative people.

This month is Danielle Ross/movement, Brandi Katherine Herrera/speaking and Andrew Glei/video. So you can has it all!

Pure Surface www.puresurface.info at Valentines valentinespdx.com 232 SW Ankeny

August 23 Pit Beast Cypher

A cypher is a code. It hides high information content in lower information content. Sometime I have to look up the etymology of the word's use in hip hop dance. Because by design, or by accident, it captures something beautiful, and something profound.

Preserving identity is a common source of conflict. I, you, we each, all accrete and construct identity by cognition which results in action. When others threaten that identity, we defend it. We express it in our lives. It is important. Critically. It is existence.

It's playing out in the news, and the news is not over.

In this case, a cypher is a circle of b-boys/b-girls expressing their identity from the sum of their past, and in relation to one another, by a competitive and playful competition. Each all of their experience is encoded in their moves, and adapted to the reaction to those moves, by their competitors, and by their audience.

The Pit | One Cypher | One Beast is a b-boy/b-girl battle with identities Lord Tummi, NeffSaid, Juan, Victor, Skrilla, Kyle, Merk, Zesty, Bao, Fligh, Dawn, Deondre Castro, Chucks, King Vrep, Jayswiss, Scooter, Hero, Fluurd, Blazii, Matt, Classique, Johnny Dont Ly, David, Andy Manivong, Tombo, Leap, Fern C Jiminez and Madeinmanilla Motorman as well as 2on2 crews with Project Mayhem, Deviant Munkees crew, Last Samurai's, Tru Roots, Chucks in da house, STC, Tru Roots Zero, HoodValley, Kyojins, Original Kid, #2on, Misguided Formula , Real Family, Soulbreakerz Krew, Yayonaise, Fresh from the 90s, SPLASH SQUAD, Mo money Juan problem, Oly Rockers, DoggPound, Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz, DRS, Jokers, Salem's Only Boys, Dance Broomz and Shibal Tribe.

The seemingly freeform rules require some heavy strategy. Like life.

Hosted by Brian Mightymoves Baker and Tonyy Tang. On the wheels of steel Mighty Moves from Def Con 5. Judges Boogie-Moon Patrol, Boxcutta-Fraggle Rock and DialTone-Art of Movement.

You can see this cypher unfold at the Ballroom Parkrose 4848 NE 105th. 6PM $10

August 19 - September 28 Nature Sound City

This blog revolves home in Portland, Oregon, USA, with occasional forays to Seattle and the Bay Area. But note this item in Portland's sister city Sapporo. It is the first international art festival there www.sapporo-internationalartfestival.jp, themed City and Nature and the artistic director is Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of our favorite soundscape composers. If you go we want to know because it will be cool. The Sapporo International Art Festival, Sapporo, Japan.

August 18-23 Forest for the Trees

Forest for the Trees began because Portland gallerist and Japan-Portland ambassador Matt Wagner invited graffiti artists from both countries to paint walls. This is the second year, adding Brazil. It's revolutionary, really, given Portland's history with the Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal, and its past Portland artistic expression outdoors based on interpretation of the Oregon bill of rights. Let's just say that the subconscious art of graffiti removal, like the subconscious art of cultural removal is in the news and a constant concern, worldwide.

Forest for the Trees invites artists Blaine Fontana, Blakely Dadson, Brendan Monroe, Curiot, DALeast, Faith47, Gage Hamilton, J.Shea, Mary Iverson, Maryanna Hoggatt, Mateu Velasco, Never Satisfied, NoseGo, OGI, Paige Wright, Souther Salazar, Spencer Keeton Cunningham, Rather Severe, The Lost Cause and Zachary Yarrington.

You can stop by any painting location listed on the website to see the live action this week, and the finished results after. Forest for the Trees www.forestforthetreesnw.com at various locations in Portland. Free

August 17 Held by Light and Cloud

What's today? It's ambient Sunday! In church (Xhurch!)!

Musicians are Puff Puff Give, Misty Montane (Ian Gorman Weiland) and Pulse Emitter with resident DJs Mike Jedlicka and Elias Foley and visuals by Ritzy Sheens. Sanctuary Sunday at Xhurch 4550 NE 20th. 7PM or 8 to 10 or 11. Free

August 16 Pandering Interactive Music Movement

Art families are always interesting. Jacob and Arnold Pander, brothers, and sons of painter Henk Pander, are an example. They have connection in LA and PDX. Their work has spanned film, graphic novels, live illustration. Tonight they present velvet paintings - Arnold and photographs - Jacob, with a talk at 7.

At the Mark Woolley Gallery www.markwoolley.com a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall. If the mall appears closed, enter the film theater building adjacent, travel through the tunnel to the Place mall, and take the elevator to the 3rd floor, sometimes the bridge on the 3rd floor is open too. 700 SW Fifth 5PM-9 Free



Together is an electronic art show in a new space and coinciding with the Portland baby copy of SXSW sponsored by a newspaper. But it might be interesting. Artists include Alisa Akay, Chris Arth, Lindsey Bacon, Jey Biddulf, John Brown, Surya Buchwald, Robert Linnemann, Bill McKessy, Josh Michaels, Dimitrii Pokrovskii, Daniel Tankersley and Libbey White. There is something on their website about requiring free tickets, because it will be so popular, like SXSW. At Diode Gallery for Electronic Art www.diodegallery.com 514 NW Couch 4PM–8 Free



LAPDX may seem dissociated. This event resolves it. Dance movement artists and musicians collaborate from both places here. That's Jmy James Kidd + Tara Jane ONeil (LAX), Takahiro Yamamoto (LAX + PDX) and Heather Treadway + Lisa Schonberg (PDX). Plus dancey party Alex Norman DJ and clothing by James Kidd Studio (LAX). Deets https://www.facebook.com/events/1445690412382231/ At S1, formerly Multiplex, www.s1portland.com 4148 NE Hancock Map $10 All Ages 7:30pm



The Everett Lofts throw their 10th annual courtyard show - upstairs. At Everett Stations Lofts 328 NW Broadway Street, entry on Everett. 4PM-10 Free