Monday, May 26, 2014

May 28-June 1 (Good) Smackdown Experiment

The Portland Experimental Film Festival is an experiment started by Matt McCormick. It has been through a few reincarnations with new organizers. That's all good, and we are looking forward to this year's event.

The festival spans Wednesday May 28-Sunday June 1 with sit down showings, artful installations at Disjecta + live music, participatory workshops, family-friendly programs, a window installation on Alberta and after parties.

An always fun element of the festival is the bracketed throwdown, film on film, competitions, audience-judged, by you!

I'll not repeat the schedule available on the website. http://effportland.com/?p=801#install

Admissions are extremely reasonable and some events are free.

The Portland Experimental Film Festival. Various locations. Free and $5-$7ish for sit down films.

May 28-29 Thinking About Security and Internet Society

Most of us use computers and the Internet most of the time. The architecture of the Internet was developed in the late 1960's by Larry Roberts. One of the profound principles of the Internet is that all the brains of the Internet reside in your laptop or phone and in the servers at Netflix, Google, the BBC. The role of Comcast, Century Link and the companies that run fiber optic cables across the world are to passively transport packets unchanged between for a fee. The end nodes are smart and the network is a passive carrier.

That is the bedrock principle of Network Neutrality.

That also means that your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop; and the servers, are each smart enough to become infected with malware, or for the owner to install malware with intent.

One of the Internet's big thinkers on malware, hackers and bots is cryptographer Bruce Schneier.

Today he spans philosophical and political questions of privacy and policy. He is a good source to track as we are on the way to connect every thing to the Internet, memed as the "Internet of Things" or the "Internet of Everything". Combined with ubiquitous facial recognition, governing policies for the Internet are something every world citizen should be thinking about.

In a talk, "Internet, Security, and Power." Schneier creates a non-technical framework for citizens to consider how we keep ourselves out of a dystopian totalitarian future - the one we all know is coming and can visualize based on film and fiction.

Bruce Schneier speaks Wednesday at UO Eugene in the EMU Ballroom - live streamed at media.uoregon.edu/channel/2014/05/15/kritikos-lecture-by-bruce-schneier/ and at UO Portland Thursday. Details http://ohc.uoregon.edu/S_2014-Schneier.html Event may be available after the event on UO video site. Suggest arrive early. 7:30 Free

May 28 Marylhurst Faculty+Students

Marylhurst is an academic gallery we often neglect to mention. Today they open a show which includes works by their faculty. The works themselves may not be the newest or best from each faculty member. But they will be representative of a very fine group of Portland artists: Marlene Bauer, Brenden Clenaghen, Dennis Cunningham, Julia Henning- Dittmer, Laura Hughes, Lance Pynes, Rich Rollins, Paul Sutinen and Vicki Lynn Wilson. Accompanies work of graduate Bethany McCamish. At the Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 6PM-8 Free

Thursday, May 22, 2014

May 27 Curious Recess

The Curiosity Club presents Nial McGaughey building Hovercraft Amplifiers. These are guitar and bass amp heads, often made with recycled and modified old amps. Hovercraft sometimes produces speaker cabinets to match. They are powered with vacuum tubes and they are loud! Vacuum tubes are an obsolete technology that many love. They have individualistic distortion when pushed, including that produced by magnetic non-linearity, and many people like that sound. 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



Recess is out. Rather Recess Gallery is planning a move as rents rise in the neighborhood. So they are looking for a new space and you can help them. Come to a celebration and fundraiser for the new Recess Gallery at Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 8PM $5-50

May 23-25 Thesis PNCA

We list few academic shows, and fewer of students. Not all academic galleries are geographically convenient. But they are well worth the effort if you have the time. As my first art show to see in Portland was the PNCA thesis show; since I've enjoyed them.

PNCA has four thesis shows: the MFA in Collaborative Design, the joint PNCA/OCAC MFA in Contemporary Craft, and the visual studies, BFA and MFA. There are two locations and three nights

The MFA in Collaborative Design is Friday with Jake Richardson, Emilie Skytta, Sean Tichnell, and includes collaborative projects How Might Nature, Blight Magazine and The Bellwether.

The MFA in Contemporary Craft is Saturday with artists Alisha Sullivan, Alyssa Kail, Brian Hutsebout, Caitlin Sweet, Christian Donnelly, Daniel Hodges, Edward Key, Emily Wyant, Gopika Dahanukar, Joey Edwards, Lange Wei, Leah Brottman, Meghan Chalmers-McDonald, Meghann Gilligan, Sarah Davis, Willow Harmer and Ximena Bedoya.

The BFA thesis show is Sunday in the Stevens Building. The MFA in Visual Studies is also Sunday with Stephanie Brachmann, Mary Mac Dahlke, John Dougherty, Mario Gallucci, Thomas Gamble, Jonathan Gann, Michael Horwitz, Leif Lee, Travis Nikolai, Mark Palmen, Anya Roberts-Toney, Lauren Seiffert, Jessie Spiess, Rachel Wolf, Richard York, Stephanie Yu in the main building.


MFA in Collaborative Design show Friday at PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson in room 210 Map 5:30PM-9 Free


MFA in Contemporary Craft show Saturday at PNCA www.pnca.edu in The Bison Building Applied Craft and Design Studios 421 NE 10th 6PM-9 Free


The BFA thesis show Sunday at the PNCA Stevens Studio Building 1432 NW Johnson 6PM-9 Free
and
The MFA thesis show Sunday at PNCA www.pnca.edu 1241 NW Johnson Map 6PM-9 Free

May 23 Attoe at Fourteen30+

Local artist Dan Attoe shows tonight at Fourteen30. His work includes ironic landscapes, figures and neon. He is founder of Paintallica. He makes his career almost entirely outside Portland, including in Europe; his landscapes are not Northwest regional, though others may disagree. Attoe is a great match for the gallery. 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. Opening tonight 6PM-8 Free



The Portland Art Museum monthly free admission day is today. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 5PM-8 Free

Thursday, May 15, 2014

May 17 Effigy Video

Video art done well attracts us. It necessarily references our motion life and motion film-video experiences, while standing askance as art. That's a fine boundary line to navigate.

Video art goes through cycles of popularity in Portland. There has been excellent documentation of performance by MK Guth. Filmmakers Matt McCormick, Vanessa Renwick and others lay down the film art branch. MSHR does outstanding with digital organic performative installation. The UO White Box Gallery presents video regularly.

This afternoon is a talk by UCLA video artist Jennifer Steinkamp. She is known for one of the major branches of video art: installations that paint patterns, often from nature, on walls, floors and ceilings. It is beautiful work in the Hickey pattern.

Artist talk tickets https://pam.spotlightboxoffice.com/purchase/step4?ticketID=69998 At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park
2PM Free to Museum members; $13, students, $15 adults, includes Museum admission




Grant Corum presents Effigy Mounds. Effigy mounds were ceremonial geoglyph mounds, sometimes for burial by ancient people found throughout the Americas. The artist transformed the inspiration of visiting effigy mounds in the Americas, and experiences with the Sundance Ceremony in the Midamerican forests and plains into the installation, and a musical project, Effigy Mounds: Ceremonial Music for Spore Alter.

Corum describes the music as: “An imagined field recording in a hallucinatory cave, where collaged snippets of tape reveal the gradual opening of a deep portal, the ingestion of strange and luminous compounds, and the rhythmic pulsation of spores entering Earth's atmosphere by way of shooting stars.” Music by Corum and White Gourd for the opening.

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

May 15 Unabridged Lilly Pad

Did you know Portland is ground zero for floating? Not little fluffy clouds floating; we are talking about floating in a sensory isolation tank. Be your own special lily pad.

Float tanks, sensory isolation tanks, are a shallow pool, eight to 10 inches deep, of purified salt water, heated to body temperature, in a very quiet space, to float peacefully.

The idea was created in 1954 for public health research by Harvard neuroscientist Dr. John C. Lilly. Portland's Float On has published a new unabridged edition of Dr. Lilly's classic book Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer.

I'm a scientist. We know much more about the brain now. But there is still excellent material in Lilly's book, and it is not necessary to go all new age to appreciate it. Float On celebrates the release of the new unabridged edition of the book tonight at the shop. At Float On 4530 SE Hawthorne 7PM-10 Free

Monday, May 12, 2014

May 14 Bright Talk

Sculptor Tony Feher speaks about his work at PSU tonight. He is known for bright sculptures of numbers of elements. He has a show opening at the Lumber Room Sunday, noon-2. At Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7PM Free

May 13-14, 16-20 Impossible

Chemical photography is magic. Saving the old magic is impossible. But that is what the Impossible Project is attempting. They bought the original machinery for making instant film from Polaroid and have brought it back to life. One marketing effort is to travel the country in an Airstream trailer, also impossible magic made possible, demonstrating their film. They will be parked at Blue Moon May 13-14, Pro Photo May 16-17 and Urban Outfitters May 18-20. Photo booth and photo talk. Details //www.the-impossible-project.com/airstream/.

At Blue Moon Camera www.bluemooncamera.com 8417 N Lombard May 13-14 3PM-8. Contact other venues for times. Free

May 12 Tube Games

Getting to Know You(Tube) is curated this month by Mike Merrill and Marcus Estes from Chroma, with Robby Kraft, Kevin Noonan and Mike Merrill. At Getting to Know You(Tube) www.gettingtoknowyoutube.com at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard. 7:30PM $5



Same place same time, is the Siggraph 2013 animation compilation. Siggraph is an academic group that theorizes, writes software and makes graphics in computers. Their compilation is competitively drawn from animation artists and creators of new effects software each year. There is a fair criticism that storytelling is lacking in many films, especially CG films. As this is a showreel, there is no intent of narrative. More action eyecandy, much unfortunately in explosions, shooting chopping, monsters and spaceships.

Siggraph 2013 animation showreel wp.siggraph.org/cascade/en/category/events/ at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard. 7PM $8

Saturday, May 10, 2014

May 10 Peace Out Recess For Now

Recess presents its last show in its current space. It is Paying Off My Student Loans by Heidi Nagtegaal. It is a common concern as college budgets and the portion funded by tuition have floated untethered. Anna Gray & Ryan Wilson Paulsen present an illustrated talk, The Ghost of Vanished Ideals, at 7, and Brian Mumford of Dragging an Ox Through Water plays at 8.

All at RECESS recessart.com at Oregon Brassworks Building, 1127 SE 10th Map 6PM-10

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

May 9 Fresh Off

Patrick Cruz presents Fresh Off the Boat. It is his Philippine and Canadian heritage combined in the USA, specifically the in the Multiplex Portland State of America. At Multiplex www.multiplexportland.com in the Multiplex Annex. 2400 NE Holladay Map 6PM-10 Free

May 8 Draw God

We take the controversial view that behavior is all and that belief is meaningless, except only in motivating good behavior. Others may differ. So God and spiritualism is a means not an end in our system. Nonetheless, how tribes process spiritual belief is a fine mine for ethnography. Taking the art pursuit of ethnography to heart, Xhurch invites artist and musician Emily Pothast to deliver her sermon. In a church. She presents How to Draw God from Direct Observation, a survey of historical visual representations of god. Recommended. At Xhurch 4550 NE 20th 7PM Free

May 7 Newcraftart

The joint PNCA+OCAC mid-program MFA students show what they are thinking this evening. They graduate a year hence. At the PNCA www.pnca.edu The Bison Building, the MFA in Applied Craft and Design Studios 421 NE 10th 6PM-9 Free

Friday, May 02, 2014

May 2 Eastside Art Openings

PNCA student Annie McLaughlin presents a show of interior landscape paintings and home objects she has made. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map


Adam Burke & Noelle Barce have paintings and drawings, respectively. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside


Shadow and Light 2014 is a group show, as all are at Black Box, this one curated by Julia Dolan of the Art Museum. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free


Laura Heit has an installation of hand-drawn animation. It is inspired by The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch, potentially wild. At Adams and Ollman Gallery www.adamsandollman.com 811 E Burnside #213 6PM-9 Free


All at 811 East Burnside Map



No idea on this show by Trygve Faste at One Grand Gallery 1000 E Burnside 6PM-9 Free



Anna Daedalus and Kerry Davis have large pieces of photo paper developed in the waters of the Columbia River. 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



John Isaacson, Caitlin Harris, Philip Stewart, Alisa Walton, Chloe Fields, Carye Bye, Noland Chaliha and Ed Trover show their print works made at the IPRC. At the Independent Publishing Resource Center www.iprc.org 1101 SE Division, Suite 2 6PM-8 Free



Sarah Knobels has Icescapes and Melanie Floods has Suggested Experiences. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map 6PM-9 Free



Decals, they stick on anything, including ceramics. Eutectic has put together a national show of ceramicists, Aaron Nelson, Andy Brayman, Ayumi Horie, Brian R. Jones, Chris Antemann, Dan Anderson, Jeff Irwin, Julie Guyot, Justin Rothshank, Lesley Baker, Mitchell Spain, Richard Shaw, Rimas VisGirda, Robert Harrison & Victoria Christen, that use decals. There is also a show by three OCAC artists. At Eutectic Gallery www.eutecticgallery.com 1930 NE Oregon 6PM-9

Thursday, May 01, 2014

May 1 May Day Westside Art Openings

Though this post is seemingly sparse, I'm sure tonight will be prime climate for art viewing.



Sometimes we note Art Institute of Portland art shows, they have a fine curator from time to time. Likewise occasionaly UO and PSU, geographically accessible university galleries. And we have noted fashion events from time to time. Because fashion is a Portland creative vector we note this combining fashion and art.

Photographer Christine Taylor presents Notions, thirty photographers capturing fashion themed work. You can see at the Steven Goldman Gallery at the Portland Art Institute, 1122 NW Davis 5PM-8 After event Jackknife Free



Sometimes thesis shows have stellar works and sometimes the opposite. I did buy my first artwork from one, so they are worth a look. UO thesis show, no predictions, at the University of Oregon White Stag Building, http://whitebox.uoregon.edu/ 70 NW Couch 6PM-9 Free



Brin Levinson paints poet apocalyptic landscapes of Portland. Not my thing but pretty, ironic. 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



Jordan Rathus presents a show. Hey, quit all capitals in the announcement and save us retyping! At UpFor Gallery www.upforgallery.com 929 NW Flanders 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


Likewise we recommend if you are in a craft mood the Museum of Contemporary Craft, free first Thursdays, otherwise admission often applies, www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org 724 NW Davis 6PM-9 Free