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Emanuel Lewin, Director
Ph: 617.498.0100 fax: 617.498.0019
E-mail: elewin@artinteractive.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cambridge, MA (Mar 17, 2004) -
STEP RIGHT UP AND VOTE in the latest exhibit at Art Interactive.
Participatory Democracy is timed to coincide with the
Democratic National Convention.
Voting is the most important interaction between the citizen and their state. Art is the most important interaction between the citizen and their mind. Create early, create often.
-George Fifield
Cambridge, MA, March 17, 2004 – Participatory Democracy is a ground-breaking exploratory art exhibition that will investigate three forms of interactivity: the first between the artists creating the exhibited works, the second between the artists and the audience, and the third between the audience and the artworks themselves. This exhibit, chaired by Director of Boston CyberArts, Inc. George Fifield, features the work of five artists: Ravi Jain, Natalie Loveless, Jeff Warmouth, Andrew Warren, and Douglas Weathersby. Their work ranges from video and photography to performance and installation art, and in this show they will work together to explore issues which are particularly relevant during this election year.
Our vote is our political voice, and for half the eligible voters in this country, that voice screams apathy. In a world where voters are flooded with information that is parceled out in torrents of 15-second sound bytes, when electability has more to do with how good a candidate looks on television than on how good he or she is for the job, the election process seems to become ever more farcical. Does democracy give us some control over our fate or is it only a sideshow illusion? Does our vote matter and if it does, then why do only half of us exercise it? Do we steer the body politic or are we merely passengers? In Participatory Democracy, the artists comment not so much on the political issues themselves, but on how we, the electorate, perceive our role in the democratic process.
With candidates like Two-headed Ed (“We can speak to both sides of any argument”), The Contortionist (“I can wrap myself around any issue”), The Bearded Lady (“The difference is clear”), and, of course, The Great Incumbo (“You’re in good hands”), this show will bring a bit of the carnival-esque often associated with the political arena to Art Interactive. Timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention, this exhibition offers a unique artistic commentary on the efficacy and absurdity of American politics. Campaigning and voting are given a humorous and playful spin as participants are asked to vote for their favorite candidate while testing their skill at skee-ball, darts, and other slightly unconventional voting methods, raising the question of skill against choice in this supposedly democratic environment.
Come one, come all…step right up and vote at Art Interactive!
Public Programs:
Friday, May 7, 2004, 6-8pm
Opening Reception Free and open to the public
Saturday, July 24, 2004, 2pm
Family Day
Thursday, July 29, 2004, 6-9pm
The Last Hurrah closing party, Free and open to the public
For more details about these programs or to schedule other educational visits, please contact education@artinteractive.org
About Art Interactive
Art Interactive is a non-profit art space founded in 2001 by Boston-based entrepreneurs Emanuel Lewin and Irene Buchine. Its arts advisory board members include Joe Paradiso, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and Co-Director of the "Things That Think" research consortium at the MIT Media Laboratory; George Fifield, director of the Boston Cyber Arts Festival and New Media curator at the DeCordova Museum; Joseph Ketner, director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University; and Kathy Brew, an independent media producer, curator and educator based in New York.
Art Interactive's mission is to provide a public forum that fosters self-expression and human interaction through the development and exhibition of art that is contemporary, experimental, and participatory. As the Boston Globe commented in a review coinciding with the gallery’s public opening in 2002: “Viewers here become part of the art…There is nothing exactly like Art Interactive elsewhere in the United States.” In describing the gallery’s first exhibition, Time Share - an exploration of time, perception and interactivity organized by Denise Markonish – the Boston Phoenix called the work “bold, technologically inventive, and daring…” Likewise, ArtsMedia wrote that the inaugural show demonstrated Art Interactive’s achievement in “setting a precedent for mixed interactive media art.” Body Double, also organized by Markonish, focused on works that physically depended upon the viewer's body to bring the works to completion, which were hailed by the Boston Herald as a “striking mix of images and ideas” that generated a “lively buzz of a communal good time.” WBUR, the National Public Radio local affiliate, praised Origins: Rediscovering the Future of Video Art — mounted by Mary Ann Kearns, founder and director, 911 Gallery, Boston, MA — for “contextualizing the rise of new media by examining the antecedents of the digital revolution.”
The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays from 12-6pm or by appointment, and is located at 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street. For more information, please contact info@artinteractive.org or call 617.498.0100.
Presskits with more detailed information about Participatory Democracy and Art Interactive are available upon request or online at: http://www.artinteractive.org
