{Sprawl art exhibition}

[ @ Borg Ward Collective ]
[ Nov. 7 - Nov. 23 ]
[ Opening Nov. 7, 6-10pm w/ Bands ]
[ Gallery Talk by Master-List2000, 7:30pm ]

SPRAWL: Project Description:

Our world develops and changes. The way we envision what the future may hold is likewise changing. Not that long ago artists and writers imagined how high technology, the Internet in particular, would effect us. Some of them imagined the cyborg, others thought of massive conscious computer networks, and still others focused on megalopolis cities. Our past is overcrowded with futures that sparkle, glow, or get buried in kipple and ashy debris. These speculations on the future get revised at the same time that we use, misuse, and adapt what we have now. Bits and pieces of how we thought about the future become embedded and attached to how we experience our present creating a hybrid between speculation, adaptation, and creative modification.

Visual artists sometimes investigate the relationships between technology, constructed environments, and individuals. They interpret high and low technology interactions in a way that emphasizes an experimental and creative approach. When this mode of artisitic practice begins to merge with how we image our technological future it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish them from each other. The output becomes less easily defined and the hybrid forms that develop carry with them clues as to what they were and what they are to become.

In the place of a thematic approach to installation, this show presents an environment in which the multiplicity of technological influence on visual art is evident. SPRAWL is an environment that exhibits interpretations of how an information-rich world becomes an inseparable part of creative practice. The work that SPRAWL makes visible is characteristic of the way in which visual artists use, re-use, mis-use, and bring our physical world and our digital environment into the same space. SPRAWL is a gray area between what is left and what is to come.

Participants:

• Ric Stultz
• Gina Rymarcsuk
• Brandon Bauer and BATHAS TV
• A. Bill Miller or (gridworks blog)
• Annushka Peck
• Lane Hall and Lisa Moline
• Nicolas Lampert
• Andy Ducett
• Nathaniel Stern
• Paul Fuchs

---

SPRAWL: Project Description: Short Form

We live in a conglomeration of superimposed information networks. Our physical world is being devoured and woven into the fabric of our digital environments. We are adapting to this situation as much as we are adapting it to fit our own needs. We believing in using, re-using, and mis-using every bit and byte with what is left of our finger tips. SPRAWL exhibits interpretations of how an information-rich world becomes an inseparable part of creative practice.

SPRAWL is a gray area between what is left and what is to come.

---

Work Examples

---

R&D Below

SPRAWL comes from The Sprawl which is the setting of a series of novels by William Gibson. But, I don't think that you need to really have read the books to understand the concept (I highly recommend them though).

Work Ideas:

A. Bill: Check my blog for my recent work. I'd like to do some wall drawings based on some ascii drawings and some ink ones. I'd also like to project one of the animations of both kinds of drawings... on a screen in the middle(ish)so that it is visible on both sides....
Anyone interested in doing a long screen like this and having things overlap?
I will have a projector to use but I'll need a cable lock; I can get some of my monitors and cords for the show also... as needed
Brandon Bauer I like the idea of a long screen with overlapping projections what about placing the monitors in front of the long projection- so that work is being played on the monitors and projected over them simultaneously. We could also have still images projected and overlapping with overhead projectors. I have stuff from the BATHAS TV show I would like to include- every 5th episode we play all four previous episodes simultaneously- We have three of those to include.
**from bill: this may work - I have a bolt of tulle we can use as screen... its white though and will look super bright best for high contrast work. some of the light will spill out ofit on the other side which makes weird color light what's behind. I also really like the idea of playing the BATHAS stuff on a loop on some monitors or something
Ric Stultz SF inspired illustrations/drawings/paintings

Annushka Peck
Lane Hall and Lisa Moline
Nicolas Lampert - machine/animal collages and sage advice
Others that have expressed some interest in showing in SPRAWL:
Nathaniel Stern (scanner performance prints)
Archaeology of the Recent Future Association
possibly sending in video/film or something like that from afar
Andy Ducett collage/installation

---

---

Have additionally contacted The Armoury Gallery, Spackle Gallery, The Green Gallery, and a few others in Milwaukee... as back-up to where the show is scheduled. This is in case the Borg Ward ends up having to shut down by the end of October. I have a feeling that we can have the show there if want to without too much difficulty, but we'll have to do all advertising and flyer'ing ourselves.