Week 22: Machine Project

Hi Everyone,

This Tuesday is another event in a year-long series of weekly conversations and exhibits in 2010 shedding light on examples of Plausible Artworlds.

This week we’ll be talking with Mark Allen from Machine Project in LA.

http://www.machineproject.com/

Is Plausible Artworlds about machines? Though weird sounding, that may well be the right question to ask. There has been a lot of writing recently about machines — drawing on Marx’s unconventional Fragment on Machines and Deleuze & Guattari’s more orgiastic speculations on (desiring) machines — suggesting that machines are neither mere prostheses of our bodies (unlike tools) nor mere engines of alienation, but rather factors of communication, creating unthought-of connections and couplings. In other words, machines like artworlds, machines like us do not extend or replace artworlds and bodies but make new arrangements… well, plausible.

Machine Project is a non-profit presentation and educational space investigating art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, food, and whatever else humans like to do. The Project occupies a storefront space in Echo Park and more broadly operates as a loose confederacy of artists producing shows at locations ranging from the Santa Monica beach to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Though the diversity and scale of a city like LA gives Machine Project a virtually inexhaustible energy source, our broader cultural moment seems ripe with the desire to build machines, work together and create new and hybrid forms of culture. This suggests there is a need to rebuild and retool, from the ground up and in a grassroots way, an infrastructure for spaces and communities that allow people to come together around a life of ideas. Machine Project has always been about encouraging people – machines like us, or even drastically unlike us – to make culture for themselves and encourage them to want to experience it together.

 

Backchannel


Chat History with basekamp/$5d6503f28614ee85" title="#basekamp/$5d6503f28614ee85">Machine Project http://basekamp.com/about/events/machine-project (#basekamp/$5d6503f28614ee85)

Created on 2010-06-01 20:28:55.

2010-06-01

michael g bauer: 19:23:16
audi dropped out again for me
BASEKAMP team: 19:23:55
in fact our skype quit on us again!
mark allen: 19:24:01
by michael
mark allen: 19:24:03
bye
BASEKAMP team: 19:24:06
ther's some talk here abou tmaybe the weather is the culprit
mark allen: 19:24:08
sorry we couldnt chat more
Elysa Lozano: 19:24:27
bye
mary ruth walsh: 19:24:38
all the best, late one here, good night
BASEKAMP team: 19:24:45
goodnight mary ruth
stephen wright: 19:24:53
are we ending?
BASEKAMP team: 19:25:07
we don;t need to end yet - for our part anyway
mark allen: 19:25:28
i can keep going
mark allen: 19:25:44
its difficult to talk about any ideas with this constant break down tho
BASEKAMP team: 19:25:44
we'l just call u guys back - whoever wants to will pick up  smiley
michael g bauer: 19:26:00
hey!
amara: 19:26:38
yes
mark allen: 19:27:01
micahel where are you these days?
michael g bauer: 19:27:37
i'm in philly
michael g bauer: 19:27:39
funny enough
stephen wright: 19:28:58
Mark do you ever schedule / curate / offer crash courses in things like art theory?
BASEKAMP team: 19:29:07
hi5 mark!
mary ruth walsh: 19:29:32
Scot, thanks for including me, great to keep touching base. Hope all well with  you and yours? Have a residencty in IMMA Dublin for 6 months in 2011, so if your in Dublin then let me know. All the best.
BASEKAMP team: 19:29:43
you too mary ruth!
stephen wright: 19:30:42
is there audio?
mark allen: 19:31:17
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machineproject/sets/72157605433605084/
mark allen: 19:31:31
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machineproject/2658579027/in/set-7215760543...
stephen wright: 19:32:03
I'm not quite sure what' s happening -- if anything is.
mark allen: 19:32:05
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machineproject/3261445316/in/set-7215760543...
BASEKAMP team: 19:32:11
oh yeah, we added an image of that to our webpage
BASEKAMP team: 19:32:19
++
stephen wright: 19:32:21
OK good pictures
mark allen: 19:32:29
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machineproject/3384408392/in/set-7215760543...
mark allen: 19:32:44
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machineproject/3422719670/in/set-7215760543...
mark allen: 19:33:09
http://machineproject.com/shop/lacmabook/
BASEKAMP team: 19:33:43
if everyone tries downloadign that book now skype wil barf on us again
michael g bauer: 19:33:45
fun!
BASEKAMP team: 19:34:23
smiley
amara: 19:34:25
hi mark, a question: you mentioned that one of your goals is to help people build tools for production; i am interested in learning more about how you practically do this; how are your strategies different or similar to other education models?
BASEKAMP team: 19:37:26
gotcha
stephen wright: 19:37:45
is there audio? I sure don't have any
BASEKAMP team: 19:38:16
patricia we'll call you to add u to the conference call
stephen wright: 19:38:24
add me too please
BASEKAMP team: 19:38:43
patricia can you turn your status to "available"?
BASEKAMP team: 19:39:38
worked smiley
BASEKAMP team: 19:39:45
anyone else get dropp'd?
Patricia Watts: 19:39:49
smiley TY
stephen wright: 19:40:22
eating machines
BASEKAMP team: 19:41:31
smiley
BASEKAMP team: 19:41:47
"if you go hunting you want to eat the entire enimal... i kind of feel that way about our space"
mark allen: 19:42:09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXToxbK_RU
mark allen: 19:42:15
donation machine
mark allen: 19:42:27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auL3zESxRSM
mark allen: 19:42:29
bookstore
mark allen: 19:43:51
http://machineproject.com/shop/lacmabook/
BASEKAMP team: 19:44:13
mmm books....
stephen wright: 19:44:26
other machines
michael g bauer: 19:45:13
maybe we can hear just a bit about the future of machine -- five years ten years down the road
mark allen: 19:45:16
more videos of machine
mark allen: 19:45:17
http://www.vimeo.com/machineproject/videos
mark allen: 19:45:24
hey michael
mark allen: 19:45:27
no idea
mark allen: 19:45:33
letting it happen organically
michael g bauer: 19:45:44
totally
stephen wright: 19:45:50
I think your course line up is great and am fascinated by the idea of conceptual folk knowledge practice!
Patricia Watts: 19:45:54
is this discussion recorded?
mark allen: 19:46:21
more videos here
mark allen: 19:46:22
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos
BASEKAMP team: 19:46:55
cool yeah
mark allen: 19:47:01
unstream live feed and archived events
mark allen: 19:47:02
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/machineprojectnow
Patricia Watts: 19:47:04
Just met with Dale Dougherty this afternoon and had a discussion about making and art. He really struggles with the combination of the two. How do you Mark reconcile this?
mark allen: 19:47:17
dale is a really lovely guy
stephen wright: 19:47:17
They save automatically
mark allen: 19:47:31
i think they are related activities
mark allen: 19:47:36
but have different goals
Patricia Watts: 19:47:46
It is hard for him to see "non art" fitting in a gallery setting.
mark allen: 19:47:54
well
stephen wright: 19:47:57
you can save them AS something, but otherwise they just archive
stephen wright: 19:48:00
OK I will
mark allen: 19:48:02
im not sure what non art is
Patricia Watts: 19:48:08
It's not 8pm yet!!!!
mark allen: 19:48:16
i see art as the space in our culture for experimenting with ideas
stephen wright: 19:48:43
sure
Patricia Watts: 19:48:49
OK
michael g bauer: 19:48:50
sounds good.  thanks
amara: 19:48:54
yes
stephen wright: 19:49:01
I see 15 people
stephen wright: 19:49:28
Thanks Mark!
mark allen: 19:49:33
ok
mark allen: 19:49:34
still here
BASEKAMP team: 19:49:43
yes there are 15 people on text - and were 7 on audio - so text is probably a good way to go for now!
Patricia Watts: 19:49:43
Mark, do you think it takes away from the maker to have their work looked at through the lens of art?
mark allen: 19:49:55
patricia
mark allen: 19:49:59
not really
mark allen: 19:50:07
i think we can think of art
mark allen: 19:50:12
not in terms of materials or practices
mark allen: 19:50:15
but as a lens
Patricia Watts: 19:50:18
I'm trying to understand his hestiation, it comes up every time we talk
mark allen: 19:50:19
to look at what humans do
mark allen: 19:50:36
so
mark allen: 19:50:40
we can look at making
mark allen: 19:50:48
from an economic perspective
Patricia Watts: 19:50:51
Yes!
mark allen: 19:50:56
or as a form of social philosophy
mark allen: 19:50:57
etc
Patricia Watts: 19:50:59
We talked about that
Patricia Watts: 19:51:17
making as a response to economic survival
Patricia Watts: 19:52:04
however, for the MASSES, how does exhibiting this work in a gallery or museum context give it more or less value?
mark allen: 19:52:17
huh
mark allen: 19:52:26
well by definition
mark allen: 19:52:34
putting something in a museum context
mark allen: 19:52:44
gives the work a value in that context?
Patricia Watts: 19:52:54
the art audience is small, the making audience, hopefully bigger than the art world
mark allen: 19:52:56
i guess it depends on how the masses feel about museums
michael g bauer: 19:53:15
i was interested in what you said about bringing intimacy into institutional settings
mark allen: 19:53:16
when i lived in houston
mark allen: 19:53:21
the fine arts museum
mark allen: 19:53:28
did a show of props from star wars
mark allen: 19:53:40
im not sure that made the public think any less of star wars smiley
Patricia Watts: 19:54:44
hmmmm
Patricia Watts: 19:54:57
thinking
mark allen: 19:55:38
patricia, i dont think the making audience is bigger that the art world
stephen wright: 19:55:46
Well, I knew this house painter in Houston whose painting outfit was also a conceptual art project . But he rarely told his customers that because he knew that they would think they were paying more for the job -- which was not the case. His point was that art was a thing often removed from daily life for many people. Though his point was to counter that.
Patricia Watts: 19:55:50
How about this perspective, do you think machine project would be of more value to society if it were an official technical school with thousands of students?
mark allen: 19:55:54
hey stephen
mark allen: 19:55:58
bernard brunon
mark allen: 19:56:01
good friend of mine
stephen wright: 19:56:03
great artist
stephen wright: 19:56:06
mine too
mark allen: 19:56:13
small world smiley
mark allen: 19:56:17
he lives in la now
mark allen: 19:56:19
patricia
stephen wright: 19:56:21
so I hear
mark allen: 19:56:31
not sure that translates
mark allen: 19:56:52
machine attempts to create a space for an alternative community
mark allen: 19:56:59
which is diverse in interests
mark allen: 19:57:02
so that includes making stuff
BASEKAMP team: 19:57:06
sounds like it!
mark allen: 19:57:07
but also reading poetry
mark allen: 19:57:10
making pickles
mark allen: 19:57:14
going to museum
mark allen: 19:57:15
s
mark allen: 19:57:20
learning about science
mark allen: 19:57:25
at the core
Patricia Watts: 19:57:34
community
Patricia Watts: 19:57:45
small machine
mark allen: 19:57:51
what is the nature of this experience we are going through as people
mark allen: 19:58:02
to be addressed in as many ways as possible
mark allen: 19:58:15
poetry > science > food > technology
mark allen: 19:58:24
all about what is reality
mark allen: 19:58:33
and how do we experience it with each other
mark allen: 19:58:41
not to get too big picture!
BASEKAMP team: 19:59:04
so we have a dilemma - wan to help solve it?
mark allen: 19:59:22
sure
mark allen: 19:59:32
although im more into questions than answers
BASEKAMP team: 19:59:33
there's this project called F.E.A.S.T. (inspired by inCUBATE's Sunday Soup)
BASEKAMP team: 19:59:54
Funding Emerging Arts with Sustainable Tactics
BASEKAMP team: 19:59:56
anwyays
mark allen: 19:59:57
yeah awesome project
BASEKAMP team: 20:00:32
they are workign with some of us here in philly to start a Philly version
BASEKAMP team: 20:00:49
theere's a decision to change the name
mark allen: 20:00:49
cool
BASEKAMP team: 20:01:00
what should it change to?
michael g bauer: 20:01:08
eat
BASEKAMP team: 20:01:27
but it has to be COMPLETELY ORIGINAL
BASEKAMP team: 20:01:30
(kidding)
mark allen: 20:01:36
woah
mark allen: 20:01:39
no thanks
BASEKAMP team: 20:01:44
lol
mark allen: 20:01:45
naming is the hardest thing
mark allen: 20:01:49
in the world!
BASEKAMP team: 20:03:00
how about Rotisserie
BASEKAMP team: 20:03:18
this can be our mascott http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bursa8.JPG
mark allen: 20:03:28
great
mark allen: 20:03:31
do that
BASEKAMP team: 20:03:49
how about "head on a pike"
BASEKAMP team: 20:03:52
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/fun/devivals/X-Day98/POST-X-DAY/X-DayPh...
BASEKAMP team: 20:04:22
or Scraps
michael g bauer: 20:04:37
grub
BASEKAMP team: 20:04:41
short for Philly's famous "Scrapple" meat inspired product: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple
BASEKAMP team: 20:05:09
REcepie Box
BASEKAMP team: 20:05:27
Scrapple (Pennsylvania Dutch) is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices.
BASEKAMP team: 20:06:02
L.O.A.F.
BASEKAMP team: 20:06:23
S.L.I.C.E.
BASEKAMP team: 20:06:43
P.I.E.C.E.
BASEKAMP team: 20:06:57
ok guys, we've totally derailed your conversation
mark allen: 20:07:06
yup!
amara: 20:07:08
well I like feast, why the name change....anyway, mark you have a background as an artist, do you consider what you are doing now a continuation of your art practice, or something different?
mark allen: 20:07:22
same thing, different material
stephen wright: 20:07:38
anyway, thanks mark, it's late in these parts.
stephen wright: 20:07:40
good night
mark allen: 20:07:41
as a studio artist i was interested in making representations of my interior subjectivity
mark allen: 20:07:45
now im more info
mark allen: 20:07:54
creating an exterior life
mark allen: 20:08:00
good night stephen
Patricia Watts: 20:08:26
Gotta run. I'm curating a MAKE:CRAFT show at Otis College of Art and Design, Ben Maltz Gallery, opens Oct. 4th. Garnet Hertz, Frau Fiber, David Prince, Kim Abeles, Seth Kinmont, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Mark Newport, Eddo Stern, The Crank Ensemble, and more!!!
BASEKAMP team: 20:08:36
night stephen!
mark allen: 20:08:39
cool have fund
mark allen: 20:08:40
fun
BASEKAMP team: 20:08:40
and P
michael g bauer: 20:10:49
thank you everyone.   i enjoyed the conversation
mark allen: 20:11:02
by michael
michael g bauer: 20:11:08
bye
BASEKAMP team: 20:11:25
bi!
mark allen: 20:12:40
ok anyone else?
mark allen: 20:12:43
got anything ?
BASEKAMP team: 20:12:51
bring it!
BASEKAMP team: 20:13:05
srsly thx for joining us last minute for a chat
mark allen: 20:13:26
sure
mark allen: 20:13:31
that was fun
amara: 20:14:09
thanks mark + basekamp!
mark allen: 20:14:15
bye all
BASEKAMP team: 20:14:18
yeah, you're totally welcome to coem back - we do this each week ---
BASEKAMP team: 20:14:29
also, we'll have to check ya in LA when we get there again