Contemporary artist video, photography, drawing, writing, and installation: expression and research influenced by technology.
What’s going on in contemporary art
By taking creative action through expressive discipline, artists generate experiences where a viewer’s sensitive, aware perception illuminates the path to relief in the global economic crisis. Art will inspire a solution.
Download Selected Findings Artists and the Recession Survey 2009 sponsored by LINC Leveraging Investments in Creativity.
Tags: Art, artist, creativity, economy, finance, investment, recession
Sensing demands a market. Values are automatically assigned to a stimulus as a function of their reception. This fundamental law of being, embodied at an unconscious level, manifests in every aspect of human existence.
To have a body unaware of the market of stimulus is to have a body damaged by its environment. In a fleeting glance to the heavens to spy a bird taking flight, a sunbeam hits our eyes. Do we not cower to the ray’s power to blind yet marvel at the universe it illuminates? The internal mechanisms built to protect our vision restrict the size of our pupil because our unconscious knows the cost of failing to do so. Staring directly into the sun is a sizzling reminder of blue spots that a retina is merely the ant on the sidewalk and our natural lens a child’s magnifier.
It’s no wonder that we fall prey to the intoxicating glow of the liquid crystal display. We are drawn to the screen as a moth to a lamp. Attracted by the promise of information, yet burned by the theft of time. It’s our choice to turn on the back-lit window, to navigate it. Yet within the journey to the content of our desire, there exists distractions at every turn.
The conscious and the unconscious market are always present, and it is the charge of the sensor to be present and aware in each moment. Unlocking myriad economies is the crux of Market Forces.
The exhibition commands the attention economy, the cognitive economy, and the social economy by parting space into three distinct arenas.
Attention Economy
Physical objects in space, whirring – clicking – bouncing, emulating natural systems in their fabrication demand the viewer at an unconscious level to observe.
Cognitive Economy
When objects are common, uniform, static they become background. Cans on a supermarket shelf, the logo of the auction where you bid daily, the face of the homeless man you constantly ignore. In the cognitive economy artists succeed when they inject just enough dissonance to be perceptible, so that the viewer becomes aware of the behavior in question.
Social Economy
At times Utopian in its scope and generosity, the social economy succeeds when sharing concepts, ideas, and experiences trumps individualistic, ego-based thinking. Cultural posturing, intellectual flexing, and acute misunderstanding, while uncomfortable, are the necessary market pull-backs obviating utter collapse. Only through rigorous effort will the social economy transcend the emotional rise and fall of communication-breakdown and maintain a positive trajectory.
As a whole Market Forces reverberates with the promise that each economy, attention, cognitive, and social, is a valid space for artists to operate.
Tags: hypermodern, Italia, Italy, Market Forces, Obay, Pete Ippel, Piemonte, Share Festival, Torino, Turin
So the Headlands Center For The Arts has a new online application program called “SlideRoom” it’s super easy to use, and it works great. I really hope more organizations start to use it. I imagine it would really work well in the art school application process…it makes a slide list receipt/confirmation of upload that you can print out as well. How handy.
The one thing that I wish was that it was more intuitive to shuffle the order around. Once uploaded, the images were not easy to move, so they stayed in the same sequence as they were uploaded.
I just finished up the application for the Tournesol Award ($10,000.00 and a studio in the Marin Headlands *my favorite place to bike*) below you will find the submitted letter of interest.
Dear Tournesol Award committee:
The Headlands has been an integral aspect of my life in the Bay Area. I am an avid cyclist, and last Saturday I was riding my mountain bike on the Miwok trail north of the stables, when I encountered a rough-skinned newt sauntering across my path. I took pause to study his movements and the intricate texture of his skin. It’s experiences like these that ONLY the Headlands can offer and inspire the way I think about the world.
I have an expanded view of works on paper, and as such I have executed projects that integrate digital drawing techniques, various mounting methods, collage, and found objects. My work is simultaneously influenced by technology, while intuitively responding to the embodied experience of life.
Each work has a self-contained reality and often a forthright sense of place. Through the choice of bright colors, condensation of space, and manipulation of visual cues, I create experiences that imply phenomena and images that exude their thing-ness. That is, the unique properties of the subjects depicted are emphasized. What my artwork lacks in verisimilitude, it gains in joyful complexity and honest wonder. I have been gradually getting larger with my practice. Presently I am working on an ambitious four by eight-foot piece of paper, and I want to move even larger, yet I have run out of wall space in my bedroom.
The beauty of our earth inspires me, and I strive to acknowledge the wonders of the natural world by expounding on intuition while maintaining a clear focus on my life as an artist.
As an athlete I understand the rigors of repeated practice, and it is undeniable that creativity and discipline go hand in hand. A residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts will have a profoundly positive effect on my artistic endeavors because I will have a studio that will be a consistent environment in which to work, as well as a nourishing community of peers that is following a similar life path.
Formerly, I have worked up to four jobs at once to pay for the extensive debt I incurred during my tenure at Cornell and the San Francisco Art Institute. I have continued to create new art through all of this, and still maintain an exhibition record complete with solo shows.
Starting in June, I will be working solely for the San Francisco Ballet as their residence manager, and as such, I will be free from noon to seven daily to work in the studio. It will be the first time since graduate school that I will have a block of time dedicated to artistic creation. I aspire to spend that time working at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
My commitment to pursuing a life as an artist is unquestionable. By winning the Tournesol award I will engage in a more complete art practice. It will be my distinct honor to represent the Headlands Center for the Arts as I continue to move forward with my professional art career. Thank you for your consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Ippel
Tags: Art, Art theory, drawing, Headlands, Headlands Center For The Arts, Marin, Pete Ippel, San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute, Works on paper
Preblog: Time capsule to Midwestern Teenage Life Before the World Wide Web – Blogging as a 15-Year-Old and 30-Year-Old at the Same Time
San Francisco based artist Pete Ippel travels to rural Illinois to unlock the fire-proof safe that’s been buried in the closet of his childhood home since 1997. Ippel investigates and interprets nearly three years of the pre-web, Midwestern teenage experience of the middle 90s contrasting it with his technology-laden life in Northern California. Ippel will “Preblog” his journals and images systematically posting a transcription to http://hypermodern.net/tag/preblog/ three times daily.
Project Description
Inspiration:
The Atlantic magazine has asked the question “Is Google making us stupid?” Don Tapscott in his text Grown Up Digital argues that “If you understand the Net Genration, you will understand the future”.
My personal history has a fortunate crossroads in it that is incredibly stark: life experience pre vs. post Internet access is divided and recorded.
In “Preblog” I will be simultaneously blogging as a 15-year-old boy and 30-year-old man.
The core concept of the “Preblog” is to explore the following dichotomies: childhood/adulthood, private/public, rural/urban
Transcribing and analyzing nearly three years of daily writing (30 months Dec 1995-August 1997) in one year will be a challenge. I take solace in author Jim Collins’ statement that, “Creativity and discipline go hand in hand”.
Each Preblog post will be composed of the following:
1.) A tagged and linked Wordpress entry of the handwritten text
2.) A scan of the actual journal document in .pdf format
3.) Access to a downloadable .doc transcript of the journal entry
4.) Accompanying analog photos, rephotographed or scanned
5.) A contemporary response to the text by the artist
6.) A community comments section
Content will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License
Preblog entries are located in a Sentry fireproof file safe in Morris, Illinois.
Artist and athlete Pete Ippel lines up for a race in Morris, Illinois, April 1997 Photo: MCHS yearbook staff
Production Timeline
1.) January 4-10 Fly to Chicago, drive to Morris, Illinois. Document surroundings photographically.
2.) January 11-17 Gather analog photos, prepare for transport of documents.
3.) January 18-24 Fly to San Francisco, California. Document surroundings photographically
4.) January 25 – December 31 Actively transcribe, preblog, analyze, share, and reply to comments.
Process:
1.) Journal pages will be removed from their spiral binding
2.) The frayed edges will be cut off
3.) Supplemental inserts (playbills etc will be unfolded and unstapled)
4.) Utilizing the Fujitsu ScanSnap, both sides of the sheet will be scanned in one pass
5.) Each page will be placed in a sheet protector and clipped into a three ring binder
6.) Each journal entry will be given an accessioning number
7.) A corresponding transcript will be typed for each handwritten journal entry
8.) The text of the transcript will be posted to hypermodern.net with the downloadable .doc file and .pdf scan
The Preblog process will be successful because I have great familiarity with the tools I will be using, and I have the discipline to transcribe three entries a day. Each entry to the original journal is one hand written page which translates into approximately 150 words, so three posts a day at 35 words per minute typing speed plus formatting, analysis, and scanning will take approximately 1.5 hours per day.
Project Budget
1.) Round trip airplane tickets San Francisco to Chicago $500.00
2.) Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M for document .pdf file creation and analog print photography digitization $500.00
3.) Artist Fees 13.30 dollars / day for 300 days. $13.30 / 3 posts a day = 4.4 dollars per post. $4000.00
Total commission $5,000.
History
After being dumped at the holiday dance when I was a sophomore in high school in 1995, I was searching for answers…I wanted to figure out why it happened and to grow from the experience. I took to writing. I updated my journal every night before bed. If I was away, I wrote on napkins or hotel paper. Ticket stubs and playbills were stuffed between pages. I wanted to document my thoughts to grow.
I recorded events in order to better understand my world, when I left for college in upstate New York, the hundreds of pages of documents were packed in a fire-proof safe in my bedroom in Morris, Illinois.
Two days before my departure for college, I received a Compaq 1535DM as a gift from my parents. I didn’t sleep for the next 36 hours because I was exploring my new Pentium 133mhz laptop and how to use it.
A few days later during Cornell University orientation week’s, “Travelers of the Electronic Highway” course, my journaling practice would be forever altered. It was the first exposure I had to the Internet.
I received a network id and an email address in August 1997. The computer replaced the hand written pages of my journal as I began to think of my emails as a flowing life record that I could index and search. My behavior changed, and I frequently scrutinized my new college friends’ status on Instant Messenger.
By 1999 I was hand coding HTML documents and posting my art to the web. I explored broadcasting live videos online through my web cam, and delved into Yahoo Personals with the thought if I was doing this and posting as my “real self” I’d find people with the same commitment to authenticity online and offline. At this point, meeting people online still was perceived as socially dubious.
In 2001 during a graduate seminar on human computer interaction I was introduced to social networking and created a profile. This was a key moment as the personal vs. public social space continued to merge as peer-use of social networking sites exploded.
In 2002 my undergraduate studies culminated in a thesis presentation that presented sexualization of technology, questioned romantic distance relationships mediated by the Internet, and explored instant creation and sharing of experiences both online and offline (Priorities).
Graduate studies in art took me to San Francisco the following August, a drastic change from the rural life in Ithaca and Morris. It was here I discovered the blog. In fall 2002 I made the switch from a standard hand coded HTML, to Blogger. I began questioning issues based on the commodification of objects (Obay), as well as the anonymous gift (Free Memory), and began quantifying social networks (Age Hotness Correlate).
In spring of 2003 I purchased a Nokia 3660 camera phone that could upload images, video, and text instantly to the web thus making mobile and “studio-less” art creation a reality. That summer I also began working as the residence manager for the San Francisco Ballet School, and started to become very aware of the way young people create and consume media.
Presently I run Wordpress and have benefited greatly from the open source community. I am confident that there is much insight to be gained from looking back at both sides “being digital” and critically analyzing the texts from December 1995-August 1997.
Over the past twelve years I’ve experienced profound changes in the way I live, think, and navigate in the world as my experience has become more connected, more open, and more collaborative. I intend to combine curiosity with disciplined research. By sharing my data, it is my desire to gain a greater understanding of the longitudinal effects of Internet use.
Curriculum Vitae View long version or Download Pete Ippel’s resume
EDUCATION
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE, San Francisco, California
M.F.A., New Genres, 2004
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, New York
B.F.A., Combined Media, 2002 (photography / digital art)
B.A., Psychology, 2002 (perception, minor concentration: cognitive science)
ADDITIONAL STUDIES
City College San Francisco, 2005-2007 (advanced classes in conversational Spanish, culture, and civilization)
HONORS
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE
Student Leadership Award, 2004
Board of Trustees 2003-2004
Graduate Council 2002-2003
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Dean’s list, spring 2001, spring 2002
Edith and Walter King Stone Memorial Prize for Promise in Art, 2001
National Dean’s List 1998-2001
TEACHING POSITIONS
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, Berkeley, California
Academic Talent Development Program, summer 2008
MARIN SCHOOL OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY, Novato, California
Art instructor, Fall 2004
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE, San Francisco, California
NASA Space Practicum Teaching Assistant, spring 2004
Video Editing Teaching Assistant, spring 2004
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, New York
Cornell Adult University, instructor, website design, summer 2002
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
ICTHUS GALLERY, San Francisco, California
2008, The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and other Conundrums
2006, Metaphors Be With You
2006, Hypermodern Art Show
EXPERIMENTAL GALLERY, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
2002, Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
GARAGE BIENNALE, San Francisco, California
2008, Weather Reconnaissance
2008, 100 Performances for the Hole
2004, Party for Benevolence
PACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION, Berkeley, California
2005, Art and Spirituality
ANTI – CONTEMPORARY ART FESTIVAL, Kuopio, Finland
2004, Yuk Video Screening
NEW LANGTON ARTS, San Francisco, California
2004, The ‘How To’ Intensive
FORT MASON CENTER, San Francisco, California
2004, San Francisco Art Institute MFA graduate show
PACE DIGITAL GALLERY, New York, NY, 2004
2004, e Bay–Buy or Sell or Buy
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, San Francisco, California
2004, Playshop
CELL SPACE, San Francisco, California
2003, San Francisco Art Institute Print Show,
SAN FRANCISCO BUREAU OF URBAN SECRETS, San Francisco, California
2003, Creative City
BOOM TECHNOLOGY FAIR, Cornell University, Ithaca New York
2002, Sound Thinking: computer as creative audio tool
2001, Fine Art Applications of 3D Internet
WORK EXPERIENCE
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET, San Francisco, California
Residence Manager 2003-present
UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL, San Francisco, California
Coach (Basketball, Track & Field) 2005-present
HYPERMODERN.NET, San Francisco, California
Independent Contractor, 1999-present
UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY, Ithaca, New York
Darkroom Assistant, Photographer, summer 2002
SIGNAL INTERACTIVE, Chicago, Illinois
Production Artist Intern, summer 2000
MOTOROLA, INC., Arlington Heights, Illinois
Web Design Intern, summer 1999
PALEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTION, Ithaca, New York
Assistant to the Director of Collections, 1997-1999
Work Samples
FREE MEMORY (2002-Present) Launch FREE MEMORY Project
The Free Memory Project from Thorsten Claus on Vimeo.
FREE MEMORY is an event created to open a dialog between what memories consists of in terms of ephemeral human thought, and that of a data driven memory model of a computer. The event is initiated by the anonymous gift of a floppy disk to passers by and concludes when the box of disks is empty. Unbeknown to the receiver, the artists memories, documented in photographic form, are present on the disk thereby transferring both ephemeral, and concrete memory.
OBAY (2002-Present) Launch OBAY Project
Obay.info screen capture
More About Obay, the legal battle, anonymous late night phone calls, and Canadian bus stop mystery. For certain individuals Ebay has become a lifestyle, an extreme use of the service where people are a slave to their auctions, so dependent on checking up that it interferes with daily functioning. According the DSM-IV, the manual for diagnosing psychological disorders, this would be a criterion for a type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. Commodiphilia, diagnosed as assigning value to valueless objects in the off chance that it may be worth something to another disparate individual, is an artist coined term that references both the commodity, and the sexual perversion of pedophilia. Obay.info critiques the mega-consumerist culture that surrounds Ebay, and is both a visual pun and a cautionary piece that succeeds when the user questions why they are so involved with buying and selling of the most mundane possessions.
LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE AGE HOTNESS CORRELATE (2001-2004) Launch Age Hotness Correlate
PRIORITIES THESIS SHOW (2002) Launch site
Sound Thinking DJZN TBA Album limited edition of 10 disks,Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia. Pete Ippel Bachelor Of Fine Arts Thesis Show. Cornell University, May 2002.
Love Box exterior installation view,Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia. Pete Ippel Bachelor Of Fine Arts Thesis Show. Cornell University, May 2002.
Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia. Pete Ippel Bachelor Of Fine Arts Thesis Show. Cornell University, May 2002.
Chatting installation view, Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia. Pete Ippel Bachelor Of Fine Arts Thesis Show. Cornell University, May 2002.
DJZN and Cynical music and video webcast,
Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia. Pete Ippel Bachelor Of Fine Arts Thesis Show. Cornell University, May 2002
Love Box interior installation view,
Priorities: Installation, Audition, and Digitalia. Pete Ippel Bachelor Of Fine Arts Thesis Show. Cornell University, May 2002
Tags: Art, california, commission, high school, hypermodern, Illinois, journal, Midwest, Morris, New York, NYC, Pete Ippel, preblog, Rhizome, San Francisco, technology, The New Museum
The Free Memory Project from Thorsten Claus on Vimeo.
This is a continuation of Free Memory.
Tags: anonymous, Copyright, Creative Commons, disk, drive, floppy, Free, free memory, gift, Intellectual Property, Market Street, Memory, New Genres, Pete Ippel, San Francisco, technology, Thorsten Claus, Video, Video Art
Tags: Art, collaboration, drawing, Jacquelyn Strycker, Pete Ippel
Americans for the Arts Action Fund President and CEO Robert L. Lynch gave the following statement on the results of Election Day:
“The historic election of Sen. Barack Obama to be the 44th president of the United States will have tremendous impact on the nation’s arts community, public schools, and creative workforce. His commitment to arts and arts education on the campaign trail is just a preview of what his administration can accomplish. President-Elect Obama demonstrates the leadership and vision to advance the arts in America through investing in more arts education in public schools, advocating for increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, promoting cultural diplomacy, and supporting artists rights.
Yesterday’s election results also expanded the base of support for the arts in Congress, which will help move arts and arts education initiatives through the legislative process. Initiatives that will fuel innovation and creativity are key to our economic recovery and global competitiveness. A new report issued last month by The Conference Board, “Ready to Innovate,” touts the importance of arts education in building the 21st-century workforce. The arts are good for business, good for the economy, and good for the spirit.
In this election, the Americans for the Arts Action Fund raised the public dialogue about the arts and arts education throughout the entire campaign cycle: from presidential primaries in New Hampshire to congressional races in all 50 states. Through our ArtsVote2008 initiative, we successfully advocated for presidential and congressional candidates to make strong, public statements and commitments in support of arts and arts education. Please view our multimedia timeline for further details on ArtsVote.
On the state and local front, our arts advocacy partners successfully engaged candidates and voters throughout the country to provide more support for the arts. Specifically in Minnesota, an historic statewide ballot initiative—the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment—passed amending the state constitution to dedicate a portion of sales tax to support its natural and cultural resources. This initiative will infuse $30 million alone to Minnesota cultural organizations, nearly tripling the current budget of the State Arts Board. An additional $10 million to $20 million will fund arts education programs, the Minnesota Historical Society, and other local historical societies. This continues the longstanding trend demonstrating that voters are willing to invest in public funding of the arts.”
Technorati Tags: art, politics, funding, democracy, education, Obama
Americans for the Arts Action Fund is pleased to present you with its just released summary of the Arts Positions of the 2008 Presidential Candidates. (Also see side-by-side comparison table below.)
As you may know, Americans for the Arts Action Fund launched its ArtsVote2008 initiative in May 2007 in order to educate presidential candidates on issues impacting the
arts and arts education with the goal of securing—for the first time ever—formal position statements from the top candidates.
To date, we have shared with you Senator
Barack Obama’s comprehensive arts policy proposal that he began issuing in February 2008. Unfortunately, the McCain campaign has not been as forthcoming, despite numerous formal requests from the Arts Action Fund and Senator McCain’s own supporters over the last year. However, we are pleased to report that Senator McCain has now issued a short statement that he released in an article for today’s Salt Lake City Tribune.
With this information in hand, we ask you—the arts advocate—to take action by doing the following things:
With only a few days left to Election Day, now is the time to act and show your support for the arts!
Sen. Barack Obama Sen. John McCain Yes Yes Yes No
>Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No *Roll call votes on 7/12/00, 8/5/99, 9/15/98, 9/18/97, 9/17/97, 7/25/94, 9/15/93, 9/15/93, and 9/14/93.
Democratic Nominee
Republican Nominee
Campaign has met with Americans for the Arts Action Fund to
discuss policy issues.
Meeting held 4/1/08
Meeting held 4/1/08
Campaign has published policy proposals on the arts and/or arts education.
Read policy proposal 2/28/08
Candidate has made statement on federal support of the arts.
View Pennsylvania speech on 4/2/08
Candidate has made statement on federal support of arts education.
View Texas speech on 2/28/08
Read Statement 10/03/08
National party platform includes statement on the arts and/or arts education.
Read platform statement on
page 49
Candidate has pro-arts Congressional record.
Co-sponsored S. 548, Artist-Museum Partnership Act, 2/25/08
Voted to cut funding or terminate the National Endowment for the Arts (see listing of votes*)
Source: Americans for the Arts Action Fund, as of 10/03/08
Americans for the Arts Action Fund is the bipartisan advocacy arm of Americans for the Arts, engaging citizens in ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to appreciate, value, and participate in the arts. Arts Action Fund members are citizen activists who are committed to helping make certain that arts-friendly public policies are adopted at every level of government and in the private sector. ArtsVote2008, a program of the Arts Action Fund, was created to secure bold, new policy proposals in support of the arts and arts education in America from candidates in the 2008 presidential campaign.
For more info visit www.artsvote.org, or call 202-371-2830
Tags: 2008, advocacy, Art, Arts, candidates, dance, election, McCain, obama, positions, presidential, theater, united states, USA
Here is one side of the heart design for the city contest. For more information check out the San Francisco General Hospital Hearts site
*update*
I received the “Unfortunately your design was not selected for this round of hearts” letter last week.
I’ll be trying again next time! 
Tags: heart, hospital, San Francisco
For three weeks in July, I spent my Wednesdays taking BART over to UC Berkeley to teach in the secondary division of Academic Talent Development Program. I’m very happy with the final projects, please take a look at the completed ATDP page on hypermodern.net where I outline my course (complete with downloadable syllabi), and display student animations ranging from the hand-drawn to claymation. Also there is a photo album for the digital photography class.
Tags: adobe, animation, ATDP, Berkeley, california, claymation, digital, hand-drawn, high school, hypermodern, image ready, instruction, Pete Ippel, photography, photoshop, stop-motion, teaching
a collection of previously unseen work by Damien Hirst that will be auctioned off this summer in a move that could revolutionise the sale of contemporary art.
A living artist has never before put a collection of brand new work straight on to the open market. Such pieces are usually sold through galleries and art dealers, usually to buyers who are known to them.
This method gives more control to the artist and opens up the sale to a much wider group of prospective buyers. Yesterday, art experts were predicting that the auction – the highlight of which is the gold calf, Hirst’s largest ever formaldehyde work – could mark a turning point in the way artists sell their work. Indeed, Hirst himself hinted that “the world’s changing – ultimately I need to see where this road leads”, adding that such an auction “[felt] like a natural evolution for contemporary art”.
GAAA! 12 million pounds to a single artist…how does Hirst get that market up so high? A true artrockstar, oh how I want to play these games…How about the goal of making the worlds most expensive piece of art…100 million dollars for the platinum skull covered in diamonds? Is it the fact that it’s produced by Hirst, the fact that it’s got material (diamonds and platinum) worth, or branding and marketing, a status symbol to own the most expensive and luxurious object…or is it as Tom Marioni has defined the artist as an individual “getting away with something”?
Tags: Art, culture, Damien Hirst, finance, marketing, Tom Maroni, wealth
This is a quick once-around of “The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and Other Conundrums” at Icthus Gallery in San Francisco. Thanks to Mark for the video.
The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and Other Conundrums – Pete Ippel from Hypermodern – Pete Ippel on Vimeo.
The show is open until May 31st, 2008 so if you’re in the city, come by between 10am and 5pm weekdays. Or you can email me at pete @ hypermodern.net and schedule a special showing
Tags: Art, Athletics, gallery, global warming, hypermodern, Jumping, mission district, New Genres, photography, Posted Video, recycling, San Francisco, Sustainability
Pete Ippel is a modern exponent of a long-standing tradition: the bro artist. Think of athlete-philosophers like Jack Kerouac, Richie Tenenbaum, both Jack Johnsons, or Muhammad Ali…Ippel surfs, plays basketball, and his video work explores issues such as hands-free noseblowing and how weird it is to have emotions about water.
Technorati Tags: Art, Science, Video, Drawing, Painting, Athletics, San Francisco, California, New Genres
Tags: Art, Athletics, california, drawing, New Genres, Painting, Posted Video, San Francisco, Science
I have been moving forward with my show installation bit by bit, and have been working on being diligent with my time while still having time to decompress and relax. Thank you for respecting my need to focus on myself a bit during this potentially stressful period.
I have keeping an old Chinese saying in mind, as excerpted from the Gold Mountain Monastery newsletter based here in San Francisco.
“I make my own destiny and seek my own fortune; fortune and misfortune are not predetermined but acquired by my own actions.”
The newsletter continues…
If we want to stop being muddled and attain understanding, we must first do our best to get rid of our bad habits and faults, for only then can our wisdom shine forth…
This day is already done,
And our lives are that much less.
We’re like a fish in an ever-shrinking pond.
What joy is there in this?
Great assembly!
We should be diligent and vigorous,
As if our own lives were at stake.
Only be mindful of impermanence,
And be careful not to be lax.
Moving forward, I do feel as though my artistic life is at stake at the moment, and I’m investing all my resources to make sure when the opening comes, I’m ready. Procrastination is a fault that I’m growing out of as I have more experience.
I’ve been handing out cards, getting photos ready, and making plans. I also just got a fortune cookie: “You believe in the goodness of mankind”. I do, and I’m excited to share in the joy more each day.
Tags: Art, GTD, spirituality, zen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and Other Conundrums” An art show by Pete Ippel
May 16-31, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, May 16, 6-9 p.m. with DJ music and indoor-jumping photo souvenirs for guests. EDITORS: You, your reporters and photographers are welcome to cover the event.
Icthus Gallery
1769 15th Street (between Valencia and Guerrero), San Francisco, CA
Gallery hours, weekdays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; weekends, by appointment
Admission, Free
For more information, contact, Pete Ippel, artist
Phone, (415) 425-8863
E-mail, pete at hypermodern.net
Web site, http://www.hypermodern.net/archives/fsgw/
“The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming”, 40 x 60 inches (101 x 152 cm), gouache, ink, pencil, and watercolor on paper
SAN FRANCISCO, Monday, April 28, 2008 – The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and other Conundrums is an exhibition of new artwork by San Francisco based artist and athlete Pete Ippel. In this collection of drawings, photographic prints, and videos he explores themes ranging from nuclear waste processing to the pairing of art and sport.
In Ippel’s brightly rendered, fantastical 2-D world, a box of lightning, some incandescent light bulbs, and a gigantic, biological-organic turbine are coupled with wind, tide, hydroelectric, nuclear, volcanic, solar, and geothermal power sources to sequester carbon dioxide. Under intense heat and pressure, in a star-powered fusion-cooker, diamonds are produced, thus solving the dilemmas of green house gases, vacant mines, and human rights issues associated with diamond mining.
The exhibition also highlights artifacts, photographic prints, and video informed by Ippel’s work as an athlete and a coach. After completing a successful collegiate track and field career as a high jumper in New York, Ippel made the move to San Francisco to pursue a Masters of Fine Art in the New Genres Department of the San Francisco Art institute.
It was here in the Bay Area, inspired by local artists Tony Labat and Tom Marioni, where Ippel began to craft projects that married his passion for jumping to his artistic practice.
“When I saw that Tony had devoted a year of his life to boxing, and Tom was drinking beer with friends in the name of art while making movement based drawing and prints I felt empowered,” said Ippel. “And I’ve been fortunate to spend time with both of them here in San Francisco. I really respect their work,” Ippel added.
“The Jump Series” grows out of the tradition of New Genres where actions are performed for the camera. The body of work is based on the premise that to push of one’s self off any surface and into the air by using the muscles in one’s legs and feet is a glorious and enjoyable act; essentially human flight. The modes of lift-off on display include skateboarding, high jumping, jumping off of architecture, leaping into panoramic scenes, jumping over objects, and choreographed jumps with other individuals. Ippel utilizes a tripod and a remote control or the camera’s self-timer to execute this body of performative photographs.
TSP Athletics, also on display, is a competitive vertical jumps team, social club, and acts as a collaborative vehicle to generate images of athletes in flight. It blurs boundaries between art and sport while acting as a vehicle to temper the shock of moving away from traditional competitive athletics.
“When you have something obscure like the high jump that has been your top priority for so many years, it’s foreign when it’s gone,” says Ippel. “Because I went directly to SFAI from Cornell, it was quite a challenge to no longer have the support of my team, nor be able to celebrate my athletic gifts in competition. I went through a real period of grief.” Ippel satiated his needs by creating a one-person team and traveling alone to meets a few times a year. “I made a uniform, started a website, and I kept in touch with my jumping peers. When I was at the meets after being away for so long, I started to see the beauty of the action and the camaraderie and wanted to capture it, and still keep it active in my life.”
The project has developed as an answer to what collegiate athletes do upon graduation to keep in touch, keep jumping, and make art.
Since its inception in 2004, TSP Athletics has grown to include former NCAA qualifiers and university record holders. Ippel’s plan is to produce limited-edition prints with participation by distinguished jumpers who are invited to be athletes-in-residence for TSP. In the frame of social sculpture these artists/athletes will each, contribute to the TSP Archive to add to its expanding collection of images and memorabilia.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Pete Ippel was born in Oak Park, Illinois, USA and has been surrounded by the arts since birth. He moved to Morris, Illinois in 1989 and started to participate in athletics rather than dance. After high school, Pete attended Cornell University where he earned a BA in psychology and a BFA in photo / digital art making. He continued to follow his sporting dreams in the high jump, which culminated in a school record leap of 7 feet 1/2 inch in 2001. In May 2004 he attained an MFA degree in the New Genres department of the San Francisco Art Institute. Presently Pete is a practicing artist whose work is in numerous private collections. He’s also the residence manager for the San Francisco Ballet, a fitness professional, coaches basketball and track at University High School, and still high jumps from time to time.
Technorati Tags: art, artist, athlete, california, carbon dioxide, contemporary, Cornell University, diamonds, exhibition, fantastic, global warming, green house gas, high jump, hypermodern, Icthus Gallery, Ippel, jump, Mission, New Genres, Pete Ippel, photo, photography, San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute, SFAI, solutions, sustainablility, Tom Marioni, Tony Labat, TSP Athletics, Video
Tags: Art, artist, athlete, california, carbon dioxide, contemporary, Cornell University, diamonds, exhibition, fantastic, global warming, green house gas, high jump, hypermodern, Icthus Gallery, Ippel, jump, Mission, New Genres, Pete Ippel, photo, photography, Posted Video, San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute, SFAI, solutions, sustainablility, Tom Marioni, Tony Labat, TSP Athletics
There is so much potential in the Casio Exilim EX-F1 for those interest in capturing athletic events, nature, and performance. Indeed it is a revolutionary camera, in that it doesn’t tout it’s mega-pixels but is a paradigm shift in camera features with a blazing frame rate.
Tags: photography, Posted Video, technology
Pete Ippel utilizes a box of lightening, a gigantic biological-organic turbine, wind, tide, hydroelectric, nuclear, volcanic, solar, and geothermic power to sequester carbon dioxide and produce diamonds, thus solving the dilemma with the green house gas, carbon dioxide, vacant coal mines, and the problems with blood diamonds in Africa.
Materials: gouache, ink, pencil, watercolor
Dimensions: 40 x 60 inches (101 x 152 cm)
Tags: africa, Art, biomass, bulb, california, carbon dioxide, carbon offset, debeers, diamonds, diversity, drawing, flourescent, geothermic, green, greenhouse gas, heat, hydroelectric, hypermodern, incandescent, ink, Ippel, light bulbs, lightening, mine, nuclear, organic, Pete Ippel, pressure, San Francisco, sequester, sequestration, solor, Sustainability, technology, tide, volcanic, wind
Almost finished with The Fantastic Solution To Global Warming.
Today I was called by Dan Lauckner from C·T·V Southwestern Ontario, he found Obay.info and used the Whois database to get my contact information just like Jakub. There is a potential that he may call back Monday for more information.
I also received comments from the author of the blog “And She Knits Too”. She has a couple of posts one about the posters with images of the little girl.
She also reports that there is a phone number to call now 1-888-YOU-OBAY. In the comments of “And She Knits Too” there are a bunch of great theories about drug companies and propaganda and how drug laws are different there than in the USA.
Tags: adbusters, ADHD, auction, Canada, commodiphile, culture jamming, Ebay, hypermodern, Obay, Obay.info, ObayPills, parody, Pete Ippel, Pills, Psychology, pun, satire
Presently, I don’t know who made these signs.
The text on the sign reads:
My son used to have his own hopes and aspirations. Now he has mine. Thanks Obay!
The text on the bottle reads:
If they can’t see it your way, it’s time for Obay.
My interest is piqued, as I have received two emails asking about Obay Pills, the first on February 12, 2008 from a Canadian named Jakub which included the above photo. The second on February 13, was from a Toronto journalist named David Silverberg who wants an interview. I have already responded to both inquiries and am anticipating a response.
I have now done a few web searches, since then and there’s a lot of buzz about the project at Yahoo Answers and Above Top Secret.
I have endeavored to send an answer to the Yahoo Answers group, but because the question is over 5 days old it no longer is accepting direct posts. The question is still listed as “undecided”, and I have sent my answer to the customer service folks at Yahoo. Hopefully they will post my reply as listed below:
I interpret the bus stop poster “culture jam” presently in Canada as a parody ad campaign which critiques adults and calls for more active parenting. By using a pun, Obay and it’s relationship to obey a direct command, the group responsible wishes to show how drugs are no substitution for “present” adults responsible for child rearing. In addition the Obay Pills bring to mind how overly zealous parents can map their wishes onto the lives of their children, especially when they are making the medical decisions for their offspring. The ad seems to be in response to the drugging of youth and the increase in diagnosis of ADHD. Regarding who would fund such a campaign, I look to the ongoing war between the Church of Scientology and Psychiatry professionals, and will be interested to note who funded the campaign.
The project for which I am responsible: Obay “The Commodiphile’s online Marketplace” http://obay.info also comments on mental states and is the top Google hit and likely where people are getting the false notion that I created the Obay Pills Campaign. The following is the explanation of my intent with http://obay.info and a brief time line:
For certain individuals Ebay has become a lifestyle, an extreme use of the service where people are a slave to their auctions, so dependent on checking up that it interferes with daily functioning. According the DSM-IV, the manual for diagnosing psychological disorders, this would be a criterion for a type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. Commodiphilia, diagnosed as assigning value to valueless objects in the off chance that it may be worth something to another disparate individual, is an artist coined term that references both the commodity, and the sexual perversion of pedophilia. Obay.info critiques the mega-consumerist culture that surrounds Ebay, and is both a visual pun and a cautionary piece that succeeds when the user questions why they are so involved with buying and selling of the most mundane possessions.
October 2002, http://obay.info made live on Internet
May 2004 Artist talk and exhibition catalog “Buy Sell or Buy” at Pace University, New York, curated by Jillian Mcdonald
November 22, 2006 contacted by Intellectual Property Counsel
eBay Inc. to disable links and disclaim affiliation between Obay and eBay
December 2006 changes instituted to the satisfaction of Counsel.
January 2008 discovered citation to the artist coined term “commodophilia” [sic] in an exhibition catalog of artist residencies (Nicky Bird) Stills Edinburgh 2004 written by Iliyana Nedkova. http://www.stills.org/
Febuary 12, 2008 contacted by a curious Canadian about Obay.info’s affiliation with Obay pill posters.
February 12, 2008 web search provides multiple sightings in Canada of Obay pill posters. Postings on Yahoo answers and Above Top Secret
February 13, 2008 contacted by Toronto journalist David Silverberg through http://hypermodern.net asking if I am affiliated with Obay posters in Canada.
February 13, 2008 responded to curious Canadian and David Silverberg with the creator of obay.info Pete Ippel’s analysis of the Obay pill campaign. Also submitted answer to Yahoo Answers through their online help page, as the question was still “undecided” after 5 days yet closed to more answers.
I hope this clears up any questions you may have please contact me if you have any more.
Best wishes,
Pete Ippel
Artist and creator of Obay.info
Tags: adbusters, ADHD, auction, Canada, commodiphile, culture jamming, Ebay, hypermodern, Obay, Obay.info, ObayPills, parody, Pete Ippel, Pills, Psychology, pun, satire
Fun in the Sun: A mini Aqua musical inspired by Esther Williams and Bert Kaempfert from Hypermodern – Pete Ippel on Vimeo.
Directed by Pete Ippel http://www.hypermodern.net
Dancers: Leta Biasucci, Rebecca Rhodes Eline Malegue, Mitch Gill, Graham Maverick, and James Shee
Filmed by Nans Pierson
Music by Bert Kaempfert and Mitt Gabler “L-O-V-E”
Performed Saturday, January 26th at 100 Performances for the Hole (Notes Going Up and Down) for the Garage Biennale http://www.garagebiennale.com
Tags: aqua, aqua musical, Art, biennale, california, dance, garage, Garage Biennale, hypermodern, Ippel, musical, New Genres, performance, performance art, Pete, Pete Ippel, Posted Video, San Francisco, swimming, Video Art
I just was looking through the Audubon Magazine and was happy to find some images that really intrigued me. Clean graphic style, and lovely subject matter…Read more of the Audubon article about Charley Harper.
Tags: Art, Audubon, birds, Charley Harper
Frank Robinson is the director of the Johnson Museum of art at Cornell University, and recently when asked by Beth Saulnier “What is art?” he replied
…Art is about everything – love, hatred, sex, envy , generosity. It’s about God, about the lack of God. As you live, things just flow by; at the end of the day you’ve had 1000 experiences and not really appreciated any one of them. An artist stops and makes you appreciate life disappearing.
This was excerpted from the May / June issue of Cornell University Alumni Magazine.
I got to see Richard Tuttle speak on Friday, it was quite a lecture. He started out by showing 59 slides, Title, Date, Dimensions, Collection. It would have been pretty “Punk Rock” to stop right then as a J. Hittner put it. But honestly he was speaking so slowly and abstractly I was wondering if he had any idea of what he was talking about.
Right as I was getting a little frustrated, it hit…purity. The clarity of the thought and sincerity of his words really blew me away. He was making the parallel between the differences between Ideas and Inspiration, stating that they were analogous between Feelings and Emotions. “No one is interested in your feelings,” he stated ” it’s like if you walk down the street, and say I am so upset, I forgot to sharpen my pencil. No one cares. But if you say, ‘I’ve just found the love of my life we’re getting married’ that is EMOTION.”
He continued dismissing artists with lots of good ideas and ambition without inspiration, in that they will burn out before inspiration even hits.
It was a lot to ponder. I also appreciated his comments on materials. “I was always told that America is the greatest country in the world, and that you could do anything you want. I was like “Woah, America maybe you and I can get together and make some good art.’ I spent the next few years living in a very affordable apartment, with an easy job that paid for the rent it was freedom to do what I want.”
I know that’s not an exact quote, but it’s close as I can remember.
Tags: Art, artist, emotion, inspiration, passion, Richard Tuttle
More work on art, last night hit it hard, class presentation on my piece from last night…lots of video time, but the problem is that primere’s text is awful. The piece dealt with war, play, and survival…it worked out pretty well.
Today I got to go to the shooting range “Jackson Arms” I was a pretty alright shot, the .22 ruger is pretty accurate…26 bucks for the class, 100rounds of ammo, and a lane. It was a lot louder than I thought it would be.
I also have to work tomorrow at SFAI’s booth, and I’m not sure how well I can do that job, as I have so many gripes about the school…but I’m learning, but I want more for my money…anywho it’s from 11-7 and I get 100 bucks so it’s cool.
Tags: Art
It’s been a while but I have had an amazing journey from IL, back to Cali and now I’ve already finished a week of school with Xu Bing. It has been a great experience, and I have gotten so much facility back in my brush. I’m very excited about the whole situation. However, I am a bit bummed that he had to leave on Friday.
This weekend I worked hard and was serious about my career, I created a series of 18 postcards, and I’m planning to make contact with the people I know from all sorts of places…and let them know about the new projects.
I have to work on OBAY a lot, and get my galleries in order before school starts, and work on this internship at Macromedia, that would be a dream come true…maybe I could even stay on part time during the school year.
I got called by the track folks today, and it was great to be on the other end of the phon-a-thon, and talk to my friends again…and I even donated 50 bucks…so I won’t eat for a month…track was good to me, and now I’ve got to start training again to peak in Aug for SGA III.
I miss the Tizz, but I know she’s doing great a learning a lot. Big ups to the Rentals this week for helpin’ me out and in other news, I got to practice my Spanish when Abuelita called…such a welcome surprise.
This weekend was a memorable one, not only did I meet to help decide the future of SFAI, but I went to Sonoma county and learned how whine is made. I documented it with 35mm film, as well as my own memory. I really like the way the country looks up that way. Such a different feel than to here. I got to see some leaves change, and had a fire for the first time in a long time.
Thanks to Eric, Page, Paul and Kevin for a wonderful trip.
Tags: photography, SFAI, Sonoma, Wine
Free Memory II was a success, and went a lot faster this time, only 23 minutes. I am still looking for a job, and it’s getting really scary, because I don’t know if I’m going to make rent this month. I have to do a lot of searching for funds before Friday. Open studios was well attended I think, however, since I’m not a painter, I felt a bit out of place. Perhaps if I get my film developed and make some more big prints I’ll be ok. My work is strong, but I am not sure how many people actually looked at it at the open studios. I gave away some stickers, so maybe they looked at home.
Feels like network art is the wave of the future, but I need funds now.
mmmmm
Tags: Art, free memory, Market Street, New Genres, open studio, performance, San Francisco
Well, another Friday lecture down the tubes, I wonder if it’s a prerequisite to be an awful speaker if you’re being a visiting lecture. Tonight she was yawning to her own slides, AND THEY’RE HER SLIDES! It’s a damn good thing I’m becoming an artist, because I want to create change when I come back to SFAI, people will have fun, and the lecture is going to be SHORT, because I don’t want to waste grad student’s time.
In other news open studios is tomorrow, and I’m stoked.
In other, other news, I want to high jump so bad I can taste it, and I finally have a goal, I want to compete in the State Games of America in CT this summer. I’ve got a long way to go, as I’m a bit soft right now.
Gotta tone down the skating too, my left hip is getting funky from skating 6 miles a day to and from the studios…skate to stay young.
Tags: high jump, SFAI, Skateboarding
So I went to San Francisco Art Institute (from this point on SFAI) to see ANYA GALLACCIO talk. Finally something that didn’t suck. The last few speakers I’ve seen makes me wonder what I’m paying for and question why I didn’t stay home to pick the toe jam from under my nails. I have to say that she was at least a dynamic speaker. Her art…well, I’d say one thing, I’m not so much an art criticbut more of an art Cynic. Bottom line is, I have respect for her presence and her persona. That’s what’s selling her work (and most artists for that matter) dispite what she says about wanting to have an attachment to her viewer and place. She was from London at the right time, and rode the same conceptual train as Damien Hirst and the rest of those folks on the other side of the pond. I want to get that gig, having larger than life “art status” and work that is enjoyable. I just want to break even, set my own schedule, and be present for my kids and wife when I have ‘em. That’s what art is about for me, “artrockstardom” (a term I coined at my last year at Cornell University. Living it is doing it, and doing it now.
Tags: Anya Gallaccio, Art, lecture, SFAI
