Playing Duchamp

Scott Kildall just wrote an email to his followers that said, "I just finished a recent Turbulence commission called "Playing Duchamp" -- in which I have reprogrammed a chess computer to play chess as if it were Marcel Duchamp."

Here is the link:

www.playingduchamp.com

This is an exciting venture that Kildall has been working on for some time. While we didn't follow the step-by-step intricacies of his programming adventure, we know the San Francisco Bay Area has lately been a hotbed of Duchampian activity with curatorial projects and recent exhibitions, such as The Seduction of Duchamp.

Marcel Duchamp is widely recognized for his contribution to conceptual art, but his lifelong obsession was the game of chess, in which he achieved the rank of Master. Working with the records of his chess matches, I have created a computer program to play chess as if it were Marcel Duchamp. I invite all artists, skilled and unskilled at this classic game, to play against a Duchampian ghost.

Kildall’s email continues, "I am inviting you … to play against this conceptual art master. As part of the ongoing project, I am doing chess analysis on selected games and I would like to include yours as well." Elegantly, Kildall provides us with selected results (from about 300 games) at this link:

http://turbulence.org/Works/playing_duchamp/results.php

It's gracious of him to let us know (in italics!), "You don't have to play chess well to play" and I'm grateful, having never mastered the game despite lifelong attempts to play beyond my father's opening gambits.

Kildall invites us to pass the announcement and link on friends and colleagues. Nice.

Scott Kildall continues to pursue some of the most interesting, art related, brainiac projects around. He can be found virtually at kildall.com.

Winter Salon 2010 Opens Nov 2

Micaëla Gallery is pleased to announce the Winter Salon 2010 exhibition of artwork by artists Kathleen Elliot, Grant Garmezy, Scott Kildall, Mark Leibowitz, Silvia Levenson, Prema Murthy, Eugenia Pardue, Lorraine Peltz, and Nicole Schmoelzer.

Opening with a private reception co-hosted by Leibowitz and Ruinart Champagne (a Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy company), the exhibition presents work unified by ideas of extravagant beauty and thoughtful indulgences.

Images by California-based photographer Mark Leibowitz's portfolio, an ongoing series titled, "Backstage" will be featured collaboratively with Ruinart (LVMH) and Whitewall Magazine at his introduction to Art Basel Miami at the Betsy Hotel on December 2. Plan to read Whitewall Magazine’s post-Art Basel Miami commentary.

The Winter Salon 2010 opens for viewing November 2, 2011.

We're very excited that Mark Leibowitz joins us for the reception on Thursday, November 4, from 5 to 7.30 pm. We hope you will help us welcome him and discuss his globe-trotting work for the fashion avant garde and haute couture houses such as Vogue and Galliano.

You won't want to miss seeing Leibowitz’s exquisite images, so please mark your calendar now.

SCOPE Basel 2010

Delighted to announce we'll be presenting Micaela Gallery artists at SCOPE Basel 2010!

We look forward to an excellent fair and hope you'll join us for beautiful art, a warm hello and good conversation!

Scott Kildall is at Eyebeam

On October 13, Scott Kildall began his two-week residency as Eyebeam's guest reblogger. Among other things, he will conduct a brief study of common points along a number of disciplines, including art interventions, astrophysics and virtual worlds. He will examine concepts of 'space' and its understanding (and change) over the last 10 years. Wow. The complete compilation of one of his works, 'Video Portraits,' is on exhibition as part of our Winter Salon 2009 through January 2, 2010.

Wikipedia founder: artist Scott Kildall is a troll

Is Wikipedia Art an intervention or an agressive act of cyber squating? Scott Kildall is a conceptual artist whose social commentary is addressed in his artwork in video. He addresses political philosophies in the real 21st century and in the virtual Second Life world.

read more | digg story

Scott Kildall + Wikipedia Art!

Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern invite you to participate in an intervention on Wikipedia!

Wikipedia Art is art that anyone can edit.

We've posted a new entry on Wikipedia called "Wikipedia Art." This page is the manifestation of the work of art; alter its composition, and you become a collaborator in the art's formation. The catch is that Wikipedia, the world's free and editable encyclopedia, has enforced standards of quality and verifiability. All Wikipedia articles, and each fact written in them, must cite “credible” external sources: interviews, blogs, or articles in “trustworthy” media institutions.

Wikipedia Art is birthed, survives and transforms itself through public performance and communal intervention. It is continuously reconstituted and redefined in a participant-driven write+cite+edit process that we call "performative citation."

Wikipedia Art MUST BE written about extensively both on- and off-line, and these writings will in turn be included as part of the work, on its Wikipedia page. This serves the dual purpose of verifying the piece - which is considered controversial by those in the Wikipedia community, and may occasionally be removed from the site - as well as transforming it over time.

Here are three ways you can join the collaboration:

1. Write a text, blog entry, essay or any other form of thoughts about the project;
2. Edit the Wikipedia page itself, citing a published text (even your own!);
3. Pass along this call for participation to others

The link to the project page is http://www.wikipediaart.org

Initial interviews and essays: Wikipedia Art — a virtual fireside chat: http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2009/02/wikipedia-art-virtual-fireside-chat.html

WikiPedia art? -- by Patrick Lichty http://blog.furtherfield.org/?q=node/267

Google Gremlins...Grrrr...Good News and Scott Kildall

Look! Yes, I know, we're back 'on' ... thanks to the confluence of puzzled emails from readers asking why a password was necessary to read our blog, it's finally free from the bonds of password protection! Sure, I might like to say our blog is the exclusive domain of those of us who know where to find it (and it is), but it will never be password protected. So, what happened? As anyone close to me knows, I'm a gadget freak. The latest tech toy is putty in my hands - the world could be in meltdown mode while I ply the secrets of the new. My confession: seduced by the promise of Google's new slideshow widget, I embedded it to David Ruth's latest blog entry. Voilà! The &%^*# widget caused the entire blog to acquire password protection status. That widget is gone, and David's new slideshow is up.

Last week, Linda Goldstein, Randy Strong and Susan Longini led a fabulous visit from about 20 members of GLANC (Glass Alliance of Northern California) to our Winter Salon 2008. Present to speak about their artwork were David Ruth, Michelle Knox, Gary Clemenceau and Scott Kildall. I am happy to write that members were impressed with discussions presented by our two artists present who don't work in glass - Gary Clemenceau and Scott Kildall. A recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in Art and Technology Studies, Scott discussed his video, Future Memories, and his work intersecting media culture with human memory. Using appropriated material to bend rules of consent, his artwork depicts collapse between what is simulated and real, and expresses desire for human connections by changing media landscapes. Scott employs Second Life - an online world with simulated physical space - for artistic inquiry by remediating iconic performances and realizing 'imaginary objects' as paper sculptures, the resultant collision of traditional and new media become hybridized into a new artform where human emotion and memory are expressed in a new topography.

and yes, Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State by our Senate.

What happened??? Bridge Art Fair 2008 Postscript

I know, I'd like to know what happened too! It's too easy to fling vile epithets and make another jab at the national economy, after, all, how many times can you punch a villain? Not enough, and certainly not enough when it's affecting everyone and the livelihood of all our artists. So here we go ... apparently, there were no crowds at the biggest, most amazing art fair in the art world. So, I can't give you fabulous war stories about how well we did, and which celeb floated by ... Yes, of course everyone blamed the economy (and after that boring refrain, the organizers were the next favored target), let's join the fray (grrrr ... sour grapes, anyone?)!

Disappointment? Sure. We would have loved to bring back beaucoup bucks, instant fame and gallons of South Beach's delicious cafe con leche, especially as Natalia took our most promising artists to this year's Bridge Art Fair at Art Basel Miami 2008. This was our second foray into the annual Art Basel Miami cultural whirlwind, so we can no longer claim to be novices at the art fair scene, and I wish I could tell you it was all fun in the sun, but as you'll probably see from our images, below, it was grueling work transforming a (how many stars was that again?) rated hotel room into an avant-garde art exhibition. Challenges were choice - delivery obstacles, teeny-tiny room (ours came with a repair man to finish installing tile and fix the broken shower), paucity of exhibitors in our hotel, oh ... and where was the promised press? No matter, I guess, for a few thousand dollars (to buy in to this shindig), our job - to present beautiful artwork and introduce the work of our artists - was to see how far-flung galleries face adversity, right? Enough said. The artworks we showed, and the efforts of Natalia and Ashley, were beyond the pale and truly beautiful. Some of our visitors found works by Scott Kiernan, Tobias Tovera and David Yun cool enough to take home ... congratulations and thank you, Gentlemen!

Here's a small gift for those of us who didn't go - before, during and after shots of our exhibition! Thank you, Natalia and Ashley (now veterans of the Miami international art scene), for your hard work and for the images to show us our show!

Bridge Miami 08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008

DECEMBER 4-7, 2008 Catalina Hotel, Room 124 1732 Collins Ave., Miami Beach

Micaëla Gallery presents the work of Gerald Cannon, Peter Foucault, Scott Kiernan, Scott Kildall, Taliaferro Jones, Jenna North, Lorraine Peltz, Tobias Tovera, Anne Yalon and David Yun at Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008 from Dec 4 through Dec 7. Read more...Current Exhibition Previous exhibition: Stig Persson | The Big Silence: works 2003-2008 Fairs: SOFA Chicago 2008, Bridge Art Fair|Miami Beach 2008 Gallery Calendar Exhibition catalogs are available for purchase.