Last week I was interviewed by Matthias Rockl, a journalist for on3.de (the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation) for a segment called Bayer in Brooklyn (Bavarian in Brooklyn). The piece went live today on German TV and has also been posted on the on3.de site.

I have to say that I’ve been truly amazed by the enthusiastic reception the PirateBox project has received – as I mentioned during the interview, there are now PirateBoxes up and running all over the world. For instance, this weekend the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona hosted a Bookcamp which included a session featuring the PirateBox.

Since late January 2011, I’ve tracked over 70 online and print stories about the project and to date my wiki has logged over 720,000 page views.

Inspired by pirate radio and the free culture movment, PirateBox is a self-contained mobile communication and file sharing device. PirateBox utilizes Free, Libre and Open Source software (FLOSS) to create mobile wireless file sharing networks where users can anonymously chat and share images, video, audio, documents, and other digital content.

PirateBox is designed to be safe and secure. No logins are required and no user data is logged. The system is purposely not connected to the Internet in order to prevent tracking and preserve user privacy.

As an introductory assignment for my Media Literacy and Contemporary Art class, I asked the students to plan and produce a Park(ing) Day installation. They had two hours of initial planning time in class followed by three days of prep time to pull this off. Given these limitations, they really did a fantastic job! Along with being a great introduction to public space art and participatory practice, this assignment also turned out to be a valuable group building exercise.

The class selected a park(ing) space on East 10th near the Barney building and transformed it into a picnic space complete with picnic blankets, palm trees, patio furniture, and musical instruments. They shared organic goodies and gave away seedlings and small plants to passerbys. Spending a morning in the park was a great way to get to know each other - I definitely plan to do this again next year!

More pics here.

This is my fourth year working with the NYU Steinhardt Studio Art MA in Venice program. We have a fantastic group of students this summer who are busy producing an impressive body of work. One of the things I love about being involved in this program is that we have the flexibility to do things a little differently.

For instance, we teach the studio courses here in Venice using a contemporary atelier model which includes a focus on individualized instruction (rather than formal class sessions). Students are expected to develop a body of work based on their own interests and receive ongoing studio critiques from faculty, visiting artists, critics, etc. throughout the term.

Throughout the summer, we bring in a number of dynamic artists and theorists into the studios to give lectures and do critiques. This ensures that the students receive ongoing and diverse feedback about their work. Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting a very special guest – Patti Smith. Patti was doing a show at Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark’s Square) and we contacted her agent and invited her to visit the NYU studios during her stay. Lucky for us, she agreed to drop by. This turned out to be a fantastic event – Patti shared some stories, read some of her poetry, and sang a few songs. She also spoke frankly and humorously about her relationships with Robert Mapplethorpe and Allen Ginsberg. It was very intimate and inspirational for all involved and clearly an experience the students (and faculty) will remember for a long time.

More photos here.

Well I have officially broken free of Steve Jobs’ PG-Rated Walled Apple Garden. While I’ve been running Ubuntu on my desktop for years, I’ve finally given away my (unlocked) iPhone and retired my Macbook Pro (which was also running Ubuntu). In their place I’ve purchased a Nexus One and an Asus UL30VT notebook.I’ve already manually updated my Nexus One to Android 2.2 Froyo which means I can now tether my Ubuntu laptops to the N1 and surf 3G style. Thank you T-mobile. And I’ve installed Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 on the UL30VT which runs crazy fast. I’ve created a wiki page with commentary and post install tips here.

I’d grown increasingly tired of breaking the locks on my Apple products in order to escape the Jobsian closed source eco$ystem. When it came time to upgrade my equipment, the allure of the Apple’s ultra-cool design just wasn’t enough to give the keys for my devices to a corporation.

To quote Cory Doctorow:

“If someone takes something that belongs to you and puts a lock on it that you don’t have a key for, that lock isn’t in your best interests.” It’s abundantly clear that Apple is no exception to this rule. If Apple and its fellow travelers truly care about protecting the user experience – in the long term as well as the short term – they should abandon the lock-down mentality and support your right to control your own devices. They should support the interoperability that has fostered consumer choice and the rapid growth of new technologies. They should give up the keys to the garden.”

Updated: June 24, 2010

Been swamped lately working as the curatorial director for the Conflux Festival. Loving it though! Christina Ray is amazing to work with and we’re assembling an incredible line-up of presenters, including the Yes Men, Sal Randolph, Natalie Jeremijenko, Tianna Kennedy, Steve Lambert, Lee Walton, Eve Mosher and many others. You can check out the entire list of presenters here.

And stay tuned for more details about ConfluxCity, our open format event for the final day of the festival which is dedicated to urban artistic exploration, community participation, shared knowledge, and critical civic engagement.

bMLS: bovine Maternal Lactating Secretion is an examination of the relationships between dairy consumption, human health, and multinational agricultural biotechnology corporations. It draws attention to the potential health risks associated with consuming milk and serves as a symbolic response to the misleading labeling, marketing and “education” campaigns surrounding mainstream dairy products.

More pics here.

After some trial and error (AKA learning the hard way), I’ve come to the conclusion that the chronological nature of my CT4CT (Creative Tools for Critical Times) blog was not the best approach for this project. I’ve thus transformed the CT4CT site into a wiki. And it seems to be working. The rhyzomatic nature of the wiki is perfect for this type of project. But don’t take my word for it – check it out for yourself.

“But every one of us—every single one of us—knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or approving such mistreatment of them.” (Senator John McCain, 2005)

Waterboard (2008) is a meditation on the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique utilized by the CIA. It features a clear bag of water suspended over an LCD screen that displays the first page of the United States Constitution. Over a period of a few minutes, passages from the Constitution are quietly redacted until only fragments of the text remain. This process is accompanied by the gentle sounds of bubbling water in the background.

More photos here.