Reschooling: workshop at Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney

Emile Zile leads a collaborative workshop on (mis)using the internet for the purpose of art/lulz. Through a range of participatory exercises Zile will demonstrate techniques to detourn everyday social media and search engines in dynamic performative ways that offer new perspectives on these ready-to-hand tools.

#cavemanVJ #expandedhomecinema #officeworksavantgarde #postitnotebrut

With his history of performances that engage with popular culture and consumer technology Emile Zile recently premiered OMG_Sisyphus. The Greek mythology of Sisyphus, a tale of burden and absurdity, is used as a prop on which to enact a contemporary performance situation: being on YouTube. The performance happens in the midst of laptops, amplifiers, digital cameras, projectors and a heavy looking stone that the artist carries in from outside. In recent performances of OMG_Sisyphus at (Open Archive Melbourne, 30 November 2011, Palais Paradiso Amsterdam 16 February 2012) Zile enacts a humorously calculated switch. In his treatment we begin to understand that the laptop/webcam is now a rock, or vice versa. Its physical presence, weight, and texture become entwined in a passage of worship, as the ubiquitous Apple product is now something more equivalent to a Chinese scholar stone (Gongshi). Throughout the whole performance it is as if through some application of post-production what we should be seeing as a computer (the adored gateway to online audiences) is now a small volcanic boulder. Simultaneous slips between live action and published content begin, as Zile sits staring at the rock we imagine him staring at his computer, alone in a room while addressing an imagined YouTube audience. In doing so the actual live audience sitting in the gallery space is distanced, even denied.

At some points in the piece we are made to feel the joys of web 2.0 publishing, light relaxation muzak plays, we are all connected by technology. But the gallery space begins to fall out of step as the artist struggles against what appears to be self-doubt and loneliness. The rock remains motionless on a small table under lamplight. Is real life different to projected life? Maybe it used to be. Zile seems to suggest a new friction is built in this crossover rather than a seamless merger. Whilst various elements of the performance are online, the crux of this work hinges on being present live in the gallery space – where multiple facets of contemporary being are felt and fired simultaneously. As it happens we are pointed toward a space where states of alienation, corporation and intense connectivity collide into a state of indivisibility.

– Ry David Bradley, February 2012

Saturday October 4, 10am – 1pm.
Capacity is limited and bookings can be made through the MCA at http://www.mca.com.au/events/reschool-emile-zile-internet/

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I follow Yoko and Yoko follows me at MCA Sydney

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An invitation arrived to respond to Yoko Ono’s instructional film scripts. The suggestion of a film. Film as it exists in a proposition, an invitation, a request to think. ‘Visualise peace’ Yoko says. Visualise film. #summerofyoko

Q. Which Yoko piece(s) are you responding to and how?

A. I am taking Yoko Ono’s current day Twitter feed as an unrequited instruction set. I follow Yoko Ono and Yoko Ono follows me.

Q. If we imagine a spectrum in which predetermined structures, scores, instructions sit at one end and  spontaneity, intuition, improvisation at the other – where does your work sit in that spectrum? Or is that spectrum faulty to begin with?

A. I have a structure within the walls of the MCA. The technology of the image projection. The design of the seats. We have voice, light, human will. I feel energised by unbridled human energy in tightly controlled environments.

Postscript. I don’t believe in freedom in art. It can only be given by imposing a structure or rule set upon it. There is no freedom. There is no restraint.

New performance
‘I follow Yoko and Yoko follows me’
Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney
6 February 2014, 6:00-9:00pm

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http://www.mca.com.au/news/2014/01/31/interpreting-yoko-onos-film-scores/

http://otherfilm.org/ifollowyoko/

‘I see framing and zooming as a sacred act also.’

I am a monk. I am a tourist. Within the street I see the stage for every human conflict and negotiation. Specifically for this video I was interested in contrasting the buddhist principles of mindfullness, meditation, removing yourself from time to the act of photography, grasping for permanence, embalming a moment. The last shot of my 2012 film Jack is a solitary figure passed out in a half-finished Buddhist temple in Footscray, Australia. This film is an oblique sequel.

http://rijksakademie.tumblr.com/post/68258964580/emile-zile-on-photography-as-a-ritual

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Bring Your Own Light Emitting Visual Display Technology

One-night only. Powerboards and extension leads. Pixels and beams.

Featuring: Gavan Blau, Sally Blenheim, Ry David Bradley, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Greatest Hits, Ian Haig, Joe Hamilton, Sam Hancocks, Sean Healy, Christopher LG Hill, Amelia Hirschauer, Spencer Lai, Matt Leaf, Maximum Rim, Rowan McNaught, Dale Nason, Antuong Nguyen + Pageant,  Joshua Petherick, Johann Rashid, Sibling, Soda Jerk, Swanbrero, Nic Tammens, Alex Vivian, Oliver van der Lugt, Yandell Walton, Marcin Wojcik, Warran Wright, Wikileaks, Emile Zile

BYOB MELBOURNE
Level 1, 18 Ellis Street, South Yarra
Friday, December 16 2011 7-11pm