Joshue Ott is one of those innovative artists who visualizes new media in a broader spectrum. Having created superDraw, a platform in which he customized to become his visual instrument, along with multiDraw and Thicket, both interactive projects, Josh is constantly at the forefront. Working with soundscapes, his distinct style of visuals experiments with the basic qualities of form, texture and movement. Since 2005 Josh has been creating live visuals for numerous musicians and various performances around the world. I first experienced Josh’s work live at the 2010 Unsound Festival in New York. We had this conversation in his studio in Brooklyn where he lives with his wife and two children.

Helen Homan Wu: Okay, let’s talk about how you started superDraw. How long ago was it?

Joshue Ott: It was…years ago. Morgan Packard and Ezekiel Honig released Early Morning Migration and I played at the release party. It was some sort of debut. The first time I did superDraw live in front of people and called it superDraw.

H: So that’s when you started interaction or interactive art?

J: I was a Flash developer initially. I went to art school, graduated and got a job doing video compositing and that turned into Flash development. Flash was a fantastic tool for me because it combined animation, sound and movement, and programming. And I really got sucked into, fell in love with, the programming aspect of it. Someone described it as legos, that lego feeling of when you play with legos, you put legos together and make things. Flash is a lot like that. The amount of creativity, things that you could do with it are really fantastic. So I became a Flash developer and that’s what I was doing when all this (superDraw) began. I was experimenting with it and trying things out and one of the early things that I did was a little drawing, I think I might still have it…

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J: Anyway, the initial superDraw was dinky line drawing experiments. SuperDraw’s first version was really made in Flash. And I only performed that version at Share, which is a weekly electro-acoustic jam thing. It’s still going on. Anybody can go and show work and play music together. Visualists can go but it’s harder for them to put things up at the same time so it’s usually passing around the VGA connection for the projector. It became like a socializing thing as well. Morgan and I have gone to other performances together with all kinds of weird bad music, some good and some abstract weird stuff. I started getting inspired by some of the awful bad stuff that I was seeing and hearing, and thinking Oh I could do something cool and interesting too. We went to Share together a couple of times and got inspired as well. It’s a cool environment because it fosters the kind of attitude that you could also come and do it too, so it was encouraging. I actually whipped up something in Flash and performed there a couple of times. When Zeke and Morgan had this release party, I made a much more concerned effort. That’s when I switched over to Processing, which is another programming language.

H: Processing? Is that a different platform?

J: Not Flash, basically. I switched to a different platform.

H: I’m not technically savvy at all, so you’ll have to explain all this (language) to me.

J: In most programming languages, if you have a variable…hmm, how do I explain it simply and not take an hour.  The programming language is C so basically if C was 0 and the next line of code is + +, C would become 1.  So the programming language C++ is basically saying you’ve just incremented C language and made it 1 better. And C++ is really an object-oriented version of C.  C is non-object oriented.

H:  It’s very poetic.

J: Funny that you say that, but that was the very first moment I was inspired. When my programming teacher started writing the code on the whiteboard and I looked at it and thought structurally it’s actually kind of pretty and that’s when I thought to myself, wow it’s almost poetic the way this is and the way this looks.

H: What you’re doing is also really basic or pure and that’s the beauty of it.

J: This became my artistic expression and I really enjoy it.  I think as a creator I normally get bored with things really quickly and with this, whenever I get bored of it I would change it and add something new to it or…

H:  Because you can just manipulate the language?

J:  Right. So the way it works is that I have the main program that draws lines basically and I also have these extra algorithms that I can run on the line to make it do various things, so that I can make it bounce like there’s gravity or something or I can make it twist or do interesting things, or I can do both of those at the same time. So that’s what I do, I combine all these colors and flavors and things and use that to express myself. I have complete control over what it’s doing.

H: And it’s so original because you are the author.  So basically nobody can copy you.

J: Well! That’s not true. There are a lot of very technologically literate artists coming into the universe of creation right now and this is not that hard to do. Even what I’ve done is not that difficult.  I think what really sets me apart is the movement, the focus on animation, whereas most people focus on how something looks or is composed because they come from video art backgrounds.  I’m actually more interested in how it moves.  I actually originally made this program with the idea that my wife would do live contour drawing while I made music for her, and in my head we were going to form this little band but she wasn’t into it.  So it started to move further and further away from being about drawing to being about these effects that I was drawing or making to do all kinds of different things. That was the progression and in the years I just added more and more to it.  I kept adding features and the multi-user stuff.  Where I’m at now…I’m going in a whole bunch of different directions.

H: Do you still go to Share?

J: I have, actually. I was going to Share fairly often last year to work with Eric Redlinger who wrote the Murmur (Mmr) program, which is what people are using for the multi-user connection to superDraw. He actually wrote that on the iPhone. You can apply that to anything and it’s free. He was also part of the gallery show that I did recently, the Multi-user art show in Brooklyn (Devotion Gallery). Every piece (iphone) used the Mmr technology to engage with the audience and basically connect with the art. And there were four different pieces, so that was a cool thing.

H:  I noticed you put a lot of screen shots of your animations on your site. That changes the whole dynamic of it.

J: Absolutely. It’s totally different. I was happy with them, but they’re also very old. And the idea was to use superDraw in a different way, instead of making moving images but into still images. I used this technique for album covers, and I can show you…here’s the 2008 album cover.

H: Who is this artist?

J: Ryan Lott or Son Lux. He’s a pop artist, well not really a “pop” artist, he’s a number of things, but he released an album that’s on the “pop” side of things. So he found me and liked my work and contacted me to do an album cover. Oh and this is another album cover (he finds another album under a stack) which is for one of my other collaborators Morgan Packard. He released an album of electronic music and we released together a DVD of his music with superDraw’s work. It’s really old and early work of that stuff, but it’s still like a history of it.

H: It’s nice. And it’s Anticipate.

J: Yeah, it’s Zeke’s (Ezekiel Honig) label.

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H: What are you working on now? Any recent projects?

J: This thing for Anna Clyne, I made two different videos for her. They both use the same technique and it’s the same that I use for the multiDraw stuff. You saw that at Gina’s (Gina Gibney Dance Company) performance.

H: I could see Apple commissioning you to do something.

J: That’ll be great.  I’m also about to develop something new for the iPhone. I showed you Thicket right? Well it’s the same thing as superDraw where what you see is the actual interface, there are no sliders or things like that. And people are complaining that there are no controls. People are use to apps with a bunch of sliders, knobs and things that you can control aspects of the program. People are requesting that.

H: Right. That’s why I was surprised and I asked you where is the interface to superDraw?

J: There is none.

(I’m playing around with Thicket, magnetizing the iPad’s touchscreen with my fingers and palm.)

J: So this is what I’m moving forward with at this point. I actually want to make superDraw for the iPad. And one reason is that you can actually plug in an adaptor to go onto an external screen. So people can use this device to make visuals.

H:  Is this a beta?

J:  No, this is out on the app store, you can buy this.  So this capability makes me really excited as a visualist. The next thing that I’m going to do is some mixture of superDraw with something like Thicket but not just on the iPad but on the iPhone as well.

H:  But not for the internet?

J:  No. I mean it could, I don’t see a reason why it couldn’t, but it’s much more spectacular on the iPad.

H:  I know.  But I don’t have either of these!  I guess I should get an iPod Touch or something. There’s so many fun apps out, it’s like a whole movement going on right now.

J:  Yes, absolutely! And I’m really excited about it.

H:  What are some of the other visual art apps that you like?

J:  Well, the Brian Eno one is pretty awesome.

(We test that one out. Beautiful. He shows me a few more including an app by Record Makers.)

J:  I’m also more interested to make something that crosses the boundaries between game and art.  Have you seen the Sonic Wire Sculptor?

(He shows me this drawing and music app that is not unlike the Etch-a-Sketch)

J:  I can spend hours showing you stuff.

H:  Do you let your kids use superDraw?

J:  Yeah. I can show you Orli’s house.  (His daughter made a doodle mimicking daddy’s superDraw drawing on the walls of a life-size cardboard box house handmade by Josh.)

Helen Homan Wu is a curator and writer. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Photo credits: 1 (courtesy Joshue Ott), 2 (taken at Mutek by Caroline Hayeur), 3, 4, 5, 7 (Rebecca Black), 6 (HW)

Joshue Ott’s work and live performances can be found on
intervalstudios.com

More information about Thicket here.

courtesy MoMAPS1

This Saturday’s Warm Up event at PS1 MoMA will be a good one. The line-up includes Animal Collective, Blondes, Prince Rama, Oneohtrix Point Never, CFCF, and Babe Rainbow. The set starts from 2PM to 9PM. See the full schedule here.

Backdropping against the mystiques of a gothic vibe and being intimately close to the musicians, I was sucked out of my thoughts about work (etc.) and into…I guess as the title suggests: Love’s Labyrinth. Judith explains to me that this is only the prelude to the fully staged performance which will happen on August 19th in the same venue. It’s also a special way to experience this historical Brooklyn landmark (apparently the architect Richard Upjohn also designed the Trinity Church in downtown Manhattan). Tiffany also had his hands on this church, using his famous style of uncut semi-precious stones shooting enigmatic rays from all angles and the colorfully stained glass windows. Aside from all that, perhaps this would be a good chance to retreat away into a mellow and summery medieval evening.

Final Program from Playthings Of The Gods series:
Amor & Psyche: Romping through Love
Thursday August 19th, 8:00 PM

from the Brooklyn Library Collection

Christ Church Cobble Hill
320 Clinton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

When I first saw Kevin’s Camper Kart I was as excited as a child walking into a toy store. Not quite hippy, nor scientifically geeky, this installation hit me in a profoundly personal way. The exterior is only a fraction of the entire piece. First the combination of a shopping cart with a Chinese-Mongolianesque shaped tent is one of the craziest juxtapositions I’ve seen. Then reality starts to seep away as I peek inside the little windows and imagine a life inside this romantic place.

Inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road” and the scene here in Brooklyn, Kevin explains that although this is a shelter on top of a crazy but practical object, this project symbolizes mobility and shelter. The shopping cart is a sign of the recently failed economy. Being brought up as a camper kid, Kevin knows what goes on inside a cramped and compact trailer space. So besides being aesthetically amusing, it would also act as a practical escaping vehicle.

image courtesy of the artist

Part of his experience comes from doing field research in Beijing. And having been there myself, I can say that it’s definitely a fun trip to ride in those cozy little rickshaws covered with canvas and vinyl. Which was an inspiration behind the Camper Bike series.

If you get a chance, check out Kevin’s on-going dead-pan Van Series, that’ll surely make your eyes drool for more. And what’s interesting is that he is replicating all the graffiti tagged on those vans himself, but without the controversy of being in the public eye.

The anticipated LUSH LIFE opened this past Thursday in nine galleries spanning through the Lower East Side. The curators of this project Franklin Evans and Omar Lopez-Chahoud cleverly used the novel written by Richard Price as a connecting thread. Each of the nine galleries represent a different chapter in Lush Life (2008), which is a psychologically gripping tale about a murder investigation and concerning the gentrification of lower Manhattan. Basically it reveals some of the ugliness behind today’s yuppified Lower East Side. This is the neighborhood where I first landed as child, so I can definitely relate to those changes first hand. Now that the bodegas, hosiery and leather shops have moved on to be replaced by pricey wine bars and boutiques, it’s nice to see a new wave of galleries coming in. Which brings in a whole different dynamic to the area, and you can feel it while walking down the streets at any time of the day, it’s such a unique mixture of energies in the LES that is unlike anywhere else, because it has gone through so many layers of changes, just like those stickers plastered everywhere.  And this exhibition is unique in a sense that these galleries have created a sort of ensemble, which attracted a flood of people, some who had never been to any of those galleries before.  Of course the artists and the work matters just as much, but what’s more remarkable is the unity of the event as a whole–the bigger picture. Perhaps it is what the downtown galleries need right now, to generate some action, especially since those hungry sharks in the bigger art market usually gets all the attention. If you haven’t seen the show yet I advise starting from Chapter One: Whistle at Sue Scott Gallery. Closing dates vary depending on the gallery, but here’s the list: Sue Scott Gallery, On Stellar Rays, Invisble-Exports, Lehmann Maupin, Y Gallery, Collette Blanchard, Salon 94, Scaramouche, Eleven Rivington. Don’t be overwhelmed, there is a free map that you can pick up at any of those galleries.  (more pics after the jump…)

Betsey Johnson

David Andrew Frey (Culture Hall), Morgan Croney (Artcards)

Image courtesy Altman Siegel Gallery

The phrase “They Knew What They Wanted” poses countless questions, especially when placed as the title of a collaborative exhibition between four galleries across the city of San Francisco. As it turns out “They” are artists chosen by each gallery to curate a show comprised of artwork from the backrooms of all four galleries. Altman Siegel Gallery chose Los Angeles based photographer, Shannon Ebner to curate their portion of the show. She chose a series of thirteen random objects ranging from glasses of water to photographs to a baby incubator in an attempt to show that “reality is comprised of basic units.”  The show at Altman Siegel is successfully disjointed with pieces that are singularly intriguing. Tom Otterness’s ‘Broken Humpty Dumpty’, a bronzed Humpty Dumpty situated on the floor, creates a vibrant dialog with the viewer because of its surroundings. Ebner knew what she wanted from the back rooms of these galleries, but you will have to look to Fraenkel Gallery, Ratio 3, and John Berggruen Gallery to see what their selected artists wanted.

The group exhibition appropriately entitled Shred curated by Carlo McCormick opened yesterday at Perry Rubenstein.  This slightly informal exhibit houses an eclectic collection of collage work (i.e. Jess, Bruce Conner, Leo Fitzpatrick) mixed with edgy urban art (i.e. Swoon, Shepard Fairey). The show is definitely a stand-out, drawing downtowners (there is one Dash Snow piece) as well as skateheads from the Lower East Side. Although collage as a medium is not something new, lately it’s seems to be resurfacing and Shred exhibits a rare grouping of established artists together next to emerging local artists. I’m a fan of the ex-Beatnik Bruce Conner (1933-2008) who produced inspirational works in a diverse range of mediums from found materials collages to experimental film-making. Also drawn to the newcomer Leo Fitzpatrick’s subtle assemblages, which at first sight doesn’t seem like much, but on closer inspection they reveal a hint of wisdom.

(Leo Fitzpatrick 2010)

It is interesting to see that the curator Carlo McMormick being senior editor of Paper magazine, brings to light the art form of deconstructing preconceived media. It isn’t high art, which normally people view from a distance, but an art form that speaks directly and intimately to the viewer in an abstract way. At the opening are full of curious lookers sucking in oddly familiar images, getting a dose of rebellious behavior. And my little indulgence lies in observing how people looks at or responds to that.

(Dash Snow 2006-7)

(Swoon, 2010)

The first U.S. exhibition of German painter Otto Dix, at the Neue Galerie is long overdue, and after a recent visit, I have discovered a newfound admiration for a painter whom I only thought of as creating Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden. This exhibition proves Dix to be an incredibly self-aware artist who dedicated his life to the study of painting, and in turn, the study of the human condition as seen in his many variations on portraiture. The exhibition at the Neue Galerie begins with a small gallery full of his work made during World War I, a body of work that ultimately sets the tone for his entire artistic career.

The series of etchings from the War/Der Krieg portfolio bring to mind the lithographic work of Mexican artist, José Clemente Orozco. However, instead of images of impoverished, displaced families during the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th Century, Dix spent years documenting the horrors of World War I in Europe. In these series of etchings and drawings, Dix’s line quality and use of chiaroscuro renders his style strikingly similar to Orozco, even though they were an ocean apart. Even stronger than the similarities between Dix and Orozco are the similarities to Käthe Kollwitz’ various print portfolios. Kollowitz spent the 1910s and 20s documenting how suffering families, women and children, were affected from the war, whereas Dix, as a soldier for the German army, was out on the battlefield. These earlier works, made from 1914-1918 (not printed and published until 1924) are not illustrative to those works that Dix is most known for: portraits of the haute-classe or bourgeoisie of the Weimar period. Rather, these drawings and prints are firsthand reactions to the horrors surrounding the artist during the War. It is important to realize that these scenes are not fantasized images that one might see or dream up from a horror movie or novel, but almost diary-like accounts of a typical day in a soldier’s life in WWI. Especially horrifying are the gruesome portraits (can I even call it that?) of war victims. In the drawing of Wounded Veteran/Kriegsverietzter, Dix adds shock value with red watercolor paint to illustrate the horribly disfigured right side of the man’s face. Skin Graft/Transplantation shows the revolting effects of hurried surgery, and Wounded Man Fleeing (Battle of the Somme 1916)/Fliehender Verwundeter (Sommeschlacht 1916) shows a man more terrified than terrifying; his fear transforms him into a Gollum-like, monstrous creature.

After the war, Otto Dix moved to Dresden to continue his studies at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, launching a lifetime career in painting. Although he was out of the trenches and off the battlefield, Dix still seems to have always carried a feeling of disgust towards humanity, as all subjects in his future paintings retain a disfigured or inhuman quality. Some of his portrait studies of women are as appalling as the men in war. The woman in Head I – Mrs. D (Head of Woman I)/Kopf 1 – Frau D. (Frauenkopf) (1923), smiles sheepishly, but her face is lost in a haze of reddish-pink smudge, making her blue eyes brighter and bigger than normal. The Half Nude/Halbakt (1922) is an ogress of a woman, her face more baboonish than human. The woman in Rachel I (1924) has blue lips, grey skin, and appears corpse-like, and the Old Woman/Alte Frau (1923) is simply just a drawing of a skeleton with wisps of hair. In the following gallery, Even Dix’s later studies of the circus and other realms of the world of entertainment continue to portray corruption, illness, and hysteria.

During the Weimar era, Otto Dix became most well known for his portraits representing the varied types of people during this time period in Germany. It is during these years that Dix’s use of color develops into full force. The sitters’ cheeks are a drunken rosy red, their eyes are popping blue or shining brown, and the backgrounds are washed in deep ocres of a curtain or the soft periwinkle blues of the evening sky. Disturbingly, one thing that remains constant is the pale, white face on almost every portrait.

Dix took his own liberty in deciding how he wanted a person to look. He was certainly deeply affected and troubled by his years serving his country in World War I, as his subjects never really return to human forms. Although Dix accurately captures the roly-poly shape of a man in Portrait of the Laryngologist Dr. Mayer-Hermann (1926) his shoulders are so disproportioned that his body turns into a full spherical shape. It is impossible that the seductress in Reclining Woman on Leopard Skin (Portrait of Vera Simailowa) (1927) had a face so felineness. And Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann (1920) has outrageously large ears, nauseously green skin, and bulbous, protruding pink eyes.

Dix continued his studies far and wide, and was certain and determined from a young age about his place in Germany, and in the world, as an artist. He was constantly challenging himself to create new styles and try new techniques, however it seems as though in his later years he took this curiosity so far and lost his signature style. There are several paintings in the galleries that I would have never believed were done by Otto Dix if they had not been included in this exhibition. For example, Vanitas (Youth and Old Age) (1932) is eerily similar to a John Currin rendition of a buxom youth; the blonde has a goddess-like, beautiful body, yet her smile if forced and absurd. In Randegg with the Vögeli (1936) Dix takes a shot at landscape painting. The pastoral, autumn landscape looks as though it could have come from the Hudson River School, rather than Weimar, Germany. The most absurd painting was attempted when Dix decided to explore biblical themes in Saint Christophorus IV (1939). Although he was clearly inspired by DaVinci’s work – as is evident in Dix’s inclusion of jagged, smoky mountains in the background – I can only assume that the artist returned to contemporary subjects shortly after this painting.

Although Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden will probably remain the first portrait I think of when speaking of Otto Dix, I will certainly think of the “War” etchings and drawings as the most important works in Dix’s career, as they were the base upon which the rest of his work was created.
Otto Dix at the Neue Galerie on view through August 30, 2010

All images courtesy the Neue Galerie Museum, New York.

Frank Webster (artist)

Curator Elyse Goldberg (right) and friend

on the street