HDTS
Summer Event:
Bernd Behr, June 28, 2008
On June 28th, 2008 High Desert Test Sites is pleased to collaborate
with the Center
for Land Use Interpretation to present a film by
London based artist Bernd Behr titled “House
Without a Door”. The weekend will include
a Saturday afternoon panel discussion, followed by dinner at the
Palms in Wonder Valley and then an evening screening
of the film on the most remote Test Site on Iron Age Road. (Low
impact camping will be allowed on the site, and we may try to
organize some sort of brunch the following morning) For more information
keep checking our web site, or sign up for the mailing list below!
About the film: Produced during a CLUI residency
in Wendover,
Utah, Bernd Behr's "House Without a Door"
explores the relationship between film and architecture, linking
a US military test structure with references to 1920s German expressionist
film.
In 1943 the US military commissioned émigré architect
Erich Mendelsohn and Hollywood studio RKO to design and build
a replica Berlin housing estate in the Utah desert to test incendiary
bombs eventually deployed in the air raids on Dresden and Berlin.
Behr's interest lies in the performative nature of the building,
embodied in its cultural/geographical displacement and its function
of repeatedly performing its own destruction.
Borrowing its title from the early expressionist film House Without
a Door (1914), which has no surviving print, Behr's work fictionalizes
the now inaccessible interior of this building through a set of
references to 1920s German expressionist films, including Faust
(F.W. Murnau, 1926) and Dr. Mabuse (F. Lang, 1922). These references
reflect Mendelsohn's own relation to expressionist theatre, Weimar
filmmakers and the proximity of the test site to an actual village
in Utah called 'Faust'.
House Without a Door will be shown as a large-scale outdoor screening
with a specially commissioned soundtrack by Marcus Fjellström.
It is supported by Center for Land Use Interpretation, University
of Gloucestershire, England, and through a Film London Artists'
Film and Video Award. The work has previously been exhibited at
the Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2006, and e-raum, Cologne, 2007.
This joint HDTS/CLUI presentation has been supported by British
Council and deciBel.
Bernd Behr was born in Germany in 1976 and lives and works in
London.
He was short listed for the Beck's Futures Prize at ICA, London
in 2003 and is
a recipient of a deciBel Award, 2006."
November 24th, 2007
If
you would like to stay abreast of HDTS updates, events and projects
send an email tomailinglist@highdeserttestsites.com
Watch
for our other upcoming HDTS Projects and Events:
Spring:
Top secret HDTS security project by Julia Scher
Fall:
November 7th/8th 2008, HDTS/CB08
Projects for the California Biennial at the High Desert Test Sites
Curated by Laurie Firstenburg:
List of participating artists coming soon!
Announcing: The Moab Video Project by Christy Gast
The
Moab Video Project is a year-long curatorial project
organized by artist Christy Gast, for a TV station
in Moab, Utah. Moab, a small town nestled in
a green valley between unimaginable red sandstone cliffs, was
settled by farmers in the 19th century, and began booming during
the age of uranium mining. The town consists of a business district
along the highway, with neighborhoods squeezed on either size.
Because of the cliffs, its growth is limited. Tourism is the main
industry, and people come from all over the world to see Arches
National Park, where Ed Abbey wrote Desert Solitaire.
In
2006 Christy spent the summer in Moab exploring the wilderness
and tending a big garden - during that time she met the owner
of Mac 21, an extremely local television channel. It was the first
channel in the world to have a cable news broadcast. The signal
from the nearest news channel didn't reach Moab because of its
geographic situation, so the cable channel started broadcasting
an all-volunteer news program. They covered the county commission
meetings in a seriously in-depth manner. Needless to say, the
commissioners weren't impressed. They covered Jeeps getting stuck
on the sides of cliffs, Christy says that she has seen amazing
footage of the newsreader reporting on this. The first cable news
broadcast was extremely microcosmic.
Christy
helped Jim from Mac21 set up his new studio and taught him how
to use Final Cut Pro. Now Mac21 doesn't need to cover the news
anymore--there are other accessible outlets--but there are long
features on the Chinese restaurant, mountain biking safety, and
homes for sale, always shot with these incredible cliffs in the
background. After returning to NY she proposed to curate a short
video program for Moab, which turned into a year-long project.
Mac21 is now airing one artist's video every week for the year
of 2008. The videos are inserted into normal programming, and
each video is broadcasted once every hour or so for one week.
Much of the impetus for this project was inspired by the singularity
of the setting, and the mythology of landscape. Christy says that
when she looks at videos for the program, she tries to think about
watching them in a motel room. “Sometimes I have specific
people in mind. Sometimes I imagine the desert watching.”
All videos are less than 5 minutes long and follow FCC regulations.
www.christygast.info
www.moabvideoproject.org
November,
2007
Site
Report: It seems
that vandals have been stealing major sections of the Geo Chain
installed by Scott Wayne Indiana in 2006.
Scott
just drove down from Portland Oregon about two week ago to add
400 feed to the chain, which are now already mysteriously missing.
If you want to do a nice deed for Scott come visit the Geo Chain
and add some links. (send photos and a report of added chain to
Scott at symplvision@gmail.com.)
For directions and more information click here:
Geo
Chain:
Installed in June of 2006, this project invites participation
from others to contribute to a growing chain that aspires to travel
around the world. Aside from the political overtones of a new
globalization and the idea of a round-the-world trek, the GEO
CHAIN is a symbol for the last of the dreamers. The very act of
traveling to the chain and adding to it is at once pragmatic toward
the stated goal yet simultaneously absurd with regards to the
overwhelming distance yet to be covered. The length of the chain
does not matter as long as the idea stays alive. Therefore, the
quixotic participants, who travel across the desert and add their
links, effectively engage in a sweeping hopeful gesture, and momentarily
contemplate the grand stillness of the living idea as it calmly
waits to enter the giant expanse of the open landscape ahead.
October
29, 2007
Christy
Gast (HDTS Alum) is curating a year long project for a local TV
station in Moab, Utah. MAC 21 is a small cable station that broadcasts
in a single secluded valley community, and the owner has graciously
agreed air an artist's video every week in 2008. The videos will
be inserted into normal programming, and thus will air once every
hour or so for one week each.
Most of the station's broadcast range is uninhabited wilderness.
The station is viewed by locals in Moab, as well as tourists passing
through, as it's the community information channel in all of the
hotel rooms. Thus, hotel rooms will be an exhibition site outside
of the art fair context.
The deadline is February - If you would like to participate send
your videos and DVD, CV, and artist statement to:
Videos
should be less than five minutes long that have broadly to do
with tourism, nature, or TV. Keep in mind that the station must
follow FCC regulations (http://www.fcc.gov/eb/oip/).
The broadcast will be linked with a website containing a schedule,
video stills, artist statements, and contact info.
Christy Gast
1415 E Gadsden St.
Pensacola, FL 32501
October
10, 2007
Join
our web based community group commoitted to preserving quality
of life in The Morongo Basin. There are lots of changes going
on in our area these days- this is a great way to stay informed
and to initiate dialog related your own questions about living
in the high desert.
To
subscribe to the discussion group click here.
(just send in the email without changing the subject line)
If you want to explore the discussions without joining click here.
September
22, 2007
The
High Desert Test Sites event will now be organized once every
other year. The tentative date for our next event is spring 09.
In the meantime we will to start to focus on artists, architects,
visionaries and other desert kooks who are out here“doing
it” in the high desert.
Check back soon for a new web based component of this project…
May 18, 2007
HDTS 07 would not have been possible without the amazing help
that we received this weekend!
Among
(but not limited to) those we would like to thank are:
The
Pilgrims: who
came out all the way from Boston for a long week working in the
sun (and dark) to help pull it off.
Wade
Aaron
(who's engineering skills repeatedly saved the day- he fixed Andrea's
swamp cooler, and saved us hours of trying to figure out how the
HQ tent went together)
Krista
Caballero
(on day one she couldn't give up trying to ride the unicycle,
inspiring others to fearlessly attempt one wheeling.... on day
two she could barely walk)
Vasia
Markides (our
resident First Aid expert. Though we had tons of band-aids, iodine,
and gauze, the unicycle shop never saw a drop of blood... the
only injury was her own splinter!)
Thomas
Stevenson (who
miraculously fixed the scratchy sound of the Polish Western Film
on Saturday night by pouring beer on the ground wire)
Barbara
Gallucci For sending us the Pilgrims
Jay
Lizo - the HDTS HQ Headmaster - we need
you forever!
Steve Walters For being super fun,
well mannered and helping at all things.
Akemi
Martin: For all of her help this year at the HQ
Nicki
Belle and Ian Chang After a rollicking day at HQ, they
followed the unicycle truck back to LA in their soybean oil powered
Mercedes and got the shop moved into the backyard.
Ralph Gorrill at the Joshua Tree Music Store
(and the Acoustic
Music Festival!) for his generosity and support
Ethan
and Chris at Coyote Corner- for use of their lot and
letting us turn the fire pit into a swimming hole!
Susan Dingley at Pioneertown
Motel - for being utterly calm and unflappable, and
helping with all pioneertown related.
Ray
Woods-for his electrical powers - go Ray Woods!
Terri Williams - for generously allowing us to use her
amazing spread on Mane Street for the film projection on Saturday
night.
Jack
Pierson - the host with the mostest
Laura,
Mary and James at the
Palms- for hosting the best place to eat drink and
make friends on the west end of the basin.
Robin
and Linda at Pappy
and Harriet's - for saying ok to everything no matter
how many times the plan changed.
Randy Plumbo and Shari Elf at the Art Queen - you rock!
Bonnie
and Stacy at the Crossroads for graciously supporting
our weekend of madness
And
most of all to the organizers and artists. Because HDTS has zero
funding and is completely non-commercial every part of the event
is facilitated for by the organizers and artists themselves.
Andy
Stillpass for bringing us "Summer Love" by
Piotr Uklanski (After this weekend we have decided that Andy should
be a subject of the next Werner Hertzog film)
Shaun
Regen - for putting us on the global art map with our
beautiful invites, and hosting a moment of glamour and refreshment
on Sunday morning.
John
Connelly - who makes the longest trip of us all (from
NYC) and always brings us artists who we love.
David
Dodge for our superb graphics and catalog.
Lisa Anne Auerbach - for your enthusiasm
and power.
Ali Subotnick and the Wrong Gallery
- for the Wrong Gallery Flagpole and excellent David Shrigley
Flag.
Eungie
Joo - for introducing us to Rodney McMillian who probably
now thinks that we are all nuts.
And
the artists:
David Shrigley
Rodney McMillian
Liz Larner
Julia Scher
Piotr Uklanski
John Bock
Ann Magnuson
Lisa Anne Auerbach
Jack Pierson
The Wagon Station Customizers:
Carolyn Castano
Aaron Noble
Chris James
Chuck Moffit
Jennifer Nocon
Connie Walsh and Chris Young
Giovanni Jance
Jonas Hauptman
Andrea Zittel and David Dodge
Guy Green
Veronica Fernandez and Peter Blackburn
Amy
and Wendy Yao's Swapmeet participants:
Alice
Konitz, Katrin Pesch & Michael Rashkow
Mountain School of Arts
Patrick Jackson & Matt Borusso
Little Chan
Jasime Little
Chris Lipomi
Amy Yao & Wendy Yao
Sara Clendening
Ooga Booga
Also
there is a new PDF of the catalog for HDTS 07 on the catalog page,
as well as instructions for ordering a hard copy.
Photos
of HDTS 07 will be coming soon - if you have some that you would
like to share send them here.
