Machine Project in Los Angeles, California.
“Machine Project is a non-profit community space in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles investigating art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, and food. In our storefront on North Alvarado street we produce events, workshops, and site-specific installations using hands-on engagement to make rarefied knowledge accessible.”
Brass Monkey in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
“Three or four times a month I would trek to Drummond Street, lured in part by the lingering novelty of being able to order alcohol, but mostly because of what was hidden behind a heavy velour curtain at the back of the pub: a dilettante cinephile’s Shangri-La, complete with a pull down screen and floor to ceiling posters brandishing the mugs of Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Uma Thurman, Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Patrons could plonk down on a sprawling mattress dotted with oversize pillows and use wobbly wooden tables with pint-sized (by which I mean the size of an actual pint glass) cut outs to secure their drinks.”
This seems like the best possible way to watch cinema, and reminds me very much of Group Nap Time. (And also of this.)
The quote above is taken from a short piece about the Brass Monkey by Sarah Belfort on Filmosophy. Read it all here.
Steve Lambert’s Co-op Bar, exhibited in San Francisco and New York City.
“Developed at the Eyebeam OpenLab, the Co-op Bar offers a low level investment and community space in the form of a co-operatively owned bar. Designed to take advantage of the surge in potential customers at an art opening, the co-op bar maximizes profit by only serving hard alcohol: shots, mixed drinks, martinis, etc.
Investors double their investment and receive a discount at the bar. As an artist or supporter of the arts, when you buy a drink at the Co-op Bar you are putting money back into the local Bay Area Arts Community. A percentage of the profits from the bar will go toward supporting the programs of the Collective Foundation, which includes grants given directly to artists, the production of artist publications, and other services.”
More information on the Co-op Bar grants here. The Co-op Bar is a public domain project. Download the Franchise Manual here.
Eyebeam Art & Technology Center in New York, New York.
“Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its contributions to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution.”
Events have been documented on Flickr as far back as 2004.
Waterpod Project in the waters around New York, New York.
“The Waterpod demonstrates future pathways for nomadic, mobile shelters and water-based communities, docked and roaming. It embodies self-sufficiency and resourcefulness, learning and curiosity, human expression and creative exploration. It intends to prepare, inform, and provide an alternative to current and future living spaces.”
Read more about it in the NYT.
Exit Art in New York, New York.
“Exit Art is an independent vision of contemporary culture prepared to react immediately to important issues that affect our lives. We do experimental, historical and unique presentations of aesthetic, social, political and environmental issues. We absorb cultural differences that become prototype exhibitions. We are a center for multiple disciplines.”
Dereks Shoppe by Hardland/Heartland in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“So, here is the scoop: From now until the winter winds blow us back into our homes we are making this small shack available to our creative friends and colleagues to interact with random passersby. It can be used for anything from presenting your findings or selling your wares to distributing agitprop or engaging in summer conversations. There are no posted hours, the shop is simply open when it is active.”
They did a portrait swap last Saturday.
Kitchen Budapest in Budapest, Hungary.
“Kitchen Budapest, opened in June 2007, is a new media lab for young researchers who are interested in the convergence of mobile communication, online communities and urban space and are passionate about creating experimental projects in cross-disciplinary teams. We would like to rethink and remix the possibilities of new media in our everyday lives and to augment connections between new technologies and our society. Kitchen Budapest regularly organizes exhibitions to present our prototypes, as well as works or projects from related institutions and professionals.”
Artist and Minnesota transplant Christopher Baker is currently a coordinator at Kitchen Budapest. You can read more about this new media lab and the work being produced there at we make money not art.
Air Forest by Mass Studies in Denver, Colorado.
“Air Forest is a temporary public pavilion installed in City Park, Denver, Colorado, USA, for Dialog:City, an arts and cultural event during the Democratic National Convention 2008. The nylon fabric is coated with a gradient of silver dots, whose reflective surface mimics the colors of its surrounding environment, as well as providing a playful dotted shadow on the people under the structure.”
Read more about it on Arch Daily.
Designed by Sam Paro.
Modifications by Colin Kloecker.
