Nasdaq is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. It has more trading volume per hour than any other stock exchange in the world. In the past two years, we have seen more precisely some of the consequences of this machine to machine feedback system. I selected a recent section of the market fluctuations and translated it into a musical score for piano. It is « interpreted » by a computer generated program played both by an I.Pod in the exhibition space and by a player piano in the context of Bloomingdale’s.

Thursday 19 November 2009,
by Hugo Bregeau

UNTEL’s pratice would be oriented towards : - the exterior, the city, the street (urbanspace), the sites where group actions were undertaken (intervention), with the aim of communicated with the public, and by extention, with society with all its contradictions. - the interior, this cultural space, where the works exhibited-posters, photographes, images, objects, notes, sounds, etc.- where urban and infermation simplings. These different documents and reports constitute the materials of invistigations. Inscribed in the social reality, there preocupations and investigations, are expressed and visualised according to the nature of the support and the choose of mind deployed. Irreversible, born 1975, performing reenact, 2009

Thursday 19 November 2009,
by Vincent Blanc

What is an art viewer? How to identify him? Is it possible to identify him? What does remain of the dialogue between the viewer and the work art? How this subjectivity of ways of seeing may be expressed? Many questions that arise when I listen to this work « Call for witnesses ».
Project instigated by the curators of Formes du délais. The Appel à témoin [Call for witnesses] is a survey of anonymous public opinions. It started in France, Bourges and the curators displayed the cards in the shop stores of this city.
The reenactment of this work in San Francisco also seeks to answer these questions. The advertisement is the same, nevertheless its layout didn’t take the form of a visiting card. The new object is a flyer (folded in three parts, for each part a language : English, French and Spanish), distributed in the street, in the shop stores and at SFAI.

Text of presentation for the exposition « Les formes du délai ». Programmation proposed by Marie Cozette, Keren Detton et Julie Pellegrin :

« ...the Appel à témoin [Call for Witnesses] project gives a hearing to the viewer, a focus of critical theorizing since he or she has also become and « observer », « producer » or « actor » : as this theoretical viewer seemed largely a figure of fantasy, it was felt necessary to take the real viewer’s version of things into account. In a field generally reserved for specialists – critics, historians, museum personnel – this shift in discourse oppened a channel for viewers whose experience is rarely formulated and rarely recorded. Anyone so inclined was invited to leave a message on an answering machine, recounting his or her perception of a work without specifying either the title or the artiste’s name. The absence of identifying information concentrates the attention on the description: the work seen or heard has to be conjured up, with all the omissions, shortcuts, viewer angles and overinterpretation the method implies. The anonymity of the situation, the impersonality of the system and the lack of any direct monitoring encouraged participants to go on record. The gradually accumulated sound archive challenges the very principle of classifying and historiography, emphasising instead the subjectivity of ways of seeing and narrating. The call went out on the Internet via mailing list, while also being displayed in shops in Bourges, published in the local press and in art magazine, and passed from hand to hand in the form of « visiting cards ». the simplicity of the system produced a freedom of expression unconstrained by any set format. The messages lasted from a few seconds to twenty minutes and their tone was extremely varied: often scrupulously descriptive; sometimes « impressionistic », as in the case of the woman who concentrated solely on the colour red in the given painting; sometimes humorous, as in the account of a work of art taking a holiday; and sometimes political. Some callers described strongly emotional experiences: « It’s scary », « I’m still petrified », « It makes your head swim ». Other took a more detached line, describing a work they possessed in poster form or which they had only heard talked about – by a friend, perhaps, or in the local paper. Revealing the way discourse dissolves and reconstitutes the work of art, Appel à témoin suggests that that the viewer does not necessarily look at something, but rather appropriates it in a singular way. »

Thursday 19 November 2009,
by Erika Réault

I will conduct my own research of two standing positions, one on my feet and one on my hands. There will be two copies of found archives on the wall; both documents discuss experiments that relate to the two postures. Each day I will present the two positions in the gallery. I will alternate between the standing position and the handstand 8 times each day against the wall between the two documents hung on the wall. The piece references Robert Kinmont’s 1967 work titled 8 Natural Handstands.

Thursday 19 November 2009,
by Kathryn Williamson

Niki Korth

Between past and future is the title of a Hannah Arendt’s work, written in 1954. In this work, she was interested in the relation between the thought and the action in the occidental History (from the Greek antiquity until ours days), the incompatibility between the classical thought and modern politics and how this tension may change our way of acting and thinking. From this analysis, she sought to question, to criticize (« to fight against ») the occidental thought and the action in order to exercise our mind, to develop a critical attitude and to be able to come out of the impasse. How to think ? It isn’t a matter for Hannah Arendt to give formulas ready for use, otherwise to know how to move into the breach of time between past and future « where the human being into the full reality of his practical being is living ». I was taking the first critical exercice proposed about « the modern rupture into the tradition and the concept of History ». I realized a graphic structure from the different literary, philosophical and historic references and her conception of « no space – no time » in the heart of time. I used these references like marks or beacons into a new space in order to visualize better her own experience of thought. At the same time to render her experience my own experience.

Thursday 19 November 2009, by Erika Réault

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) under the United States Homeland Security issued instructions for handling a range of potential terrorist attacks from suspicious letters and packages to nuclear blasts. These documents may be found online. Each day there is a color assigned to gauge the level of terrorist threat with red being the highest danger and orange one step down. Do these instructions create a false sense of safety in “being ready” like a good boy scout is “prepared” for events that are beyond the ability to imagine? Or do they create a state of continual vigilance and fear that makes it easier for the state to usurp individual rights? Perhaps it is a combination creating a perpetual Orange State of Mind. The project resonates with conceptual instruction pieces that seek to create an experience in the mind. But here the author is the state.

Wednesday 18 November 2009,
by Michele Foyer

Since 1906, the year of San Francisco’s worst earthquake to date, the Fillmore District (aka the Western Addition) has undergone numerous ethnic and socioeconomic transitions, perhaps more than any other neighborhood in San Francisco. Spared by the earthquake in the early 20th century, the Fillmore became an ethnically diverse area, though largely Jewish, and became the commercial center for the city. There was also a large population of Japanese and Japanese-Americans who, in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in internment camps under Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. With the nearly 5,000 people of Japanese ancestry displaced, their former homes were quickly filled by a second wave of black migrant workers seeking war-time employment opportunities in northern and western cities. As such, the neighborhood became a venerable “Harlem of the West” with a lively jazz scene as well as other hallmarks of southern black culture. Unfortunately the large influx of new black residents also generated fear and hostility among San Francisco’s largely European and Euro-American population, leading the city to embark upon an aggressive urban renewal campaign that has yet to come to an end. The entire Fillmore District—64 blocks—was earmarked for redevelopment; such projects as the Japan Trade Center and the Geary Street Boulevard divided the neighborhood along visible ethnic and economic lines. Upper-middle class whites reclaimed the area just north of the boulevard and ceded an eastern portion of it back to the Japanese when they were released from the internment camps. This area is now known as Pacific Heights (Pac Heights) and is considered one of the richest neighborhoods in San Francisco. In the wake of continued aggressive redvelopment, south of the boulevard—what remains of the Western Addition—is also being claimed by upwardly mobile whites who cannot afford to live in Pac Heights. The remaining black residents, largely in a low-income bracket, are being forced out of the area to make room for new highrise condominiums and expensive boutiques, restaurants and clubs. The area designated as Japantown has essentially been left untouched.

Over the course of the week, using appropriated and original texts as well as (re)enactments of proposed actions, I will conduct site-specific public interventions-as-experiments based upon the works of artists such as Jenny Holzer, Lawrence Weiner and Ed Ruscha. The driving questions for this project are: How can history be restored to public memory? In what ways can spaces with similar histories to that of the Fillmore stand as both contested sites and sites of contestation to the long-standing myths about advancements toward cultural liberalism and progressive politics in the post-Civil Rights era? What modes of art interventions are substantial and complex enough to initiate public discourse around these types of social issues?

Wednesday 18 November 2009,
by Crystal Am Nelson

My proposed project is a reinterpretation of Adrian Piper’s “calling cards.” Much of Adrian Piper’s work explores issues of identity. In this particular piece, Piper had cards printed to offer to individuals who made assumptions about her identity, specifically her race and gender. As a daily act of resistance, beginning the day of the exhibition, I will hand out simple, black business cards to individuals I pass on the street. The content of the card will challenge individuals to consider their participation in a patriarchal power structure with inherent inequalities. This small act of revolt will serve as documentation of an ongoing struggle for fair representation.

Tuesday 17 November 2009,
by Kim Silva

By using corporate methods and strategies, the project aims to explore the symbols, values and images used in the construction of national identities. The project will create a cultural hybrid, based on the artist backgrounds: Jevijoe Vitug (Philippines), Carlos Castro (Colombia) and Sara Eliassen, from Norway.
The nation will be located at the Diego Rivera Gallery. (Nov 16-21, 2009) Office hours: Monday to Thursday, 1pm - 5pm. Documentation of the process will be available and updated in the Swell Gallery Space, during the week,
Let´s go hybrid!

Monday 16 November 2009,
by Sara Eliassen

Proposal 1 after "the time that passes"

Based on one work of Untel and liking it with sand art (elaborated sculptures meant to vanish) In “and the time that passes” the performer writes on the sand a phrase that is erased by the sea over and over. Taking the same idea of the sand and sea as repetitive transformation, I want to create a ritual in which I write a phrase with personal significance, over and over with a ritualistic sense and create some sort of figure afterwards, which is then erased by the sea.
For documentation I could A) have some sand in the gallery B) make a video in which the viewer can only see the action but not the phrase that is written and perhaps not even the sculpture C) make photo documentation.

+++++++++++++
Proposal 2 after “revivie de presse” 1976

My other proposal is after another performance by Untel in which many people perform simultaneous reading of several French and English newspapers.
I want to adapt this to San Francisco having all the papers that are in public spaces that I can gather during this and next week, (sf weekley, job papers, local neighbourhood papers in Chinese Spanish English etc) Making a complilation of a week (or two) of information. A proposal is to cover the floor of the gallery with the papers, and have a table set up with papers to be read. would that might be a little to invasive with the rest of the works?
For the opening night we could have some simultaneous reading, if people is into it. “revive the press” can be a relevant title and angle in the light that printed publications are suffering economically due to the internet. Would papers stop existing in 20 years from now?

Friday 13 November 2009,
by Paulina Velasquez Solis

Over the week of the exhibition, I will produce a cumulative reinterpretation of Douglas Huebler’s Variable Piece #70, in which the artist tried to "photographically document the existence of everyone alive." In a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner, Huebler originally presented a series of square photographs of random people, with a list of descriptions that begins:

Represented below [in the photographs] is at least one person… …who thinks he is the cock of the walk …who will do anything for a laugh …who would sell his soul to the devil …who can’t win for losing

and so on, with around 80 descriptions. Huebler did not link any of the descriptions to any of the photos, since the photos represented an impossible work always in progress. Together, the photos and descriptions are a speculative gesture toward a type of documenting and archiving that would ironically become par for the course with the advent of Google. My piece will contrast the undefined, unfinished and speculative aspects of Variable Piece #70 in its own time with the thoroughness and scope of Google.

At the beginning of the week I will start with a poster in the gallery showing Huebler’s original presentation of Variable Piece #70, as well a large chart with one column for each description. During the week, I will work in the gallery with a printer and a laptop to search every phrase (in quotes) and find every person or thing on Google “who thinks he is the cock of the walk”, “who will do anything for a laugh,” etc., as well as that person or thing’s photograph. I will then post them in the appropriate column. Some examples I’ve already found on Google include:

George W. Bush I hope junior thinks he is the cock of the walk and king of talk http://www.democraticunderground.co...
A character named Lapidus from The Bloady Hoax Look at him, all danded up, dressed as his own funeral, and thinks he is the cock of the walk! http://books.google.com/books?id=4l...
“Bobby” And Bobby this guy cracks me up this time last year he was stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart and now he thinks he is the cock of the walk at malden. http://www.topix.com/forum/city/ber...
While some phrases may bring up manageable numbers of results, others will bring up thousands of search results, so that my effort (like Huebler’s) will necessarily be impossible to finish.

Tuesday 10 November 2009,
by Jenny Odell

I have been working on a collaborative project with artist, Jesse Kauppila. We have been working to formulate a response to the work of Lawrence Weiner. First, I selected a series of Weiner’s phrases. I sent the phrases to Jesse, who then came up with a schema and method by which to translate each of the selected phrases into objects to be displayed in the gallery as "objects of scientific experimentation." Together, we will create a series of "Laboratory Reports" that address the translation of the phrases into objects and the production of the objects. The Laboratory Reports will be formatted as a conventional Biology or Chemistry Lab Report would be, with the requisite sections such as "methods," "materials," "background information," "results," and "discussion." The Laboratory Reports will be published as documents that will enter the larger archive of, Laboratory Recordings Press, which is a project previously initiated by Jesse. "Laboratory Recordings Press" Ultimately functions as an archive of Laboratory Reports on artistic experimentation. We will provide a new series of reports (in document form) that will become archival documents within the greater Laboratory Recordings Press archive.

In the gallery, we will display the objects that we have created, along with the Lab Reports that we will write to accompany the objects. We will most likely make the Lab Reports available for the public to take home with them, although this part of the project has yet to be worked out.

Tuesday 10 November 2009,
by Christina Wiles

I propose a project based on a theme of newsletters or mail art. Starting in August of this year, my friend Thom Planert began mailing packets of 8.5 x 11 inch printed information to a small group of friends who now live in various cities in the United States. The newsletter is called THOMP and is mailed monthly. I volunteered to do a guest month, so I will produce the newsletter for December. In the content of my newsletter I would like to mail a collection of information about 1) documents of conceptual art and/or 2) everything I have learned in grad school.

For the gallery I would like to show the working copy of my newsletter as well as issues of months past. I am not sure the best way to display it. It could require a table and a binder or a box. It could hang on the wall in a grid. At home I keep my newsletters in a file folder. I have a small plastic organizer, perhaps a nice organizer like that could stand on the table.

As far as style for the contents of the newsletters, months past, written by Thom Planert and Jack Cusumano, have been playful, self-reflexive, and individualistic. I might make an intro letter where I write and draw cartoons in my own style or I might keep it minimal and limited to text. The project has many variables at this point.

Monday 9 November 2009,
by Daniel Yovino

I recreate my Angers’s project in this new context, San Francisco. I’ll place the ephemera’s copies in the branches library of the San Francisco Public Library. For all the ephemeras match a ddc’s wording (use by all the library in the world), personal choice. In the San Francisco Main Library, the DDC is revised to correspond to the building (floors,ect...). Same like in the Library, I revise the DDC to correspond to the city (San Francisco), and precisely to my spirale. The spiral correspond to the library branches and to the geographical distance at the main library. My interpretation of the DDC use the Prelinger Library’s classification system, ordering without the DDC, but with an appropriation-friendly system. This Library start the classification with their definition of the concret to finish by the abstract.

Monday 9 November 2009,
by Alexandra Roger

1. explore a few of Lawrence Weiner’s work through material, performance and sonic manifestations in the gallery space. the followings are the ones that I am interested in (I think of them all being as part of one piece): Corners Filled with what is swept into corners act in the gallery space as everyday task. Repetitive act of cleaning the floor, morning and nigh to start the day with and finish the day. Salt + Sugar In a Lump in a Corner of the earth 2 Block of Salt in the Morning Mist Interpretation of it as physical object Cold water to Shatter the Hot Rocks/ Hot water to Shatter the Cold Rocks Sound piece I will bring materials like broken asphalt, burned objects, salt, sugar, etc to the gallery space in order to create an environment. 2. in conjunction, I would like to create a set of mail arts. The mail will be a simple black and white photo of a burned house on the front— It will be the same image for all the post cards. On the back of each one there is different writing about home and living space which are unique meaning that there will be one single writing for each card printed. The quality of the postcard, the paper and proper printing of the image is an important part of the piece. Writings are more like poem rather than statement. Also I am thinking of asking people who are coming to the exhibition space to write what home means to them. Compiling a selection of these writings to use for postcards as well. The postcards get published and get sent out to different places in different cities. Who to sent it to is something I need to think about. The 3rd component of this piece will be an ongoing process of sending mails out to specific people in different countries asking them to write what home means to them and periodically printing new set of postcards. There might be another element like a web-log component to creating different life or history for them. etc.

Wednesday 4 November 2009,
by Rashin Fahandej

This piece will engage a sensory dyad: 1. The visual recognition of an act of photography which then stimulates… 2. The vocalization of a recorded bird call.
Ideas!- Douglas Huebler One sense stimulating another The mis-recognition involved in this set of call and responses Expectation Capture: the bird versus the image Louise Lawler Replication
Exhibition Display: This is yet undecided. It may take the form of a written description. It may be a CD of the bird calls used in a random, unrelated order, signifying the randomness of plucked vacation images and photographic material’s ability to exist out of context and yet whole.

Wednesday 4 November 2009,
by Cathy Fairbanks

As a means to focus on availability, the artist will stay in the gallery from Sunday night to Friday afternoon. She will merely be available.
Ideas!- Vito Acconci Slumber party over-sharing 2 am critiques one on one Absence of hurrying as there is nowhere else to be Site Occupation Gallery Roost The foreignness of hygiene in non-home spaces
Exhibition Display: This will unfold as the artist lives in this space. Sleeping bag, clothing, food, phone calls, homework, studio work on site, computer. The contents of her needs will be on display on a set of handmade shelves and bunk bed.

Wednesday 4 November 2009,
by Cathy Fairbanks

From November 17 to November 25, 2009, I will be available to speak out art pieces and texts out of my memory to you. In this way, I am currently learning by heart the following pieces : #1. How to make a happening, Allan Kaprow (Side One) #2. How to improve the world, John Cage (Part 3), 1967 #3. How to run for President, Eileen Myles 1995 #4. Language is not transparent, Mel Bochner #5. All the things that I know of, but am not thinking of at the moment, Robert Barry, 1969 #6. Those who do not remember the past are condamned to repeat it. Georges Santayana/Jim Jones #7. Truism, « Fear is the most elegant weapon … », Jenny Holtzer #8. « Sur la polyvalence tactique des discours », Michel Foucault (to be translated) You will probably receive an altered version of the written texts, in so far as my memory might fail or transform the content or the form of those pieces. This altered space standing in between the original texts and the memorized ones is to me the space where the pieces happen. The chosen texts are from various sources, inspired by the Cneai= Museum collection of ephemeras in Chatou, France. The content of the texts, the process of learning/failing/forgetting, and the use of language as performative are all part of the pieces. You will receive more information about where/when to find me during the week of the Living Archives exhibition, in order to hear them. You may ask for any of the above, as you like. The above list is not defined yet and is subject to change.

Tuesday 3 November 2009,
by Clémence de Montgolfier

I would like to ask you what archive you like, hit you; take a picture, in this new context for the project or the idea (represented by the archive),betwen your hands; create a poster with this picture, to put in the street... And with this action recreate the moment where you offer/share something you like. And propose this gift at everybody on the street.

Wednesday 28 October 2009,
by Alexandra Roger