An exhibiton of web-based works by:
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan!
Kristin Lucas!
Stephanie Rothenberg!
Brooke Singer!
Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga!~curated by Jillian Mcdonald
Manifestos! Revolutions!
"Revolutions are always verbose", said Leon Trotsky.
The revolutions and manifestos found here are rife with language, overflowing with meaning whether social, personal, technological, environmental, or political. These calls for action and declarations of change aren't necessarily forceful or loud but public and inclusive; life-changing and performative. Though existing as online artworks they all include live offline events, documented herein.
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are known for their humour-infused performances probing ordinary life and extraordinary history through language and humour; characters such as The Lesbian Rangers and Superfeminist smash stereotypes and incite poetic revolution where "stupidity is no longer an option". Kristin Lucas interrogates technologies from the ATM to computer viruses as they encroach on her identity, playing the role of a self caught awed by the transmutation expected in an unstoppable digital revolution. Stephanie Rothenberg as cultural anthropologist fuses old and new media in a pseudo-scientific investigation of human relations to specific digital technologies, for example attempting to protect tourists from digital radiation through "divine data-mining". Brooke Singer's recent projects take broad social issues like environmental clean-up to the web as public art, inciting further engagement. Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga's web and performance works point out the heavy economic and social barriers that immigrants face, urging pedestrians and online visitors to demand (at least theoretical) change by voice or ballot.
Jillian Mcdonald jillianmcdonald.net is a Canadian artist transplanted in Brooklyn. Her current work in media and performance art deals with a sort of Undead Manifesto sparked by the rise of vampire and zombie archetypes in popular culture. Mcdonald teaches at Pace University where she curates and co-directs the Pace Digital Gallery.
