Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Call for Artists/Musicians/Bands: Noise Jam


Call for Artists - Northside Open Studios (June 16-19, 2011)
The Ugly Art Room Presents: Noise Jam

Deadline for submission: June 1, 2011

As part of NOS, The Ugly Art Room Presents: Noise Jam
       “You had to be there.” This phrase is losing it’s meaning in a world under the watchful eye of a billion cell phones because everyone is visually everywhere at all times. Does the worldwide matrix really represent a shared experience?
     Maybe it doesn’t have to. In his film Rock My Religion Dan Graham argues that the rock show represents an American custom of unified movement that dates back to shaker rituals. The fact that he documents this argument is doubly appropriate. The throb of the crowd goes beyond the stage. Watch any 80’s metal video and witness a gush of backstage sentiment. Walk out to the Heavy Metal Parking Lot and the kids are still talking about what’s on the other side of the fence. The experience is dually “cool” and emotive.
     Something has been lost in the interconnective stream that put an end to vinyl and celluloid. The rise of the virtual makes a phantom pain of what was once a truly tangible experience. Does the making of a film like The Social Network do anything more than shine a light on concrete coolness becoming a thing of the past under the conspiracies of autistic nerds? How uncool is that? Cool after all wouldn’t be what it is without a little exclusivity.
      Image noise is a result of low quality photo capture. With Noise Jam, Ugly Art Room invites rock bands to contribute cell phone shots of performances, backstage, and road shots that are then printed and displayed at a new venue. The semi-fi quality of the omnipresent cell pic will be re-physicalized in a return of paper on the semi-fi quality of the standard digital print and then returned to the real world in a situation honoring the tradition of a billion rock show stickers.
     Today’s digital free flow of information has created a kind on inverted Big Brother that dissipates the tension of material involvement. The images, prints, and placement of the work in Digital Noise  – with their “you had to be there” taunt – seek to re-energize this involvement, not so much inclusively, but competitively, in a situation that yells TOP THIS!

Opening Reception: 10pm, Thursday June 16, 2011
Location: The Gutter, 200 North 14th St, Brooklyn
Submission Requirements: Email cell phone photos to
uglyartroom@gmail.com or text to (718) 791-7607.
The subject of your text or email: “UAR – NOISE JAM – (name of band)” Musicians will be invited to install their own photos at a private pre-party installation reception.

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