Taylor Hokanson, Sledgehammer Keyboard
Alexander Stewart and Peter Miller, On the Logic of Dubious Historical Accounts, 1969-1972
Rob Ray, Anti Nigga Machine
Saturday September 15 - Saturday September 29
Check out the flyer!
Thanks Time Out for the review! (5 out of 6 stars!)
High Impact featured three projects focused on the moment of impact. Complimentary pairs establish the potential for collision in all three pieces: hammer and keyboard, beer can and wall, camera and lunar surface. The objects are hurled toward their targets, locked for a brief moment in an irresistible attraction, anticipating the rapidly-approaching instant of realization. The impact itself is a moment of extreme violence, a fulfillment of possible disasters, and a split-second of pleasure. The three installations in High Impact invite you to enjoy the moment of collision.
Sledgehammer Keyboard
Taylor Hokanson
2006-ongoing
wood, silicone rubber, hacked USB keyboard
3’ x 6’ x 2’
This massive keyboard functions just like its common counterpart, but each cast silicone key requires a great deal of force to activate.
The history of language can be mapped by the development of paired technologies. Each of these benchmarks made the writing process easier (at least in terms of procedure). But perhaps something is lost when an intellectual endeavor becomes too facile. If we put less physical effort into writing, is there also a corresponding shift in mental effort?
On the Logic of Dubious Historical Accounts, 1969-1972
Alexander Stewart & Peter Miller
2007
16mm transferred to HD
video clip
A short film showing Hasselblad cameras falling through space and hitting the surface of the moon. This piece lies somewhere at the intersection of forged documentation, camera fetishism, and the logic of dubious historical accounts.
On each of the Apollo moon missions, NASA astronauts brought along Hasselblad 500 cameras to take pictures. These cameras and their Zeiss lenses were for many years the gold standard for fashion photographers, and embody optical and mechanical perfection. Though expensive and highly prized, the cameras brought by NASA to the moon were left behind by the astronauts in order to cut down on weight for the return trip to earth. Supposedly, twelve Hasselblad 500 cameras remain on the moon.
Stanley Kubrick, who directed a scene set on the moon in 1968's 2001, is thought to have also directed the Neil Armstrong moon landing in 1969 in exchange for a special Zeiss lens from NASA, which he then supposedly used to shoot Barry Lyndon. Since Kubrick's film documents the astronauts and the lunar lander, our film is only concerned with creating documentation for the Hasselblad cameras on the moon. This film recreates the descent of the Hasselblad cameras from the hand of the astronaut to the surface of the moon, falling in 1/6th gravity of the Earth.
Anti Nigga Machine
Rob Ray
2002 - 2007
dvd projection, custom chromed baseball pitching machine, Colt 45 pistol, Colt 45 malt liqour, myspace photos, interactive electronics
the video clip (15mb quicktime)
NOTE: be sure to watch until the 2:18 mark.
Anti Nigga Machine is an interactive installation designed to coax the art viewer into firing full Colt 45 malt liquor cans at heads of "thugged out" white, hispanic and african american teenage kids. In doing so, the viewer inadvertently points the weapon at their own head instead.
The piece projects photos of "thugged out" kids on the wall while blasting hip hop samples of Brotha Lynch Hung, Tupac, NWA, and Ice Cube. The pitching machine with custom-built auto-loader allows gallery visitors to fire full Colt 45 cans at 75mph at a target mounted on the wall. What the viewer doesn't know is that when the trigger is pulled, the projection changes to a live video feed of of the viewer, resulting in the 75 mph. malt liquor can always impacting and exploding onto the image of the viewer.
Anti Nigga Machine title is a tribute to the Public Enemy song of the same name.
