Meta Data

Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts (QCCA) Presents:
META/DATA: Art, Technology and (Queer) Identity

Presentations and panel discussion with artists: E.G. Crichton, Rudy Lemcke, Nomi Talisman.
Introductions: Tina Takemoto (CCA) and Alla Efimova (Judah L. Magnes Museum).
Panel moderator: Tirza True Latimer (CCA)

CCA – Timken Hall
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
7-9 pm
California College of the Arts

Metadata is a term used primarily in the field of digital information management and refers to the structure of an organization’s use of information. Metadata reveals (and conceals) the ways in which institutions make knowledge available to the public. Three Bay Area artists will discuss their recent projects at the intersection of institutional politics of information and the construction of queer identity. E.G. Crichton, Rudy Lemcke and Nomi Talisman have worked with a variety of institutional archives and historical materials to open unexplored, left behind, invisible knowledge. Digital technology, like queer identity, is opened and queried in their work.

Co-sponsored by The Graduate Program in Visual & Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts, The Judah L. Magnes Museum, Queer Conversations in Culture and the Arts, and The Queer Cultural Center.

Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts brings together locally and nationally renowned artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars for a series of conversations to discuss a broad range of LGBTQI topics in the humanities, architecture, design, and the arts. QCCA is an on-going collaboration between the Queer Cultural Center and California College of the Arts.

What’s Left Behind. E.G. Crichton
E.G. Crichton will discuss two current projects based on archives. LINEAGE: Matchmaking in the Archive, a project developed as Artist-in-Residence for the GLBT Historical Society, focuses on the collections of individuals who have died. E.G. is matching specific archives to living people who agree to develop a creative response. For Archive of What’s Left Behind E.G. is exploring aspects of process and failure in the work of several scientists and artists, collecting stories and materials to construct a visual archive.

E.G. Crichton uses a range of art strategies to explore social issues, history, and site-specific subject matter. She often works within community settings and collaborates across disciplines with performers, writers, scientists and composers, to name a few. Her work has been exhibited in art institutions and as public installations in Europe, Japan, Australia and across the U.S. She is an Associate Professor of Art at UCSC and the first Artist-in-Residence for the GLBT Historical Society.

Invisible Archives. Rudy Lemcke
Rudy Lemcke will discuss his Souvenir project–a retrospective look at his on and off line art of the past 30 years. Lemcke will also preview his current San Francisco Arts Commission project, The Search for Life in Distant Galaxies, which maps the early days of the “Gay” movement in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district during the late 1960s.

In past work, Lemcke has experimented with conceptual music and performance scores that he sees as a precursor to his work in programming environments and multi-media. He continues to work on time-based projects that explore social and political systems—both in the physical space of public art and in the virtual space of the Internet. His paintings, sculptures and video work have been exhibited internationally. He taught Web Design and Motion Design at San Francisco State Multi-Media Studies Program and is currently the director of on-line programs for the Queer Cultural Center.

Meta/Data. Nomi Talisman
Nomi Talisman will discuss her Meta/Data project, an on-line project commissioned by the Judah L. Magnes Museum. In the words of the artist, “I have the privilege of wandering at liberty through the collection, amassing ideas. I am searching out elements, cultural artifacts, and also reflecting upon a collection, assembling new stories and joining elements never before associated. I am making connections and layering information, while experimenting, playing, and thinking about our collective pasts and present. This is an artwork of discovery, experimentation and play that invites the viewer into the game of associations.” The Meta/Data project was made possible through a grant from the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation along with matching support from Magnes members.

Nomi Talisman works with photography, video, and digital media, as well as exploring collaborations inside and outside the gallery. Her work explores public reflections of the private, and personal relationships to the political. She explores political, psychological, fictionalized and mythologized relationships to definitions of “the real”, both in her collaborative and individual projects.

Originally from Israel, Nomi Talisman moved to the Bay Area in 2001, where she lives and works. Her work was exhibited and screened in Israel, the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. Most recently, she was awarded a Creative Work Fund grant to produce an animated documentary describing stories of family members of people on death row.

ABOUT THE SPONSORS

Queer Conversations in Culture and the Arts
Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts brings together locally
and nationally renowned artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars for
a series of conversations to discuss a broad range of LGBTQI topics in
the humanities and the arts.

The Graduate Program in Visual & Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts
Today’s intricate and immense visual arena demands new forms of analysis and understanding. It calls for cultural critics who can write eloquently for diverse audiences in a multiplicity of forms and venues.

In examining the seminal role of images, artifacts, and visual experiences in contemporary society, the MA Program in Visual & Critical Studies emphasizes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study, historical grounding, social and political analysis, and the artistic aspects of written communication. Our program offers a rigorous but supportive environment in which to explore and develop three crucial, interrelated skills: attentive viewing, analytical perspective, and creative and critical writing.

Through our various forums and lectures students encounter writers, critics, scholars, artists, curators, and designers from around the world who explore our complex visual landscape. Our distinguished faculty comes from various disciplines across the college, including fine arts, art history, architecture, architectural history, design, design history, and critical studies.

The Judah L. Magnes Museum
The Magnes is a museum of art and history focused on the Jewish experience. The Museum demonstrates a commitment to both tradition and experimentation through a wide-ranging collection, original exhibitions, provocative programs, and research facilities, including the largest history center relating to the Jews in the American West.

The Magnes is a place of discovery for Jews and the community at large, and contributes to international scholarship and culture.

The Queer Cultural Center
Founded in 1993, Qcc is a multiracial community-building organization that fosters the artistic, economic and cultural development of San Francisco’s LGBT community. QCC implement its mission by operating programs that commission and present Queer artists, that promote the development of culturally diverse Queer arts organizations and that document significant Queer arts events taking place in San Francisco.

By presenting, exhibiting, screening and documenting queer artists’ work, Qcc contributes to the development of a multicultural perspective on the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender experience.

(l-r) Tirza True Latimer (moderator), Rudy Lemcke, Nomi Talisman, E.G. Crichton	Rudy Lemcke, Tomi Talisman, E.G. Crichton on Stage, Timken Haall
Nomi Talisman	Nomi Talisman
Rudy Lemcke	Rudy Lemcke
E.G. Crichton	E.G. Crichton