JUly 21 & 22, 7PM @ DELHI, NY
SURFING THE APOCALYPSE KARAOKE!
LINK TO UAW PROJECT PAGE
LOCATION: 129 Michael’s Path, Delhi, NY 13753
LINK TO PROMO VIDEO
LINK TO EVENT FLYER
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND
JULY 21 & 22, 7PM
WE DO: Surfing the Apocalypse Karaoke!
Delhi, NY (Western Catskills)
A 5 channel immersive video environment with communal singing
Come Sing with Us!
Rehearsals begin early July.
Contact emily@studioicai.org
for more info.
JUNE 7 & 8 INAUGURAL EVENT IN DELHI
HONORING THE WORKS OF MICHAEL HENRY WILSON
A LIFE IN FILM
In June of 2014, Michael Henry Wilson took his final breath. His film works and writing convey not only a love of film, but were the many ways of Michael's loving the world. We are so thankful for those that joined us upstate, for our inaugural event in welcoming Michael's widow, Carole Wilson, artist, filmmaker and activist, in presenting three of his works, a life in film.
John Halpern and Carole Wilson, introducing the personal portrait film about Clint Eastwood “A Life in Film”. Catskill Momo’s, Delhi, NY
Wed. June 7, 7pm * Clint Eastwood Catskill Momos
191 Main St., Delhi, NY
Thurs. June 8, 7pm * Reconciliation/in search of kundun
Inaugural Event with Carole Wilson on the films of Michael Henry Wilson at DELHI KUNSTHALLE aka. Grateful Beast Barn, June, 2023
The Tuning Fork
EPISODE 40
WATCH OUR RECENT BROADCAST
WITH TENZIN CHOEGYAL
The show was broadcast on May 22, 8pm ET with Zoom and LIVEstreamed to youtube and facebook. We were honored to learn more about our friend Tenzin la. From stories about his mom and pop, vibrant childhood, nomadic roots, escape from occupied Tibet, his efforts for renewed awareness for Tibet, the current atrocities there, and his powerful music, its genesis, composition process, and experience of collective attention and sharing.
“If I can paint my music, I would paint it like a drifting cloud where the drifting clouds would not be bothered by any of the human created geographical boundaries. Occasionally the drifting clouds would bring about storm, sometimes amazing rain and occasionally bring about beautiful rainbows. They drift from one end to the other end. That’s how I express musically”
”The boundaries that are created by the human greed ~ It departs that in the world of sound.”
LINKS TO SUPPORT THE EFFORT TO FREE TIBET
Tibet Action Institute, International Campaign for Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, Australia Tibet Council
QR ACTIVATIONS: HOW TO
If you’re curious about our public works, QR ACTIVATION PROJECT, or what people see when they connect with the QR code on our smart phones, please watch this video by filmmaker/artist John Halpern. The video incorporates multi-tiered aspects: contemporary news reels, QR logos/codes, community creation, recent public interactions, and local/global creative solutions that often go under the radar in our awareness of the climate crisis. Let’s empower each other, strengthen the collective, and discover the future together.
2023
OCULUS &
WALL STREET
QR ACTIVATION REHEARSAL
Nov. 1, 2022
Margret Wibmer and Emily Harris scout locations in the Oculus and rehearse for Wednesday’s performance intervention.
Video: John Halpern.
As we cautiously enter in-person (Post-Covid-lockdown) we recognize the power of in-person contact and live events. Scheduling for our Tuning Fork episodes have switched to 1 x/month and we began designing and implementing public interactive interventions by invitation, by demand, and independently. Join us tomorrow, Wed. Nov. 2nd.
If you would like to participate or contribute to the development of a future QR ACTIVATION, Send an email to: instituteforculturalactivism@gmail.com
2 new announcements:
Margret wibmer & icai mountain hq
Oct. 2022
Margret Wibmer and Emily Harris stand in front of ICAI Headquarters. Delhi, NY. Margret Wibmer, Austrian multi-media artist based in Amsterdam named a new board member.
President of jury, capri movie international FILM festival
Oct. 2022
Ilaria Cotarella, cultural journalist, and John Halpern, President of the Capri Movie Festival
aria di capri, qr activation: villa lysis
Sept. 1 - Nov. 1, 2022
Aria di Capri, A walking intervention through Capri’s history, cultural roots, and nature. The public are invited to slow down, activate a QR Portal and contemplate our collective potential for change. Capri:Paesaggi (1922-2022). Artist/Performers: John Halpern, Emily Harris, Margret Wibmer; Invitation and support from Polis 3.0; Support from Federal Ministry Republic of Austria.
John Halpern, on the steps of the Villa Lysis, describes with students from Axel Munthe. Photo: Daria
qr activation: GOTTENBERG, SWEDEN
Sept. 15-17, 2022
John Halpern introducing passersby to LIVE ACTION 17 QR CODE FILM. Photo:
Film edited with assistance from Ailin Zhao.
spontaniamente: mass media sculpture
Sept. 21, 2022
EXCERPT FROM MASS MEDIA SOCIAL SCULPTURE ZOOM
Lorenzo Romito [referring to the QR ACTIVATIONS]: “We see how this brings it to real time, to real time everywhere. So, this interference between reality and social mass media.. What I found interesting is the way you get the attention by slowing down yourself in an action that makes sense - takes a distance with reality by the slow motion and the possibility that people could access what you’re doing in real time wherever they are in the world. This is part of your social media sculpture that takes place on two layers as was the bridge, being in the newspaper and being physical on the bridge.'“
John Halpern: “Very physical, yeah.”
Zoom: Spontaniamente
Host: Stalker/NoWorking, Lorenzo Romito & Giulia Fioca
Location: Rome, Italy and International fb live
Invite: John Halpern and Emily Harris, ICAI; Guest Margret Wibmer
Topic: MASS MEDIA SCULPTURE
On Sept. 21st, we were invited to present recent “Mass Media Sculptures” and John continued to present his earlier works: “Bridging”, “Fresh Air”, “Smoke Sculpture”, “New Consume”, “A.L.P.S. Project.” For zoom video
John was recognized by Joseph Beuys for his mass media sculpture “Bridging” 1977.
Pictured: Top-bottom: Giulia Fioca, Lorenzo Romito, John Halpern, Emily Harris, Margret Wibmer
WE DO: SURFING THE APOCALYPSE
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 8:30PM
MULTI-MEDIA ENVIRONMENT AND SINGING RITUAL.
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND
ROSEKILL ART FARM
155 BINEWATER RD., KINGSTON, NY WWW.ROSEKILL.COM
ARIA DI CAPRI / FRESH AIR
A QR Activation Event occurring on Capri Island, Italy, in the Mediterranean Ocean, Summer 2022. This is a nomadic event, traveling from country to country. A community of specially costumed performance artists walk slowly in procession through the town, displaying a logo comprised of a QR CODE and a Lemon insignia. The public engage by snapping photos and activating the QR Logo MediaStream.
By activating the QR Stream the public become part of an expanding virtual network. They are exposed to a curated video film of evocative scenes alternating between the harsh, apocalyptic realities of today and cultural activist, utopian art performances and worldwide, socio-ecologic generative projects.
The Slow-Nature aspect of the public performance implies another speed or time/space reality within which we can deliberately care for every step, care for every breath and collectively care for the interconnection with each other and all things.
The audience/social engagement element of the activity references both the virtual algorithmic and ecologic impact any community can intentionally have and the longterm consequences of living un/consciously as “consumers.” In other words, “Consumers are the Producers of the Future.”
Capri Island has historically occupied the role of a refuge for creatives, cultural and political shape-shifters and visionaries (Edwin Cerio, Axel Munthe, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach; sites: Villa Fersen/Villa Lysis, commissioned by Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, a French baron, as an escape for he and his lover. It was a gathering place for artists, intellectuals, poets and writers. Villa Orlandi, a retreat for artists: Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Jannis Kounellis, Cy Twombly, and others.
The action is created by the collaborative, Institute for Cultural Activism International, a US non-profit.
Clips of international artists' works included: Gwen Charles, John Halpern, Emily Harris, Laetitia Hohenberg, Margret Wibmer, Zosia Zoltkowski.
A Feature Film was created for the site-specific installation at Villa Lysis, Capri, Italy, September, 2022
ARIA DI CAPRI: QR ACTIVATION
& QR Code Film
emily Harris
niad visiting artist
I had the joy of presenting my work to the NIAD Artist Community and loved the candid meetings, conversing with this talented group. I curated an online exhibition of their work from the online gallery in an online exhibition titled Eternal Idol. Learn more about NIAD Art Center here, a progressive art studio for adult artists with developmental disabilities.
Eternal Idol
organized by Emily Harris
Eternal Idol, Rodin’s famous sculpture, was hewn in marble, plaster, and bronze. His repetition of form, motif, and emotion creates a complex awareness of this bundle of human desire, submission and adoration. To repeat renders the form repeatable. The red paint on the image painted by Guadalupe Soto adds a filter to the couple. The works selected for the online exhibition Eternal Idol together speak about everyday eternity, observing and repeating and tenderly attending to what we desire, submit to and adore.
utopia distopia: the myth of progress seen from the south, museo madre, naples, Italy
John DiLeva Halpern, BREATHSCULPTURE (Fresh Air Capsules) 1990
7 metal capsules (edition of 30)
Courtesy of Institute for Cultural Activism International
Currently on view in Utopia Distopia: il mito del progresso partendo dal Sud, (Utopia Distopia: The Myth of Progress Seen From the South) museo Madre, Naples, Italy, July 08 - November 08, 2021
Investigates contemporary practices responding to the massive social changes of the last half century. The exhibition proposes an analysis of the utopian promises and dystopian realities of modernity with particular attention to southern Italy and the failure of violent logics underpinning economic progress.
madrenapoli.it
contemplative outerwear cap performance
Contemplative Outerwear Cap #4 and Gordon Skinner in Beckett’s “Ohio Impromptu” (6:42). Project by Emily M. Harris, 2019-2021; www.emilymharris.com
This video features a brilliant rendering of Beckett’s “Ohio Impromptu” by Gordon Skinner, actor, mediator, filmmaker & educator www.re-framemedia.com/
Creative Dharma #11, August, 2021
“Cultural Activism and the Creative Process,” Interview with Emily Harris and John Halpern by Ronn Smith, Link to Article
Still from video proposal for Innsbruck, Austria: WE DO: SURFING THE APOCALYPSE / concept for world tour with local and remote performers, moving images from critical global & regional disasters, collaborative – community participatory events. Artists: I.C.A.I. Harris-Halpern.
Link to Article
Meet you in the streets on October 3rd, 2020. More info here
MEDITATION PAUSE FOR THE MARTYR – GEORGE FLOYD by MDS FILMS / John Halpern -4 min. (seen by 3.7k on fb)
George Floyd was murdered on Monday, May 25. He died calling for his "Mama" and begging to breathe. He was suffocated, deliberately killed and expired after 9 minutes, under the knee of a Minneapolis policeman.
George Floyd's murder site feels like a sacred ground to me.
Having witnessed countless victims of political struggle in Northern India, Kashmir and having seen the gravesites of young women and men that fought for their freedom and sovereignty there, I recognize a place that has become a global focal point for the "race" issue and a fulcrum for social justice and transformation; a place where local, underprivileged and privileged people come to mourn and commune as civil arbiters. I see a hallowed place where peaceful demonstration is leading dialogue, as sacred.
I see George Floyd, a Martyr – not so much for his actions and his conditions while alive - but for the consequences following of his death – the death of a victim of inequitable social/economic conditions, prejudice, racism and persecution.