The Gateway Project
London to San Francisco: Phase One

5 Exhibitions:
DNA.CORN | The Sound of Naked Men | CAT | WEBOPTICON | Living Together

Friday, March 23^rd -Saturday April 7^th
Gallery Hours:
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 1-6 PM
Opening Reception:
Friday, March 23^rd, 6-9 PM

DNA.CORN utilizes the sound and image of popcorn as an anthropological and biological micro-system. A darkly lit ambient space with tabletop dioramas is used to produce an emotionally arresting and starkly contrasting landscape. The hybrid poetics of a thousand cardboard butterflies inhabit the space in immobile opposition to the violently stochastic sounds of popping corn.

DNA.CORN   is the continuation of an ongoing series of installation works, begun in 1998 by Kathleen Rogers under the collective title, The Imagination of Matter, that focus on DNA information in ancient Maize. In DNA.CORN the mythic origins of Maize and the microscopic abstractions of archaeo-molecular genetics are re-configured in popping corn in a series of surreal hybrids.  DNA.CORN is a furnace of infinite randomness based on POPCORN and DNA made in collaboration with composer and digital alchemist Carl Stone. This work was conceived with the valuable support of a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in collaboration with The LAB. Initial research work was commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation for NOISE at Kettles Yard Gallery UK.

Visit Kathleen Rogers' site at: www.kathleenrogers.co.uk
Also visit the Headlands Center for the Arts

April 12^th & 13^th, 12 PM -12:45 PM
The Stone Stage at Yerba Buena Gardens
710 Mission between 3rd and 4th St.

(subject to rain cancellation)
call 415- 543-1718 to confirm

Presented by Yerba Buena Arts & Events and New Genre Works in collaboration with The LAB.

Experimental musician and composer: MIYA MASAOKA taps the eternal sounds of the human body to create a 45 minute music /sound performance piece. With the help of sophisticated medical equipment--heart monitor and EEG brain analyzers, the sound of blood through the veins and brain activity reveal a hidden "orchestra" within each individual of the human race. The original music score is derived from the actual brain waves and performed by string quartet. The Sound of Naked Men is conceived by composer/kotoist Miya Masaoka. Collaborators include Thomas Day, Robert Kauker, and Saiman Li.

April 17^th-27^th
Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 1-6 PM

Artist's talks will be held just prior to and after the event at 7 PM, on Tuesday, April 17 & Friday, April 27

Ansuman Biswas
Miya Masaoka
Tuesday, May 1 at 8 PM
$5-$10 sliding scale admission

As part of The Gateway Project, join London performance artist Ansuman Biswas and San Francisco composer/performer Miya Masaoka at The LAB for a work-in-progress evening of live performance/installation featuring sound, music and video.

CAT is a performance/sculpture that has arisen out of a twin study of twentieth century physics and ancient Indian philosophy. The work is specifically the confluence of two images: from quantum mechanics the image of Schroedinger's cat and, from Yogic practice, the image of the hermit in a cell. The piece will last for ten days during which time Ansuman Biswas (London) will remain sealed within a soundproof and lightproof box containing only drinking water. There will be a reception for the artist, with an opportunity for questions and answers, as Biswas initiates and concludes the piece.

Read the Artists statement.

THE GLOBAL WARMAQUINA: The Internet and Its Discontents

Thursday, March 15, 2001 8PM

A performalogue that brings to light the unpopular view that the Internet and Information Technologies are the advancing armies of global capitalism in a war to promulgate an American-dominated global monoculture.  In performance and anti-panel discussion, Los Cybrids will engage issues of the economic and environmental impact of IT as well as the corporate myth of the so-called "Digital Divide."

Saturday, April 28^th, 8 PM
$5-$10 sliding scale admission

Presented by The LAB in collaboration with GalerÌa de la Raza.

This visuo-aural offline dialogo morphs issues of internet dataveillance, surveillance and panoptic visions to expose the emerging Global Information Infrastructure threatening to hijack our identities for state, corporate and military abuses. Do you need to be connected to be affected? Join us to explore the cosmological shift into the networked architecture of control extended by Information Technologies as we talk with experts in the field and performatively, visually and aurally riff through the barrio convergence of the actual Webopticon.

And in July:
HUMAQUINA: Manifest Tech-Destiny
Friday, July 20, 200,  8PM

Also visit: http://www.cybrids.com

Friday, April 6^th-Saturday April 21^st

(Call the Living Together Hotline for details) 415-626-4333

>(NAO) laura, hayley, i'm all for the dates - i'll be in town... where exactly is this alleged >flat? is there a phone there that we can use as the performance hotline?
>(HAYLEY) i think laura is looking into that.
>(NAO) can we invite people to the flat? is there a bed big enough for the two of us?
>(HAYLEY) laura says there are 2 small rooms, and that the lab could sort out bedding
for me... could we do a cab journey from yours to the lab with bedding stuff for you nao? or could we share the same bed? perhaps we should put that into the rules of the collaboration..
>(NAO) does hayley snore?
>(HAYLEY) yes…oops sorry...

Working on an open-ended collaborative project, Nao Bustamante and Hayley Newman will present a series of private and public performance interventions. The starting point for this collaboration is a single clothing ensemble to be shared by the two artists and worn in turn over the period of a week. From an apartment in the Mission, while living and working together for a two-week period, the artists will use their in-flat telephone information service to announce each day's performance schedule.

The LAB launches The Gateway Project, designed to facilitate international dialogue and collaboration between artists, cultural and scientific researchers, and new audiences in view of a rapidly changing global consciousness.  London to San Francisco: Phase One, entails an open-ended and process-based exchange and presentation of collaborative work by artists residing in San Francisco and London and working at the conceptual frontier of the new millennial culture. London and San Francisco are "gateway cities' with an extensive history of cultural interactivity. Both cities are located at crucial crossroads between continents, and as such they share a complex and extraordinarily diverse cultural make-up and artistic heritage. The featured artists explore issues pertaining to current DNA research, wireless culture, and the quintessential nature of human experience within the context of cyberspace, as well as incorporating concepts and practical research techniques stemming from quantum mechanics, medical science and cultural anthropology. Addressing matters of universal interest, the artists often utilize new technologies in producing their work, while retaining an artistic method of inquiry that is ultimately organic. I t is our hope that The Gateway Project: London to San Francisco: Phase One , will inspire a provocative dialogue about the future of art and global culture.

Now in its initial stages, The Gateway Project will soon feature several additional projects involving San Francisco and London-based artists in collaboration and dialogue. Stay tuned for continuing programs hosted by The LAB and collaborating agencies, including an upcoming exhibition at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery in May. Look for new work by participating artists, including Ansuman Biswas (London) in collaboration with Miya Masaoka (San Francisco), Paul DeMarinis (San Francisco) and Anne Bean (London), Moti Roti (London), and others, upcoming this summer.

Laura Brun, Curator

The London Project is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The British Council, and the San Francisco Grants for the Arts Hotel Tax Fund. Additional support for the project has been provided by The Live Arts Development Agency and Rob LaFrenenais, curator, Arts Catalyst (London), Mrs. Ralph I. Dorfman, Alan Millar, Michael Naimark, Steve Sekiguchi, and The Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California.