Caleb Larsen: Blog

Donor Plaque is done.

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:24:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who donated to the project. I am making the plaque this week and will be posting pics soon. I am very grateful to everyone who contributed. Thank You!

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:49:00 +0000

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter (2009) is a sculpture that perptually places itself for sale on eBay.com. I have mentioned it a couple of times on blog and the lovely Jen Graves of the Seattle Stranger has made a post about it. Well it is currently in an exhibtion at the Sol Koffler gallery at the Rhode Island School of Design.
You can see the current eBay Auction here: http://atooltodeceiveandslaughter.caleblarsen.com

1977 Mopeds

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Right now I am up to by eyeballs in writing my thesis, preparing work for my thesis exhibition in May, applying for jobs and residencies (I am attending the CAA conference this week), I just finished teaching a class at RISD, doing a bit of contract work on the side.

The class I was teaching called, "Table Fights", was in the Furniture department at RISD. I taught with two fine folks, Anne Evelyn and Shaun Bullens. In the class students built tables that fought each other in a public tournament style event. (Yep, they fought each other.) They were weaponized, mechanized, remote control tables. It sounds a bit silly, but it was a wonderful opportunity for students to learn new technologies, building techniques, and other skills in a very fun and playful environment. None of the usual "Here is a new technology, learn it and make important art with it." Instead students were introduced to technologies (electronics, motors, mechanics, physical computing, and programming) and got a chance to play with it and have fun and learn at the same time!

For those who don't know I have been involved in a sort of Moped (the small motorized things with pedals...like scooter, but different) subculture for a long time: the Moped Army. Additionally I design, program, fix, trick-out, and do some of the marketing for the the online store for 1977 Mopeds. It is probably the best place of Puch, Tomos, Sachs and Minarelli mopeds..at least it is my favorite place. When my friend Dan Kastner started it, he and I lived in the back of the store for several months. If you want to know more, check them out.

Fiction Precedes Fact

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Wikipedia has closed the loop in fictional information generation. In a recent German news story a (long and complicated) name was changed in Wikipedia. When the printed press covered the story, the modified name from Wikipedia was used. When the Wikipedia story was flagged as lacking a citation, one of the print sources was used as a citation, closing the loop.

See it on slashdot:
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/10/2211220

Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:16:00 +0000

Happy Holidays World.
I am going to be in Michigan for a while...hopefully working on thesis readings and migrating my site to a better platform.

New Work, Fall 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:51:00 +0000

Here is an installation of some new work

PATCH DYNAMICS: Six new invasions to the field at Lawrimore Project

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:24:00 +0000

Opening December 11th I will be in a show titled PATCH DYNAMICS: Six new invasions to the field at Lawrimore Project in Seattle, Wa.
Lawrimore Project has been one of, if not my favorite gallery in Seattle. I am honored and delighted to be a part of this exhibition. I will be going out for the opening (6-9pm Dec 11). Swing by and say 'Hi.'

The show is co-curated by Scott Lawrimore and Yoko Ott. It consists of 6 Seattle artists: Justin Beckman, Matt Browning, Heide Hinrichs, Caleb Larsen, Vesna Pavlovic, Mike Simi.

Jen Graves at the Stranger posted a nice blurb on the Slog: The Stranger Blog: "Work of Art with the Sound of its Own Selling". She talks abit about a piece I have not 100% buttoned up, but it is nice that she got excited about it.

The Interval Separating Documentation

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:26:00 +0000

The show closed in Philly over the weekend. I now have some documentation.

A Video Game Playing Itself

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Finally posting some images of "A Video Game Playing Itself" from last year.

Dr No Words

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Click to Play

In this video I have edited out all of the dialogue segments from the 1962 James Bond movie Dr No.

65min

Spring 2008 Work

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:25:00 +0000

This is a few things that I did in the Spring of 2008.

Three Remote Controlled cars set on an inclined plane. They try in vain to climb to the top (only to be met by hitting a wall) but get stuck in the middle and their tires spin fruitlessly. As their batteries wear down,their tires stop spinning and ultimately gravity carries them back to the bottom.

I attempted to contain the small explosion of a model rocket engine in an acrylic cube. The force exploded the cubes and the result is displayed.

The first iteration of Whose Life is it Anyway? A small LCD display listing my fabricated online life.

Monument (in Aberdeen Scotland)

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:24:00 +0000

Photos from the Monument installation in Aberdeen Scotland

The Interval Separating at Ester M Klein

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:14:00 +0000

The gallery was not fully cleaned up when I was installing the show in Philly so I was not able to get pre-show documentation, but a friendly person on flickr took some quick pics.
[note: The "fence" on the floor in the photos of the Monument piece is not part of the work. The gallery initially put that there for "safety" reasons without consulting me. We spoke and it has since been removed.]

Lapse of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:49:00 +0000

Hi Folks, I am in a show at the new Chace Center at RISD. It is a beautiful new gallery and certainly worth a look if you are around. This show should be really nice. I have a new video in it.

Lapse of Time
Curated by Elizabeth Skadden
Openning Reception this Thursday October 9th 6-8pm
Gelman Gallery at Chace Center
20 Main St. 02903

“Life without editing, it seems, is just not that interesting.”–Bill Viola

Time in our lives flows unchecked. Art uses our memory and five senses to distill life down to the essentials. Memory within our lives condenses time for our consciousness. What we don’t remember is thrown away. What we do remember becomes all the more important. Within art, time lapse decides for the artist what they choose to show. The easiest sort of time-lapse to see is that associated with video or film. But other art methods can show a span of time as well through slow building processes and the display of a process of time. Lapse of Time includes work from several different artists in a wide range of departments. Through slow processes and broad temporal concepts, these artists collapse time, fold it over itself, and re-create new timelines that result in the following art pieces.

Work by these artists:
Alexander Field, Alison Roberts , Ted Yoon, Caleb Larsen, Emma Hogarth, Steve Silber, Kelley Goff, Nora Rabins, Evan Chamberlain, Noel O'Connell, Peter Wilson, Korakrit Arunanondcha, Johnny Adimando, Cooper Holoweski, Annabeth Marks, Dionne Yang

Work Update

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:18:00 +0000

I decided to post some pictures of my recent work. It has been a while and I keep promising to switch to a new website system. I will do that some day, but for now I will content myself with a blog post with images every once in a while.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare(2007)

Programmatically generated print from the complete works of William Shakespeare on Somerset Velvet.

44"x160"

Land Grab (2008)

Digital Photographic Print Diptych, each 20"x30"

The Safest Place on Earth (2008)
Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, Andorra
(East 2.222156, North: 42.387712)
Geotagged Image, Digital Print
30"x37"

It is best to be prepared(2008)

FEMA emergency posters, 3 day survival kit

Over Protection(2008)
1,000 Condoms on wooden armature

Burn Out (2007)

Moped tire burnout on panel, series of 5, each 12"x18"

Recoded Catalog Available!

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:31:00 +0000

The catalog from the Recoded exhibition I was in this spring in Aberdeen, Scotland is now available. I haven't got my hands on one yet (they are in the post I am told), but if you want you can get the catalog at Amazon.

Also,
Thanks to Marisa Olson for the nice write up on Rhizome on my exhibition currently up at the Ester M Klein Gallery in Philadelphia.

The Interval Separating

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:48:00 +0000

The Interval Separating
I am having a show this September in Philadelphia at the Esther M Klein Gallery. If you are around, you should check it out. There will be some new work, some old work, and some reworked work. I think it will look really nice and be very interesting.

Here is the text from the Press Release:

AUGUST 12, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dan Schimmel or David Clayton at 215.966.6188, kleinart@sciencecenter.org

THE INTERVAL SEPARATING

EXHIBITION DATES: SEPTEMBER 12 – NOVEMBER 1, 2008
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH, FROM 5:00PM TO 8:00PM

The Interval Separating features work by artist, Caleb Larsen. The exhibition utilizes logic-based systems to explore the intersection and divide between digital and physical space.

Larsen approaches this topic obliquely through employment of installation, print, electronics, sculpture and multimedia. His work leverages the effects of language and mapping to translate life, media, and culture into transmedia experience. It is through distortion, reduction, and manipulation that Larsen is able to navigate this space. The diversity, interest and research reflected in his artwork seemingly make Larsen, as much engineer, geographer, or anthropologist as he is an artist.

"The wild toolbox of Caleb Larsen’s activities reveals a spirit much like that of an explorer looking for the unknown. … By extracting information from found sources, whether art, movies, or the web, Larsen is clueing us in to other things we should be noticing and be ready for." –Ian Berry

Larsen’s recent work has been exhibited at the Peacock Visual Arts in Scotland, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Detroit International Video Festival, Flux Factory in New York, 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle, and Tjaden Gallery at Cornell University. The artist lives and works in Seattle and Rhode Island.

The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery at the Science Center is a nonprofit exhibition venue that explores the intersection between art, science, and technology. The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery is located at 3600 Market Street. The gallery is opened Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm. For more information and exhibit updates, visit www.kleinartgallery.org

Download the PDF press release!
Press Release.pdf

So there is really no good excuse

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:49:00 +0000

So i have been a big out of touch lately.
I have been in Seattle for the summer, visiting friends, going to weddings, working on projects, and preparing for an exhibition in September. It has been fun and full.
I have been working on several projects and I will post documentation soon.
I am also hopping to transition to a new, more awesome, website that will make updates more frequent. My lack of activity on this blog is only because I have been too busy in the studio to post updates!

I will post the press release and info for the show soon.

Award of Excellence Video

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:11:00 +0000

So this is the video that I submitted for the awards of excellence at RISD. It is about 2 minutes long and does a good job summing up the work that I have done, most of it from the first semester.

Click the image to see the full sized video.

Award of Excellence

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:17:00 +0000

This year's Awards of Excellence at RISD heavily favored our Digital Media department, Lucas Roy, Nathaniel Katz, Jeanne Jo, Elizabeth Skadden, and I all got one. Yay!

The juror, Ian Berry said this about my work:
"The wild toolbox of Caleb Larsen’s activities reveals a spirit much like that of an explorer looking for the unknown. As he tries to fix problems of safety and security through exaggerated levels of preparedness, he helps us step back and see what is really going on around us. By extracting information from found sources, whether art, movies, or the web, Larsen is clueing us in to other things we should be noticing and be ready for. "

Recoded. Landscapes and Politics of New Media

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:47:00 +0000

This month I will be in a an exhibition in Aberdeen, Scotland. The show is called Recoded: Landscapes and Politics of New Media. Here is some text from the website:

Recoded

Preview Thursday 24 April 6 - 8pm / with performance 'Antidatamining' by RyBN

Digital technologies have become an integral part of how we work and communicate, understand ourselves and the world. Transforming information and representation, digital media recode communication and representation and alter our experiences. Focusing on re-presentations, exchange and translation between embodied, spatial experience and coded information, the project aims to raise questions about the effects and meanings produced by contemporary digital landscapes.

The exhibition and series of events were developed by Peacock Visual Arts in collaboration with the Centre for Modern Thought at the University of Aberdeen.

Artists in the exhibition: Alexander Egger, skúta, Anna Jermolaewa, Caleb Larsen, Manu Luksch, MediaShed, Trevor Paglen, plan b, RYbN, Jens Strandberg

If you are around the Aberdeen, swing by and check it out.

Down Time

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:37:00 +0000

While I certainly have not experienced it, my website had a little bit of down time over the last few days. My apologies. A little snafu with my domain name host, but all is resolved and taken care of for the next three years.

Mircomediations

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:56:00 +0000

January 24 - February 17
Opening Jan 24 7pm
Sol Koffler Gallery
169 Weybosset St
Providence, RI

I have two pieces in this show, so swing by and take a look if you are in the area.

Also, I have not updated my site in a while. It is not that I haven't been productive, on the contrary. I have been quite productive in fact. However, I am working on a redesign that will make my life easier so it may be a while before new projects show up. But there are quite a few!

Update: more to come

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:13:00 +0000

With perhaps the least compelling title, I am writing to say that there are lots of exciting things in the works for me, and that I will post details on them later once things have been cemented.

I will also be posting new work in the next few weeks. This period has been productive in spurts and I have something to show for it.

Help me out, fill this out.

noreply@blogger.com (Caleb Larsen) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:54:00 +0000

I am working on a project (which I will discuss later). It would be a HUGE help if everyone who visits would fill this out. What this poll collects will dramatically influence the processes of my project.
The poll software seems a bit unreliable (it is my first time using it). If it appears to not behave properly (like it is displaying giant text and you can't see the submit button) follow this link to the the poll.