The innovation program Palomar5 extends its activities to the US in 2010: Start of a 4-month pilot cooperation with Gray Area Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco. Former camp residents get another thrilling place to continue their projects….

Berlin / San Francisco: After the successful premiere of Palomar5’s 6-week Innovation Camp in Berlin in Fall of 2009, the non-profit organization and its extended network of participants, experts and partners, will proceed the exploration of creative spaces throughout 2010. While continuing operations at the newly renovated Berlin home base, Palomar5 is spreading its wings internationally to enlarge its network, continue working on existing projects, spark new ideas and boost discussions within the core topics springing from the network of young inventors, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs.

In the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA), Palomar5 has found an ideal partner to join in the effort to make the world a little more humane, sensible and interesting. From February 1st, Palomar5 will take a temporary place within GAFFTA’s San Francisco studio. In this “Hub”, members of the Palomar5 network will continue with projects that emerged from the Palomar5 Camp and involve themselves in activities with the GAFFTA team.

“This cooperation is based on a mutual belief in the benefits of open exchange, multidisciplinary surroundings and the will for change” explains Josette Melchor, Executive Director of GAFFTA. Mathias Holzmann, Co-founder of Palomar5, who just came back from his visit adds: “I expect that our Palomar5 projects will strongly benefit from GAFFTA’s inspiring environment and network – and vice versa.”

During the pilot cooperation, the following Palomar5 projects will be further elaborated in the GAFFTA Studio:

Strata Labs: A networking effort thinking about new tools to visualize and utilize data
A Human Right: A project to grant the world the human right of information by providing free access to broadband Internet.
Dada Technology: A Technology making the exchange of information between devices and people more haptic, humane and efficient
Display2000: Exploring and building large versatile neon-tube displays
Show Me Love Lab: An initiative aiming to make work more lovely
Startup4Startups: Founding a culture for startups to help each other to start up

Besides working on projects, Palomar5 is also going to host interactive workshops and other events in the GAFFTA studio to share experiences with the public and kick-off new ideas and discussions together.

About Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA). Gray Area Foundation for the Arts is a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture. Guided by the principles of openness, collaboration, and resource sharing, our programs promote creativity at the intersection of art, design, sound, and technology. By making digital culture accessible, substantive and inspiring, we aim to help realize the greatest power of technology: to bring us closer, faster.

About Palomar5 e.V.: Palomar5 was founded 2009 as a non-profit initiative in Berlin with the aim to explore and construct ideal creative spaces while building a network to build and test these. Fall 2009, Palomar5 brought together 28 “Digital Natives” from all around the world in a six-week innovation-camp to discuss and prototype tangible solutions within the broad topic of “the future of work”. Thirteen main projects connecting technology, business and culture sprung from this camp – together with a culture of great trust, personal freedom and humane working methods that Palomar5 aims to share with the outside world. Palomar5’s main sponsor has been Deutsche Telekom AG, one of the world’s leading telecommunication companies.

Palomar5 “The Movie” – Trailer from Palomar5 on Vimeo.

Links to Palomar5 projects:
http://www.ahumanright.org
http://www.showmelovelab.com

SF Bay Guardian has an interesting article this week about how grassroots organizations like Rebar are affecting change in city policy. The article talks of how the tactics and actions of these outlaw urbanists, designers and artists of reclaiming “dead” urban environments are increasingly being adopted inside City Hall, resulting in an urban design revolution (that harkens back to the 70’s). To read the full article see here.

“Locally, the success of events like Park(ing) Day have changed San Francisco’s approach to urban spaces, particularly on land left dormant by the economic downturn. Rebar, the permaculture collective Upcycle, and former MyFarm manager Chris Burley plan to turn the old Hayes Valley freeway property near Octavia, between Oak and Fell streets, into a massive community garden and gathering space. Plans are being hatched for temporary uses on Rincon Hill properties approved for residential towers. “Green pod” seating areas are sprouting along Market Street and there are plans to extend the Sunday Streets road closures next year. And, perhaps most amazingly, most projects are being accomplished with very little funding.

But San Francisco is starting to prove that dozens of short-term fixes can add up to a true transformation of the urban environment and the citizenry’s sense of possibility.”

OPEN GALLERY HOURS: TUES-FRI, 1-6PM

Our current show featuring the work of C.E.B Reas, Camille Utterback and Stamen Design is on view, free and open to the public, until November 18, 2009. Please stop by and visit, our “OPEN” gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 1:00pm – 6:00pm.

A lot of exciting events are happening in the coming weeks and we look forward to seeing you there!! Here is what is in the works at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts…

Wednesday, October 21 – O’Reilly Web 2.0 Summit
When: 5:00pm
Where: Metropolitan Ballroom, Westin St Francis Hotel

Artist Aaron Koblin will be giving a speech titled “A Vision for Digital Art in San Francisco: the Launch of Gray Area Foundation for the Arts”, addressing trends in digital culture and debuting Gray Area Foundation for the Arts to the tech community at the Web 2.0 conference. Aaron Koblin is a Gray Area featured artist, designer and reseracher who is focused on creating and visualizing human systems. Currently part of Google’s Creative Lab in San Francisco, California, Aaron creates software and architectures to transform social and infrastructural data into rich digital expression. Koblin’s work has been shown internationally and is part of the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Concurrently, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts will have a kiosk on display at the Web 2.0 conference debuting “Seaquence”, a project developed by Gray Area resident artists Ryan Alexander, Gabriel Dunne and Daniel Massey. Seaquence is an online social music experiment that allows users to create step-sequencer micro-compositions. Short musical patterns are represented as biology-inspired life forms which are heard as you navigate through their universe. Different sounds and timbres are visualized as unique character traits in each life-form. Users can navigate through the field of submissions, creating a unique musical and visual experience. For details see here.

Friday, October 23 – Art in Storefronts Tenderloin Launch
When: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Reception and remarks at 989 Market Street at 6th Street

Central Market and North of Market/Tenderloin sidewalks will come alive as the Art in Storefronts pilot program officially kicks off with a community celebration, featuring live bands, the students of LINES Ballet, and a raffle to upcoming performances. The day will begin with an unveiling ceremony followed by a reception where the public can pick up a map to the newly-transformed storefronts.

To view the full program listing and descriptions of the featured artwork see here.

Saturday & Sunday, October 24-25 – ArtSpan Open Studios Tenderloin Region
When: 11:00am – 6:00pm
Where: various locations throughout the Tenderloin

GAFFTA will be participating in the city-wide ArtSpan Open Studio event by opening to the public the studios of our resident artists: Gabriel Dunne, Daniel Massey, Ryan Alexander, Miles Stemper, and Alphonzo Solorzano. Please join us in celebrating our neighborhood and the work of our talent artists!

ArtSpan lasts for four weekends, highlights four sections of the city and displays hundreds of artists. For full program listings see here.

Wednesday, October 28 – Overlap Salon: Dia de los Maxos
When: 7:00 – 9:00pm
Where: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

Overlap.org’s series of Max/MSP/Jitter/Live Salons will continue in a collaborative event with the Bay Area Computer Music Technology Group, hosted by the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. This will be an evening of informal lectures and performances: a brainwave system for the creation of music presented by Jef Stott; Edison making music with Max, Monomes, Live and low-bit samplers; Preshish Moments detailing and performing with his custom hardware controller and Max/MSP system for manipulating audio. For more information see here.

Wednesday, November 11 – Symposium with C.E.B Reas, Camille Utterback and Stamen Design
When: 7pm
Where: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

Our featured artists give a talk and panel discussion showcasing their repertoire and, in context of their show at Gray Area, how they each explore openness, collaboration, public accessibility and participation in their work. Free to the general public.

Thursday, November 19 – Closing show ceremony with special performances by Lesley Flanigan and Tristan Perich

When: 8pm
Where: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

We close our show with “Sculpting Sound”, a performance by artist and vocalist Lesley Flanigan, exploring both the physical and sculptural nature of sound. Performing handcrafted speaker feedback instruments and her own singing voice, Flanigan physically sculpts electronic music from an orchestrated mix of complex tones and rhythms that originate entirely from the acoustics of live feedback and voice.

Tristan Perich will be showcasing his new sound-work, “Dual Synthesis”, for harpsichord and 1-bit electronics. Perich performs on his own harpsichord, accompanied by four speakers emitting patterned 1-bit tones, synthesized by electronics. The duet pursues the sonic, geometric and conceptual relationship between these distinctive instruments.

To view our full calendar of events please visit our website at http://gaffta.org

The city of San Francisco has began to actively put in place some initiatives to improve Market Street. These include a traffic improvement program (which began on September 29th) whereby private vehicles on eastbound Market Street are required to turn right at 8th and 6th Streets. Another plan, in partnership with community groups and building owners, is to pilot mini-plazas at strategic sidewalk locations offering seating, tables, landscaping, and windbreak systems.

Additionally, there is the Art in Storefront Project, which we have already mentioned here on the blog and in which GAFFTA plays a crucial role, and that will debut on October 23rd in the Mid Market and Tenderloin region.

During this trial period, the city needs your feedback on these initiatives and how these measured can be improved upon. To voice your opinion you can:

• Call 311
• Fill out the on-line feedback form: Better Market Street Project
• Twitter: type “d sf311” to send a private Twitter message to 311
• Send an email to marketstreet@sfgov.org
• Comment on the Market Street Facebook page

This November, voters will be asked to vote on a measure called Proposition D to create a “Mid-Market Sign District”. This measure seeks to establishes a new special sign district between Fifth and Seventh Streets on Market Street and to direct a share of the advertising revenues to support youth arts education programs in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. You can read more about this measure and an analysis on SPUR’s website. Also this is an excellent blog to view a historical account of the Mid-Market section.

To find out more specifics about the proposals of the San Francisco’s Planning Commission for Market Street, you can view their Market Street webpage. According to the site:

“Market Street can and should be a great place. To realize this goal, five key city agencies, together with community partners, will initiate a number of improvements over the next six to twelve months to test ways to improve Market Street between the Embarcadero and Van Ness Avenue. Your direct feedback on these pilot ideas will inform the City’s larger plan to redesign Market Street as a more pedestrian, bicycle and transit-oriented street. This larger redesign is scheduled to break ground in 2013, and is anticipated to be completed in 2015.

A renewed Market Street will anchor neighborhoods, link public open spaces and connect the City’s Civic Center with cultural, social, convention, tourism, and retail destinations, as well as with the regional transit hub that will be centered at the planned Transbay Terminal. More than a transportation link, though, the renewed Market Street will be a place to stop and spend time, meet friends, watch people while sitting in a café, or just stroll and take in the scene.

Improvements will provide a safe, universally accessible, sustainable and enjoyable place to be that attracts more people on foot, bicycle and public transit to local shops, neighborhoods and area attractions. New signage will also direct motorists to area garages and freeways. Finally, improving Market Street will go hand in hand with various plans already being developed for the wonderful array of neighborhoods surrounding our city’s main street.”

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is having its grand opening tomorrow, Thursday, October 1st, 2009!!!

We were recently featured in a wonderful blog post by 7×7SF Magazine and are on their front page!

read the full article on their website at http://7×7.com

Watch out, SoMa and Union Square. You may soon be competing with a north of Market neighborhood as the epicenter of cutting-edge city art. That’s right—SF’s colorful Tenderloin district is about to get a much-needed facelift. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts [GAFFTA], a new nonprofit digital art and technology center, will officially open its doors on October 1. The state-of-the-art gallery space, studio facility and multimedia community center marks a milestone in the revitalization of this grungy area into a vibrant art district, while also providing a production and exhibition center for the Bay Area digital and progressive arts communities.

As a leader in technology and innovation, it was only a matter of time before the Bay Area filled a cultural void and opened a home for designers, engineers and creators to take on new projects via positive creative outlets. Gray Area has adopted the idea of “open to interpretation” as its mantra, embracing the notion that creativity lies in the space of what’s currently indefinable, resulting in a curious and thoughtful exploration that can lead to important innovation.

The inaugural exhibition “OPEN” (running 10/1 – 11/18) features the works of C.E.B. Reas, Camille Utterback and Stamen Design. From prints and sculptures to interactive video, generative processes and cartography, each work uniquely reflects GAFFTA’s core values of utilizing innovative technologies to promote collaboration, public interaction, resource-sharing and openness. The show also introduces a series of public workshops that will offer intensive training in such mixed media technology as creative coding in the Processing environment and many more to come. Amateur or serious working artist, these sessions are designed to give participants hands-on exposure to a wide array of projects and skills that foster creative exploration and practical development.

GAFFTA shines as the light of promise and possibility in both a neighborhood and economy that needs a burst of hope. So, whether you drop some cash to raise funds for GAFFTA at the Galvanize Gala on October 1 (6:30 – 9 p.m.), sign up for a workshop or simply choose to peruse the gallery, make sure Gray Area is on your radar.

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, 55 Taylor St., 415-843-1GAF.

Show your support by becoming a fan of the organization on Facebook and check out this video of the foundation’s back story.

forward/slash: The Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Story from GAFFTA on Vimeo.

Due to the economic downturn there are a lot of empty lots and parcels scattered throughout the city where construction has been put on hold. Recognizing that these abandoned places are unsafe dead zones within the arteries of a thriving city, active city residents, local artists and architects contend that in the meantime, these sites can be occupied by alternative, temporary installations: such as pop-up retail spaces, restaurants, art pieces, gardens or community meeting places.

For the empty lots along the Octavia Boulevard architectural firm Envelope A&D have proposed some inspiring, vibrant alternatives to the currently dead zones.

With all the empty lots and abandoned storefronts prevalent throughout the Tenderloin, it would be wonderful to get a similar initiative started there. In the past, the local group, the Luggage Store, has made an excellent attempt to do just that with their project Tenderloin National Forest.

The Tenderloin National Forest is an amazing initiative to re-appropriate a neglected parcel of land in the Tenderloin community, which would otherwise, being left in its abandoned state would only increase drug traffic, crime and other illicit activities in the area.  The transformation and beautification of the alley into a park creates a positive meeting place for people to gather.

We would love to see more of this kind of projects in the Tenderloin. Here is a description of the Envelope A&D proposal for Hayes Valley as inspiration for some of the ideas that have been floating around:

“Envisioned with a lifespan of two to three years, proxy is an investigation into the potentials of impermanence. At the same time, the project seeks to re-establish the urban fabric through a combination of frame, fabric, mesh, wall and volume. As a temporary architecture, proxy makes visible many normally concealed aspects of architecture: power distribution, garbage and recycling collection, composting, water storage, and the objectification of individual spaces of habitation. Qualities of transparency, veiling and illuminance not easily achieved with more solid building materials are inherent to more lightweight and temporary structures.

The retail and food component of the project will be comprised of local San Francisco businesses and vendors primarily through small and portable “pop-up” style retail pods. These small scale, 180 square foot, spaces can be individually inhabited or can be combined together into a cluster of pods occupied by a single occupant. Over the lifespan of proxy, it is envisioned that these very small retail spaces will be inhabited by several different businesses or community groups. Sites for food carts and parking for food trucks will be provided to provide a diversity of food choices, all from local Slow Food vendors.

A partially covered interior courtyard exterior movie theater creates an enclosed volume of space within the site that can be used for covered exterior eating and gathering areas. This space links with an open eating courtyard served by food vendors. A glazed art-box will house rotating art installations curated by premier local curators, gallery owners and collectors. The art-box faces inward to the interior courtyard while it has the capacity to project video art pieces onto adjacent surfaces of the proxy construct.

proxy is conceived of with an ethic of sustainability and reuse. The southern face of the L site will sponsor a demonstration photovoltaic array for on-site power generation. A water collection will be used for irrigation of on-site plantings and the existing asphalt surface will be partially removed to allow for pervious paving in common areas. Retail pods and frames will be re-used or recycled after this inhabitation. Most other components will be rented or recycled after proxy is dismantled.”

Camille Utterback, one of the artists that will be showcased in GAFFTA’s inaugural show “OPEN”, was recently announced a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant.

Camille Utterback’s distinctive work showcases the rich potential of technology to create immersive environments; her installations combine interactivity with a visual experience that transforms the surrounding space. Most often her work showcases the audience’s interaction, as layers of information react to people’s movements and engages them in the creation of the imagery of her pieces.

Her work has been exhibited at galleries, festivals, and museums internationally including The New Museum of Contemporary Art, The American Museum of the Moving Image, New York; The NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo; The Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Netherlands Institute for Media Art; The Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art; The Center for Contemporary Art, Kiev, Ukraine; and the Ars Electronica Center, Austria. Utterback’s work is in private and public collections including The La Caixa Foundation in Barcelona, Spain.

Camille Utterback’s interactive video piece “Liquid Time” will be showcased at GAFFTA on October 1st. It will be the first featured work in the Tendorama Window Gallery Project, a series of rotating bi-monthly installations in the gallery’s prominent 15’ x 8’ front display windows facing Taylor Street. Utterback’s exploration is a series of pieces filmed in the surrounding neighborhood and projected back in the gallery window where the imagery of time, as well as space, is disrupted by the motions of passer-bys. This vibrant, site-specific window installation will feature video filmed in locations throughout the Tenderloin and will be viewable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by residents and visitors of the Tenderloin.

ShiftSpace will be giving a talk at Software Freedom Day in NYC. Sep 19th 6-10pm @148 Lafayette St, 12th Floor.

“In New York City, Software Freedom Day will mark the launch of a series of quarterly Open Source / Open Culture events designed to engage free software hackers, creative commons artists, open government activists, and open science innovators.”

The non-profit company Software Freedom International coordinates SFD at a global level, providing support, giveaways and a point of collaboration, but volunteer teams around the world organize the local SFD events to impact their own communities.

To find out more information check out Software Freedom International.

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts [GAFFTA] is a new non-profit media art organization set to open a 4,000 ft digital art and technology center in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District on October 1st, 2009. GAFFTA’s successful transformation of an abandoned adult theater into a state-of-the-art gallery space, studio facility and multimedia community center marks a milestone in the revitalization of the Tenderloin neighborhood into a vibrant art district, while also providing a much needed production and exhibition center for the Bay Area digital and progressive arts communities.

The Gallery’s inaugural public exhibition “OPEN” presents pioneering work in new media arts, design and technology. “OPEN” features the work of artists C.E.B Reas, Camille Utterback and Stamen Design. The multidisciplinary pieces highlighted in the groundbreaking exhibit range from prints and sculptures to interactive video, generative processes and cartography. Each work uniquely reflects GAFFTA’s core values of utilizing innovative technologies to promote collaboration, public interaction, resource-sharing and openness.

In tandem with our Grand Opening, artist C.E.B Reas will be here to introduce our first public workshop, which will be a two day immersion in creative coding using the Processing environment. This is a unique opportunity to learn the Processing environment with its co-creator on hand to give insight. Processing is a free open-source platform that has been instrumental in building a new creative community of coders and designers by providing a professional production tool facilitating the creation of dynamic projects. Capacity is extremely limited, offered on a first come, first serve basis. To register for this unique workshop please visit http://www.gaffta.org/2009/08/20/creative-coding-1/ or e-mail gdunne@gaffta.org

For more information on GAFFTA and to see our full schedule of opening events please visit: http://www.gaffta.org/2009/08/23/inaugural-exhibition-open/

GAFFTA is a non-profit organization who’s mission grows in momentum and thrives through community support. To learn more about how you can support the organization please visit http://gaffta.org/support. For general inquires please e-mail info@gaffta.org