Blogs

This past weekend we had two members of the incredible World War 3 Illustrated collective here to hang their show in underground gallery, our upstairs gallery, the cafe, the main Sanctuary space, the stairs ...

There was so much art to behold, and to be organized, laid out, measured, hung, and given a proper sign, that it took several volunteers, artists, and significant others two full days and more wallspace than our galleries contained to get it all up.

We passed around a point-and-shoot digital camera, snapping around 100 photos during the installation; I've included a selection of them below as a Picasa slideshow. (Click READ MORE to see the slideshow, or you can go directly to our album at Picasa to leave comments or download copies.)

Another option: If you prefer your internet with one less step of corporate mediation, you can view the gallery through our own kinda clunky interface here.

Hi everybody! My name's Chris Murphy, and I'm the newest intern at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York. I've spent three long years at the Niskayuna High School (is the name Niskayuna too hard to remember? Just think, "Frisky Tuna"), but in order to finish my fourth year with flying colors I need to finish an internship somewhere.  When I heard that, my mind jumped to the Sanctuary immediately, and by immediately I mean once my video teacher suggested it.  Since Troy is a mere two bus rides (totaling about an hour's worth of sitting) away from Niskayuna (I care because I don't have my driver's license), and the Sanctuary people are cool enough not to care what time I show up at, I took the internship!

So here's what I made on my first day: A video tour/diary of my first day! For anybody who's been reading this blog for a while, you'll be pleased to see the long-time Sanctuary blogger Emily make an appearance. (You'll also notice I wore a work shirt that day. It was uncomfortable, so today I wore a much simpler shirt with a collar. Next time I'll probably wear a T-shirt. I'm gradually going to wear more and more comfortable clothing until eventually I'll be showing up naked.) (And don't forget to click "Read more" after you're done with the video!)

Our season is over, and next week we'll be taking down our photography show, "Evidence & Fantasy: Militarism in American Life," by Nina Berman.

I've passed by these photographs almost daily for the past four months, but they've lost none of their power; if anything, my growing familiarity with the photographs as physical and visual objects makes them that much more stunning when I take a moment or two and really look, identifying with the wounded and disfigured soldiers as human beings and not just a collection of pixels, for the hundred-and-nteenth time. I'll be sad to see it go (though next season's art show should be great too; stay tuned!).

So I was thrilled to learn that Nina's work has been selected for inclusion in the Whitney Museum's upcoming 2010 biennial show of new American art. This is, apparently, a big deal in the art world and beyond: Wikipedia's (not always trustworthy) authoritative voice says the Biennial is "generally regarded as one of the leading shows in the art world, often setting or leading trends in contemporary art." Cool. (The show's up 2/25/2010 - 5/30/2010, at 945 Madison Ave. on the upper East side of Manhattan.)

We'll be taking down and packaging up the "Homeland" photographs next week, to be sent to The Whitney. "Purple Hearts" and "Marine Wedding," which are the photos on display in our downstairsunderground gallery, apparently haven't been invited. (Nina can only bring one series of work, and even though we've exhibited them together, these photographs were really taken and originally intended as separate projects.)

Here's a selection of photographs from "Homeland" which may or may not be showing at the Whitney in 2010!

Hidey ho neighbourino's (copyright Flanders*)

Over the last 2 weeks, I have been working on the free jazz series and learning how to make films good and do other things good too. In I tried syncing sequences on Final Cut Pro and felt like a total tourettes person because I'd go forward a frame, back a frame, forward 2 seconds, back 3 seconds - and I still couldn't get it. I was like *twitch* *twitch*, wanting to self-combust.

We screened the film The Yes Men Fix the World on October 6th, which is essentially about two political activists who pull pranks to highlight how corporate greed is destroying the planet. It centers around the idiocy of giving the market more power than any other institution to run our society.

In the film, Andy and Mike create fake websites similar to ones of their corporate nemeses and then accept invitations to appear at conferences and TV shows. They then attend these events and pull of stunts giving the audiences a wake up call to the dangers of letting the market get away with corporate crime. However, most of the time, the audience takes them quite literally and aren't even aware that they are being taken for a ride, which is even more hilarious - but at the same time, it kind of defeats the purpose of what the Yes Men are doing, which is to get their message through to these people!

Ahoy reader of my words,

Welcome to the Sanctuary world at the conclusion of my second week here.

During the week, I worked on the media distribution list for the free jazz project, watched another jazz video, and installed lights in the gallery upstairs.

Thursday was our second 'Kiss My Edit' lab. Brenda Ann Kenneally (the international award-winning photo journalist) showed up this week and I got to see the weird chemistry/energy that sparks between her and Branda. We read snippets out of 'In the Blink of an Eye' about the importance of cuts and Branda told us stories from when she worked in Hollywood ('Storytime With Branda'). We then went through a Final Cut Pro manual because Branda didn't want us to feel like we were being brainwashed into learning it her way.

Saturday night was the first event of the season. Firstly we aired the film 'Where Are You Go' which was about the Tour de Afrique - where people cycled from cairo to capetown over a four month period. The cinematography was so brilliant and the whole time watching it, I kept thinking 'I wish my parents were here to see this' because they froth at the mouth over cycling/ go on tours in Australia all the time.

Greetings blog reader,

The following rant will give you the low-down on what happened in the Sanctuary world this week.

Firstly, let me tell you about the lunchtime routine at the Sanctuary.

Basically, there's a roster where everyone takes turns making lunch during the week. The lunches are usually uber healthy and are cooked from organic/non-mainstream brand ingredients bought from fresh food co-ops and markets. While everyone eats, there's usually a baited discussion about a sanctuary event or issue. It's a great way to bring everybody together like a close-knit family.

After lunch one day, I was talking to Nicole and Sina in the kitchen about where to shop for food in Troy, and I mentioned that most RPI students shop at Walmart, and I was pretty much smited by even mentioning the word! I always knew that Walmart, just like any massive corporation, stomped on the 'little guy' (i.e. created unfair competition for small businesses), but I never knew the extent of Walmart's devilishness (criminally low wages, zilch benefits, child labour/discimination violations etc). Big corporations in Australia couldn't get away with any of that because our employee rights laws are much stricter.

Harro person reading my blurb.

I’m Emily and I’m volunteering at the Sanctuary this semester. I'll mainly be working on the Free Jazz project, digital storytelling and helping to shoot events - and will be documenting all of it on this blogging device.

In a nutshell, I’m Australian (but I don’t sound anything like Paul Hogan, sorry to disappoint :/). My background is in creative writing, journalism and PR but I’d like to get into scriptwriting/film. I study at RPI and came to America to do that whole ‘consciousness’ expansion thing – in other words to gain insight/ something to write about (oh maaan, what a cliché).

__(insert the rest of my life story here)__

I arrived in the US about a month ago. One of the good things about the flight was that I got to live two August 11’s, kind of like the movie Groundhog Day.

Here's photos of our new Americorps VISTA staff, Nicole Belanger and Chris Gang, during their trip to N.Y.C.

First, an early morning visit to Downtown Community Video and the live broadcast of Democracy Now!

and then, on to the West Village to meet George Stoney, "Father of Community TV"