Date: Saturday, October 19th, 2:45pm – 3:45pm
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W 21st Street, NYC

Flux Factory is pleased to announce its participation in the Alternatives Fair at Eyebeam, organized by the Arts & Labor working group from OWS. The Alternatives Fair aims to connect and make visible groups and projects that provide alternative economic models for sustaining the livelihood of artists, art workers, and other populations based on mutual aid, cooperation, and other non-exploitative and non-oppressive practices. It is the first step in answering the question, What Do We Do Now?

In the Main Space at the Alternatives Fair Flux Factory will present “The Bridge,” a participatory workshop in which facilitators and audience members physically and symbolically face each other, our differences and similarities. “The Bridge” has simple rules: participants gather on one ‘line’. A facilitator asks a question, those who answer “yes” stay there while those who answer “no” cross the line and turn to face each other. Anyone can pose a follow up question, and participants continue to move to corresponding “yes” or “no” sides.

During this process decisions get made, both individually and collectively, regarding where to stand. In the end, we will discuss our varying experiences, discomfort with any questions, and surprises. Which questions were the most difficult to answer? Why? Were there moments you chose to stand in the middle?

For this workshop, Flux Factory is represented by Sara Arjona, Alejandro Botubol, Dylana Dillon, Kerry Downey, Douglas Paulson, and Christina Vassallo. We are a mix of artists, teachers, curators, arts administrators, hang gliders, bikers, tour guides, and …. While at the Alternatives Fair, the questions we’ll pose will focus on issues around: community, participation, economies, shared resources, and shared power.

Date + Time: Thursday, October 17th, 7 pm
Location: New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens

Flux Factory presents Galactic Drive-In, as part of Empire Drive-In, a month-long series of programming within a full-scale theater made out of wrecked cars as audience seating and a 40-foot screen constructed from salvaged wood.

During Galactic Drive-In, blast into low Earth orbit for a celebration of campy sci-fi, anyone-can-do-it filmmaking, and weapons of mass destruction. Flux Factory’s experienced space flight attendants will guide you through take-off procedures in preparation for the night’s features: Ed Wood’s classic “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, hailed by many as the “worst film in the history of cinema”, and “Hollywood Burn”, Soda_Jerk’s sci-fi copyleft epic more than 10-years in the making. Additionally, Flux Factory will premiere new work using props, costumes, and sets made entirely from reclaimed materials. Prior spaceflight experience not required.

Tickets are $15, $10 for NYSCI members, and can be purchased here.

October 10th, 7pm+
FREE!, but please bring something delicious to share

Imagine the solutions and energy our city could have if everyone who lived here had access to good healthy food, knew why it was their best option, and took pride in it and their health as an investment in their neighbors and the future.
- Detroit Food Justice Task Force

Come celebrate the harvest, share stories and recipes, and learn about what other community members, growers, and organizations are doing to create just and sustainable food systems in Long Island City.

Sign up to be a member of the Queens Action Committee brought to you by Flux Factory’s Community Organizer resident Dylana Dillon, the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, City Harvest, and Hour Children Community Food Pantry. Talk land use with Smiling Hogshead Ranch, explore “Integrating Food Production into Green Building – Urban Environments” with Hellgate Farm, find out why kids are getting excited about Sprout By Design, and more!

Potluck starts at 7pm, [mini] workshops at 8:15pm, and music by Elana Belle Carroll on the rooftop at 9pm

We will be featuring food from local farmers, and beer from local brewers, but please bring a (vegetarian) dish and/or beverage to share.

Super gracious thanks to our sponsors!

Dates: Sundays, Sept. 1st, 22nd, and 29th
Please note that the tours are fully booked. To be added to the wait list or for general information about the project, please write to witt@sarahwitt.net

Bridges to Beaches is a bicycle tour that investigates the expansive portfolio and social impact of Robert Moses, the so-called “master builder” and urban planner of New York in the 20th century. Having completed thousands of projects in New York over the span of his 40-year career—-ranging from public parks to cultural institutions to highways—-Moses has undoubtedly carved and influenced the urban landscape we navigate today.

Despite the positive aspects of his work in engineering a modern metropolis, Moses is also credited with the destruction of historical landmarks and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people whose businesses and homes were demolished to build local expressways and interstates. The tour will visit a handful of sites developed by Moses and will unpack the controversial narrative surrounding his career.

Each tour is open to 10 participants. The meeting location, rain dates and details will be disclosed in a personal email. This will be an approximately 6-hour, 30+ mile ride that will meander in and out of NYC traffic. Helmets are required; helmets and bikes available upon request.

About the artist: Flux Artist-in-Residence Sarah Witt is a skeptically serious and professional interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of performance and non-performance. Sarah holds a Master of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.F.A from Syracuse University. During her graduate studies, she was awarded grants from the MIT Council for the Arts and the Peter de Florez Fund for Humor, the Department of Architecture Tuition Fellowship and the Schnitzer Prize in Visual Arts. Sarah has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, Elsewhere Collaborative and Hub-Bub, and in 2009 she produced Polymorphic Plastic Parade, a nationally touring eco-art installation.

Date: Saturday, September 28th, 2013
Time: 1pm – 8pm
Location: registration for this FREE event is required to receive the location

The day is almost here! Work together to prepare for a potentially massive auto-related disaster during the drill for Traffic Disruption Village. In 2010, China experienced a 9 day, 100 km long traffic jam that turned the road into “a collection of rooms”: a temporary village born of disaster. Traffic Disruption Village will serve as a drill for New Yorkers to prepare for a similar potential disaster phenomenon before it occurs.

There are three ways to participate in Traffic Disruption Village:

1. With a car. Retrofit your car to serve some function for the village’s ongoing well-being and support. Be prepared to serve yourself and others. Parking provided.

2. With a bicycle. Take advantage of your smaller, human-powered vehicle to assist those stuck in traffic. Bring mobile resources or serve as a messenger between the village and the outside world.

3. With only yourself (and possibly other people): bring a resource to share with the village.

Traffic Disruption Village will take place in a top-secret location from 1pm – 8pm on September 28th. To receive the location information, please sign up using the registration form.

Traffic Disruption Village by artist Chloë Bass is a project for the Flux Factory exhibition, Untitled (As Of Yet). This project and the exhibition are supported, in part, by National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.