Date: Sunday, February 26th 2012, 4 – 6 pm
Location: Flux Factory, 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City

SP Weather Station will host a Special Preview for the 2011 edition of the SP Weather Reports, presenting new works and works-in-progress by its most recent group of collaborating artists.  The public is welcome to join past and current artist participants for a reception and conversation at Flux Factory about this ongoing publication series.  Portfolios from all years will be available for view and sale (including 2011 pre-orders) and refreshments will be served.

Now in its fifth year, SP Weather Reports is a collated portfolio published annually by the artist-collaborative SP Weather Station.  Each year, twelve artists (or artist groups), one per month, are invited to ‘report’ on the weather data taken by the SPWS rooftop station, installed on the roof of Flux Factory in Long Island City. This open-ended assignment may be interpreted strictly or loosely; past artists have created prints, booklets, drawings, audio files, photos and video.

The 2011 SP Weather Reports feature works by: (January) Emcee C.M.; (February) Glen Einbinder; (March) Rafael Hidalgo Múgica; (April) Naomi Miller; (May) Chad Stayrook; (June) Michelle Rosenberg and Howard Huang; (July) Hope Ginsburg; (August) eteam; (September) Paul Kennedy; (October) Adrienne Garbini; (November) Travis LeRoy Southworth; (December) Rick Myers.

Click here for more information on current artists and an archive of past SP Weather Reports.

The event is free and open to the public, come and celebrate with us!  This event is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

About SP Weather Station: SP Weather Station is an interdisciplinary project that collects weather data, hosts a Guest Lecture Series, and organizes weather-related publications, events, and exhibitions. For more information please visit: spweatherstation.net

Image: Snapshot of August 2011 Weather Reports by eteam, No day without weather, 2012.

Flux village puppeteer Adam Ende, photo courtesy Alison Nguyen

Taco Night!!! (an opening holiday for Banquet for America): Friday, February 3, 7-11pm

It’s an American tradition, one that many get excited about. And traditions are funny: they start out as one thing, everyone brings something to it, and it changes. Taco Night!!! will show the diversity of America and its tradition through a tableau of food.

Flux will bring the basics: tortillas, rice, and vegan beans. You will bring the rest; in order to eat, you will need to bring a filling. Whatever you like: salsa, meat, vegetables, cheese, sour cream, etc., with enough to share.

While you are there, you’ll be able to meet the Flux village. Later on, we’ll have performances by Adam Ende, Hector Canonge, LuLu LoLo, and Trabajo (with the special collaboration of The Sperm Whale). Taco Night!!! is presented by Jean Barberis and Mark Krawczuk.

Special Flux Thursday: Thursday, February 9, 8pm+

Join us for this month’s Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck and salon… in our town-within-the gallery, as part of Banquet for America! This month, we’ll have dinner at the banquet table and enjoy presentations and performances from artists taking part in the exhibition.

This evening is a potluck; please bring drinks or something delicious to share!

Cabaret Extravaganza: Saturday, February 11, 7pm

Join us for a night of performances staged in our artist-built town. The Invisible Kitchen puppet theater will perform The Master of Prayer (see below!). Following the show will come fabulous performances by Homo Hasidus, Angela Washko, Veronica Dougherty, Kagero, and the Ruffian Arms.

The Invisible Kitchen presents: The Master of Prayer, a puppet allegory based on the story by Rebbe Nachman.

The Master of Prayer lives in the woods with his followers, singing, dancing, and repenting like crazy.  But he hears of a city of riches where people are valued only according to how much money they have, and is compelled to save these poor idiots from their money-lust. To this end, they depart together on a journey that takes them through many strange kingdoms where some people worship only happiness, others lust, and some even death itself.  They must cross a sea of wine, a river of milk, and a sea of blood before they find their way to the truth.

Does this all sounds very serious? Don’t worry! It’s very funny!

Featuring traditional and original klezmer music by the beautiful and talented Craig Judelman, with puppeteers Adam Ende (the director and janitor of Jawbone Puppet Theater) and Noah Block Harley (of Tic Toc Laboratories fame).

A Bacchanalian Banquet: Sunday, February 12, 6-9pm

Giustina Surbone presents A Bacchanalian Banquet, our closing event. A Bacchanalian Banquet is a decadent feast, a visual and tactile extravaganza influenced by Greek and Roman saturnalia and Filippo Marinetti’s Futurist Cookbook.

Featuring: Adam Ende, Alan Williams, Bismarck Del Castillo, David Modello, Hector Canonge, Jazzmine, Morgan Williams, Robin Dann, Stephanie Fribourg, and Theresa Magario

Videographer: Daniel Smyksy

Chef: Nadia Rohrs

This banquet is rsvp-only… and we are no longer taking reservations!

Sponsored by Fairway Market Red Hook, O Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat Market, Los Paisanos Meat Market, Raffetto’s, Sahadi’s, and Three Guys From Brooklyn.

WAGMAG, the Brooklyn art guide, has generously donated Pernod Absinthe to the Banquet for America’s opening and closing receptions. Download WAGMAG’s new gallery guide mobile app, The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn, here.

All events take place at 39-31 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens and are completely free, unless otherwise noted.

Exhibition dates: February 3 – 12, open every day from 10am – 10pm

Opening Reception: Friday, February 3rd, 7-11pm
Special Flux Thursday: Thursday, February 9th, 8-11:30pm
Cabaret Extravaganza: Saturday, February 11, 7-10pm
Closing Banquet: Sunday, February 12, 6-9pm

Flux Factory is pleased to announce Banquet for America, an experimental utopian village centered around a banquet table. Our artist-built town-within-a-gallery will be complete with a theater, specialized shops, and more; come experience a village equipped with bakers, jewelers, barbers, puppeteers, and smørrebrød-makers! Artists will inhabit the space for the duration of the show, eating and living with each other in structures made from reclaimed materials. We have a dynamic group of performance and conceptual artists, and the experience will shift and grow as the show goes on.

The preparation of food and ritual of communal eating has been enormously formative in shaping American culture. Banquet for America will explore food as a way of gaining a deeper awareness of oneself within a larger community, beyond sustenance. In addition, the exhibition is a response to the decline of the traditional town structure in the face of box stores, malls, and chain restaurants. These structures attempt to replace the commercial enterprises of the traditional downtown district, and in doing so, subvert the viability of family-owned businesses. Such changes are more visible in small towns, where transformation is more tangible, but are of vital importance to the larger economy and the fabric of the nation.

Banquet for America will include four special event nights: an opening reception with Jean Barberis & Mark Krawczuk on February 3rd; Flux Thursday on February 9th; a cabaret and puppet show night on February 11th; and, to close, A Bacchanalian Banquet with Giustina Surbone on February 12th.

While the opening, Flux Thursday, and cabaret night will both be open to public, we will be taking reservations for the closing event. Click here for more information.

On February 11th, the Invisible Kitchen will present The Master of Prayer, a puppet allegory, followed by glittering musical performances by Homo Hasidus, Angela Washko, Veronica Dougherty, Kagero, and the Ruffian Arms..

Participating artists: Adam Ende; Adrian Owen, Ian Montgomery, & Jason Eppink; Alison Ward; Andy Ralph; Angela Washko; Georgia Muenster; Giustina Surbone; Hector Canonge; Jean Barberis & Mark Krawczuk; Jesper Aabille; Kerry Cox; LuLu LoLo; Stephanie Avery; and Veronica Dougherty. Curated by Alison Ward and Georgia Muenster. Special thanks to Chess Venis and Shane Heinemeier!

For press or general inquiries, please contact Georgia@fluxfactory.org.

WAGMAG, the Brooklyn art guide, has generously donated Pernod Absinthe to the Banquet for America’s opening and closing receptions. Download WAGMAG’s new gallery guide mobile app, The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn, here.

In conjunction with her individual work she has been engaged in a number of long-term collectives and curatorial projects, they include The Production Unit, HOMEWORK and the exhibition space ‘rum46′ in Århus. She holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy, Sweden 2004, an assistantship with Sharon Hayes, New York 2005, and several grants, exhibitions and residency programs. She is currently based in Berlin and in Århus/Denmark.

Please go to the website of the artist for CV and images of work.

www.dittelyngkaerpedersen.com

Journalist in Exile: A Profile of Lawman Lynch from FramingTheCausePictures on Vimeo.

Not content to throw a mundane holiday fund-raiser, the upstarts from LIC artist collective Flux Factory shook things up at their Not-So-Silent Auction. Fluxers and their friends lined the walls and topped display tables with original works (check out some of the items in our slide show). While those attracted bids, less financially endowed partyers could spend $25 on a knockoff work by one of the carnation-wearing artists on hand. They would even create small alterations to the original. Matt Levy emceed the event in a teal suit, while Nato Thompson of Creative Time and Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City were honored with plaques bearing a gas mask and a loudspeaker, respectively.

In collaboration with Vaudeville Park (Brooklyn), Flux Factory presents a television episode for Video Vaudeville, a weekly show on Manhattan Neighborhood Networks. Flux Factory’s episode, featuring works from Flux Factory Artists-in-Residence and Alumni: Alexandra Wolkowicz, Jean Barberis and Alexis Lautier, Sanaz Mazinani, Miatta Kawinzi, Angela Washko, and Douglas Paulson. The episode will air on December 17 at 10pm (TWC Channel 67, RCN Channel 55).

January 12th, 8pm+
Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck dinner and art salon, is back! Please join us for dinner, which starts at 8 in the kitchen, and then around 9:30 we’ll head to the gallery for artist presentations.

Bring drinks or something delicious to share!

Still from Flux Factory's 2009 Kickstarter campaign

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 6:30pm

Kickstarter: Bring your Creative Idea To Life
Join us as we explore Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Kickstarter’s own Stephanie Pereira leads off the evening with a presentation on how to bring your project to life. Learn how to structure a project, what kind of rewards work best, and other helpful tips and valuable stats. Next we’ll take a more detailed look at the anatomy of a successful project. Filmmaker Theresa Loong, the Asian American Arts Alliance, and Flux Factory will share their experiences using the platform.

Click here to register.

This project is organized by Kickstarter and the Queens Council on the Arts. In 2012, QCA will present professional development workshops to assist artists and arts organizations to build their business, marketing and fundraising skills.

Bo Bartlett, "Magical Thinking"

Flux Factory’s Not-So-Silent Auction & Gala is swiftly approaching! We’ve put together an auction website so that you can bid online early and from afar, in case you can’t make it to the event on December 20th.

Do you love street art? Then take a look at SWOON’s gorgeous “Ice Queen” print. For digital art enthusiasts we’re offering three Manfred Mohr works from the Klangfarben series and a laser engraved work by Marius Watz. And for diehard New Yorkers, we have a signed Duke Riley print that was on display in subway cars this year, and Jer Thorp’s word frequency data visualization of “hope” and “crisis” as they appeared in The New York Times over the course of two decades. Any one interested in current and recent Flux Factory residents would be tickled by the work of Man Bartlett, Ben Dierckx, Angela Washko, and Alex Young.

We also have some incredible works by Holly Coulis, Lori Field, Bo Bartlett, and over 100 other artists!

Bid like you vote: early and often.

Mark your calendars for Flux Factory’s Not-so-silent Annual Art Auction & Gala

Help us celebrate a colossal year at Flux Factory with a silent auction of over 100 works by artists from our extensive community. We will honor Nato Thompson of Creative Time and Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City for the lasting imprint their work has had on contemporary art. Entertainment provided by our emcee Matt Levy and DJ We Are Architects. Expect light food, libations, music, a timeline of our experimental programming, and a few surprises.

In addition to reveling in the company of innovative artists and bidding in the silent auction, there will be “knock-off” stations where you can commission artists to create an original artwork on demand. “Knock-off” Live Artists include Angela Washko, Daupo, Douglas Paulson, Emily Bunker, Eric Doeringer, Jon Burgerman, and Youjung Byun.

Committee Members: @museumnerd, Anita Durst, Barry Hoggard & James Wagner, Carin Kuoni, Carlo Lamagna, Chen Tamir, Claire Sexton, Deborah Fisher, Doreen Jakob, Ed Woodham, Elaine Bowen, Elizabeth Dee, Ewa Bartos, Hilary Bertisch, Jayne Drost, Julia Kaganskiy, Matthew Higgs, Morgan Meis, Melanie Cohn, Nathalie Anglès, Nick Griffin, Noni Pratt, Nora Gomez, Paul D. Miller, Perry Chen, Rado Petkov, Scott Hirst, Stephen S. Santo, Esq., and Veken Gueyikian.

Participating artists: the silent auction will include artworks by Bo Bartlett, Dana Sherwood, Dasha Shiskin, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Kristian Kozul, Mark Dion, Pablo Helguera, SWOON, The Yes Men, and many others. Click the arrow below to view the entire list.
Participating Artists

Purchase Tax-Deductible Tickets Today!

Get your tickets!

I love Flux: $50.00 USD Look at Me, I’m VIP: $125.00 USD The Greatest Love of All: $500.00 USD

Tickets can also be purchased by check to:
Flux Factory
39-31 29th Street
Long Island City, NY 11101

If you have any questions or would like to participate, please email auction@fluxfactory.org

Flux Factory’s 2011 Not-So-Silent Auction & Gala is supported by our sponsors, with an especially generous donation from our main sponsor, AT&T.

Date: Thursday, December 1, 6 – 9pm
Location: Materials for the Arts, 33-00 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City

Materials for the Arts is pleased to present Creative Reuse in New York City, an exhibition of site-specific work by three of its nonprofit member organizations: Flux Factory, Local Project, and Free Style Arts Association, as well as work by Materials for the Arts teaching artists and workshop participants. Making art is a process of reimagining available materials. At Materials for the Arts, this process is called creative reuse: taking objects originally for one purpose and presenting them anew.

Creative Reuse in New York City features five large-scale mixed media installations and six smaller sculptures which explore creative reuse in New York City.

Thursday, December 1, from 6-9 pm, Materials for the Arts will host a public reception honoring the featured artists and their host organizations. The reception will include a panel where the artists will discuss their work, the use of found objects in their practice, and the role of their host organizations in the cultural community.

The exhibition is on view at Materials for the Arts, 33-00 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, NY through February 29, 2012.

Creative Reuse in New York City was organized by John Kaiser and Nathaniel Shelness of the Education Center at Materials for the Arts.

Her sculptures and installations focus on the in-between; the reality in the dream and the dream in the reality, the author in the character and the character in the author, what is past while it lasts and what is going to come before it’s over:

www.astridnobel.n

l

What requires waiting and what waiting awaits, wood, prints on aluminum 120 x 50 x 75 cm, 2011

Vassallo previously served as Associate Director of Kinz, Tillou + Feigen Gallery and ART&IDEA, and as Assistant Curator at American Federation of Arts. She holds a B.A. in art history and an M.A. in visual arts management from New York University. Most importantly, she is the owner of the unofficial Flux Factory mascot, Truman.

image from Gretta Louw's "Controlling_Connectivity"

DECEMBER

Action Club (Chris Domenick, Kerry Downey, Douglas Paulson, and Jo Q Nelson), is working with Hatuey Ramos Fermin and Elizabeth Hamby to examine the oldest record store in NYC – Casa Amadeo.  It’s part of the Bronx River Arts Center’s Shifting Communities series, opening December 2nd.

Miatta Kawinzi‘s solo exhibition of new works, “Am I Phthalo Blue?” opens Thursday December 8th at 3rdEye(Sol)ation Gallery in Brooklyn.

In Paris, Paula Castro will show drawings in “Palindromes,” at Galerie de Roussan, and installing the 2nd part of ”PLANORGA. Plan, Organisation, Désir et Volonté,” at Galeria APDV.  In Buenos Aires, she her show “Esto No Se Mueve De Aca” will be opening at Museo La Ene.

Man Bartlett begins a three month residency at Wassaic Project.

Daupo‘s year long labor, The 2012 Cthulhu Mythos Calendar, is finished.

Gretta Louw‘s project Controlling_Connectivity will be continuing. The exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin is open through December and into January. On the 16th of January there’ll be an artist talk at the gallery.  She’ll also be showing a work at the European Performance Art Festival at a castle in Poland.

Cecilia Enberg has been awarded Rubus Arcticus, the Culture Grant Award of Norrbotten County Council in Sweden.

Here’s a recent project of hers: http://sanazmazinani.artistswanted.org/room-for-disruption

http://sanazmazinani.net

November 17th, 7:30 pm – 9 pm

Conversations are casual, but interviewing someone takes skill. It doesn’t have to be intimidating and you don’t have to be a journalist to interview like one. Whether you’re a scientist, criminal sleuth, student, or professional networking at a party, you’ll learn how to ask anyone for information in this workshop taught by writer Pauline Pechin.

Pauline Pechin is a freelance journalist and the editor of All That We’ve Met, a blog and weekly interview series on the Nonsense list. Her work has appeared in publications like the Village Voice, BlackBook Magazine and New York’s Daily Intel.

This class is a beginner to intermediate workshop. Students will receive study materials and homework prior to class. Please come prepared for fun conversation.

Students may sign up via the Skillshare website here. Class fee is $15.

November 10th, 8pm+
Join us for Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck dinner and art salon! Dinner starts at 8 in the kitchen, and then around 9:30 we’ll head to the gallery for an all past and present Fluxer presentation.

Nick Normal will present about Proto-Gonzo, a special program based on collaboration, interdisciplinarity and experiment, a three-week residency in July 2011 for 6 artists. Alex Wolkowicz will discuss her projects at Art in Odd Places, ISE Cultural Foundation, and MarinArt that have coincided with her Flux artist residency. Jesper Aabille will talk about art, food, and his latest work Egg Frying Log. Douglas Paulson and Gretta Louw will collaborate on a combination live feed/live action performance that will be part of Louw’s project in Berlin, Controlling_Connectivity. Residency Unlimited/Flux Factory resident Karol Radziszewski will discuss his recent work.

Bring drinks or something delicious to share!

Flux Factory has been awarded the DIVA grant by the Danish Arts Council to create a site-specific installation at Spanien 19C in Aarhus, Denmark! In spring, 2012, eight artists will create a temporary Consulate of Flux Factory titled The Infamous and Only Somewhat Ambassadorial Outpost of the Semi-Legitimate Nation of Flux.

We will construct a miniature version of our space within the gallery as a representation of ourselves on foreign soil while inhabiting and space and performing “business as usual,” and in doing so exploring the nature of cultural exchange and mutual pedagogy.

November 11th, 7 pm – 1 am
Something NEW is coming. Brace yourself!

Please join us for the launch of New York’s newest entertainment magazine. The launch party promises to be a great evening for networking and celebrating fashion, style, music and everything entertainment-related. No one knows the name of the magazine, as the name will be revealed at the launch event. Be among the first to know – be a part of history!

Music, light fare, and libations will be provided.
View the Facebook event page here. RSVP to elitepr.nyc@gmail.com.

The event is organized by current Flux Artist-in-Residence Lawman Lynch, a grant recipient of the Edward and Salley Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust.

Step right up! Come one! Come all! To the fabulous emporium of delights!

Flux Factory invites you to submit a proposal for Banquet for America, a 3-week long experiment in building a utopian village. We’re looking for builders, chefs, sideshow barkers, and performers to construct and inhabit our town within a gallery, complete with a theater, banquet hall, specialized shops, and more.

Each week the village will celebrate with a banquet. The preparation of food and ritual of communal eating has been enormously formative in shaping American culture. Banquet for America will explore food as a way to gain a deeper awareness of oneself within a larger community. Different chef/artists manage the hall, from the food to servers, performances, and structural installation. Each weekend will revolve around a cohesive theme, determined by the host; ideas include the classic German beer hall, the year 1928, and the ubiquitous American diner.

Banquet for America is a response to the decline of the traditional town structure in the face of box stores, malls, and chain restaurants. These structures attempt to replace the commercial enterprises of the traditional downtown district, and in doing so, subvert the viability of family-owned businesses. These changes are more visible in small towns, where change is more tangible, but are of vital importance to the larger economy and the fabric of the nation.

Selected artists will be requested to build the structures of Banquet for America from reclaimed materials, and occupy their booths for the duration of the project. They will interact with the public and produce an array of inventory, luring in visitors with their handmade goods.

The exhibition will be on display from February 3 – 12, 2012, with the opening reception on Friday, February 3, a special Flux Thursday on Thursday, February 9, and a closing banquet on Sunday, February 12. Installation will be from January 26 – February 2.

Send entries to Georgia@fluxfactory.org by 5 pm EST on November 15. Artists will be notified by December 1.

Interested parties should submit:
I.) A brief letter explaining your motivation for taking part in this project (250 words). Please title your document in this format: LAST NAME_FIRST NAME_LETTER.PDF).

II.) A short project proposal (500 words). Please include any applicable sketches, designs, brief texts describing the project, instructions, etc. in JPG, or PDF format (or as a website).

III) Documentation of previous work that connects directly with the project you are submitting, maximum 2 pages.

-Or- 5 images in JPEG of PDF format only. Maximum 72 dpi. Please title your document in this format: LAST NAME_FIRST NAME_IMAGE#).

-Or- 5 minutes of video. (Please send a URL/link to your video work, no DVDs will be accepted.)

IV) Resumé or bio (Maximum 2 pages. Titled LAST NAME_FIRST NAME_BIO.PDF).

If you have any questions, please email Georgia[at]fluxfactory[dot]org.

Come on down to support the Habitable Spaces project. The evening will feature a colorful mix of bands, djs, performance artists, and of course – tacos and tasty cocktails.  A silent art auction will be held throughout the night.

The Habitable Spaces project is a series of visionary structures that will be built in rural Texas. It will stretch the notion of sculpture, livable space, and “home” by incorporating a self-sustaining approach to every aspect of living, building, and creating.

The combination of art and self-sustainability will merge together as the artists live off the land and experience how everyday life affects artistic practice. Harvesting and producing food will spill into collaborative ideas within each artist’s habitable space creating a larger dynamic installation piece that changes and flows with its inhabitants and community throughout the seasons.

The Habitable Space project is organized by current Flux Artists-in-Residence Alison Ward and Shane Heinemeier.

Visit the Facebook event.

Radziszewski has exhibited at institutions including The National Museum in Warsaw; Zacheta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad; Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz; The National Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu; Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; 4 Prague Biennale; New York Photo Festival; Bat-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism; Biennale of Young Artists, Tallinn; Real Art Ways, Hartford; New Museum, New York; Cobra Museum, Amsterdam. Karol Radziszewski’s residency functions within the framework of the Residency Unlimited/Flux Factory partnership and is made possible with support from the Polish Cultural Institute, New York.

www.karolradziszewski.com

Part of Congress of Collectives, Collaborative Means brings together a series of artists working both collaboratively and collectively, relying on cooperative strategies for the realization of ambitious projects.  Artists included have practices that exist on the streets of densely populated cities, on Twitter, on boats, at factory parties, in video works and films, and in a variety of academic, DIY, and artistic institutions. Through talks, screenings, and live performances, artists in Collaborative Means will be addressing the notion of ownership in collaborations, how to unify masses, audience as collaborators, and the distinction between working as a collaboration and as a collective.

Viewers can expect to participate in a performance by gorgeousTaps and the Reality Show, see collectively-produced video works, built objects and performance documentation from Flux Factory and Madagascar Institute, and experience presentations by artists who have abandoned or expanded traditional alone-in-the-studio artist practices. This event is organized by Angela Washko in conjunction with Congress of the Collectives at Flux Factory. Participating artists include: Man Bartlett, Genevieve Belleveau aka gorgeousTaps, Flux Factory, Jaime Iglehart, Madagascar Institute, Oleg Mavromati and Boryana Rossa, Jeff Stark, and Angela Washko.

Contact angela.washko@gmail.com for more information.

October 13th, 8pm+
Join us for Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck dinner and art salon! Dinner starts at 8 in the kitchen, and then around 9:30 we’ll head to the gallery.

This month, Flux artist-in-residence Alison Ward will present her recent project, Hen Party, completed this summer in Manchester and former Flux artist-in-residence Brandstifter will speak about his recent work. Flux friend Melinda Maclean will present a short film about Coney Island. Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria will present Residency Unlimited, an organization he co-founded. In conjunction with our current exhibition Congress of Collectives, Melissa Brown will screen and discuss Dotto Lotto, an animation project made by over 2,000 participants.

Bring drinks or something delicious to share!

In addition to the events, we will also have ongoing projects by Congress of Collectives participants in the Flux Factory gallery. Ongoing in the Flux gallery

October 2, 7:00 pm – 9 pm
An evening with BROODWORK and Meow Wolf Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
An Evening with BROODWORK & Meow Wolf description

October 6, 7 pm
Crash Course on Collective Process Screening organized by Paper Tiger Television, Red Channels and Union Docs
Union Docs: 322 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Suggested donation: $10
Crash Course description

October 7, 7 pm – 10 pm
Pecha Kucha
Nurture Art: 910 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Pecha Kucha description

October 8, 11 am – 4 pm
Bench Press Redux by BroLab
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101 & along the Q39 and B57 bus routes
Bench Press Redux description

October 8, 3 pm
Collective Lock-in with public panel discussions
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
Collective Lock-in description

October 9, 4 pm
SP Weather Station presents EARTH / FUTURE: Utopia—Dystopia—Ecotopia?
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
EARTH/FUTURE description

Why do artists imagine the future? Will we see Utopia? Dystopia? Ecotopia? The third in a series of events related to Air, Water, Earth and Fire, SP Weather Station presents EARTH / FUTURE, featuring a presentation by artist Judy Natal.

As a photographer and the first artist-in-residence at Biosphere 2 (and co-creator of its ongoing residency program), Natal has often been an observer of contained environments—artificial ecosystems and protected and designed wildernesses—in an uncertain relationship to alien terrain. She travels to extreme environments to capture images that suggest life “after nature,” or perhaps a new relationship between the Earth, the built environment, and our human-ness.

Her interest in the way landscapes are altered—by scientists, engineers, designers, and utopians—has recently opened a broader inquiry into the myriad sources of our collectively constructed futuristic visions. Mining fields such as science fiction, ecology, robotics, architecture, and art history for source material, Natal posits a relationship between a fantastical/imagined future and the peculiar ways the land is already technologized for research, tourism, and survival.

For EARTH / FUTURE, Natal will explore themes and questions raised by her latest body of work, Future Perfect, while surveying some of the artworks, images, and texts that contribute to our visions of futurity. Audience members will be invited to join the conversation and participate in compiling a visual bibliography for further reading on Utopian/Dystopian/Ecotopian themes. Please bring along visual representation (copies, drawings, paintings, collages, snaps, etc.) of your favorite books on this subject to add to our library installation.

Click here for more information.

This event is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

October 10 - 12
Actions by Reactor, AAS, and Gaengeviertel
Actions description

October 11, 7 pm – 9 pm
Hotel Bar Club
La Piscine rooftop pool bar at Hotel Americano: 518 W27th Street, NYC
Hotel Bar Club description

October 12, 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Struggle with Gentrification panel discussion
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
Reclaiming Space description

October 13, 4 pm – 8 pm
Manifesto Bookstorm during Creative Time’s Living As Form
Essex Street Market: 120 Essex Street, NYC 10002
Manifesto Bookstorm description

October 13, 8 pm
Flux Thursday
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
Flux Thursday description

October 14, 4 am – 9 pm
Bench Press Redux by BroLab
Bench Press Redux description

October 14, 7 pm – 9 pm
Greatest Love of All: An Impromptu Collective by Angela Beallor, Kerry Downey & Niknaz Tavakolian
Holiday Inn Skyline Suite: 39-05 29th Street, 17th Floor, Long Island City 11101
Greatest Love of All description

October 15, 2 pm - 10 pm
Tactical Urbanism Salon hosted by DoTank:Brooklyn, Street Plans, and Tomorrow Lab
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City, Queens 11101
Urbanize Conference description

October 15 & 16
Lentils Beyond Control Restaurant by Makan
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
Lentils Beyond Control description

October 16, 10 am
Williamsburg Waterfront Walking Tour with Lacey Tauber and Gaengeviertel
Meet at East River State Park, Kent Avenue at North 8th Street
Williamsburg Walking Tour description

October 16, 2 pm – 6 pm
The Confederation of Spaceships First Unconvention
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City 11101
Unconvention description

The Confederation seeks to form a collaborative, international organization that acts as a cultural catalyst, focusing on projects that encourage and enable social and cultural change and exchange on both global and local scales. SHARING IS CARING, WE CARE. The conversation begins at 2 pm, please join us from the start.
To confirm participation, contact keremjh[at]gmail[dot]com.

October 17, 2 pm
Resistance Walk hosted by Frank Morales and Gaengeviertel
Thompkins Square Park, corner of Avenue A & 7th Street, NYC 11226
Resistance Walk description

October 19, 7 pm
Collaborative Means
Flux Factory: 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City, Queens 11101
Collaborative Means description

Congress of Collectives is supported, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Materials for the Arts; and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties.

Detailed listing of events available here.

Congress of Collectives is designed to unite collectives, individuals who choose to work collaboratively, and audience members. The three week-long series of events will examine the many forms of collaboration, participation, and self-organization and will provide a platform to generate new works, discussions, and enduring relationships. Congress of Collectives will include formal programming such as panels, talks, screenings, and performances, and informal programing, including dinners, impromptu discussions and actions.

Initiated by Flux Factory, the Congress has been planned and developed collaboratively by artists, city planners, architects, arts administrators, film makers, and activists representing over 24 collectives from the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

With Flux Factory in Long Island City as the central hub, the Congress’ many events and projects will also take place in various venues including Creative Time’s ‘Living As Form’ project space at the Essex Street Market (Manhattan), Silvershed (Manhattan), Union Docs (Brooklyn), NurtureArt (Brooklyn) and Bronx River Art Center (Bronx).

Participants: Aabille (DK), AAS (UK), Action Club (US), Bhome (US), Birds’ Ear View (UK/US), Brolab (US), Bronx River Art Center (US), BROODWORK (US), DePave (US), DoTank:Brooklyn (US), Flux Factory (US), Gaengeviertel (DE), Ghana Think Tank (US), Hotel Bar Club (US), Little Berlin (US), Madagascar Institute (US), Makan (JO), Meow Wolf (US), Openhagen (DK), Paper Tiger Television (US), Parfyme (DK/NO/US), Pie Lab (US), Play Lab (US), Raketa (SE), Reactor (UK), Red Channels (US), Social Practices Art Network (SPAN) (US), Spaceship (IL), SP Weather Station (US), Street Plans (US), The Work Office (US), Tomorrow Lab (US), ULTRAFUTURO (Bulgaria/Russia), Union Docs, Urban Layers (US), Voina (RU), Wooloo (DK). Curated by Douglas Paulson & Christina Vassallo, organized by Summer Guthery with special thanks to Angela Washko for production assistance.

More information about Congress of Collectives workshops, public actions, discussions, and meetings can be found here.

Contact christina[at]fluxfactory[dot]org for press inquiries.

Congress of Collectives is supported, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Materials for the Arts; and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties.

GETTING READY FOR ACTION

MoMA PS1 | 22-25 Jackson Ave. | LIC | NY 11101
Chashama | 25-25 44th Dr. | LIC | NY 11101
Flux Factory | 39-31 29th St. | LIC | NY 11101

This event is part of Urban Design Week 2011

The world’s first real-time architecture festival is coming to Long Island City in 2012.

To prepare for the event, we invite residents, professionals and city officials to an action packed day of ideas, fun and inspiration.

Change in the public space is seen as difficult and slow. Let’s challenge that notion. Let’s ask: Can a city respond to change as it happens? Who is responsible? Where are the resources? What can we do?

We invite you to explore these questions with us, and come up with answers we could not have imagined. Our goal is to open up the process, encourage change and participation in city planning and foster new ideas about what can be done in public space. 

72 HOUR URBAN ACTION is the world’s first real-time architecture festival. 100 participants in 10 international teams, have 3 days and nights to design and build projects in public space.

The first edition took place in 2010 in the Bat-Yam Biennale of Landscape Urbanism, and the next will take place in 2012 in Long Island City!

In preparation for the event, we invite you to join us for a day of brainstorming sessions, inclusive public planning workshops, talks with professionals and city officials, and a guided tour.

SEPTEMBER 17TH 2011

9:30 am – 10:00 am | PS1
Gathering and Registration
Hello and Coffee

10:00 am – 10:30 am | PS1
Introduction
By 72 Hour Urban Action directors Kerem Halbrecht and Gilly Karjesvky

10:30 am – 11:00 am | PS1
DIY Urbanism vs. Tactical Urbanism
An exploration and contemplation of independent urbanism.
By Aurash Khawarzad of DoTank:Brooklyn

11:00 am – 12:30 pm | PS1
LIC after Holding Pattern
Guided tour in Long Island City following the PS1 installation Holding Pattern. A unique opportunity to learn about LIC from the people’s point of view. By Interboro Partners

2:30 pm – 4:30 pm | Chashama
Imaginarium
Brainstorming and Urban Creativity sessions with 72HUA Directors

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm | Chashama
What’s Next?
Open Discussion with Residents, Professionals and City Officials

9:00 pm – Late | Flux Factory
Everyone’s a Winner Party
$10 in advance | $15 at the door

Build a Twitter Bot
Instructor: Jason Eppink
Dates & time: Saturday 9/10, 2 pm – 6 pm
Class fee: Free!

Novelty Twitter accounts are all the rage, netting book deals and even prime time TV shows. The only thing better than a novelty Twitter account is one you don’t have to update yourself. In this Twitter bot-building workshop, Flux Artist-in-Residence Jason Eppink will teach students how to make an automatic Twitter feed to be used for good…or evil. Students should bring a laptop and a basic knowledge of programming. This class is free, but you must RSVP to christina[at]fluxfactory[dot]org

DIY Manufacturing 
Instructors: thefuturefuture (Brandt Graves+Carrie McKnelly)
Date & time: Sunday 9/25, 2-5 pm
Class fee: $25

The recent surge in DIY culture and increasing availability of digital fabrication technologies has expanded the field of homebrew design and desktop manufacturing. Would-be makers have the option of using readily available online services like Ponoko or Shapeways, as well as low-cost 3D printers and CNC tools being developed by the Open Source community. In this class, students will be introduced to open source 3D modeling softwares and the online resources to produce almost anything. With a focus on 3D printing and flat cut CNC milling, thefuturefuture will guide students through an exercise to digitally model a light fixture. Mimicking digital fabrication tools, we will build up the fixture in sectional layers until the final form is achieved.

Students will leave with their custom designed lamp, a basic understanding of 3D modeling, and knowledge of the readily available resources to make things at home. Students should bring a laptop and cutting utensils (x-acto/ box cutter).

Introduction to Generative Systems with Processing
Instructor: Marius Watz
Dates & time: Tuesday 9/27, 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Class fee: $40

This class will introduce students to the conceptual and practical principles of generative systems and creative coding practices using Processing software. Building from essential computational concepts to more complex parametric processes, code will be discussed as a creative material. Digital artist Marius Watz will demonstrate how to go from abstract code to real-world outputs, whether for use on screen, print media or with 3D printing. Programming experience not a prerequisite, but some coding or scripting knowledge is helpful. Participants should bring laptops capable of running Processing.

Date: Saturday, September 17
Time: Doors open at 9 pm
21 and over

Have a competitive spirit but a lousy ability to conquer? Enjoy playing sports that end in group hugs, no matter who wins? Need a confidence boost? Then September 17th is your night!

Join Flux Factory for winning games, trophies, live music, dancing, and libations. Don’t worry, we aren’t keeping score but everyone will score!! There will be games that keep on giving; an Olympics-style platform for 1st, 1st, and 1st place; pie eating contests; raffles with a grand prize; and a marathon finish line right at the start.

Performances by Ninja Sex Party and The Ruffian Arms. Dancing tunes provided by DJ Dirty Finger, DJ James Stacher, DJ Tinseltown, DJ Mountains, DJ Vinyl Richie.

Games and installations by Flux Factory and Friends, Everyone’s a Weiner Veggie Treats by Drew, Arcade Games by Babycastles and many more surprises because…you can’t possibly lose at this party!

$10 advance / $15 at the door.

Everyone’s a Winner is a Flux Factory fundraiser and also the official Maker Faire after party, so Makers get free admission with credentials badge.

September 8th, 8pm+
Join us for Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck dinner and art salon! Dinner starts at 8 in the kitchen, and then around 9:30 we’ll head to the gallery.

In keeping with September’s Back to School workshops, this Flux Thursday will have a special art & tech focus. Digital artist Jer Thorp will discuss his algorithmic design for the NYC 9/11 Memorial. Current Flux Artists-in-Residence Gretta Louw and Angela Washko will discuss their recent and upcoming projects both at home and abroad. Sparked by an inflammatory Twitter exchange, media art curators Lindsay Howard and Marius Watz will face off in a curatorial death match speed debate about media art, Net Art 2.0, kittens and whether “everything is equal on the Internet” (moderated by Julia Kagansky). Cellist Anna Callner and artist Shantell Martin of My New Project will perform a live music and vj set. Finally, we’ll be raffling off two tickets to Maker Faire and our Everyone’s a Winner party on September 17.

Bring drinks or something delicious to share!

The borderline between reality and fiction often take on the form of the absurd to the point where this line becomes unstable. A central concern of Aabille is a specific and insistent interpretation of the world, which, because of it’s limited and defined scope, will never be adequate in a complex modern reality. Thereby failure is an imminent symptom of the work right from the beginning, but it only shows its grim face when Aabille has exhausted other opportunities.

See more on:http://www.aabille.dk

Dates: September 21 – 24
Time: Doors open at 7:00 pm, show starts at 8:00 pm
Admission: $2 in advance / $5 at the door

Be There For Me is an original theater production written and directed by Theresa Arthur. The play takes place in a floral shop, owned by the heroine Alex Mitchell. She suffers unexpected heartbreak when her boyfriend Jessie cheats on her. Seeking revenge, Alex agrees to a spur-of-the-moment plan to pose as a couple with her best friend Nate. While fighting her emerging feelings for Nate, Alex is thrown into the constant ebb and flow of “he loves me, or he loves me not.” 2 hours.

Produced by students of Laguardia Community College. Starring Christina Biondo, Nelson Patino Jr, Kareema Moore, Sharif Griggs, and Tony-Ann Nelson.

To order advance tickets contact reezluvfilmz@yahoo.com

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PERFORMANCE SCHEDULED FOR 9/20 HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

We are grateful to Experimental TV Center and the Electronic Media and Film Program of the New York State Council on the Arts for recognizing Flux Factory in this way.

NOVEMBER
In November, Gretta Louw is doing a 10 day residential performance at Art Laboratory Berlin, followed later in the month with a solo exhibition at the same space. The opening for that show will be the 25th of November.

Alexandra Wolkowicz will be taking part in “Home and Away,” at ISE Cultural Foundation opening November 4th.

Gretta Louw is also taking part in the Neukoelln Import annual exhibition “Koffer” and the WerkStadt KunstSatellit exhibition for Nachtundnebel in Berlin during November.

OCTOBER
Alexandra Wolkowicz will be taking part in ‘Art in Odd Places’ with her ‘Birds’ Ear View’ collective. Birds Ear View collective will be active on 14th Street from October 1st – 4th. Free birds, free art, free money.

Join Alexandra Wolkowicz and Birds Ear View for a one-off audiovisual installation at Theaterlab on October 2nd.

Alex Young has a site specific installation in Dwell, an exhibition at Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside in Troy NY (71 Mill Street) opening Saturday, October 8th.

The Field of Distribution at Making, Meaning, and Context: A Radical Reconsideration of Arts’ Work is a panel discussion Alex Young is speaking in. (Goddard College- Plainfield, VT.  Friday, October 14th at 3:30.)

Miatta Kawinzi’s film Amrka will be a part of the Reel Sisters of the African Diaspora film festival held October 15th & 16th at the Kumble Theater in Brooklyn.

Alison Ward and Shane Heinemeier are having a fundraiser party/silent auction/performance event at Flux Factory on October 29th to support their Habitable Spaces project.

SEPTEMBER
In September, Douglas Paulson and Ward Shelley will be traveling through the DeCordova Museum without ever touching the floor, building a piece called Grow Or Die as we go.  It’s part of Temporary Structures: Performing Architecture in Contemporary Art.

Inspired by an old Fluxer expression, Nick Normal will be exhibiting his interactive toy-sculpture Your Lack of Stress is Stressing Me Out at the 2nd annual World Maker Faire at the NY Hall of Science, September 17 & 18.

Alison Ward and Angela Washko are collaborating on a live performance as the featured artists at ACNY’s annual donor cultivation event on September 27th.

AUGUST
In August, Douglas Paulson is participating in the EFA’s Studio Residency for New York City Arts Workers.

Fluxer Gretta Louw recently presented work at MarinArt. Video documentation can be viewed here.  This summer the MarinArt series at Marina 59 has been curated by new Flux contributor Arthur Poisson.

Miatta Kawinzi will be one of the artists in the 2nd annual Black August Art Exhibition at the Brecht Forum, with the reception held Saturday, August 20th.

Alex Young‘s Space Was the Place at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts – North Adams, is on display from August 25 – September 25.  The opening reception is at 6 – 9 pm on Thursday, August 25.

Adrian Owen will be performing in Panoply Lab’s new opera project Institute_Institut at The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thomson Avenue Long Island City, NY) on Thursday August 25th at 7 pm. There are more dates throughout August and September.

A video work by Angela Washko is being screened in Paradoxes in Video at Garage Gallery in San Diego, CA.

Say Something Nice happened. Jason Eppink and Alex Young designed the podium and Alex fabricated it. Jason also shot the video.

Opening reception: Thursday, August 25th, 6 pm – 9 pm
With a special screening and live musical accompaniment at 8 pm
Dates: Friday, August 26th, 10 am – 6 pm

Las Hermanas Iglesias present Faraway Neighbor, an exhibition of sculpture, painting, performance and video by 5 Tasmanian and 5 New York based artists. This exhibition is part of a larger exchange project that started in 2008. After a recent visit to Tasmania, Las Hermanas invited 5 artists living in the capital city of Hobart to exhibit in New York. They then sought out 5 artists within their local community whose work resonated with their Australian neighbors.

As the exhibition title suggests, while oceans apart, the studio practice of these two groups is strongly connected. Threads that weave between the performative, sculptural and two dimensional works include utilitarian and architectural references, deft craftsmanship with unlikely materials, and a nod to absurd visions through the lens of sincerity in order to comprehend our participation within changing environments.  The exhibition features work by Trudi Brinckman, Lee Lee Chan, Adam Frezza, Jeff Kurosaki & Tara Pelletier (The Friendly Falcons and Their Friend the Snake), Colin Langridge, Esperanza Mayorbe, Mish Meijers, Tom O’Hern, Tricky Walsh and Amanda Valdez. Faraway Neighbor will serve as a platform for introducing and connecting these artists and their work to each other and the New York City community.

Faraway Neighbor is a one-night only event on Thursday, August 25th, 6pm-9pm. At 8 pm the Friendly Falcons will screen their latest video project, “Oh, river” with live musical accompaniment. A free limited edition, two-sided newspaper poster with an exhibition essay by Jeremy Mikolajczak (Director and Chief Curator, University of Central Missouri Gallery of Art & Design, Warrensburg, MO) will be available.

Consider escaping your common, everyday tasks and places without using your common, everyday devices. Through installation, painting, drawing, and video, Yana Dimitrova and Angela Washko portray the mundane patterns and structures of everyday experience and consider models of living that exist outside of our “to-buy-is-to-gratify” mentality. Stripping fast food architecture and smart phone technology of it’s branding and context, Washko and Dimitrova present what remains – hollow monuments to consumer culture.

The Greatest Achievements, an installation by Dimitrova, is a much larger than life checklist that borrows symbols from a smart phone organizational tool. The piece represents the cyclical process of writing a task, creating a box, achieving the task, checking the box, and adding new tasks. Bright check boxes suggest urgency, and darker tones define more common day-to-day tasks. Also on display are her landscape paintings, which counter the capitalist dream of monetary gain and opportunity for all. Highway billboards are whitewashed and massive malls are discomforting in their emptiness.

Washko’s Church’s Kentucky Fried McDonald’s Hut removes the context of fast food chain restaurants from California to Maine to Texas to Kansas to Pennsylvania in an effort to reveal their homogeneity, the effectiveness of corporate branding, and the dominance of their existence within the built landscape. Set in the remote village of Laugarvatn in Iceland, the artist’s latest video work takes a satirical approach to the concept of unequal exchange in the history of merchant culture and New York City as a brand throughout the world.

Yana Dimitrova graduated from the School of Fine Arts “Acd. Iliya Petrov” in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2002 and received a BFA (2006) and MFA (2008) from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Her most recent exhibitions took place in Berlin, Budelsdorff (Germany), Bath, Manchester (UK), New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta (USA), and Sofia (Bulgaria). Dimitrova currently lives and works in New York, NY. She has exhibited most recently at
Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects in Chelsea.

Angela Washko is a current artist-in-residence at Flux Factory and has recently completed residencies at Gullkistan in Iceland, The Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside in Troy, NY, and The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. She holds a BFA from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally including most recently The Rotterdam International Film Festival, LUMEN in New York City,The Athens Video Art Festival, Carnival of e-Creativity in New Dehli, Videopolis in Barcelona, The New Media Festival in Cologne, The Self Destructing Art Show at Flux Factory, and The Budapest Short Film Festival.

Email angela.washko@gmail.com for inquiries.

The Floating Neutrinos were a bohemian family who sailed around the Northern Hemisphere in house boats made of scavenged wood. I actually met them on-board one of these funky floating domiciles in 1998 while gathering sound for an NPR story about the State of New York’s efforts to evict them from the Hudson River off of Lower Manhattan. When Papa Neutrino, a.k.a. David Pearlman, dropped by my loft to pick up a copy of the NPR story, he asked if the piece mentioned his plan to cross the Atlantic and establish a floating orphanage in India. I told it did not and Papa Neutrino– may he rest in peace– was quite annoyed. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I thought there was no way the scrappy houseboat was capable of a trans-Atlantic voyage, especially after watching a harrowing video of it being tossed around in 12-foot swells off of Labrador. Some months later, sitting on a bench at the Union Square farmer’s market in Manhattan, I looked in disbelief at the front page of the New York Daily News. The Neutrinos, who were aiming for France, had landed in Ireland!

A few years later, the Neutrinos drifted into Port Isabel, Texas where a 19 year-old college dropout named Constance Hockaday was living with her parents. Hockaday, a rather alienated young woman, immediately became enthralled with the idea of living on a boat and not paying rent. Before long, she was on the boat, so to speak. Her life hasn’t been the same since.

That was ten years ago and if you sit with Hockaday, as I did recently, and listen to her explain the impact the Neutrinos have had on her worldview, or her admiration of Nancy Boggs, who presided over a floating brothel on the Wilamette River in 19th Century Portland, Oregon, you definitely come away with the sense that if anyone was going to create a floating hotel on Jamaica Bay in New York City, it would be Hockaday.

Over the course of a month from early June till early July, she and a small crew of DIY volunteers transformed an old houseboat and the fiberglass hulls of four abandoned motor boats into a “boatel.” This cheap hotel is located at a marina in the Rockaways, a strip of New York City waterfront that has become a destination in recent years for young hipsters. Marina 59 is situated on an inlet with a bird’s eye view of jumbo jets taking off from John F. Kennedy airport. The five vessels are attached to two pencil docks and a floating platform on to which Hockaday has erected a wood frame for a movie screen. Hell, if you’re going to make a floating hotel, why not include a “boat-in” movie theater?

The marina is a fitting location for these unconventional accommodations. It has a couple of goats on the premises that roam around “mowing” the lawn, two shipping containers being transformed into an art gallery/performance space, and one of the houseboats at Marina 59 is an off-the-grid vessel named Jerko where sustainability workshops are held. Jerko includes a composting toilet on a raft. Where else would you moor a boatel but a few paces from Jerko at the end of Dock C?
“I did throw around the idea of creating a floating brothel but I don’t know if I’m quite madame material,” Hockaday says with a straight face.

For as little as $50, you can spend a night at what has been christened the Boggsvile Boatel. Ms. Nancy Boggs, a houseboat that is more than 40 years old and can supposedly sleep up to five, is named after the infamous Oregonian madame. It goes for $100 a night and is described on the boatel’s web page as a “down-home love nest” with two beds, one of which “can fit 3.5 people… It is the perfect place to roll around with more than one or two.” Okay…

The rest of the boatel consists of motorboats sans engines. Most are around 30 feet long. They don’t have electricity, so guests rely on candles or flashlights. And the boats don’t have working bathrooms, so it’s a long walk down Dock C, past some picnic tables and a parking lot, to Marina 59′s showers and toilets. The marina’s communal bathrooms have a sign warning tenants not to scale fish in the sink under penalty of expulsion.

Boatel guests get a warning, too, after signing a liability waver. The welcome letter informs them that the boatel is not a real hotel. “This is an adventure at best and an art project at worst,” it says. And the letter warns “if we feel that you are too drunk or obnoxious, we reserve the right to send you home in a taxi at your expense.”

Still, despite the lack of amenities and the fact that the boatel is at least an hour by subway from Manhattan, it’s sold out for the rest of the summer. The place is supposed to close on Labor Day.

Among those who spent a night there are Brooklynites Greta Gertler and Adam Gold, who were celebrating their third anniversary. The couple has a band called The Universal Thump.

“I didn’t realize how much I actually really enjoy watching planes take off,” said Gertler, as a steady stream of jumbo jets ascended from Kennedy Airport and soared east over the Atlantic. “It’s just a matter of stopping for a while and watching what’s around you. New York is generally a great place to do that but this takes it to another level,” she says with a laugh.

Gertler and Gold sat on the deck of the Queen Zenobia drinking beer as the sun set on the not totally rustic maritime getaway. Later they barbecued sausage on foot-high grills in the darkness. It was so cool at the marina that evening, your MAKE correspondent wished he had brought a flannel shirt.

If it weren’t for the periodic roar of jet planes taking off and the A train rumbling by on elevated subway track a couple of blocks away, it’s easy to forget you’re in New York City. The Jamaica Bay nature preserve is off in the distance and as you look into the bay, JFK’s air traffic control tower sticks out over the tree line. On one side of the inlet there’s a public housing project and on the other a school bus parking lot. The boatel also has a great view of a sunken tugboat, portions of which become more visible with the changing tide. The old tug is symbolic of what happens to old vessels that are not worth salvaging. It was simply left to rot dead in the water.

Marina 59, like so many other boat marinas around the country, has been plagued by owners abandoning their vessels. Owner Ari Zablozki was eager to donate fiberglass motor boat hulls to Hockaday’s wacky project. The abandoned boats cost several hundred dollars each to have junked.

“People abandon their boasts very quickly,” complains Zablozki, who has movie star good looks and happens to own a bar in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. “Once the engines in these fiberglass-hulled boats are gone, they’re basically worthless, so the people who own them usually just dump them on the marina. When I took over a year and a half ago, there was about 90 junked boats piled on top of each other in the back. It’s horrible. It becomes a giant junkyard, so you have to really stay on top of it.”

It can cost as much as $10,000 to replace a failed engine in a motor boat, according to Nobby Peers of Whitworth Marine Services in Patchogue, Long Island. Boat owners usually decide that with new boats costing around $15,000 to $20,000, it doesn’t make sense to sink so much money into a battered fiberglass hull, says Peers who makes his living doing marine engine restorations.

Needless to say, Zablozki was more than happy to donate the abandoned boats at his marina to Hockaday’s boatel. He was introduced to Hockaday by the Flux Factory, a Long Island City-based arts group that organized Sea Worthy, a series of exhibitions, installations and boat trips celebrating the city’s marine heritage. Flux Factory helped Hockaday gather donations of building materials and decorating supplies from two local non-profits, Build It Green NYC and Materials for the Arts. Hockaday is reported to have spent $2,000 out of her own pocket on the boatel, some of which went to a neon sign at the end of Dock C that proclaims “BOATEL.” She’s also collected lumber in dumpsters around Queens and Brooklyn for the project. Some of the volunteers came from a mention in Nonsense NYC, a weekly email that lists quirky art projects. “We have a barbecue pit and the swimming is good,” the call for volunteers noted.

“Some of the biggest work that we did was actually getting the boats to float,” explains Hockaday, who has an undergraduate degree in Participatory Community Development from Prescott College in Arizona. “We had to put them on cranes, lower them into the water, found out that they leaked like all hell, plugged them up, sealed them. This and that. I mean, that was probably the bulk of the work.” There was also some upholstering done with a staple gun and ripping out a lot of old, moldy carpet inside the boats. Hockaday insists she’s not trying to bring Burning Man to Far Rockaway.

“There had to be an element of it that was adventurous enough to really feel like you were stepping off of that dock and into a different place, but not so aesthetically overwhelming to separate it from what is already here and already really beautiful,” she explains.

Many of the working class fishermen who keep their boats at the marina were unaware of the boatel’s existence. But Rob Bryn, a 34 year-old musician who sublet his apartment in Brooklyn for the summer and is staying in a fiberglass hull he is renovating on Dock B, is hip to the boatel scene. Bryn spray painted his name on the hull of his craft and placed several five-gallon buckets with house plants on the bow.

“The economy being what it is, this is a vacation spot that’s a subway ride away,” he points out. “So the fact that people can come on down here and get acquainted with this place, I think is great.”

One of my favorite things about New York is the waterfront. As a tour guide, I pound pavement and strut the streets, but getting onto the water, with the Harbor breeze in my hair and the salt spray in my nostrils, thats the stuff. So when I heard about participating in The Battle For Mau Mau Island, two weekends ago, I couldn’t say no.

Last summer Flux Factory, an art collective based in Long Island City, organized a number of bus trips around the tri-state area. Then the bus got sold. And Flux Factorians learned how to build canoes. Therefore, this summer Flux declared The Summer of the Boat, with all sorts of funny boat-themed events, most of them taking place at Marina 59 in the Far Rockaways. When Swimming Cities, (another fantastic art collective who plans to sail to the Ganges in October) asked Flux to participate in the Inaugural Battle for Mau Mau Island, then they Swimming Cities asked me and Matt to MC, we knew it was going to be another one-of-a-kind NYC summertastic event. How could it not? Do-It-Yourself boat builders, toxic punks, ancient Rowman warriors (get it?) and art stars of all kinds came out to the southern tip of Brooklyn, in Gerritsen Beach to participate. They came with rafts, catamarans and real-deal motorboats for a day of water-based activities.

Once we were on the anchored, engine-free Chris Craft, armed with megaphones, we opened our mouths and did what we do best – talked loudly. First up – a circumnavigational, 4 mile, row-powered race around Mau Mau. Competitors included an arty catamaran called “Good Enough,” an ancient skeleton revived as a canoe named “Lazarus Rex,” a go-nowhere raft entitled “Mermaid Sea Monkeys,” and a sad, barely connected batch wooden planks that went by the crafty title of “S.S. Botulism”. The winner was a no-nonsense team of rowers called “The Notorious G.I.G.”

After the race, all participants came ashore for the event that everyone was waiting for…the Boat Joust! Just off shore, two teams of rowers in 15-ft canoes picked up as much momentum as possible while warriors, standing in the back of each canoe & clad in floatable armor aimed 10 ft long Styrofoam jousting poles at each other. Most of the time somebody fell off, but if you ask me, everyone was a winner!

After the Boat Joust, it was time for a well-deserved drink. Where else to head but to a DIY bar installed underneath a Belt Pkwy bridge!? Duke Riley; artist, provocateur, submarine builder and mastermind behind a giant Roman-style aquatic battle undearneath the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows in 2009, built his bar out of driftwood and lined the “liquor shelves” with vintage bottles found on Bottle Beach, near Dead Horse Bay. Called the Dead Horse Inn, drinks cost a measly five cents and one could get any whiskey, gin, vodka or rum drink they thirsted for.

Lit by tiki torches, with the sun setting over Manhattan so very far away, yet the outline of the Empire State Building still very visible. It was one of the more memorable moments in the bar, when all the day’s warriors raised a glass to celebrate NY’s aquatic culture and wondered aloud at this magical arty, marshy, reedy no man’s land, stil within New York City.

After hearing about Flux Factory artist Constance Hockaday’s floating art project/ boat hotel in the Rockaways last month, we decided to take a little staycation and check out the Boatel for a night. The once-abandoned boats, tethered at the end of fisherman’s favorite Pier 59, are by no means luxury accommodations, and Hockaday is quick to stress that this isn’t a real hotel. Instead, it’s a gathering place for creative types to pontificate and play music at the Floating Theater, take rowboats out on Jamaica Bay, and stay up all night drinking whiskey. Here’s a look at what to expect, and our talk with Hockaday about the floating project, which will be up through Labor Day.

Where did idea for this whole thing come from? I named the Boatel for Nancy Boggs, who ran a floating brothel in Portland. I didn’t want to do a brothel, ethically, because I’m not a sex worker, so it just didn’t feel right. But I did want to do a boat hotel. I’ve been building on the water for ten years, I was involved with Swimming Cities a few years back. My dad is a marine biologist, I’ve always loved the water. I used to write poems to the ocean. I’ve always had a fascination with the water.

How long did it take to put the Boatel together? Flux Factory picked up my proposal in March. In June, I met Ari, the marina owner, and he also wanted a Boatel. He donated all the boats.

What were the boats before? They were just abandoned boats, trash boats really.

What did you have to do to boats to turn them into a Boatel? Basically I had to rip out the interiors, put in paneling, seal up the leaks so they would float. [Laughs.] Most of them, I had to strip the entire insides. Then I got to decorate [motions toward the assorted nautical knicknacks.]

How did you promote the Boatel? Did you do any advertising or was it more word of mouth? No, none. Flux Factory has a really dedicated group of artists who follow them. And then when the New York Times picked us up things got a little crazy. Now it’s getting huge. BBC was here shooting earlier today, some Chinese television station is coming tonight…it’s pretty nuts.

Who are most of the people who stay here? It’s mainly other artists. But it varies, too, we’ve been selling out pretty much right from the get-go.

The programming at the Floating Theater—was that always a part of your idea? [Ed note: The night we visited, artist Jeff Stark came aboard the floating theater to discuss Moby Dick backed by a live stand-up bass and video projections.] Absolutely. We’ve shown videos, documentaries about water, heard from people who are doing political or scientific things with water, all sorts of stuff. We didn’t just want it to be this bar scene full of drunk people– even though sometimes it can turn into that, at least there was some smart stuff beforehand.

What happens at the end of the season? On Labor Day, we’ll pull the boats out, and tear them down. I’m sure the marina will do something with them.

Will there be a Boatel next year? I’m sure. I think the marina definitely wants to do something again. I’ll probably help them get it set up, but I’m kind of hoping that I’ll get called to some other part of the planet to do a Boatel there.

Mexican workers represent a high percentage of the US labor force, working all kinds of occupations, from teachers and scientists to construction workers, playing a invaluable role in US economy and community. Journalist Eduardo Porter will be leading a conversation about how this nation benefits from Mexican migration, and how it is that Mexican communities contribute to the growth of this country.

This evening is presented as part of artist Natalia Porter’s Trajinera Boatbuilding Workshop. The Trajinera is a Pre-Hispanic Mexican Barge used in the Xochimilco area of Mexico City. Natalia Porter uses the trajinera in this project as a literal and figurative platform for the discussion of Mexican Culture in New York City and the nation as a whole.

DIRECTIONS:
The best way to arrive at Valentino Pier is by the Free IKEA water Taxi. It leaves from Wall St. in Downtown Manhattan. More info here: http://info.ikea-usa.com/Brooklyn/StoreDirections.aspx

From Brooklyn, Take the B61 bus to Red Hook at Coffey St.

Saturday, August 13 · 12:00pm – 3:00pm
Gowanus Studio Space, 166 7th street, Brooklyn

SHANGHAI’D, SHIPWRECKED, and MAROONED with MARE LIBERUM — BAMBOO + ZIP TIES = KAYAK

Mare Liberum, the freeform boatbuilding collective based in Gowanus finds its roots in centuries-old stories of urban water squatters and haphazard water craft builders. Past workshops have centered on our fleet of historic 15′ banks dories, but this workshop will instead focus on cheap methods to produce a skin on frame Bamboo Kayak. Each workshopper will walk out with a kayak, built with little more than bamboo, zip ties, canvas and a bit of paint.

$45 suggested Donation.

SIGN UP: www.gowanusstudio.eventbri​te.com

www.wolkowicz.com

Thursday, August 11, 8 pm +

Join us for Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck and salon! Dinner starts at 8 in the kitchen, and then around 9:30 we’ll head to the gallery. In-house Fluxer Lawman Lynch will perform, and Ivan Argote and Pauline Bastard will present their latest work. Miatta Kawinzi and Jamal Jordan will do a performance piece in conversation with footage of Sun Ra and his Arkestra on the theme of space/time transcendence. Sea Worthy intern extraordinaire Arthur Poisson will discuss his summer research project and Maria Schweitzer will show her recent drawings. Las Hermanas Iglesias will talk about the upcoming exhibition they are organizing in the Flux Gallery, Faraway Neighbor–featuring 5 artists from NYC paired with 5 Tasmanian artists. Bring drinks or something delicious to share!

Image: Untitled (Out the Train Window I), Maria Schweitzer, 2011.