5th Annual Transmodern Festival Live.Art.Action

Andrea Shearer is an accomplished musician with 4 album credits plus a bucket full of 7″ and compilation releases. She is currently drumming with Pariah Piranha (Queer Control Records), and is a guest drummer for Brooklyn-based pop duo NA+AN. Pariah Piranha’s second album “Animus Unanimous” is in production.

Kristen Anchor is a Baltimore video artist and musician. Her goofy, political videos have screened all over the U.S. and appeared on several independent film compilations. She’s the drummer for The Degenerettes, Baltimore’s all-girl underground garage group.

Project Name: Monster Drummer Thunderupagus
Project Description: Monster Drummer Thunderupagus is an unlikely untenably metal-head drummer from another dimension. Thunderupagus is not cute; it is fierce, jamming on its sweet fifteen-piece monster drum kit. Thunderupagus will be on Earth for one show only, Sunday, Apr 6th for Pedestrian Service Exquisite.

David James Armacost and April Danielle Lewis met in 2006. Since then they’ve exhibited their artwork and curated shows in Baltimore, at Large Glass Project Space; Sub-Basement Gallery, and Spin Alternative Art Space ; in Annapolis, at the Maryland Federation of Art ; in Wilmington DE, at the Lo-Fi Gallery; and at the University of Delaware. Armacost, who received his BFA from the Corcoran College of Art in 2002, is a native resident of Baltimore Lewis recently earned an AA in visual art from Anne Arundel Community College and is pursuing her BFA in printmaking at Towson University. By subscribing to contemporary art on a local, regional, and national level, David James and April Danielle both remain committed to enriching the arts in Baltimore.

Project Name: Spring Promenade 2008
Project Description: A passerby encounters the ’surreal moment’ of a red carpet photo shoot-everyone is encouraged to participate, either stand in front of the logos, or take pictures. Professional photographers will also be photographing whoever is in the photographic area. The bright colors and flashing strobe lights will capture the attention and imagination of all those nearby.

Kelley Bell is an Artist, Animator, Designer and dilettante extraordinaire living and working in Baltimore city.

Project Name: Hydra
Project Description: A very large talking monster: when one addresses the Hydra through a microphone, it repeats what you said back to you: although each of the Hydra’s nine heads regurgitates your speech in a different distorted way. The hydra says a lot of things all at once; each of its heads has its own nuances, its own way of speaking, in an effort to please everyone. A hydra does not lie, but the truth that emerges from the Hydra’s lips is a definite departure from the original.

Andrea Bocchio is a Peruvian artist, graduating from MICA in May with a degree in Fiber and Art History. She studied Fashion Knitwear in London and has been working in knit and print fashion collections. She is interested in the cycle of luxury, the real and the counterfeit, roles of bodies and identity in fashion.

Project Name: Andrea Bocchio for Louis Vuitton
Project Description: Bocchio has created this 18 look collection based on fake Louis Vuitton bags and her re-interpretation of the classic monogram LV fabric. All the looks also feature fur head dresses that veil the identity of the models. For this festival, she was inspired by the idea of the tableau with models posing in a space and interacting with props to create a narrative and a guerrilla fashion show where high fashion can be brought back to the streets, the original source of the fakes. Moving luxury from the elite to the masses is paramount for Bocchio’s work, bringing the cycle of luxury full circle.

Alessandro Bosetti is a composer and sound artist working on the musicality of spoken words and unusual aspects of spoken communication, producing text-sound compositions featured in live performances, radio broadcastings and published recordings. In his work he moves across the line between sound anthropology and composition, often including translation and misunderstanding in the creative process. Field research and interviews build the basis for abstract compositions, along with electro-acoustic and acoustic collages, relational strategies, trained and untrained instrumental practices, vocal explorations and digital manipulations. In 2006 he\’s been living and working in West Africa, China, Taiwan, Holland, Scandinavia, United States , Germany and Italy.

Project Name: I am still asleep
Project Description: It takes place in a hotel room and in a bathroom. In the hotel room Bosetti is in the bed, still asleep or sort of and dreaming.

Hannah Brancato is an artist and textile designer who researches how lifestyle is affected by décor. A graduate from the Fiber Department at the MICA, she is based in Baltimore, where her work is currently on view at the Pinkard Gallery. She is the founder of The Doll Project at the House of Ruth and was co-curator of Made Home at the Current Gallery.

Alison Mazur is an artist whose work explores the dynamics of imagery and material to better understand the pursuit of happiness. Her work yields a positive recollection, approaching various mediums in a manner that places less significance on symbolic content, and more emphasis on stimulating a collective pleasure.

Project Name: Curtain Walk
Project Description: Passersby’s will be confronted by a maze of printed silk and woven industrial textiles in the alley way behind Load of Fun. The manipulated space will redefine the everyday experience of the otherwise neglected aesthetics of North Howard Street. Our interests are in creating a communal installation that is made functional by stimulating pleasure and initiating interaction.

Ingrid Burrington is from California, and has made terrible mistakes. Her website is www.lifewinning.com.

Project Name: Memorial For Everything That’s Ever Happened Ever
Project Description: “A public gathering to recall the vastness of history and the loss of our sense of it.”

Capet Baggers are Owen Brightman and Hermonie Williams

Owen Brightman - Artist, Independent Curator. His work includes performance, video, and instigation. Fronts as a migrant, a mime, or a muscle-man. Brightman creates an odd couple with and within himself and his audience. Some people become incredibly stimulated.

Hermonie Williams - Artist. Baltimore resident. Aesthete. Epistemological Liberal. Favorite color(s): Primaries. Aries. Subject matter of work includes but is not limited to: LOCATION, MOVEMENT, MASS, & PRESENCE.

Project Name: Rock Paper Scissors
Project Description: The audience will be confronted by a militia of mimes signing Party affiliations: Panther, Nazi, Hippie. In actuality these mimes will be playing Rock-Paper-Scissors. These gestures have simultaneous significance. The mimes will form a gauntlet, so that pedestrians can be trafficked between the two jeering, taunting, and provoking rows of rabble-rousing mimes.

DiTolvo and her accordion are recent transplants to the Baltimore area from Seattle. DiTolvo was the ringmistress for three years for Carnival Reverie, played percussion for carnies in The Bad Things, and is otherwise associated with several other dark characters.

Project Title: Roaming Accordion Player
Project Description: DiTolvo will be playing accordion for people as they go on tours throughout the day.

Lara Emerling is an interdisciplinary artist who produces work in drawing, sculpture and video. Her recent work comments on contemporary cultures constant ability to grow and collapse at the same time. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and will continue her studies there in art education. Emerling has shown her work at Current Gallery, Load of Fun, Maryland Art Place, Not Just Another White Cube, Substation Gallery, and Whartscape.

Project name: Walking Sticks
Project description: Lara Emerling will distribute walking sticks to pedestrians wandering near the corner of North Avenue and North Howard Street. These walking sticks will be made out of fallen tree branches and other various recycled materials such as fabrics, paint, tape, etc. Each walking stick will be an explosion of energy, which will happily be given to anyone walking through the festival that day. The walking sticks serve as a prop for pedestrians to think through and consider the idea of slowing down while walking through Baltimore.

Lindsay Fundakowski Feldman is a 21-year-old bi-coastal fibers student in Baltimore. She’s just weeks away from being cast naked, mewling and goo-covered into a world of frightening wilderness and domesticity, where she has no intentions of becoming a career fine artist. You can follow her poorly-edited adventures as camp counselor, passionate lover, conquerer-of-the-wilds, and domestic goddess at http://elleasinswell.blogspot.com.

Project Name: Pancake Manifesto
Project Description: Pancake Manifesto is a booth with a single vendor and a couple of gas-powered Coleman stoves, and gallons of pancake batter (including vegan). The artist has a variety of batters and fixings, and out of a need to nurture and covertly exert power over the audience, will dole out pancakes upon request, for no fee. Also available from the vendor at a minimal cost are ‘Zine-style “cookbooks” called “The Pancake Manifesto.”

Fluid Movement is a Baltimore-based performance art group that juxtaposes complex subject matter with delightful and unexpected mediums. We create art that is accessible, and often educational, for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Our performances are created for urban spaces, in Baltimore and beyond. For ten years, Fluid Movement has been working hard to share our joy and silliness and we do it all for one reason: we do it for the LOVE!

Project Name: Love Parade
Project Description: The Love Parade has so much LOVE to give and a kazillion ways to give it! We will host a “costume shop” for a parade at the end of the day. Then we take you on a grand street safari! Complete with a:

1. A troupe of Milkmaids.
2. Tourists in love (with each other, the city, and all the people and things they encounter).
3. A bonafide compliment girl, Melissa “Ultra” Sharlat, who is all about boosting the self-esteem of everyone she meets.
4. A strolling musician (accordion) who serenades YOU with amour.
5. A warm cuddly Care Bear (Joe Burton, “Esther Mer-man” in It’s a Wonderful Special, 2006 FM water ballet) who the instigator of a spontaneous hug-a-thon. He will lead the participants in passing hugs, a hug that crosses the Howard Street bridge and a hug around the LOF building.

Ilana Goldszer formerly of Michigan was raised by wolves. Ilana grew up in an animal-free traveling circus of thieves and magicians. Ilana’s astrological sign is Capricorn.

Project Name: Alternative Exchange Area a.k.a “Barter Shack”
Project Description: The Barter shack steward will open the barter shack with ornamental cabbage (edible!) and ornamental cabbage/kale kraut for trade. Any individual who wishes to barter goods or services is welcome to practice this activity within the barter shack. No activity involving the exchange of goods or services for currency except local or alternative currency may be practiced within the barter shack.

The Good Taste Committee is dedicated to fostering tastefulness in live human interaction. In an age of media interface, we find that Game structures ease the anxiety many feel in close contact with others.

Project Title: Segue
Project Description: Zoë Charlton and Cameron Ayres are honored to be representing the Good Taste Committee in the Pedestrian Service Exquisite in this year’s Transmodern Festival. We will establish a salon on a street corner in the area of the Exquisite. Conversation will flow, refreshments will be served and we will play a game of our own design, Segue. A player in Segue is given three unrelated topics – cotton candy, the Kremlin and Danish modern,for instance. The objective of the game is to steer conversation seamlessly from one topic to another. Tangents and non-sequiturs are grounds for expulsion from the game. In advanced rounds, players know each others’ topics and must vie for control of the conversation. The Good Taste Committee is dedicated to fostering tastefulness in live human interaction. In an age of media interface, we find that Game structures ease the anxiety many feel in close contact with others. We have found the model of the salon to be the perfect vehicle for re-stimulating dialogue.

Nicole Herbert resides in Harrisburg, PA where she has worked as an art educator for the past six years. She graduated from Lafayette College with degrees in anthropology and art and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, West Africa. Nicole is currently working towards her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art and expects to graduate in the summer of 2009. She has exhibited her work and created outdoor installations in central and eastern Pennsylvania.

Project Name: Placements
Project description: The “placements” project involves studying the area around North Ave. and locating areas to install plaster casts of objects that fit within voids or niches in this urban environment. These “placements” haven taken the form of placing plaster bricks within existing gaps, such as areas where bricks are missing in pathways or buildings. Other forms, such as construction cones, have also been cast and placed in contexts where they have a relationship with their surroundings. Herbert uses the plaster as a material for its impermanent and vulnerable qualities. The medium is susceptible to the potential intervention of individuals and impact of the environment. As such, Herbert typically leaves these objects in their respective contexts over time, returning to document any changes that occur.

Working across a range of media – painting, performance, craft and more – Hildebrandt recently moved into The Creative Alliance at the Patterson as a Resident Artist. Prior to her move to Baltimore, Hildebrandt traveled in a 6-month residency on the Artrain USA, which travels the country with studios and a museum on board. From reimagining Mary Pickersgill and the making of the Star Spangled Banner, to her ongoing correspondence with the Pope, Hildebrandt combines a wicked sense of humor with innocent joy in the act of making things. She appears in the 2008 Mid Atlantic edition of New American Paintings.

Project Name: Blue Light Special
Project Description:

The Blinking Blue Light will make things better, not worse.
The Blinking Blue Light will know and see everything.
The Blinking Blue Light will show the pedestrians it is watching.
The Blinking Blue Light will be popular with many pedestrians.
The Blinking Blue Light will be a “top-of-the-line high-tech” blue beacon.
The Blinking Blue Light will capture pedestrians with its electric eyes.
The Blinking Blue Light will beautify and improve the neighborhood.

The Blinking Blue Light will keep the street awash with light and the pedestrians awake.
The Blinking Blue Light will blink in locations of “high activity” in the Transmodern Radius to assure pedestrians of their protection, and suspicious persons that they are on camera. The Blinking Blue light will create a feeling of safety, security, and warmth as it films and monitors Transmodern Tourists.

Please Note: In the long term, the Blinking Blue Light might not to engender a sense of safety.

David London was trained as a magician and filmmaker, and much of his recent stage work places an emphasis on the deconstruction of the magic trick. He has toured with four of his own productions- “Cerebral Sorcery, “…Art of Dreams,” “The Adventure to the Imagi Nation,” and most recently, (insert title here), which features excerpts of the three other shows. He has done a handful of site-specific installations and performances. He also paints, wanders, and glues random things together.

Project Name: Wonder
Project Description: Magicians work primarily with the emotion of wonder. In this interactive and collaborative experiment, David will explore the state of wonder utilizing Wonder Bread. Prepare to get hands-on while unlocking the mysteries of this profound substance.

Project Name: Your Favorite Celebrity Drawing Survey
Project Description: Magazine Stand, a portable stand that displays and sells low volume artists’ publications, will be set up so that attendees can come and make drawings of their favorite celebrities. The drawings made will be compiled into a new Magazine Stand-Baltimore published Favorite Celebrity magazine. Selections of other Magazine Stand published titles such as Battles/Duets, Connectors & Centers, Fashion Magazine, Non-Directed Drawings, Reenactments, and Xeroxable Wall Patterns will also be available for reading and possibly purchase.

J.W. Mahoney is a Washington, D.C.-based artist, critic, and independent curator who serves as Washington’s Corresponding Editor for Art in America. He is currently a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and has been writing and curating on the idea of transmodernity since 1992. His most recent nationally published piece on this subject was “Transmodern Yoko,” which appeared in Art in America in February 2002. His latest one-person show, “Stella Maris,” was on exhibit in January 2007, at Curator’s Office in Washington, D.C..

Project Name: The Transmodern Manifesto
Project Description: Mahoney will pass out copies of a 7 to 8-page document, printed on day-glo orange paper, which details the fundamental elements of the Transmodern - which is an attitude, not a movement - in contrast to the post-postmodern. He will be dressed in a Japanese worker’s jacket, and will accompany the distribution of the document with lit incense and music from a portable CD player.

Ellen Nielsen is the kind of person who puts new rolls of toilet paper directly into the dispenser as opposed to leaving them on the back of the toilet. She has a habit of forgetting vegetables in the crisper and finding them, weeks later, reduced to bags of black slime. She would like to be remembered as a public intellectual, but so far she has only made a public spectacle of herself. She has a multitude of talents, such as caramelizing onions and dressing to impress. She was born on March 20 (the first day of spring) which makes her a Pisces-Aries cusp.

Project Name: FUF 2008
Project Description: Ellen Nielsen will sell superfluous commodities (aka pompoms) for $1.99 in a point-of-purchase display similar to those in convenience stores. Like the bulk of her work, this piece addresses the consumption of desire and the desire for consumption.

Thach Thao Nguyen lives for food and adventure. Born in Vietnam and raised in Texas, she grew up chowing down drive-thru hamburgers and slurping up her mom’s pho. Now living in Baltimore as a student, she sometimes makes money selling homemade spring rolls and rice cakes. Recently she re-visited Vietnam, a journey that brought her closer to her food and family. She brings you treats reminiscent of the homeland, prepared in the most home-down manner.

Project Title: Street Hawker
Project Description: Thao will prepare and sell Vietnamese-style spring rolls made with foraged edible plants. Assuming the role and costume of a native itinerant street-hawker, she will attempt to vend these homemade treats to passers-bys. The spring rolls will be made of rice paper wrapped in wild plants from the neighborhood such as chickweed, dandelion, cleaver, spearmint, garlic chives, lambs quarter, and other various edibles. She will be making these rolls one at a time so passer-bys may acknowledge the ingredients. She asks people to pay a small amount of money: 50 cents.

Natalia Panfile was born in the Republic of Moldova, and came to the United States when she was 17. She attended the Community College of Baltimore County for 2 years and then transferred to MICA. After graduating from MICA with a BFA she was accepted into the IMDA (Imaging and Digital Arts) Graduate program at UMBC. Panfile is a performance artist and in her performances explores social, cultural and gender issues. She wants to see how all of these issues affect her as an immigrant and as a woman.

Project Name: Carpet
Project Description: Everyone has a different experience when dealing with grief and the death of a loved one. From Panfile’s own experience she noticed that when she was going through the grieving process, her way of dealing with it was to occupy herself with cleaning or washing, as if to erase the person that is no more. She is an immigrant to this country, so everything that she does or makes is influenced by her native culture as well as the adopted culture. When it comes to housework she mostly does everything the way it is done in Moldova (her native country). This piece is influenced by a task that her mother and she would perform almost every summer- washing the carpets outside on the sidewalk. She will use the sidewalk on Howard Street, behind the Load of Fun Gallery to wash a carpet. The purpose of this performance is to see how people react to a person doing tasks that are usually done inside the house. Panfile wants to see if people will try to engage her or avoid her.

Valeska is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and holds degrees in fine arts and art education. Since arriving in Baltimore, Valeska has been an active member of the Baltimore arts community, performing original puppetry productions, participating as a stiltwalker in parades, exhibiting her work in galleries, and teaching arts workshops to kids and adults at public schools, craft schools and museums. The Cause Company is a pseudonym used for the various aspects of her artistic practice.

Project Name: Sweep Away the Doom and Gloom
Project Description: A cadre of stiltwalkers, clad in costumes constructed from garbage bags and refuse will be sweeping the streets with long-handled brooms. A photographer, in old-fashioned press hat, will be accompanying them.

Right-Geist Connections, Ltd. is the result of a merger/mutually hostile takeover™ between New Jersey-based members of two international artists’ collectives, the Meme Rider Media Team and the Post-NeoAbsurdist Anti-Collective. Participating members include (but are not limited to) Warren Fry and Olchar E. Lindsann of Post-Neo, and Nathan Shafer and Joelle Howald of the Meme-Riders.

Project Name: Right-Geist Connections, Ltd., Baltimore Street Team
Project Description: Tired of mediocre hauntings and boring possessions? Are you ready for a more meaningful metaphysical encounter? Then you know the difference that the right Geist makes. Right-Geist Connections specializes in matching qualified spirits with discriminating hauntees. Our customers appreciate the quality of a good haunting. Right-Geist provides accessible, literally street-level one-on-one paranormal services. Using our patented Spectral Profiling interview methods, perfected through 3,000 in the industry, and our customized questionnaires, Right-Geist will match you with an experienced spectre that exceeds your unique expectations. In only a few short minutes, you can complete our 5-step process:

• First you’ll search through our comprehensive file of the finest spectres in the parasocial industry
• After selecting your ghost you’ll complete our Haunting Request Form to specify your preternatural needs.
• Then sit with us as we conduct our psyche-geographic séance to ensure maximum transcorporal compatibility.
• Afterwards you’ll take your ghost home in our customized “Baltimore” reliquaries—or bring your own! Then follow our simple instructions to conduct your own personalized initiatory ritual at home.

For one day only, we’ll be offering free promotional hauntings to our valued Baltimore Clientele. We will be highlighting our ghost-workers from the local Baltimore area. Happy Hauntings!

Smelling Salt Amusements is Heather Romney and Peter Redgrave. They are educators by trade and entertainers by whim. Please visit smellingsaltamusements.org for more information.

Project Name: Overlookeds: Points of Interest
Project Description: Five noteworthy views have been chosen in the neighborhood of Load of Fun studios: 19 1/2 Street, A Borrowed View, The Piazza del Pughot, West Trenton Dam, and the Garden of the Humble Bureaucrat. Participants will receive a booklet from Smelling Salt Amusements representatives and are invited to tour the sites. At each spot they will find a guide and a stamp. Visitors can collect the stamps in their albums.

SHUA GROUP is a New York/New Jersey based performance company and not for profit organization directed by choreographer Joshua Bisset and artist Laura Quattrocchi. Shua Group is committed to broadening the interface of movement based art and public life. 2008 projects include a mass performance opposite ground zero at the World Financial Center (May) and the development of a physical installation on the sides of Federal Hill Baltimore (Fall) through the American Visionary Arts Museum. (Please contact info@shuagroup.org if you are interested in participating in the Federal Hill event.) The group is supported by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Hudson County Cultural Affairs and the American Music Center.

Project Title: Intersection Play
Project Description: Intersection Play is a performance installation for the intersection of North and Howard in Baltimore. Performers will absorb and reshape the movement of pedestrians and cars of the intersection, thereby creating a space for observation and play. A busy sight of constant transition becomes a space for the observation and play. Viewers are invited to join the work, as they understand its logic.

The Theft and Rescue Society: Daniel Huyberts, Michael Ries, and Dana Solano was formed in 2006 by interactive media artists Daniel Huyberts and Dana Solano. The Society held their first event in Baltimore, Maryland in December of 2006. Since that time, the group has expanded to include fellow interactive media artist Michael Ries and the group has participated in a number of festivals including the Conflux Festival in Brooklyn and the Enzimi Festival in Rome.

Project name: Theft and Rescue
Project Description: Allegedly, stuffed animal bunnies have been being used to smuggle contraband into the US, only to be abandoned once that contraband is removed. Now, these pathetic, but adorable, bunnies are in need of new homes. The Theft and Rescue Society encourages people to seek out, rescue, and adopt these wayward cottontails. Individuals can get location information and share the story of their bunny’s rescue all through the Society’s website, http://www.theftandrescue.com.

URBANtells is a collective based in Baltimore. Participants working on this project are Steve Bradley and Brian Garner.

Project Name: High Frequency
Project Description: High Frequency utilizes several FM transmitters that broadcast into the parking lot between the MICA building and Korean store on the corner of North and Maryland Ave. Each transmitter sends out recordings of different people telling stories, including music, poems, and other kinds of field recordings created around Station North and surrounding neighborhoods over the past two years.

Daniel Van Allen has been creating a visionary environment in Baltimore since 1980. He has been driving an art car since 1976. Van Allen has operated his own furniture restoration business for 35 years. He is the founder and organizer of the Intertribal Powwow (an annual cultural expo) and The Arabber Preservation Society (for our horse cart vendors); Dan directed The Sowebo Arts Festival for 6 years and helps organize several art organizations around town. His work includes multimedia art and architecture documentation, installation; mixed media, found object and wood sculpture; painting and performance.

Project Name: Teapee
Project Description: “Teapee” will be an interactive installation/performance/happening consisting of three 14′unmilled poles lashed together with a 10′ bamboo flagpole extending upwards. Gay flags will announce the suspension of a cauldron of steaming ginger tea over a hemispherical fire pot.

“Teapee” strives to make a positive connection between aboriginal encampments, contemporary impromptu “peoples parks” and easily recognizable cultural events.

Kathryn Williamson believes an artwork should never reveal all to the viewer, some things should be left unsaid. This gives the viewer the opportunity to be active; the chance to think for themselves and later contemplate what they experienced.

Project Name: The Trolly Museum is a Load of Fun!
Project Description: Kathryn will give a tour of the abandoned train tracks near Load of Fun. Kathryn is currently the artist in residence at The Trolly Museum in Baltimore. www.idowhatido.com

Shannon Young is a multi-media artist that lives and works in Baltimore. She received and MFA in painting from American University and will be graduating from Imaging Media and Digital Arts program at UMBC. Shannon has exhibited at Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, The Warehouse in Washington DC and 1708 Gallery in Richmond VA.

Project Title: Preserved

Project Description: This project is an accumulation of local fruits and vegetables that I have either grown or purchased from local farmers markets. It is my way of taking a closer look at local food culture. Gaining an understanding of how and where our food comes from.