June, 2010
Want
to know how you can you get involved in HDTS?
1. Send us a proposal for a long term context or site related
project that we can list on our permanent driving map.
2. Send us a proposal for one of our curated HDTS events (the
next one will be in May, 2011)
3. Volunteer to help us either at the HDTS HQ, or working on projects
with artists or workshop leaders.
4. Come visit us, buy something from our micro gift shop, check
out the sites or take a workshop with the New Everyday Life (a
schedule for fall events will be coming soon)
May 1st and 2nd, 2010
The
first episode of the New Everyday Life took place this weekend
- four workshops over two days, migrating through a swath of locations
in and out of Joshua Tree.
Wells
Pollock in his school bus leather working studio encampment on
the edge of the 29 Palms marine base.
Trinie
Dalton teaches a amazing array of bookmaking stitches at A-Z West
Cabin.
Chantale Doyle slide show about living for one year in her vegi-oil
powered VW Vanagon while supporting herself by selling on ebay.
Katie Grinnan demos beer-making on the sunny back patio at A-Z
West.
A High Desert Test Sites Lecture & Workshop Series
HDTS Headquarters
6470 Veterans Way
Joshua Tree, CA 92252
http://www.highdeserttestsites.com/
ANNOUNCEMENT
Join us for our premier pilot weekend of The New
Everyday Life, a lecture and workshop series that will commence
Saturday May 1st-Sunday May 2nd 2010.
In keeping with the HDTS mission to create truly alternative spaces
for art that challenges traditional conventions of ownership,
presentation and patronage, The New Everyday Life will bring together
guest artists and participants whose talent and knowledge varies
widely but who all share a desire to approach daily life with
a blend of both experimental and practical thinking. For our weekend-long
symposium that includes four workshops and an open-air dinner,
we will enroll twelve students in an immersive suite of 2 hour
classes held in special locations in and around the Morongo Basin.
The New Everyday Live is an endeavor designed to both stimulate
conversation and catalyze action by considering overlap between
contemporary art and craft, sustainable living, survival skills,
ecology and earth science, and cultural variation. Each participant
in The New Everyday Life will leave with a new set of skills and
inspirations, after intimately experiencing the Mojave desert’s
unique context for life and living.
ITINERARY
Saturday May 1st
12:00. Meet for introduction and driving maps at the HDTS Headquarters
in sunny downtown Joshua Tree.
12:30 – 2:30 Visit Wells Pollock in his school bus leather
working studio encampment on the edge of the marine base and learn
how to do bootleg leatherworking using readily available household
tools and implements.
3:30 – 5:30 Hang out with Trinie Dalton at A-Z West Cabin
and practice bookmaking stitches to make a book about your experience
of the desert. (Note: Dalton will contact participants in advance
about prep, supplies, and other details to maximize stitch-learning
time. Beginners to advanced bookmakers welcome.)
6:30 – 9:30 Travel to section six with Chantale Doyle to
learn more about how she lived for one year in her vegi-oil powered
VW Vanagon while supporting herself by selling on ebay.
Dinner. Chantale will fix everyone an exotic fish taco dinner
on her van's cookstove.
Sunday May 2nd
12:00 – 2:00: Meet on the patio of A-Z West for a beer-making
workshop with Katie Grinnan and a goodbye toast with her special
honey basil, peach, and ginger brews.
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Chantale Doyle is an artist who
lives in the Mojave desert near Joshua Tree. In 2007 Doyle spent
a year living and traveling in a Volkswagen van powered by waste
vegetable oil, which she learned to collect from dumpsters and
filter to use as fuel for her vehicle. While traveling through
twenty-four states and three provinces, Doyle created an exhibition
of drawings that was shown in Japan, Canada and California in
2009. Doyle is now at work on a book about her experiences and
continuing her efforts to live in a manner that nurtures creative
independence. She owns Mt. Fuji General Store, next door to the
HDTS headquarters.
For
more info click here
Or
here
Wells Pollock was born on a Minnesota commune.
Before moving to Joshua Tree to start a goat farm, he lived in
New York City, the Mississippi River Valley, Spain, Holland and
San Francisco, organizing experimental film screenings and music
events. As a performance artist he once threw a year-long conceptual
art and psychic orgy in Iowa City. He’s done everything
from renovating a 16th century goat shack in southern Spain to
cooking on a squatted boat in Amsterdam. He learned leatherworking
at an S&M factory in San Francisco. Of this he says, “Leatherworking
is one of humankind's most basic crafts. Unfortunately, most of
it now doesn't match up with anybody's visions. My goal is to
help people realize their dreams of belts, collars, wristbands
and so much more. I like making things that are beautiful, functional
and that my friends can still afford! Most of the leather I use
is salvaged and I am working on designing my own hardware.”
Pollock lives in a renovated school bus on the Copper Mountain
Mesa.
Trinie Dalton has authored, curated, and/or co-edited
five books: Wide Eyed (Akashic), A Unicorn Is Born (Abrams), Dear
New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is (McSweeney's), Mythtym (Picturebox)
and Sweet Tomb (Madras Press). Her books vary between pure text
and experiments with art + image. She teaches bookarts at NYU
and Pratt, and exhibits or builds lectures around her handmade
books’ subject matter. Her most recent event/exhibitions
were at Deitch Projects in New York for Gelatin’s PIG Sunday
School series, and at Las Cienegas Projects in Los Angeles. Her
next book will be published by Ecstatic Peace Library.
For more info
click here
Katie Grinnan is an internationally exhibiting
artist from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on using imagery and
physicality to exploit the alchemical nature of perception and
space. Her interest in making beer began by happenstance, stopping
into a beer making shop and realizing that beer is a sort of homespun
alchemical process. It's everyday magic. Her beer is called Wizard
Brew.
LOGISITICS
Cost:
The cost is $120 per person for the weekend that
includes Chantale's fish taco dinner. All proceeds are used to
cover basic event expenses and to pay the speakers.
Enrollment:
Due to the intimate nature of this event the group
will be limited to twelve people. No application is needed, but
spaces will be filled on a first come first serve basis. If you
would like to enroll please email info.hdts@gmail.com –
you will be emailed instructions so that you can pay via Paypal,
the first 12 people who pay will be signed up for the course.
Lodging:
A limited amount of campsites are available on
Zittel’s property, and can be pre-arranged with the host
on a first come, first serve basis. Alternately, camping in Joshua
Tree National Park or staying in a local hotel are excellent options.
For lodging recommendations please visit the HDTS website’s
Directions page.
For future updates and event listings for future incarnations
of The New Everyday Life email us at info.hdts@gmail.com
March
2010: Readying the Headquarters
February
and March
have been spent refurbishing the new HDTS HQ - Sam replaced the
water damaged acoustical tile ceiling, mom and dad ripped out
the carpet and hauled it to the Landers Landfill. Wells scraped
and repainted the floors. And I found the perfect desk that Guy
and Travis had to drive all the way to Newport Beach to pick up.
By the end of March The "Living School" and the after-school
"People and Plants" groups have been running out of
the back room for a little over a month - we have a small garden
growing in the courtyard, a worm bin full of worms munching on
kitchen compost, and an amazing mushroom garden.
In
the meantime local artists and past HDTS participants are sending
in material for the HDTS archive and bookstore which will be up
and running in the front room/visitor's center as soon as Brenndan
builds the bookshelves.
Once
the visitor's center and bookstore are up and running we will
need help sitting it on the weekends. Volunteers will be paid
a commission of the sales - so come in, meet people in friendly
downtown Joshua Tree, explain the driving maps aren't to scale
(!) and help us keep our doors open.
If
you are able to be in the area at least one weekend every other
month and would like to help out let us know at High Desert info.hdts@gmail.com.
February
2010: New Programing for the New HQ
A
Day in the Life of “People
and Plants: Fostering Partnerships between Children and the Living
World” workshop by Laura Lawler and Anna Beck: Day 2
1) Examine sprouts from Tuesday
(The children identified that the alfalfa seeds had gotten bigger,
their seed coats began to burst, and “white tail”
began to emerge)
2) Explore lettuce seedling garden and transplant crowded
greens into their own containers
(The children learned how to handle delicate seedlings by the
leaves, learned the concept of needing “room to grow”,
and learned how to keep seedlings moist by spraying with spray
bottles)
3) Read The Night Life of the Yucca
(The children discussed companionship between the yucca flower
and the moth, introduced the concept of pollination which we will
be dealing with in hands-on activities in coming weeks)
3) Snack Break
(The children enjoyed organic popcorn and discovered the “seed
coat” still attached to the kernels)
4) Plant Tomatoes
(The children planted an entire flat of tomatoes which will be
used in our future garden projects)
5) Make Upside-Down Mint Planters!
(This was a very successful advanced project using recycled plastic
bottles to make upside-down planters which the children thought
were SO SILLY! Over time, these will demonstrate how plants move
to search for sunlight as the hanging mint will re-orient themselves
and curve towards the light)
6) Free Play
Now
we are ready for our group to “grow.” Please feel
free to e-mail if you have any questions about the program or
if you have a kid who is interested in getting started: llawler@gm.slc.edu
January
2010: A new location to go with our new programming
In
a few weeks we will be moving into our new HDTS Headquarters in
lovely downtown Joshua Tree. Come visit us at 6470 Veterans Way,
behind Teacakes Bakery and next to our friend Chantale at Mt Fuji
General Store.
The
HDTS HQ will include a small visitors welcome center where you
can read more information about contemporary art projects happening
in the high desert and we will also begin hosting a series of
workshops. (more about this coming soon).
Because
the operation runs on a zero budget we are always highly in need
of volunteers. We are looking for responsible, hardworking, fun
people to come work with us in the high desert. Some things that
need help with are fixing up the space, managing operations over
the weekends, and fleshing out our archive which is slowly but
surely coming together.
If
you are ready and willing to work email us here.
Or
if you would like to be sent email announcements about future
productions let us know here.
January
2010: A New Format for HDTS
The High Desert Test Sites, first inaugurated in
2002, are a series of experimental art sites located along a stretch
of desert communities including Pioneer town, Joshua Tree, 29
Palms and Wonder Valley. These locations generate truly alternative
spaces for art that challenges traditional conventions of ownership,
presentation and patronage. Asking the question “what role
does contemporary art play in the world at large?” HDTS
strives to interject contemporary art into a world of pickup trucks,
new age meditation retreats, one stop supermarket shopping, dirt
bike enthusiasts, rock climbing encampments, plastic surgery billboards
and marine combat training.
Since
its inception HDTS has hosted seven intermittent events and presented
projects by over 150 artists. Our “intimate audience”
(deliberately kept small by a somewhat loose attitude toward planning
and promotion) has traversed countless miles of dirt road and
participated in panoply of increasingly experimental approaches
toward making art public.
After seven years we decided to take some time off in order to
examine both the successes and failures of this larger undertaking,
and at the end of this period have emerged with renewed faith
in the validity of the exercise and a new series of programming.
If there is one thing that we have learned so far, it is that
sometimes just being here brings up so many issues to think about,
that when there is a rush to “produce’ it can actually
hamper one’s ability to have larger experience or to truly
process the place.
In light of this we will now begin to generate a new three-part
program based on the process of “absorption and assimilation”
with the ultimate goal to create a “test site” where
artists, organizers and audience alike will explore the role art
plays in everyday life and in the world at large.
SPECIAL GUEST VISITORS:
Each year High Desert Test Sites will invite four guests ranging
from curators, writers, thinkers, artists, to all around “doers”
who we admire and feel embody similar interests and ambitions
as those represented by the HDTS mission. These are people who
we feel we will learn from, and who we want to engage with in
dialog that will ultimately further and advance our understandings
of the social roles of contemporary art, both in day to day living,
and in intimate communities spread throughout the landscape outside
of urban cultural centers.
There will be no dictate to produce during this time other then
the exchange of ideas. Each guest will be asked to facilitate
this idea exchange by either a casual talk at the HDTS headquarters
in downtown Joshua Tree, or a short text that we can present to
the public as part of our archives.
ALMOST YEARLY EVENTS:
Each year one of the HDTS guests will be invited to curate an
event including up to 6 artists. The events are intended for the
both the local community and for a visiting audience and will
last for a two-day weekend. There are many forms that the events
can take – and many different kinds of artists who can be
included. The organizers will have access to all proposals sent
into HDTS, and they can also supplement this list with artists
they would like to personally invite.
THE NEW EVERYDAY LIFE: LESSONS IN LIVING
Our HDTS Headqarters will play host to A series of lectures and
workshops The New Everyday Life.
ARCHIVE
FOR PAST PROJECTS AND FUTURE PROPOSALS
Over the last year we have begun work on an archive of all former
projects this archive as well as our incoming proposals for new
desert projects will be open for viewing at the Headquarters
DRIVING
MAPS
Get out and see the sites! Driving maps to all current HDTS projects
and sites will be available at the Headquarters.
ADVISORY
COMMITTEE:
An advisory committee will be engaged who can give advice, propose
visitors and participants, and act as general ambassadors for
HDTS.
The advisory committee will include the five founding organizers
of HDTS as well as a small group of additional selected and valued
voices.
Summer and Fall, 2009
High Desert Test Site is hard at work making an
archive! In a few months you will be able to check this out on
our website and hopefully eventually also as a book – but
in the meantime we need YOUR help.
It turns out that at every event the folks affiliated with HDTS
were usually out running around making everything went off without
a hitch, (remember flipping burgers in the kitchen of the Palms
for HDTS 3, or trying to find the 40’ HQ tent after it vanished
right in the middle of HDTS 08?) Consequently we didn’t
always manage to take such great photos of each project.
If you have attended any of our past HDTS events are several
ways that you can help us:
1. We are in need of high res digital photos of any of the projects.
You can mail a CD of these to PO Box 1058, Joshua Tree CA 92252.
2.
Because we believe that the experiences that you ultimately have
in the high desert are as important as the art you originally
thought you were coming out to see, we want to collect stories
about the trials and tribulations - either to view art-works or
to make them (did you meet new people, get stuck in the sand,
camp out during a raging windstorm?)
Send
us your story and pics – we will be most grateful for them,
and will make sure that you are warmly credited for your contribution.
Send these to info.hdts@gmail.com
3.
If you are a past artist we will probably be contacting you to
work on a short description of your project - but you think that
we don’t already have this you can help us by sending it
in to us early.
November
2008:
It
may be over, but it is not yet forgotten - HDTS CB08
We like to send out a belated, but deeply heartfelt, thank you
to the volunteers and participants who made it happen:
To the California Biennial Curator and the team:
Thank
you Lauri Firstenberg and to LA><ART and For Your Art!
To
the artists:
Hannah Greely, Jonathan Hernandez, Patrick Jackson,
Alice Konitz, Joel Kyack, Ann Magnuson, Thom Merrick, Yoshua Okon,
Jack Pierson, Ry Rocklin, Julia Scher, Marnie Weber and the Spirit
Girls, Wonder Valley Institute of Contemporary Art, Amy &
Wendy Yao's Art Swap Meet
To the staff and organizers:
Alexandra Wetzel our new and amazing administrative
director, Shaun Regen our most enduring and supportive founding
organizer, David Dodge for our publication design and Chris O'Hurley
our intern.
And
to our volunteers - without you we could not do what we do:
Sarah Nesbit and Alex
Aram Moshayedi
Tellef Tellefson
Christian Hacket
Thomas Stevenson
Daniel Pelt
Daiana Feuer
Sarah Williamson
Stacy Bengtson
Heather Harmon
Kate Kendall
Chris Bott
Anna Beck
Laura Lawler
Faith Purvey
Carole Frances Lung
Sarah Haughton
Stephen Walters
Tiffany Barber
Joy Anderson
Cesar Garcia
Alex Romano
Drew Dencker
Jessica Mellen
Lucas Clauser
Senna Chen
Tessa Helgerson
Alexandra Stapleton
And last but not least, thank you to Mary, Laura and James at
the Palms
Announcing
HDTS CB08:
On
November 7th, 8th and 9th, 2008, The High Desert Test Sites will
host an expanded desert event in connection with the California
Biennial.
Under the vision Lauri Firstenberg, curator of this year’s
California Biennial, the exhibition has expanded beyond the scope
of the museum to engage venues and sites from as far south as
Tijuana, and as north as San Francisco. As a non-institution dedicated
to the encouragement and support of art that "lives in the
world" HDTS will host the following artists for a three day
event.
HDTS
CB08 is affiliated with the 2008 California Biennial, organized
by the Orange County Museum of Art.
HDTS is produced for CB08 with LA><ART Public Art Initiatives
and Foryouart.
The map is now available in two downloadable parts:
Click
here for Western
sites and Eastern
sites
*Project
descriptions, and the program of events will
be available at the HDTS HQ and information center next to Coyote
Corner on Park Blvd in downtown Joshua Tree. (the directions page
tells you how to get to the high desert from just about anywhere)
HDTS
CB08 Artists Include:
Hannah
Greely
Jonathan Hernandez
Patrick Jackson
Alice Konitz
Joel Kyack
Ann Magnuson
Thom Merrick
Yoshua Okon
Jack Pierson
Ry Rocklin
Julia Scher
Marnie Weber and the Spirit Girls
Wonder Valley Institute of Contemporary Art (WVICA)
Amy & Wendy Yao's Art Swap Meet
Check out the
swap meet website
If
you would like to stay abreast of HDTS updates, events and projects
send an email to mailing
list@highdeserttestsites.com
* We are also looking for responsible, sturdy, fun volunteers
to manage the HDTS headquarters and to help various artists with
their projects throughout the weekend. If you are willing to help
please email Alex at alex.hdts@gmail.com.
PLEASE
NOTE: The High Desert Test Sites is a multi-site event. Attendance
is at your own risk. By attending the HDTS, you agree to assume
sole responsibility for any risk and to release anyone associated
with the HDTS, the CABiennial 08, and LAX from all claims relating
to any injury, damage or loss you may suffer or cause while in
the desert. Thank you - and have a great time!
Announcing: The Moab Video Project by Christy Gast
The
Moab Video Project is a year-long curatorial project
organized by artist Christy Gast, for a TV station
in Moab, Utah. Moab, a small town nestled in
a green valley between unimaginable red sandstone cliffs, was
settled by farmers in the 19th century, and began booming during
the age of uranium mining. The town consists of a business district
along the highway, with neighborhoods squeezed on either size.
Because of the cliffs, its growth is limited. Tourism is the main
industry, and people come from all over the world to see Arches
National Park, where Ed Abbey wrote Desert Solitaire.
In
2006 Christy spent the summer in Moab exploring the wilderness
and tending a big garden - during that time she met the owner
of Mac 21, an extremely local television channel. It was the first
channel in the world to have a cable news broadcast. The signal
from the nearest news channel didn't reach Moab because of its
geographic situation, so the cable channel started broadcasting
an all-volunteer news program. They covered the county commission
meetings in a seriously in-depth manner. Needless to say, the
commissioners weren't impressed. They covered Jeeps getting stuck
on the sides of cliffs, Christy says that she has seen amazing
footage of the newsreader reporting on this. The first cable news
broadcast was extremely microcosmic.
Christy
helped Jim from Mac21 set up his new studio and taught him how
to use Final Cut Pro. Now Mac21 doesn't need to cover the news
anymore--there are other accessible outlets--but there are long
features on the Chinese restaurant, mountain biking safety, and
homes for sale, always shot with these incredible cliffs in the
background. After returning to NY she proposed to curate a short
video program for Moab, which turned into a year-long project.
Mac21 is now airing one artist's video every week for the year
of 2008. The videos are inserted into normal programming, and
each video is broadcasted once every hour or so for one week.
Much of the impetus for this project was inspired by the singularity
of the setting, and the mythology of landscape. Christy says that
when she looks at videos for the program, she tries to think about
watching them in a motel room. “Sometimes I have specific
people in mind. Sometimes I imagine the desert watching.”
All videos are less than 5 minutes long and follow FCC regulations.
www.christygast.info
www.moabvideoproject.org
