IMAGE CREDIT: Turbulence.org, a project of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore). Logo courtesy of Turbulence.org.

'Self-Portrait,' a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence website. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. The on-going search can be seen at turbulence.org/Works/self-portrait.

IMAGE CREDIT: Ethan Ham, "Self-Portrait," a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence website. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. The on-going search can be seen at turbulence.org/Works/self-portrait.

Turbulence.org, A Project of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore)
[Featuring the recently commission work by Ethan Ham (New York, NY)]
(Founded 1996; Based in Roslindale, MA and Staten Island, NY)
Nominated by Laura Blacklow

The non-profit New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. commissions original net art works for its Turbulence web site, which have been exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art's 2000, 2002, and 2004 Biennials (New York, NY), the Ars Electronica festival (Austria), and the Sundance Film Festival. Co-directed by Helen Thorington and Jo-Anne Green, NRPA was founded in 1981. Turbulence is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and is the recipient of countless grants, including grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the LEF Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Featured in this exhibition will be Self-Portrait (a recent Turbulence commission funded by the Jerome Foundation), which uses facial recognition software to scan and compare a photo of the artist, Ethan Ham, with photos posted on Flickr.com. Ham (www.ethanham.com) is an interdisciplinary artist who recently has been exploring kinetic and Internet-based art. He often explores themes of art emerging from chance events and encounters. Ham is Assistant Professor of New Media at City College, City University of New York.

Statement

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) was founded in New York City in 1981 to foster the development of new and experimental work for radio and sound arts. In 1996, it extended its mandate to net art and launched its pioneering web site, Turbulence.org. Turbulence has commissioned over 110 works and exhibited and promoted new work through its Artists' Studios, Guest Curator, and Spotlight sections. In March 2002, NRPA opened an office in Boston; it co-presents the annual "Floating Points" speaker series with Emerson College, and organizes and presents the new media forum "Upgrade! Boston" at Art Interactive.

The photos in "Self-Portrait" by Ethan Ham come from a software search through the millions of photos on flickr.com. Using facial-recognition, the software seeks out photos that have a high probability of containing the artist Ethan Ham. "Self-Portrait" takes the mechanical process of photography and extends the machine's role to include editorial selection.

Laura Blacklow

(Born 1945, Washington, D.C.; lives Cambridge, MA)

On the PRC Board of Directors from 1987 to 1992 and one of the administrators of the newsletter's news section Phonelines, Laura Blacklow was also a contributing writer to VIEWS: A New England Journal of Photography, and has held numerous workshops and lectures at the PRC.

A specialist in non-silver photography, printmaking, and book arts, Blacklow holds a BFA in painting from Boston University and received her MFA in Photography from the Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY) in 1977. Her mixed media work has been exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art (Boston, MA), Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), among others, and collected by Harvard's Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA), George Eastman House (Rochester, NY), and the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY). Blacklow's awards include a grant from the St. Boltoph Club; Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; National Endowment for the Arts and New England Foundation for Arts; and the Polaroid Corporation. She has taught at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), Massachusetts College of Art (Boston, MA), the Art Institute of Boston (Boston, MA), and has been on faculty at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for 17 years. Blacklow's publications include New Dimensions in Photo Processes (Focal Press), which will be released in its 4th revised edition later this fall. Her curated exhibition, Cameraless Photography, will be on view at Gallery Artist Studio Projects (Brookline, MA) in March and April 2007 and will include her new one-of-a-kind book about the continuing violence in Guatemala.

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Statement

Laura Blacklow