Book and volvelle (wheel chart) that reconfigures twenty copyright infringement cases based on the objects in question. (For instance Art Rogers v. Jeff Koons becomes Puppies vs. String of Puppies.)

The book includes a wheel chart, Originality Compass, which strips the cases to the essential judgements about originality. Viewing the court decisions in a compact scale reveals the subjectivity of the individual arguments. In contrast, the wheel as a device suggests that definitive answers will be provided.

Originality: Cases and Materials presents the case research for the Originality Compass. The cases are copied and bound with underlining and margin notes that highlight aesthetic contemplations in the court.

August 16- August 27

The Art & Law Residency
Exhibition and Symposium
Maccarone
630 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10014

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Technical Data:
Google search query: “the most boring place in the world”
Posts collected from January 10 – May 1, 2009
55 entries, 52 unique locations to date

“Home of Tycoons,” titled after a condominium complex in China,
investigates real estate marketing in Beijing during 2004 – only
moments before the old city would be completely demolished and
replaced by high-rises, stadiums and suburban gated communities.
Through photo documentation and sampling of poorly translated Chinese
to English sales materials, “Tycoons” explores the fantastical side of
home ownership in China.

An example, the brochure for Beijing’s Long Island community declares
– “This isn’t an age that dare not speak up wealth, this is an age
that needs to use wealth to sublime one’s life.”

Other residences studied include: MoMA, SOHO and The Home of Tycoons.
10×8 inches (25×20 cm) 104 pages

Buy online
View pdf (contains watermark)

Protect Yourself… is a compilation of online marketing materials from armored car manufacturers. In addition to undercover ballistic tests, the video collages industry interviews, auto shows and marketing propaganda in a form that transforms a corporate trade video into an action-packed thriller (minus Chuck Norris). The video is punctuated by humorous vignettes of evasive industry reps obsessed with corporate secrecy. This stands in stark contrast to the copious online materials showcasing vehicular violence.

Viktor Yanukovych Collapses after Collision with an Egg, 2009
Zoetrope
Linen paper, laser cut, digital print, masonite, found lamp base, motor
15” x 15” x 20”

Kyiv (1708/2008), 2009
Chromira print
30” x 35”

This project involved the collection and cross-referencing of a selection of Amazon.com recommendations, resulting in amusing lists of CD recommendations for political conservatives and liberals. The main section of the book is a set of colorful complex diagrams* linking politically “conservative” books with the most popular CDs bought by the same customers. This is juxtaposed with similar lists for a “liberal” audience. The final section of the book presents a direct sampling of Amazon’s “Purchase Circles” and shows items uniquely popular to the US Military, the UN, Arthur Andersen Consulting, Nike and others.

New Babylon was inspired by Alexandre Medvedkin’s New Moscow (1939), where virtual renderings of Stalin’s Moscow were played in reverse so that the old city replaces the new. The source for my video, is a 3-D fly-through bootlegged from a Beijing real estate development sales office. The purpose of the original video was to celebrate decadence and to entice potential condominium buyers with Beijing’s modernization. My version plays the promotional video in reverse with grainy artifacts, producing an oppositional meaning by showing the destruction of a major highway and the collapse of a high-rise apartment building complex.

Documentation of the Andy Warhol robot designed by Alvaro Villa. The project was underway shortly before Warhol’s death for use in a stage show titled Andy Warhol: A No Man Show based on Warhol’s books, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) and Exposures. Production of the robot was cancelled after Warhol’s death.

The robot is now twenty years old and its outdated technology puts it between the realms of uncanny and absurd.  Andy Warhol Robot documents Alvaro Villa, the inventor, demonstrating the robot’s movement and audio features.  The jerky motion and low fidelity audio make Warhol’s pre-recorded “I don’t know” responses sound something like an animatronic Chucky Cheese character or a séance with the dead.