01SJ Diary
DURING THE opening ceremonies for the 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, Luis Valdez made an appearance and wowed the crowd with a Mayan performance justifying Robert Graham’s Quetzalcoatl statue in Plaza de Cesar Chavez as “art & technology.” I didn’t take notes, but it had something to do with how the Mayans, not the Hindus, invented the zero and that the coil of the statue referenced a spiral dance of some sort.
Think about all this for a second: Legendary playwright, actor, producer, filmmaker, SJSU graduate and lifelong pal of Cesar Chavez himself, Luis Valdez justifying what’s commonly referred to as the “poop statue” in Cesar’s own park as “art & technology” to open the 01SJ Festival. It just doesn’t get any more “San Jose” than that, folks. Wow.
Valdez was only one speaker at the ceremony, of course. Joel Slayton of the CADRE Lab for New Media at SJSU mastered most of the ceremonies. Mayor Chuck Reed made an appearance, corporate bigwigs and artists alike showed up and everyone then wandered over to City Hall for Craig Walsh’s video projection, which looks like a psychedelic set of tentacles creeping up the face of the rotunda.
The entire atmosphere was festive, and a variety of folks congregated about. Kids played on the steps while the band the Mumlers performed. People shot video left and right. The entire event had a rocking street festival feel to it. “This feels like Europe,” one person said.
And the itinerary continued over at SJSU, where Eddo Stern’s installation Portal, Wormhole, Flythrough sat in front of Tower Hall. An octagonal portal featuring 3D time-tunnel video spinning in the middle, the structure lit up the otherwise darkened areas of the campus.
Right next to the installation, folks gathered around Tristan Shone, who was right there creating layers of sound with his Drone Machines, revamped industrial machinery he’d converted into sound makers. Nothing new, but it was great to see that stuff out on the grass at SJSU.
Finally, the artists’ party closed out the night at Paragon inside the Hotel Montgomery. Throughout the entire opening evening, the vibe was not unlike the vibe when the SoFA Street Fair first began in 1992, not content-wise but more in the sense of something new and unique-to-San Jose finally happening. There was an “about freakin’ time” vibe to the whole shooting match. And you just wanted to cross your fingers and hope that the city won’t screw this one up.
Maybe Valdez will buy the statue? The city could use the money!
O-1 is great. Congratulations to everyone who helped pull it off.
Too bad it’s not an annual event with an on-going presence downtown.
Hat tip to all the artists and supporters who pulled off 01—the DTSJ cityscape was put to great and sensitive use, and the walkable nature of the downtown really played out in a great set of installation and performance art. Worth noting, however, amid the walking to galleries and installations: The jacarandas in bloom on south first and in Cesar Chavez Park are arguably the BEST installation art we have. And boy, around 9.30 pm, those planes sure are noisy as they approach the airport.
>>>I didn’t quite understand what the tentacles at City Hall had to do with the Grateful Dead (and I believe their first performance was not exactly in that location, but I would have to check my references).
According to both Mark from the Mercury News and the SJ Rocks Hall of Fame folks, the house where the Dead first played under that moniker in 1965 was on Fifth Street just south of Santa Clara Street, which would be where the Rotunda now sits. The house itself is one of the ones that got moved—it’s now at 635 East St. James near 13th—a gorgeous restored victorian.
Regarding the video projection, it’s one in a series of works by the artist exploring the relationship between certain buildings and what used to be in their locations, so he went for a “psychedelic” approach. And the house was the location of either the first, second, or third of Ken Kesey’s electric kood-aid acid tests (it was in the book somewhere) and at that party they experimented with liquid oil projections, which you can sort of justify as a precursor to current-day VJ culture, experimental video mashup, et cetera. So that was how the artist framed the tentacles projection.
-gary
SubZero Street Fair Highlights 01SJ
The SubZero street event all along South First Street Friday night was the bohemian cyberlicious crème de la crème of the entire festival and easily the hippest thing to hit downtown San Jose since the first SoFA Street Fair in 1992. All the galleries showcased tech-related zonked-out works; bands performed on three stages; videos projected on buildings; booths and interactive exhibits flanked three blocks and the widest possible variety of people showed up: kids, adults, hipsters, corporate types, burners, artists, politicians, programmers and the lunatic fringe. The entire vibe was hi-tech, planetary, abstractly machinic, and although totally safe and sanitized, still pretty damn rocking. It was part SoFA Street Fair, circa early-90s, part Mondo2000 Magazine-era cyberpunk counterculture and part field trip for the school kids.
Each gallery counted around a thousand patrons crossing their thresholds and the street remained lively up until midnight. Many adults stayed out way past their usual bedtimes and many of the younger folks looked like they were digging it so much, that they just didn’t want to leave until the last person was gone. Man, I remember that feeling.
As I paraded up and down, in and around the crowds, I overheard several common, seemingly universal observations from the throngs of people. They were saying: “This is like San Francisco.” Or, “I can’t believe this is San Jose,” or “Why didn’t they do this a long time ago?” And, especially, “Hey, there’s not ten thousand cops here. What happened?”
Aside from that, other aspects were blatantly obvious. There were no fights, no troublemakers and no unruly losers showing up just to start fights. It was all totally peaceful. Even better, the police presence was hardly even noticeable at all. You saw a few officers here and there, but there was no overwhelming tidal wave of police like you would normally see. Many, many people repeatedly kept pointing this out.
The whole event was so successful that many people just couldn’t believe San Jose had actually gotten one right for a change. There was simply nothing to screw it up.
We went downtown this evening to see the show. I enjoyed it and I was glad to see there were lots of other people around checking things out, and particularly lots of young children.
I didn’t quite understand what the tentacles at City Hall had to do with the Grateful Dead (and I believe their first performance was not exactly in that location, but I would have to check my references). But for those who believe that our city government is in the hands of Yog-Suggoth, this would provide ample evidence.
The diversity megaphones in Fountain Alley seems to be biased in favor of Desi oldies, but I’m OK with that. I wasn’t so impressed by the films of planes landing, since I could see real planes landing at the same time (and even reflected on some of the buildings).
Yesterday I went to Santana Row to experience the water music umbrella thing. I thought it was very interesting. Unfortunately it is not very well explained.
There are streams of water that are modulated with music ultrasonically. But when the water splashes on your umbrella the music is modulated down into audible range so you can hear it. It’s a very clever idea.
Unfortunately this information is not available at the site, so the people I saw there mostly seemed to think it was a children’s amusement.
There were four streams of water, playing Bach, Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”, an Irish jig and something else I didn’t recognize—when I tried it.
It’s by the big chessboard. You have to go to the concierge office to get your umbrella, a couple of things up the way.
It’s going to be around for another week or so, so people should check it out. I wish it could have had better presentation so more people would know about it.
Bonus: While I was at Santana Row I went into Borders, and there I encountered Dr. Manuel Pena, retired professor from CSU Fresno and author of several books about Mexican-American culture. I enjoyed the chance to chat with him about various cultural issues.
He has just published a book describing how a migrant farm worker can end up as a university professor—very interesting.
There are a lot of things going on around this area in terms of culture and the arts, and I wish we had a better system of publicizing them.
My favorite in 01SJ is the monkeys in Discovery Meadow. This is extremely cool. Everyone should just rush down there, preferably just after twilight. I imagine this is going to go on tour and amaze audiences worldwide, but for right now you can experience it right in the neighborhood. Totally amazing. Great for kids too, as there are drums to bang on.
Re 2., it is a biennial event, but 2 years ago there was not so much interactive art to involve regular people. This time they have improved quite a bit in terms of relating to the community. It would be nice to make it an annual event.
If we want SJ to develop an identity, then being a venue for new digital art is a good idea. It goes with being the Capital of Silicon Valley.
SF has the lock on traditional cultural events like opera and ballet, and it’s not likely that SJ can compete. But that’s not a problem, let’s stake out our own turf.
The Babbage Engine at the Computer History Museum and the 01SJ Festival are great steps in this direction. Let’s build on them.
Check out the monkeys after sunset, and the umbrella music in Santana Row!
4. I looked it up in Tom Wolfe’s EKAT, and it seems to be maybe the third Acid Test. It coincided with a Rolling Stones concert at the Civic Auditorium. That would be the same Civic Auditorium that we have now, so I’m not sure why we no longer have such interesting events there.
The address is not given in the book, and I’m going by memories of an article in the Merc from a couple of decades ago. I have it somewhere, but I haven’t had time to look for it. Seems to me it described things happening a few blocks further west. But I don’t want to quibble. If our city hall is built upon the ashes of Sixties’ psychedelica, it seems somehow appropriate.
I saw quite a few liquid oil light shows back in the day, but I don’t remember any tentacles. (Of course, those were the days when if you remembered anything, you weren’t really there.) Anyway, the tentacles attracted a pretty good crowd down for the show, so I would call it a success.
Re 5, wasn’t there Friday night, but Saturday night I noticed a lot of police. They weren’t doing anything to speak of, but they were around.
Tonight, Sunday, I was downtown again, and I noticed a number of bicycle cops circulating about.
No complaints here, they just seemed to be keeping an eye on things. The art-loving crowds (I saw a lot of parents with children) were well controlled.
I’d say the festival was a big success, and it’s the kind of thing we should have more of.
The umbrella music exhibit is going to be in Santana Row for another week or so, so be sure to check it out.