Over The Opening

On Saturday, March 22nd from 7pm to 10 pm, OTO is pleased present the debut live performance of Masolit, a new music project featuring vocalist/producer Margaret Jameson (also known as tinydiva), mix master/producer Phil Painson, and guitarist/melodist extraordinaire Tom Jameson. Before forming Masolit, Phil and Margaret performed together at many New York City venues including Bowery Ballroom, Galapagos, Brownie’s, CBGB’s and Fez as members of the downtown ensemble Market. Influenced by a wide spectrum of musical styles embracing hip-hop, funk, old-ass blues, French Impressionism and electro, Masolit seeks to create an innovative original music culture for the masses.

Opening for Masolit will be the Creationists, consisting of Abe Maneri (keyboards) and Tom Jameson (guitar). They will present a set of eclectic preludes comprising both unpremeditated and intelligently designed phases.

Saturday, March 22nd (7pm to 10pm)

7pm The Creationists

8pm Masolit

To hear Masolit’s latest recording “NSA” go to www.myspace.com/masolit or www.masolit.net.

documentation from this event

We sadly had to cancel the event at the last minute but we’re back on for Friday February 22 (7pm to 10pm). Time to get your war on. BYOL (Bring your own Laptop)

On February 08 February 22, from 7pm to 10 pm, OTO is pleased to present -

+ LAN party! +

KRIEGSPIEL
Guy Debord’s 1978 “Game of War”
Produced for computer by RSG

* bring your own laptop *

In 1978 the French Situationist Guy Debord designed and fabricated a board game called “The Game of War.” Thirty years later RSG is resurrecting this largely forgotten game, translating the game instructions from French to Java and releasing it as an online computer game. We explore the contradiction between Debord, a symbol of radical politics and art in 1960s France, and the Napoleonic war game he created. In Debord’s own words the game was the only thing in his entire body of work that had any value. Was it nostalgia, or a vision of things to come?

Founded in 2000, RSG is a collective of programmers and artists working on experimental software products. The Kriegspiel team consists of: Alexander R. Galloway, producer and programming; Carolyn Kane, research; Adam Parrish, programming; Daniel Perlin, sound; DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek, music; and Mushon Zer-Aviv, design.

* bring your own laptop *

Update - 300 dpi images at http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/images_300dpi.html

documentation from this event

On January 11, from 7pm to 10 pm, OTO is pleased to present “I Want to Make Some Tamales”, a cooking lesson by Elaine Tin Nyo

Hands-on cooking lesson 7-8:30
Open public feeding 8:30 until the tamales run out

Enrollment is limited for the cooking lesson. Please contact mriver@mteww.com to reserve your place (materials fee: $5).

Elaine Tin Nyo is a conceptual artist with a computer and kitchen in Harlem, New York and a locker in Chelsea filled with dance shoes.

Elaine’s works explore the structures of sensual experience and social interaction. Her primary subjects have been social structures such as dinners, classrooms and ballroom dance. Her photographs, recipes, videos, installations and performances have been presented by BlindSpot, Deitch Projects, Thread Waxing Space, The New Museum, Creative Time, Bronx Museum, Fargfabriken, Neueberger Museum, Leslie Tonkonow Projects, Chez Bushwick, and French Culinary Institute.

documentation from this event

On December 14, from 7pm to 10 pm, OTO is pleased to present Mike Koller’s “THE HOLIDAY REJECTS”

With the proliferation of video and photography equipment and even more so the availability and user-friendly nature of at-home post-production equipment and software, the do-it-yourself documentarian is a driving force behind all our familial interactions. The need to record, in detail, the various persons and their reactions to all the activities has increasingly become the chief activity itself. The time spent face to face becomes second to the execution of a thorough archive of the event. A smiling photo is more important than the argument it took to create it, the video containing each persons thoughts for the New Year takes precedent over the people themselves. In these ways the family becomes the discarded artifact of creating a visual history of events that are largely fictionalized or staged versions of an unknown third party’s expectations.

The Holiday Season, more than any other, creates a steady stream of videos and photos posted for all to see. Presented in a one night “X-mas Party” format are the photos and videos from 69 different family celebrations in a tribute to the discarded persons who were pivotal to their creation, The Holiday Rejects. True to the season, the party will feature food, drink and music to set the mood. Also featured will be three new animated video projections of a Christmas tree, a window overlooking a wintry landscape and the inescapable Yule Log. Come, imbibe, document, post.

Mike Koller is an artist and musician living and working in Brooklyn.

documentation from this event

still from Marisa Olson’s “Performed Listening: H” (2007)

On Friday November 9th from 7pm to 10pm, Over The Opening is pleased to present “Performed Listening” by Marisa Olson

Marisa Olson’s work often grows out of fan culture and her Performed
Listening series explores the relationship between performer and
spectator by underscoring the performativity of listening and
watching. Began as a series of seemingly-silent performances in which
Olson would listen to music on headphones, in a public context, the
series has evolved into performances that sometimes incorporate other
spectators and an expanded series of videos. In these tapes of Olson
listening to music, the visual qualities are modified according to the
sonic elements of the music being listened to.

For her exhibition, Olson installs two previous works from the
Performed Listening series: “Easy Listening” (2005) and “Black and
White” (2006). Olson also debuts “Performed Listening: H” (2007). In
this new work, video of the artist listening to the Velvet
Underground’s song, Heroin, is distorted by an analog “colorizer.”

Marisa Olson’s work (marisaolson.com) has recently been presented by
the Whitney Museum, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the 52nd
Biennale di Venezia, the Pacific Film Archive, Postmasters Gallery,
and the New York Underground Film Festival.

documentation from this event

still from Michael Sarff’s “Kingdom” 2007

The OTO project begins on October 12 with “Again Transporter,” new works by Michael Sarff

Sarff’s “Again Transporter” features three video loops, each generated by machine transportation. Parade floats, cars, roller coasters, and auto washes send us forever forward, then back in time. Vehicles dance with us in vacant yet compelling style. Seduction, within these automated ballets, is heightened by Sarff´s choices in editing, cropping and pairing of images.

Along with the videos, Sarff recreates “Some Group Assemble Required (SGAR),” a participatory sculpture first shown at the Good Bad Art Collective, Brooklyn in 2001 and again at the Cranbrook Art Museum in 2002. The work involves plastic models (originally multiple Dodge Chargers but now, possibly, B52 Bombers or Space Shuttles), hot glue, grey paint, a plywood table, beer and your company.

Michael Sarff, under the pseudonym Mark River, is half of the ongoing artist collaboration MTAA.

documentation from this event