National Public Radio’s All Things Considered did a little feature on odd musical instruments on September 28th, and they were kind enough to feature some of my 29 Noisy Noises along with a bunch of other strange and wonderful instruments. You can hear the segment, and see a slideshow of some of the odd instruments, on the All Things Considered website.
Sent: 2008-09-24 20:18:35 (PST)
Subject: Ignatz, Junk Guitars and more
Hello all! Here’s another noisy update. Quick version: come to the DUMBO Art Festival this weekend, and sign up for the next junk guitar workshop October 14!
Happy news – Walter Kitundu, a musician, photographer, and builder of unique musical instruments, has been awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. As a photographer and instrument-maker myself, I call this a good precedent! I got the chance to work with Walter Kitundu during my residency at the Exploratorium this Spring– his work is amazing.
As for me — my apartment is full of fumes because I’ve been painting stuff for my installation at this weekend’s DUMBO Art Festival in Brooklyn. The installation is named Ignatz (after Krazy Kat’s lover-nemesis); you’ll find it in the water directly under the Manhattan Bridge; and it’s all about bricks. Please come– there’s lots of great stuff going on at the festival! I’m gonna go see the dance group Kunst-Stoff at 9pm Friday at the Dumbo Dance Festival.
My junk guitar workshop at Etsy Labs in July went well — it sold out, people had fun, and you can see and hear the results in this video! So we’re doing it again on October 14th! Please spread the word to people who might be interested. You can sign up here.
Governors Island is still open and free to visit every weekend for another month or so, and you can see some of my photos of the Figment Festival in the Voyeur Photo Show in Governors Island’s Building 14– weekends until Oct 12. The free artist-built mini-golf course is still open too!
On November 15th, the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore is holding a day long Music and the Brain Salon, and they’ve asked me to put on a family workshop on homemade musical instruments. It’ll be fun and noisy!
My favorite weirdo arts group, Flux Factory, is holding a fund-raising auction on December 5th, and I’ve contributed a painting to the auction. Flux Factory is losing their building in Queens and looking for a new home, so save up all your money and spend it on art for a good cause! I’ve been involved with Flux Factory for less than three years but in that time they’ve mixed me up in all sorts of crazy projects and even taken me to Budapest! Please tell all your rich friends about them.
As always, if you want to stop receiving these emails, just drop me a line or visit moonmilk.com and click the mailing list link. Or you can get all your friends to sign up at that same link! And please let me know what you’re up to…
–Ranjit
Links for those of you who like your email in plain-text form:
Walter Kitundu – http://www.kitundu.com/
Kitundu’s page at MacArthur Foundation – http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4537271/
DUMBO Art Festival – http://www.dumboartfestival.org//2008_festival.html
DUMBO Dance Festival – http://www.whitewavedance.com/#S26
Video of July’s junk guitar workshop – http://vimeo.com/1451693
Sign up for the October 14th junk guitar workshop – http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14660045
Visiting Governors Island – http://www.govisland.com/Visit_the_Island/directions.asp
Voyeur Photo Exhibit – http://www.figmentnyc.org/2008/projects/voyeur.html
American Visionary Art Museum – http://avam.org/
Flux Factory – http://www.fluxfactory.org
Flux Factory projects I’ve been involved in –
* http://www.fluxfactory.org/everything-must-go/
* http://www.fluxfactory.org/response-to-tatlins-monument-to-the-third-international-conceived-in-the-mood-of-ambivalence/
* http://www.fluxfactory.org/works-on-paper/
* http://www.fluxfactory.org/fluxbox
* http://www.fluxfactory.org/sziget
Sent: 2008-07-17 19:06:58 (PST)
Subject: Junk guitars and other noise
Hello! Thanks to everyone who came out to the Figment Festival last month. Here’s some of my photos from the festival, and lots more at figmentnyc.org. I was happy that my little sound sculpture on the waterfront actually survived two thunderstorms and three days of salty waves!
It’s hot and sticky in New York, and that means it’s time to make electric guitars out of garbage. I’ll be teaching a workshop at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn on the evening of Wednesday July 30th in which we’ll wind our own guitar pickups and build junk guitars. If you’re interested, please sign up at etsylabs.etsy.com — space is limited. (See and hear some junk guitars over at moonmilk.com)
Coming up in a few months, I’ll have an installation in the 12th Annual DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival, September 26–28. My piece will be literally right under the Manhattan Bridge, at the little beach that’s mostly made of old bricks, and it’ll be kind of silly. Its name is Ignatz.
Next week I’ll be speaking at the Sketching in Hardware conference at the Rhode Island School of Design. Got any Providence restaurant recommendations?
More stuff you should see! My friend Jiyoun Lee, an amazing painter and illustrator, is in a group show opening tomorrow night (7/18, 7-9PM) at APW gallery, 195 Chrystie Street Suite 200. The show runs through the 26th. And Raylene Gorum’s showing her tape paintings of London, San Francisco, and New York on August 8th and 9th at Shetler Studios, details here.
I’m still scouting around for a December exhibition space for my Parsons students’ work, so please email me if you have any suggestions.
— Ranjit
I’m showing an installation in the East River, at that little brick-littered beach right under the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge this Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 27 and 28). It’s named Ignatz and it’s all about bricks.
Plenty of art and performances at the DUMBO Art Festival all weekend. You really should go!
p.s. consider subscribing to the moonmilk mailing list for announcements of stuff like this.
“Most of the people I’ve talked to, I’ve asked who had inspired them,” he said. “Who were you reading when you decided to start blogging? To a certain point that becomes a harder and harder thing the further back you go. For instance, Justin Hall started his site in January 1994, before most of us had heard of the web. I asked him, ‘Well, you’re one of the first bloggers, was there anyone out there who you were getting inspiration from?’ And he pointed me to this other guy named Ranjit Bhatnagar who was keeping a site at moonmilk.com in 1993. And, sure enough, it was a reverse chronological list of stuff he found on the web.”
— Simon Owens interviews Scott Rosenberg for PBS. Rosenberg is working on a book-length history of blogging.
15 years, wow. And I’ve been photoblogging since ’94. No wonder I’m tired. Check out a retrospective of moonmilk over the years here.