Exhibition takes a cue from open-source software tradition, inviting artists to “rip, mix, and burn” two digital art works from the museum's permanent collection.

Berkeley, CA, September 17, 2007 - The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) presents RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA, an exhibition that celebrates the cultural and artistic practice of remixing by inviting artists to reconfigure or re-imagine existing digital art works. The exhibition, which is the latest installment in BAM/PFA's ongoing exploration of art and digital technology, will kick off on Friday, October 26 with Re-Mixer, a party featuring a live music mash-up and an art performance. In conjunction with the exhibition, BAM/PFA will also present a class on digital culture and new media, to be held on Thursday evenings, beginning October 25.

RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA, which is curated by Digital Media Director and Adjunct Curator Richard Rinehart, can be seen online at bampfa.berkeley.edu and at the museum from October 24 through March 2, 2008.

RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA takes as its starting point two digital works from the museum's collection: Ken Goldberg's Ouija 2000 and Valery Grancher's 24h00 (both 1999). With permission from Goldberg and Grancher, four groundbreaking artists-Michael Joaquin Grey, Jonathon Keats, The Studio for Urban Projects and Nathaniel Wojtalik-were given the raw materials that make up the digital works-the code, data files, images, and sounds-and invited to rework them in any way they chose. The results range from literal remixes in which the artists alter or revise the original code, to more conceptual re-interpretations that incorporate the originals' methods or behaviors into the new work. Ouija 2000 and 24h00 will each be exhibited along with the new, remixed works.

Some of RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA's pieces are of a physical nature-such as Jonathon Keats' installation piece, Ouija Vote 2008-while others reflect the more intangible and ephemeral nature of digital technology. Four of the pieces are Internet-based, including Goldberg's Ouija 2000 and The Studio for Urban Projects' 24h00 remix, In Popular Terms: The Evolving Language of Ecology.

Continuing in the spirit and ideal of the open-source movement, members of the public will also be invited to create their own remixes of Goldberg and Grancher's originals. Space will be made available on BAM/PFA's website, bampfa.berkeley.edu, for audiences to upload their work, allowing spectators to become further involved in the artistic process.

Many of the artists featured in the exhibition call the Bay Area home. Goldberg is a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Keats is a conceptual artist who lives in San Francisco. The Studio for Urban Projects is a research and working group that works within art, ecology, architecture, and the public realm to generate projects that re-imagine the urban landscape. An artist with a background in science and sculpture, Grey splits his time between San Francisco and New York. Though he hails from France, Grancher is no stranger to the Bay Area: he produced the video piece 24h00 in collaboration with UC Berkeley students. Wojtalik-whose piece in the show, Smithereens, is an online video collaboration with Berlin-based artist Iris Piers-lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.

Public Programs
RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA will include a wide array of public programs that explore the relationship between digital technology and artistic practice and exhibition. These include a live music mash-up and art performance, as well as a digital media class taught by the exhibition's curator, Richard Rinehart, and featuring the four artists commissioned to remix Goldberg's and Grancher's pieces.

Opening Reception and Performances
Re-Mixer
Friday, October 26, 7–10 p.m.
Bancroft Lobby
A one-night live music mash-up and art performance featuring Berkeley remix artists and DJs Ripley and Kid Kameleon, this event celebrates the opening of RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA and presents live performance works that complete that exhibition. Also appearing will be the do-it-yourself DJ machine created by the Improbable Orchestra group. This event is co-hosted by Creative Commons.

Digital Culture 0101
A new way to learn about new media
Thursday evenings, October 25, November 1, 8, 15, 29, December 6 (no class on November 22), 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Museum Theater
$125 for six-session course; $100 for BAM/PFA members and non-UCB students; free for UC Berkeley students
Advance Registration Required:
Online: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/courses/
By phone: (510) 642-5249, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
No technical knowledge required!

This thought-provoking course, taught by BAM/PFA Digital Media Director and Adjunct Curator Richard Rinehart, examines the ways in which new media reflect and interact with our culture. The course offers a non-technical look at issues surrounding digital media through the lens of digital art, sometimes working directly with works featured in the exhibition RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA. Rinehart and guest speakers-all practicing new-media artists-will lead sessions on topics including space and time, the body, interactivity, social context, collective memory, and intellectual property. Online discussion will extend the opportunities for conversation. For further information, please visit bampfa.berkeley.edu/courses/.

About BAM/PFA
The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) aims to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through contemporary and historical art and film, engaging audiences from the campus, Bay Area community, and beyond. BAM/PFA is one of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, presenting fifteen art exhibitions and five hundred film programs each year. The museum's collection of more than 15,000 works includes exceptional examples of mid-twentieth-century painting, including important works by Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse, and Mark Rothko, as well as historical and contemporary Asian art, early American painting, Conceptual and contemporary international art, and California and Bay Area art. The PFA film and video collection now includes the largest group of Japanese films outside of Japan, as well as impressive holdings of Soviet silents, West Coast avant-garde cinema, seminal video art, rare animation, Central Asian productions, Eastern European cinema, and international classics.

Credit Line


RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA has been developed with consultation by Creative Commons.
The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Additional support is provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
the Koret Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, Packard Humanities Institute, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Columbia Foundation, the Christensen Fund, the William H. Donner Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Gap Inc., other private foundations and corporations, and our individual donors and members. Major endowment support has been provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and by George Gund III.

Museum Information

Location: 2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue near the UC Berkeley campus.

Gallery and Museum Store Hours:
Wednesday and Friday to Sunday, 11 to 5; Thursday, 11 to 7. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Admission:
General admission is $8; admission for seniors, disabled persons, non–UC Berkeley students, and young adults (13 – 17) is $5; admission for BAM/PFA members, UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty, and children under 12 is free; admission for group tours is $3 per person (to arrange a group tour, call (510) 642-5188). Admission is free on the first Thursday of each month.

Information:
24-hour recorded message (510) 642-0808; fax (510) 642-4889; TDD (510) 642-8734.

Website: bampfa.berkeley.edu

###