Here's the Status Update

Haskins Laboratories
300 George St., 9th floor
New Haven, (203) 772-2788
Status Update
Through August 1, 2009.
Hours: Wednesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm.
Opening reception Thursday, May 14, 5-7pm



Curated by Debbie Hesse and Donna Ruff, Status Update explores how contemporary artists are using emerging social networking technologies. Artists include Kevin Van Aelst, Cat Balco, Sharon Butler,Heather Freeman, Greg Garvey, Matt Held, Keith Johnson, Katie Ring, Jeremiah Teipen, Lee Walton, Rachel Perry Welty and An Xiao. (For artist links, click here.)

This Thursday, May 14, from 5-6 pm, please stop by and take part in a panel discussion curators Hesse, Ruff and I are hosting called "Big Love: Artists and Social Networking Technology." Panelists include Matt Held, Paddy Johnson, Sharon Kleinman (editor of Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the Twenty-first Century), An Xiao, and others. See the press release below for details.

Press Release:
About the panelists:
Sharon Butler (that's me), who organized the panel discussion via a Facebook Event Invitation, is an associate professor in Eastern Connecticut State University’s Department of Visual Arts, and maintains the art blog Two Coats of Paint. According to Butler, online social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter represent “undefined territory in the art community.” In April she wrote about the artworld's embrace of Facebook in The Brooklyn Rail.

Matt Held’s Facebook group, “I’ll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held,” has more than 3,000 members, each of whom hopes to have his or her portrait painted as part of a collection of 200 works.

Paddy Johnson is a Brooklyn-based writer whose work has been published in numerous art journals in this country and abroad. Her blog, Art Fag City, has been linked to by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine, among others.

Sharon Kleinman, a professor of communications at Quinnipiac University, earned her B.A. degree in English and American literature from Brandeis University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in communication from Cornell University. She is the editor of Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the Twenty-first Century (2007, Peter Lang Publishing).

An Xiao is a conceptual artist who uses online social networks as her medium. The Guardian’s (London) Ruth Jamieson recently included her in a “who’s who” of the Twitter art world alongside Yoko Ono, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tate.

For people who can't physically make it to New Haven, An Xiao is setting up a Twitter hashtag #hlsu (haskins lab status update) so farflung friends can follow live tweets. For more information about "Big Love: Artists and Social Networking Technology," Status Update, and Haskins Laboratories, please call the Greater New Haven Arts Council at (203) 772-2788.