Thursday, August 21, 2008

Robischon Gallery Opening & Karaoke Convention 08










Tonight we had the pleasure of attending two gallery openings, the first was at the Robischon Gallery where Partly Sunny prints (made by Ben) were on display, along with the work of other Dialog:City participating artists, such as Ann Hamilton, R.Luke Dubois, and DJ Spooky.

It was nice to see the Partly Sunny prints immediately upon entering the gallery. There were also some postcards on the table by the door, and it was thrilling to see how eager gallery-goers were to fill them out! There was a great turn out for opening night, and we enjoyed the mild Denver weather as we traversed from Robischon Gallery to the Supreme Court restaurant where Daniel Peltz (Assistant Professor of Film/Animation/Video at RISD) premiered his interactive performance piece, "Karaoke Convention '08" (http://karaokeconvention.com/)







Karaoke Convention 08 created quite a buzz inside The Supreme Court restaurant, there were many television cameras and media contacts there. The performance started off with the Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, giving a re-speech of Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech (originally given in South Carolina Democratic Primary).

Karaoke Convention 08 works just like traditional karaoke, with the words appearing on a screen and the performer on stage with a mic in their hand, but instead of song lyrics it has the transcription of the speech, and instead of music the sound track is sounds from the audience, or the hush of an attentive crowd.

Original speech by Barack Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVAPH_EcmQ

By Mayor Hickenlooper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OSAN8IOfQE

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