FDIC Insured is collection of cast off investment guide books burned with the logos of the 300+ failed banks closed by FDIC during the great recession. The books were all purchased off the dollar racks at the Strand bookstore in New York City.

Since the beginning of the Great Recession the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has taken control of over 300 failed or failing banks. The government has bailed out, or brokered forced sales of a number of other major financial institutions. These emergency conversions are done in one weekend; on Friday the bank is alive, but at 6 PM it begins a massive autopsy, and by Monday morning all traces of the original bank are gone. It is operated under the name of a formal rival bank, many of the employees are gone, and the entire visual signage has changed. These logos and the failures the represent disappear from our memory, they disappear from the clutter of the visual landscape, they are even erased from the Internet and its many archives. This archive is a memorial to these banks, the failure of the system they are part of, and the failure of their aesthetics of hope and strength.

Curated by SPECTREVISION
Wynwood Arts District, December 2-5, 2010
Lions Gallery @ Museovault
346 NW 29th Street, Miami, FL 33127

Showcasing contemporary work inspired by current events. In navigating the borderlands of investigative practice, spectre long ago abandoned the catalogue notion of “genre”; as such spectrevision humbly presents studio art work juxtaposed interchangeably with experiments and efforts that defy current modes of categorization, displayed alongside research materials and other relevant findings.

Featuring:
Jeremy Dean, Jonathon Keats, Abigail Portner, Oliver Laric, Judi Werthein, Julieta Aranda, Michael Mandiberg, Iris Lasn, Nellie Appleby, Mike Ross, hacker Dan Kaminsky, authors Stephen Mihm (“Nation of Counterfeiters”), Howard Bloom (“Lucifer Principle”), Robert Eisenberg (“Boychicks in the Hood”), & Zachary Mexico (“China Underground”), Philip Tinari (founding editor artforum.com.cn & LEAP), photographers Cheryl Dunn, Tod Seelie, Jamel Toppin, Janine Gordon, Stacy Kranitz, Olivia Wyatt, & Julia Solis, Miami firefighter Myles Kaplan, holographer Mark Diamond, psychic economist Eva Destruction, artist/activist Ben Sisto, ‘missed connections’ curator Gillian Sneed, consumer advocate Dewey LLC, and others.

ASPECT v. 15, “Influence and Reference” includes video documentation of AfterSherrieLevine.com. The original project is from 2001, the video documentation was made in 2009. As ASPECT is a DVD publication they use the audio commentary tracks for a critical analysis of the works. I was very fortunate: Marita Sturken gave an awesome audio commentary.

A walk-through of my show in Portland at PNCA’s Feldman Gallery. More photos here.

Under The Floorboards from Michael Mandiberg on Vimeo.

Shot in Brooklyn in Fall of 2009 and Winter of 2010 in the midst of The Great Recession

I am chairing a panel this Wednesday at the CUNY Graduate Center

CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
March 17th 2010, Wednesday, 7:30pm, The Skylight Room (9100)

Online video has rapidly developed genres, conventions, and topics based around a quest for video views and internet fame. These attempts often revolve around themes and tactics as diverse as political humor, cute animals, the lulz, appropriation, instructional videos, and the ambiguous amalgam of the confessional documentary that turns out to, in fact, be short form fiction. This panel will bring together three scholar-practitioners to present and discuss specific examples of this work: Patrick Davison, Eyebeam, a not-for-profit art and technology center; Michael Mandiberg, Assistant Professor of Media Culture, College of Staten Island; and Marisa Olson, Assistant Professor of New Media, SUNY-Purchase.

Co-sponsored by the Digital Media Studies Group and the ITP doctoral certificate program

Introducing the new version of the Bright Bike DIY Kit. To BUY a DIY Kit right now, go to BrightThread.com

After a year of testing, we are releasing DIY Kits for an updated version of the Bright Bike. The kits come in two types: Caterpillar and Pinstripes.

The Caterpillar has 1 inch bands that wrap around the main tubes, and in inch dashed lines along the fork and seat stays.

The Pinstripe has 1/4 inch strips that run along the outside faces of all tubes.

Each kit is sized to be large enough for a 61cm frame with extra wide tubing, so in nearly every case, you will have extra materials that will give you room to play and experiment.

Video by Bennett Williamson. Tx to Scott Kildall for playing along. (Michael, Bennett, and Scott are the bike wrappers)

Security Patterns is a studio visit installation of recent laser cut work. These sculptures and drawings are made from old books laser cut with poignant words, and drawings made from industrial patterns, all of which explore transformations in technology and their relationships to evolutions (or devolutions) in economies. Some choice examples include: two display bookshelves with an ever growing collection of 130+ investment guide books and get-rich-quick books (e.g. “Weath is a Choice” or “Investing by the Stars”) all laser engraved with the logos of failed FDIC Insured banks, A shrink wrapped bundle of 12 Yellow Pages that have been cut all the way through with the phrase “GOOGLE” and a dictionary with the phrase “OMG LOL” cut from its pages.

I have previously burned the OED, Atlases, and Phonebooks. I am interested in exploring books, especially expensive reference books, as a symbol of technological obsolecense and consumption culture. Once they were a huge symbol of prestige, now they are a sign of a era whose time has passed away. I burn them with word and symbols, as a way of commenting on their technological obsolescence, and simultaneously restoring their aura as precious objects.

More images on this blog post, or on James Wagner’s review of his studio visit

Graham Parker stopped by for a studio visit, and we had a great conversation. The highlight was when he told me to “choose my words less carefully.” In the description he writes:

First in a series of studio and show visits with contemporary artists. I’ve known Michael for some years – probably since a friend directed me to his Shop Mandiberg project. He’s recently been a research fellow at Eyebeam and is having an open studio there soon – mostly showing off work he has been producing with a laser cutter. He invited a few people along to do some studio visits in advance of that and I happened to have my camera with me when I went along. He’d set up a lot of work in one of Eyebeam’s main display spaces, so the effect was much more like a solo show than a regular studio visit.I asked Michael to talk me through a few pieces on camera and he generously agreed to do so – despite having no time to process what we’d just been talking about in our visit. It’s mainly shot under existing lights with a few stills dropped in, so the footage is a little grainy in places, but it should give an idea of what he’s up to.

Liz Danzico (of Bobulate and SVA) asked me to finish this sentence in front of a camera: “So you’re thinking about becoming a designer? If I could tell you only *one thing* about going into the field, my advice would be ___________ ”

I think the most important piece of advice is to bring your camera everywhere you go. If you think your camera is too big, get a smaller one. I have a big DSLR that almost never gets used for anything other than documentation, but I always have my little point and shoot with me.

Just this weekend I was at a wedding. I didn’t bring the camera because… well, I’ve shot my fair share of weddings. But I cursed myself for not bringing it, not because I wanted to photograph the proceedings, but because there were some remarkable architectural details in the …mansion… that it was held in. The floors were all end grain pine. End grain is very hard, and if you cut and lay out pieces like a loaf of bread, you get beautiful patterns as the little bits of sapwood form quilt-like repeated triangles that wax and wane with the portion of the sapwood in the original board.

Sounds beautiful, right? Too bad I didn’t take a picture, and instead have to describe it imperfectly.

I think this advice holds true for any visual maker, artist, designer, architect, gardener.