| 2008 |
|
April 4
7-9pm |
The Change You Want To See is happy to host Aaron Gach, co-founder and Director of Operations at the Center for Tactical Magic. Expect an evening of Revolutionary Breakthroughs in Extra-Sensory Perception. Replete with projects, experiments, and anecdotes from the Tactical Magic trenches, this exposition will pull back the curtain on all types of contemporary magic, art, and politics. |
March 22 |
Cool treats to beat the heat! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit drops in on the 13th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair. What could be better than "bomb pops" and anarchy? |
March 15-May 17 |
Check out "Environmental Performance Action" at Exit Art in NYC! In addition to documentation of the CTM's Cricket-Activated Defense System there's a whole host of great enviromental works from a wide range of eco-minded artists. |
March 7 - April 25, 2008
Opening: March 7, 6pm - 8pm
|
The ISE CULTURAL FOUNDATION is hosting a veritable banquet of spicy aesthetics in "Détourned Menu: Food in the Form of Activism". Curated by Brianna Toth, Detourned Menu brings together a group of artists who investigate the relationship between food and the economic, social, ethical, and political realms. Artists include: Erik Carver & Howard Huang, The Center for Tactical Magic, Cori Crowley & Bert Bergen, DoEAT, Bessma Khalaf, Alessandro Nassiri, Chris Sollars & Jerome Waag, Eva Strohmeier, and Adam Zaretsky |
Call to Action!
Opening: March 7, 6pm - 8pm
|
A curious irony frames a current exhibition entitled 'Detourned Menu: Food in the Form of Activism' that opens this Friday, March 7th (6-8 pm) -- the hosting gallery, ISE Cultural Foundation, is funded by ISE America, a corporation whose factory egg farms have been the target of animal cruelty lawsuits and recent accusations of consumer fraud.
Join in protest of an exhibition on food and activism funded by a
corporation who has been the target of many animal rights lawsuits! |
June - Sept. |
The cauldrons are bubbling away on new projects for The Great Transformation at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt, Germany. More details to come! |
| 2007 |
|
October 27 |
The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will be teaming up with Food-Not-Bombs at the final rally point (Delores Park) of the Anti-War Protest in San Francisco. So dissent to your heart's delight and then swing by for some eats and some treats! |
October 25 |
Join the CTM at the opening of Biotechnique at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. CTM members will be on-hand to help distribute the Vital Psigns seed project. Participants will learn about human/plant communication and take home a do-it-yourself experiment in psychobotany. |
October 11 |
The Center for Tactical Magic ventures to the nation of Georgia for a new public project on the streets of Tbilisi. The CTM's "Ghost Machine" will be one of 12 international projects presented for One Stop: Art Caucasus 2007 - International Contemporary Arts Forum |
|
August 18 |
Save the Oaks! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit lends its tasty support to the Berkeley, CA tree-sitters at a community rally to stop the axes from a-choppin'. |
July 13-15 |
The 1st International Copwatch Conference takes place at Laney College in Oakland, CA !!! And the Tactical Ice Cream Unit will also be there to provide frosty treats to beat the heat! |
|
June
8 |
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit teams up with Larry Bogad
of the Rebel Insurgent Clown Army as we cruise into Davis,
California for "Temp Work: Temporary Public Art
Projects in Downtown Davis". Temp Work is a collaboration
between the Nelson Gallery of UC Davis and the
City of Davis Civic Arts Commission. |
|
May
12-June
16 |
A
social laboratory for experiments in psychobotany will
be established at Machine
Project in LA. Psychobotany cultivates
a cultural terrain that includes a wide array of efforts
at human/plant communication. One can expect to find military
scientists rubbing shoulders with druids; tree-sitters
cavorting with tech wizards; and conceptual artists conspiring
with herbalists. Check out psychobotany.com
for more details! |
|
April
|
Lars
Bang Larsen invokes the Center For Tactical Magic
within the pages of Frieze magazine (April issue)
for an article entitled: Art and the Occult. |
|
March
29 -
April
1
|
The
4th Annual Transmodern
Festival in Baltimore, Maryland plays host
to 4 days of local and national performers, dancers, musicians,
filmmakers, video artists, sculptors, writers, and mischiefmakers.
The CTM's Free
Occult Services Project will be distributing
Do-It-Yourself institutional hexes for your use against
your (least) favorite institutions. |
|
March/April
|
Legendary
enabler, Gregory Sholette interview's the CTM's
own Aaron Gach in the March/April issue of Art Papers. |
|
March
17-18
|
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit unleashes delicious pops and righteous
propaganda at the 12th
Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair! |
|
Jan.
30 - 31
|
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit rolls on to the University
of California at Santa Cruz for a 2-day Tactical Magic
Expo complete with experiments in Extra-Sensory Perception,
Know-Your-Rights Training Sessions, a Self-Liberation
Workshop, and an ice cream social. |
| 2006 |
|
|
Dec.
1 - Jan. 6
|
WHW
and Gallery Nova in Zagreb, Croatia play host to
Dataesthetics:
How to Do Things with Data. Curated by
Steven Wright, "Dataesthetics seeks to foreground
some of the most cutting-edge practices in the field of
research-based art..." Including the works of The
Atlas Group, Jean
- Pierre Aubé, Bureau
d’études, Center for Tactical Magic,
IRWIN,
Mark
Lombardi, Trevor
Paglen, Marko
Peljhan/I-TASC, Martha
Rosler, Bálint Szombathy, Mladen Stilinovic',
Visible
Collective/ Mohaiemen, Roy, Huq, Lin, Dataesthetics
is a three-phrase project, comprising an exhibition, a
discussion forum with the artists and the publication
of a bilingual reader, featuring critical writings by
theorists and artists working in the field of dataesthetics. |
|
Nov.
26
|
Join
the CTM in Copenhagen, Denmark as we present Our
Program for Creative Engagement at YNKB
(Outer Nørrebro Culture Bureau ). The
enchantment begins at 7pm. |
|
Nov.
17-18
|
The
Center for Tactical Magic presents "Revolutionary
Breakthroughs in Extra-Sensory Perception" in Frankfurt,
Germany in the closing address of the BLICK.SPIEL.FELD
(Gaze.Play.Field) conference at the Goethe-University.
Combining a number of disciplines in the arts and sciences,
BLICK.SPIEL.FELD sees seeing as an experiment, focuses
on the gaze, maps the field of the visible, and plays
with perception. |
|
Nov.
15
12-2pm |
The
University
of Southern California's Graduate Lecture Series
at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts hosts an afternoon
presentation and discussion with Aaron Gach, co-founder
and spokesman of the Center for Tactical Magic. The public
is welcome to join the fray at the USC Graduate Fine Arts
Building & Roski MFA Gallery. |
|
Nov.
3
7pm |
Co-founder
and spokesman of the CTM, Aaron Gach, joins Elizabeth
Mangini, San Francisco-based scholar and critic, for the
final session of The
New New Masses Salon Series at the San Francisco
Art Institute. The New New Masses seeks to address
the confluence of art and politics as well as artists'
social responsibilites. |
|
Oct.
28
2-4pm |
Sonoma
County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA
PANEL
DISCUSSION: Interventionists
Art
made to attach to buildings or to be given away? Edible
art for demonstrations or art that appears as a booth
at a trade show? This is the art of the interventionists,
who trespass into the everyday world to raise our awareness
of injustice and other social problems.
Panelists include: Nato Thompson, Curator at MassMOCA;
Pamela Bolton and Cynthia Cleary of Free Fruit/Fruta Gratis;
Shannon Spanhake, founding member of DoEAT; and Aaron
Gach, Center for Tactical Magic. Moderated by Chief Curator,
Patricia Watts. |
|
Oct.
25
5pm |
Fight
for Police Accountability! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit
will team up with Berkeley
Copwatch and concerned
citizens for a rally and march to the Berkeley Police
Review Commission (PRC) to demand that the besieged civilian
oversight agency take bold action to preserve civilian
review. Meet at The Public Safety Building (MLK and Center
St.) March to North Berkeley Senior Center (Hearst and
MLK) for the PRC Public Hearing on "The Future of
the PRC". |
|
Oct.
22
2pm |
Come
and join us for the 11th Annual National Day of Protest
Against Police Brutality! Wear Black ! Fight Back
! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will provide support and
treats for the march from Haight and Stanyan to the Fillmore
on Oct 22, 2pm. For more info, check out http://www.bayarea1022.org/ |
| Oct.
- Nov. |
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit thunders around the San Francisco
Bay Area and teams up with the
LAB for Détourned Menu.Curated
by Brianna Toth, DM presents a collection of artists
who perceive their
work as tactical treats, ones that are used to infiltrate
contemporary visual culture. By providing food for thought,
as well as something to fill one's belly, these artists
produce work that disrupts the visual and spatial codes
of everyday life. The subversive concoctions created for
Détourned Menu will demonstrate how food consumption
is saturated with additional dimensions of meaning that
can be understood as stemming variously from economic,
social, ethical, ceremonial, fetishistic or gluttonous
concerns ... ideas that move beyond the notion of eating
just for survival.
Opening
Reception: Friday, October 20, 6 – 9 PM.
Panel
Discussion: Thursday, October 26 at 7 PM.
Panelists include: Curator Brianna Toth, artists Colleen
Flanigan, Aaron Gach of the Center for Tactical Magic,
Chris Sollars, Jerome Waag, and special guest Patricia
Watts, Chief Curator of the Sonoma County Museum. |
| Sept.
15-17 |
Thanks
to the support of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission
and the Santa
Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, the Tactical
Ice Cream Unit will venture off to sunny Santa Barbara
to mix mirth and mischief with locals, students, and tourists
alike. More details to come! |
| August
19 - 20 |
In
connection to Strange Powers (see below) the Center for
Tactical Magic will be presenting a lecture, workshop, and
demonstration designed to facilitate experimentation concerning
human/plant communication. Based on research pioneered in
the 1970's, the workshop re-examines the techniques and
premises in a do-it-yourself, group setting. Throughout
the workshop, participants will learn about historical approaches
to plant communication, law enforcement efforts at plant
interrogation, current dilemmas with today's telecommunications
industries, and the potential for future inter-species collaboration.
Participants will also witness a live demonstration of extra-sensory
perception mediated through the cooperation of plants. Finally,
participants will be provided with the materials and instruction
necessary to begin their own bio-psi experiments. |
| July
19 - September 17 |
STRANGE
POWERS, Creative Time's summer group exhibition,
assembles works by more than twenty internationally acclaimed
artists--Pawel Althamer & Artur Z.mijewski, James
Lee Byars, Sophie Calle & Fabio Balducci, The Center
for Tactical Magic, Peter Coffin, Jennifer Cohen, Anne
Collier, Christian Cummings, Trisha Donnelly, Douglas
Gordon, Brion Gysin, Friedrich Jürgenson (presented
by Carl Michael von Hausswolff), Joachim Koester, Jim
Lambie, Miranda Lichtenstein, Euan Macdonald, Jonathan
Monk, Senga Nengudi, Paul Pfeiffer, Eva Rothschild, and
Mungo Thomson--whose works explore the transformative
power of art through a variety of magically charged manifestations.
While a number of exhibitions have recently looked at
aspects of the occult and the spiritual, STRANGE POWERS
highlights artworks that are made to actually have a paranormal
effect on the world, including spells, talismanic objects,
and apparitions conjured and transcribed.
Co-curated
by Laura Hoptman and Peter Eleey, the exhibition will
be presented on the second floor of an East Village
building (64 East 4th Street), rumored to be haunted,
Thursday and Friday (4-7pm), Saturday and Sunday (noon--7pm)
from July 20 through September 17, 2006, with an opening
reception on Wednesday, July 19, 6-7:30pm. |
| June
19 - 25 |
The
World
Urban Forum in Vancouver, BC has invited
from around the world hundreds of government officials,
local authorities, non-governmental organizations, experts
on urban issues, and the Center for Tactical Magic to participate
and discuss the global challenges related to urbanization.
The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will gear up to perform in official
and un-official capacities. |
|
Spring
-
Tour
Schedule |
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit continues its SoCal hijinx with
stops at the following places of mystery and mayhem. Contact
us to set up a tour stop near you!
April
2:
Come for free popsicles & propaganda in downtown Riverside
at UCR's Sweeney Art Gallery from 1-4pm!
April
4-5:
Mixin' it up at Otis College of Art & Design
April
7:
Tag-team with radical artist Robby Herbst at Pitzer College
April
9:
Chillin' at Santa Monica Pier
April
10:
Serving up some treats at UCLA
April
22:
Hanging out in Tijuana with the good folks at Lui
Velazquez
April
24:
Talking tactics at the University of California - San
Diego
April
29:
Mirth & magic at Machine
Project in LA
May
1: General
Strike!!!
May
4:
More mischief at the magical Marvimon
May
5-7: Beating
the heat with frosty treats at High
Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree
May
9:
Lurking around Cal Arts in Valencia
May
11: More conjurations at Cypress
College
May
14:
Parade! The TICU will be joining Fritz Haeg and his students,
along with various other artists, for Our
Parade along the Santa Clara River.
May
15 - 20:
The TICU teams up with the University of California Institute
for Research in the Arts in Santa Barbara for the "State
of the Arts" conference.
May
23:
Enchantments at U.C. Santa Cruz
More
to come!
Want to support a tour stop? Email
us!
|
| April
1 - May 7 |
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit will begin its West Coast Tour in
sunny Southern California at the beginning of April. Starting
at the University of California, Riverside the TICU will
participate in People For A Better Tomorrow. Curated
by Meg Cranston, the exhibition will celebrate the opening
of UCR's Sweeney
Art Gallery and will also include Everlovely
Lightningheart, Finishing School, Shana Lutker, Amy Maloof,
Ben Shaffer, Efrat Shalem, and Mario Ybarra. |
| In
black & white |
Be
sure to check out our Applied Magic(k) column in the ever-illustrious
Arthur
magazine (Issue 21). Also, look for the Center for Tactical
Magic lurking in the pages of these righteous purveyors
of pertinent prose: In
These Times
(Feb. 2006), 3rd
Floor magazine (issue #4), and Thee
Temple of Psychick Youth's Broadcast 10. |
| 2005 |
|
| Nov
7 - 11 |
The
Tactical Ice Cream Unit will be joining Ohio
University students and community members from
Athens, Ohio for a series of workshops and pop ops. |
| Oct
24 - 30 |
The
TICU is continuing on its national Civic Tour of Duty to
Chicago where it will be participating in the SELECT
Media Festival. Check in for details about activities
and street ops! |
| Oct
22 - |
The
Center for Tactical Magic will be joining Kansas City's
newly-formed Police Accountability Alliance in celebrating
the 10th annual National
Day Against Police Brutality. In addition to
speakers, workshops, Hip-hop battles, and other rally activities,
the Tactical Ice Cream Unit will be on-hand to provide an
amplified stage, event support, and cool treats to beat
the heat! |
| Sept
6 - Oct 30 |
The
Ultimate Jacket (display) has crossed the continent to be
included in the Richmond
Art Center's exhibition, Dress: Clothing as
Art, curated by Anuradha Vikram. |
| Sept
2 - Oct 15 |
After
a long, hot summer of hard work, the Tactical Ice Cream
Unit has been launched in Kansas City where it will remain
on display at Grand
Arts for the duration
of the exhibition. Following Oct. 15, the TICU will be conducting
various Pop Ops throughout KC before moving along on it's
national, civic tour of duty. |
| Out
now - |
Be
on the lookout for Xtreme Fashion from Prestel
Publishing. In Xtreme Fashion authors
Courtenay Smith and Sean Topham turn their attention to
the fashion world, where haute couture is taking a backseat
to serious concerns about the environment, personal safety,
and privacy. Featuring more than 300 color photos and fascinating
text (including the CTM's Ultimate Jacket), the authors
show how real fashion starts on the streets, born of urban
conditions from gang culture to teenybopper worship. |
|
March
12 thru April 10
Special
Event:
March
6
|
The
Huntington
Beach Art Center unleashes Detours,
an exhibition featuring projects from the Center for Tactical
Magic, Survival
Research Labs, Finishing
School, and others. The CTM will be organizing
a community kite-building workshop on March 6 from noon-3pm
as part of our aerial activism project, Uprising!
- Messages in the Sky. A panel discussion of the
participating artists will take place prior to the opening
on the evening of March 12.
See
the Call
for Participation! |
|
Ongoing
-
(until
Apr. 2005) |
The
Ultimate Jacket will appear in the ultimate installation
at the Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) as part
of an ongoing exhibition highlighting creative resistance
and intervention. The show is curated by Nato Thompson and
titled "The Interventionists". More info can be
found within the pages of MIT Press' catalog of the show,
The Interventionists: Users' Manual for the Creative
Disruption of Everyday Life. |
| March
11 thru April 10 |
The
CTM will be participating in Shopdropping: Experiments
in the Aisle hosted by Pond
in San Francisco. This event both catagues and instigates
the insertion of art (ranging from social sculpture to gentle
gestures of gift-leaving) into public places of commerce
(mostly chain stores). Others participating in Shopdropping
include: Packard Jennings, Steve Lambert, Eva Strohmeier,
Amy Franceschini, Michael Campbell & Coby Ellison, Marc
Horowitz, Ven Voisey, Shannon Spanhake, the Boys & Girls
Club of San Francisco, and others. |
| Jan
22-23 |
Amnesty
International's Firefly Arts Project along with
Theaters
Against War, Art
Is Permitted Everywhere, and FELT
present an out-of-the-ordinary conference on arts and activism
in response to the incredible profusion of politically-engaged
artistic projects, performances, and events that have been
created in New York City and across the nation. "And
So Forth" (hosted by OfficeOps
in NYC), will feature panels, workshops, film screenings,
art exhibitions and other special events. The art exhibition,
"Image
Acts" (curated by Apsara DiQuinzio &
Tina Kukielski) will feature 25 socially-engaged culture-makers
including the CTM. |
| 2004 |
|
| Winter
- |
LiP
Magazine (Winter
2004 issue - out now) was kind enough to publish an image
of the Ultimate Jacket. In addition to our minimal contribution,
LiP is filled with mirthful and mischievous content from
the likes of Yo
Mango! (Spanish
anarchists/artists), Guillermo
Gomez-Pena (cyborg, border brujo), and plenty
of other crafty peeps. |
| Nov
20 - |
The
CTM will be participating in a conference titled, "Art,Circuitry,
and Ecology" at the City University of New
York, honoring the memory and influence of Gregory Bateson.
|
| Oct.
8-11 |
October
Surprise! Creative Interventions and Underground Politics
in Northeast Los Angeles. Join us & 40 other artists/collectives
for this LA offshoot of the Department of Space &
Land Reclamation. More info can be had at: www.theoctobersurprise.org |
| Sept.
25 |
Calling
all defenders of free speech!
If you live in the SFBay Area (or have friends here) please
come
out and support the Critical Art Ensemble's defense effort
by
attending the benefit blow-out on Sat. Sept 25 (at 8:30)
at ATA
Gallery, 992 Valencia St. Films and videos (Including CAE's
own)
on BioTech and the law will be screened, amidst feats of
oratory and legerdemain by the Center for Tactical Magic
and
audioscapes by DJ Pod.
$5-50. For more info: www.othercinema.com
(or call 415 648-0654).
|
| June
5-13 |
The
Center for Tactical Magic will be collaborating with artists
and scientists to address California water issues as part
of Aquatopia,
a summer convergence organized by the University of the
Pacific Dept. of Art & Art History. |
| April
28-30 |
Lake
Erie College in Ohio will be the site of a 3-day Tactical
Magic Academy to introduce students to new modes of willful
engagement and strategies for creative problem-solving. |
| Spring
- |
An
article exploring the relationship between magic and the
military titled "Are We in the Dark Ages" has
been published in the Spring issue of Art
Journal. |
| 2003 |
|
|
Currently
- |
Keep
an eye out for an article discussing Tactical Media by
Trevor
Paglen and
Aaron Gach called "Tactics Without Tears"
appearing in The
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest. |
| Ongoing
- |
The
Cricket-Activated Defense System has been added to the Guerilla
Performance Locator, an interactive political
performance map created by British artists, Leslie
Hill and Helen Paris, as part of Shooting
Live Artists.
|
| Oct.
2-5 - |
The
western division of the Department
of Space and Land Reclamation is forming in the
San Francisco Bay Area!! Hundreds of public projects will
reclaim public space in the course of 72 hours. Find out
how YOU can get involved! |
| Sept.
13 - |
An
evening of performative lectures on creative resistance,
socio-political mischief, and cultural transformation featuring
artist Trevor
Paglen, the editors of the Journal
of Aesthetics & Protest, and the Center for
Tactical Magic. This event is hosted by Craig Baldwin's
Other Cinema series at Artists'
Television Access on
992 Valencia St. in San Francisco at 8pm. |
| May
25 - |
Live
demonstration of the Cricket-Activated Defense System at
C-level
in L.A. ! |
| Mar.
27 - |
Version
<03> Digital Arts Convergence at the Museum of Contemproary
Art in Chicago - The Center for Tactical Magic will be presenting
the Smoky
Hill River Outpost: Communal Empowerment
Through Suggestive States, as well as speaking on a roundtable
panel discussion concerning Tactical Media. For more info
on Version <03>, check out: www.versionfest.org/
|
| Mar.
5 - |
CTM
co-founder, Aaron Gach, will be presenting to students at
Rensaeller Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. |
|
TBA
-
(~
2/25-28) |
Tyler
School of Art, Phila. - Through the creation of the Tactical
Magic Expo, the CTM will provide an opportunity
to engage in an intensive 1-2 day exploration of ways in
which artists can engage a vast array of social issues.
Serving as a temporary magic academy for creative problem-solving,
the expo will share information and facilitate collaborative
endeavors on the frontlines of creative resistance. Activities
include an artist's talk, project workshop, tactical magic
seminar, and other group activities. Special emphasis will
be given to organizing collective action in response to
US foreign policy and an impending war. |
