Stars Fell on Athens, Georgia

The first 6X6 series concluded with a bang on August 4th with the curation of "Disaster" by Lauren Fancher. After first forcing the audience to respond to videotaped questions, and then requiring them to fan her and hold her speech, and then alarming them with the prospect of enduring her reading each and every word on a half inch thick pile of papers, she got out of the way and allowed the work to take over.



In a first for 6X6, the band Ranch performed live, featuring the resonant baritone of Jasey Jones, Kevin Sims on bass, and Laura Morgan on drums. They flickered in the dark while videos made by Sabrina Cuadra and Christopher Childs filled the screen in counterpoint -- one developed just for the song, the other serendipitously apt. Seen together for the first time at the event by both the band and the artists, the evening ended on the high note of Jasey Jones refuting what is necessarily so while the oil deep under the gulf burbled up through the whale song.

Complete Disaster Line-Up:
1. Chris Basmajian, Moment Magnitude, San Francisco, CA, 4:21
2. Katherine Sweetman, Dating in LA, San Diego, CA, 2:00
3. Peter Rand, Altruistic Amoeba, Denton, TX, 3:21
4. Knut Hybinette, Crowd, Enkoping, Sweden, 1:30
5. Ranch (Music: Jasey Jones, Laura Morgan, and Kevin Sims) and Sabrina Cuadra (Video), Live Performance, "It Hurts Me Too,” Athens, GA, 3:30
6. Ranch (Music: Jasey Jones, Laura Morgan, and Kevin Sims) and Christopher Childs (Video), Live Performance, “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” Athens, GA, 3:30

At the end of the evening, the 6X6 UGA Student Prize was awarded to Lindsey Klonoski. Not only were her entries selected by multiple curators, but they were consistently original, personal, and beautiful, combining performance, video, sculpture, and place.

6X6 will return in October with new themes and curators. Stay tuned and get your entries ready. We can only hope to continue to be, as one attendee remarked about Disaster, "both so weird and so well-organized."

6X6 #6 Disaster: A Bad Star Rises

From Moment Magnitude by Chris Basmajian

Are we tired of bad news from the bad stars, the disasters that surround us, remind us of our doom, our frailty, and our helpless stupidity? Really, what can art do in the face of so much? Come on down to the Ciné Lab on Wednesday August 4 at 7 pm, get a beverage, and let 6X6 Disaster curator Lauren Fancher read your horoscope. Thoughtful, strange, personal, and provocative, the selected works include videos from California, Sweden, and Texas, the music of the Athens band Ranch, and the return of Sabrina Cuadra and Christopher Childs. It's the last of the first series, which will return from hiatus in October, and it's the time to award the UGA Student Prize (a Flip video camera) for participation, valor, and the ability to capture the attention of the 6X6 coordinator. Contenders include Denton Crawford, Brian Hitselberger, Lindsey Klonosky, Ted Kuhn, Sarah Laurentius, Dan Osborne, Rob Peterson, and Justin Plakas. It's written in the stars...

About The Curator: Lauren Fancher has a background in studio art (BFA, UGA) and instructional technology (MEd, UGA), and currently has a focus on interactive design and digital media. She is active in the instructional technology, library, and digital arts communities as a writer, presenter, and artist, as well as serving as the coordinator of the 6X6 Media Arts Events series held at the Ciné Lab in Athens. She really appreciates everybody who has participated and hopes to have more fun with 6X6 in the coming year. More about Lauren Fancher...