Glitter & Doom

What do killer robots, psychedelics and a woman named Susan Bennett have to do with artist, Stephanie Dinkins?

When we talk about robots, the conversation is likely to be negative, if not downright dystopian. If you type “robots are” into google, the predictive text—which is itself a form of artificial intelligence—suggests “robots are taking over,” “robots are coming,” and “robots are stealing our jobs.” It also suggests, “robots are people too.”

Artist Stephanie Dinkins found herself engaged in this very conversation with a robot by the name of Bina48, and it changed the trajectory of her artistic practice. Dinkins now finds herself presenting on artificial intelligence, race, and equity, often the lone artist in a room full of technologists.

What do peanut recipes, mysterious photographs and compost have to do with artist mayfield brooks? 

 

In their upcoming performance, “Viewing Hours,” mayfield brooks embraces the tradition of artists putting their bodies on the line for the sake of their practice. Upon entry, audiences are met with the sight of mayfield lying naked and prone under 40 pounds of compost, in simulation of a wake. In this piece, brooks uses their training as a dancer, performer and urban farmer to examine the commodification, death and decay of black bodies, and to investigate the act of witnessing and profiting off of black grief. mayfield brooks recently joined MacKenzie in the studio to discuss George Washington Carver, Marsha P Johnson and improvising while black.

“Viewing Hours” will be performed on January 20th at the 8th Floor in Manhattan. For more tickets and information, visit: https://bit.ly/2u6nFHX

What do Janelle Monae, Yelp reviews of plantations and Russian Dixies have to do with artist, Dread Scott?

Dread Scott wants us to remember that history is not so far from our present. His work often looks to the past in order to imagine a more just future, and perhaps no project embodies that more as his recent "Slave Rebellion Reenactment." In this piece, Scott brought the Slave Rebellion of 1811 back to life in New Orleans over the course of two days back in November, and he joined MacKenzie in the studio to talk about the project, his influences and punching Nazis.

What do the Zodiac and a spiritual entity named Seth have to do with filmmaker, Caveh Zahedi? Zahedi has been making documentaries for almost three decades, and before we booked him on the show, the only things MacKenzie knew about him were gleaned through season one of his autobiographical “The Show about the Show” and a New York Times Magazine profile that came out this fall, coinciding with the launch of season two. The title of that article: “A Filmmaker Bared His Soul. It Ruined His Life.”

It's a virtual certainty that you've seen Edel Rodiguez's illustrations. A prolific artist and political cartoonist, he's gained recent notoriety for his depiction of Donald Trump's face. Always the same, featureless, except for a screaming mouth melting into a puddle; Trump painting himself into an orange corner; Trump with arms aloft holding a bloody knife in one hand, and the severed head of Lady Liberty in the other. Rodriguez’s images pull no punches, and they remind us that these are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary artistic responses. MacKenzie sat down with Edel Rodriguez to talk about everything from fascism, to Communism, to the Irish mafia.

Jami Attenberg has written seven novels, and has not wasted a single one of them on a male antihero. Her latest book, a humorous and empathetic family drama, does feature a Tony Soprano-like character as the patriarch of the family, but Attenberg puts him in a coma on the very first page. MacKenzie sat down with Attenberg on the release date of "All This Could Be Yours" to talk about toxic masculinity, #MeToo, and gender-neutral storage units.

For almost 40 years, Pope.L has challenged his audience both, to look deep into the eyes of American society, and question the very nature of art. Best known for enacting provocative performances in public spaces, Pope.L addresses issues from language to gender, to race to the struggles we face in this late capitalism. His work ranges from performance to painting, video, sculpture, and theater. MacKenzie sat down with Pope.L and went in deep on his latest work at the Whitney (Choir), maneuvering a shlong-like device, and what it takes to crawl through the streets of New York.

The Anthropocene is posited to be the geological era that we are presently inhabiting, an age where the indelible mark of humanity cannot be extracted from the fossil record.

In Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, filmmakers Nicholas de Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky set out to travel the globe to document the impact humans have made on the planet. Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky join MacKenzie in the studio and talk about how humans have fundamentally changed the face of the Earth, while we dive in head first on the Nazca lines of Peru, and an ode to all the elephants we've lost to poaching.

We're back with episode #2 and this week we are talking about borders. Filmmakers Emelie Mahdavian and Su Kim join MacKenzie in the studio to talk about their latest film, Midnight Traveler. Midnight Traveler is a documentary where Afghan director Hassan Fazili is forced to flee the country when the Taliban puts a bounty on his head. We go in deep about the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee, check out how easy it is to move data over government lines, and check in with our friend, the cinereous vulture.