The Napping Wizard Sessions

On October 05-06 from 7pm to 7am at The New School of Social Research, I was invited to participate in The Night of Philosophy. Rather than do something live, I chose to record the 12-hour evening. The night hosted 50 philosophers and 50 artists in multiple venues at the New School scheduled in half-hour shifts. I couldn’t be everywhere at once, so the Field Recordings I play are of what I was able to hear. Other attendants certainly had different experiences.

Samples of lectures in this 30-minute episode come from, in no particular order: Philosophy as Radical Innovation by Markus Gabriel; Forgetting the Holocaust by Omri Boehm; Domestic Bliss: Philosophy and Family by Meghan Robison; Army of Ravens by Drucilla Cornell presented by Benoît Challand; A Feminist Social Imagery: A New Topography of Space by Maria Pia Lara; Do We Perceive the Same Colors? by John Morrison; Human Rights: On the Foundation of Ecological Socialism by Jay Bernstein; The New Age of Reputation by Gloria Origgi; Racial Justice by Charles Mills; Nothing New by Jack Halberstam; Black Existentialism by Lewis R. Gordon; The Usage of Words by Cia Rinne; Commitment to the Bit: On Andrea Chu by McKenzie Wark; Onkalo or the Contamination of Eternity by Nicolas de Warren; Realism, Objectivity and Evaluation by Justin Clarke-Doane.

Multimedia performances included: Musicircus (John Cage’s work presented by the College of Performing Arts directed by Blair McMillen and performed by students in the New School creative community, includes vocal, keyboard and saxophone); Bowie Singalong and Dance (presented by Simon Critchley and DJ Zenon Marko); Nightclub (DJ sets accompanied by a full reading of the first volume of Vernon Subutex, a French novel by Virgina Desppentes, concept by Meriam Korichi, excerpt with Vanessa Place); Collective Task (international group of artists and poets developing networking as an art practice excerpts with Vanessa Place and others); impromptu piano solos by Lewis R. Gordon; Wilhelm Reich’s The Emotional Plague (performed with two pianos, two voices, cello and audience participation with Morgan Bassichis and Ethan Philbrick); Sunrise Raga (Ehren Hanson and Jay Gandhi).

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Even a Fool Learns to Love, now that’s a David Bowie song that most people haven’t heard of. We also didn’t know there was a link between Life On Mars? and My Way. What? Frank Sinatra and David Bowie? Or is it Paul Anka and Claude Francois? Or maybe it’s Barbara Streisand and Sid Vicious. It gets confusing. In this episode I unravel how David Bowie made Life on Mars? as a parody and a revenge song of My Way.

This episode includes found footage of David Bowie and Paul Anka interviews, various samples of Even a Fool Learns to Love, Comme d’Habitude, My Way and Life on Mars?, also Maya Beisler, Seu Jorge and Barbara Streisand performing Life on Mars? The end features Elise Ald covering Comme d’Habitude, Nina Simone covering My Way and AURORA covering Life on Mars?

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In this episode I stage a reenactment of the introduction to Harry Mathews' novel Tlooth.

I produced this in a podcasting seminar at BRIC in 2016 with my fellow participants lending their voices.

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In this session I go back to the ONE SONG format with a flip. I still take a deep dive into one, well, riff, it just happens to be repeated in several songs. This one song has consistently found its place on top of the pop music charts for over four decades crossing genres and under different guises. Young musicians looking for a breakout hit and seasoned musicians looking to make a comeback need to listen to this show. One song can make all the difference, and this one is tested and – usually – always wins.

(Lou Reed, Negativland) You Can’t Hurry Love, The Supremes, 1966; I’m Ready For Love, Martha and the Vandellas, 1966; C’Mon Marianne, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, 1967; Touch Me, The Doors, 1968; ((You Can’t Hurry God) He’s Right On Time, Dorothy Love Coates, 1953); (I'm Ready for Love, Temptations, 1967); C’mon Marianne, Donny Osmond, 1976; Lust for Life, Iggy Pop, 1977; Heart, Rockpile, 1980; A Town Called Malice, The Jam, 1982; You Can’t Hurry Love, Phil Collins, 1982; Walking on Sunshine, Katrina and the Waves, 1983/1985; You Can’t Hurry Love, Dixie Chicks, 1999; Are You Gonna Be My Girl?, Jet, 2003; Selfish Jean, Travis, 2007; What is Happening? Alphabeat, 2007/2018; Valerie, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse, 2007; Lust for Life, J2 and Nicole Atkins, c2014.

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In this session, I talk with Nicholas Fraser about his text-based artworks. We focus on Left Hanging, a project where re-purposes his unrequited dating app. intros into ephemeral objects. Love letters like hanging chads cast shadows of conversations that were never properly counted. He spent a great deal of effort crafting these letters, and though they never captured their intended recipient, he found a way to utilize this archive to reach a broader audience. Nicholas’ work for the past decade has focused on the slippages of language, the erasure of meaning, our human desperation to communicate and our dizzying agility at failing at it. But sometimes we succeed, like in this conversation where we get an in-depth look at how Nicholas’ projects evolve and adapt.

As you listen to this, I encourage you to take a look at his website: http://nicholasfraser.com/

Born in the U.K., Nicholas Fraser lives in Brooklyn. Left Hanging was featured in the Spring/Break Art Fair and the 2017 Chashama Gala, as well as in a solo exhibition at Hofstra University's Rosenberg Gallery in 2016. His public sculpture, All Consuming, was commissioned for Randall's Island in 2015, the same year that he participated in the Bronx Museum's AIM program. His video Follow was featured in the 2015 AIM Biennale. A solo exhibition of his work was on view at York College/CUNY in February of 2015. He has also exhibited work at the Drawing Center, Interstate Projects, Dorsky Gallery, Flux Factory, Bronx Art Space, Art in Odd Places, La Mama La Galeria, Jack the Pelican and Taller Boricua. He has participated in residencies at MASS MoCA, Skowhegan, Art Omi, Sculpture Space, LMCC and BRIC. International audiences have seen his work in Paris, Seoul, Toronto, Cuba, Russia and Germany. In 2014 he was awarded a NYFA Fellowship for his ongoing video project about storefronts.

Sampled clips from, in order of appearance, Joe Cocker, Buckwheat Zydeco, Deee Lite, John Lee Hooker, Nicki Minaj (reading Roald Dahl) via Kanye West, Ray Charles via Norah Jones, Dixie Chicks, Jim Croce, Kid Koala (multiple), David Lee Roth via Van Halen, Tom Waits, Scissor Sisters, Jim Croce, Kid Koala.

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An incantation, a moan, a breath. This is my digital collection of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s music - a mere fraction of their enormous output over 6+ decades: all 154 tracks from the following recordings play simultaneously spread out at random as one song, 14.5 hours of music packed into 28 minutes. I had been a fan of their music since 1990 and then in 2015, along with 12 others, I spent several weeks with Gen at Pioneer Works deeply getting to know their philosophy, art and music. I haven’t adjusted any of the individual volumes or strategically placed any of these tracks. I only spread them out visually in the audio software, and this is the voice that spoke. Anyone familiar with the plurality of this incredible pandrogyne will know the role chance, intuition and magic played in their practice. I recommend headphones.

The recordings represented include every track from the following (not in this order): 20 Jazz Funk Greats; Allegory and Self; Fred; Heathen Earth: The Live Sound of Throbbing Gristle; Jack The Tab: Techno Acid Beat; Live at Thee Berlin Wall, Part One; Live in Bergenz; Live in Paris; Live in Thee East Village; Live in Toronto; Tale Ov 2 Cities: London and Glasgow Live; Thee City Ov Tokyo; Thee City Ov New York; Throbbing Gristle Greatest Hits.

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In this episode I talk with multi-media artist Moo Kwon Han about his recent exhibition, DRUM, at the Gyeongin Art Museum in Seoul, Korea. To make this work, he was granted access to multiple power facilities, many of them nuclear, all in South Korea. In our conversation we unravel the works in the exhibition, from the initial inspirational image of a detail of yellow drums containing radioactively contaminated clothing – a mere fraction of the total drums in this facility – all the way through to a final musical score that encapsulates both the path and the contents of the exhibition. When we see artworks in museums and galleries, it’s like looking at a lightening strike. We’re amazed by the instantaneous moment and evidence of what was created, but we really don’t understand what went into its making. In our conversation, I draw out the creative path Han followed in constructing Drum. I encourage you to look at his website before listening: https://www.hanmookwon.com/drum.

Mookwon Han was born in Gyeongju, Korea, and currently lives in New York. He has had solo shows at Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul (2017, 2020 forthcoming), Doosan Gallery New York (2009), CUE Art Foundation New York (2009), and Gyeongin (Kyung-In) Art Museum, Seoul (2000, 2019). Han’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Cube Museum, Seongnam; NY Media Center (2017); The Fondazione Filiberto Menna, Salerno, Italy; Galeria U Jezuitow, Poznan, Poland; Bund18 Creative Center, Shanghai, China; Coreana Museum, Seoul, Korea; Nation Centre for Performing Art, Asia Society Mumbai Centre, Mumbai, India; Metropolitan Pavilion, NY; David Zwirner Gallery, NY; Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery/ Asia Society Museum NYC; Unit B Gallery, San Antonio: Hoam Gallery and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul.

​Han received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts NYC (2006), attended the Skowhegan School (2008) and participated in residencies at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (2015-16), Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture (2013-14), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program (2011-12), LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island (2010), Art OMI (2009) and CUE Art Foundation(2008) and was a Smack Mellon Hot Pick. He was awarded a Korea Hydro Nuclear Power, Co. and Gyeongju Cultural Foundation Grant (2020), Puffin Foundation Grant, and New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship in Digital/Electronic Arts (2009) and joined as a review panelist (2014/2017).

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