"I believe I spied your Prize Budgie at the 1971 Miss General Idea Pageant, many years ago!" - AA Bronson
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In addition to words and pictures,art in the Clubhouse uses the following media:
Flash, Quicktime, Java, PDF, JavaScript
Online Art
News & Events
Calderoids
Blast Alexander Calder's kinetic mobiles in the cosmic spacecraft of Atari's Asteroids! Art is so much better when you can shoot it with lasers!
Pac-Mondrian
Have you played ART today? Take one 20th Century masterpiece, mix it with another, and you get what is surely the first true and enduring masterpiece of 21st Century Art. Witness the birth of Pac-Modernism. Wacca wacca wacca!
Raw Material
Exhaust from an unabashed pursuit of wonder. Can we be glowing? Check our smiles! Can we be delighted? We feel it in our stomachs! Can we be your new best friend? We're already on our way!Spectacular Vernacular Revue
A multi-media performance art project that got turned into a book. Dazzle and amaze!
Michael's Mug
The second series of glitch art prints produced by Van Gogh's Photoshop ghost of the single most broadcast celebrity image of 2005: Michael Jackson's Mug. Includes a print of Jeff Koons' seminal 1988 work 'Michael Jackson and _______'!
SuperBoob XXXviii
We are the Andy Warhol of the Internet. A digital popping of the Internet's most searched for event, including "errorism: a glitch art manifesto"!Serenity Farm
A little bit of peace through animal husbandry. Moo!
Basho's Frogger
A 500 year old haiku translated into a Frogger game. Hop to it!
Filler
Combining graphic design, political posters, and clip art. Zowie!
epitome: a book of uncorrected proofs
What do the Pythagoreum Theorem and colonialism have in common? (Warning: contains mathematics) One + One = Three!
Dagwood
Back in the day it sure sucked to be called a fag. Snap!
JABBER: The Jabberwocky Engine
Watch words appear in alphabet soup. Babble on!
Sir Valence
What terrorist atrocities are the Prize Budget for Boys planning? An exercise in Artificial Intelligence. Shhh, I'm trying to listen!
Clubhouse Poocam: digital analogs
Excrete to see the Unexpected! Abject art for the Internet age. Flush!BlazonTrash
Come on in and see some heraldry, the favourite pass-time of the pasty white middling classes. See your family's coat of arms!CitizenDirt
Honourific Dirt Bike Anatomies. Vroom Vroom!
Supplement to the Illustrated Guide to Child Pornography Laws in North America
In a bizarre twist of jurisprudence, a law meant to protect children led to a debate amongst professors of English as to the artistic merit of a man's pornographic writing. Make sure your guide is up to date!DIY Duchamp
Op Art for Dummies. A gonzo art project for everybuddy. Spin me right round baby!
DIY Muybridge
From zoopraxiscopes to animated .gifs, over a hundred years of pornographic film loops. Make your own zoetrope!
Buddy, the PBFB Prize Budgie
What's the logo all about anyways? cheep cheep!
Baghdad=Guernica
What do you get when you add Guernica's Grandeur + Goya's Gore + Google's .GIFs? Find out! Kaboom!
Willy vs Jimmy: which Typing Monkey gets all the Bananas?
Ever wonder what would happen if they ran a contest between typing monkeys? Find out!
The Obfuscator
Want to raise your criticism to the level of Theory? Run your text through the Obfuscator. Amaze and confuse!
October 2 - December 9: Eye Music @ Sainsbury Centre (UK)
The 'Eye-Music' show from the Pallant House has travelled to Sainsbury. Read all about it!August 13 - September 9: FILE Festival (Sao Paolo, Brazil)
Another exhibit, another continent! FILE (Electronic Language International Festival) is a relatively young festival promoting all manner of electronic arts. Ms. Pac-Mondrian will be exhibited and available from their website. Get all the low-down!June 30 - September 16: 'Eye-Music' @ Pallant House Gallery (UK)
An exhibition exploring the relationship between artist and music, Kandinsky's synaesthasia, Mondrian's boogie-woogie geometry, 'hearing' colours and the spectacle of sound and light performances.We're really excited to be included in this museum show with such wonderful early Modern masters of abstraction like Klee, Mondrian, and Kandinsky. It's the first time Ms. Pac-Mondrian has been exhibited alongside a real Mondrian painting, as opposed to other electronic and videogame art. A new Ms. Pac-Mondrian cocktail cabinet was constructed specially for the show, after which it will become a permanent part of the Pallant House collection. Many thanks to Frances Guy for including us in the exhibit. Check it out!
June 1 - 29: Glitches for my Bitches @ Glitch Bar (Melbourne)
Crikey! It's our first Aussie art show, another show, another continent!Glitch Bar - 18 St Georges Rd Nth Fitzroy, VIC 3068 Australia
Opening: Friday June 1, performance @ 9pm
03 9489 9799 - info@glitch.com.au
'Glitches for my Bitches'
April showers have glitch powers! When it rains, satellite tv signals degrade, and digitally glitched images flash across the screen. As a devotee of digital detritus, Neil Hennessy shot cell-phone snaps every time the TVs in his local pub (Raggs of Harlem) went wonky, producing stunning abstract colour images from the accidents of interpreting a broken signal. In a true aesthetic triumph, the spasmodic crashing of the pub televisions allow him to claim that all his time boozing at the bar was work. Known at the bar as 'the Mayor', Neil dedicates the show to all the Raggs regulars (yeah, even the cops). The digital images are produced as giclée prints on canvas at 2'x3'. View the glitches:
Glitch for my Bitch 1
Glitch for my Bitch 2
'Ms. Pac-Mondrian Trance Dance Seance'
We're soooo excited to be performing in Australia, Leigh Bowery's homeland, he is an absolute god in our art pantheon and a huge inspiration for the performance and costume. Get ready for Ms. Pac-Mondrian, Queen of the Desert! Read more about the genesis of the show.
May 6 - June 3: Galore @ XES Lounge (NY)
XES Lounge is proud to present the latest installment of the Galore Art & Music Showcase featuring songstress Kelly King, as well as painting, photography, and digital graphics focussed on the erotic body by Marcee Bernstein (US), Cam McDonald (US), and Prize Budget for Boys (Canada/US). The event is hosted by promoter Deryck Todd, with music by DJ Jimmy Beats.Opening Place: XES Lounge, 157 West 24th Street, between 6th & 7th avenues
Opening Time: Monday May 6, 8pm, with performance by Kelly King at 10pm.
- Marcee Bernstein's painting focuses on the erotic urban body, where impasto accents and a high contrast, moody palette evoke a sinister frisson of seduction.
- Cam McDonald's photography documents the lives, bodies, and relationships of transsexuals in New York, San Francisco, Berlin, and Sevilla.
- The Prize Budget for Boys painted and photoshopped graphics focus on the intersection of the erotic body, digital technology, and entertainment media.
XES Lounge, voted Best Gay Bar 2006 (New York Citysearch) is a friendly, cruisey Gay bar with great music, great entertainment and generous drinks.
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For our part, the PBFB is presenting two works:
"Scrumptious Scrotum Sundae (with nuts)" posits paint blisters as nutsacks in a playful abstract homage to the psychedelic erotica of influential Canadian queer artists David Buchan and Robert Flack.
"The Weekly Spam: Paris Hilton Has Bird Flu" takes poetry by Rob Read constructed from spam referencing the queen of all gossip queens, and combines it with glitched images from her infamous sex video, all presented in the aesthetic of the publishing world's fastest growing market: weekly Hollywood gossip rags.
March 16- April 22: Random Access Poetics @ Vertexlist (NY)
VertexList space has the pleasure to present “Random Access Poetics” featuring new media projects by: [dNASAb], Ernesto Klar, Prize Budget for Boys and Lance Wakeling. “Random Access Poetics” focuses on the processor-based new edia work dealing with exposing invisible aspect of information. This exhibition brings together young Brooklyn new media artists and the Harlem/Toronto based collective Prize Budget for Boys.The reception will take place on Friday, March 16th 2007, 7pm - 10pm.
In conjunction with the reception party Ms. PacMondrian will perform "Trance Dance Seance" at 8.30pm
The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, April 22th 2007.
Read the full press release. Check out our blog of the night, and the gallery's blog.
January 10: Jabber translated into the Finnish 'Pekoraalikone'
The intrepid Marko J Niemmi has translated the original Jabberwocky engine from English to Finnish, so now you can watch Finnish words appear like magic out of alphabet soup. We are honoured and delighted that he liked the piece so much he went to all the trouble of translating it, which is no small amount of work. See it for yourself!December 6-10: Ms. Pac-Mondrian storms the Miami Art Fairs
Ms. Pac-Mondrian will be running around all the art fairs, handing out postcards and flyers and generally making a spectacle of herself. Read all about the exhausting, entertaining adventure!December 3: Calderoids & 'Tokyo Techno' make New York debut at Laila Lounge
Calderoids & Ms. Pac-Mondrian will be installed in full glorious arcade cabinet form at the Laila Lounge in Brooklyn for the duration of December, and the Trance Dance Seance Performance will be presented at the opening December 3 (opening runs 6-9pm with a performance at 8). We'll also be debuting several new graphic works from on-going series, as well as a new video. Games, pictures, performances, and video, a real extravaganza awaits you! This show also marks the world premiere of the 'Tokyo Techno' level of the game, featuring music by Tokyo musician Mitsuaki Komamura. More details in our press release.October 28-29: Our first European show (yeehaw), in a Danish mine!!!
A bunch of crazy Danes started an annual new media art show called MINE located deep down in an abandoned limestone mine, with a theme of Plato's Cave. This year they have a videogame art exhibition and we are grateful to Emil Bach Sorenson for including Pac-Mondrian in the festival. We sure feel more sophisticated now that we've shown our work on the continent. Check it out!September 21-24: Ian Hooper & the Budgies rock the CGSA's debut symposium
The newly founded Canadian Game Studies Association (no, not the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association) is having a symposium in Toronto at York University from September 21-24 for academic types to present papers, and an Artcade exhibit of video game art. The Ms. Pac-Mondrian Trance Dance Seance Performance will be presented at the opening party on Thursday, Calderoids & Ms. Pac-Mondrian will be included in the Artcade for the duration of the conference, and on Saturday during a panel on videogame art, prize budgie Ian Hooper will present a talk called 'Fun is the Currency of Contemporary Art'. Read the details. Also, you can see a picture of Neil & Ian at the opening party lamenting the end of the free booze, then Neil all dolled up as Ms. Pac-Mondrian, getting the show ready, then performing with Ian running the tech. and video excerpts of the seance recorded by Cindy's cellphone cam. Ian's paper was well received, there was tonnes of though-provoking presentations, and a great time was had by all! Special thanks to the intrepid Cindy Poremba for all the work she did to include videogame art, and for having our work in the shindig.August 14: Pac-Mondrian in USA Today!
After appearing in the New York Times and Newsweek, the folks at USA Today, the second largest circulation pulp rag, finally caught onto Pac-Mondrian (and it's Ms. Pac-Mondrian's birthday too, there's hardly a better present than national press, boy-howdy!) Thanks to Angela Gunn for featuring us. Read the blurb!August 7: Pac-Mondrian at THE 9 on Yahoo!
They say two of their favourite things are Pac-Man and modern art, so they love Pac-Mondrian. Yay! Watch the clip.August 3: Ms. Pac-Mondrian takes Manhattan! Start spreading the news...
Ms. Pac-Mondrian just moved to New York to conquer the art world at the very centre of the art universe. We are looking for a dealer from a commercial gallery to sell our work, and the best way to do it is to schmooze (I mean network, I mean kiss ass, I mean whatever...). Read up on all her adventures on the new Myspace blog! If you're on Myspace, add her as a friend. Come on, don't you want to be Ms. Pac-Mondrian's friend?July 1: Ms. Pac-Mondrian dances the seance for Toronto Special Canada Day Party
Toronto's only tabloid, the Toronto Special, presents Cancon Canada Day Carnival w/ Dregs of Humanity, the Dog's Bollock, the Ms. Pac Mondrian Burlesque show we know and love, the Porcelain Doll, and a kissing booth staffed by bruisers in fishnets and Page haircuts, the Smoke City Betties. The Special was there last year when Ms. Pac-Mondrian got kicked out of the Toronto International Art Fair.
June 14: Metro Times Detroit calls Pac-Mondrian 'truly sublime'!
Thanks to Vince Carducci for his kind words in the review of the Game Show Detroit exhibit. Read the article!June 10 - July 22: We're in 'Game Show' @ the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit
The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit will host the Calderoids & Pac-Mondrian arcade cabinets as part of its Game Show Detroit exhibit. We are really excited to bring the 'Detroit Techno' level to the birthplace of techno, where Anonym resides, who provided the music and inspiration for our continuing series of new levels. The opening on June 10 will see the debut of the Ms. Pac-Mondrian Trance Dance Seance Performance, where the psychedelic shaman Ms. P will resurrect the spirit of Piet Mondrian by dancing to the music he loved surrounded by the art he painted. Come on down, and let's raise the dead & bring back the boogie! 411 on the show.May: Oh my God, we're GLAMOURous in Italy!!!!
For some strange reason the Italian edition of the super chi-chi fashion magazine GLAMOUR (first magazine Andy Warhol worked for) has a full page article on Pac-Mondrian and Calderoids! We're so excited we don't know what to say! We're glamourous! Ciao bella! Grazi a Pierluigi Casolari for the write-up. View a scan of the article.
April 28: Calderoids & Pac-Mondrian featured on Animation World Network
A great piece on 'The Art of Gaming' by Janet Hetherington has appearances by and quotations about our favourite videogame artworks. Read on!April 7: We're on GamaSutra, the game developer's Bible!!!
Every professional videogame developer in the known universe reads GamaSutra, and Mathew Kumar interviewed us, along with the rest of the artists in the Controller show, for a great piece on the arty gallery side of the gaming galaxy. Read the interview!March 26: We're on MuchMusic (kind of)!
MuchMusic profiled the show at InterAccess for their 'It List' segment, and although they didn't talk about our games, you can see our arcade cabinets at the beginning of the clip. Does that count as publicity? Good enough for the CV! You do get to see something about the work of the other folks in the show. Watch the clip!March 23: We finally hit Now Magazine!
The last remaining arts weekly in Toronto who hasn't covered us finally caved into our awesomosity and put us in their review of the Controller show, with a great quotation from prize budgie Mike Horgan about how Calderoids exceeds Pac-Mondrian in playability! Read the article!March 23: National public television calls our work 'pure genius'!!!
After appearing on national TV in Sweden and the US, the crazy Canucks finally caught on to how cool we are and put us on CBC's show ZedTV as part of their Index of awesome things to do in the arts for this week. Our national network says "Combining Pac-Man and Asteroids with the work of famous artists Piet Mondrian & Calderoids is just pure genius to us" Aw, shucks, thanks guys (we humbly concur)! Watch the clip! (we're number 4) Special thanks to Renske Werner for including us in the show. Watch the clip! (we're number 4 on the list)February 24: Calderoids & Ms. Pac-Mondrian Launch @ Toronto's InterAccess gallery
Full press release | Play Calderoids onlineCome to InterAccess at 9 Ossington Ave Friday February 24, 6-9pm for the long awaited debut of Calderoids, the first new video game art mash-up since Pac-Man chomped on Mondrian. Continuing the rampant destruction of modern art, blow up Alexander Calder's sculpture in Calderoids, a game where art & science collide as you fly around in the spaceship of Atari's classic game Asteroids shooting exact models of Calder's spinning mobiles. Calder originally called his mobiles 'Constellations', modelling them after the universe: "There is of course, a close alliance between physics and aesthetics." In Calderoids his kinetic mobiles are launched into space to face destruction by the quantum forces of the Asteroids hyperspace button! The show also marks the debut of Ms. Pac-Mondrian, a game with new levels and music based on the maps of Toronto and Detroit, featuring music by Jeff Milligan (aka Algorithm) and Anonym respectively. The real life cosplay drag queen Ms. Pac-Mondrian will go-go dance at the opening, and every Saturday the show is open from February 24 to March 25. Read the full press release and media kit here. The show is called Controller, and also features hacked video game-based art by RSG, Myfanwy Ashmore, Anita Fontaine + Yumi Co, and Tasman Richardson.
February: JABBER in Magazine of Montreal's Centre International D’Art Contemporain
A delightful essay on JABBER: The Jabberwocky Engine appears in the February issue of the Magazine of Montreal's CIAC. Read the article.2005
December 31: Museum of the Moving Image acquires Pac-Man cabinet
After a wildly successful run in the Digital Play Reloaded show over the course of 2005, the Pac-Mondrian arcade cabinet has been acquired by the Museum of the Moving Image for their permanent collection. This is the first museum collection our work appears in, and we are honoured and delighted. Special thanks to Carl Goodman, the Director of Digital Media.December 12: The Toronto Special: Ms. Pac-Mondrian banned from TIA Fair
Ms. Pac-Mondrian's first celebrity scandal in Toronto's only tabloid the Toronto Special! Read about Ms. Pac-Mondrian's scandalous adventures at the Toronto art fairs. Ejected from CBC headquarters, banned from the International Art Fair by director Linel Rebenchuk, and booed off the stage at the gala opening of the Alternative Art Fair. All in one weekend! The article is also accompanied by the first published upskirt photo of Ms. Pac-Mondrian. Read on!November 19: Ms. Pac-Mondrian makes Tribe Magazine gallery
Alex D, Tribe Magazine man about town, caught up with Ms. Pac-Mondrian and promoter Evan G of Activate Productions at the Return to New York party at the Kool Haus featuring LCD Soundsystem, Shit Robot, The Juan Maclean, Will Munro, and others. Thanks to Rolyn Chambers for guest list on the night. From the pictures taken that night, you decide who has the better rack Ms. Pac-Mondrian, or this gal.November 3: Ms. Pac-Mondrian's first press in fab
On the same day as the cosplay character Ms. Pac-Mondrian made her entrance to the Toronto art world at large at the International Art Fair, she is featured in a picture and blurb in Rolyn Chambers' Deep Dish social (gossip) column in fab, Toronto's best Gay Scene Magazine. Here's the article on the fab site, and a scan of the page with the picture taken by photographer Jason Krygier-Baum.
November 3-7: Ms. Pac-Mondrian @ Toronto International Art Fair and Toronto Alternative Art Fair
Ms. Pac-Mondrian is going to the fair, won't you come and play her warez? Ms. Pac-Mondrian will be distributing literature promoting PBFB's new ARTAI division, which will launch with the debut of Calderoids and Ms. Pac-Mondrian at InterAccess in February. We're on the prowl for a commercial gallery/dealer; we've created a mountain of press, and want to turn pro! Ms. Throughout the weekend Ms. Pac-Mondrian will be found wandering around both fairs, come and say hi! Better yet, buy her a drink!October 21: Ms. Pac-Mondrian vs. Miss Kittin @ System Soundbar
Ms. Pac-Mondrian gets funky @ System Soundbar for Miss Kittin's sassy French electro: "Being famous is so nice. Suck my deeck, Leeck my ass." This action snap of Ms. Pac-Mondrian dancing is on System's website Photo Gallery for the night.
October 1: Ms. Pac-Mondrian spotted @ Footwork for Mike Huckaby
In addition to appearing at art galleries and parties, Ms. Pac-Mondrian is taking on clubland. Her first public spotting on record is at the Kick Magazine party with Mike Huckaby at Footwork. Julia from Kick Magazine grabbed a snap of Ms. Pac getting down. Notice the new hand-painted adidas Mondrian Superstar shoes. The appearance was also noted by angelic on the Tribe Magazine message board : "did anyone else meet that dude with the sparkles and stuff? [...] Just when you think you have seen and heard it all, Toronto never ceases to suprise you."
June 27: Ms. Pac-Mondrian Belle of the Ball @ C Magazine Gala
Ms. Pac-Mondrian took first prize for festive garb at C Magazine's annual summer fund-raising gala. The occasion marked the first command performance for Ms. Pac-Mondrian, on the invitation of C editor Rosemary Heather. The prize was an original oil painting by Toronto artist John Abrams entitled 'Helena Christensen', 2004. In addition to go-go dancing, Ms. Pac-Mondrian was delighted to serve Pac-cookies to party guests (nice rack!). The prize marks the first prize awarded to the Prize Budget for Boys since their inception, and the boys are tickled red, blue, and yellow that it was for dressing like a girl! Forget the Prize Budget for Girls and welcome to the Prize Budget for Trans. Ms. Pac-Mondrian: Go-Go Dancing Beauty Queen of Video Game Art has won her first pageant (of sorts) yippee! And as a special bonus, here's a close-up of Ms. Pac-Mondrian's beauty mark (and chest hair!).
June 24: Pac-Mondrian on MTV! and VH1!
I want my, I want my, I want my MTV! In a feature on Pac-Man stuff for his 25th anniversary, Pac-Mondrian gets mentioned on MTV News. The feature was then picked up on VH1.Wow, I guess that means we're cool now, or something, huh-huh-huh, huh-huh-huh. Pac-Mondrian rules!June 13: Michael Jackson's Mug Shot makes second Glitch series
Today Michael Jackson was acquitted of all charges. Published on the occasion of the verdict in the trial, Michael's Mug includes a print of Jeff Koons' seminal 1988 work 'Michael Jackson and _______'!.May 26: Chris Walker makes PBFB debut with Raw Material
After joining the boys as a Standing Member and hanging out behind the scenes for a while, Chris Walker makes his public budgie debut in a collaboration with Tristan Parish on the awesome new .pdf edition Raw Material.May 10: PBFB in NY Arts Magazine: "clearly the star of the show"
Continuing to wrap up our press for our New York debut, in addition to appearing in Time Out New York's children's edition, and in the New York Sun (neither of which are available online), we were featured in NY Arts Magazine in an excellent review by Sarah Northmore, who we were delighted to meet at the opening.April 26: PBFB on TV in Sweden
Swedish television show Format featured a segment on Pac-Mondrian. The TV Guide listing for the show with our favourite yellow box muncher has the following: "Vi bekantar oss med datorspelet Pac-Mondrian och den datorgenererade arkitekturen, blobitektur."April 12: Chicago's Foundation Gallery to show Filler
An excerpt from Filler will be displayed as part of the upcoming "I am/You are" show at Foundation Gallery in Chicago. Stay tuned for dates and details!March 30: PBFB are on TV in NY
We finally made it on the tube! And in New York! NY1's Tech Beat reporter Adam Balkin reported on the Digital Play show for TimeWarner's 24 hour New York news channel. He talks to Carl Goodman, the delightful director of Digital Media at the Museum, about Pac-Mondrian, Arcadia, and video games then and now. Pac-Mondrian on TV! Download the clip. Read the transcript on the NY1 site. The segment played later on News 8 Austin and Capital 9 News.March 25: PBFB are "Digital Warhols", Pac-Mondrian "Generating Buzz"
After our metion in Newsweek, Jodi Lee Reifer from the Staten Island Advance reviews the opening of the Moving Image show under the headline 'Artcade:' A Pac-Man/Mondrian hybrid: Digital jocks merge video gaming with modernist art to get 'Reloaded' at Museum of the Moving Image.March 22: PBFB to show at InterAcess with Cory Arcangel in 2006
PBFB has just concluded preliminary talks with Toronto's InterAccess to be a part of a hacked video game show February 24 to April 1 2006.March 21: Stamp Master Proofs viewing open until eBay auction May 29
After our first auction of proofs of the Pac-Mondrian Postcard multiple netted us $12,100CAN back in December 2004, we are eager to test the market since Pac-Mondrian has appeared on thousands more blogs, radio in Canada, Europe and Australia, the front page of the New York Times, and as the week's top pick in Newsweek. The eBay auction opens at the close of the Moving Image show at 5:00pm EST Sunday May 29. The auction will close the following week at 5:00pm EST Saturday June 4. The reserve bid is $1000 CAN. Proofs can be viewed online before the auction opens:http://pbfb.ca/pac-mondrian/stamp_proofs.html
March 19: Pac-Mondrian stamp issued with Mondrian estate auction scandal
Now available! The epistolic story of the historic scandalous fight between PBFB and the Mondrian estate over the Pac-Mondrian copyright and money from the first Master Proofs eBay auction, commemorated in philately. A collaboration with Canada Post and the Canadian Bank Note Company. Released in an edition of 20 for $1000CAN.March 18 - May 30: Digital Play: Reloaded at Museum of the Moving Image
Debuting:
- Detroit Techno music and level by Anonym
- Pac-Mondrian Stamp by Ian Hooper and Canada Post
- ARTAI Line-up of Classic Arcade Games by Blue Chip Art Names
- Calderoids: Alexander Calder's Mobiles invade Ed Logg's Asteroids
Opening Friday March 18, 2005 @ 6:30pmPerformance @ 7:00pm
Hot on the heels of a wave of publicity online and offline, the next stop on the Lets Play Art World Tour will be Pac-Mondrian's first international exhibition and US debut in the updated "Digital Play" exhibit in the William Fox Gallery at the Museum of the Moving Image from March 18 - May 30, 2005. The fully functional hand-painted Pac- Mondrian Artcade cabinet will make its way to New York City, where Pac-Man will dance through Piet Mondrian's streets to the music that inspired the painting.
In addition to the cabinet installation, Pac-Mondrian multiples will be displayed and made available through the Museum gift shop, including the Coach House Press Pac-Mondrian Postcard Portfolio, Glitch Prints, and specially designed Moving Image edition of the Let's Play Art World Tour T-Shirt. In honour of Pac-Mondrian's first international exhibition, the Prize Budget for Boys have commissioned Canada Post to produce a commemorative stamp designed by Ian Hooper, which will be issued in a multiple edition on an envelope containing never-before-seen correspondence between PBFB and the Mondrian estate.
The Moving Image show will also see the debut of a cross-border collaboration between the PBFB and Anonym, a musician who hails from Detroit, the birthplace of techno. After dancing through the streets of New York in 'Broadway Boogie Woogie' to boogie woogie jazz, gamers will play and dance in 'Detroit Techno' to techno by Anonym. 'Detroit Techno' is based on the map of Detroit and features landmarks of the techno scene founded by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. For the duration of the show the 'Detroit Techno' level will be available exclusively to gamers at the Museum of the Moving Image.
At the opening the evening of Friday March 18, 2005, the PBFB will mount a multi-media performance extravaganza featuring music, games, dialog, and dance. Neil Hennessy, the creator of Pac-Mondrian, will channel Piet Mondrian's spirit through ecstatic dance to dynamic rhythm while Mike Brown, who designed and painted the cabinet, and Mike Horgan, who modified the hardware, read a dialog consisting entirely of cheers and jeers from the blogosphere. The performance will be followed by a sales presentation to announce the launch of the new PBFB division ARTAI: Have You Played Art Today? The PBFB will release the identities of the artists in their exclusive blockbuster line-up of classic arcade games by blue chip art names, including the first public demonstration of Calderoids, the PBFB's first ARTAI game in development where Alexander Calder's kinetic mobiles invade Ed Logg's planar Asteroids and you must save the day!
For travel funds to the United States, we acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $42.7 million in the arts in Ontario. We also acknowledge the support of the Canadian government, which last year invested millions of dollars in re-colonising Haiti, "a failed state".
March 14: Newsweek puts Pac-Mondrian on Top Pick Checklist
Newsweek mentions the upcoming Digital Play: Reloaded show at the Museum of the Moving Image as one of its top picks for the week. Don't miss the opening this Friday! Read about their Must-See pick here.Feb 23: Two budgies spotted at The Box Salon
At the invitation of host Louise Bak, prize budgies Mike Horgan and Neil Hennessy performed as Pac-Mondrian and Ghost reading cheers and jeers from the blogosphere. The remainder of the night featured readings, film and music features by Jubal Brown, Terence Dick, Gentleman Reg, Steve Reinke, Picastro, Mariko Tamaki and Emily Pohl Weary.Feb 17: Jim Munroe interviews the PBFB for eye Magazine
Science fiction writer and machinima wizard Jim Munroe dropped by the clubhouse to conduct a delightful interview about work, life, video games, art, and our next project Calderoids. A great article by a great writer. You should read his books too. Read the article and comment at Jim's site Cultural Gutter. The original article on the eye site is here.Feb 6: Tristan Parish at Speakeasy
Apollinaire's Bookshoppe and This Ain't the Rosedale Library are pleased to present:
The Speakeasy Series of Informal Talks
Fourteenth [Fifteenth] Talk
Featuring:
Rob Read of Toronto, who will give a talk entitled:
Spam and Other Indigestions
Tristan Parish of Toronto, who will give a talk entitled:
Filler vs. Indefinite Sweat
to take place
Sunday, 6 February 2005
2:30 PM
at The Gallery Space above This Ain't The Rosedale Library
483 Church Street in Toronto
Forum: each speaker will talk for 20 to 30 minutes, after which the floor will be open for questions from the audience. Admission is free but a small donation is appreciated, all of which will go toward the speakers.
Jan 23: Two budgies heard on CBC Radio 1 & 2
Mike Brown and Neil Hennessy stopped by CBC Radio's Toronto studio to chat with Lorna Jackson for 'The World This Weekend', a program which aired on Sunday January 23, 2005. They discuss art, religion, dancing, Shakers, painting, video games, Stephen Wolfram's New Kind of Science, and all stops in between. View archive listing, listen to the interview, or read the transcript.2004
Dec 27: Pac-Mondrian on New York Times front page
The front page of the Arts section of today's New York Times has a big splashy screen shot of Pac-Mondrian and a fabulous 1000+ word article by Sarah Boxer describing the game and discussing its reception in the blogosphere amongst gaming and art afficionados. View scans of page 1 of the Arts section & the rest of the article.
Dec 13: New Museum for Contemporary Art Affiliate's Net Art News
rhizome.org, an affiliate of the New Museum for Contemporary Art in Manhattan has added Pac-Mondrian to its Net Art News.Dec 11: eBay Pac-Mondrian auction closes at CAN$12,100
Peter Goddard's smashing article in the Saturday Star that mentioned our eBay auction helped boost our first closing price to CAN$12,1000 (approx US$10,000). Check out the auction here: Pac-Mondrian Postcard Master Proofs auction (only viewable until 90 days after auction closes, or March 12, 2005).The auction results and subsequent press release are cited on a video game blog over at Water Cooler Games, by Toronto critic Jim Munroe in his weekly Pleasure Circuit column for Toronto's Eye Magazine, and is discussed on an art and video game enthusiast's openedSource blog.
Dec 11: Pac-Mondrian "Internet Art Star", heralds "time for an art shock from cyberia"
Peter Goddard interviewed Neil Hennessy, Mike Brown and Mike Horgan before our first solo show at Art Met, then wrote up a fantastic 1000+ word article in the Saturday Star.Dec 4: Pac-Mondrian's ARTnews party @ ARTmetropole & NASA
Toronto, Saturday December 4, 2004Act 1: Art Metropole, 788 King Street West, 2-5pm
Act 2: eBay, 5pm
Act 3: NASA Dance Pub, 609 Queen Street West, 10-close
Pac-Mondrian's 15 Seconds of World Wide Web Fame
PBFB's Pac-Mondrian transforms Piet Mondrian's painting 'Broadway Boogie Woogie' into a Pac-Man video game with boogie woogie sound effects. In July 2004 Pac-Mondrian went for a whirl around the blogosphere when a rhizome.org commission proposal on our website got linked on boingboing.net (Best American Blog - 2004 Bloggies) and metafilter.com (Best Media Blog - Forbes 2003). By the end of the month over 20,000 people had played it and Howie Kahn from ARTnews called looking for an interview in their November issue. The issue is out, and to celebrate our 15 Seconds of World Wide Web fame we are throwing an ARTnews pARTy at ARTmetropole and NASA, our favourite Toronto gallery and club, respectively.
Act 1: PBFB @ Art Metropole
2:00-5:00pm Sat Dec 4
788 King Street West, Toronto
Come celebrate our blip of art celebrity at ARTmetropole with the release of the Pac-Mondrian Postcard Portfolio, a collaboration with The Coach House Press, available for $200 in an edition of 300. The Pac-Mondrian Postcard Master Proofs will be on display, you can play the fully functional Pac-Mondrian Artcade Cabinet, buy a t-shirt, mail a postcard, view some artifacts and hear boogie woogie music by the originators Lewis, Ammons, and Johnson, and techno by Algorithm aka Jeff Milligan and Anonym aka Chris Dallas, who will be providing music for the upcoming 'Toronto Techno' and 'Detroit Techno' levels, respectively.
PBFB Standing Members Neil Hennessy (creator of Pac-Mondrian), Mike Horgan (who modified the hardware), Mike Brown (who designed and painted the cabinet), and Ian Hooper will all be in attendance, as will Anonym from Detroit, and Stan Bevington from the Coach House Press.
Act 2: PBFB @ eBay
opens 5pm Sat Dec 4, closes 5pm Sat Dec 11
Reserve Bid: $1000 CAN
Auction link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3764343810
(eBay link not viewable until the auction opens 5:00pm Sat Dec 4)
Now that our audacious press debut in a half-page article in the largest circulation art magazine in the world has elevated us to the status of International Art Superstars, we are turning pro with our first auction of original PBFB art. The Master Proofs are available for viewing at Art Metropole during the party, with the eBay auction opening at the close of the party at 5:00pm EST Saturday December 4. The auction will close the following week at 5:00pm EST Saturday December 11. The reserve bid is $1000 CAN. Proofs can be viewed online before the auction opens:
http://pbfb.ca/pac-mondrian/postcards_proofs.html
Act 3: PBFB @ NASA
10pm - close Sat Dec 4 (no cover)
609 Queen Street West
When Piet Mondrian arrived in New York, even though he was in his 70's, when he heard the rhythm of boogie-woogie piano he just had to get down! Come shake your booty in the house that Jack built! NASA Dance Pub's retro-futurist decor and museum of obsolete video games and personal robot servants make it the perfect spot to dance the night away with heads full of art, video games, and music, feet full of abstract rhythms and beats, and bellys full of great imports on tap. Bring your dancing shoes, cuz we're gonna get funky!
In addition to drinking and dancing, the PBFB will be giving away two Postcard Portfolios as door prizes, worth $200 apiece.
First eBay auction of original PBFB Art opens December 4, 2004
The PBFB eBay auction series will open with the offering of the Pac-Mondrian Postcard Master Proofs for sale on eBay at the conclusion of the '15 Seconds of World Wide Web Fame Party' at Art Metropole on December 4, 2004. Further original PBFB Pac-Mondrian art will be sold via eBay on a monthly basis. Future auctions are expected to include the original black and white reproduction of 'Broadway Boogie Woogie' that inspired the game, and other PBFB merchandise. Buy early before our prices get out of reach! More details will be posted as the first auction approaches.
November ARTnews issue features Pac-Mondrian, available now!
Now available on newsstands everywhere! PBFB Standing Member Neil Hennessy was interviewed about Pac-Mondrian by Howie Kahn for the Art Talk section of November's ARTnews! We got 300 words, the article is awesome and so is the issue! The issue also features a review of MOMA's new facilities (Pac-Mondrian's spiritual home!), a city focus on Toronto "A Sweet Spot for the Arts", and their list of the Top 25 Movers, Shakers, and Makers in the Art Market. Some pretty good company for the first international print press coverage of the Pac-Mondrian project. (read article) (view contents and order copy)
Standing Member Photographed at October's 'Box'
PBFB Standing Member Neil Hennessy spotted outside during a break in Louise Bak's performance series 'The Box' at the Rivoli October 27, 2004. When super-sexy performance philosopher Shannon Bell asked him why we were posing, he responded "To be seen." Rick/Simon caught a photo of a quick puff of a performance-enhancing drug, and then a shot of poet David Owen, designer Stan Bevington, writer John Barlow, and Neil posing akin to mannekins. Earlier sightings by Sharon Harris of Michelle Cross, PBFB Standing Member Mike Horgan and Neil Hennessy at Gallery 401, and Neil at The Cameron House (scroll down).
Standing Member Spotted Performing Pac-Mondrian Infomercial Spot
PBFB Standing Member Neil Hennessy spotted shamefully promoting Pac-Mondrian at the lexiconjury series at the Cameron House in Toronto on October 19, 2004 during the open-mic portion of the evening (see extra large picture). Although the playfully brief poet Mark Truscott reveals part of our plans for "world domination", we respectfully limit the scope of our ambition to "art world domination". Mark, Brian Joseph Davis, Daccia Bloomfield and Katy McGown all gave delightful overhead projector performances that ranged from subtle concrete poetry, to raucous game show action, to whimsically executed live drawings and sewing, respectively.
Our first book is out, yay!
We just got our first book 'The Prize Budget for Boys present The Spectacular Vernacular Revue' from our New York-based publisher Roof Books. We have a spine, so all PBFB members are expected henceforth to walk upright, and we are very excited to have our first tome originate in the center of the art universe. Come on and get yourself a heaping dose of identity politics and political satire that would make 'The Daily Show' blush! You can see the scandalous cover shot and read more about it, or order it hot off the press from the Small Press Distribution site, or get it over the phone at 800-869-7553, or walk into a bookstore and demand that they order ISBN #1-931824-12-6 (authors listed as Neil Hennessy, Ian Hooper, Tristan Parish, (the Standing Members involved in production)). Stay tuned for details about the book launch and special edition. Many thanks to our publisher James Sherry.
Pac-Mondrian's 15 Seconds of World Wide Web Fame Party at Art Metropole
In July 2004 Pac-Mondrian went for a whirl around the blogosphere when a commission proposal got mentioned on boingboing.net and metafilter.com. By the end of the month 20,000 people had played it and ARTnews called looking for an interview. Come celebrate our 15 seconds of World Wide Web fame with the release of the Pac-Mondrian Postcard Portfolio, a collaboration with The Coach House Press. Now that a sidebar article in the largest circulation art magazine in the world has elevated us to the status of International Art Superstars, we are turning pro with our first auction of original PBFB art. The Pac-Mondrian Postcard Master Proofs will be auctioned on eBay, with the auction opening at the end of the party. The Pac-Mondrian Artcade Cabinet will be installed for the afternoon, and we'll dance to boogie woogie and contemporary dance music!
Saturday December 4, 2004, 2:00-5:00pm
Art Metropole
788 King Street West, Toronto
Pac-Mondrian featured in November ARTnews issue
The November 2004 issue of ARTnews features an ART Talk article about Pac-Mondrian by Howie Kahn. Pick it up on newstands around the world on November 1, 2004. ARTnews is the single largest circulation art magazine in the world, and represents the first print press coverage of the Pac-Mondrian project. We've been discovered! We're International Art Superstars!Roof Books to publish PBFB's first book Fall 2004
When we performed the Spectacular Vernacular Revue at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York back in the Fall of 2002, publisher James Sherry from Roof Books was in the audience. He liked the show so much he offered us a book on the spot! We are expecting it from the printers in mid-October. News about its availability will be posted here.Clubhouse relaunched with lots of new stuff October 2004
Most of your old favourites, and new work you're sure to love, all in a much easier interface to navigate! New art includes SuperBoob XXXviii, Serenity Farm, Filler, Dagwood, DIY Muybridge, Willy vs Jimmy: which Typing Monkey gets all the Bananas?, and The Obfuscator.
The PBFB Clubhouse was originally implemented in 2002 using an old unsupported version of the content management software eZ publish. We customised it heavily and subsequently paid for it when a security update to our webhost's PHP server environment rendered the software unusable earlier in June 2004. Digital decay rotted our Clubhouse away.
Subsequently, the only web page that functioned was the home page, and all the links were broken. Moral of the story: don't customize unsupported software. As errorists, it was integral to our practice to leave the glitched site up until we fixed it.
We took the opportunity to do a simpler Jakob Nielsenian design for the Clubhouse navigation, however we loved the original Clubhouse illustration so much we kept it as a splash page (Jakob clucks disapprovingly). Apologies to those who were frustrated by website errors.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $42.7 million in the arts in Ontario.