Nathan Shafer
Speculative Media Artist
below is a portfolio of some of my recent & ongoing projects
send all mail to shafernathan@yahoo.com
| Novel
Pieces 2007-ongoing |
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Novel
Pieces is an ongoing research project taking selected texts from
science fiction novels where fictional artworks are described. Scans of
the books with the selections of texts digitally highlighted are displayed
as conceptual text pieces, and a few texts are recreated, reimagined and/or
rebooted based on the author's original texts. |
| The
Temptation of St. Anthony from the Novel Pieces Series 2007 |
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This
painting, is taken from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions.
In the novel it is credited to the fictional artist Rabo Karabekian, whose
work is similar to the zip paintings of Barnett Newman, except that the
zips are made of reflective tape. |
| Domestic
Blend from the Novel Pieces Series 2008 |
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Domestic Blend is taken from Chuck Palhniuk's novel Diary. In the novel a former art student is remembering other students from her college years, one of which was a post-feminist who ran a blender filled with wet cement until the blender blew up--it is a social statement on the domestic situation of women. This project is a performance, video and sculptural object. |
| Turn
Around Norman from the Novel Pieces Series 2008 |
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Turn Around Norman is a performance project taken from Tom Robbins' novel Skinny Legs and All. A perfromance artist in the book does a piece where he stands perfectly still in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, turning imperceptably in front of pedestrians for a full workday. |
| Homo
Duplex from the Novel Pieces Series 2009 |
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Homo Duplex is a 70-minute black and white documentary taken from David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest. The film is credited to fictional 'anti-confluential' conceptualist filmmaker James O. Incandenza. The documentary is a series of interviews with 14 Americans named John Wayne who are not the famous movie star. |
| Untitled.
Unfinished. UNRELEASED/ Found Dramas from the Novel Pieces Series 2009 |
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Representations
of the five Untitled. Unfinished. UNRELEASED projects and the
'conceptually unfilmable' Found Drama performances I, II, III,
V, VI, IX, X, & XI, from James O. Incandeza's filmography, as detailed
in David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest |
| Architheuthis,
a.k.a. 'Archie' from the Novel Pieces Series 2008 |
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Archie
is a locative media project taken from William Gibson's novel Spook
Country. A fictional locative media artist in the novel, Alberto
Corrales, makes work combing 3D modeling and GPS, placing virtual reality
into real space using a fictional method called 'geohacking'. I displayed
this piece on the web in GoogleMaps as Alberto Corrales, the models where
located in the same spots where they were described in the novel. this
one was a VR giant squid floating at eye level in a warehouse. |
| Mongolian
Death Worm from the Novel Pieces Series 2008 |
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Mongolian
Death Worm is the second locative media project I remade by the fictional
artist Alberto Corrales from Gibson's Spook Country. This project
comes from the very end of the novel where an animated virtual Mongolian
death worm, akin to the sandworms of Dune, is geohacked onto
the meatspace corprate signage on top of the Blue Ant Corporation's building. |
| Portable
iRaq War Memorial from the Novel Pieces Series 2008 |
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This
is the third project I remade by the fictional artist Alberto Corrales
from Gibson's Spook Country. It is a live video layer for video
phones, where a 3D rendered graveyard where each grave marker rpresents
a casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This virtual installation is placed
over top of the live feed on the video phone. |
| River
Phoenix Death Shrine from the Novel Pieces Series 2008 |
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This
is the fourth project I remade by the fictional artist Alberto Corrales
from Gibson's Spook Country. It is the dead body of River Phoenix
'geohacked' on the precise location outside of Johnny Depp's Viper Room
in LA where River Phoenix died. |
| The
Cryopunk Frosttag 2007-ongoing |
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The
Cryopunk Frosttag is a series of races designed to incorporate
the use of liquid nitrogen. They are akin to the pinewood derbies of the
boy scouts. The Frosttag shares the transhumanist credo of FM 2030, "Optimism--Abundance--Universalism--Immortality".
These contests are interactive events integrating the aesthetic of science
experiment, artistic performance, futurist philosophy and adolescent scouting
activity. |
| The
Frozen Tofu Demolition Derby from the Cryopunk Frosttag 2007 |
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Tofu
in the shape of a pinewood derby racer gets fitted with a racing ring.
Two pieces of tofu are then frozen by liquid nitrogen in tandem for a
minute or so. At which time racers take their racers to a greased line
where they are demolition derbied. It is a winner take all death match.
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| The
Haute Air Balloon Classic from the Cryopunk Frosttag 2007 |
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Paper
baskets are attached to helium balloons that are placed under a protective
fence as liquid nitrogen is poured over top of them, making them shrink.
As the balloons heat up, they reinflate and race to the ceiling.
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| Conehead
Suspension and the Limitless Future 2007 |
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Conehead
Suspension is a cryonic neurosuspension device that makes snow cones,
the installation contained all of the trimmings for an East-Asian themed
snow cone party. The video playing is called The Limitless Future,
it is an infomercial sent to me by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
when I inquired about having my body frozen with them after I die. |
| 2487
Brainfreeze with the Meme-Rider Media Team, Shawn Cheatham and The C.F.O. 2006 |
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The
2487 Brainfreeze is a cryonic nuerosuspension device I constructed
that could house one cryonically suspended human head and also made ice
cream with the liquid nitrogen inside the cryonic dewar. For the show
I hired a punk rock band to serve the ice cream made with liquid nitrgoen
free to viewers. |
| The
Suspension of Buck Rogers/ The Making of 'Cryopatient' from the 2487 Brainfreeze with Shawn Cheatham 2006 |
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A
documentary video of a man who wishes to have his body frozen after he
dies and a screensaver video made using Suspension: the Buck Rogers
Theme Song and A. Sunseri's B-movie masterpiece, The Chilling. |
| WXMB:
Radio Xombie with the Meme-Rider Media Team 2006-08 |
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There
is an internet meme stating that Americans make zombie movies during a
Republican presidency and vampire movies during a Democratic one. WXMB:
Radio Xombie is a project done in collaboration with the Meme-Rider
Media Team, it began in 2006 during the George W. Bush presidency. The
project ran until Barack Obama was elected president on November 4, 2008.
It was a streaming web radio station that was set during a fictional zombie
apocalypse, where callers could request 'undedications'. The radio show
I hosted was called w00t command <z>, a nerdcore hip hop
variety show. Visit
the old site HERE.
We are currently writing a new site called WMPR: Radio Wampire
for the Obama presidency. |
| 'Robokonon'
& the 'Cosmic Co-Ed' 2007-present |
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Robokonon
& the Cosmic Co-Ed is a web project constructed using the themes
from searches that brought people unwittingly to my old website. The searches
were more interesting than the work I had up, so I decided to make the
kind of stuff people were actually looking for and keep it there. 'Robokonon'
and 'cosmic coed' are two such searches, which together made a cool sounding
title for this project. Go to Robokonon
& the Cosmic Co-Ed |
| The
'Average Extraterrestrials' from Robokonon & the Cosmic Co-Ed 2008 |
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The
Average Extraterrestrials is a double portrait of every humanoid
alien from the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises averaged together. From
a Google search for 'average extraterrestrials'. |
| 'Doublevision
+ Joelle + Nathan' (7th Grade Essays) from Robokonon & the Cosmic Co-Ed 2007 |
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Nathan
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From a Google search for 'Doublevision + Joelle + Nathan'. I re-searched the keywords. The top result was these two pages from a 7th grade creative writing class in rural Pennsylvania back in 1997. The creative writing class had two students with our names, who each wrote online essays, I have made web archives of the original webpages, exactly as they were left in 1997. |
| 'Let's
Hold Hands Across the Milky Way' from Robokonon & the Cosmic Co-Ed 2007 |
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'Let's
Hold Hands Across the Milky Way' was a monthly winner for search
items from Robokonon & the Cosmic Co-Ed. I think of it as
a PR/PC campaign for the future. |
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| 'Robokonon's'
Roboticalypsos/ Roboka-Maru from Robokonon & the Cosmic Co-Ed 2009 |
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Elements
of Bokonist teachings, spiritual practices and sacred calypsic texts are
encoded into binary, and the sacred-sexual Bokonist practice of boka-maru
(the joining of the soles of the feet) done with robots. |
| Cosmic
Co-Ed Image Macros from Robokonon & the Cosmic Co-Ed 2009 |
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The
cosmic joining of viral imaging, lolspeak, deep space composite photography,
NASA artist's conception illustrations, cyberdelic koans and cryovolcanoes--all
stolen off the web. |
| Reality
Hacks 2007-present |
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Reality
Hacks is a magickal diagram series based loosely on the academic
structuralist diagrams from Levi-Srauss's 'les Mythologiques',
the Chaos Magickian's aesthetic practice of quatnum 'reality hacking'
and Donald Rumsfeld's critical theory of 'the unknowns'. They are presented
as AI documents in vextor and hextor. |
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