Blog
Team Preparations
Once I land in the Philippines (after a 30+ hour series of flights from Atlanta), I have 29 days to fit in as much as I can. So I have to hit the ground running. Luckily we managed to assemble an awesome team before I left! Loushan (Yatta): Logistics Lead Loushan has...
Projects! Projects! Projects!
We just wrapped our Community Panel Review and, wow, I can’t believe this... I was worried we wouldn’t have enough interest, but instead of four proposals we had six! The house was packed with community members and artists. The panelists were so thrilled today to hear...
My First Philippines
In March, I had both my first scouting trip for the Arts Incubator as well as my first experience ever with life, culture, and nature in the Philippines, and more specifically, in Dumaguete. As an outsider, I wanted to collect my initial impressions of this...
Really Queer or Queerly Real: An Endeavor in Failure
An Endeavor in Failure Having arrived in Hanoi, we had only one day to settle in and wrap up any loose ends for pre-production. We lost our production assistant and workshop location space at the last minute and were scrambling to do location scouting. As I always...
Rainbow Building
I write this from the plane en route to Hanoi to kick off the Vietnam Arts Incubator program. As with all pre-production, just when you think you have everything together, some things fall apart. I have the most amazing producer on the ground handling the details,...
Micro-Grant Recipient Finalists
A community panel was assembled to judge the presentations by workshop participants. The panel consisted of: Yiyi Elizabeth Wong, Associate Professor Hubei University of Economics Carlos Castellanos, Assistant Professor, Digital/Experimental Media, Department of Art,...
GPS Location Test and Portal Plans
I arrived in Wuhan on Thursday, April 14th. The trip was long, but I was anxious to get the project underway so on Friday we got the production team together at the K11 Art Village to hammer out some of the details and plan for the weeks to come. Importantly, the test...
Augmented Reality Workshop
I am settled in now and things are moving forward! The Opening Ceremony and Artist Talk took place Sunday April 17th at the Wuhan Art Museum and the Augmented Reality Workshops got under way Monday April 18th. We seem to have generated significant buzz in the...
ZERO1 American Arts Incubator Orientation
During the ZERO1 American Arts Incubator orientation meetings, it became apparent that there will likey be support to build a counterpart portal for an exhibition at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture here in San Francisco! People will be able to look through the...
Project Prototyping
As I gear up for this project in Vietnam, I presented my project proposal to my fellow ZERO1 artists, the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, ZERO1 staff, ZERO1 board members, and expert mentors from the tech field. This was the first...
Emoji Dev
As time and energy are in short supply, having a couple days of focus is a gift. We have spent this last week in January at Impact HUB San Francisco building a plan for our workshop and exhibition. We met with the program team and many tech and art experts from the...
Embracing Wild Ideas
Orientation is fast and crazy. ZERO1 is a triumph of biting deep into projects and rolling with what you are actually able to accomplish. Big public projects almost always need to play by a certain set of rules. People aren’t going to give you money unless you can...
Apply now to participate in the 2016-17 American Arts Incubator!
Calling innovative new media and digital artists who have a love of travel and passion for community-driven art! Apply to participate in the 2016-17 American Arts Incubator. We are excited excited to open the next round of applications for the following participating...
Meet ZERO1’s 2015-16 American Arts Incubator Artists
Wednesday, January 27, 2016 - 06:30 Catharine Clark Gallery Come meet this year’s American Arts Incubator artists on Wednesday, January 27th at 6:30pm at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. Enjoy cocktails and light hor d'oeuvre while getting to know Andrew...
AR and Photogrammetry Testing: November 28, 2015
Photogrammetry is the science, technology and art of obtaining reliable information from non-contact imaging and other sensor systems about the Earth and its environment, and other physical objects and processes through recording, measuring, analyzing and...
Fascination for the Biodiverse Lands of Dumaguete, Philippines
I’m just starting up a new adventure with art, technology, and the natural environment in the Philippines. It’s a project managed by ZERO1 in partnership with the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs! The goal will be to launch several...
Portals to Alternative Realities for Youth Empowerment in Wuhan, China
I have been invited by the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, in partnership with the K11 Art Foundation to spend 28 days in Wuhan, China where I will engage and empower youth by building a portal to an alternative reality. Based on traditional Chinese timber carpentry...
Creating Space for Vietnamese LGBTQ Visibility in Digital Media
For me, as a Queer Vietnamese American Woman in the diaspora, the issue of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) rights has always been vital to my survival and existence. I have had to navigate my queerness in the context of my identity as an American,...
Announcing the American Arts Incubator 2015-16 Artists!
While the artists were deep in their exchanges this past Spring and Summer, ZERO1 began the search for the next class of AAI artists. The selection process was highly-competitive and these artists rose to the top. It is with great pleasure that ZERO1 announces the...
Just the beginning…
By the end of my trip in Ulaanbaatar, the weather changed from steady rain to an intense, dry heat. Throughout this experience, I had an amazing group of 4H volunteers along with Binderya (my superstar project assistant) surveying ger district residents for the...
Working Away
It’s been a whirlwind these past few days in Ulaanbaatar. The micro-grant projects are underway, and some of them have been enormously successful already. Ger district of Songino-Khairkhan Ger districts are called so because they usually have a ger (traditional...
Feed the Future!
After a week of learning new skills, brainstorming, and working together on their presentations, pitch day arrived! There were a wide range of projects, ranging from new media (video and social media narrative to create a fictional scenario and product for one...
Bringing rain, Receiving gifts
Hello, sain bainuu! Or, Сайн байна уу if we’re being proper about our script usage. Like a lot of Soviet influenced countries, Mongolia uses Cyrillic script to phonetically spell out the language. The change in language, weather and time zone makes Mongolia feel like...
Philippines Project Group, Suyac Advocates, Sends Updates and Reflections!
The American Arts Incubator team at ZERO1 received a message from Aliana Juson of community project group, Suyac Advocates, in the Philippines to offer insights and developments on their project, Floating Eco-Resource Library. -- For the American Arts Incubator...
Small Grants Awarded in Laos as Government Approves Mural Project!
We have awarded the third round of the American Arts Incubator “small grants” to local Lao artists and organizations. The public presentation of the projects was hosted by i:cat Gallery and was attended by over thirty local artists, leaders, and curious members of the...
Plastic City
I arrived in Laos with three rules for myself; stay open, ask questions, and listen. Once people started talking, the same issue kept coming up: the accumulation of trash around the city. Laos is a developing country that is in the throes of robust economic and urban...
Identify the problem, Illustrate the solutions, Dream for the future
I have been in Vientiane for seven days. These days were packed with workshops and meetings with Lao artists, and youth and environmental groups where we made art, shared our dreams, and discussed ways to improve the environment. Photo: Kate Antonas This city is...
Nomadic Maps and Outward Journeys
It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was just beginning to think about a project in Mongolia. There’s a lot of built up anticipation in these next two weeks before I leave, much of it to do with my long-standing interest in Mongolia… Coming from regional planning, I...
Now in Laos: David Burke!
David Burke is off to a quick start in Vientiane, Laos! He launched the program with an artist talk at i:cat gallery yesterday, where he discussed how murals as a public art form can engage community members in dialogue and spark greater awareness around a social...
Confronting Tradition
The intensity of the heat engulfed me as I stepped out of the plane and onto the tarmac at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane. It was both arresting and comforting, reminding me of the hot summer days during my last trip to Laos almost four years ago. After...
The People’s Island
Today is my last day in the Philippines. A few hours ago I landed in Manila, after waiting for over an hour while the Presidential airplane was landing at the Bacolod airport. I was already installed in my airplane seat, all buckled-up, and through the tiny window I...
Apply now to participate in the next round of the American Arts Incubator
ZERO1 is calling innovative new media and digital artists with a love of travel and passion for community-driven art to apply to participate in the second round of the American Arts Incubator. American Arts Incubator is an international arts exchange program developed...
![Making [Space] Public](https://americanartsincubator.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/aaiphilippines_2_1-400x250.jpg)
Making [Space] Public
It’s a hot Saturday afternoon and I feel my voice resonate strongly inside my chest while my hearing still recovers from the pressurized cabin of the airplane. I can even hear an echo leaking through the century-old walls of the Negros Museum in Bacolod… Well, the...
A Letter From Our Partner: YWCA of Papua New Guinea
Note: ZERO1 invited each of their partners to share their exchange experiences by contributing to our blog. This is a message to ZERO1 from Diane Kambanei, Executive Director of YWCA PNG. Her letter captures her organization's experience partnering with...
The Jeepney Ride
A week ago, I was just landing in Manila and getting ready to start the American Arts Incubator (AAI) program. Our first stop and "home-base" was Makati City, nowadays considered the Financial District of Manila and also an area that makes evident the booming market...
Now on the Ground in Bacolod: Felipe Castelblanco Kicks Off the Second Exchange!
The American Arts Incubator is marking the launch of its second exchange as artist Felipe Castelblanco arrives in the Philippines. Felipe's workshop and public art projects are intended to create dialogue around the environmental conditions in Bacolod, a city that...
PNG Community Projects In Progress!
Note from ZERO1: Kendal has been hard at work overseeing the American Arts Incubator, which has already awarded small grants to four groups creating public art projects centered on the issue of women's empowerment. Here are some of the updates from Kendal that were...
Small Grants Awarded to Four Artist Groups in Papua New Guinea
The first round of American Arts Incubator “small grants” has been awarded! More than fifty community members in Papua New Guinea came out to participate in the public presentation of project ideas, which was hosted by the YWCA Port Moresby. Four creative and...
It’s All About Confidence
The first workshop at the YWCA was with young members of the Youth Adolescent Health (YAH) Club and Youth Against Corruption Association (YACA). Both groups formed their own governing bodies through a democratic process and are very active in discussing concerns...
A Week Later…
“I divorced my husband because he was married to other women,” proclaimed a woman in a matter-of-fact way in what was the very last workshop of the very last day of the PNG Women’s Forum. That statement was both a declaration of her independence and confirmation that...
A Beacon of United Purpose: Kate Spacek Reports from PNG
The visions and plans for the American Arts Incubator are becoming reality! Kendal and I have arrived in Papua New Guinea! After spending the better part of 18 months working alongside my colleagues at ZERO1 and with the U.S. State Department teams in Washington, D.C....
So Far The Journey…
“Smoking in the lavatories and chewing betel nuts are strictly prohibited,” was what I heard over the PA system as Kate, the program manager for the American Arts Incubator and I took our seats on the Air Niugini flight in Sydney. That’s when I knew that Papua New...
Kendal Henry Touches Down in Papua New Guinea!
Just landing in Papua New Guinea, artist Kendal Henry kicks off the American Arts Incubator Program! As he hits the ground running, we wanted to give a sneak peek to the upcoming events of his exchange. This month, we celebrate Women’s History Month and International...
Preparing for American Arts Incubator 2016
Here at ZERO1, not only are we buzzing with anticipation as the first round of artists prepare to go abroad this Spring, but we are excitedly looking ahead to 2016 and are thrilled to announce the participating countries for the next round. In Spring 2016, four new...
Artwork as the Organizing Principle
From November 3rd to the 7th I had the incredible opportunity to visit ZERO1 in San Jose, California to meet with the team at ZERO1, the representative from the U.S. State Department, and the other three artists invited to the AAI program. I was coming from London, so...
Explorations of an American Artist as Cultural Diplomat
San Jose is a great place. I've been living in the Bay Area since February and I've made it down to San Jose, California only once previously, for the ZERO1 LAST Festival. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, I was living on the East Coast, where cities are denser and...
Can the Arts Shape Public Policy?
The challenge of navigating an increasingly complex and unknown world demands new creative ideas. On Wednesday, November 5th, ZERO1 launched the American Arts Incubator, an international arts exchange program planned in collaboration with the U.S. Department of...
Reconsidering What a Mural Can Be
The American Arts Incubator kicked off at the ZERO1 Garage in San Jose, California this past week. After over a year of planning, the excitement in the room was palpable as the four participating artists gathered for the first time with the ZERO1 staff and a U.S....
Introducing the Incubator
Since September 2013 ZERO1, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), has been creating and shaping the American Arts Incubator. This program is a unique approach to international creative exchange that...
Why Mongolia?
“Why Mongolia?” Zaya asks me, as we walk through patches of evergreen trees, near the ruins of a Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. In many ways it's obvious, why Mongolia might be the perfect place for a designer to work at the intersection of art,...
Creation from Devastation
A tropical cyclone (Typhoon Kalmaegi) hit the north of the Philippines today, September 15th, 2014, causing floods and landslides, and killing several people. The list of catastrophic typhoons in the Philippines is huge, but still, perhaps one of the most destructive...
Environmental Protection & Deforestation in Vientiane, Laos
Environmental protection has been something I have been addressing in my work for the last five years. As we continue discussions with the U.S. Embassy in Laos, one of the issues I’ve come upon in my research that interests me is deforestation. In 2009, I spent...
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