Upland is constructed solely of image-headline pairs as they originally appeared in The Upland News in 1969–72, a newspaper circular from the small Southern California town of Upland, CA. Think of a cheaply-printed local circular with a hefty coupon section in the back, small-town stories, and the reporting to match.
The images have been further disfigured and destroyed by Google's Newspaper Project, through compression algorithms and the physical speed of bulk-scanning fragile newsprint material, creating visual collapses of foreground and background in much of the digitized imagery. The Upland News stands out in particular for the editorial oddity and pointed captioning of its images, especially when removed from their original surrounding stories and content.
The selections were arranged by considering only the text of the image-headline pairs, creating a poem describing an interior tale of Upland. The chance juxtaposition of imagery portrays a parallel embedded narrative.
Hardbound book, 72 pages
2016
V/A003: E.S.P. TV "LIFESTYLE GURU" #3
JILL KROESEN: HOW TO COPE WITH A PSYCHOPATHIC PRESIDENCY
Edition of 50
Hand cut lathe recording on lacquer with
laser engraving. Full color gatefold and broadside insert.
The title says it all. Jill Kroesen delivers tips to avoid becoming prey under a psychopathic presidency.
V/A003: E.S.P. TV "LIFESTYLE GURU" #3
JILL KROESEN: HOW TO COPE WITH A PSYCHOPATHIC PRESIDENCY
Edition of 50
Hand cut lathe recording on lacquer with
laser engraving. Full color gatefold and broadside insert.
The title says it all. Jill Kroesen delivers tips to avoid becoming prey under a psychopathic presidency.
V/A002: E.S.P. TV "LIFESTYLE GURU" #2
BEN VIDA : SOFT SYSTEMS MUSIC
Edition of 50
Hand cut lathe recording on 7" lacquer with laser engraving.
Full color gatefold and broadside insert.
Soft Systems Music uses facial recognition software as a compositional tool to sonify the smile.
Vida then transforms the expressions of smiling actors into what he calls a "soft system”—a blend of the human and algorithmic, in which any subtle motion alters the composition.
This work debuted in his 2016 exhibition, [SMILE ON.] ... [PAUSE] ... [SMILE OFF.] and was later adapted to a live performance for E.S.P. TV's "Lifestyle Guru" event in 2017.