secret wars
Secret Wars Party with Short Attention Span Theater
Saturday, April 6, 7pm
At 7pm, join us for a final ‘surveillance’ under the watchful eye of spies, cameras and avian informers, present, of course, for your own good and the Homeland’s too. There will also be spy music and wine to loosen lips.*
*We are required to inform you that your words and actions may be documented and used against you. No warrants required.
At 8pm, David Goren, Secret Wars contributor, will present the radio-inflected soundscape, The Short Attention Span Audio Theater, featuring excerpts from Antimatter, a sci-fi noir tale of shortwave radio espionage written by the mysterious C.M. Stanbury.
Spy music mix created by the polymusicologist Friese Undine.
The Atomic Priesthood with artist Bryan Wilson
Monday, April 1 at 7pm
Secret Wars artist Bryan M. Wilson will discuss his ongoing, multidisciplinary project, The Atomic Priesthood, and the two attendant installations at the Proteus Gowanus space, The Canticle for Sebeok and Vestments for Ten Millennia. Wilson will address the ecological stewardship, strategies for deep-time communication, and ritual inherent to the project and how an artistic practice can bridge seemingly disparate conditions. The talk will be a survey of The Atomic Priesthood’s genesis, status, and potential future as it expands to collaborate with other potent collectives such as Smudge Studio and The Mildred Complex(ity). [continue reading…]
Secret Wars: Readings
Sunday, March 24, 5pm
The battles fought at night between white and black witches. The battle fought at bedtime between a newly married royal couple. The battle fought in subway stations with poisoned chewing gum. The battle fought with children in a dream. The culture war fought as an emergent species struggles for recognition as a civilized kind. The key battles of such “secret wars” will be the matter read aloud from translations of Czech, Japanese, American, Italian, and Old Irish crypto-military histories. Organized by Wendy Walker, editor of Proteotypes, the publishing arm of Proteus Gowanus.
David Kahn: How Codebreaking Helped Shorten World War II
Thursday, March 14, 7pm
$5 admission
As part of our exploration of Secret Wars, Proteus Gowanus is very pleased to present David Kahn, the world’s leading expert on the history of codes and cryptology. Dr. Kahn will discuss how the frantic race to break enemy codes helped bring about an earlier end to World War II.
Kahn’s monumental 1967 book The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing is the definitive account of secret writing from ancient hieroglyphs through the 20th century. The book was a finalist for the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, and was republished in a revised edition in 1996. [continue reading…]
Day Night Day Night: a Film
CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER!
Secret Wars presents Day Night Day Night, a 2006 film exploring the solitary hours in the life of a shy young woman of indeterminate ethnicity preparing to detonate a suicide bomb in Times Square. Join us for wine and moviegoing. [continue reading…]
On the Air: Tuning In to Secret Wars Live from Cuba
Saturday, January 19, 4:30 pm
- Under deep cover, a spy waits by a shortwave radio ready to copy down a long string of numbers.
- Dictatorships jam signals beaming in from clandestine stations operated by opposition groups.
- The first act of a conquering rebel group or invading army is to take over the radio station.
- Sarcastic and seductive voices: In World War II Lord Haw Haw, Tokyo Rose, and Ezra Pound tried to demoralize the troops and the folks back home.
- Urban gladiators like Skyhawk, Lt. Columbo and Switchblade take to Channel 6 on Citizens Band radio for a keydown. The winner takes the frequency. The loser is a “mud duck.”
Radio producer and audio archivist David Goren hosts a listening session and informal discussion about the way radio is used in battles of ideology and territory. The session will include a live tuning of a Cuban numbers station intended for Cuban spies in the United States.
Bring Your Lost Things to the Portable M{}esum
Sunday, January 13, 4pm
Swedish conceptual artist Anna Livia Löwendahl-Atomic invites you to contribute your nØbjects–things lost or missing–to the Portable M{ }esum. Only that which is lost or missing can enter the m{}esum. Your lost thing will be written down and archived on a gallery wall. (“There are many museums in the world, but only one muesum”). Join us! Wine will be served to jog the memory. [continue reading…]
Neuroscience, Art and Music Explain the Emotional Brain
Tuesday, January 15th, 7pm
Artist Nene Humphrey has been artist-in-residence since 2005 in the neuroscience laboratory of Joseph LeDoux, focusing on the emotional brain, the seat of much internal warfare (often secret war). On Tuesday, they will talk about their mutual interest in the emotional brain through video, song and discussion. They will be joined by Amanda Thorpe of the Amygdaloids Band, guest singer Ward White and Zoe Fitzgerald, Humphrey’s video collaborator.
Participants: [continue reading…]
Secret Wars: Opening Reception
Saturday, January 12, 7pm
Predator 2 by Joy Garnett
Secret Wars, the second exhibition in Proteus Gowanus’ yearlong exploration of Battle, explores the cryptic ways of warfare waged behind the cloak of invisibility. From neurophysical conflict deep inside the human amygdala, to the broadcast signals used by spies and intelligence agencies, to the everyday observation of ordinary citizens by omniscient bureaucracies, Secret Wars reveals covert communications hiding in plain sight.
