This is a preview of the labels I’m making for my Heather Ales. I made four 10 gallon batches of Heather Ale, using heather flowers, bog myrtle, and a little hops for their acidity (not flavoring). Each batch is slightly different.

I’m creating these for two different events: The Mythical State of Jefferson exhibition at Southern Oregon University’s Schneider Art Museum and the Open Engagement Conference in Portland Oregon (both are in May, 2010). The Jefferson show is about Northern California’s secession movement, democracy, and the idea that you can take political matters into your own hands. The Open Engagement Conference is focusing on the ins and outs of socially engaged art. I was mostly interested in the history of this beer. The ingredients were banned in 1707 by the Act of Union when Scotland was made part of Great Britain. The recipe was mostly lost until someone had it translated in 1986. The beer has helped usher in a huge interest in extinct or nearly extinct beer styles. It is also a great example of the diversity that geography brings to beer. This is part of the reason I see drinking quality craft beer to be a form of activism, and not just consumerism; by drinking craft beer you are saying no to mass produced, tasteless beer that relies on chauvinism to sell its products and instead you are turning to a drink that celebrates local business, geography, complex tastes, quality, and embraces a longstanding human tradition.

Now, for a tangential note (this may seem random but I think I need to start talking about it):

I’ve been calling my little homebrewing adventure “Slow Beers” but am not totally certain about this name. I don’t want people to confuse it with the Slow Foods Organization but I do like the name because it subtly encourages leisure, rest, and relaxation as a form of social productivity. We’ll see how it goes. I consider the homebrewing to be a part of my field research into Oregon beer culture, something that I participate in quite frequently. I’m very interested in how Portland has established itself as this mega beer city, with 30+ breweries and brewpubs in the city-proper. and 9 more breweries opening up in the next few months. I’ve made recent visits to California and while they are most definitely brewing outstanding beer there, the beer community is not as obviously connected and close as it is here. And we have breweries doing some pretty amazing things: all the organic breweries in town, the theater pubs, Upright recently made an oyster stout, we’ve got breweries making beer from old and rare recipes, we just had the yearly Holiday Ale Festival which has 60+ beers made specifically for the festival, Lompoc released 7 winter beers a couple weeks ago and there’s much much more happening. I mean things are booming here and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

I’ve been exploring Portland’s beer culture with many of my art projects and I finally have many of these up on my main website at ericmsteen.com. As a professional artist I’m interested in the ability beer has to create and grow communities and groups of people, how it affects local business, and how it brings people into a greater understanding of their city or locale as a rich social site. What happens when a large number of breweries begin promoting their beers but aren’t asking their customers to get drunk, what happens when a whole city establishes local pubs as social centers, and what happens when people gain a greater understanding of a drink that has been a part of mankind’s history (in various forms) for thousands and thousands of years.

Homebrewing is one avenue of exploration for me. I have a small group of people that show up to learn about beer making with me (not that I’m an expert, we learn together) and we taste different beers and we participate in Portland’s offerings. Group members buy the beer for $1 bottle which is just a little more than cost so I’m actually paying for what I’ve called my field research. I encourage all artists to find ways to get sponsorship of some kind because research and exploration can become expensive in any field (painting, sculpture, etc). My group “buys-in” becoming supporters of my art and research and yet receive a gift for about the same price as (and often less than) the cost of buying beer in stores.

Mads Lynnerup is an artist that is addressing the same issues of labor, leisure, and productivity. In his newest art project he asked a number of people in the town of Troy, NY to “take a day for yourself.” People who have jobs and live out their daily life with a normal routine will now get to break that routine for the sake of art. They are each documenting their day in some form and I imagine we will see that maybe people are most productive when given time for themselves – to catch up on rest, to continue building relationships with their family and friends, to do something that is actually interesting to them, to give them the mental space to think for themselves. In these situations, all acts are creative. I value the utilitarian aspects of art projects such as this and the challenge they present to us to rethink how our lives will be played out. Thank you Mads Lynnerup

Here are a few links to websites that I enjoy that also address issues of productivity, busyness and seeing daily acts as a form of creativity. They take two very different approaches: Unconventional Ideas and Why Work?

DESCRIPTION:
Art & Beer (At the Museum) is an event that combines drinking beer and experiencing art. For one night only, you can sample three new beers from Laurelwood, Lompoc, and Lucky Lab at the Portland Art Museum. A brewer from each of the three Portland microbreweries received a tour of the museum’s collection, selected an artwork, and made a beer that will complement that artwork. This beer sampling is part of a one night event called Shine A Light: A Night at the Museum, an event that will host a number of performances, time-based art actions, music, and more. The entry fee for the event is $12 and will give you access to all the art and performances, the museums galleries, and unlimited sampling of the three new beers.

DETAILS:
Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, Portland, OR 97205

Sept. 19th / 6pm – Midnight
$12 entry includes access to all the nights events, the art collections and unlimited beer samples

To see a full schedule of events for Shine A Light, click here.

Art & Beer (At the Museum) is presented by Portland-based artist Eric Steen.

BUILDING IN THE POST-APOCALYPSE

An exhibition that explores and documents options of community, collaboration, and education through socially engaged practices.

Please see below for details about times, events, and goings-ons.

APRIL 10TH-23RD

MK GALLERY

2000 SW 5th (2nd Floor) Portland, Oregon

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Go to beerandscifi.com/exhibition for updates.
Some events appear twice because they are in multiple categories…

GALLERY HOURS:
Monday – Thursday 9-5
Saturday April 18th, 12-4

ARTISTS RECEPTION:
Thursday April, 16th
3-6pm – Public Social University event
6-9pm – Exhibition Reception
9-12pm – Sci-Fi Screening: Panic in the Year Zero & The Man From Earth

SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES:
April 13th – Monday – 10pm – Sci-Fi Screening – The Man Who Could Work Miracles
April 16th – Thursday – 3-6pm – Public Social University event
April 16th – Thursday – 6-9pm – Exhibition Reception
April 16th – Thursday – 9-12pm – Sci-Fi Double Feature (see above for titles)

MOVIE SCHEDULE:
Daily movies subject to change:
April 13th – Mon. – playing all day – The Lathe of Heaven
April 13th – Mon. – 10pm screening – The Man Who Could Work Miracles
April 14th – Tues. – playing all day – The Man Who Could Work Miracles
April 15th – Wed. – playing all day – Fantastic Planet
April 16th – Thu. – playing until 3:00 – The Man From Earth
April 16th – Thu. – 9-12pm screening – Panic in the Year Zero & The Man From Earth
April 18th – Sat. – playing 12-4pm – Panic in the Year Zero
April 20th – Mon. – playing all day – The Man From Earth
April 21st – Tues. – playing all day – A Boy and His Dog
April 22nd – Wed. – playing all day – Silent Running
April 23rd – Thurs. – playing all day – The Lathe of Heaven

*****Update: photos from the exhibition are below. Click on thumbnails to see larger images:

The gallery was divided into two spaces. The first was a classroom space where free and alternative educational exercises took place. This is where Public Social University hosted their Apocalypse class.

I led a public exercise called the Morphology Chart. The exercise gets people to place subjective interpretations onto random objects, create meaning where there may have been none.

The second room was the beerandscifi room (inspired by this blog). The room encouraged students at PSU to skip their classes, watch movies, drink beer together, and hang out.

At the opening I paid two of my students to drink beer with their friends at the picnic table in the gallery.

I believe that drinking good beer with someone else inspires great conversation and serves as a catalyst for developing relationships. I find that the conversation will often be centered on great beer and how what you are drinking at the moment compares to some other beer you drank last month. From this connection you can talk about many other things and a relationship can bloom over a pint or two. When I organize events around drinking beer I am mindful that it is a relationship building activity.

Last Sunday, I organized another one of these events, but this one had a few extra elements that added a nice touch to the event. This was part of a larger event series at the Igloo Gallery in Portland. Nearly 30 people showed up. This time, instead of drinking beer with friends, I invited my friends, and the public, to sample beers that I would pour for them. I hand-made serving trays that people could take home with them. The serving trays would hold two sampling glasses at the same time – a gesture I thought was symbolic of relationships between two people. So I paired beers based on who I was talking to, the nature of the conversation, as well as attempting to explore taste pallets.

The best part of the event, for me, was that I had put a large amount of energy and effort into building these serving trays that I was just going to give away for free. In other words, the product of my labor was an object that was designed to cultivate relationships, as opposed to my labor being used by some business to make more money for that business.
I received beer donations from Laurelwood, Deschutes, and Ninkasi and I picked up 10 extra Oregon beers from my favorite beer store, Belmont Station (they carry about 1200 beers). The wood I used from the trays was a black walnut and came from someone who harvests their wood up the Columbia Gorge. Zach, from buildsomethingtogether.com helped me to learn a 3D design program, pick out my wood, and he showed me how to use the tools in the woodshop that I needed. I will soon write more about buildsomethingtogether because it’s a wonderful utopian art project.

For my contribution to Everyday Magic I am handmaking serving trays (see image above) that guests will be able to take home with them. On the serving trays I will be pairing beers for them that will match the food they are eating and the conversations they are having in the gallery. The idea behind my project is to show that the act of drinking beer with friends can be one that builds relationships and has the power for social change. Good beer makes for good conversation.

Where? Igloo Gallery – 325 NW 6th #102 Portland, OR 97209
When?  Sunday, January 18th from 2-5pm

*Outer Space Links*
-A meteor crashes into Oregon! I saw one of these meteors. Plus a great video of a meteor in Canada.
-What’s your age on other planets? Go here to find out!!!
-The Day The Earth Stood Still will be broadcast in outerspace so as to avoid an alien invasion. No joke!

*Beer Links*
-Gift ideas for your fellow beer snobs.
-A book – Christmas Beer: The Cheeriest, Tastiest, and Most Unusual Holiday Brews
-Portland’s Belmont Station now carries over 1100 different beers.
-Will Twitter replace the pub?

Thankfully communism and capitalism, and even socialism, aren’t the only options we have in life. While it may seem that the overarching governmental and economic structures surround us at all times, there are thousands and thousands of examples of people like you and me who are making small but conscious efforts to implement new types of ideals into their world. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here are a few examples of things that I have seen around my neighborhood that embody an economy of generosity. Below are images of three free boxes. Someone has taken old real-estate magazine stands and transformed them into boxes and houses that are meant to bring small bits of enjoyment to you as you walk by. On a given day, you might find free clothes, bottled water, street zines, pens, pencils, cigarettes, or anything else that people decide to leave in them. The one directly below is complete with a garden. These serve to be positive social interventions and they subtly motivate us to think slightly differently about the way the world works (or could work).

I’ve always been curious to know if these free boxes are set up and then left alone, or if someone comes by and cleans them up occasionally. I would hope that the latter is the case. I know that the one directly above is updated and taken care of often. It used to be an entirely different color and one day it disappeared and was soon returned in this new state. This one is actually different than a normal free box. There is usually a pad of paper, and pens and you can draw images and submit them into the slot at the top. Every now and then a zine will appear and all the submissions are published inside. I’ve actually written about this one before here.

A while back this free box had a number of small plastic astronaut toys and I couldn’t resist taking one. Since then I have left a packet of lemon ginger tea for some other lucky person. I like the idea of giving and receiving and thinking about reciprocation. Below is an image of the astronaut; I keep the space cadet in my kitchen on the door frame.

***update***
I originally posted info about the chess set as the capitalists vs. the socialists. I was incorrect. Here is information from Colleen at the Maryhill Museum:
The set Maryhill has is a propaganda set, “Capitalists versus Communists.”
Designed by the sisters Natalia and Yelena Danko for the Lomonosov State
Porcelain Factory in Leningrad in the 1920s, the set has often been
reproduced since. Ours may be a later edition.

One side does represent Soviets — the pieces carry obvious symbols of the
Soviet Regime and are portrayed as upstanding Soviet peasants — virtuous
etc. The other side does represent capitalists — the King is death holding
a human thigh bone; the Queen wonton, etc.

There were 3 parts to the event. There was a movie session that consisted of six sci fi movies about utopia and dystopia. The second part was presentations about utopia and the third part was a supplemental reader for the event. The idea behind the event was to have a great time watching sci fi movies, and without being too formal, to discuss the application of utopian and ideal visions into our own realities.

The event started at 8:00pm with the movie The Lathe of Heaven. This is one of my favorite sci fi movies because, even though it may be a little cheesy, it has a lot of application for today. It was written by a Portland writer, Ursula K. Le Guin she wanted it filmed in Portland (only small parts of it were), and it is about trying to create a universal utopia for all people.  In the movie, George Orr’s dreams change reality. When his doctor finds out about this, he attempts to use George for his own prideful purposes and can’t seem to realize that the world was better before he tried fixing it. In my opinion, this is a lesson we can keep in mind – not that I don’t think we should attempt to turn our world into a better place, but that we must be sensitive because we aren’t the only ones on the planet.

After the first movie there were five presentations: My friend, Ezra, talked about what “utopia is found between the cracks” could mean (Between the Cracks is the name I gave the supplemental reader that accompanied the event). Ezra said that many people dream up utopias because they think of their current world or situation as messed up (he used the words “like dirt”). He encouraged us to find utopia in the present because looking to the future to solve our problems will not help. I think he meant this in a way that meant if you are always hoping for a better future, but never do anything about it in the present, nothing will change. Three of the M.O.S.T. members gave a news broadcast informing us about how their world is doing. I have talked about the M.O.S.T. before here and here, and I think that they do a wonderful job at building and providing community. Gary Wiseman presented some found videos, including one where this guy is performing lines over and over for a science fiction movie until he gets them right. Harrell Fletcher was a last minute replacement for a German friend who was going to talk about Basic Income, something he had been studying. I included information about Basic Income in my zine instead. Harrell talked about John Holt’s book “Escape From Childhood” and its relation to alternative education and children’s rights. He also led a discussion to see what other people thought about children’s rights, asking questions such as “What is an appropriate voting age?”

Finally, I gave a presentation as well. Mine was about how I created my ideal schedule and in so doing I became more fully aware of my priorities. And even though I could never fulfill my ideal schedule completely, I was able to see where and why I had high anxiety. I was then able to make some changes to my current schedule as I felt necessary. I talked about what sorts of questions one might ask when creating their own schedule. In the zine I provided further information.

The content of the zine was a juxtaposition of utopian texts and pictures of people drinking beer. More and more I am seeing beer and pubs as great catalysts for thought expansion and social dialog. I have found that my best art has been produced either under major pressure and deadlines, or while hanging out with friends at pubs while scribbling notes on napkins.

Before we knew it, it was 8:00am. I served pancakes to the guests who stuck it out until the early morning hours. All in all, we watched The Lathe of Heaven, Logan’s Run, Soylent Green, H.G. Wells Time Machine (1960), Gattaca, and just for fun we watched Plan 9 from Outer Space. We were also going to watch Alphaville, but we ran out of time somehow.

The event was a lot of fun and intellectually stimulating. Thank you to all who came. Please feel free to contact me for any additional information, movie recommendations (although here’s a great list of recommendations that I have compiled), questions or suggestions, or proposals for making this event happen in other settings.

These images are from Horse Brass, McMenamins Kennedy School, and Laurelwood Brew Pub.

Here is a list of the remaining times:
Sept 8 – Mon – Amnesia Brew Pub (832 N Beech St.) 3:00pm
Sept 9 – Tues – Lompoc Hedge House (3412 SE Division) 3:00pm
Sept 10 – Wed – Lucky Lab (915 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) 3:00pm
Sept 11 – Laurelhurst Theater (2735 E Burnside) Movie – The Fall at 9:35pm
Sept 12 – Fri – Hopworks Brew Pub (2944 SE Powell Blvd.) 9:30pm
Sept 13 – Sat – Green Dragon (928 SE 9th) 9:30pm
Sept 14 – Sun – McMenamins Barley Mill Pub (1629 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) 9:30pm

I’ve written more about it below, but first here is the information if you want to go on the tour. The tour starts from inside the Wieden and Kenedy/PICA building at 224 NW 13th. More information here. Here’s a list of the remaining tour times:

Sun . Sept 7 . 6:30-7:30 pm
Mon . Sept 8 . 6:30-7:30 pm
Tues . Sept 9 . 6:30-7:30 pm
Wed . Sept 10 . 6:30-7:30 pm
Thurs . Sept 11 . 6:30-7:30 pm
Fri . Sept 12 . 6:30-7:30 pm
Sat . Sept 13 . 12:30-1:30 pm
Sat . Sept 13 . 2:30-3:30 pm
Sat . Sept 13 . 4:30-5:30 pm
Sun . Sept 14 . 2:30-3:30 pm
Sun . Sept 14 . 4:30-5:30 pm

My wife and I went on the tour yesterday after we received strong recommendations from friends. We were very impressed and had a lot of fun. Khris walked through Portland as if it were actually Tilburg, explaining historical landmarks, pointing out special buildings, and talking about the people. He took us to one of the great Tilburg churches and explained how Protestantism, Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism were all foundations of the social structure of the city however in “reality” we were actually in front of the Hilton. There were many wonderful juxtapositions such as that. It was also funny to see reactions of people who were not on the tour, who were just walking by, as Khris spoke about old buildings and monuments that weren’t really there.

I put quotations around the word “reality” because clearly we are in Portland, Oregon during the tour, however, we begin to mentally get a sense of what this city might be like and we begin to replace our reality with what we think could be the reality of this other place. We also get a sense that Tilburg and  Holland have a couple social structures in place that are admirable, beneficial, and something that we might aspire to implement here in Portland. The tour was prefaced with a short conversation about how Portland and Tilburg are similar in many respects, and in both places people seem to have utopian ideas that they work toward. Utopia is not a perfect place, but one in which the community works together to achieve a better social good. So, there are some things we can learn from Tilburg. This may not have been the point or purpose of the tour, but this is something I was able to take away from it. I won’t spoil the tour for you. I highly recommend it; it was a lot of fun.

Khris was a part of the M.O.S.T., an arts group that I have written about on beerandscifi.com here. This group believed in a parallel reality, called Mostlandia, that operated in friendship and love and promoted fun and community among other things. They were able to inspire a sense of community with the people who attended their functions. Like Khris’ tour, the M.O.S.T. was able to confuse reality with this sense of “I am here” and “I am not here.” Even though the four founding members of Mostlandia have disbanded, Khris is carrying the torch of presenting “non-place-places” to the general public in ways that help us see the world in a new light.

Eric Steen
Dates and Times: please see below
Locations: please see below

Eric Steen invites you to experience labor and leisure with him as he drinks beer with his friends. Each day of the TBA fest, he will be enjoying one of his favorite east-side Portland pubs while he talks with his friends about anything that comes up. He will also have information available about his work and a jar for tipping him.

Eric Steen also gives tribute to Tom Marioni’s “Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art.”

Dates and Locations:
Sept 5 – Fri – - Horse Brass Pub (4534 SE Belmont)
Sept 6 – Sat – McMenamins Kennedy School (5736 NE 33rd Ave.)
Sept 7 – Sun – Laurelwood Brew Pub (5115 NE Sandy Blvd.)
Sept 8 – Mon – Amnesia Brew Pub (832 N Beech St.)
Sept 9 – Tues – Lompoc Hedge House (3412 SE Division)
Sept 10 – Wed – Lucky Lab (915 SE Hawthorne Blvd.)
Sept 11 – Laurelhurst Theater – (2735 E Burnside) Movie – The Fall at 9:35pm
Sept 12 – Fri – Hopworks Brew Pub (2944 SE Powell Blvd.)
Sept 13 – Sat – Green Dragon (928 SE 9th)
Sept 14 – Sun – McMenamins Barley Mill Pub (1629 SE Hawthorne Blvd.)

Times:
Monday-Thursday 3:00pm, Friday – Sunday 9:30pm
Movie on Sept 11 is The Fall at 9:35pm

Earlier this week a wake was held for the M.O.S.T., a collaborative arts group based in Portland. The M.O.S.T., a group of four, was responsible for discovering a place called Mostlandia about five years ago. Mostlandia is a type of parallel land or universe that exists along side of our own; people travel in and out of it all the time without realizing it. When the M.O.S.T. discovered this place, they decided to create a bureaucracy for the new land and a somewhat open system of “government” with an economy of friendship and love. The M.O.S.T. values fun above other worldly things. The bureaucracy that runs Mostlandia is one that is fun to be a part of and can make bureaucratic systems in our world more enjoyable. I believe Mostlandia to be an idyllic vision built by a community, a utopia that is carried out somewhat within our own realities and yet firmly rooted in hopes and fantasy.

Any person can become a citizen of Mostlandia by applying for a passport. There are currently over 250 citizens and Mostlandia has received official recognition from the Australian government.

Unfortunately, the four founders have decided to put an end to their Mostlandian collaborations. They have officially become citizens and the founding group has disbanded. Until now these four were not citizens of Mostlandia, but were portals to Mostlandia – contact with them allowed easy access into this other world. Now, Mostlandia will be run by its other citizens if these citizens choose to run with it.

The wake was held on August 8th at 7:00pm. Citizens met at the Junior Ambassador’s food cart in Portland, Oregon, which is one of the spots that allows one direct access into Mostlandia. Panwiches were served, toasts were given, the Mostlandic winter tradition of rumball was carried out in the summer, four-layered ice cream was served (ice cream is the national food), and a few other fun events occurred. The M.O.S.T. will be missed as they seemed to have a firm grasp on how visions of fun and friendship can be carried out in the real world.