Artnet.com

...All of these pieces seemed to be at home at the event, nicely straddling the Scope Hamptons directive to expose viewers to something resembling a new experience and the need for nifty collectable objects. But it was outside, on the sweaty, sunlit lawn, that two special projects most directly thematized the spirit of the day.

The first was Charles Truett’s CBTSA (an acronym for "Charles Badgett Truett Space Administration"), a tent in which a data collection station offered you the chance to put an item from your pocket into a plastic bag along with a description of its significance -- all for the good of pseudo-anthropology! A table displayed items that had been previously collected in small plastic boxes, including pen caps, lost teeth, lucky silver dollars and the inevitable empty condom wrapper. In a commercial art fair centered around flattering the high-class visitor’s sense of himself as smart, this piece cut out the middle man and put the public’s self-love on direct display.

And finally, there was Lifeboat, a project presented by Mary Mattingly and Paul Middendorf "providing education, training, and security for the Hamptons and other Micronations." Walking the fine line between cutting edge institutional critique and New Yorker cartoon, the artists presented a miniature Hamptons in the form of a fully stocked pool complete with a tower of Evian water, American flag and martinis at the ready -- leaving it nicely ambiguous whether this weekend the artists had taken over the Hamptons, or the Hamptons had taken over the artists.

BEN DAVIS is associate editor of Artnet Magazine.

New York Magazine: Art Goes to the Beach

Where to join the gallery crowd on the East End.
1. ~scopeHamptons
The roving art fair touches down in Southampton, wooing well-heeled collectors with contemporary works from some 40 exhibitors plus a full calendar of films, parties, and other special events. Look out for the reality-show-inspired Lifeboat-Hamptons, a performance featuring “a group of artists transforming their bodies into well-oiled tanning machines.”
• Hampton Hall, 230 Elm St., nr. Pulaski St., Southampton (see scope-art.com for complete schedule, exhibitor list, and information on parties and performances). 7/15-7/17. KAREN ROSENBERG

Put the FUN back into FUNdraising!

Performance`scope presents Micro|scope; a conceptual performance by Paul Middendorf and Mary Mattingly.

Micro|Scope cordially invites you to an After Party & Benefit
Cocktails at a Private Southampton Garden
Saturday, July 16th|8:00 to 10:00 pm|9 Hampton Street, Southampton

Gather with us at poolside to celebrate life, liberty, and social awareness.
Art Installations and Performances by: Agata Oleksiak|G-77|Milosz Koziej|Raphaele Shirley and more... Live Music & DJ: CounterIntelligence|Curated by Renée N. Vara

In honor of Micro|Scope—a performance piece and social experiment presented by artists and curators sponsored by ScopeHamptons Art Fair. To benefit the Center for Sociability—a faux organization to promote social awareness amongst privileged youth through the arts.
“Putting the FUN Back into FUNdraising,”

RSVP required for complimentary admission, space limited csafunfundraiser@yahoo.com

Goodie Bags Compliments of WIRED Magazine. Sponsors include: Red Bull, Tully's, Zachys Wine, Bedrock Industries, Art and Auction, Gallery Guide, Origins,VArt, Mattingly, Manifestartisrty, NYB Group, Seltzer Marketing, Counterintellingence .

Hamptons© Pool

Lifeboat - Hamptons presents:
Micro | Scope.
Providing education, training, and security for the Hamptons and other Micronations. Hampton Hall. 230 Elm street, Southhampton. July 15 - 17, 2005.

Lifeboat-Hamptons (now LIFESTYLE | HAMPTONS) is hosting the following Micronations for the project MICRO | SCOPE:

Lean-To Livin'.
Logo Lagoon.
Flags of a Different Brand.

For a hot conversation and a good cause : July 16 : Saturday Night in Southhampton

A celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of high fashion. The spectacle of Micro | Scope will have its culmination in a semi-private affair, promising successful encounters, hedonistic pleasures, and all for a great cause, the Center for Sociability, Put the FUN back in FUNdraiser! (brought to you by the best sponsors.)
(PS - MANNERS MATTER - It will be a beautiful evening in the Hamptons in an elegant setting. Leave the rude behavior on the streets of the city. RSVP early so there isn't a last minute missing of the list. If there is a legitimate problem at the door don't make it a capital offense. You'd be surprised how many people try to scam their way into these benefits. There's no bigger turn off than someone who yells at a charity event volunteer.)
PLEASE NOTE: ALL DONATIONS ARE DEFINATELY NOT ACCEPTED. THIS IS A FAUX FUNDRAISER.

G-77 Kiosk: Moving Map Surveillance Station:
A trade-show setup of maps, beginning from Micro-Scope© and expanding to The Hamptons©. Using a variety of modern surveillance methods, G-77 will record and map the Hamptons, keeping it safe and keeping its inhabitants up to date on the latest goings-on.

They will have real-time maps, will be simultaneously recording and displaying happenings and experiences throughout the area.
www.theg77.org

Rapheal Shirley
Circumstantial collisions by Raphaele Shirley. A great statement can sometimes be found in silence. A great act can be simply to observe, to be there seeing. To influence through one’s awareness. As an actor in this world (because I am here) I would like to speak and intervene solely so that, in the conjugations of life events, my involvement and impact is that of a catalyzing agent, this, through careful observation and focused intentions. From this stance, the object of creation could be a very light handed, yet perhaps highly consequential, act: the observing and facilitating of circumstantial interactions, the provoking of loosely organized instances, the concentration of a wide range of variables into moments of transcendence.
How could this spell out related to the topic of micronations? My mind spins towards the possibility of redefining the terms of societies and their territories. And, in keeping with the concept of ‘treading lightly”- minimal materials/high impact- generating a series of drawn symbols which contain the concept of a global nation, undefined and pregnant with potential in its acceptance of the freedom and sense of responsibility of its citizens*. As symbols usually contain the keys of identity and meaning, these here created would signify a state, a state of being, whose currency would be potential, empirical wisdom and transparency. Where and how would these symbols manifest themselves in the material realm? On the written page, on fabric, on clothing… Somewhere temporary where they can exist for a short while, to create ripples, effects of their suggestions….

*This global nation, which inherently somewhat exists already by virtue of us all being here in the same time/space continuum, would be aware of itself and accepting of the wild diversity of possible micronations and the wide range of elements of auto-determination that it contains. Make your flag into the latest fashion. Is she recreating the cult of style?

CBTSA:
Hunter Gatherer Mission
The Hunter Gatherer Mission is an ongoing series of expeditions in which we have deployed a fleet of Exploratory Rovers ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnto the environment surrounding EarthBase 1 to gather physical samples and photographs from the indigenous population. By this method we can create a detailed image of the societies and cultures within our reach.


One of the investigative methods we employ is the plotting of courses through the unknown by linking together related individuals. Each one of these individuals leads us to a cluster of new individuals, each with their own cluster of associated individuals. In this manner we can gather data on great areas of space, all of it directly relevant to us here at EarthBase 1.
http://a.parsons.edu/~truett/cbtsa/index2.php

The CamouflageMuseum brings us - Reoility:
Perfume comes from the Latin words ‘per’ and ‘fumare’: through smoke. In ancient time good smell was linked with smoke. In order to make perfume from all the ingredients and use it, the ingredients have to go trough a refinery. Then perfume is presented in beautiful flacons that support the lifestyle and luxury of the product. Out of the many possible scents that represent contemporary lifestyle, our scientists chose mineral oil, because of its political relevance and its link to luxurious items like cars, heat and the shinyness of its black color.

REOILITY is the scent of the summer/fall season 2005!
www.thecamouflagemuseum.org

Remembering Lizzy Grubman, and the end of the Hamptons as we knew it.
"Accident, a performance by John Enxuto will spinout in the Hampton Hall parking lot.

Jason Peters presents: "Air Defined", a sculptural illustration of surface, form, beauty, space and really, all of the things we care deeply about, while Eric Payson disrupts us with "Paramedia" - his baby, his psychosis, his documents of the cult of Long Island.

Hamptons Pool brought to you by Lifeboat | Hamptons:
Come join us for an open discussion on the human condition and other important and timeless claims as we relax in a cool wading pool that will be on display and in use, outside of the Hampton Hall.

TO LABEL OR NOT.

One of the first questions in planning Lifeboat Hamptons: Micro-Scope, a project broaching the subject and possibility of the Micro-nation, is of course: What will we wear in our mainstay, The Hamptons Micro-Nation?

A breakdown of the daunting question we face:

Step 1: Practicality.
A. We plan on sun. This calls for a minimal bathing suit, maximizing skin exposure, multitasking tanning time with education, while we teach the Nationalists© the way of the Micro-nation.
B. We must protect our Micro-nation. We will be patrolling the sandy beaches and fab parties of the Hamptons, securing our sacred lifestyle and the Hamptons Solid Status Structure (H3S). We need to wear items that demand respect, while simultaneously allow us to covertly record and protect the immediate surroundings, from the Hamptons-Shares to the Permanent Residents, from the parties to the art-fair.

Step 2: Illumination.
A. As a group presenting the cohesion between good style and progressive politics, there are a few rules that apply when deciding on Micro-Nation Wear. The label is a blatant signifier of The Dollar. The more at ease one is inside of his or her own wealth, the less showy one is. Do we want to present our team as caricatures of Southhampton, or take a cue from our more subdued Westhampton neighbors? Do we want to shout “Louis Vuitton”, or exude Pucci?

I am opting for choice B, The Private Designer, but a little variety within the group never hurt, and as long as it remains solely within the surface realm of fashion, and does not seep into our very ideological reasons for being, it is fine.

For Further Reference, I have consulted with Hamptons View:
Unless stated on the invitation men rarely wear ties and can always fall back on the khaki, blue blazer uniform especially if the event is in Southampton, but try to give it a little snazz. For the gals, remember that many of high society's doyennes all shop at the same places so to avoid ending up with a separated at birth twin across the room, mix and match different designers and pieces so you come up with something unique. There is almost always a chill in the air so you'll need layers. That sundress that was great at 4 will be freezing at 10 so keep a shawl or sweater handy - unless of course you've got a chivalrous guy who lends you his classic but stylish blue blazer.
This is all good to keep in mind.

Creating Your Own Micro Nation

by Mary Mattingly and Paul Middendorf

The Lifeboat is a no-yield, nongovernmental organization. Its members are a mounting group of active artists curated by Paul Middendorf and Mary Mattingly, dedicated to providing solutions that will safeguard humanity from the growing threat of terrorism and technological cataclysm.

Paul and Mary have constructed a seaworthy island, register it under a carefully selected flag of convenience, and are using it as a mobile base of sorts; a floating Freetown that roams waters and sometimes establishes semi-permanent settlements. Stealth, mobility, obscurity, legal loopholes, and some good old firepower will result in a very decent level of practical autonomy.

It is aboard one of such vessel that, perhaps, the more "radical" technologies (advanced genetic engineering, GPS tracking, bio-mechanical enhancements, neural interfaces, AI etc.) will best be developed and experimented with. This becomes more and more sought after on our own soil after cases under the veil of Homeland Security bring up situations like the fall 2004 predicament with the Critical Art Ensemble, whose art and bio genetics research lab was seized and confiscated by the FBI.

No longer, in most cases, does the nationality of a ship's owner have anything to do with the flag the ship flies. Most of the oceangoing vessels owned by Americans are registered abroad, their ostensible "home offices" in places like Panama City or Monrovia, Liberia. In the turn lies the question, does the globalization of exchanges put an end to the universalizations of values, or further it? The universal has become globalized, and human rights circulate exactly like any other global product (oil or capital for example).

In midst of the gallery-world, Paul and Mary include artists’ works that are concerned with topics of environment, politics, language, technologies, and social communities.

Mary Mattingly is an artist who participates in a community-based arts organization in New York. She is represented by Robert Mann Gallery in New York, and has ongoing national and international projects including residency in Rotterdam, Holland and work with her continuous project A New Breed. Resident of the Lifeboat.

Paul Middendorf, graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is an artist/curator living and working in Portland, Or. He is also Co-Founder and Creative Director of Disjecta Art Center, and Founder of Manifest Artistry Organization. Resident of the Lifeboat.