is current activity : MMXXII
Institute of Sociometry, or is, and our publishing division is PRESS posts reports here on a quarterly basis. For day-to-day updates on in process projects and is PRESS please follow is on instagram and check out our DIY books and zines on big cartel. For occasional shares of odd-art news like us on Facebook.
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#is | PaCT: Book Release and Exhibition!
PaCT is the culmination of a 23 year long conceptual art project
(and three more years to finish the books)!
PaCT Exhibition:
Dateline Gallery | March | 3004 Larimer St, Denver, CO
Opening and Book Release: 3/4, 6:00-9:00 pm | Artist’s Tales: 3/30, 7:00 pm
Exhibition Open: Saturdays in March 12-5pm – or by appointment
Books: Now available from is PRESS | Project website: pact.report
The exhibition opening at Dateline gallery will be a release party for both PaCT books
and an extrapolation of photos, prints and ephemera from the story.
PaCT documents a 23 year, two-part journey with an art show, a zine, a photo-animated flip book, and a 263 page art-book and memoir – all by Peter Miles Bergman. In 1996 at the age of 23, Peter and Dylan Kuhn set out to hike the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. Burned out, injured, and broke after 90 days and 1,750 miles they quit in Oregon with a pact to return for the remaining 900 miles when they were twice as old. In 2019 they reconvened at 46 to reflect on life’s journey, and race increasingly threatening storms towards Canada.
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#is | CALLING ALL AGENTS: is FAIR 20202021
AT THE GLOBEVILLE EPICENTER AND FORT GREENE BAR
IN DENVER, COLORADO ON 11/11 – 11/14
What is is: every four years we add a cheat-day to the calendar, elect a President, compete in the Summer Olympics, and convene the is FAIR. Since 1996 we’ve convened six is FAIRS in six different cities on this quadrennial schedule. Plans to bring the seventh is FAIR back to Denver in 2020, after a twenty-year absence, were trampled under the hooves of a white horseman galloping asunder across the land. On suggestion from our council of elders, we elected to hold the is FAIR in 2020, but actually in 2021.
The is FAIR is a pseudo-science fair for free-thinking adults; artists, miscreants, pranksters, and anyone with a good story to tell. Blue-chip artists, your mom (or child), deep thinkers, disaffected hipsters, even sincere romantics are submit a free-standing table-top tri-fold display or documentary film short, addressing the eternal theme of “individuals and their relationship to groups”.
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#is | “LLiLL, Leftist Leaflets in Little Free Libraries” at “Citizenship: A Practice of Society” exhibition at MCA Denver 10/2-2-14
The Institute of Sociometry (which gives us the “is” acronym in is PRESS) in this case is PRESS partners Heather Link Bergman & Peter Miles Bergman are excited and honored to have a large zine-themed installation in the fall MCA Denver exhibition Citizenship: A Practice of Society curated by Zoe Larkins. is PRESS also designed, co-published, and letterpress printed the covers of the exhibition catalog. The exhibition runs from October 2nd through February 14th with timed entry. Read more >
For more on the project and information about seeing the exhibition in person please see:
- The ispress.co event post!
- See a virtual tour on ispress.co!
- We have two zines available that tell a version of this story; LLiLL issue #1 zine & LLiLL issue #2 zine!
- Peter and Heather will be giving a virtual artist talk titled “Agents and ’artners” on Wednesday January 27th at 5:00 MST.
- is PRESS designed, letterpress printed the cover, and co-published the catalog for the exhibition which is also available on our shop. Our limited quantity of 25 Citizenship exhibition catalogs comes with the Institute of Sociometry page signed by Heather and Peter, a letterpress print and cropped spine bookmark!
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#is | is PRESS + Institute of Sociometry | is FAIR 202020
Over the last couple years is PRESS has eclipsed The Institute of Sociometry in the solar system of is. This page is becoming more of an archive of Institute hijinks and a hub for our quadrennial fair. More on is FAIR 20202021 soon! We recommend you check out the happenings over at is PRESS or follow @is.press on instagram to keep up with all things is.
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#is 03.07.2020 | is PRESS | Denver Small Press Fest Rescheduled for 7/11 | Open Studios
is PRESS is hosting Denver Small Press Fest in partnership with Leon Gallery and the Center for Visual Art. The fest was originally slated for be Saturday 3/21 from 11-4. It has been postponed in order to honor the social contact and flatten the curve. The fest will now be Saturday July 11th at the Center for Visual Art, 965 Santa Fe Drive.
We are also participating in the Mo’Print Studio and Print Tour on Saturday March 28th from 10-4. is PRESS (and the Institute of Sociometry) are housed in a carriage house painted black as midnight in the alley between Lincoln and Sherman, Alameda and Dakota, in the 300 block south of Denver. Come check it out!
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#is 08.14.2019 | PaCT | is OUT OF OFFICE
Agent m[i]le[s] – Special Agent in Charge of the Institute of Sociometry is OUT OF OFFICE until late October finishing PaCT – a project he started 23 years ago! In 1996 is agents m[i]le[s] (aka MAN MADE) and agent cyberhobo attempted the Pacific Crest Trail. At 1,700 miles they made a pact to return and finish the last 900 miles when they’re twice as old in 2019! For more see his blog pact.report or follow on instagram at the same @pact.report!
1,700 miles on the PCT – each frame is ~ 20 miles further north than the previous.
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#is 04.01.2019 | is PRESS | EMANCIPATION
is PRESS (The official Press of the Institute of Sociometry) still has a limited number of is EMANCIPATION for sale and a whole quiver of zines at ispress.co. You can also catch us throughout the year at zine and art book fairs! To see where we’ll be follow us on instagram @is.press
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#is 09.07.2018 | agents m[i]le[s] and mISs IS | Place book release
Special agents agents m[i]le[s] and mISs IS are featured in the PLACE anthology of Denver artists released by Jordan Knecht of Adult Punk with a reprint of the ABATOR article! They will be doing a reading / performance on 9.08 at Ft. Greene Bar in Globeville. You can get the book here.
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#is 05.15.2018 | is PRESS | Alter Salon + DZF + CZF
is PRESS (The official Press of the Institute of Sociometry) has a book and zine table set up at Alter Salon this month! 4890 Zuni St. in Denver.
We’re also tabling at Chicago Zine Fest on May 19th and Denver Zine Fest on June 24th! Hope to see your face!
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#is 04.15.2018 | is PRESS | At DINK Denver
is PRESS (The official Press of the Institute of Sociometry) is at DINK Denver all weekend with a full table to zines, art books, and prints from Special Agents in Denver and Chicago! 4/15-4/15 at the McNichols building in Civic Center Park. Get it!
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#is 04.14.2018 | is PRESS | Raw Fury #5 Out now!
Raw Fury #5 (ISSN 2327-6002) 2017 published by is PRESS, Denver in collaboration with Flatlands Press, Chicago. Get yours at the is PRESS store.
Raw Fury #5 is 7.5” square, perfect-bound, 60 page annual book on mixed paper stock with rounded corners. The covers are letterpress printed on 140lb. French construction white paper. The Gallery section contains risograph prints. Risograph posters by Kayla Mahaffey and Mac Blackout are included.
Raw Fury #5 is a local scene ‘zine, and a ridiculously fancy annual book with professional editorial standards, that focuses on contemporary urban art from or connected to Chicago and Denver.
Raw Fury #5 includes a cover by Heather Link-Bergman & Peter Miles Bergman, illustrations by CHema Skandal, features by or interviews with, Peter Miles Bergman, Ravi Zupa, bunny M, Josué Pellot, Oscar Arriola, and a gallery featuring Otto Splotch, Tanner Barkin, Izzy Jarvis, An-ism-ist, Mac Blackout, Vincent Comparetto, Heather Link-Bergman, Kayla Mahaffey, and posters by Kayla Mahaffey, Mac Blackout
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#is 01.25.2018 | agents m[i]le[s] and mISs IS | Denver Orbit Podcast
Special agents agents m[i]le[s] and mISs IS are featured on the Denver Orbit podcast Episode 14 Displacement reading the ABATOR and Good Neighbors Lamentation Society reports featured in is EMANCIPATION our 21 year anthology of is. Use the code DENVERORBIT at the is PRESS store for 40% off the book!
Below: ABATOR at work
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#is 5.11.2017 | Zines and Cereal | Chicago Art Book Fair
is PRESS will be tabling at two November events! On Thursday 11.09 is the intimate semi-annual Zines and Cereal from 7-9, hosted by the Denver Zine Library at Europa Coffee House, 76 S. Pennsylvania St., Denver.
AND… From 11.16-11.19 we’ll be sharing a table with Flatlands Press at the first ever Chicago Art Book Fair! The CABF will be at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel at 12 S. Michigan Avenue – right across Michigan Ave. from Crown Fountain in Millennium Park! We’re busy printing 35 ultra-limited special cover versions of Raw Fury #4 just for Chicago Art Book Fair! Here’s a teaser!
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#is 9.10.2017 | An Address
INDIVIDUAL: Peter Miles Bergman
GROUP SIZE: 11
NATURE OF GROUP: Residents of 10 addresses in Freemont, Nebraska and 10 addresses in Newport, Rhode Island, selected at random from a collection of phone books on microfiche, who happened to be home when we showed up at their door
INCIDENCE: An Address
An Address from Institute of Sociometry
This report about selecting people at random from two US towns, sending them mail for 2 years, and showing up to know on their door is one of IS’s oldest reports, it has, until now, only existed in the form of this 36-minute VHS documentary, produced by Peter Miles Bergman and directed by Siri Noel Wilson in 1996.
In 1993 the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego, named after Dr. Seuss and famous for its cameo as the spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, had one of every city and town’s phone books in the US on microfiche. Reaching blindly into the library catalog drawer of phone book microfiche films, name out of a hat style, I plucked a microfiche for Freemont, Nebraska and one for Newport, Rhode Island, both towns that appeared to be in the 20,000-30,000 population range, and wrote down the first 10 names and addresses in each that caught my eye.
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#is 8.27.2017 | Life’s A Joke
INDIVIDUAL: agent Charlie Vurmin
GROUP SIZE: Approximately 56 million
NATURE OF GROUP: The people of the state of California vs. Charles Twain Clemans AKA Charlie Vurmin
INCIDENCE: Life’s A Joke
Chuck in 2001 – 6 years into a 28 year prison sentence. Inscription on the back of photo reads, “To my friends at the Institute! Although I may look like a 43 year old drunk I.R.A. terrorist, I’m just a nice guy who got loaded and shot four people, oops… Love Charlie Vurmin 2001.” Photo credit: California Department of Corrections
Circa 1995 IS stickers Chuck screenprinted for IS
My name is Charlie Vurmin and this is my story of how I ended up in prison. I am 28 years old and curently serving a 28 year sentence for four attempted murders and various gun charges. It all started in 1995 when my soon-to-be wife Julie was seven months pregnant and I had a fine job as a silkscreener for a prominent skateboard clothing company. I had a nice house, two dogs, a car, and many friends. Little did I know all of these things and more were about to disappear like a turd being flushed down the toilet.
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#is 8.16.2017 | Don’t Come ’round Here No More
INDIVIDUAL: agent Jim Hanson
GROUP SIZE: 260
NATURE OF GROUP: 20 cops, 20 reporters, 12 Klansmen, and 200 protesters
INCIDENCE: Don’t Come ’round Here No More
“We don’t need no hate today! We don’t need no KKK!”
On January 15, 1996 at 3:00 PM the Ku Klux Klan planned to demonstrate and protest against the celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on the steps of the Wyoming State Capitol Building in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Their event was to follow an event celebrating MLK Day on those very steps at 12:00 PM. Anticipating conflict and confrontation, I knew I had to be there.
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#is 8.11.2017 | Leftist Leaflets in Little Libraries
Leftist Leaflets in Little Libraries or LLiLL procures and distros leftist zines on Socialism, Feminism, Critical Theory, Race, and Punk to Little Free Libraries (those bourgeoisie mini-cottages on a stick for peoples unwanted Deepak Chorpra, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Daniel Steele novels) in affluent areas of Denver Colorado! If you have leftist zines you wholesale in batches of three, or if you need a restock for your Little Free Library drop us a line!
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#is 8.03.2017 | Old Glory & The Valor Project | is EMANCIPATION Report #05
INDIVIDUAL: Old Glory Condom Corporation – Worn With Pride
Country-Wide, President Jay Critchley
GROUP SIZE: Approximately 100,000
NATURE OF GROUP: The cumulative number of AIDS cases reported in the US in 1989 (as of 2006 the cumulative number of AIDS related deaths is 650,000. Currently, an estimated 11.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS)
INCIDENCE: Old Glory Condom Corporation and The Valor Project
Jay Critchley circa 1990 with an Old Glory Condom
“The better part of valor is discretion.” − Shakespeare
Old Glory Condom President Jay Critchley first invoked the words of Patrick Henry at a 1989 press conference of the patriotic condom corporation. At the conference, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s List Visual Arts Center, Critchley called on President George H.W. Bush to organize an army of safer sex soldiers to fight HIV/AIDS and redefine what it means to be patriotic: to protect and save lives.
The actual business, Old Glory Condom Corporation, which marketed condoms and T-shirts bearing the flag-inspired logo worldwide, was launched on Flag Day in 1990, concurrent with the World AIDS Conference in San Francisco. The corporation filed for a trademark from the US government for its logo and its name, but the Trademark Office ruled, “it was immoral and scandalous to associate the flag with sex” and denied the application. Center for Constitutional Rights lawyer David Cole protested the decision and the trademark was ultimately granted after a three-year legal battle.
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#is 7.14.2017 | Securing Amusement | is EMANCIPATION Report #04
INDIVIDUAL: IS agent, I. Vamos with D. Mercer
GROUP SIZE: Currently unknown
NATURE OF GROUP: Employees of both Disneyland in Anaheim California, USA and Disneyworld Magic Kingdom in Orange County Florida, USA
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Securing Amusement
Disneyland, 4/25/96:
Conditions: Sunny approximately 70 degrees f.
2:47: Drove into employee’s lot. Waved and smiled like an old friend. Guard passed me through. Parked car
2:55: Coast was clear – scrambled up fifteen feet of chain link, over vines and barbed wire at the top.
2:56: Dropped to ground inside.
2:56: Heard footsteps and grunting. Looked up. Two men ran at me. Older one yelled in radio “WE GOT THE RUNNER!” Younger one confiscated my leatherman tool. Younger one told me not to move. Frisked me.
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#is 7.14.2017 | Hoisted By My Own Petard | is EMANCIPATION Report #03
INDIVIDUAL: agent Peter Miles Bergman
GROUP SIZE: 29
NATURE OF GROUP: Owners of Volkswagen white Cabriolet convertibles in the greater San Diego metropolitan area contacted, via form letter, by Peter Miles Bergman over the course of one year
INCIDENCE: Hoisted By My Own Petard
This is one of the oldest Incidence Reports on record at the Institute of Sociometry. A preliminary version of this report was published on Netscape 1.0 in Spring of 1995 and was featured in The Net magazine as the “weird website of the month”, was shown as a tri-fold display at Sociometry Fair ‘96 in San Diego, California, and published as a handmade book in an edition of 25 in 1999. This is also the lead-off report in is EMANCIPATION, a handmade book in an edition of 200, and the official anthology of is at 21.
Only habit made me interrupt my errand. I had long since abandoned the practice of carrying my Polaroid and typed form-letter invitation to lunch. After placing the letter under the wipers of dozens of white VW Cabriolets around San Diego without any serious inquiries about the free lunch (the hidden “price” for which was the condition that my lunch companion pick me up in his or her stylish Cabriolet), I had given up. But when I spotted white Cabriolet lMPS478 at the rear of the Thriftee’s parking lot, I turned heel to fetch my camera and a copy of the letter from my apartment.
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#is 7.14.2017 | The Cacophony Society | is EMANCIPATION Report #02
INDIVIDUAL: agent Carrie Galbraith (of SF Cacophony)
GROUP SIZE: Several dozen circa 1995, over 30,000 annually in 2016
NATURE OF GROUP: Adults at play
INCIDENCE: The Cacophony Society (You May Already Be a Member)
The Cacophony Society was hugely influential on the formation of the Institute of Sociometry. Chuckles The Clown – a member of LA Cacophony – was also an early is agent and got what was to become the is Compound on the mailing list for Rough Draft the newsletter of San Francisco Cacophony and The Zone the newsletter of LA Cacophony. In a pre-internet world, reading about Cacophony’s hijinks, pranks, performances, and philosophy exposed up early is agents to new urban tactics and fellow travelers.
Cacophony was not conceived as an art movement. Many members did not self-identify as artists, although there were some noted artists among the members, and many Cacophonists and their fellow travelers would go on to successful careers in the arts. Others would find that their identification with the unselfconscious creative nature of the group and its actions would lead them inevitably to a life in the arts.
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#is 6.29.2017 | How and why the IS was and is | is EMANCIPATION Report #01
INDIVIDUAL: Mike Bonanno of The Yes Men
GROUP SIZE: Several dozen
NATURE OF GROUP: IS agents in San Diego California, circa 1995
INCIDENCE: How and why the IS was and is
At the southwestern edge of the United States, in a pre-millennium moment, cultures collided to produce The Institute of Sociometry.
Front Door to “The Compound” – where IS was formed
I was a graduate student at the University of California San Diego when IS came to my attention. I started seeing handbills and posters for a Sociometry Fair, and naturally I was curious. What in God’s name was sociometry?
To find out, I would have to find the source. It didn’t take long for me to discover Peter Miles Bergman, a lanky guy with curly blonde hair who looked like he could have been in Vice magazine – but before Vice existed. I learned how IS operatives managed to hang posters seemingly everywhere in town. Peter’s skater friend would work postering all day and night in trade for a wheel of brie, which for some reason Peter had a way to acquire at very low or no cost. What was this community where labor was compensated in French cheese?[1] And what in the name of science was sociometry itself?
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#is 6.21.2017 | is EMANCIPATION | Reading in Chicago! Show in Denver!
is EMANCIPATION will be in two places at once Friday! Agent m[i]le[s] will be doing a reading with Public Collector’s Marc Fisher in Chicago at Elephant Room Gallery as part of the All of the Above show – and 704 S. Wabash St. in Chicago. is PRESS books and zines will also be part of the Prelude show at Spectra Art Space in Denver opening Friday – 7 ’till whenever at 1836 S. Broadway in Denver!
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#is 5.17.2017 | Raw Fury #4 | Release Party!
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#is 5.17.2017 | GNLS | incidence report
INDIVIDUAL: A good neighbor
GROUP SIZE: Undetermined, possibly in the thousands
NATURE OF GROUP: Long-time residents and homeowners, new residents and home owners, real estate agents, investors, developers, architects, city and urban planners, local government officials, demolition crews, contractors and day laborers, local newspaper journalists, and anti-gentrification activists
INCIDENCE: The Good Neighbor’s Lamentation Society
It broke our hearts to leave you,
But you did not go alone,
For part of us went with you,
The day God called you home
– From the shrine for 3115 West 19th Avenue
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#is 2.11.2017 | is EMANCIPATION \ Sociometry Fair 2016 \ incidence report
INDIVIDUAL: Yourself
GROUP SIZE: 37
NATURE OF GROUP: A loose confederation of agents; artists, designers, musicians, glaziers, nurses, curators, producers, and teachers taking a break from the soul-crushing reality of 2016 to contribute to and convene for a 20 year running quadrennial DIY fair and avant-garde art spectacle.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: The Smell – Out On The Streets \ is EMANCIPATION \ Sociometry Fair 2016
Photo: mISs is
It’s a common misconception – that the moniker of legendary DIY space The Smell comes from the fetid piles of human feces outside their Downtown LA alley entrance. As it turns out, the original location of The Smell was next to a bougie coffee shop called “The Aroma” and they we’re just being snide.
Notwithstanding… The varnish of piss on anything waist down, the fly buzzing heaps of don’t look-at-it – the aroma – and the copious dust that mixes it together with a healthy peppering of settled LA smog doesn’t invite an elbow deep skill-free fix-it job on a jammed roll-top security door. But, The Smell is DIY turf – i.e. there’s no money for a service call and the lease holder is locked-down at the day-job. And there we were. After a grueling week of travel, packing and unpacking and repacking, and staying up way past our bedtime every night, we were ready to sail the ship and get our panel van back to Denver. Just one small hiccup – not being able to lower and lock door to The Smell to prevent roving hoards of skid-row hobos and placard waving protesters from picking the place clean as a carcass on the savanna.
The method of DIY is to make your own space, haul your own gear, print your own flyer, hang your own show (and bring your own lights, toilet paper, and potable water…) To be self reliant. In our two decades of experience in the cut of DIY culture, we’ve come to realize that it’s often a righteous reaction to the blanket apathy or outright disdain from the cultural gate-keepers to whatever it is that YOU are proposing. There’s no safe space for your performance, no funding for your art show, no paying audience for your noise band, and no fucks given about your pseudo-science fair for free thinking adults. If you want to get avant-garde and do-your-thing you’re just going to have to do-it-yourself.
#is 1.6.2017 | is EMANCIPATION \\ is at 21 anthology \\ out now!
Denver book release and reading: Wed. 1/18 7pm at the Center for Visual Art, 965 Santa Fe Drive. Co-Editors Peter Miles Bergman and Zoe Larkins, and contributors Heather Link-Bergman and Jared Jacang Maher will be doing readings covering 21 years of hijinks, culture jamming and unsanctioned public art! Hope to see your face! More info on the book below… Check it out (literally).
is PRESS announces the release of is EMANCIPATION a 130 page book with 2-color letterpress covers printed and hand-bound with a Japanese stitch in an edition of 200. is EMANCIPATION is a 21 year anthology of art intervention and prank collective The Institute of Sociometry edited, designed, and partly authored by Peter Miles Bergman and edited by MCA Denver Curatorial Associate Zoe Larkins.
is EMANCIPATION contains the contributions of 11 additional authors ranging from a Guggenheim Fellow, Igor Vamos, to an inmate in the California State Prison System, Charles Twain Clemans who also contributed the primary illustrations.
Editors:
Peter Miles Bergman
Zoe Larkins
Contributors:
Igor Vamos
Carrie Galbraith
Peter Miles Bergman
Jay Critchley
Jim Hanson
Charles Twain Clemans
Jared Jacang Maher
Zoe Larkins
Christian Roth
Brian Dick
Christen Sperry-Garcia
Heather Link-Bergman
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#is 10.09.2016 | is EMANCIPATION \\ Sociometry Fair 2016 \\ 11/11-11/13
Every four years, as candidates rig voting, is gathers for our quadrennial conclave. is EMANCIPATION, Sociometry Fair 2016 will convene on the auspicious dates of 11/11-11/13. See the info post >
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#is 5.31.2016 | is working on is EMANCIPATION – The 6th quadrennial Sociometry Fair this fall in Los Angeles! Save the Date for 11/11!
is PRESS will be releasing a companion 120 page book, is EMANCIPATION, an anthology of is at 21 at the Fair. is EMANCIPATION, edited by Peter Bergman and Zoe Larkins will be hand bound with letterpressed covers in an edition of 200. The book is currently a massive stack of uncut press sheets in the corner of our office! Follow the books progress and is PRESS on instagram.
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#is 2.17.2016 | is Reminiscing to Artopia 2016 and reflecting on the fact that when it comes to IS the terrorists have won…
INDIVIDUAL: Artist overlooked by “art-world” bourgeoisie curatorial elitists, gallery patron snob, and apathetic public numbed by entertainment spectacle.
GROUP SIZE: Apathetic public too vast to conduct census numbers but OAF target of Artopia 2015 held approximate two thousand and five hundred capacity crowd of sell out.
NATURE OF GROUP: Bourgeois elitist and apathetic public too numbed by entertainment spectacle to recognize art of passion and humility even when literal hit on head with it.
INCIDENCE: OAF Obscure Artist Front unite!
See site-blog of OAF for full realization to power of internets!
Event of Artopia rumored to be annual examination of popular art and artist in Denver Colorado of USA but in actual to be vapid spectacle of libation and hollow entertainment! OAF reject bourgeoisie curatorial elitists who select what is art of value to uneducated apathetic public!!
Two month in future of event Artopia, OAF agents band together to attack media of curatorial elite with internets comment, OAF website blog, and flyer on corners with solicitation for obscure artist to unite and submit jpeg art of passion and authenticity to OAF on web portal!
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#is 12.22.2015 | is launching coats4TEENS our holiday coat drive for irresponsible teens who’ve left the house without their perfectly good coat and are going to catch their death!
INDIVIDUAL: A civic minded grown up with a little bit of panache and a hip sense of style. This could be YOU!
GROUP SIZE: Legions (as of the first day of the drive 2).
NATURE OF GROUP: Irresponsible teens who have left the house without their perfectly good coat and are going to catch their death.
INCIDENCE: coats4TEENS // look cool stay warm
If you are an irresponsible teen in central Denver who is regretting your decision to leave the house without your perfectly good coat text “I’m cold” with you location to #312.731.6301 and one of our volunteers will bring you a cool coat within 20 minutes!
What teen doesn’t want a to goof off with their friends in a white fringe pleather jacket!?
Please join us in this open source art-intervention concept and holiday season coat drive for irresponsible teens who have left home without their coat and are going to catch their death!
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#is 11.27.2015 | is PRESS is sad / happy to announce that Raw Fury #2 is SOLD OUT!
We’ve added an is PRESS page in the sidebar –>
You can read Raw Fury #1 and #2 compliments of issuu and keep up on new art books and zines from is PRESS including a recently added zine SIGNS & letters.
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#is 09.23.2015 | is announcing the closing reception, ’zine release, and TedXAdventure for SIGNS & letters – a show by Special Agent Peter Miles Bergman and The Institute of Sociometry:
DATELINE 017
SIGNS & letters
Intrusions Into The Everyday
DATELINE Gallery: 3004 Larimer St., Denver
Opening: Friday September 4th, 7pm
Dates: September 4th – 27th
Hours: Weekends 1-5pm
by appointment: ddaatteelliinnee@gmail
TedxAdventure: (talk /closing)
Friday September 25th, 6pm
info and rsvp
SIGNS & letters refers metaphorically to typographic and word based art and the signifiers of signs in the public space. Literally the title refers to postal letters and mail art – often times antagonistic issue based correspondence – and the use of guerilla installed signs in the public space to highlight issues of urban planning, code enforcement, and question who has the agency to communicate in the public right-of-way.
The work shown in SIGNS & letters spans 20 years – from 1995-2015 – credited to both Peter Miles Bergman and The Institute of Sociometry and is a blender of mail-art, street art, installation, détournment, collage, photography, typography, design, and letterpress on themes of culture jamming, capital punishment and prison, gentrification, urban planning, homelessness and guerilla-communication. See some of the work on the is PRESS tumblr.
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#is 07.15.2015 | is posting the full ABATOR report from RawFury 3!
INDIVIDUAL: ABATOR
GROUP SIZE: 11 – individuals fronting vast corporations with hundreds if not thousands of additional individuals. This is an estimate due to individuals deploying dummy phone numbers and possibly even aliases.
ABATOR in a SoHi alleyway, Denver
NATURE OF GROUP: Eddie Mowrer, Hunter Hinson, Seth Taylor, Benjamin Olssen, and a half dozen unidentified agents representing the following corporate entities; Networth Realty, SWT Management, REcolorado, Move Out Move On, We Buy Ugly Houses, and MD Home Acquisitions. This study group is comprised of front men using an off-grid advertising scheme of hand-lettered yard-wicket signs in the west Denver neighborhood of South Highlands (SoHi), even masquerading as local yokels, to offer cash for houses or investment properties for sale, presumably to developers. The property investment corporations behind these men are looking to snatch up cheap single family homes on large lots. Dozens of lots in the study area have been, are being, (or are vacated to eventually be) scraped and replaced with densely packed 500k three-story town houses.
INCIDENCE: #ABATOR #corporate #graffiti #abatement”
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#is 07.15.2015 | is updating the PO Box with new incoming and outgoing mail >
Postmark: Hobe Sound, FL, USA 33455 > Denver, CO USA 80201
To: is PRESS / From: Marginal Man Works
is checking out these awesome hand process zines from Dan Gorostiaga at Marginal Man Works
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#is 06.13.2015 | is announcing the release of RawFury 3!
Raw Fury is a Denver and Chicago limited editon urban art and street art diy zine with screenprinted and letterpressed covers featuring interviews with Dread, Max Kauffman, THOR, and Ryan Duggan, a zine review by Oscar Arriola, an illustrated samurai poster by Cujo and a gallery section of heavy hitters.
Please visit the is PRESS store to pick up a copy and check out our current selection of zines!
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#is 02.22.2015 | is recovering from the last week and last night’s Artopia Denver. A coterie of is agents united with Obscure Artists Front to create buttons, bandoleers, propaganda, and DIY bike-pump powered art-fetti cannons “to blast over 1000 mini-canvas of obscure art onto apathetic patrons of Artopia 2015!!”. We has a blast (literally).
More on images and activity from OAF: @is.press, the OAF Facebook page, and submit your own obscure art at obscure.artistfront.com. A full report with all images is to come in current reports >
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#is 01.07.2015 | is “photo-documenting” west Denver street artist ABATOR in her mission to in her mission to abate false-advertising corporate-tagging fix-and-flip yard-signs in the rapidly gentrifying west side of Denver.
Follow ABATOR on istogram: @is.press, ello, and tumblr and check back for a full incidence report!
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#is 01.06.2015 | is combining forces with the Obscure Artists Front to construct bike-pump powered air cannons and use them to blast mini-canvases of obscure art over the head of Artopia 2015 attendees.
Follow the fun on istogram: @is.press, the OAF Facebook page, and submit your own obscure art at obscure.artistfront.com
OAF from Obscure Artists Front on Vimeo.
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#is 11.25.2014 | is checking in after a several month absence from proper Incidence Reports as we’ve been working on is PRESS.
is PRESS is the official press of the Institute of Sociometry – specializing in short run art books, zines, and for hire professional letterpress printing (to fund our publishing projects). You can follow is PRESS on tumblr or instagram and purchase our publications on bigcartel.
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#is 08.21.2014 | IS noting the impending football season and fantasy football drafts with thIS throw back to 2004 when agent m[i]le[s] and agent Handome Jim transformed the lot behind the IS home office into a NO PARKING lot
INDIVIDUAL: Parking patrons attending a Denver Broncos game
GROUP SIZE: 2
NATURE OF GROUP: IS agents disguised as parking lot attendants
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Fantasy Football Parking Lot
By Jared Jacang Meyer
Originally published by The Westword
Published here with N© permission by IS
The Home Team:
The Fantasy Football Parking Lot wins a battle against bureaucracy.
Peter Miles Bergman calls it a drive-by art show. Jim “Handsome” Hanson thinks of it more as vigilante code enforcement. The three kids riding their bikes down the alley have no idea what to think of Bergman’s experiment.
They skid to a stop in the gravel and look up at the two parking-lot attendants in fluorescent orange vests hopping from foot to foot. “What’s this?” one kid asks.
“No parking,” Hanson answers, as he and Bergman wave their official fluorescent-orange flags at the kids as if they were an Excursion, an Accord and an Outback waiting to pull in. “This isn’t a place to park.”
The kids stare at the yellow parking strips taped into three regulation-sized spaces in the oil-stained back lot three blocks west of Invesco Field at Mile High. The orange cones, the flexible plastic posts, the wooden sign inscribed with the word “NO” in two-foot-tall red letters. Then they look at each other, shrug and ride off. Keep reading >
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#is 07.03.2014 | IS throwing back to our first agent submitted report from 1996 when agent I. Vamos did a comparison study of sneaking in Disneyland vs. sneaking into Disneyworld.
INDIVIDUAL: IS agent, I. Vamos with D. Mercer
GROUP SIZE: Currently unknown
NATURE OF GROUP: Employees of both Disneyland in Anaheim California, USA and Disneyworld Magic Kingdom in Orange County Florida, USA.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Securing Amusement
Amusement Parks are meant to be a site of distilled fun and excitement. They lack, however, a degree of unpredictability often associated with thrill seeking. After paying fifty bucks to enter the Magic Kingdom through the front gate, the guest experiences a pre-dictable simulated world, sometimes entertaining, curious, or exciting. The transgressive tourist (the out-of-bounds-guest or runner,) however, spends no money jumping the fence and finding out what lies in the real heart of the parks: the off-limits service areas. One can entertain an unpredictable, adrenaline filled visit, while at the same time learning valuable information about how these things work. Read it >
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#is 06.26.2014 | IS throwing back to the time we guerrilla installed simulated security cameras at the Denver Skatepark.
In 2002 agents Jess, Carlito Bandito and m[i]le[s] installed four simulated security cameras and a signs reading Restricted Area No Thoroughfare at the Denver public skatepark. A subsequent essay on skateboarding as an incidence of terribly mismanaged social conditioning was published in the German skate ‘zine The Mobernist #3
INDIVIDUAL: A “Skater”
GROUP SIZE: Anything from around 1,000 on up to 10,000,000 +
NATURE OF GROUP: Citizens of towns or cities who fund, through taxation, state, county, or city funded and operated skateboard parks.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: False Sense of Security
#is 06.19.2014 | IS getting on the throwback Thursday bandwagon
Every Thursday thIS summer IS will be republishing greatest hits reports from our old site. ThIS one IS about the time we collected poorly produced right-wing real-estate newsletters published by Denver resident John Gonce for 2 years, marked up the design and formatting errors, re-designed them, and anonymously mailed them to the author.
INDIVIDUAL: John Gonce
GROUP SIZE: 3
NATURE OF GROUP: Pro-bono guerilla public relations specialists operating under cover as “The Institute of Sociometry”.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Correct John Gonce
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///// UPDATE 06.15.14 ///// Raw Fury #2 has been unleashed unto the world!
Thanks to fabulous hostesses at Lowbrow, EMPLOYEE for rockin’ the sidewalk, and everyone who came to the Raw Fury #2 release party. We sold 13 magazines for $13 on Friday the 13th – releasing the spell of Raw Fury unto the world…
#is 06.06.2014 | Raw Fury #2 IS hitting the streets on Friday the 13th!
Join us at Lowbrow (250 Broadway, Denver) Friday the 13th from 6-9, to celebrate the second issue of this local scene ‘zine and ridiculously fancy annual book on contemporary urban art from Denver and Chicago.
Raw Fury #2 features the contributions of 21 artists: In order of appearance: Brooks Golden, Oscar Arriola, m[i]le[s], JOLT, Rubén Aguirre, Mary Valdez, Frank Kwiatkowski, Molly Youngblood, Mark Sink, Jock Sturges, Kristen Sink, Ed Ross, Mike Fudge, Brandon Pickett, Heather Link, Anthony Lewellen, Uriel Correa, Michael Boswell, Paco Barba, Eric Von Haynes, Dred 88
Raw Fury #2 IS 7.5” square, perfect-bound, 60 page annual book on mixed paper stock with rounded corners. The covers are screen printed and letterpress printed on 140lb. French Pink Lemonade paper. A navy and silver print by Frank Kwiatkowski off of engraved traffic cones and printed on a Vandercook letterpress is included.
Raw Fury #2 IS also available at: IS PRESS and will soon be available at: Lowbrow in Denver, Atomic Books in Baltimore,Quimby’s in Chicago, and The Sticky Institute in Melbourne!
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#is 03.13.2014
INDIVIDUAL: West-side tagger in their threatened native habitat
GROUP SIZE: Estimates of up to 20,000
NATURE OF GROUP: New residents in the market for homes starting in the high $400s!!
INCIDENCE: Area of Change / YOU AINT KREW FEULL
///// UPDATE 03.13.14 /////
The sign at 1820 Julian that was adorned with vinyls of our IS tag, and an appropriated NVSK tag and bubbly SL throw-up was called out by tagger SKULZB – “YOU AINT KREW FEULL”, with an adjacent NVSK tag.
Our interpretation of this message is multi-tiered; NVSK is clearly a crew as opposed to an individual, and they are calling out IS for stealing their tag without being in the crew (an offense punishable by punching and stabbing). SKULZB correctly crossed out our IS and the appropriated NVSK but left the SL – apparently there’s no beef with SL. On a deeper layer, SKULZB, as a representative of the NVSK crew, has further defiled the utopian dream of the $400,000 townhouses coming soon to 1820 Julian by completely bombing the hypothetical building with implicit threats. More importantly, SKULZB has followed our established precedent by mapping their personal and crew tag onto the architectural perspective of the building drawing.
Now that NVSK has been alerted to the interloper on their streets we suspect to see more cross outs and tags on the other coming soon signs that were modified during round one. To draw a metaphor, it is as if we strewed chum in the waters surrounding this luxury yacht and it is starting to attract sharks.
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#is 02.21.2014
INDIVIDUAL: West-side tagger in their threatened native habitat
GROUP SIZE: Estimates of up to 20,000
NATURE OF GROUP: New residents in the market for homes starting in the high $400s!!
INCIDENCE: Area of Change
#is 10.27.2013
IS filing the final incidence report from Opportunity for Reflection, our contribution to Art in Odd Places 2013 : Number.
INDIVIDUAL: New York pedestrian on 14th Street between 3rd and 7th avenues on the weekend of October 18th 2013
GROUP SIZE: 2 to 6
NATURE OF GROUP: IS agents asking New York pedestrians to stick their faces into white image reflection boxes during Art In Odd Places 2013
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Opportunity for Reflection
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#is 10.13.2013
IS getting ready, set, and going to Manhattan for Art In Odd Places 2013. Check out IS project Opportunity for Reflection and if you are in New York come visit us and play along this coming weekend – 10/18-10/20. If you are NOT in NY check out our project feed tumblr for images and updates.
is agent and Opportunity for Reflection docent mISs IS.
INDIVIDUAL: New York pedestrian on 14th Street between 3rd and 7th avenues on the weekend of October 18th 2013
GROUP SIZE: 3 to 7
NATURE OF GROUP: IS agents trying to get New York pedestrians to stick their faces into white image reflection boxes during Art In Odd Places 2013.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Opportunity for Reflection
IS process and project feed.
IS info and schedule on the AiOP Festival site.
AiOP 2013; Number festival facebook event.
Jump to the bottom for our schedule and ways to participate!
Opportunity for Reflection is inspired by the visceral and often oppositional identity forming reflections that key numbers, such as 911 or 1%, instill in the culturally and politically diverse population along 14th Street in New York. Performers dressed as name-tagged docents will invite pedestrians to take the the opportunity to look into a reflection box and see their face inset into the above-shoulder portraits of variable faceless personas inspired by a number on the side of each box and pulled off of google image search.
The boxes contain an adult face size oval front opening, an interior back mirror for reflection and two interchangeable mounted images on the inside of the face opening. When a viewer looks into the box they will see a lit reflection of their own face inset into the image. The viewer will be presented with the option of pulling one image out via a top tab revealing an image of opposite or contrasting character for a second reflection or going to a second box for a new set of images. More >
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#is 08.24.2013
IS winding down the Welcome to SoHi show. Thanks to everyone who came to the opening on the 2nd and checked out the work during Kegs With Legs on the 7th. If you didn’t get a chance to come by we’re hosting a closing coffee reception 9 to 11am on Friday the 30th – at Blue Dot Studio 209 Kalamath Unit 3 in Denver.
Prints, drawings, and collages by Heather Link
More images of from Welcome to SoHi
Photo Randall Erkelens
Taqueria by Heather Link
Fantasy Football Parking Lot by Peter Miles Bergman
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#is 08.04.2013
IS coming off the recent Westword coverage and Welcome to SoHi opening with a full report on last weeks guerilla sign installation for This Could Be Here.
INDIVIDUAL: agent m[i]le[s]
GROUP SIZE: Pushing 100,000 per day – a wildly speculative estimate based on 35,000 to 45,000 cars per day plus immediate area residents.
NATURE OF GROUP: Car commuters pedestrians, cyclists, people on busses and light-rail, attendees of sporting events and concerts, residents of “poor and at-risk neighborhoods” Sun Valley, Avondale, and and Cheltenham Heights (aka SoHi) all intersecting at Colfax Avenue and Federal Boulevard in Denver Colorado.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: This Could Be Here
This Incidence of Sociometry was first reported on by Denver’s Westword newspaper:
A local artist quietly courts controversy at Colfax and Federal
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#is 07.28.2013
IS letting you have a peep at Welcome to SoHi
the work of IS agents Heather Link & Peter Miles Bergman
Opening Reception: this Friday August 2nd 6-9
Blue Dot Studio 209 Kalamath St. Unit 3 (‘round back), Denver Colorado
DJ Mario Zoots and a set by live-loop one-man band Employee,
Tamarind Soda, Modelo Especial, cheap reprints and copies of Raw Fury #1!
Flyer one post below…
Point SoHi by Heather Link
WEDUPT by Peter Miles Bergman
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#is 07.20.2013
IS announcing Welcome to SoHi
the work of IS Home Office resident agents Heather Link & Peter Miles Bergman
Blue Dot Studio 209 Kalamath St. Unit 3 (‘round back), Denver Colorado
Opening Reception Friday August 2nd 6-9 | Open Through August by appointment
The recent property boom in Denver and the spike in west side property values in the Highlands and Lower Highlands has pushed Outback owning first-time home buyers into a traditionally working- class, high-crime area surrounding West Colfax and bordered by Lakewood Gulch (site of the new West light-rail line), I-25, 26th and Knox Streets. Real estate agents have tried to rebrand the area Sloans Lake East or Highlands South as dubbed in the May issue of 5280. As residents of the area, artists Peter Miles Bergman and Heather Link feel there is a real missed opportunity to tie the neighborhood to booming Highlands, shine it up with an in-vogue two syllable neighborhood name, and encapsulate the gestalt of single professionals living next door to El Norte gang-bangers and Montessori schools nestled amongst marijuana dispensaries. In 2010 Peter coined SoHi (for “South Highlands”) as a thought experiment to see how long he’d have to repeat it before it stuck.
Welcome to SoHi features the work of both artists documenting, interacting with, and instigating actions in their rapidly changing west side ‘hood.
#is 07.07, 2013
IS concentrating on analog activities thIS week with an update of the PO Box. Below IS a teaser for an exquisite corpse between IS and Flatlands for GroundSwell Gallery’s Exquisite Corpse: Stamped and Mailed show opening thIS Saturday the 13th. There IS also an upcoming show Welcome to SoHi of IS agents Peter Miles Bergman and Heather Link at Blue Dot Studio opening August 2nd. Check back in for details next week.
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#is 06.23, 2013
IS resuming our series of iSFair reports with the epic High Desert Water Wars detailing a 6 year protracted struggle between agent DeMay and the Indian Wells Water District board to protect the viability of rural wells.
INDIVIDUAL: Annette DeMay; Ridgecrest, CA
GROUP SIZE: Dozens
NATURE OF GROUP: Various citizens of the Indian Wells Valley—Water Wise Friends group of loosely organized activists; small city and county high-desert residents fighting the competing interests of the Water District Board representing their customers; individual well owners; small group well owners, small community well sharers, agricultural interests, large chemical company water user, and U.S. Navy well users.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: High Desert Water Wars
#is 06.16, 2013
IS announcing that Raw Fury #1 is for sale via our new venture IS Press. Raw Fury, produced in conjunction with Flatlands Studio Chicago, is a hand-made 60 page screen-printed, letterpresses, laser printed and photocopied luxury ‘zine on mixed paper stock with rounded corners, a gate-fold, and a signed Brooks Golden poster with 13 contributors in a numbered edition of 113 – a ridiculously fancy publication with professional editorial standards that maintains a diy ‘zine ethic. The content is a mix of interviews and images on urban art in Denver and Chicago. Get it!
#is 05.26, 2013
IS out of office - attempting to identify the zeitgeist of western ‘Merica located somewhere in the psychogeographic space between these two monuments:
We will be back with a full summer program on Sunday 6/16; distributing Raw Fury, another collaboration with Flatlands Studios for the Exquisite Corpse show at Groundswell Gallery in Denver opening 07/16, a Welcome to SoHi show opening August 2nd at Blue Dot Studio in Denver, wrapping up the iSFair 2O12 reports and segueing to a summer report series of IS Greatest Hits IXICV-MMVII.
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#is 05.21, 2013
IS beginning to solicit NYC agents for our participation in the 9th annual Art In Odd Places Festival October 18th-20th on 14th St. in Manhattan. Please read the project proposal and update and get in touch.
INDIVIDUAL: New York pedestrian on 14th Street between 3rd and 7th avenues on the weekend of October 18th 2013
GROUP SIZE: up to 31
NATURE OF GROUP: IS agents volunteering as project “docents” for the Art In Odd Places Festival.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Opportunity for Reflection
Opportunity for Reflection is inspired by the visceral and often oppositional identity forming reflections that key numbers, such as 911 or 1%, instill in the culturally and politically diverse population along 14th Street in New York. Performers dressed as name-tagged docents will hand-carry wooden facial reflection boxes inviting pedestrians the opportunity to see their face inset into the above-shoulder portraits of two variable personas inspired by a number engraved on the front of the box. Keep reading >
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#is 05.19, 2013
IS being expansive with the concept of taking it to “The Man” thIS week – man being deceptive alien entities – with our report on the 20 year 22 million sticker Spread The Word campaign.
INDIVIDUAL: The deceptive Grey
GROUP SIZE: 6,974,000,000
NATURE OF GROUP: current era humans of the planet earth
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: STW – the Spread The Word discernment and resistance movement
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#is 05.08, 2013
IS taking it to The Man with one of our favorite IS agent projects of all time The Nationwide Museum Mascot Project – who IS the official mascot of the IS Fairs.
INDIVIDUAL: Agent Brian Dick tag-team alternating with Agent Christen Sperry-Garcia
GROUP SIZE: two or three at a time, sometimes up to ten, collectively hundreds over a decade
NATURE OF GROUP: unsuspecting art fans and/or uneasy museum managers
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: The Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project
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#is 05.01, 2013
IS still taking it to The Man with iSFair 2O12 projects – in this case “the man” being tough-on-crime letter-to-the-editor provocateur Jim Kiel of Aurora Colorado who was gifted a months worth of anonymous photocopied clippings about the death penalty!
INDIVIDUAL: Jim Kiel
GROUP SIZE: 677 – possibly thousands
NATURE OF GROUP: People executed by the death penalty world wide in 2001 (Amnesty International)
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: A Gift For You!
#is 04.21, 2013
IS flying the flag of iSFair 2O12 projects on Taking It To The MAN with a report on IS agent Wendell M. Kling’s old black dickies to new black flags conversion service.
INDIVIDUAL: IS agent Wendell M. Kling
GROUP SIZE: Looking to grow the ranks
NATURE OF GROUP: Flyers of the black flag
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Old Black Dickies. New Black Flags.
#is 04.14, 2013
IS continuing with our series of iSFair 2O12 reports on Taking It To The Man with IS agent JK’s wheat-paste poster campaign to reclaim “the most offensive word in the English Language” for women’s empowerment.
INDIVIDUAL: IS agent JK
GROUP SIZE: Approximately 238,035,525
NATURE OF GROUP: English speaking Women of the Earth
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: I Dare You
#is 04.07, 2013
IS starting a series of iSFair 2O12 reports on Taking It To The Man and inviting you to revisit a time of CHANGE with thIS epic account of a four month troll of “SPAGZ” a “recreate 68″ professional protestor and self-aggrandizing jerk at the 2008 DNC – documented with 3 print articles 8 blog posts, 9000 words, and 400 images aggregated together for the first time.
INDIVIDUAL: John Q. Public
GROUP SIZE: Estimated in the thousands, actually in the tens
NATURE OF GROUP: Recreate 68 - a group of permitted protestors at the 2008 Denver DNC
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: BEWARE SHEEPLE! SPAGZ LIES!
#is 03.31, 2013
IS cranking up the press – working on Raw Fury #1, the May Day released IS + Flatlands mega-fancy Denver / Chicago ‘zine (perfect-bound 56+ pages with rounded corners using letterpress, screen printing, laser printing and photocopy) in an edition of 113 featuring the work of our 13 favorite cultural workers in 2013!
INDIVIDUAL: Manny Green
GROUP SIZE: 13
NATURE OF GROUP: Chicago and Denver graffiti writers, print makers, black book magicians, yarn bombers, special agents, and street decorators.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Raw Fury #1- Hitting the street on May Day!
#is 03.27, 2013
IS pleased to announce the IS proposal for the 9th annual Art In Odd Places Festival has been accepted and that we are … CALLING NYC AGENTS …. If you are based in NYC please read thIS and get in touch. We will be coming your way thIS Fall and need performers, documentarians, an audience and couches to sleep on.
INDIVIDUAL: New York pedestrian on 14th Street between 3rd and 7th avenues on the weekend of October 18th 2013*
GROUP SIZE: up to 31
NATURE OF GROUP: IS agents volunteering as project “docents” for the Art In Odd Places Festival.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Opportunity for Reflection
Opportunity for Reflection is inspired by the visceral and often oppositional identity forming reflections that key numbers, such as 911 or 1%, instill in the culturally and politically diverse population along 14th Street in New York. Performers dressed as name-tagged docents will hand-carry wooden facial reflection boxes inviting pedestrians the opportunity to see their face inset into the above-shoulder portraits of two variable personas inspired by a number engraved on the front of the box. Keep reading >
#is 03.24, 2013
IS releasing thIS report on agent Mark Romero-Davis’s err… (fan fiction!?) vote and multilevel publishing venture on a new nose for Chairman Mao – featured on a display, ‘zines with ballots, and carnival mask at iSFair 2O12. Find out whose nose most vindicates Mao! Will it be Castro? Trotsky? Dark horse candidate Ghandi?
INDIVIDUAL: IS agent Mark Romero-Davis
GROUP SIZE: including my parents?
NATURE OF GROUP: History Revisionists, Body Modifiers, the Vain, the Self-Loathing, the Easily-Manipulated, those who are somewhat interested in noses
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: The Emperor’s New Nose
#is 03.17, 2013
IS continuing our series of iSFair 2O12 reports on ‘zines with this recounting of agent Nima’s decision to depict Muhammad in Malcontent #4 – The Profits and Prophets Issue.
INDIVIDUAL: Agent Nima
GROUP SIZE: Approximately 2.1 Billion
NATURE OF GROUP: Muslims (through the Shias and more-so Sufis could probably care less.)
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Malcontent #4 – 10 Hottest Prophefits!
#is 03.10, 2013
IS undergoing a pre-digital regression with today’s iSFair 2O12 report by agent Forster and kicking off a series of reports on analog technology and ‘zines.
INDIVIDUAL: IS Agent F.R. “Russ” Forster
GROUP SIZE: 4.6 million units in 2012 (up 17.7% since 2011) representing (our guess of) 1.6 million consumers
NATURE OF GROUP: indie-hipsters, club-kids, baby-boomers, throw-backs and forward-thinkers
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Birth, Death And Rebirth In The Analog World
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#is 03.03, 2013
IS adding the last installment of the Sunday series of iSFair 2O12 projects focusing on guerilla signage with thIS epic four year psychogeographic hack: the West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail. Check back next Sunday when we switch our focus to ‘zines and analog technology!
INDIVIDUAL: The urban camper
GROUP SIZE: “386 members of the homeless community … in the first four months since the ‘Urban Camping’ Ban went into effect on May 28, 2012” ~ Occupy Denver
NATURE OF GROUP: Homeless, hobos, winos, all night binge drinkers, transients and travelers
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: West Denver Urban Preserve and Trail
#is 02.24, 2013
IS will be publishing reports collected at last November’s iSFair 2O12 infOcalypse every Sunday for the next couple months. Be sure to surf thIS wave.
A predominant theme has emerged with several reports utilizing DIY design skills to generate the authority of theoretical organizations and augment the experience of a space with self-made and guerilla installed signs.
INDIVIDUAL: Agent Man Made
GROUP SIZE: Under 5.4 /sq mile
NATURE OF GROUP: Wyoming Rough Necks, Cow-Hands, & Pilgrims on Dérive
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: MAN MADE
#is 02.17, 2013 – How to let everyone know you mean business:
INDIVIDUAL: YOURSELF!
GROUP SIZE: 312,960,416
NATURE OF GROUP: Citizenry of the U!S!A!
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: Vote YOURSELF! We Know How To Do It!
#is 02.10, 2013 – How to stick it to the neighborhood watch busybodies:
INDIVIDUAL: Agent Janssen
GROUP SIZE: Indeterminate due to their hypothetical nature.
NATURE OF GROUP: The Metro Area Urban Landscaping Award Committee. A theoretical landscaping award granting society.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: How I Fake Awarded Myself – Some Of My Neighbors Don’t Like My Yard, But Somebody Does (Sort Of).
#is 01.07, 2013
INDIVIDUAL: Karen Luther Eliot née Karen Luther Blissett Eliot
GROUP SIZE: 39
NATURE OF GROUP: Bureaucrats of every stripe; Social Security administrators, DMV clerks, bank tellers, investment managers, customer service specialists, insurance agents, human resources professionals, IT techs., and postal clerks.
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: My name IS
#is 11.23, 2012 International Buy Nothing Day // iSFair 2O12 // Incidence Report
INDIVIDUAL: An audience of one
GROUP SIZE: 25 active agents out of a total 628 agents world wide.
NATURE OF GROUP: The 25 agents constituting the group in this report represent participants and attendees to the IS Fair our quadrennial conclave…
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: iSFair 2O12 InfOcalypse.
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To receive your free special IS agent starter kit:
please send a home-made or modified post card and include your:
Name or aka:
Astrological Sign:
Postal Address:
(optional) web/url:
to:
Institute of Sociometry
PO Box 44425
Denver CO 80201-4425
IS does NOT accept electronic applications. We are honoring analog applications on a first-past-the-post basis. 1111 will be the final tally of IS agents for the rest of time. Please allow 6 to 8 months for delivery. Already accredited? email IS a photo of yourself with your IS_ID badge and/or Diploma for posting!
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Institute of Sociometry or is practices and promotes guerrilla sociometry. As the term implies, guerrilla sociometry is similar in focus to text book sociometry, yet in no way conforms to the rigorous demands of science or mathematics. is has accredited 596 special agents in 23 countries to conduct experiments in guerilla sociometry. is posts their reports here. Still confused?
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