Jim Ford gravitates toward 'wordy and bombastic' characters

Name: E. James Ford
Age: 34
Hometown: Salt Lake City, UT; Dallas, TX; Indianapolis, IN
Job description: Actor, web designer
Bio: Recited opening monologue for the monstrous, guerrilla performance, If You’re Really Still It Might Go Away (directed by Catherine Yeager); portrayed anthropologist, Ernst Wentworth, in The Sweet Cheat (dir. Jeff Stark), a play set in an abandoned building and based on Rick Moody’s post-apocalyptic short story, The Albertine Notes; played August Belmont Jr., a nemesis tycoon during the turn of the century, in I.R.T.: A Tragedy in Three Stations (written and directed by Stark), a play about the birth of the subway. The performance was set in various train stations throughout New York City, complete with mobile sets and a traveling audience; member of physical comedy troupe, Six Characters
Upcoming projects: Documenting the Afro-Peruvian jazz movement in Peru, with jazz musician Gabriel Alegria and students from NYU, for a class website.
Select links: "Scenes from 'The Sweet Cheat'" (NY Times), A Photo Tour of Jeff Stark's Latest Crazy Site-Specific Show (Gothamist), "In the Subway, Moving Theater, in More Ways Than One" (NY Times), "Who Needs More Words If You Have Ham?" (NY Times), Official site

Describe your current state of mind.

Pensive.
 

There’s been a lot of crazy changes over the last few months. My girlfriend just moved out like a week and a half ago.  So everything has been around that.

I don’t know what direction I want to take my life for the next three or four years. I’ll keep acting. I’ll keep doing fun things on the web with my friends…it’s that place after a break up, right? When everything gets thrown into chaos.

Doyle aims for the neck (when all else fails)

Name: Ryan C. Doyle (aka “Doyle”)
Age: 30
Hometown: St. Paul, MN
Job description: Fabricator, installation artist, 13th member of Black Label Bicycle Club
Bio: Built a carnival ride out of radioactive scraps scavenged from Chernobyl, including an old ride, for Plan C, a project sponsored by the AND (Abandon Normal Devices) Festival in Manchester (Aug. 2010); featured in B.I.K.E., a documentary about Black Label, and FUSE’s Rock and Roll Acid Test; veteran tall bikes jousting champion; former apprentice at Robochrist and the Madagascar Institute; craftsman behind terrifying works that include ultra-light propellers and jet engines.
Select links: "Ryan Doyle on Tall Bikes Jousting, Art Basel and a new iPhone app" (BikeBlogNYC), "Barging In to Venice" (NY Mag), Plan C Official site, "Ryan Doyle: Portrait of an Artist" (YouTube), "Doyle's Regurgitator at Art Basel" (YouTube), "Tall Bike Joust on iPhone Gameplay" (YouTube), "Tall Bike Joust Behind-the-Scenes" (YouTube), Official site

What’s your state of mind, right now?

I feel pretty radioactivated after going to Chernobyl.
 
Tell me about your project in Chernobyl.

The ride in Chernobyl that we went to go appropriate [for Plan C] was built for the people and the workers of Chernobyl. It was supposed to be unveiled on May 1st – the Workers’ Day of Rights.

[The ride] has some of the hottest and most radioactive area of Chernobyl in it. As the workers were mixing the concrete that was going back into this beautiful thing that they were trying to do for the people, they got totally screwed. Moscow and Pripyat, the government in general, closed off all communication so that they wouldn’t be held responsible for the incident. Which they told a lot of people was just a fire.

Sarah Walko appreciates a thing or two about matchbook minutiae

Name: Sarah Walko
Age: 32
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Job description: Installation artist, director of Triangle Arts Association, sculptor, writer, curator, film/art director
Bio: Disperses matchbook sculptures in subway stations and other public spaces throughout New York City, for people to find.
Upcoming projects: Collaboration with Santasombra on El Cadaver, a film about El Salvadorian culture ("It explores the incredible amount of beauty in that culture and also the violence that has manifested when you’re surrounded by war on a daily basis. And yet when the war is over there’s a certain amount of violence that remains within the culture and within people’s minds. And it comes out in different ways."); finishing a memoir about her relationships with female relatives ("You spend too long thinking about something that could be perceived as weaknesses, but those are the actual gems of the strength."); producing a slew of non-narrative short films, involving sculptures and characters.
Select links: Sexy Feast, El Cadaver, Konbit Shelter team, The Wassaic Project, Official site

Describe your current state of mind.

I think most artists are pretty sensitive people, like this open sponge for input. So I feel like my state of mind can shift really rapidly, according to everything I’m taking in, as I’m processing. On a daily basis it can range from euphoric to anxiety, like most people in the modern world. I don’t think it’s much different than most people. In my work I try to be a voice for modern day woes and frustrations. And the positive, too.

Dave Hill already has your number and wants you to come on his show

Name: Dave Hill
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Job description: Comedian; writer; musician; performer; host of The Dave Hill Explosion, a talk show with live music at UCB NY, which has featured the likes of John Hodgman, Rufus Wainwright, and Dick Cavett; member of the rock band, Valley Lodge
Select links: Contributions to This American Life, Interview with The Days of Yore, Interview with The Rumpus, Black Metal Dialogues, Dave Hill at Fashion Week Spring '09 (YouTube), The Birthday Party with Dave Hill (YouTube), Blog, Official site

What’s your state of mind, right now?

The past few days have been cloudy. I’m just trying to write things so there’s a lot going on in my head, just thinking about stuff. I was away in Edinburgh [for] Fringe Festival. I was in London before that and I haven’t been drinking at all since I’ve been back. I drank all the time when I was over there. [I’m letting] the fog lift for a little while.

There’s a huge drinking culture over there?

Especially the festival. Everyone’s going out so much. I think when I’m over there [drinking is] just more attractive, the idea of it just ‘cause the bars are 200 years old. It seems very romantic so every other place you pass seems to be a really great place to have a drink. 

I decided [that] when I came home I would take a break. I was hoping I would be more productive, but it hasn’t worked out that way. I’m writing a couple of things and I don’t really have deadlines so the pressure’s just all internal.

It’s better when someone says, “You have to finish this.” So basically I just end each day by calling myself a failure.

Julia Solis perceives fear as a product of the imagination

Name: Julia Solis 
Hometown: Hamburg, Germany
Job description: Urban explorer, writer, photographer, Conductor of Dark Passage, Director of Ars Subterranea, Co-Founder of Furnace Press, Director of Meteor Awareness for Madagascar Institute
Select links: The Decomposition Series (Furnace Press), New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City (Routledge), Scrub Station (Koja Station), American Ruins,"Paris's Urban Underground" (National Geographic), "Outlaw Tourists in the Urban Underbelly" (NY Times), Official site

Describe your current state of mind.

Dreamy, frantic, excited, simultaneously.

How did you become fascinated with derelict spaces?

I never really found a great answer because it’s so ingrained in my nature, in how I was brought up. I grew up in Germany where the architectural ruins are very different. It’s a more natural feature of the landscape than it is here. Here it has a little bit of a stigma. You know, it’s an eyesore or something you’re not supposed to go to. It’s something that’s elevated to some sort of cultural status that’s not accessible. There’s different ways to look at it.

A lot of the art and literature that I was drawn to tended to be set in those sorts of landscapes and sceneries. But I’m not sure what it was exactly to begin with; it’s just always been there.