IN ITS totality, ZeroOne—festival, symposium, exhibits, 0street-dada-guerrilla-gonzo-assault whatsits, big-ticket performances, power-grid-sucking sky-writing extravaganzas, pigeon cam (look out for the electrified dormers)—encompasses more activities than even a cyberized Clement Greenberg could possibly comprehend in seven days.

For proof, just check the fine print in the compendious program shoe-horned into the center of this week's issue of Metro. To its extensive grid of days, names and places, there is little we can add except a six-pack of Red Bull and a pair of Clockwork Orange-approved eye clamps.

But there is more to ZeroOne than the official skein of big-tent exhibits. Just about every museum and gallery in downtown San Jose and several up the peninsula are also participating with coordinated shows and happenings for the week. Luckily, many of these will extend beyond ZeroOne's sell-by date, so when the frenzy dies down, it will be possible to explore some of the issues raised by the festival at your leisure.

Michael S. Gant

San Jose Museum of Art 110 S. First St.; San Jose; 408.271.6840
Jennifer Steinkamp The first major retrospective for a Southern California artist who creates wall-size computer projections. These shimmer sheets of light come in two forms: as pure rippling cosmic abstractions and as vast fields of replicating flowers. In the spectacular Wreck of the Dumaru, a whole room heaves and roils with psychedelic waves, plunging the viewer into an oceanic maelstrom. Runs through Oct. 1.
Edge Conditions A two-part survey of leading artists working in digital media. The centerpiece here is Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin's remarkable Listening Post, a hanging curtain of tiny electronic screens that randomly capture and display bits and pieces of the collective weirdness of chat-room conversation, discourse, rant and found poetry according to various algorithms. The result, glowing and streaming in hypnotic patterns, is strangely soothing and yet disturbing. A definite must-see. Some of the other artists represented are Nam June Paik, Alan Rath and Lynn Hershman Leeson. Runs through Nov. 26.
For the festival, the museum is also converting its cafe and front conference room into what it calls C4F3, an interactive environment. For the run of the festival, the galleries will be open until 9pm, the cafe until 10pm. The museum hosts a special opening reception on Aug. 8, 8-10pm (free for members; $10 for the public).

Anno Domini 366 S. First St., San Jose; 408.271.5155
Boris and Bianca Gallery-goers get a chance to become storytellers in a narrative fantasy game by Grad Isdrab. Using stop-motion animation, Isdrab initiates a fairy tale that is half "Beauty and the Beast" and half Cabala. The narrative is then presented as a video that can be manipulated by the viewer. The piece debuts on South First Street's First Friday gallery walk, starting at 8pm, and shows from Sept. 16.
During ZeroOne, the gallery will host several events:
Opening Night Gallery Crawl: Aug. 8, 8pm till late.
An Evening of Sound Art, with electronic artist Matt Davignon, looping expert Rick Walker and more: Aug. 9, 10pm, $5/$8.
Sound Art (at SoFA Lounge) with Drum-Fi, an interactive sound installation and guest artists: Aug. 9, 10pm, $8 (21-plus only).
Sound Art, with Your Drugs My Money, an experimental group from L.A., and guest artists: Aug. 10, 10pm, $5/$8.
Closing Night Party: Aug. 12, 6-11pm.

MACLA 510 S. First St., San Jose; 408.998.2783
Frontera Electronica Three Bay Area artists—Jesus Aguilar, Juan Luna-Avin and Praba Pilar—and the Tijuana artist collective Torolab investigate how technology can be used to create and overcome borders between peoples. Runs Aug. 7-Oct. 7. The exhibit also features a performance piece on Aug. 11 at 8pm of Pilar's Computers Are a Girl's Best Friends, a musical-theater satire about the gap between computer-industry hype and the reality that electronic waste has on women in the Third World. (Tickets are $10.)

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles 520 S. First St., San Jose; 408.971.0323
Insecurity is an installation about the power of surveillance by Julie John Upshaw. After/Image by Katherine Westerhout uses digital scanning to turn photographs into tapestries. Runs through Oct. 1. Dialectrics is a display of electronic components used as weaving material by Laura MacCary. Runs through Nov. 5. Sonic Fabric. Pieces woven from audio tape that can be played through a recorder. Both run through Oct. 22. The museum also hosts a multimedia talk by Donald and Era Farnsworth of the Magnolia Editions Tapestry Project on Aug. 10, 7pm ($10/$15); a demo by Husqvarna Viking Designer SE program, Aug. 11, 7-10pm (free); and joins the closing-night party Aug. 12, 6-9pm.

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art 560 S. First St., San Jose; 408.283.8155
NextNew2006: Art and Technology To celebrate its new permanent home right next door to Metro, the ICA pairs established tech-using artists (Anthony Discenza, Kota Ezawa, Ken Goldberg, Ed Osborn and Julia Page) with their choice of five new cutting-edge artists: Nate Boyce, Elise Irving, Daniel Massey and Stephanie Syjuc. The show runs Aug. 8-Sept. 16, with a reception and performance Aug. 12, 6-8pm. In addition, the ICA will say goodbye to its old home, at 451 S. First St., with an outdoor multimedia performance by Clive McCarthy, that same night, starting at 8:30pm.

Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery San Jose State University Art & Design Building; 408.924.4723
Marko Peljhan: Spectral System—Civil Counter Reconnaissance In 1994, Marko Peljhan created a research and living unit that allowed four people to live and create in isolation. The documentation for the project will be on display at the Thompson Gallery. The show also features mock-ups of surveillance systems designed to allow private citizens and nongovernmental groups to achieve technological balance with police and government agencies. Peljhan will gives a talk about his walk on Aug. 29 at 5pm. The show runs Aug. 7-13 and Aug. 29-Sept. 22.

WORKS/San Jose 30 N. Third St., San Jose; 408.295.8378
ex_XX: post position The exhibition takes a look back at two decades of art by participants at SJSU's CADRE Laboratory for New Media. The show is curated by Sheila Malone and Jason Challas, with consultation by Joel Slayton, and runs through Aug. 13, with a special event night on Aug. 8, 7pm-midnight.

Children's Discovery Museum 180 Woz Way, San Jose; 408.298.5437
Animalia Visitors enter an installation and are magically transformed into full-size animals on projection screens and can interact with other "animals." The piece is the works on Angela Main and Caroline McCaw, two artists from New Zealand. Open Aug. 7-11, 10am-7pm.

History San José History Park, 1600 Senter Road, San Jose; 480.287.2290
Digital Clubhouse Network The network and History San Jose join forces to create the Center for Intergenerational Digital Storytelling. The program will allow local teenagers (with help from adult volunteers) to save some significant slices of local history using up-to-date digital techniques. As part of ZeroOne, there will be a Rally in the Valley on Aug. 12, 10am-3pm, at the History Park, with tours of the new Digital Clubhouse and presentations of digital stories. An Interactive Youth Film Festival will be presented Aug. 13, 7pm, at the San Jose City Council Chambers. For details, see www.digiclub.org.

Palo Alto Art Center 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto; 650.329.2370
IDEO Prototypes the Future A look at the modernist design work done by the Palo Alto company IDEO.
Creative Commerce: German Lithographic Labels, 1920-1938 looks at an especially creative time in German printing technology, which came to an end when the Nazis clamped down. The shows run through Sept. 10.

Commonwealth Club City Hall Council Chambers; 200 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose; www.commonwealthclub.org
Bill Viola Renowned video artist gives a keynote lecture about his work. Aug. 9, 6-8pm, $5/$10.
David Kelley A talk titled "A Human-Centered Approach to Design & Innovation" by the head of IDEO.

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