Nice - but does anybody live there? Good abstaction and formal design elements,
but loses warmth and chaos of life. I would say this is a study in form, not a
portait.

Quoting Eryk Salvaggio <eryk@maine.rr.com>:
>
> Portraits of Life in Net.Art: American Cities, Number One: Portsmouth, NH.
> The first in a series of "Six Rule Compliant" [6RC] net.art documentaries.
>

–
Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]

Quoting Eryk Salvaggio <eryk@maine.rr.com>:
>
> Well, people live there, but it's a Portrait of the City, not of the
> people who live there.
> A portrait implies an image of the face but it is not necessarily
> inherent to human faces.
> A study of the form of a town is a portrait of the town's face; this is
> what I wanted to
> get at with the whole thing.

Interesting, I would call a portrait not only the physical characteristics, but
the character as well…also, I would like to see some character of the artist
to come through. I think you have nailed the navigation part of walking
through a town - i really like it. But I think the character comes from its
people.

>
> I had considered the addition of alt-text tags for things, explaining
> the towns history
> and whatnot; but I decided against it. For one, the piece gives you a
> pretty good
> conception of what walking through the town is like; and two, overkill
> on explanations
> seemed to distract from the feel of it. For future "documentaries" in
> the same style
> I will probably add them in; to emphasize the educational/documentarian
> element of
> the work I'm trying to do.

I think the words would serve to bring your character into the portrait,
something I would desire to see.


–
Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]

Quoting Eryk Salvaggio <eryk@maine.rr.com>:

> Well you know, I always found that I leave people out of all of my
> photographs, not
> sure why, I'm sure there is some psychological incentive [shyness
> probably being
> reason #1]. But also I'm interested in what you say about my character
> coming through
> in my art; which is ironic because that's pretty much the opposite of
> what I think art
> should be :)

When you start the definition process, your character becomes part of the art
whether you like it or not. Even the choice to use randomness reflects upon
your personality. Rather than try to deny this, I embrace it - and try not to
be ashamed to show my character, warts and all :)

>
> I mean, strictly in the sense of documentary projects. I think a certain
> truth comes out
> about things if you remove your ego [in the zen, not Freudian sense of
> the word] from
> the object of study.

But I would seperate ego from character - even to move your hand requires a
decision, and a decision demonstrates a thought, a thought is part of your
character (identity). Ego is this driving force, impetus for creation (or
power or whatever) - that has to be seperated from the artwork. I have a great
deal of ego (did anybody notice?), however, for me to even approach making a
good work, I have to forget about any stategies, imagining of glory, self
pompouse thoughts, theories, etc. When I don't do this, my work is horrible.
When I just create for joy, lose sense of myself, I create decent work. When I
am not afraid to show myself honestly, without ego, I approach good work.

I am afraid I find objectivity to be an illusion, a false belief, dishonest. I
would rather see honest subjectivity.


Same with people- I think if there are people in a
> photo, we look
> at the people; and omit everything else. For a portrait of the town, I
> guess you're right,
> people are a part of it; but the town, all by itself, has a character
> that emerges outside
> of people…it's really just a matter of subjectivity I guess.

In a way you are right, the physical characteristics of a town are like a
battery, the stored energy of the people of the past who built it. So you are
making a portrait of the community just past. Perhaps, pictures of buildings
in the process of being built would bring it to be a portrait of the "near"
current.

>
> The only thing I really wanted to get involving people that I didn't,
> was a bunch of kids
> practicing karate on a pier out here. All decked out like Ninjas.

However, as I do miss people and would be thrilled to see children practicing
karate… mixing in a taste of sweetness is not a bad thing.

–
Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]

In a message dated 5/29/2002 9:05:50 PM Central Daylight Time,
joseph@electrichands.com writes:


> However, as I do miss people and would be thrilled to see children
> practicing
> karate… mixing in a taste of sweetness is not a bad thing.

It is if one's mission is to promote the philosophy of cosmic flopover.
Those were not naive children; they were real-life Ninjas. Literally, Ninjas
in the Ninja sense of "to move swiftly and unseen."

Hey, I got a great idea. We could do a Rhizome collab where people vote for
who gets to be what superhero from The Avengers. Vision? Thor? You decide.
Perhaps Iron Man, Valkyrie, whoever else is an Avenger. Then create a VR
realm where they can take on say Galactus or Magneto. A fully augmented
reality game.

Chris, will you coordinate this new realm for us ASAP? Will you keep on
building higher till there's no more room up there?

Max Herman

++

Quoting Nmherman@aol.com:


> It is if one's mission is to promote the philosophy of cosmic flopover.
> Those were not naive children; they were real-life Ninjas. Literally, Ninjas
> in the Ninja sense of "to move swiftly and unseen."

I think a cosmic flopover would be a real hoot. Who said naive? I bet you they
could kick my ass and yours, why do you think I am learning karate? Because I
want to look good? No, keep kids from beating me up on the street. It is
dangerous out there you know?

>
> Hey, I got a great idea. We could do a Rhizome collab where people vote for
>
> who gets to be what superhero from The Avengers. Vision? Thor? You decide.
>
> Perhaps Iron Man, Valkyrie, whoever else is an Avenger. Then create a VR
> realm where they can take on say Galactus or Magneto. A fully augmented
> reality game.

I would volunteer for the Incredible Hulk, but then I don't look good in green.
I already picked on some dude in nettime about being in an Iron Man
competition, so I guess I can't bring that up here. But I bet I can kick
Thor's ass, all that golden hair, he is sure to be a pussy.

–
Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]

This piece is really beautiful; the fact that there are no people really
adds to the piece for me. It gives it a sense of mystery, although the
'footprints' or 'signatures' that were documented in the piece are awesome,
the presence of the people is felt through what they leave behind. More of
this kind of documentation, as opposed to the alt tags, but that's just a
suggestion. I almost enjoyed the 'eerie' element, that's probably because I
live in Johannesburg. Sadly, Johannesburg because of the high presence of
crime is so empty at night, although it is the most populated city in South
Africa; the quite ghostly exterior is so strange, when you know the place is
so packed with people, pockets of energy are scattered all over the place,
with warm lights glowing from night clubs and 'shebeens' that 'only the
brave' dare to attend, smell of diesel outside :-) . The place though is
still packed with so much 'life' with the 'footprints' left behind from the
day.


—–Original Message—–
From: owner-list@rhizome.org [mailto:owner-list@rhizome.org]On Behalf Of
Eryk Salvaggio
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 6:31 PM
To: list@rhizome.org
Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Portraits of Life in Net.Art


Well, people live there, but it's a Portrait of the City, not of the people
who live there.
A portrait implies an image of the face but it is not necessarily inherent
to human faces.
A study of the form of a town is a portrait of the town's face; this is what
I wanted to
get at with the whole thing.

I had considered the addition of alt-text tags for things, explaining the
towns history
and whatnot; but I decided against it. For one, the piece gives you a pretty
good
conception of what walking through the town is like; and two, overkill on
explanations
seemed to distract from the feel of it. For future "documentaries" in the
same style
I will probably add them in; to emphasize the educational/documentarian
element of
the work I'm trying to do.

Cheers,
-e.






Joseph Franklyn McElroy Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist] wrote:


Nice - but does anybody live there? Good abstaction and formal design
elements,

but loses warmth and chaos of life. I would say this is a study in form, not
a

portait.



Quoting Eryk Salvaggio <eryk@maine.rr.com> <mailto:eryk@maine.rr.com> :
Portraits of Life in Net.Art: American Cities, Number One: Portsmouth, NH.

The first in a series of "Six Rule Compliant" [6RC] net.art documentaries.