FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2004
Turbulence Guest Curator: "Catchy Name: An Idiosyncratic Concept" by
Andy Deck
http://turbulence.org/curators/deck/catchyName/

"Catchy Name" includes:

"PANSE" by Paul Thayer
"Visual Composer" by Gicheol Lee
"Phonemer" by Eric Hreha
"Errata/Erratum" by Paul Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky

Ways of mixing and composing audio within the Web browser have been
catching on recently. While there are many differences between
traditional instruments and software interfaces, between bands and
anonymous collaboration via bandwidth, and between live music and
streaming data, the works featured in "Catchy Name" demonstrate that
software can have "an intelligible and accessible character (that) calls
forth skilled and active human engagement" (Albert Borgmann).

The emergence of these modes of creativity has blurred the borders
between musician and audience, and between artist and spectator. Whether
we focus on the intellectual property issues or the merits of
participation in music and art, our prescriptions for the future should
reflect the changes before our eyes and ears. The limits and
possibilities suggested by these world-wide instruments may be a good
starting point for evaluating the cultural and technological moment.

Deck's survey of online sound experiments focuses attention on these new
forms of collaboration and creativity, which tend to resemble both art
and instrument. In doing so it takes a step itself, blurring the
boundary between traditional curation and art making. As curator/artist,
Deck contributed an audio chat environment, named VOCALOG, to the
project. Users may discuss the work via the VOCALOG.

BIOGRAPHY

Andy Deck is an American media artist specializing in Internet art. His
work addresses the politics and aesthetics of collaboration,
interactivity, software, and independent media. Deck started making what
he has called "public art for the Internet" in 1994. Since then he has
been at the forefront of aesthetic research into the creative
possibilities of the Internet as a medium. In addition to being an image
producer, he now acts as a collaborator, cyberspace architect, and
programmer. His aesthetic program seeks a cultural break from the
modernization of passive consumerism. Using the site ARTCONTEXT.NET, he
combines code, text, and image, demonstrating new patterns of
participation and control that distinguish online presence and
representation from previous artistic practices.

Deck collaborates with the environmentalist arts organization
Transnational Temps and with the Athens-based arts collective, Personal
Cinema. In addition to numerous online exhibitions, his work has been
exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Barcelona), PS1-MoMA (NYC),
Net\_Condition (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany), and the Moving Image Gallery
(NYC). Further recognition and awards include mention at Prix Ars
Electronica (Linz, Austria), a Webby Award nomination, Art Futura
(Spain), and a VIDA LIFE 4.0 prize (Spain). Deck received his MFA in
Computer Art at School of Visual Arts, NYC, and he completed
post-graduate studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts
Decoratifs, Paris. He has taught at the Universidad Internacional
Menendez Pelayo, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York University.
Currently, he teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

For more Turbulence Guest Curators, please visit
http://turbulence.org/curators