<br />RHIZOME DIGEST: August 6, 2004<br /><br />Content:<br /><br />+announcement+<br />1. Jason Scott: Cyborg Art History<br />2. G.H. Hovagimyan: republican Convention Moblog<br />3. marc: Live Online Interview with Andy Deck on the VisitorsStudio<br /> <br />+opportunity+<br />4. Digital Media Centre: Opportunity for Experimentation<br />5. 220hex: piksel04 - Call for participation<br />6. marc: NetBehaviour List Residencies - Brad Brace: The 12hr-ISBN-JPEG<br />Project<br /><br />+work+<br />7. mark cooley, Jim Andrews: the world owes you a living<br />8. Alexander Galloway: Introducing the new "TAC" file compression standard!!<br />9. doron: new work at computer fine arts<br /><br />+interview+<br />10. ryan griffis: Locating Locative Media<br />Observations from the Mobile Outskirts Workshop, Lofoten Island, Norway June<br />15-25, 2004<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />1.<br /><br />Date: 8.02.04<br />From: Jason Scott <jrscott@purdue.edu><br />Subject: Cyborg Art History<br /><br />Hello all how is the moment?<br />My name is Jason Scott. I am a student of Philosophy, Art History, and<br />Computer Technology at Purdue University, with an interest in contemporary<br />aesthetics and New-Media arts. Currently I am working as an archivist on a<br />project entitled Cyborg Art History which is the description of an art<br />history which actively integrates digital media and technology-driven art<br />forms into the 'canon' NOW, rather than waiting 30 years. Cyborg Art History<br />involves the creation of an 'art history' for these new forms, the<br />development of a methodology for examination of these forms, development of<br />a viewer or reception theory of these forms, a definition of a digital<br />aesthetic and a post-postmodernism in reference to these forms, as well as<br />issues pertaining to the display of these new media works both in<br />traditional and contemporary settings. All too often the experience of art<br />is dominated by theory. Thus, I work from the specific to the general, that<br />is to say rather than creating broad speculative categories and then finding<br />artists to reinforce them, I am looking specifically for artists who define<br />a Cyborg Art History. Essentially my research requires artists who are<br />concerned with the integration of New-Media art and other technology-based<br />art forms which include, but are not limited to: digital art, including web<br />art, printmaking, photography, video installations, robotic and sensor-based<br />art, interactive art forms (such as art produced for CAVEs), digital<br />galleries, and trans-genetic art. The depth of my interest lies particularly<br />with the use of these forms to reference the human body as I am reassessing<br />conceptual, body, and performance art as fundamental to an understanding of<br />the significance of New-Media and technology-based art forms. Artists such<br />as Lee Bul, Natalie Jeremijenko, Isabelle Choiniere, Eduardo Kac, and Jason<br />Salavon are ideal. Collaboration is the key to unlocking intelligence and so<br />I am reaching out to you for suggestions. A list of artists with enough<br />contact information, such as an Email or Website, to obtain a representative<br />image would be best. Next galleries (whether physical or digital) who<br />specialize in New-Media arts such as Postmasters would be excellent. For the<br />sake of all, art, and artists, please take some time to gel with these<br />ideas. I look forward to your support as it is vital. Perhaps it would be<br />best if we speak over the phone. If so, Email me a convenient time to<br />contact you. <br />Best,<br />Jason Scott<br />jrscott@purdue.edu<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />2.<br /><br />Date: 8.04.04<br />From: G.H. Hovagimyan <ghh@thing.net><br />Subject: republican Convention Moblog<br /><br />Hello,<br /><br />nujus.net is offering a free photoblog for convention delegates and visitors<br />to New York City as well as activist groups during the upcoming Republican<br />National Convention. The site is unfiltered except for obvious spams. A good<br />use is to upload mobile phone photos quickly on site.<br /><br />To view the pre-launch website point your browser to;<br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://spaghetti.nujus.net/simsi">http://spaghetti.nujus.net/simsi</a>><br />Uploading a photo is simple. You send your image(jpeg) as an email<br />attachment. The software automatically creates a thumbnail and puts up your<br />photo. <br /><br />If you would like to participate send an email with the subject line<br />"request" to: admin@nujus.net<br /><br />we will send you the directions and the email address.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />The nujus.net team <br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships<br />purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow<br />participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without<br />having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering<br />subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded<br />communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more<br />information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />3.<br /><br />Date: 8.06.04<br />From: marc <marc.garrett@furtherfield.org><br />Subject: Live Online Interview with Andy Deck on the VisitorsStudio<br />Don't miss this once only real-time event…….<br /><br />Live Online Interview with Andy Deck on the VisitorsStudio<br /><br />Wednesday 11th August<br />New York 2 pm, London 7 pm (BST)<br />VisitorsStudio: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.furtherstudio.org/live">http://www.furtherstudio.org/live</a> (Just go to the URL and<br />log in) <br /><br />===========================================><br />Following the recent retrospective of Andy Deck's work at Furtherfield he<br />will join Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow in the VisitorsStudio for a real-time<br />multimedia interview about his work. This event will combine a discussion of<br />his work and unique, live, collaborative mixes of images, animations and<br />sounds sampled from past and current projects.<br />The interview will explore the following issues and more….<br /><br />- about artists cultivating a political awareness and taking a political<br />stance in their work.<br />- 'Visiting Artists', collective authorship and activating audiences.<br />- war sim games and the potential to create counter-narratives against the<br />corporate driven war inevitability myth.<br /><br />==================================><br />About Andy Deck <br /><br />Creating art software since 1990 and then moving onto the Internet in 1994<br />Andy Deck displays his digital based explorations at artcontext.net and<br />andyland.net <br /><br />'In the net art activist world there have been many inspiring talents who<br />have shone through the flickering, radiated haze of our computer monitors.<br />Andy Deck is one of those individuals who, has somehow succeeded in<br />maintaining a consistent integrity in his work, without glorifying himself<br />above the work itself. Instead of falling for the whimsical<br />self-historicizing art = personality myth, he has chosen to position his<br />work in a socio-cultural context, actively questioning life¹s political<br />struggles. He also collaborates with other artists and with people who are<br />not seen or known as artists.' From 'Andy Deck Retrospective' by Marc<br />Garrett <br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=86">http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=86</a><br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=86">http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=86</a>><br /><br />Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow<br />are co-directors of <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.furtherfield.org">http://www.furtherfield.org</a><br /><br />==================================><br />About VisitorsStudio<br /><br />The VisitorsStudio is a multi-user online arena for production, display and<br />discussion of audiovisual, screen based work. Visitors experiment and<br />respond to each others' dancing-cursors and chat, live in real-time while<br />uploading, mixing and exhibiting their own compositions.<br /><br />VisitorsStudio is a Furtherfield project<br />Concept, design and project co-ordination by Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow<br />(Furtherfield) <br />Concept, programming and design by Neil Jenkins (Furtherfield, Devoid)<br />Front page and Users Manual design by Chris Webb (Furtherfield)<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />4.<br /><br />Date: 8.02.04<br />From: Digital Media Centre <martin.franklin@southhillpark.org.uk><br />Subject: Opportunity for Experimentation<br /><br />The Digital Media Centre in Bracknell will have a loan of a Smart Board<br />interactive whiteboard system during August and September. These systems,<br />consisting of touch sensitive board, writing stylus, computer and data<br />projector, are becoming widely used in Education.<br /><br />We are offering this opportunity for digital artists to experiment with the<br />system, which creates a remote touch screen interface for applications,<br />enables electronic ink and handwriting recognition, allows remote playback<br />of audio and video files and live recording and playback of actions.<br /><br />More information about the Smart Board can be found at:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.smarttech.com">http://www.smarttech.com</a><br /><br />Results of research may be offered as training opportunities for teachers if<br />relevant. <br />For more information and booking time on the Smart Board, please contact:<br />Martin Franklin (01344) 416261<br />email: martin.franklin@southhillpark.org.uk<br />web: www.digitalmediacentre.org<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />5.<br /><br />Date: 8.05.04<br />From: 220hex <gif@220hex.org><br />Subject: piksel04 - Call for participation<br /><br /><><><><><><><><><><><><><br />– piksel04 - FLOSS in motion<br />– call for participation<br />– deadline 15. september 2004<br /><><><><><><><><><><><><><br /><br />Piksel - www.piksel.no - is a yearly event for artists and developers<br />working with Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) for realtime<br />processing of video and sound. It will take place at BEK - the Bergen Centre<br />for Electronic Art, in Bergen, Norway from october 29. to november 7. 2004.<br /><br />The first Piksel event was arranged in november 2003, and gathered around 30<br />artists/developers from all parts of the world. It consisted of<br />artistic/technical presentations, coding workshops and live performances.<br />All activities were documented in a daily blog:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.piksel.no/log.html">http://www.piksel.no/log.html</a><br /><br />One of the results from the event was the initiation of the Piksel Video<br />Framework for 'interoperability between various free software applications<br />dealing with video manipulation techniques' - <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.piksel.org">http://www.piksel.org</a><br /><br /><><><><><><><><><><><><><br />CALL for PARTICIPATION<br /><br />An important part of piksel04 is a series of evening events of live art and<br />audio-visual performance in cooperation with Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall<br />(www.kunsthall.no/landmark).<br />Performing artists using open source software in the creation and<br />presentation of their work are invited to apply. This call goes out to<br />VJ-crews, live coders, typing divas, virtual actors, noise combos and FLOSS<br />performers of all kinds.<br /><br />Please send documentation material - preferably as a URL to online<br />documentation with images/video to piksel04@bek.no<br />Deadline - september 15. 2004<br /><br />Use this form for submitting (or go to the online form at<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.piksel.no/piksel04/form.html">http://www.piksel.no/piksel04/form.html</a>):<br /><br /><><><><><><><><><><><><><br />1. Name of artist(s), email adr.<br />2. Short bio/CV<br />3. URL to online documentation<br />4. Short statement about the work(s)<br />5. List of software used in the creation/presentation of the work(s)<br /><br /><><><><><><><><><><><><><br />Or send by snailmail to:<br /><br />BEK<br />att: Gisle Froysland<br />C. Sundtsgt. 55<br />5004 Bergen<br />Norway<br /><br />More info: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.piksel.no/piksel04">http://www.piksel.no/piksel04</a><br /><br />piksel04 is produced by BEK in cooperation with Kunsthøgskolen in Bergen dep<br />The Academy of Fine Arts, Bergen Kunsthall/Landmark. Supported by PNEK,<br />Bergen Kommune, Norsk Kulturfond.<br /><br />– <br />+— www.bek.no –+ 47 55233080<br />—+<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships<br />purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow<br />participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without<br />having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering<br />subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded<br />communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more<br />information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />6.<br /><br />Date: 8.06.04<br />From: marc <marc.garrett@furtherfield.org><br />Subject: NetBehaviour List Residencies - Brad Brace: The 12hr-ISBN-JPEG<br />Project <br /><br />NetBehaviour List Residencies<br />- an ongoing in-house project built by users of the NetBehaviour list.<br /><br />An in-house, networked artist/curator/writer residency<br />lasting for 2 weeks where a practicioner's work is seen,<br />as part of the list experience, adding an authentic sense<br />of stuff to the list that does not necessarily rely just on<br />debate alone, but also on behaviour.<br /><br />NetBehaviour residency No. 1<br />Brad Brace: The 12hr-ISBN-JPEG Project<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://bbrace.laughingsquid.net/12hr-isbn-jpeg.html">http://bbrace.laughingsquid.net/12hr-isbn-jpeg.html</a><br />Nominated by:Marc Garrett (list member)<br /><br />Brad Brace began his residency on the Netbehaviour<br />list (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netbehaviour.org">http://www.netbehaviour.org</a>) 7/10/2004. It ended,<br />2 days after the prescribed 14 days, residency on<br />7/26/2004.<br /><br />Much debate was shared regarding Brace Brace's work<br />on the list. Which can viewed here with other information:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netbehaviour.org/Residencies.htm">http://www.netbehaviour.org/Residencies.htm</a><br /><br />Who's next up for a Residency?<br />[[MEZ]] Starts (9/8/04)<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.hotkey.net.au/~netwurker">http://www.hotkey.net.au/~netwurker</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/netwurker/">http://www.livejournal.com/users/netwurker/</a><br />Lewis LaCook<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lewislacook.com/">http://www.lewislacook.com/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lewislacook.com/xanaxpop/">http://www.lewislacook.com/xanaxpop/</a><br />Tamar Schori<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tamar-schori.net/">http://www.tamar-schori.net/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.oodlala.net/">http://www.oodlala.net/</a><br />Ivan Pope<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ivanpope.com/">http://www.ivanpope.com/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://blog.ivanpope.com/">http://blog.ivanpope.com/</a><br /><br />Brief info about Residencies.<br />Residencies last for 2 weeks.<br />Maximum size of image per post- 35k<br />Maximum number of posts - every six hours<br />Minimum nuber of posts - one a day<br /><br />Any member on the list can suggest a potential resident artist.<br />The list members vote for a resident - it only takes 7 yes votes…<br />but if there are 8 votes against, the residency does not happen<br />for that individual/group. Rules change and adapt according to<br />suggestions by NetBehaviourists - active list members:-)<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netbehaviour.org">http://www.netbehaviour.org</a><br /><br />NetBehaviour is an open email list community for sharing ideas,<br />platforming art and net projects and facilitating collaborations.<br />Let's explore the potentials of this global network.<br />This is just the beginning.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />7.<br /><br />Date: 8.03.04 - 8.04.04<br />From: mark cooley <mgc868f@smsu.edu>, Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com><br />Subject: the world owes you a living<br /><br />mark cooley <mgc868f@smsu.edu> posted:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://theworldowesyoualiving.org/">http://theworldowesyoualiving.org/</a><br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com> replied:<br /><br />great to see someone post a link to this site. it's by matt fair of canada,<br />who has been producing work related to this theme for about twenty years.<br />this site contains a portion of his life's work.<br /><br />it also links to his audio collages, which are available on a 6 CD set. this<br />is, i would say, important work to listen to. he has been culling audio from<br />radio and other sources for twenty years, and his CD's represent twenty<br />years of continually composing this material.<br /><br />the first CD has the following table of contents:<br /><br />1. Advance of Technology<br />2. World of Unemployment<br />3. Decline of the Individual<br />4. What We're Doing to the Children<br />5. Hate, Murder and Social Ambition<br />6. Prisons<br /><br />the basic observation he culls from the audio, made by many people, is that<br />employment is declining. this is not a temporary phenomenon. machines<br />continue to replace workers of many kinds. consequently, many people are<br />either unemployed or are forever marooned in low-level service employment.<br />this includes many well-educated people, not simply the relatively<br />uneducated.<br /><br />so what is to be done in this situation where employment is decreasing but<br />the population is increasing?<br /><br />matt fair has been thinking about this for twenty years. check him out.<br /><br />[…]<br /><br />i used to think that matt's perspective is unrealistic. but, over time, it<br />has become more clear to me that (quoting from matt fair's audio cd's):<br /><br />"economies now grow without requiring more labor. technical progress means<br />fewer jobs, not more. and the reserve army of the unemployed has been<br />replaced by a new class of redundant people…"<br /><br />"in the high-tech society, there just aren't enough jobs to go around, and<br />there never will be."<br /><br />"labor, business, and government have not really faced this."<br /><br />"many of the traditional industries were collapsing…the one sector that<br />was growing, electronics and electronic communications was growing rapidly<br />and steadily eliminating jobs from its processes."<br /><br />"even on farms, where you used to have ten people working a big farm, you<br />now have one or two, and there's so much food produced people are payed not<br />to produce."<br /><br />employment is being eliminated by machines in most sectors of the economy.<br />so what happens to all these people? what happens to us? and where does the<br />money go for all the production being done by the machines? do we end up<br />with a feudal economy, one where there are relatively few rich and oh so<br />many poor people?<br /><br />that's a recipe for complete social collapse.<br /><br />matt fair looks at this situation and proposes the idea that we live in a<br />society of abundance, not scarcity. abundance of food. abundance of<br />materials to meet peoples' needs. abundance of computers and<br />telecommunications and so on. things would operate a lot better if there was<br />a more equitable distribution of the wealth.<br /><br />and he backs up his arguments with twenty years of research and audio from<br />the great thinkers of the last fifty years and much reportage on the state<br />of society from cbc radio and other radio networks.<br /><br />matt makes the best use of all that radio that i've ever heard. he turns<br />that radio into really a very concentrated and eloquent statement, not just<br />by him, but by so many people over the years.<br /><br />a very impressive project, inspiring, really. to hear that radio material<br />put to such intelligent and socially significant use. and to listen to his<br />conscientous life's work and realize it has been worth it.<br /><br />i've seen him work with this material for a long time. and it has changed<br />over time. his audio collages have gone from pretty loose things where the<br />quotes tended to be too long and the focus got lost and confused to<br />compositions that are both cogent and informative in their arguments–and<br />fascinating in their composition.<br /><br />i have also seen the manuscripts he's put together over the years. he has<br />about ten book-length manuscripts on the themes of work and play and<br />philosophy. i'm a big fan of his work.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://theworldowesyoualiving.org">http://theworldowesyoualiving.org</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />For $65 annually, Rhizome members can put their sites on a Linux<br />server, with a whopping 350MB disk storage space, 1GB data transfer per<br />month, catch-all email forwarding, daily web traffic stats, 1 FTP<br />account, and the capability to host your own domain name (or use<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.net/your_account_name">http://rhizome.net/your_account_name</a>). Details at:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/services/1.php">http://rhizome.org/services/1.php</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />8.<br /><br />Date: 8.03.04<br />From: Alexander Galloway <galloway@nyu.edu><br />Subject: Introducing the new "TAC" file compression standard!!<br /><br />TAC Compression<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.TACcompression.com">http://www.TACcompression.com</a><br />(serial no. RSG-TAC-1)<br /><br />"Why make files smaller, when you can TAC them"? (TM)<br /><br />TAC* is the best compression format available for the web today! By<br />using revolutionary scientific methods, research teams at RSG and the<br />Beige Programming ensemble were able to a compose a complex software<br />tool that expels many of the myths that surround modern file<br />compression techniques. The secret of TAC compression is not that it<br />makes files smaller, but that it makes files bigger, much bigger.**<br />This provides the end user with a compression tool to meet almost any<br />need in today's bandwidth and gig overloaded computing world.<br /><br />Download the BETA for OsX, and become a TAC believer today! -><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.taccompression.com/download.php">http://www.taccompression.com/download.php</a><br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />* Total A##hole Compression<br />** Tests have shown TAC to increase file size of a compressed file by<br />at least 14 times the uncompressed size.<br /><br />TAC compression is by Cory Arcangel of the BEIge progrmming Ensemble,<br />with coding by RSG. Thanks to Michael Frumin for coding help, and to<br />Eyebeam Research.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.TACcompression.com/">http://www.TACcompression.com/</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />9.<br /><br />Date: 8/05/04<br />From: doron <v@computerfinearts.com><br />Subject: new work at computer fine arts<br /><br />Out of the Ordinary by Jevbratt Lisa (2002) ><br />a Carnivore client, a network visualization software.<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/jevbratt/ooo/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/jevbratt/ooo/</a><br /><br />Zabnulvier by De Kok Elout (2004) ><br />Built with Processing<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/dekok/zabnulvier/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/dekok/zabnulvier/</a><br />netart collection and archive<br />=========================<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com">http://www.computerfinearts.com</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />10.<br /><br />Date: 8/06/04<br />From: ryan griffis <grifray@yahoo.com><br />Subject: Locating Locative Media<br />Observations from the Mobile Outskirts Workshop, Lofoten Island, Norway June<br />15-25, 2004<br /><br />Locating Locative Media<br />Observations from the Mobile Outskirts Workshop, Lofoten Island, Norway June<br />15-25, 2004<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://locative.rixc.lv/tcm/workshops/index.cgi?Location_Norway">http://locative.rixc.lv/tcm/workshops/index.cgi?Location_Norway</a><br />Joni Taylor + Ryan Griffis<br /><br />Workshop Participants: Timo Arnall, Kristin Bergaust, Sarawut Chutiwongpeti,<br />Trine Eidsmo, Amy Franceschini, Ryan Griffis, Jason Harlan, Sue Mark<br />(Marksearch), Nis RØmer, Laura Beloff, Denis Saraginovski, Slobodanka<br />Stevceska, Stijn Schiffeleers, Joni Taylor<br /><br />"Mobile Outskirts" was the second in a series of 6 workshops focusing on<br />"locative media and transcultural mapping" initiated by RIXC<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rixc.lv/">http://www.rixc.lv/</a>] and Facilitated by the Nordland Kunst 0g Filmskole<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.kunstfilm.no/main.htm">http://www.kunstfilm.no/main.htm</a>], Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre<br />(TEKS)[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.teks.no/">http://www.teks.no/</a>] and the Kunstakademiet i Trondheim<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.kit.ntnu.no/">http://www.kit.ntnu.no/</a>]. A group of 14 artists, from as far as North<br />America, Thailand and Macedonia, (plus a brilliant cook and fearless bus<br />driver) were chosen to "map" and create a collaborative cartography of the<br />Norwegian island of Lofoten, situated within the arctic circle.<br />The landscape itself was breathtaking, the arctic environment and the<br />constant daylight impossible to ignore, all of which affected everyone in<br />unique ways. We were in a new and remote place; most of us had never heard<br />of Lofoten before [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lofoten-tourist.no/">http://www.lofoten-tourist.no/</a>].<br /> <br />The themes were explored through images, digital fotos, videos, sound and<br />text, as well as creating maps with GPS tools. Some also chose to create<br />"real life" actions. While the technicalities and possible exhibition of<br />locative media were explored by some, the focus of most of the group was<br />trans-cultural mapping, which was not just about geographical mapping but<br />investigating the key areas unique to Lofoten, such as the environment,<br />culture, history, tourism and the economy. While some felt it was "colonial"<br />to attempt to "map" this foreign place, in the end all the work did reflect<br />the environment and people. The final results are still to be seen, with<br />further research into the actual technical programming of the meta-data<br />collected ongoing. <br /><br />J: Just before I went to Norway my friend and I walked across the Polish<br />Border, without a map or a word of polish. We experienced what I like to<br />call a "cultural remix", (Polish-Chinese food, Polish-Irish pubs and<br />Polish-Kolonie houses) all by accident, our derivé. My friend was also<br />wearing a very short skirt at the time, so she tried to avoid what we sensed<br />were the "dodgy" areas. It was only after our adventure that I realized that<br />these ideas of futuristic locative media tools would have been of tremendous<br />help. Of having some Kool techno phone that could take a picture of the<br />street, zoom it through a satellite to some databank somewhere, which<br />through scanning could have told us where we were, and even, where to go.<br /><br />This idea led me on to thinking of the information I as a person would like<br />to know, such as the history of a place. Living in Berlin, I am constantly<br />asking myself about the stories of the buildings around me, what they served<br />as under different regimes, who owned them, who wants to buy them now, and<br />this kind of information would be advantageous and very interesting to me.<br />So I went to Lofoten with this in mind, with an idea to trace the history of<br />urban structures, but also map according to my own feelings, in the psycho<br />geographic way. I thought the workshop would be somewhere between creating<br />a time machine and a heavy metal disco! (My previous knowledge of Norway was<br />embarrassingly limited to its atheistic black metal scene.)<br /><br />R: I'm drawn to your short-skirt-in-Poland anecdote, and the potential for<br />locative media to assist your desire to avoid "'dodgy' areas." The<br />successfulness of the technology in assisting you depends on the "matching<br />up" of both your desires and those of the technology's creators - your<br />definitions of "dodgy" would have to match. Locative media may be nothing<br />more than ever-present street signage pointing you to sanctioned vistas and<br />commercial venues. Or it could be a counter archive that's open to<br />manipulation by those on both sides of the binoculars. But I would be<br />hesitant to accept any utopian statement that the technology tends toward<br />the inclusive by nature.<br /><br />J: Exactly, and who are or will these creators be? Corporations getting hold<br />of locative devices in supermarkets and advertising certain brands. Telling<br />you where to go. "Location-based services." Scary.<br />At times I find all this excitement a bit techno fetishistic, about "huge<br />databanks in the sky" that still don't have a sense of place or personal<br />experience at all. Can locating ourselves through these methods of<br />surveillance be turned around? Ideas of surveillance critique is nothing<br />new, (especially in new media art, eg Surveillance Camera Players<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html">http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html</a>], Blast Theory<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/">http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/</a>]), and PVI<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.pvicollective.com/art/projects">http://www.pvicollective.com/art/projects</a>] or the ideas of<br />self-panopticonism.<br />Ricardo Dominguez had an interesting project in Australia<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://channel.creative-capital.org/project_70.html">http://channel.creative-capital.org/project_70.html</a>] a few years back<br />working with Aboriginal people using surveillance cameras to monitor their<br />land against uranium mining, like Jabiluka.<br />The "E911-capable" phone<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,9502,00.html">http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,9502,00.html</a>] can still be<br />traced by anyone - there are no particular security levels.<br />(Hackers are now working with GPS jamming techniques, and fair enough).<br /><br />R: The (non)image of a "big data bank in the sky" is, i think,<br />representative of both sides of the surveillance utopia/dystopia you<br />mention. In US and European popular culture (and yes, i think this whole<br />endeavor is Eurocentric and in need of more complexity), surveillance is<br />always perceived as coming from above (the indy-Hollywood film "The End of<br />Violence" comes to mind<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wim-wenders.com/movies/movies_spec/theendofviolence/theendofviol">http://www.wim-wenders.com/movies/movies_spec/theendofviolence/theendofviol</a><br />ence.htm] ), almost in layers - first the cameras, then the towers, and<br />finally the satellites. And of course, critical responses can't help but<br />acknowledge this perspective (the Surv. Camera Players as you mentioned, as<br />well as the IAA's "iSee" [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee.html">http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee.html</a>] for<br />example) But i don't know if this is necessarily based on new technologies.<br />Maps and diagrams are all ways of picturing a situation from the omniscient<br />perspective of God. All of this mapping, of geography and the body (the<br />Visible Human Project<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html">http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html</a>] ) has been<br />argued by many, as a repositioning of visual "truth" from illusionistic<br />pictures to forms of representation not seen as dependent on the eye, like<br />graphs, charts and UV processes. i tend to associate the trend in GPS and<br />meta-data with these tendencies.<br /><br />J: Ok, so moving away from the visual, where personal aesthetics gets in the<br />way, and relying on something more scientific, mathematical. But there must<br />also be the potential for social networking via these tools, alternative<br />"utopian" uses, such as the use of mobile phones in organizing demos on a<br />private network, for one example, or organizing homeless people as Nis<br />mentioned with his communal garden project [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.org-urb.dk/">http://www.org-urb.dk/</a>]. The<br />free network movement is one, and making mobile phone technology open<br />source. Is it possible to take control of one satellite? Pirate satellites,<br />very utopian. I did read some interesting statistics about mobile phone use<br />in developing and war torn countries like Afghanistan, much larger than<br />cable based phones.<br /><br />R: Of course, there's also the commercial aspect we need to be critical of,<br />as you suggest. Ricardo Dominguez has talked about the influence of the IT<br />industry on cultural production, whether it's overt manipulation or utopian<br />desire. <br /><br />J: Where do borders fit in within all these ideas of mapping and location?<br />One of the most "unnerving" things for me (as an Australian too), to find in<br />the dreamlike environment of Lofoten, were the refugees from Angola waiting<br />on that particular "outskirt" for political asylum. This "prison" island,<br />and it was an island, was only accessible by boat or by paying for the<br />ferry, both options which were denied to them. I think interesting<br />cartography examples could be formed, or new ways of mapping that are not<br />based on borders. (They Rule being one [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theyrule.net">http://www.theyrule.net</a>])<br /><br />R: For me, the most interesting aspect of the Mobile Outskirts workshop was<br />its relationship to tourism as an active practice. i think it is a very<br />US-Eurocentric belief that travel is done either for tourism or business, or<br />some merger of the two (as the workshop was). i think you're totally right<br />to bring up the refugees from Angola as "unnerving." When we talk of<br />cultural mapping and site specificity, there's this dominant tendency to<br />attach terms like "native" and "outsider." But where do refugees fit into<br />this schema? They're not there to experience "otherness" as tourists, and<br />remain "others" to both locals and visitors. Where are they placed into the<br />2D terrain created by our GPS devices or 3D psychogeographic maps?<br /><br />J: Did we create a "collective cartography"?<br />That was one of the aims, and in the end I think everyone did create some<br />kind of personal map, just through their own ideas and creative drives and<br />desire to reflect the place. Kristin's love of flowers came out in her<br />cataloguing and mapping of exotic "foreign" plant species in Lofoten. Your<br />fear and focus on foreign species (the evil King Crab) and genetics came out<br />in you Emergency Tourist Kit<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.yougenics.net/traveloffice/NO/lofotenKit.html">http://www.yougenics.net/traveloffice/NO/lofotenKit.html</a>]. Nis', Amy's and<br />Stejn's love of playing and reclaiming public space came out in "Lofoten:<br />Game of the Future" [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.futurefarmers.com/survey/lofoten.html">http://www.futurefarmers.com/survey/lofoten.html</a>], Sue<br />Mark's interest in old stories and superstitions had her interviewing<br />fishermen out on boats, Sarawut made video documentary of the incredible and<br />fantastic local youth population, Dana and Dennis found a secret to tell<br />through their mock-umentaries, Lara followed the whaling process and Jason<br />and Timo captured and data-mapped their daily experiences<br />[<a rel="nofollow" href="http://aware.uiah.fi/packet/?id=TCM">http://aware.uiah.fi/packet/?id=TCM</a>]. I found horses and ruins. And heavy<br />metal! .And I'll quote Marx here, because I just read it somewhere…"Men<br />can see nothing around them that is not their own image; everything speaks<br />to them of themselves. Their very landscape is alive. "<br /><br />R: All of this brings me back to the title of the workshop series, and<br />something the US critic Lucy Lippard once wrote: "I prefer cross-cultural to<br />transcultural, although they mean the same thing, because "trans" to me<br />implies "beyond," as in "transcend," and the last thing we need is another<br />"universalist" concept that refuses once again to come to grips with<br />difference." <br /><br />I'm not sure that the title "Trans-cultural" is really a problem, but the<br />ideas expressed by Lippard then still seem crucial to consider in such<br />projects, and your question about our "collective cartography" is right on.<br />I think everyone's concern in the workshop was to create a "collective" that<br />kept differences in tact and didn't flatten out multiple agendas into one.<br />Hopefully that remains true for how the Lofoten Islands will be reflected in<br />all our projects as well.<br />Refrences:<br />Your Cellphone is a Homing Device<br />By Brendan I. Koerner<br />Lippard, Lucy, "Mapping" in Mixed Blessings 1990<br />MacCannell, Dean, Empty Meeting Grounds: The Tourist Papers, 1992<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.kystentilkamp.com/">http://www.kystentilkamp.com/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lofoten-tourist.no/">http://www.lofoten-tourist.no/</a><br /><br />Joni + Ryan would like to thank all the workshop participants, especially<br />Kristin Bergaust and Trine Eidsmo for organizing Mobile Outskirts, Kjell<br />Tomter (our fearless bus driver), Martin Musto (our culinary companion),<br />Lena Hamnes, Brødrene Arntzen and Trygve Steen for discussing the politics,<br />culture and economy of Lofoten with us, and Liv Brita Malnes for the use of<br />the art school facilities.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of<br />the New Museum of Contemporary Art.<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is supported by grants from The Charles Engelhard<br />Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for<br />the Visual Arts, and with public funds from the New York State Council<br />on the Arts, a state agency.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is filtered by Kevin McGarry (kevin@rhizome.org). ISSN:<br />1525-9110. Volume 9, number 32. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org<br />are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art<br />and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome<br />Digest, please contact info@rhizome.org.<br /><br />To unsubscribe from this list, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/subscribe">http://rhizome.org/subscribe</a>.<br />Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the<br />Member Agreement available online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/29.php">http://rhizome.org/info/29.php</a>.<br /><br />Please invite your friends to visit Rhizome.org on Fridays, when the<br />site is open to members and non-members alike.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br />
