RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.18.05

discussion

Posted Feb. 17 2005 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.18.05

RHIZOME DIGEST: February 18, 2005 Content: +announcement+ 1. Kevin McGarry: JOIN D_CULTURE'S ONLINE FORUM +opportunity+ 2. Kevin McGarry: Rhizome.org seeks Design and Usability Consultant 3. Jo-Anne Green: SIGGRAPH 05: CALL for Networked_Performance PANEL PARTICIPATION 4. John Fillwalk: Graduate Assistantships available in Electronic Art and Animation +work+ 5. v: zoom +interview+ 6. Trebor: Interview with Elizabeth Goodman +comment+ 7. Pau Waelder: Pornographic Coding 8. curt cloninger: Re: BOOK.REVIEW: Internet Art by Rachel Greene +thread+ 9. Jo-Anne Green, Jim Andrews, Pall Thayer, Kate Armstrong, Michael Szpakowski: Turbulence Commission: "Grafik Dynamo" by Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett +commissioned for rhizome.org+ 10. joni taylor: Transmediale 2005 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 2.14.05 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin@rhizome.org> Subject: JOIN D_CULTURE'S ONLINE FORUM JOIN D_CULTURE'S ONLINE FORUM Join John Oswald, Kenneth Goldsmith (UbuWeb) and Douglas Kahn (author of Noise, Water, Meat) online in a discussion around the implications of cultures of exchange on artistic practice. Moderated by Lina Dzuverovic (Electra), the discussion is titled Cultures of Exchange/Politics Of Sound and is part of London Tate Modern's online season d_culture. The forum focuses on the creative applications and ramifications of the cultures of downloading, sampling and cut-ups and runs until 23 March 2005. The forum follows on from Sound and the 20th Century Avant-Garde course Co-produced by Tate Modern and Electra in December 2004. Starting points for discussion include: The Politics of Sound, History of Sound Collage, Collecting, Artists' Practice, Distribution and the Culture of Exchange. *go to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive/d_culture/#outline">http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive/d_culture/#outline</a> Introduction: The Politics of Sound / The Culture 0f Exchange The practice of cutting-up, appropriating and repurposing existing content in the creation of new artworks was central to 20th century artistic practice. From Marcel Duchamp¹s ?Erratum Musical¹ (1913) which spliced together dictionary definitions of the word ?imprimer¹ with a score composed from notes pulled out of a hat, via William Burroughs¹s and Brion Gysin¹s ?cut-up¹ technique used to allow new meanings to ?leak in¹ by re-cutting existing texts, to John Oswald¹s releases which mixed and altered several musical sources, the history of the 20th century avant-garde can be read as the history of appropriation. The availability, immediacy and ease of use of digital networked technologies in the last decade has made the link between the notion of 'the original' and artistic value more tenuous than ever, ushering in a new chapter in the debate around appropriation and the role of the author. The early years of the Internet enabled independent musical and artistic networks to flourish and operate somewhat ?under the radar¹ of commercial production, often establishing their own gift economies and adhering to rules decided by the network participants themselves. But this brief period of ?making it up as we go along¹ when it comes to file sharing, distribution and exchange is coming to an end in the face of endless attempts by the music industry to understand, co-opt, capitalize on and engage with cultures of exchange introduced by online networks and grassroots initiatives. Borrowing, file-sharing and re-purposing have over the years caused vicious lawsuits involving corporate lawyers vs. small music labels, artist collectives and college kids. But in an unlikely twist, today we are beginning to see an apparent openness towards non-commercial models of production from some unexpected sources. Tracks constructed by remixing, repurposing and sampling are now as ubiquitous on MTV as they are on releases by home-grown labels. Major labels tendency to appropriate strategies used by bedroom labels, such as releasing records on white labels in an attempt to launch a supposed anonymous release are now regular features across record shops. Last year David Bowie¹s website launched a competition in which fans were invited to remix tracks from his new album. The prize winner walked away with a a prize including an .mp3 release of their track on Bowie¹s website plus the handsome reward of a brand new car. The very fact that the ?mash up¹ phenomenon of recent years almost immediately became embraced by the commercial music industry points to a new strategy that of ?if you can¹t beat them, join them¹. >From endless copyright lawsuits on the one hand, to winning a new car for remixing David Bowie's album - the issue of repurposing other people's work is a contentious one positioned between the flourishing open source culture and commercial interests of the content industry. 'Open source' models of sharing and exchange promise to not only affect future models of production, exhibition and distribution but to radically redefine the future of cultural production at large. With this steady stream of new models and ideas comes a constant redefining of ways in which we produce, commission, exhibit, distribute and archive artworks. The murky waters of copyright, authorship and ownership are constantly being re-examined by cultural producers, consumers and the industry alike. This forum comes with a wealth of resources featuring a broad range of examples, positions, and views gathered from recent talks, events and discussions held at Tate Modern. These files are aimed at illustrating the current landscape of sonic production and offering varied historical perspectives. I hope that we can use these resources as a starting point in the discussion of the longer term ramifications of these issues on artistic practice. I would like to begin the forum by asking the panelists a very basic question: WHY NOW and WHY HERE: It seems to me that arts institutions have ?woken up¹ to issues mentioned above fairly recently (in the past few years). Why are discussions around sampling and sound of particular interest to us at this point in the context of Tate Modern? Posted by Lina Dzuverovic on Jan 31, 2005 2:12 PM + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 2.15.05 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin@rhizome.org> Subject: Rhizome.org seeks Design and Usability Consultant Design and Usability Consultant + + + Rhizome.org, a non-profit organization focused on new media art, is seeking a Design and Usability Consultant. The Consultant will work closely with the Content Coordinator to help plan new site features: Your responsibilities will be to help define a rich, intuitive user experience, and produce deliverables using HTML and CSS. The Consultant is not responsible for website programming. Our priorities are ease-of-use, functionality, and the definition of clear, simple categories for use by producers and consumers of online content. The ability to create a flashy or embellished interface is not important, though an eye for a uniform and lively arrangement of site elements is. Candidates will be consulting on pages used to publish, read, search and syndicate content to the site. Familiarity with contemporary online community technologies (del.icio.us, Craigslist, blogs, etc.) is a plus. This position allows for off-site work, but candidates need to be in commuting distance of New York for frequent short meetings. To apply, please email your detailed cover letter and resume by February 25 to Kevin McGarry at kevin@rhizome.org. Interviews will be held the week of February 28 in New York. + + + Hours: Flexible and variable. Part-time. Start Date: March 1, 2005 End Date: Summer 2005 Location: New York (Chelsea) Salary: Commensurate with experience. + + + Please distribute this announcement freely. Direct any questions to Kevin McGarry at kevin@rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more information or contact Kevin McGarry at Kevin@Rhizome.org or Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 2.15.05 From: Jo-Anne Green <jo@turbulence.org> Subject: SIGGRAPH 05: CALL for Networked_Performance PANEL PARTICIPATION SIGGRAPH 05 CALL FOR PANEL PARTICIPATION Networked Performance: How Does Art Affect Technology and Vice Versa? This panel addresses issues of performance, embodiment, social collaboration, public authoring, and play through computationally dependent cultural practices such as wireless culture, location technologies (GPS), grid computing, sensing, and reactive (sensor-based) interactivity. Mobile computing and network practice cut across all aspects of practice and research, engaging optimization, visualization, tool creation, hacking, etc. Panelists will be artists, technologists, educators, and scientists interested in the evolution of networked production, creation, and performance. Panel position papers must be received by 6 pm Pacific time, 1 March 2005. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=cfp&p=panels&s=topics#5">http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=cfp&p=panels&s=topics#5</a> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=cfp&p=panels&s=topics#5">http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=cfp&p=panels&s=topics#5</a>> – Untitled Document Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://new-radio.org">http://new-radio.org</a> New York: 917.548.7780 ? Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org">http://turbulence.org</a> New American Radio: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://somewhere.org">http://somewhere.org</a> Networked_Performance Blog and Conference: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/blog">http://turbulence.org/blog</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome Member-curated Exhibits <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/member-curated/">http://rhizome.org/art/member-curated/</a> View online exhibits Rhizome members have curated from works in the ArtBase, or learn how to create your own exhibit. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 2.18.05 From: John Fillwalk <jfillwalk@bsu.edu> Subject: Graduate Assistantships available in Electronic Art and Animation Graduate Assistantships available in Electronic Art and Animation at Ball State University. MA in Electronic Art and Animation. Areas of study: Digital Cinema, 3D Modeling and Animation, Interactive Art, Virtual Reality, Digital Imaging. Software includes Maya Unlimited, SoftImage XSI, RealViz, Apple, Adobe, etc. Stipend, tuition waiver, new state of the art facilities, visiting artist program, travel abroad, internal grants. Please visit: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bsu.edu/art/article/0,,25889--,00.html">http://www.bsu.edu/art/article/0,,25889--,00.html</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bsu.edu/web/jfillwalk/electronicart/">http://www.bsu.edu/web/jfillwalk/electronicart/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bsu.edu/via/">http://www.bsu.edu/via/</a> Please contact John Fillwalk at jfillwalk@bsu.edu for more information. John Fillwalk Electronic Art and Animation / Artist-in-Residence, Center for Media Design Ball State University + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 2.18.05 From: v <v@computerfinearts.com> Subject: zoom <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.auburn.edu/~shephcd/zoomquilt/zoom.htm">http://www.auburn.edu/~shephcd/zoomquilt/zoom.htm</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 2.13.05 From: Trebor <trebor@buffalo.edu> Subject: Interview with Elizabeth Goodman Teaching for the Wireless Commons Interview with Elizabeth Goodman As part of WebCamTalk1.0 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediaeducation.org">http://www.newmediaeducation.org</a> Trebor Scholz: Please present your thoughts on new media education, in particular your course "Site-Specific: Wireless Networks and Urban Art Practice.â?? EG: This course was a mixed graduate-undergraduate seminar I taught at the San Francisco Art Institute with Alison Sant. The course examined radio signal as a medium for expression in its own right, with its own aesthetic qualities and cultural significance. It was a diverse class, with undergraduate and graduate students. The class focused specifically on sensing and representing wireless signals; we did not intend it as a technical class centered around any one tool. Using whatever medium they preferred, students were to create their own interventions into what Fiona Raby and Tony Dunne have called the â??Hertzian spaceâ?? of San Francisco. Final projects included a game, a proposal for a video installation, and a GPS-coordinated city tour. There have only been a few classes on wireless networks as art medium thus far, so there werenâ??t many models to draw from. TS: What did you learn from the experience of teaching a course with so little precedence? EG: Learning from the experience of this course and from my own experience in school, I'd like to point to some larger issues about the state of interactive art education: 1) Art education: training for what? 2) The importance of historical perspective 3) Defining core curriculum 4) Moving the computing arts away from the computer TS: Please describe the course more in detail. EG: The Art Institute in San Francisco, for those of you who might not be familiar with it, is well known for its historical emphasis on conceptual art. Alison and I found that, as so often happens, our students were more comfortable with the conceptual. Partly, this is because itâ??s easier to talk than build. But the greater issue was unfamiliarity with the underlying technologies of wireless networks â?? the physics of radio waves, the proliferating transceivers, the logging programs and the graphic interfaces â?? not to mention the pervasive fear of the unfamiliar. Even with the loan of wifi- , Bluetooth-, and GPS-enabled iPaqs from the Exploratorium, some were reluctant to experiment. And those that did were often daunted by the amount of time they had to spend troubleshooting the devices. An increasing number of people comes to courses such as ours with some knowledge of computers, but only few are comfortable with code. Indeed, some of our students came in with far less knowledge of the tools of new media artists than we had expected. â??New mediaâ?? stretches from video and sound editing, to image manipulation, to animation, to interaction design, and code. The question of documenting and presenting a new media project gets complicated when youâ??ve never used a digital camera or created a web page. In addition, students were dismayed by the seemingly endless list of expensive equipment that visiting artists recommended. Laptops, GPS devices, PocketPCs, wifi-cards, specialized radio receiversâ?¦ Some felt that the medium was simply unaffordable on a student budget, and the school was not planning on picking up the bills. TS: This is a phenomenon that you also find with much of recent location-based cultural practices that require a whole set of hardware that it still unaffordable to most city dwellers. EG: Thereâ??s an interesting and common phenomenon that happens when students â?? anyone, really â?? attempts a new medium. You called it â??techno-determinism,â?? and I agree. Itâ??s a kind of blindness. The sheer difficulty of making any headway with unfamiliar and imperfect technologies such as PocketPCs running an interface to a Bluetooth GPS module, or a Flash animation, leads to the mistaken belief that the technologies themselves are the most interesting part of a project. TS: How do you approach the confluence of art, theory and technology? EG: Given studentsâ??s understandable fears of new, unfamiliar, and un-user-friendly technologies, we need to actively reward exploration, experimentation, and sheer determination. However, the class as a whole suffers when the focus of discussion and critique moves from developing and expressing concepts to solving technical problems. Steering a course between technophobia and techno-obsession is harder than it sounds. One of the great challenges, I learned, of teaching â??new mediaâ?? classes that are not designed to be technical workshops is keeping promising concepts (that are often technologically interesting as well) from derailing into technological minutia. Throughout the class, Alison and I developed some strategies in response to techno-phobia, techno-obsession, and the sheer expensiveness of electronic equipment. TS: How do you link these emerging cultural practices to their backgrounds in the history of technology, and culture at large. EG: There is a tendency among the techno-obsessed to think that â??new mediaâ?? is somehow the product of a catastrophic, unbridgeable break with older tools and practices. Alison and I tried to locate the class within a longer history of site specific art and urban engagement. We started by asking students to think critically about the notion of â??site,â?? drawing on Robert Smithsonâ??s work, the notion of â??non-sitesâ?? and on Gordon Matta - Clarkâ??s building deconstruction projects. We also used sources from urban theory, the Situationists and asked students to think about how we come to know a city â?? how we travel through it, how we map it, how we remember it. We found that bridging the old and the new produced richer conversations in new students â?? which is no surprise â?? but also created a comfort zone for San Francisco Art Institute students who were already familiar with mid-twentieth century art movements. TS: You mentioned that a few weeks into the class you asked students to switch off their computers and go to the drawing board. EG: Yes, drawing and sketching also proved a useful introduction to the ideas and methods of the class. One of our most successful class exercises required students to create a map of the campus using only mobile phones, paper, and pencils. Working in teams, students had to both agree on how to represent mobile phone signal strength but also what areas they found most significant. The resulting critiques allowed us to talk about some core issues: the representation of temporality, definitions of site, and visualization of the invisible. In fact, mobile phones became a cheap and accessible medium for students daunted by the expense or unfamiliarity of wifi-enabled laptops and GPS devices. For those of us who think in terms of code, it can be useful to step back and see mobile phones as a platform for development but also simple sensors in their own right. One student even used his mobile phone as a kind of game wheel, dynamically â??spinningâ?? paths through the city based on signal strength. I would have loved to have my students build applications for mobile phones. But because the class blended art theory and practice, we had to think realistically about time management. We simply did not have enough time to both introduce key concepts and teach programming. As well, showing a project in a gallery is very different than supporting it on a city-wide level. Moving from the university lab to the streets means asking students to simplify their technical needs as much as possible. TS: Could you come back to the four main issues that you introduced earlier? You started off with "Art education: training for what?" EG: One of the subtexts running through in-class discussion was the desire to be taught specific tools â?? Photoshop or Flash, for example. There is a lot of fear about the high cost of education in North America, about getting jobs, and that is reflected in these demands for vocational training. I think many will agree with me when I say that undergraduate art courses should not focus on software. Defining education by the tools currently in vogue reduces learning to a set of instruction manuals. As we have all discovered, learning is often more a changing set of practices than abstract, static data. Which brings me to my second point: defining a new media core curriculum. I think student calls for software-based training indicate a deep insecurity. Many students are not sure what they are supposed to know and how they are supposed to learn it. That is a very disconcerting situation. And part of the role of a faculty member is to answer those questions through curriculum development. A curriculum is â?? or should be â?? the articulation of a communityâ??s understanding of disciplinary boundaries: what they value, what they exclude, what they require. I had a fairly traditional undergraduate art education, based around a choice of prerequisite classes: drawing, sculpture, photography, graphic design. Drawing was mandatory. As a masterâ??s student at New York University, I had another core curriculum: programming, basic electrical engineering, visual design, and communications. Everything was mandatory. Communications included training in Photoshop, video editing, etc â?? but it came wrapped in a larger conversation about the social significance of technologies. I personally believe digital media core curricula should include programming and drawing. But Iâ??m not the deciding factor in discipline-wide curriculum development. The faculty of every school has the responsibility to decide what their students should learn. I donâ??t think weâ??d see wildly divergent curricula. But internal conversations need to happen so that consensus can emerge and students get consistent messages about what they need to succeed. TS: An additional starting point was your emphasis of moving the computing arts away from the computer. Please elaborate. EG: To me, this is perhaps the most important point: moving the computing arts away from the computer. One of our greatest struggles during the class was the fixation on the technical at the expense of the conceptual. We suggested refocusing projects, but more than once we found that students did not believe that sketching â??countedâ?? as part of their work as digital artists. Yet in retrospect, itâ??s significant that the semesterâ??s most successful exercise was based on drawing. For us, the lesson was that teaching the digital arts should not be confined to digital media. Many institutions without the budget for expensive equipment can use diagrams and formal logic as a proxy for circuitry. Nothing can totally replace learning by doing, but teaching the underlying principles of computing still helps students. As Casey Reas points out, code creates the tools we use â?? itâ??s an important medium in itself. I think that teaching drawing can serve as an important bulwark against the fixation on technology, and it can remind students to focus on the underlying ideas that they strive to communicate. So, I see several issues: I feel conflicted about the perception of the teaching of "new media" as something that is completely new. Another issue is thinking solely of what we produce as solely a function of â??media.â?? I think we'll do ourselves and our students a service if we think less about newness, less about a specific media, and more about continuing art practices based around the implications of computing. About: Elizabeth Goodman's design, writing, and research focuses on critical thinking and creative exploration at the intersections of new digital technologies, social life and urban spaces. She has a master's degree from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and has spent this fall as a visiting lecturer on site specific art and wireless networks at the San Francisco Art Institute. For a course bibliography visit www.molodiez.org/biblio_goodman.pdf. More examples of Elizabeth's work in urban gaming and cellphone interfaces can be found at www.confectious.net. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 2.18.05 From: Pau Waelder <pau@sicplacitum.com> Subject: Pornographic Coding Pornographic Coding Florian Cramer and Stewart Home Crash conference paper, Feb. 11, 2005 Â  Â Program code is like pornography. It has linear logic, but no meaning. Â  Â There is an accumulation of things already known. The focus is always Â  Â on the same explicit facts. Repetition and boredom rule. Â  Â (Adapted from a Neoist slogan) Â  Â Art is sanctioned pornography. Â  Â (Neoist slogan) 1 Â We demand a shamanic pornography Capitalist ``progress'' destroys the imagination through a frenzy of the visible. What we see we no longer need to imagine. A a famous zero from the popsicle academy was once moved to write that every time a man had an erection it was a triumph of the imagination. Power to the imagination, and to sex - for they are one and the same thing. Pornographers of the world close your eyes. You have nothing to lose but your bodily fluids! It is time to decondition ourselves by going beyond the known world. The shamans of old ingested psychedelic mushrooms, and today we are further armed with a battery of chemically synthesised drugs including ecstasy and LSD. These psychedelics are psychic elevators that can power us through the seven levels of human consciousness. The first four levels of consciousness can be reached in ordinary everyday life. Level Five requires either chemical assistance or long hours of arduous interaction with your computer, and when you hit this level sexual activity is vastly enhanced. Once you go above Level Five consciousness you don't necessarily need coitus. Indeed, at Level Six you are telepathic and sexually combined with your fellow hackers, and this integration is even greater at Level Seven (aka total fucking zero and one pornography). Drugs and code are the ancient and modern tools with which we can investigate our own minds while turning our bodies into one vast erogenous zone. Our message to purveyours of representational porn is HANDS OFF (OUR) EJACULATIONS (both male and female). WE WANT TO CUM IN ALL THE COLOURS OF ALL THE FLAGS OF ALL THE CONSULATES. As an initiated shaman Jean Cocteau was able to come through the sheer power of his imagination, he could do this without using his hands to manipulate his genitals. Let's keep our hands free to imput date on our computer terminals and use the convulsive power of codes to bring us to orgasm. 2 Â Pornography as popular computing The effectiveness of art is generally hard to judge. Pornography as one of the arts creates ecstatic perception, triggering arousal only through symbolic codes. Cybersex is by no means new, porn is its oldest device. Computation and programming have likewise been known in pornography for centuries. In the 120 Days of Sodom, Sade imagines a ceaseless execution of coded game rules. There is no single point of originality, but only combinations computed out of a set of sex partners and their organs. Porn as speculative programming has been long neglected. Along the lines of .walk by socialfiction.org, we demand psychogeographical computers built from pornographic imagination and shamanic sex acts. Carl van Bolen, author of The History of Eroticism (1966) and Eduard Fuchs, author of The History of Erotic Art, coin a programming language of Greek-Latin terms for those combinations. But only with modern day commercial pornography do those exhaustive computations became real. A mainstream porn video shop like Erotic Video Service in Berlin with its 24,000 tapes and DVDs for rent [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.evs-video.de">http://www.evs-video.de</a>] could be called a pornographic Library of Babel, based on a brute force algorithm of sheer masses of data. The poets of the French Oulipo group, the ``workshop of potential literature,'' which from the 1960s onwards explored algorithmics and formal restraints in writing, announced a chapter for pornography, Oupornpo, but this seems to have remained a dirty old man's joke. Contemporary writer Simon Strong makes up for it in his forthcoming novel 66mindfuck99 for which he created ``a list of criteria defining legal and extra-legal sex acts,'' arranging them with help of a spreadsheet to what he calls ``an optimal set of erotic episodes.'' Does the potential of pornography exhaust itself in the simple mechanics of sexual combinations? Surely not, although we want to show that it is too easy to sweepingly denounce this approach. Through its minimal variations in endless repetition, it is clear that pornography has become purely parodic, in other words, that each pornographic coupling, scene, image becomes the parody of another, or the same in a deceptive form. Ever since pornography started to circulate, an effort at total identification has been made, because each pornographic detail ties one operation to another. All pornography would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne's thread leading pornographic codes into their own labyrinth. But their coupling is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. And when I scream I AM PORNOGRAPHIC, an integral erection results, because the mere verb ``to be'' is the vehicle of sexual frenzy. 3 Â Pornography in Stewart Home's fiction I included large chunks of repetitive pornography in novels such as Blow Job and Cunt because few publishers would consider putting out books of fiction that were less than sixty thousand words long. By including essentially the same pornographic scene on every other page I only.needed to write about thirty thousand words. Bergson claimed that repetition was the basis of all humour and I certainly found using it as a device to expand my books to a length that was acceptable to the publishing industry side-splittingly funny. I was also convinced that if anyone was sexually aroused by my pornographic material (some of which was lifted directly from out-of-copyright sources) then that was a tremendous achievement. It's a demonstration of shamanic power to be able to laugh and have an orgasm at the same time. The imagery I used in my early novels was shamanic too, it was conceived as a revelation of the true nature and scope of the unconscious, a sudden shift away from the standpoint of the atomised individual to the point of view of the entire cosmic movement: a `timeless psychedelic moment' in which the universe is experienced in the act of waking up and becoming aware of itself. One could find the beginnings of the cosmic metaphors I used in pulp fiction, where characters having sex might be described as no longer in control of their bodies because `the DNA had taken over'. I sought to extent such imagery until it was on a par with the visions of the shamans of old. In order to do this I would write about DNA codes being scrambled and unscrambled across the muscular structure structure of my bulk, about the sexual act leading me to imagine myself as the first amphibian to emerge from the sea and feel the warmth of the sun on my back, about genetically encoded memoires of the first star exploding and about being out on the mudflats of pre-history… 4 Â The eroticism of boredom I.I.I.I am. My identity. Mine. I exchange it with another and step outside where the sun is shining. Another person walks up to me and gives me some words. I respond by giving her some pleasure I have with me. If you use words often enough they become interchangeable. Infinity, limitation, enthusiasm, depression, imagination, concretion. Give me back pleasure. I need to get more words with it. Chasing your mind's tail, the back of your image unfolds into warm breeze. Throaty sound and smell of petal marshland. Five minute stare into eyes of another being. Breaking the silence, I say ``I wanna go down on you.'' Stepping back and removing pleasure, giving words. Is this porn? Pornography. The mind is pornographic. I shape the word ``cunt'' in it, only to prove to myself that there is obscenity. Cities, streets, romantic dreams of the perfect dirty image flickering like a single frame of film. Slow down the projection and blink while you watch it. 5 Â Pornography in dreams Â  Â Pornography in dreams Â  Â Pornography in books Â  Â Pornography in cars Â  Â Pornography in advertising Â  Â And everywhere repression Â  Â Repressed living as the expression of everyday life Â  Â Free your mind and your ass will follow Â  Â Pick it up, let it move, make it happen Â  Â Go with the code Â  Â Arm yourself with drugs, magic and computing Â  Â Fuck with fucking and drift into abstraction Â  Â Zeros and ones turn me on 6 Â Pornography in computing Computing has been sexual ever since John von Neumann, the creator of modern-day computer architecture, conceived of self-replicating automata. Nowadays, they translate into computer viruses and the rhetoric of preventing infection uses the same concepts and terminology as rhetoric about preventing sexually transmitted diseases. Computer users know that the electronic message ``I love you'' is just as true as its non-electronic equivalent, meaning in reality ``I want to fuck with you.'' If codes can fuck your computer, where's the porn that depicts them? Porn, of course, flows through computers in abundance, and software has been adapted to it. The Linux-based image and video display program ``pornview'' is, according to its manual, optimized ``for unattended presentation of images for hands-free viewing.'' DVD videos can have multiple camera angles, a technical feature created to cater to the porn industry and its customers. The image rendering component of the free Mozilla browser originally was called ``libpr0n,'' ``pr0n'' being hacker code speak for ``porn.'' Another GNU/Linux program, ``driftnet'' taps into a local computer network and displays all images that co-workers are currently browsing. The developers of the program recommend that ``if you are possessed of Victorian sensibilities, and share an unswitched network with others who are not, you should probably not use it.'' But in these examples, the pornography remains outside the software itself. Obscenity on program code level exists, too, but doesn't necessarily render the running software obscene or pornographic. The Linux kernel, for example, contains the word ``fuck'' 56 times in its sourcecode: Â  Â arch/sparc/kernel/process.c: /* fuck me plenty */ Â  Â arch/sparc/kernel/head.S: /* XXX Fucking Cypress… */ Â  Â arch/sparc/kernel/sunos_ioctl.c: /* Binary compatibility is good Â  Â American knowhow fuckin' up. */ Â  Â arch/sparc/kernel/ptrace.c:/* Fuck me gently with a chainsaw… */ Â  Â arch/ppc/syslib/ppc405_pci.c: * the kernel try to remap our BAR #1 and Â  Â fuck up bus Â  Â arch/sparc64/kernel/binfmt_aout32.c: /* Fuck me plenty… */ Â  Â arch/sparc64/kernel/traps.c: /* Why the fuck did they have to change Â  Â this? */ Â  Â arch/sparc64/mm/init.c: /* Fucking losing PROM has more mappings in Â  Â the TLB, but Â  Â arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k7.c: * Some Athlon laptops have Â  Â really fucked PST tables. Â  Â arch/i386/kernel/cpu/mtrr/generic.c:/* Some BIOS's are fucked and Â  Â don't set all MTRRs the same! */ Â  Â arch/mips/kernel/irixioctl.c: * irixioctl.c: A fucking mess… Â  Â arch/mips/kernel/irixelf.c:#if 0 /* XXX No fucking way dude…*/ Â  Â … But Linux hardly fucks anything in operation. Another example of non-operational code-level pornography is the ASCII pr0n genre, pornographic images drawn as typograms: Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â /' Â `\/ Â  `. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â . Â  .' Â  Â  Â : Â `. `. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â \\.' Â  Â  Â  Â , Â `.` Â `. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â `. Â  Â  ,___/|\. `. Â  : Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  . \, .'./ Â  Â ' '\ Â , Â ' Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  .\ Â  Â . Â \_.~ _; ; Â  Â \/'. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `\ …_`. Â  : Â  /.. Â  ../ Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â /' _._ Â \. ~ .' Â  `\: Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â /'.'@ Â  ` Â  Â .—. Â  Â `. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â .' Â : Â  Â  Â  Â  ' Â  @ `.\. Â \ Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  / Â  ./`.._./ ~ . Â  Â  Â :\ Â  Â `. Â  __ Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  .' Â  / Â  ( Â  Â  Â  Â \….' Â `. Â .' /' Â `. Â  Â  Â /'''\ Â  .' Â  Â `. Â / Â \ Â  Â  : Â  Â  ;' .' Â  Â ..: Â  Â .' ; Â  `\; Â  Â  Â  : : Â  Â : Â  Â : Â  .' Â  : Â ; Â  Â : Â  Â : Â  Â  `\. `\. Â  Â ; Â  : Â  Â  Â  Â \.' Â  Â  " Â ' Â  Â ; Â  Â  `. Â  Â  Â `. Â  \ / Â  Â s Â  Â . Â  / Â  Â  Â  `. Â  Â  .' Â  Â  Â ` Â  Â . Â  `. Â `\ `. Â  Â  ; Â /' Â  Â  Â  Â  ;___ ; Â  Â  Â  `. Â  `. Â `. Â  ` Â  Â  Â  Â  ; Â  Â  Â  Â  Â ;:__..' Â  Â  Â  Â  `. Â  `. `. Â  Â  :` ': Â  Â _.' Â  Â .' ; Â  : Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `. Â  Â  `. Â  Â .\x./-`–…../' Â  ; Â  : Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `. ..-:..-' Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â ( Â  Â : Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `—'`. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `; Â  : Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `. Â `,.. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  : Â  Â : Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `. Â  Â `. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â `.___; Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `. Â  Â `. Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `. Â  Â `; Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  `-.,' Originally a hack to bring visual pornography into the world of alphanumerical computer terminals, they became ironic retro chic in 1990s net art, above all in ``Deep ASCII,'' a typographic rendering of the movie ``Deep Throat.''{1} ``Prograsm,'' which the hacker ``Jargon File'' defines as the ``euphoria experienced upon the completion of a program or other computer-related project,'' is another example of ecstasy outside the running program. However, a concept of prograsm that involves the code and the process has existed since the Middle Ages in ecstatic Kabbalah. The oldest known kabbalistic book Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) contains mathematical combinatorics, and Kabbalists like Abraham Abulafia practiced computational readings of the Torah as a sexually ecstatic technique. In an 18th century autobiography, Salomon Maimon tells us how he learnt that Â  Â ``the name Jehova represents […] the person of the Godhead generis Â  Â masculini, while the word Koh means […] the person of the Godhead Â  Â generis feminini, and the word Amar denotes sexual union. The words Â  Â 'Koh amar Jehovah,' 'Thus saith the Lord,' I therefore explained as Â  Â follows: […] an actual union of these divine spouses took place from Â  Â which the whole world might expect a blessing.'' In other words, the Kabbalah imagines God as able to fuck himself by the virtue of his male and female attributes, in the medium of the words put down in the Torah. The Torah becomes pornographic writing, a code whose execution generates divine physical arousal. Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even can be read as another auto-erotic obscene and pornographic mechanism, secularized however as modern art. Still more secularized are the corresponding technologies that exist in computing today, such as the ``Brainfuck'' programming language and program code recursion, code executing itself in strange loops, a key structure among others in the programming language LISP. While this code is, by its nature, a pure formalism, its coupling is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. When I scream I AM THE PROGRAM, an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of obscene frenzy, bastardizing the formalism of the software and my informal being to a dirty code. Reroute via gender strippage [simple cognitive shift allocation], strip to the violence inducer core and wipe with a pseudo stroke. Instruction: Regenderate the Mis][User. 7 Â Towards an Open Source Pornography Figure 1: From suicidegirls.com Figure 2: Sample image from nofauxxx.com Figure 3: Dahlia Schweitzer, Lovergirl photo series Â  Â Richard Kern: SuicideGirls is a mystery to me because I thought only Â  Â women ran the site. Â  Â DRE: Does that make a difference? Â  Â Richard Kern: I had heard from various models from there that my type Â  Â was not liked there because I was a guy exploiting women and Â  Â SuicideGirls is a feminist site. No matter what anyone says its still Â  Â naked girls and still guys checking them out. There are girls checking Â  Â in also but a lot of guys too. It's the same thing no matter how you Â  Â cut it.{2} No doubt, indie porn is the pornography of this decade, if not of the whole century. Beyond that, it appears to be the first significant new cultural movement of the millennium. It has replaced net.art as the aesthetic avant-garde of the Internet. Websites like http:// www.suicidegirls.com, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cleansheets.com">http://www.cleansheets.com</a>, http:// wwww.thatstrangegirl.com and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fatalbeauty.com">http://www.fatalbeauty.com</a> combine the punk styling of their models with visual punk aesthetics and do-it-yourself punk attitude.{3} The site <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.indienudes.com">http://www.indienudes.com</a> lists more related sites and resources.{4} It thus seems as if there is finally a non-industrial and erotically imaginative pornography for hetero- and bisexuals, after the avant-garde of lesbian and gay pornography had reached the same level already in the early 1990s, with magazines like ``On Our Backs'' and porn video labels like Cazzo Productions. In reality, indie porn is just like indie pop. It pretends to be different from the industry, but works with the same business model. Just as punk and indie pop saved the music industry in the 1980s and 1990s, indie porn will save the porn industry of today. It is the research and development arm of the porn industry. An industry that otherwise would go bankrupt because everyone freely shares its products on the Internet.{5} Most indie porn sites are based on software and editorial formats created in independent net cultures, most of all, weblogs. Central to the aesthetics of indie porn is a concept of the authentic. Not only are the models unmodified by surgery - except for tattoos and piercings - and Photoshop. They are also accessible in chats, personal blogs and homepages, a key feature of most indie porn sites. They thus produce a simulacrum of the ``real'' that is no different from the popular genre of industrial pseudo amateur pornography. The rough look and production values of indie porn not only simulates authenticity, it also is a means of cutting production costs and outsourcing labor when, for example on the site <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ishotmyself.com">http://www.ishotmyself.com</a>, the models become their own photographers. Glamour and synthetic cyber pornography as well as hentai anime are more radical than indie porn because they show sexual alienation openly and make no attempt at clouding the fact that authentic moments can't be found in them. Just like mainstream pop star Michael Jackson is ultimately more subversive than The Manic Street Preachers, commercial pornography is superior to indie porn because it offers less for the imagination to work with. By offering more variation in the imagery, indie porn preempts and thereby erodes imagination. A digital pornography that would strive for true honesty and imagination should reduce rather than increase its visual imagination. In the end, it should present itself as nothing but code, teaching us to get off on mere zeros and ones, thus overcoming the false dichotomy of the artificial and the authentic. Against commercial indie porn we demand a truly independent, open source pornography. Pornography should be made by all, a radically populist pornography of collectively produced, purely formal codes. This pornography will reconcile rationality and instinct and overcome alienation because the codes will have to be reconstituted into sexual imaginations by the right side of brain. Software, reconceived as a dirty code crossbred of formalism and subjectivity, will be the paradigm of this pornography, a code that sets processes into motion.{6} Figure 4: An open source porn coder Figure 5: Turning her image into code increases its shamanistic pornographic quality Figure 6: Further pornographic enhancement Figure 7: Pornographic perfection ————————————————————————– Footnotes: {1} by the ASCII Art Ensemble around Vuc Cosic and Luka Frelih. {2} Richard Kern interviewed by Daniel Robert Epstein, http:// suicidegirls.com/words/Richard+Kern/ {3} <a rel="nofollow" href="http:///www.nerve.com">http:///www.nerve.com</a> is a highbrow forerunner of these sites, creating ``sophisticated'' porn for an intellectual audience. {4} The sites <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ishotmyself.com">http://www.ishotmyself.com</a> and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.beautifulagony.com">http://www.beautifulagony.com</a> straightforwardly translate avant-garde art concepts into porn business models; the former features models who take pictures of themselves, the latter plagiarizes Andy Warhol's ``Blow Job'' movie by merely showing faces of persons who have an orgasm. {5} Richard Kern says about mainstream porn magazines in the same interview: ``I shoot for them only occasionally now because that business isnt what it used to be. […] A lot of the point mags are going out of business. They dropped the pay tremendously and its all because of the internet. I used to go out once a month to LA and shoot for one week. Id make a ton of money then come back to New York and do whatever I wanted.'' {6} A rare example of such dirty porn code are the writings of Australian codework artist mez. – netbehaviour is an open email list community for sharing ideas, platforming art and net projects and facilitating collaborations. let's explore the potentials of this global network. this is just the beginning. to unsubscribe send mail to majordomo@netbehaviour.org with "unsubscribe list_netbehaviour" in the body of the message <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netbehaviour.org">http://www.netbehaviour.org</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 2.17.05 From: curt cloninger <curt@lab404.com> Subject: Re: BOOK.REVIEW: Internet Art by Rachel Greene Hi Eduardo (and all), This was my first semester to teach Rachel's book in my net art class: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://lab404.com/373/">http://lab404.com/373/</a> Mostly it applies to the initial "network" section of the course, and then another part (her section on "generative software art") applies to the "open interactivity" section of the course. I can't help but compare Rachel's book to Christiane Paul's "Digital Art" book in the same Thames & Hudson "world of art" series. Paul's book works for me because of her curatorial perspicacity. She splits the book into two main sections – 1.digital tools used to make old media art + 2.art whose media itself is digital. Then she approaches the latter section (the main focus of the book) from two overlapping but usefully distinct perspectives – 1. a formalistic perspective which examines the work per its use of media + 2. a conceptual perspective which examines the work per its conceptual themes. I teach Paul's book in the digital art section of this course ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://lab404.com/438">http://lab404.com/438</a> ). It's a studio course so students are working on their own digital art projects as they read the text. The structure of Paul's book is perfect in this pedagogical context because it foregrounds the differences between media and concept. Students get it. My main critique of Greene's book is that her categories are too multiform and not as sensible as they could be. For instance, why are <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com">http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com</a> and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://learningtoloveyoumore.com">http://learningtoloveyoumore.com</a> under "low-fi aesthetics"? The former has more to do with identity; the latter has more to do with outsider art and network collaboration. In the chapter "Themes in Internet Art," Greene lists "Turn of the Millennium, War, and the Dotcom Crash" and "The Crash of 2000" as 2 of her 7 themes. Curious. Greene's book seems to want to approach net art through two grids – a net.art historical one (how many more times can Olia Lialina's work be referenced?) + a "conceptaul" one (as Eduardo points out). The problem is, both grids are applied simultanously. There's nothing wrong with applying two grids (as evidenced by Paul's successful application of media + theme grids), but it is more effective when done systematically rather than simultaneously. Greene's chapter titles suggest an attempted systematic approach (1. early internet art, 2. Isolating the Elements, 3. Themes in Internet Art, 4. Art for networks). The "elements" are supposed to be formalistic approaches, and the "themes" are suppsed to be thematic approaches, but their subsections often overlap and iterate in a way that makes systematic instruction problematic. And why a separate section called "art for networks?" Isn't it all art for networks? To me, "net.art" (1994-1999?) is the door that all "net art" came through, but those practices and approaches no longer define or even usefully delineate the breadth of "net art." So if you let "net.art" be your rubric for unpacking all of "net art," you're going to run into some taxonomical difficulties. The thing I find most useful about "Internet Art" is the way Greene traces the historical developments of net art in light of their concurrent political, economic, and cultural climates. And her first hand research into the early net.art scene is invaluable for someone like me who wasn't there. peace, curt Eduardo Navas wrote: > BOOK.REVIEW: Internet Art by Rachel Greene > BY: Eduardo Navas > > For Net Art Review > <a rel="nofollow" href="http://netartreview.net">http://netartreview.net</a> > <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netartreview.net/monthly/0205.2.html">http://www.netartreview.net/monthly/0205.2.html</a> > > The Internet has been around for over ten years and it is already > developing a detailed history. Or perhaps histories (pluralities) > might be a better way of contextualizing the legitimating process > that > historiography attempts to accomplish. Contributing to this conundrum > is Internet Art by Rachel Greene. > > The book is ambitious as it tackles the complex web of activities in > internet art from its early days to the beginning of our new century, > something that is not easy to accomplish in under 225 pages, most of > which consists of images. Yet, Greene develops a cohesive narrative > of > the multifaceted online activities that have come to be labeled as > ï¿½internet art.ï¿½ > > The book is divided into an introduction and four chapters. It begins > with a brief history of computer technology and its relation to > preceding art practices, moving through early internet art including > specific forms such as e-mail art, browser art and hypertext, > tactical > media, databases and games, networks, criticism of e-commerce and > collaborations to name just a few of the many categories. > > Greene takes a chronological approach throughout the introduction > and > the first chapter, then moves on to focus on specific strategies or > thematics and writes about works that were made in 1995 in direct > juxtaposition with others done in later years. Greene contextualizes > internet art as an extension of art practices that are now part of > the > mainstream artworld. Artists like Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, > Rirkrit > Tiravanija, Tony Oursler, Cindy Sherman, and Valle Export among many > others are cited as predecessors of internet art, not necessarily in > technological terms, but rather in ideological explorations of > communication in art practice. The already well-known early net > artists like Vuk Cosic Heath Bunting, Olia Lialina, Jodi.org, Alexei > Shulgin are mentioned along with others like Clover Cleary, Annie > Abrahams, and Andy Deck who can be considered part of a second > online > generation. > > Greene is quite aware of the problematics in writing a history book > and > is quick to make her disclaimer in the very first pages, when she > explains that due to limited space, she is not able to include > several > of the works she is interested in and that therefore she offers an > extensive list of resources in the appendix. Greene sees Internet Art > functioning as "one of those early portals, offering paths for > readers > wishing to explore the fields and histories of contemporary art and > media." (7) And playing the role of a portal the book does very well. > Those who have already read the book and were part of online > communities during the early days of the net as well as today would > agree. > > But the book does have a specific position worth deconstructing. To > begin, it imposes a post-conceptual narrative on many of the works > discussed, as Greene states, "I relate the ways in which internet art > is indebted to conceptual art through its emphasis on audience > interaction, transfer of information and use of networks, > simultaneously by passing the autonomous status traditionally > ascribed > to art objects." (10) This can mean one of two things, either that > all > the artists who make internet art have an implicit relation to > conceptual art or that only those artists who have such connection > are > included in the book. The problem behind this statement goes further > if > we consider the possibility that some of the artists included in the > book may not actually have any relation to conceptual art; this would > mean that an ideological imposition is at work. In any case, Greene > admits to writing a specific type of history. This maneuver makes the > assimilation of internet art by the mainstream artworld easier by > generalizing its complex position (which Greene is careful to > acknowledge in the introduction) to create a direct connection to the > art cannon in a way that the rest of the artworld is able to > understand. > > Greeneï¿½s approach exposes a particular contention at play in > historiography today, which is to create a historical narrative > knowing that it is not expected to be part of a "total history" or a > "general history" but simply "a history"ï¿½her history, her own little > narrative. And because of this Greene should not be criticized for > taking license in focusing on her interest. But what her position > does > expose is the limitation of what she considers to be the extension of > a > conceptual art practice, as she fails to include many artists in > various parts of the world who were also active online since at least > the mid-nineties. It seems impossible for many artists across the > globe to be unaware of conceptual practices; that is if we are > willing > to take Greeneï¿½s assertion at face value and claim that she is > focusing > on those artists who are specifically extending conceptual art > practice > on to the net. Artists from Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America > who do share a conceptual online art practice are simply excluded; > organizations such as Sarai and Latin American Net Art are instead > included as resources in the appendix page. This would not be a > problem if Greene contextualized her approach more specifically and > explained that her focus is mainly on those artists who are part of > the North American and European discourse, in which artists like Yong > Hae Chang from Korea have been included when they are able to make > strong enough connections through ongoing exhibitions in the > Eurocentric network. But instead her failure to do this simple > clarification turns her history into yet another Western imposition > on > the rest of the world. > > This ties to the most problematic aspect of the book. While Greene > connects her history of net art to Dada, Fluxus and happenings, she > fails to specifically define conceptualism. If she had done this, she > may have realized that she was referring to a very specific > narrative, > and not an art practice that implicitly spans across the globe. For > Greene to assume that the reader knows what she is referring to when > she uses the term "conceptual" as the "bypassing [of] the autonomous > status traditionally ascribed to art objects" is not enough. Just as > she took the time to briefly explain the history of the computer, so > she also had to take the time to explain the history of conceptual > art > practice so that the reader understands her ideological and > cartographical position. > > Regardless of all this, one could claim that it is impossible to > cover > everything is a book that would usually be dismissed as a laundry > list > by many critics. Instead, I am amazed by Greeneï¿½s ability to cover > so > much ground with the strict criteria imposed by Thames and Hudson on > its writers in a book series that promotes itself for providing lots > of > images. The book reads well and does justice to those artists who are > included in it. And because of this, the reader becomes even more > aware that the oversight of the ideological subtleties I have > mentioned cannot be blamed on the limit of space. > > Regardless of my criticism, I do think the book is important in the > necessary historicizing of net art. I admire Rachel Greene for taking > on the challenging task of writing a version of an extremely complex > online activity. And I do recommend Internet Art to anyone who is > unfamiliar with net art history. It is now up to those who follow > after Greene to look out for ideological problematics and to do > their > best to keep them at bay. > > ————— > Eduardo Navas. February, 2004. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 9. Date: 2.15.05-2.17.05 From: Jo-Anne Green <jo@turbulence.org>, Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com>, Pall Thayer <palli@pallit.lhi.is>, Kate Armstrong <kate@katearmstrong.com>, Michael Szpakowski <szpako@yahoo.com> Subject: Turbulence Commission: "Grafik Dynamo" by Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett Jo-Anne Green <jo@turbulence.org> posted: February 15, 2005 Turbulence Commission: "Grafik Dynamo" by Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/works/dynamo/index.html">http://turbulence.org/works/dynamo/index.html</a> "Grafik Dynamo" is a net art work that loads live images from blogs and news sources on the web into a live action comic strip. The work is currently using a feed from LiveJournal. The images are accompanied by narrative fragments that are dynamically loaded into speech and thought bubbles and randomly displayed. Animating the comic strip using dynamic web content opens up the genre in a new way: together, the images and narrative serve to create a strange, dislocated notion of sense and expectation in the reader, as they are sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes perfectly in sync, and always moving and changing. The work takes an experimental approach to open ended narrative, positing a new hybrid between the flow of data animating the work and the formal parameter that comprises its structure. "Grafik Dynamo" is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. BIOGRAPHIES KATE ARMSTRONG is a new media artist and writer who has lived and worked in Canada, France, Japan, Scotland, and the United States. Her work focuses on the creation of experimental narrative forms, particularly works in which poetics are inserted within the functional framework of computer programs, and performative pieces in which computer functionality is merged with physical space. Armstrong has worked with a variety of forms including short films, theatre, essays, net art, performative network events, psychogeography and installation. Her work has been exhibited internationally. She has written for P.S 1/MoMA, the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, TrAce, Year Zero One, and The Thing, as well as for catalogue publications. Armstrong's first book, "Crisis & Repetition: Essays on Art and Culture," was published in 2002. MICHAEL TIPPETT has a decade of experience creating and managing technology businesses. With expertise in design, namespace, distributed and mobile media, and wireless technology, Tippett's media background is in pioneering new forms of networked content. His newest venture, NowPublic.com, uses emerging technologies like camera phones, digital cameras, blogging tools and RSS standards to change the way news is created and distributed. It can be thought of as "reality news" - providing a hub for citizen reporting and for viewing world events though the prism of an alternate, distributed, real time media. For more information about Turbulence, please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org">http://turbulence.org</a> + + + Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com> replied: That's quite interesting, Kate and Michael. Could you say something about the texts; there's the upper and lower texts…how were they composed–I presume Kate wrote or assembled the texts? Also, the visuals plus the thought bubbles are much better visually than I would have expected with something dynamic textually. Gotta say I prefer this to standard comics. ja + + + Pall Thayer <palli@pallit.lhi.is> replied: I also really like the Roy Lichtenstein reference and would also like to hear a little more about the texts, whether they are gathered or written specifically for the work. Pall + + + Kate Armstrong <kate@katearmstrong.com> replied: Hi Jim & Pall Thanks for the comments about Grafik Dynamo. Yes, I wrote the texts. They are pulled from a flat file and randomly fed into the piece using javascript. There are two documents, one for the thought and speech bubbles (upper texts) and one for the expository notes (lower texts). So there is a level of organization that governs the way the fragments are distributed. Regarding the fragments themselves: I wanted to use some of the formal structures you find in comics, such as "meanwhile…", lots of exclamation points, and speech patterns like "ack!" etc. I was initially drawn to using references to science fiction and 1940s spy fiction. I was loving the brilliant innocence of both comics and that literature, where everything happens in either London or Damascus, people carry around suitcases of gems, and scientists become deranged by their magnificent powers. As I was working with these themes I found myself adding references to things that seemed more current, like evangelicals, lobbyists and apocalypse, and started to pull in other concerns, not usually associated with comics or hard-boiled crime novels, such as existential freedom & metaphysical structures like extra-temporal essence. These things started to feed back on each other so that all of a sudden I was discovering implications that philosophical states were being influenced by these mysterious machines, or that powerful non-specific figures were motivated by the desire to have outre religious experiences. So that's how the material evolved in the beginning. When it started to run against the influx of images I was happy to see that these associations became even more complex. Kate + + + Jim Andrews replied: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/Works/dynamo/index.html">http://turbulence.org/Works/dynamo/index.html</a> When it's firing on all cylinders, it's pretty amazing. The texts are secretly fueling the invisible mechanisms! Occassionally, it's oddly revelatory, the explosive moment nearing the source of all! The deity is only present for a moment! Many of the images are too small and should be passed over for larger images. Not sure if the size of the image is readable so as to pass it over if too small. Alternatively, the images could be centered vertically in the panels. Or perhaps the deity is only hiding on such occassions behind the thought bubble. Thanks, Kate, really strong work. ja + + + Michael Szpakowski <szpako@yahoo.com> replied: Yes! this is *tremendous.* < Many of the images are too small and should be passed over for larger images. Not sure if the size of the image is readable so as to pass it over if too small. Alternatively, the images could be centered vertically in the panels.> agree with Jim -it's oddly disappointing to hit a patch of semi concealed images in what is such a rewarding piece, part of whose strength lies in the *illusion* of intentional narrative -so what looks like a frame uncompleted, unthought through, brings us up short… Still fantastic though! michael + + + Jim Andrews replied: Perhaps it's simply that I'm growing senile, but I am bored quickly with conventional narrative, poemy poems, songy songs, filmy films, etc etc. It's a painful and ill-tempered condition! I just really long to see pieces like Grafik Dynamo that make some space momentarily for the deity or erm something I haven't already experienced in art. Work that doesn't reproduce art from some other media, whether it be film or visual art or poetry or whatever. I think it takes a lot of doing to make that sort of art, a lot of abandoning presuppositions. And also usually some willingness to actually learn how to do stuff with digital technology and also unlearn the conventional uses of it, find the juice in it. William S. Burroughs said that when you cut tape, the future leaks out. And it does, you know, it can be that exciting, that unexpected, that fresh. So thanks, Kate. Your Graphik Dynamo really made my day. ja + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 10. Date: 2.18.05 From: joni taylor <joni@octapod.org> Subject: Transmediale 2005 Transmediale 2005 International Media Art Festival Berlin Basics 4-8 Feb 2005 www.transmediale.de <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.transmediale.de/">http://www.transmediale.de/</a>> Joni Taylor While enthusiastically watching Norwegien performer Single Unit manipulate his electric guitar through a keyboard to create industrial-rock chaos and eardrum-blasting feedback, the Italian self proclaimed "VJ" next to me sighed that he had stopped listening to "this kind of music" 15 years ago. Aghast, I admitted that I had grown up with technological music and found this hybrid of the raw and the electronic simply great. And I was not the only one of the "electro-rati" getting excited by something that was more than just an apple laptop with a human plug-in. This was the theme of the 2005 Transmediale : BASICS. Not a "back to basics," but a "next level basics," a re-definition of what is essential for media art in the future, looking at what constitutes our Basic levels of NEED, KNOWLEDGE, SECURITY, and COMMUNICATION. The Transmediale takes place annually at the House of World Cultures, nicknamed the "Pregnant Oyster" by Berliners and situated in the Tiergarden park. Concurrent to the four-day long programme of exhibitions, screenings, performances and lectures, was a selection of partner events, as well as the Club Transmediale, the electronic music component. The festival also takes place a week before the Berlinale film festival, and has come along way from being just the Berlinale video art programme. The "Workspace" area presented projects where these basic human needs—shelter, communication, security–seemed to overlap, but all managed to bring up important ethical and timely discussions. Prisoners Inventions' by Temporary Services (US) and Angelo displayed accurate re-makes of devices designed by prisoners out of sheer necessity. An ongoing dialogue with Angelo, a long term "incarcerated artist" has resulted in a publication of these thoroughly inventive and hi/lo tech objects. The 78 inventions ranged from sex aids for horny prisoners made from plastic bags and bedding material, to a large cup made from paper-mache so that the prisoner could indulge in a bigger dose of cordial. The Temporary Services archive of public phenomena showed new uses for the street, such as the hilarious local examples of roadside objects and the not-so-hilarious roadside memorials to gang slayings and car crashes. ParaSITE by Michael Rakowitz (US), although an older project and seen the rounds of many an art festival, was still a refreshing look at urban planning and shows how he was able to provide emergency housing for the homeless, by hooking up simple plastic tents to hot air vents. His paraSITE house seemed out of place positioned in the glossy wired-up/wireless environment of the exhibition, however his comments about buying up car-parking spaces for alternative uses (like camping!) showed great insight into new forms of "legitimate participation". Corporate Fallout Detector by James Patten (US) is a hand-held device that "maps" the ethical values of supermarket products by their barcodes, a sort of They Rule at your fingertips. Patten created a special database for the European version utilising info from sites such as ethicalconsumer.org and gepir.org, a bar code database. Data privacy is a hot topic with German privacy advocators–and with a lot of local hackers–and the German group Foebud "hacked" the festival itself, setting up an ad-hoc info stand. Their exposé of the RFID tagging of razors, shampoo (and, surprisingly: Philadelphia cream cheese) by the new Metro Future Store in Germany led to them winning the Big Brother award for 2004. (www.foebud.org <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.foebud.org/">http://www.foebud.org/</a>> ) This consumer rights panic was also seen in Chris Oakley's (UK) video "The Catalogue", where humans are followed around the mall flashing their personal buying capacity. On a larger scale, Marco Peljhan (SI) from Macrolab and Project ATOL showed the power of self-initiated surveillance in the project "S-77CCR", a reconnaissance plane that turns surveillance on itself by spying on and observing public spaces. "Eye in the sky, democracy in the street" could be available for everyone, soon. The works in the workspace showed differing notions of basic Needs. But while seeing how "wild" our smoked salmon really is, and licensing our tunes out through creative commons may be a necessity for some, the work by artists from non-western countries showed another side. The inclusion of artists from Indonesia and the Middle East in the Xeno-Tech presentations added a refreshing and at times eye opening look at the Needs of Media Art coming from outside the "usual suspects" ( The Other). The coincidentally named Tsumanii.net from Singapore spoke about the vulnerability of the internet in Asia, and the internet being sensitive to both physical and manmade problems. (The Asia Pacific Cable network broke down in 1999 due to an earthquake). Nat Muller's (NL) talk about first person shooter games developed by the Hezbolla for educational purposes, and based on real events in Lebanon, was a stark reality compared to the "fictionalised" enemy characterisation of other first person shooters. (Usually Arabic). In the film "Chic points - Fashion for Israeli Checkpoints" by Sharif Waked (Palestine), sexy male models parade the catwalk in revealing outfits. Only afterwards in the numerous scenes of Arab men lifting their shirts as they pass Israeli border guards is the irony revealed. In contrast, the video "Planet of the Arabs" by Jackie Salloum (US) was a fast-paced cut up of mass media images, "more racist than the New York Times." Ali Baba and the 40 thieves put on the stand. Other speakers included Sala-Manca, a grassroots art collective from Jerusalem, and X-urban (Turkey) who work with simple methods of smuggling fuel to Iraq. Arnaldo Caro Antich from Radio Havana (Cuba) spoke about the technological effect of the US embargo on Cuba, and having to access the internet and work with re-cycled technology in new and sustainable ways. Last year the Transmediale celebrity jailbot was Negri. This year it was Steve Kurtz (US), talking about the McCarthy-esqe times of America today and the ensuing problems with defending the Critical Art Ensemble against convictions of Bio-terrorism. It was in the Exhibition that the BASICS of Media Art were not just challenged, but redefined by the festival itself. This year the jury removed the categories of Image, Interaction and Software, allowing the works to speak for themselves, "for their aesthetic and conceptual value and not so much on the basis of their technical qualities." In fact they encouraged more "traditional" media to be submitted in the coming years. There seems to be a need for the Transmediale to connect "new media art" and the art world at large. But on what level? It was in the Exhibition that the BASICS of Media Art were not just challenged, but redefined by the festival itself. This year the jury removed the categories of Image, Interaction and Software, allowing the works to speak for themselves – "for their aesthetic and conceptual value and not so much on the basis of their technical qualities." In fact they encouraged more "traditional" media to be submitted in the coming years. Transmediale is aiming to connect "new media art" and the art world at large, to make the technological more accessible to the general art going public, and this was clear by the choice of winners. This year, the prize was split between 3 works–"Untitled 5" by Camille Utterback (US), "Suburbs of the Void by Thomas" Köner (de) and "Shockbot Crejulio" by 5voltcore (Au). "Untitled 5" was a work that directly referenced traditional art practice. The installation allowed the user to ?draw and paint? by interacting with the software–one's physical movement and location leaving traces on the white gallery wall. The Jury stated that the piece "was nominated for its sophisticated, software-driven and generative composition of painting and drawing, which remains an under-explored area in the field of new media arts." This was certainly a turning away from any socio-political implications the technology spoke of, and a positive nod in the direction of the pure aesthetics the Jury were looking for–art for arts sake. "Suburbs of the Void" was a very still one-screen video work depicting a slowly moving street scene, which was in fact a one day recording made by a surveillance camera in Finland. Once again, this choice mirrored the traditional 4-sided art work in the white cube, and many viewed it as one would a painting–sitting, contemplating. Here was Art made using surveillance technology, with no Orwellian fears or public/private comments in sight. A step backwards or a timely acceptance that all media can be art? However the other winner, "Shockbot Crejulio," by 5voltcore, as well as "Pongmechanik" by Niklas Roy (De) and "tele-Typ lo 15? by C-base (De) did all display the inner workings of the digital, simplifying them back to the machine in humorous and ironic ways. The Public Netbase (Au) installation offered a selection of documentation about their important contributions to the fight for net freedoms and digital rights, and a lot of good art in the middle. Key the video capturing the 010010111010101 Nike park hoax. Perhaps the idea now is to just keep surging forward, blinking at the past, and grabbing a bundle of tools on the way to take to the future. To be upgraded of course. This clash of old and new came to me again as I sat listening to the MP3s from Soundscape FM:Berlin (Umatic, NL), a participatory audio project of recording taken from sites around Berlin. As I listened on a new laptop to the sounds taken on top of Teufelsberg (a mountain outside of Berlin created from the rubble left over from World War 2), I watched Arnaldo Caro Antich from Radio Cuba giving his workshop on building a short wave transistor radio, weaving his cables through the gallery . I thought how much further this is all going to go, and I was Basically …happy. Joni Taylor www.temporaryservices.org www.possibleutopia.com/mike www.web.media.mit.edu/-jpatten/cfd www.berlin.soundscape-fm.net www.makrolab.ljudmila.org www.camilleutterback.com www.keoner.de www.5voltcore.com www.c-base.org www.t0.or.at www.cyberniklas.de/pongmechanik www.foebud.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Rhizome Digest is supported by grants from The Charles Engelhard Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome Digest is filtered by Kevin McGarry (kevin@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 10, number 8. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org are encouraged. 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