RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.13.02

discussion

Posted Sept. 12 2002 20:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.13.02

RHIZOME DIGEST: September 13, 2002 Content: +announcement+ 1. Konrad Becker: Dark Markets Conference 3.+ 4.10.2002 2. nikola tosic: meet in a nice restaurant | istanbul | 18-19-20 october 3. Tilman Baumgärtel: install.exe - Jodi exhibition in Basel @plug in +work+ 4. annette@niftycorp.com: twinklepop*The Clientele +comment+ 5. Mark Tribe: Nungu +feature+ 6. David Mandl: Review of *CTRL [SPACE]* + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 9.7.02 From: Konrad Becker (kb@t0.or.at) Subject: Dark Markets Conference 3.+ 4.10.2002 -> DARK MARKETS -> Infopolitics, Electronic Media and Democracy in Times of Crisis Dark Markets is a two day strategic conference that will look into the state of the art of media politics, information technologies, and theories of democracy. A variety of international speakers will inquire into strategies of oppositional movements and discuss the role of new media. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://darkmarkets.t0.or.at/">http://darkmarkets.t0.or.at/</a> Thursday 3 + Friday 4 October 2002 Conference by Public Netbase/t0 Vienna Concept: Geert Lovink (NL/AU), Florian Schneider (DE), Konrad Becker (AT) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ **MUTE MAGAZINE NO. 24 OUT NOW** 'Knocking Holes in Fortress Europe', Florian Schneider on no-border activism in the EU; Brian Holmes on resistance to networked individualism; Alvaro de los Angeles on e-Valencia.org and Andrew Goffey on the politics of immunology. More @ <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.metamute.com/">http://www.metamute.com/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 9.11.02 From: nikola tosic (nikola@tosic.com) Subject: meet in a nice restaurant | istanbul | 18-19-20 october meet in a nice restaurant location _ istanbul time _ 18 19 20 october is an event which consists of three dinners. goal is to connect people who are related to new media. so far event took place two times in milano, once in montpellier and once in roma. from 18th until 20th october it is moving to istanbul. if you are a new media artist, designer, programmer, manager, teacher, student, user or thinker and you wish to participate please send bellow information to nikola@tosic.com: 1) name? 2) position? 3) company? 4) email? 5) url? 6) contact phone? 7) city? 8) country? location and prices of dinners and information about other activities will be announced later to ones who register. for more information email nikola@tosic.com. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) publishes monthly issues exploring the work of contemporary artists, scientists, developers of new media resources, and other practitioners working at the intersection of art,science and technology. Subscribe now at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/INFORMATION/subscribe.html">http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/INFORMATION/subscribe.html</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 9.13.02 From: Tilman Baumgärtel Subject: install.exe - Jodi exhibition in Basel @plug in install.exe/Jodi Opening Sept. 18th, 7pm Introduction by Tilman Baumgärtel and Annette Schindler Exhibition in [plug in] from September 18. till October 27. 2002 Exhibition-Finissage and Publication-Opening October 26. 2002, 9pm as a part of VIPER 22 Internationa Festival fro Film Video and New Media They simulate error messages, viruses, computer crashes. They overflow your screen with never ending streams of colorful hieroglyphs. They revitalize dead computer languages. Jodi's work is about what lies behind the well known surface of the browser, its about the code. And it is about the dialectics between humans and technology, between controlling and beeing controlled: Jodi lets us experience these things, makes us navigate though irritating systems and become aware of our own blindness. Jodi finds a poignant visual language for these realities of life. A language which comes across not only for computer nerds but also for all of those of us who ever sat down at a computer. Jodi (Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, Barcelona) were among the first ones, who used the browser as an artistic tool. They succeeded in developing a precise artistic language with digital means and to create some substantial content with it. No one had set an example for them. They were the ones to set standards and provide the reference. With install.exe Jodi sabotages the supposed certainty that their art can only take place on the internet: They present an exhibition in the physical space of [plug in] as well as a print publication. For orthodox approaches to net art this means breaking a taboo. For Jodi it's the consequence of their disturbance-tactic. Install.exe is the first comprehensive solo show of Jodis work, and their first solo print publication. The project is a collaboration of [plug in] Basel and network agent Tilman Baumgärtel from Berlin. As a independent writer he publishes on media- and internet-culture and has set standards on the mediation of netart with his two books net.art Materialien zur Netzkunst, Nürnberg 1999 und net.art.2.0 Neue Materialien zur Netzkunst/new materials on net art, Nürnberg 2001. The print publication is designed by the young Swiss designer Rafael Koch in close collaboration with Jodi. Flipping though the pages, the book will show only Jodi-images at first sight. Inside the fold out image pages the texts are to be found: Contributions in english and german from Annette Schindler and Waling Boers, Tilman Baumgärtel, Frederic Madre, Pit Schulz, Florian Cramer and Josephine Bosma. The book is edited by [plug in], Tilman Baumgärtel and BüroFriedrich and published by Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel. 112 pages, colour illustrations, CHFr. 38.-, Euro 26.- plus shipping. Jodi and Tilman Baumgärtel will be present at the opening of the exhibition. For further informations or to set um a date for an interveiw please contact [plug in], Annette Schindler, tel +41-(0)61-283 6050, email: asch Guided tours: Deutsch: Sat, Sept. 21. 7pm and Sat, Oct. 12. 4pm Espanol: Wed, Sept. 25, 8pm Italiano: Wed, Oct. 9th, 8pm Francais: Wed. Oct. 16th, 8pm Englisch: Sat. Oct. 19th, 8pm [plug in], St. Alban-Rheinweg 64, 4052 Basel, www.weallplugin.org opening hours: Wed, 6pm-10pm; Thur Sat, 6pm-8pm special opening hours during Viper 22 International Festival for Film Videoo and New Media, Oct. 23 27: daily noon - 8pm install.exe / Jodi exhibition and publication have been generously supported by: Kanton Basel-Stadt; Christoph Merian Foundation; Mondriaan Foundation; Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation; Migros Kulturprozent and Jacqueline Spengler Foundation, Fonds voor beeldende kunsten, vormgeving en bouwkunst – Annette Schindler [Plug in] St. Alban-Rheinweg 64 CH - 4052 Basel Tel: +41-61-283 60 50 Email: aschindler@iplugin.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 9.13.02 >From annette@niftycorp.com Subject: twinklepop*The Clientele twinklepop is proud to present this wonderously vibrant and pulsating thing… )) The Clientele's 'Joseph Cornell' (( animation by Gustavo Valgañón :: valganon.com <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.neumu.net/twinklepop">http://www.neumu.net/twinklepop</a> Gustavo's site valganon.com is home to a collection of slick traditional animations, and the sexy morphing globules he calls "SpaceMath". But the animation he's created for twinklePop is nothing like any that work. It's completely fresh. An animated hommage to artist Joseph Cornell who's work once prompted him do some serious thinking about the nature of art. Here are some of Gustavo's notes about Joseph Cornell's influence on his ideas about art: "The concept of art as the desire to own something that you think is beautiful and hang it on the wall of your home for everyone to see. It is not very useful to want to own that, but you develop an attraction for it that is hard to explain. It has nothing to do with entertainment or consumption. There is a certain transcendental factor in it because by wanting to own it you want it to be a part of your life, grow with it and show it to your grandchildren in future, wanting to preserve it for future generations." click "// style" in the twinklepop interface to read more of Gustavo's notes + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 9.10.02 From: Mark Tribe (mt@rhizome.org) Subject: Nungu Greetings Rhizomers: I am writing to follow up on the controversy surrounding one of our commissioned projects, Telematic Surveillance by Nungu. In Nungu's proposal site <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nungu.com/[update[02">http://www.nungu.com/[update[02</a>]>, which was submitted by Beatrice (Bea) Gibson, Nungu is described as a "fluid collective." The proposal included a description of Nungu as a group, as well as Bea's personal resume, but it did not list her other collaborators or describe their involvement. In early August, Bea notified us of her failure to credit her collaborators and updated the proposal site with those names. She also informed us that a former collaborator, Vishal Rawlley, would likely contact us soon in an attempt to discredit her. On August 19, Vishal did contact us. His email began: "This is to bring to your notice that Miss Beatrice Gibson of nungu.com in her grant application to Rhizome has faked facts with the willful intent to cheat the grant authorities and has thus been awarded the grant on a false basis." Vishal then went on to explain how he felt exploited by Bea's actions. In the days that followed, we received several emails in support of Bea and several others in support of Vishal. Meanwhile, a discussion of the matter ensued on the Rhizome.org web site and on the Rhizome Raw email list (the Fresh Texts page and the Raw list now mirror each other). There were calls for me to make a public statement and I posted a message saying that I had looked into the matter and did not believe that Nungu had received the commission under false pretenses. This statement was premature; I should have investigated more thoroughly before drawing conclusions. After sending that message, several people posted to the list, arguing that we had not looked into the matter sufficiently and were not taking it seriously. I then posted to the list to say that I would look into the matter more carefully and report back, and began a more thorough investigation. I contacted Vishal, Bea, every current or former Nungu collaborator or contributor of whom I am aware, members of Serai (a new media initiative based in Delhi that has worked with Nungu), representatives of fictive.net and the Daniel Langlois Foundation (both have commissioned or are currently commissioning Nungu projects), and the commission jurors. I have now heard back from almost every current or former Nungu collaborator and from the other parties mentioned above. It has been difficult to gain a clear picture of the situation from this distance (I am in New York, Bea is in London, Vishal and most of the other collaborators are in India). I received many conflicting reports. Although the current Nungu collaborators, and some of the former ones, are supportive of Bea and of Nungu, many of the former collaborators are not. Specifically, some former collaborators feel that Bea has exploited or misappropriated their work to gain credibility for herself and win commissions and grants. This is of great concern to me and to Rhizome.org. We take these accusations very seriously. It is, to say the least, a very complicated and difficult situation. Although we in no way condone Bea's initial failure to credit her collaborators, it is not our place to evaluate her intentions. Commissions are awarded for future projects, not past work. Proposals are evaluated on the merits of the proposed project. Work samples are used primarily to evaluate the artist or group's ability to successfully complete the proposed project. We do not believe that the commission jury woud have acted differently had Bea adequately credited her collaborators in the initial proposal. Bea has now updated the Nungu resume and has admitted her mistake. Having concluded my investigation, I do not feel it would be appropriate for Rhizome.org to take any further action or to involve ourselves further in any ongoing dispute between current and former Nungu members. Although supporting collaborations can be problematic–groups can break up or get enmeshed in controversy–we remain committed to supporting the work of collaborative groups through our commissioning program. In the future, we will go to greater lengths to ensure that all members of collaborative groups that we support are credited fairly and that commissioned projects are not the subject of ongoing disputes. The commissioned projects will launch on the Rhizome.org web site on September 30, and will be exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York from October 1 through November 3. We invite all current and former Nungu collaborators to participate actively in the Rhizome.org community and to send in proposals for the next round of Rhizome commissions. Sincerely Yours, Mark Tribe + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 9.9.02 From: David Mandl (dmandl@panix.com) Subject: Review of *CTRL [SPACE]* ——- CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother Edited by Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne, and Peter Weibel MIT Press/ZKM Center for Art and Media (hardbound, 655 pp.) Review by Dave Mandl There's a certain thrill in having the odd rule to break, the occasional shitty product to ostentatiously not waste your money on. In 2002, dumping your TV set or eating food that hasn't had the taste and nutrients removed is practically an act of sedition–making dinnertime that much more fun. Hakim Bey's now-classic "Temporary Autonomous Zone" (originally subtitled "The Pleasures of Disappearance") was an ode to the joys of building a utopia in the System's own cracks, which were still easy enough to find back in 1991. But what happens when food that hasn't been genetically modified simply doesn't exist, when every hole in the landscape has armed guards and an airport-style scanner stationed nearby? While the infrastructure of the modern surveillance state has been building up steadily since the dawn of the state itself, there's no doubt that the curve has turned sharply upward in the past decade, with the biggest spike of all coming in the short time since the events of 9/11. Power's gaze now reaches–often quite openly–into virtually every corner of the populated world, not only public streets and living rooms, but our own bodies and beyond. Is disappearance even remotely possible anymore? Will privacy exist in any form ten years from now? With uncanny timing, the exhibition "CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother," an overview of decades of artistic discourse about "the merits, uses, and limits of surveillance," opened at the Center for Art and Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, in October 2001. The exhibition's massive and beautifully produced catalog, published this year, supplements the work from the show with contributions by more than two dozen prominent theoreticians, historians, social critics, and investigative reporters. Together, these art works and essays form what is surely one of the most wide-ranging looks at surveillance, its pleasures, and its horrors ever undertaken. Not surprisingly, much of the material here is unremittingly bleak. Filmmaker Harun Farocki, who has made extensive use of footage taken from prison surveillance cameras, talks about the total control and dehumanization achieved by the technological systems employed in modern prisons (which no longer even pretend to aim for "rehabilitation"). Prisoners' contact with humans is kept to an absolute minimum, with iris-scanners checking their identities and electronic chairs subduing them when necessary. Fights between prisoners are sometimes staged by the guards, who bet on the outcome. Timothy Druckrey's "Secreted Agents, Security Leaks, Immune Systems, Spore Wars" details the nearly unlimited powers that the U.S. government has granted itself in the wake of 9/11, and the new generation of monitoring systems that are being developed or considered as a result: face-scanning software (already used covertly on every attendee of the last Super Bowl); National Identity cards; "DNA identification"; "tissue-based biodetectors"; etc. Journalist Duncan Campbell provides a history and taxonomy of Echelon, the NSA's global spy system, which is already capable of intercepting most of the world's satellite coommunication, and will be able to do much more in a few years. On a more positive note, every oppressive regime inspires a resistance movement, and contemporary surveillance technology is no exception. Druckrey relates how two marines became "genetic conscientious objectors" by refusing to provide DNA samples to the Department of Defense. Outdoor surveillance cameras are a favorite target of resisters: Photographer Frank Thiel's series *City TV* reveals 101 "hidden" cameras on the streets of Berlin; the New York Civil Liberties Union has blown the cover on most of New York's surveillance cameras (2,397 of them) with an extensive map; and the Institute for Applied Autonomy, also in New York, has created a web-based app, iSee, that will create a "path of least surveillance" for you given the starting end ending point of your journey. But will there *be* such a path when the city is completely blanketed with cameras? Even worse, will jaded pedestrians eventually find the cameras unremarkable? (Compare your reaction the first time you saw an advertisement in a movie theater to your reaction now.) Other works in *CTRL [SPACE]* explore the possibilites of using the machinery of surveillance for one's own ends, or simply rejoicing in the liberatory "detournement" of oppressive technologies. Webcams naturally make several appearances–the legendary JenniCam, Josh Harris's ill-fated "We Live in Public"–as does Andy Warhol's obsessive video-voyeurism. But Paul Virilio, who acknowledges the benefits of a decentralized, worldwide network of web cameras, wonders whether this network won't also allow for massive monitoring of the population (in effect, inviting Big Brother into our own homes), not to mention "universal advertising." Subverting oppressive technologies is fun, healthy, and necessary under extreme conditions–as any former citizen of the Soviet Union can attest. A life of gloom-and-doom is no life. But resistance at the source is equally important, especially in the post-9/11 world. While *CTRL [SPACE]* makes no pretence of being an activist tool, it would be nice to see more works in the collection by the Luddites of today (not in the inaccurate sense of "anti-technology," but in the sense of "anti-*oppressive*-technology"). Hacktivism, the Critical Art Ensemble's Digital Resistance, the ultra-hard-line digital-privacy activism of the Cypherpunks, and thousands of nameless "crackers" all have an important place in this story. [URL for the show: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://ctrlspace.zkm.de/e/">http://ctrlspace.zkm.de/e/</a>] – Dave Mandl dmandl@panix.com davem@wfmu.org <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wfmu.org/~davem">http://www.wfmu.org/~davem</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization. If you value this free publication, please consider making a contribution within your means at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/support">http://rhizome.org/support</a>. Checks and money orders may be sent to Rhizome.org, 115 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and are gratefully acknowledged at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/10.php">http://rhizome.org/info/10.php</a>. Our financial statement is available upon request. 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 Rachel Greene (rachel@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 7, number 37. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome Digest, please contact info@rhizome.org. To unsubscribe from this list, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/subscribe">http://rhizome.org/subscribe</a>. Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the Member Agreement available online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/29.php">http://rhizome.org/info/29.php</a>. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +