<br />RHIZOME DIGEST: December 5, 2003<br /><br />Content:<br /><br />+opportunity+ <br />1. Trebor: Call for Submissions: Conference on Collaboration<br />2. Jamy Sheridan: Experimental Animation teaching opportunity<br />3. Brian Winn: Assistant Professor Position in Digital Media Arts &<br />Technology<br />4. Agence TOPO: Web fiction CIVILITES / CIVILITIES<br /><br />+comment+<br />5. Olga: Dream by Dream, Dreams Come True<br /><br />+thread+<br />6. Perry Garvin, Jeremy Turner, Rachel Greene, Jessica Hammer, Chris<br />Chesher, Donato Mancini: Distributed Creativity Week 3 - Mr. Wong's<br />Soup'Partments<br /><br />+feature+ <br />7. Gloria Sutton: The Contingent Object of Art<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />1.<br /><br />Date: 11.29.03 <br />From: Trebor (trebor@buffalo.edu)<br />Subject: Call for Submissions: Conference on Collaboration<br /><br />Call for Submissions<br /><br />The facilitators of the conference "networks, art & collaboration" now<br />accept submissions for in-person and web-based participation in the<br />"networks, art & collaboration" conference, April 24/25, 2004 at The<br />State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition, we now invite<br />texts for publication in a magazine that will be made available at the<br />conference (see call for texts on the website).<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://freecooperation.org">http://freecooperation.org</a><br /><br />This conference on collaboration will bring together artists, designers,<br />(social) scientists, and engineers in formats such as workshops,<br />lectures, open mic, parties, screenings, interviews, brain storming<br />sessions, and artist presentations ? all aiming at ongoing<br />collaborations and exchange of knowledge. The aim of the conference is<br />to get a deeper understanding of the dynamics of collaboration, models<br />of critical web-based art, and the role media technologies play in the<br />making of social networks. The event seeks ways to go beyond the<br />outmoded top-down conference format and intends to experiment with<br />alternative forms of interactive presentations and debate. Dance,<br />discuss, eat, argue, laugh, learn, celebrate dissent, make new friends,<br />and meet future collaborators.<br /><br />Proposal Deadline: January 20, 2004<br /> <br />You can propose an in-person contribution, or submit a proposal for<br />inclusion in the virtual meet space augmented by web-based<br />presentations.<br /><br />Who should participate?<br />We are seeking contributions from researchers and practitioners<br />(academia, music, activism, art, technology, …) focusing on<br />collaboration. We encourage individuals and groups who are historically<br />underrepresented in these fields to contribute. Submit either<br />individually or team up in a collaboration.<br /><br />In-Person Formats: <br />Some possible forms of participation in person include: brainstorming<br />sessions, interventions and presentations, demos, workshops, panels,<br />dance party, *no lectures.*<br /><br />Virtual Participation Formats:<br />Some possible forms of mediated participation include weblog, wiki,<br />mailinglist, webcast, video conference.<br /><br />Submissions (in person and virtual) are in the following suggested<br />sessions–<br /><br />Track I: <br />Tech skill exchange: peer 2 peer, open source/ free software movement,<br />tools for collaboration/ tutorials, workshops<br /><br />Track II: <br />Models of online cultural production models of critical web-based art/<br />distributed creativity multi-user games, collaborative novel writing/<br />e-poetry<br /><br />Track III: <br />Network architectures (lists, blogs and the quest for<br />meaning),  e-learning, class room collaboration in new media education<br /><br />Track IV: <br />Global social movements / participatory cultures<br /><br />Track V: <br />The high art of collaboration (challenges of collaboration), metaphors<br />of collaboration (family, friendship), scalability<br /><br />TO APPLY:<br />Do you apply to participate in-person or as part of the Virtual<br />Meetspace?<br /><br />Which track do you apply to?<br /><br />Would you like to contribute in-person or as part of the virtual<br />meetspace?<br /><br />Which format would suit your contribution best?<br />(ie. brainstorming sessions, artist presentation, interventions and <br />roundtable presentations, demos, workshops, panels, dance party, *no<br />lectures*)<br /><br />With your proposal submit a 250 word biography.<br /><br />Please also include relevant links.<br /><br />Deadline: January 20, 2004<br /><br />Send proposals to:<br /><br />Geert Lovink geert@xs4all.nl<br />Trebor Scholz treborscholz@earthlink.net<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />2.<br /><br />Date: 12.04.03<br />From: Jamy Sheridan (jamy@arthink.com)<br />Subject: Experimental Animation teaching opportunity<br /><br />The Maryland Institute College of Art seeks a creative individual with<br />experience in one or more of the following: 2D, 3D, algorithmic or<br />experimental computer animation, character animation, animation<br />programming, emerging forms. The successful candidate will teach 9<br />credits per semester of introductory to advanced courses, develop<br />advanced level classes, participate in departmental operations including<br />advising, committee service,departmental and student activities.<br /><br />Required qualifications include an MFA degree or equivalent professional<br />experience; knowledge of contemporary issues; outstanding portfolio of<br />professional work; three years college level teaching experience beyond<br />teaching assistantships or equivalent professional experience. Salary<br />commensurate with experience and college policy; Excellent benefits<br />package.<br /><br />To apply: The College will review applications as received; deadline for<br />final submission is January 16, 2004. Submit letter of interest, CV,<br />list of 3 references; 20 images of professional work with descriptive<br />list and 20 images of student work if available. DVD, CD, videotape or<br />slides in boxed carousel tray. All electronic media must include<br />detailed instructions regarding playback platform, sequence, resolution,<br />etc. No original work. Include SASE for return. To: Experimental<br />Animation Search; Office of Academic Affairs; Maryland Institute College<br />of Art; 1300 W. Mt. Royal Avenue; Baltimore, MD 21217. No phone<br />calls, please. AA/EOE/WMA.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />3.<br /><br />Date: 12.05.03 <br />From: Brian Winn (winnb@msu.edu)<br />Subject: Assistant Professor Position in Digital Media Arts &<br />Technology<br /><br />Position Announcement, Please Circulate:<br /> <br />Michigan State University<br />Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media<br />Assistant Professor, Digital Media Arts and Technology<br /><br />Teaching: Candidates are expected to teach three courses a semester<br />across several of the following areas: interactive multimedia design,<br />web design, video and audio production, compositing and effects (CGI),<br />3D graphics design, game design, programming, and human-computer<br />interaction. Candidates are also expected to advise students on projects<br />and theses.<br /><br />Creative-Research Activity: Although this is primarily a teaching<br />position, candidates will be expected to gain visibility through juried<br />media designs (exhibits at peer reviewed venues; broadcast distribution;<br />conference presentations; awards) or scholarly research publications.<br />Candidates will be encouraged to pursue external funding to support<br />their creative and/or research activity with the possibility of reduced<br />teaching load.<br /><br />Qualifications: MFA or PhD in a related field preferred. MA or MS with<br />considerable industry or academic experience will be considered.<br /><br />Required: Portfolio showing outstanding creative design work and/or<br />research related to digital media arts and technology, aesthetics,<br />telecommunication, or information studies; teaching experience and<br />strong teaching evaluations.<br /><br />Desired: Industry experience related to digital media arts.<br /><br />Appointment: Academic Year, Fixed-Term Renewable with the possibility of<br />converting to the Tenure System<br /> <br />Work Environment:<br /> <br />The Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media: The<br />Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media Department<br />(<a rel="nofollow" href="http://tc.msu.edu">http://tc.msu.edu</a>) has an international reputation in a number of<br />areas. Faculty specializing in video, audio, 3D/VR, and multimedia come<br />together to form the core DMAT faculty (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://dmat.msu.edu">http://dmat.msu.edu</a>). BA, MA,<br />and Ph.D. are offered. Collaborative interest in digital media arts is<br />also strong in related departments within the college and also outside<br />of the college, including education, computer science, and music.<br />Communication Technology Laboratory: The Communication Technology<br />Laboratory (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://commtechlab.msu.edu">http://commtechlab.msu.edu</a>) is an association of MSU faculty<br />who create innovative learning experiences that elegantly integrate<br />technology. Through externally funded projects the Comm Tech Lab<br />develops meaningful, emotionally appealing projects and research<br />prototypes and invents new media genres. Rather than programming<br />software, the lab approach is: ?we design experiences.? New Media<br />Center: The Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and<br />Media is home to a New Media Center digital media arts and technology<br />teaching laboratory, as well as numerous other college-wide computer<br />laboratories, television and radio studios.<br /><br />Media Interface and Network Design (M.I.N.D.) Labs: The Media Interface<br />and Network Design Labs (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mindlab.org">http://www.mindlab.org</a>) are a network of<br />human-computer interaction research labs focused on the interaction of<br />mind and media, especially on ways in which media can be better adapted<br />and tailored to the mind. Facilities include virtual reality and<br />augmented reality systems, over 25 computer graphics work stations, and<br />various forms of research measurement equipment.<br /><br />College of Communication Arts and Sciences: The department is in the<br />College of Communication Arts and Sciences, which was the nation's very<br />first college of communication. Today, it remains an innovative and<br />leading international center for all forms of research and teaching on<br />human communication: Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media,<br />Communication (interpersonal, organizational, and social effects),<br />Audiology and Speech Sciences, Advertising, and Journalism.<br /><br />Michigan State University. Founded in 1855 Michigan State University is<br />situated in East Lansing, a pleasant university town just on the border<br />of Lansing, the Michigan state capitol. The Michigan State University<br />campus is quite large with over 5000 acres of land and 150 major<br />buildings. The campus is home to over 40,000 students from all<br />continents and about 4000 faculty and staff. The cost of living is very<br />reasonable.<br /><br />To Apply: Consideration of applications begins January 12, 2004. Search<br />closes when a suitable candidate is hired. Duties begin August 16, 2004.<br />Send letter of application, curriculum vita with three listed<br />references, creative portfolio, and evidence of teaching experience to:<br /> <br />Brian Winn<br />DMAT Professor Search Committee,<br />Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media<br />Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824-1212<br />E-mail: winnb@msu.edu<br /><br /> <br />MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution. Handicappers<br />have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />4.<br /><br />Date: 12.05.03 <br />From: Agence TOPO (topo@agencetopo.qc.ca)<br />Subject: Web fiction CIVILITES / CIVILITIES<br /><br />CIVILITES / CIVILITIES<br />Agence TOPO presents a new web collective fiction with 10 Montreal<br />artists <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.AgenceTopo.qc.ca/civilites">http://www.AgenceTopo.qc.ca/civilites</a><br />Civilities is a modular, collective fiction that brings together ten<br />Montreal artists from a range of disciplines and backgrounds who offer<br />diverse perspectives on "living together."<br /><br />The invited artists explore potential spaces of confidence,<br />reconciliation and the cohabitation of persons, peoples and religions.<br />>From the rules of religious fundamentalisms to the movements of<br />anonymous crowds in the city, the projects examine various aspects of<br />social organization, cultural norms and the collective spaces of shared<br />practices. Working from interfaces representing public space, that of<br />the community and of civitas, small stories emerge like windows onto<br />more universal situations, onto a certain state of the world, somber and<br />violent indeed.<br /><br />Civilites is a production of Agence TOPO, directed by Eva Quintas and<br />designed by Guy Asselin. The invited artists come from the fields of<br />visual arts, theater, audio creation, writing and performance : Mathieu<br />Beausejour, Pascal Contamine, Nathalie Dion, Linda Hammond, Isabelle<br />Hayeur, Norman Nawrocki, Lisa Ndejuru, Eva Quintas, Jean-Sebastien<br />Roux, Cesar Sa=EBz.<br />PARTICIPATE<br />How to live together ? Can we live together ?<br />You are invited to send your answers, texts, images and links that will<br />be integrated in the "Green light" section of the site and gradually<br />contribute to the creation of a another critical forum. You can also<br />submit all multimedia project (flash animation, video, etc.) that<br />corresponds to the proposals and orientations of Civilities.<br />AGENCE TOPO<br />www.Agence Topo.qc.ca<br />Agence TOPO is a non profit organization dedicated to the creation,<br />production, diffusion and distribution of multimedia independant<br />artworks.<br /><br />Civilites is the fourth collective web project producted by Agence TOPO,<br />after Liquidation - a web-radio fiction (1998), in collaboration with<br />Radio-Canada FM, FiXions (1999), grouping 10 writers and photographers<br />and Vilanova (2002) with 13 artists photographers from the collective<br />Fovea. The site is also a space for the dissemination, promotion and<br />distribution of art and essay CD-ROM's and DVD-ROM'S. The showcase<br />presents some forty titles from Canada, the United States, Australia,<br />Belgium and France.<br /><br />Information : Eva Quintas, Michel Lefebvre / T (514) 279-8676 /<br />topo@agencetopo.qc.ca<br />L'Agence Topo thanks the Canada Arts Council, the Conseil des arts et<br />des lettres du Quebec, the Conseil des arts de Montreal, the<br />Institut des technologies de l'information of College de Maisonneuve,<br />and the Technological Arts Society.<br />–<br />Eva Quintas<br />Presidente et directrice artistique<br />Agence TOPO<br />T (514) 279-8676<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.AgenceTOPO.qc.ca">http://www.AgenceTOPO.qc.ca</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />5.<br /><br />Date: 11.29.03<br />From: Olga (olia@drx.a-blast.org)<br />Subject: Dream by Dream, Dreams Come True<br /><br />Merry Christmas<br />Applet Art from Bora Bora<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/merry_christmas/">http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/merry_christmas/</a><br /><br />Already for 3 years we live in the new millenium. We have fast<br />computers, broadband connections, huge flat screens, there are even<br />three buttons on our mouses. And there are so many of us that the bridge<br />over the Digital Divide will soon break under our weight. We are in the<br />future.<br /><br />But very often WWW makes this impression dissapear. Leaving messages in<br />blogs, rephrasing thoughts for google, openning and closing tiny pages<br />that do not even have a scrollbar and skipping intros is not the future,<br />it is the fantasy of developers prepared for Y2K crash, but not for Y2K.<br />Emergency scenario.<br /><br />Absolutely another feeling is when you see how 90s utopias come true.<br />One can now put 3000 animated gifs on one HTML page and the browser will<br />not crash. You can go through VRML worlds fast and smooth. Background<br />images download before you finish to read the first paragraph.<br /><br />Dream by dream, dreams come true. Recently I found out that Java Applets<br />don?t freeze my browser any more. Lakes, puzzles, mosaics, lenses,<br />fractals, plasmas, running texts, rotating menus. It is exatly them who<br />make the web to be a very special place. What a pity that they were<br />overlooked by designers and artists (probably because they never worked<br />on Macs) and are not a part of the web of today.<br /><br />It is really a shame that we were not patient enough and blamed java<br />applets developers every time our PCs crashed. As if it is the biggest<br />trouble in the world to restart your computer.<br /><br />To correct this aesthetical injustice I decided to devote the<br />Teleportacia net art workshop at French Polinesian Bora Bora to java<br />applets. To come back to the roots and to work with classics of the<br />genre.<br /><br />Fortunately my plan worked: Young Bora Borian artists appeared very<br />sensitive to the traditions of the web. Without any ambition to conquer<br />the European media art market they made an invaluable contribution to<br />web culture.<br /><br />I would like to thank Fabio Ciucci and all the participants for their<br />enthusiasm. Marc-Andre Zani of L'Appetisserie Cyber Cafe ? for hosting<br />the workshop and allowing us to install Java Runtime Environment despite<br />the complains of other clients. Personal of Meridian hotel for<br />unforgetable beds and brekfasts. And of course this trip and project<br />would not have happened without financial support from the Society of<br />American-Russian Veterans of WWII and Veterans of Resistance Union<br />(Italy).<br /><br />Olia Lialina<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />6.<br /><br />Date: 11.30.03-12.02.03<br />From: Perry Garvin (garvinpr@fastmail.fm), Jeremy Turner<br />(jerturner536@yahoo.ca), Rachel Greene (rachel@rhizome.org), Jessica<br />Hammer (hammer@kleene-star.net), Chris Chesher (c.chesher@unsw.edu.au),<br />Donato Mancini (donatomancini@yahoo.com)<br />Subject: Distributed Creativity Week 3 - Mr. Wong's Soup'Partments<br /><br />Perry Garvin (garvinpr@fastmail.fm) posted:<br /><br />Continuing on the theme of discussing the featured web sites this week,<br />I'd like to direct our attention to Mr. Wong's Soup'Partments. I'm<br />wondering what people's responses are to the site ­ specifically the way<br />that it visualizes community. It's interesting that it presents<br />community in at least two major ways:<br /><br />1) As a vertical population where each person's habitat is isolated from<br />the others creating what feels like an "anomic neighborhood."<br /><br />2) Where joining the community requires abiding by restrictions<br />including size of apartment block, style of design, censorship of<br />certain texts (mainly advertising), and others laid down by the site's<br />founder.<br /><br />Why the usage of an apartment building as a visual expression of<br />community? Why does one of the internet's best known visual communities<br />feel so overwhelmingly isolating for each of the apartment's residents?<br />Why compare this online apartment tower to physical apartment buildings<br />(see the site for a comparison graph)?<br /><br />These problematic visual and conceptual properties seem symptomatic of<br />larger problems creating, maintaining, and building these types of<br />communities. What do others think?<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Jeremy Turner (jerturner536@yahoo.ca) replied:<br />Subject: More Questions than Answers<br /><br />Wow, I should have checked out Mr. Wong's Apartment earlier. I wish I<br />was able to become a resident. I will reply Parry Garvin's questions<br />below using the "****":<br /><br />1) As a vertical population where each person¹s habitat is isolated from<br />the others creating what feels like an "anomic neighborhood."<br /><br />***yes, there is an emphasis on "Habitat" here - such as the Habitat for<br />the C-64 designed for LucasFilm by ex slum-lords, Mr. Morningstar and<br />Mr. Farmer. That one was a horizontal version of course. I cannot really<br />comment on a direct comparison here as I have only seen the screenshots<br />of the original Habitat (er….not the truly original "Habitat" designed<br />by Moshe Safdie in Montreal). Has anyone in the foum played the original<br />Habitat? Any thoughts on this? for awhile, I had an apartment in Blaxxun<br />Corp's Cybertown but I was too lazy and cheap to furnish it. I managed<br />to bail before having to pay any kind of damage deposit though. I will<br />check out Mr. Wong's high-rise in more detail and then will comment in<br />more detail (if I can reply in time before the Digital Karma forum<br />closes).<br /><br />More later…<br />Jer<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Rachel Greene (rachel@rhizome.org) replied:<br /><br />Wow… cool site. Never seen it before. I don't know anything about the<br />operational or discursive happenings of Mr Wong's but I think the<br />metaphor of the crowded, teetering, yet regimented apartment house is<br />apt for a moment when many online communities are sufficiently expanded<br />that their challenges now include diversity, crowd and discourse<br />management. Case in point – think of how Nettime is run and the tenor<br />of that list which is, in my view, pretty atomized and impersonal.<br />Multivocal, formal, only occasionally social and definitely not<br />identified as being in the community mode (see their far-reaching<br />freakout when asked to participate, as a community, in the DC Forum). I<br />also think, that while this hasn't been an issue on Rhizome lately, many<br />online forums have to manage the discussion of political reality or risk<br />implosion (which is what happened to the Syndicate list following the UN<br />campaign in Kosovo) – a real-world corollary to Wong's style and<br />content restrictions. On the other hand, Wong's site does seem like<br />communimage in that it's presented as a participatory, communal<br />initiative but is really a fairly controlled formal, design-driven<br />experiment.<br /><br />Perhaps people from the number of new forums that have sprung forth in<br />the last few years – nine, the pool, discordia, furtherfield, consume,<br />etc. – might want to comment on their particular community trope. Oh,<br />another cool one is communiculture – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.communiculture.org/">http://www.communiculture.org/</a>.<br />– Rachel Greene<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Jessica Hammer (hammer@kleene-star.net) replied:<br /><br />The question of balancing individual and community needs is a really<br />good one, and I think that's what both of Perry's questions get at. To<br />what extent do people want or need an individual space within a<br />community? And to what extent does the community need to impose rules<br />and guidelines on the members within it?<br /><br />There's an obvious non-answer to this question, which is that it depends<br />on the needs and goals of the community being discussed, but I think<br />there's a deeper point here about community and collaboration.<br /><br />First, most people want to have their own identity preserved within a<br />community. Whether looking at MUDs and the way that people build their<br />own personal spaces within a larger, communal space or examining the<br />reasons why there aren't many anonymous email lists (as someone<br />suggested in another thread), it seems a pretty common thread that<br />people want to preserve their own individual identity within the<br />community context. Even if the community presents an anonymous/corporate<br />face to the rest of the world without publicizing their individual<br />identities, it's hard to imagine a truly anonymous (as opposed to<br />pseudonymous, which is what most online communities are) long-term<br />community or collaborative environment developing. What Mr. Wong's<br />Soup'Partments gets at is the need for individuals to carve out their<br />own space within a community, though perhaps it's presented a bit more<br />literally than most communities do it.<br /><br />Second, as Flick Harrison mentioned in another thread, communities need<br />rules - even if those rules are 'there are no rules'. In fact, I think<br />that the less substantive the relationship, the larger the group and<br />thinner the channel of communication, the more explicit the rules of the<br />community have to be. For example, consider two people who know each<br />other well working together in person. They can easily go back-and-forth<br />over ideas, likely without even making every detail explicit, and can<br />still have a successful collaboration. For Mr. Wong's Soup'Partments,<br />though, the "community" of the project is a bunch of random strangers<br />who can submit with minimal intervention from anyone else - so in order<br />for their contribution to have meaning within the context of the<br />project, there have to be explicit rules and guidelines that are<br />replaced by personal relationships and social norms in smaller or more<br />close-knit communities.<br /><br />On the other hand, I'm not sure that I would define Mr. Wong's<br />Soup'partments as a community in the first place. Yes, it provides a<br />listing of the people who submitted apartments to the building, but does<br />that make it more of a community than, say, the phone book? It's much<br />more like a call-in show on a radio station, in my mind: the various<br />apartment-submitters aren't actually interacting with each other, but<br />rather a central authority collates and organizes their requests in<br />order to create a larger work of art from their smaller, contributed<br />elements.<br /><br />I've always thought that to be a community, there had to be meaningful<br />group interaction - and while Mr. Wong's Soup'Partments may be an<br />interesting piece of collaboratively created art, I'd have to say it<br />fails to cross the line into being a true community. The metaphor of an<br />apartment building makes it *seem* like a community because of the<br />real-world analogy - but without any way to support participants in the<br />project interacting with each other (in the virtual elevator?) beyond<br />simply publicizing their URLs and emails, the community is no more than<br />an illusion.<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Chris Chesher (c.chesher@unsw.edu.au) replied:<br /><br />Constraints are not anathema to creativity, or to community, for that<br />matter.<br /><br />Constraints on creative practice establish the frame for any work.<br />Frames delimit the scope for creative production. Genres are another<br />type of constraint that facilitates creativity (even if that is by<br />subverting that genre). Constraints are fundamental to creativity.<br /><br />Creative practices are also interdependent. The developer of the Mr Wong<br />site establishes fields of indeterminacy within which creativity can<br />take place. Outside of this structure, any of these pieces would not be<br />particularly remarkable. It's the juxtaposition of diverse responses to<br />a brief that makes this such a fascinating site.<br /><br />Community, too, always exists largely as a creative limit on individual<br />activity. Every individual's sense of identity emerges from their<br />distinctive place within a collectivity, and their relationships to<br />others.<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Jeremy Turner replied:<br />Subject: Lord Of The Tenants - The Twin Towers<br /><br />I absolutely love Mr. Wong's high-rise so much, I wish I could<br />participate in the project and get a floor for myself but I noticed that<br />the project seems to be closed to new members of the online community.<br />That is a major drag, in my opinion. The single high-rise is a fair<br />comment on the "gated community" where only a limited number of people<br />has the luxury of time and "cred" to earn themselves a floor in this<br />piece of prime virtual real-estate.<br /><br />I think in order for Mr. Wong's piece to actually represent a full<br />"community", there will need to be more high-rises to be placed next<br />door to the one currently standing. Even though it looks like it is<br />right out of Sim City, I would say that until more High-Rises are<br />developed in that environment, a networked Sim City game itself would<br />have more of a sense of "community" One building standing alone by<br />itself is even more gated than the current defintion of the gated<br />community.<br /><br />To increase the flow of good karma, I wish to request that "Mr. Wong"<br />gets to work with a developer ASAP to build the 2nd "Twin" Tower :-D<br /><br />This would allow for Babel and WTC references and allow the definition<br />of the site to encompass "community".<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Jeremy Turner added:<br /><br />Ok, upon further inspection, I now realize that Mr. Wong's hood is<br />gradually expanding with a new road that people can contribute some<br />pixellated pavement to. I would prefer to be part of Mr. Wong's<br />High-Rise and I am still hoping he will build a virtual twin (in terms<br />of height).<br /><br />Well, at least I can contribute some (astro)turf now. Time to pave my<br />own road (the one less traveled)…and where will it all lead?<br /><br />Here is hoping that Carl Andre will pitch in some asphalt :-D<br /><br />On the Road again,<br />Jer.<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Donato Mancini (donatomancini@yahoo.com) replied:<br /><br />Chip Morningstar's interesting accounts of the very brief but busy<br />history of Lucasfilm Habitat (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fudco.com/chip/lessons.html">http://www.fudco.com/chip/lessons.html</a>.,<br />which he describes as "the first large scale, massively multi-user<br />graphical online virtual world", are the best, and most concise, early<br />documents of the behaviour of online "communities". What he stresses,<br />and what I think sociologists with any acumen must have predicted, is<br />that most of the situations and problems of the offline world ­ which P<br />Lichty so wonderfully called "meatspace" vs "cyberspace" ­ reproduced<br />themselves among the Habitat "residents". Everything was recreated,<br />including crime. (If only there had been a way to make the avatars have<br />SEX!) We might all know that this happens & has repeatedly happened, but<br />we still seem puzzled and surprised by the fact. What I'd point to in<br />this regard is something Flick Harrison wrote in a post: "The virtual<br />and physical are not separate spaces; they are simply whimsical<br />definitions of boundaries." If we accepted (or agreed?) with this we<br />wouldn't be surprised how much online communities are like offline ones,<br />and we'd be able to predict the behaviours of both as well or as badly.<br /><br />There's a bit of a fetish for the word "community" I think that tends to<br />give it a kindly aura. Jessica Hammer, talking about Soup'Partments<br />asked if community isn't defined by 'meaningful interaction' ­ it is.<br />But meaningful can mean competitive, and even hostile as much as<br />mutually beneficial. The 'community' of plants within an ecosystem<br />aren't all allies. Jessica is also very right to say the Soup'Partments<br />doesn't represent a community. It doesn't represent a community any more<br />than the various artists exhibiting together in a group show can be said<br />to be a "community". Neither are the people who participate in Learning<br />to Love You More a community, although their participation makes good<br />common ground from which to build community if they ever decide to<br />contact each other.<br /><br />MUDs create more of a community than do projects like Soup'Partments and<br />Learning to Love You More. To make another distinction: I'm writing this<br />from a huge, underground internet café right now ­ 55 kiosks, 25<br />occupied at 12:40 am (plus 3 billiard tables!) ­ mostly full of people<br />playing MUDs, first-person shooters. So I'm surrounded by the sound of<br />explosions, gunfire, and screams of the dying. (and dance pop being<br />piped over the sound-sytem.) Someone nearby is playing Star Wars so I<br />can hear the trademark laser blast sound cutting through the rest of the<br />din. This meatspace (or corporeal place; the café) I'm in isn't housing<br />a community anymore than a train station or an airport is housing a<br />community ­ but many of the people online around me are probably<br />interacting (perhaps in the form of blowing up their avatars) with<br />people they've been interacting with for days, months, or weeks,<br />creating community.<br /><br />Have you seen that film Avalon by Mamoru Oshii?<br /><br />+ + +<br /><br />Donato Mancini added:<br /><br />I want to add a couple of thoughts about Mr Wong's before DK closes.<br /><br />I enjoy the fact that the Soup'Partments are really better described as<br />Sandwich'Partments; the image is like a towering sandwich, especially<br />with that giant sheep in there. But in considering the possible<br />significance of such a piece in terms of web art, one should admit that<br />it works exactly like a surrealist 'exquisite corpse' (an 'exquisite<br />sandwich'?). <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.exquisitecorpse.com/definition.html">http://www.exquisitecorpse.com/definition.html</a> I don't<br />think Mr Wong's formally moves much past the method of exquisite corpse.<br />The only thing that makes Mr Wong's web-specific is that practically<br />anyone from anywhere with internet access was able to add to the piece.<br />Otherwise it is something that could have been done on paper, easily,<br />and to equally delightful effect. It's an entertaining piece, but it's<br />not sophisticated web art. The fact that contributors use downloadable<br />templates is equivalent to being instructed, in a meatspace/corporeal<br />situation, to use only one graphic medium, i.e. ball point pen,<br />charcoal, ink pen, whatnot, providing just enough aesthetic continuity.<br />It reminds us that the web is still mainly being used as a way of<br />extending analogue practices & modes. How much or how little does it<br />matter that it's networked? I personally think it's intellectually<br />dangerous to ascribe too much importance to such things, cos one can<br />move quickly into various forms of obfuscation and mystification; an<br />effect, certainly, of the almost supernatural appeal that the<br />(relatively) new technologies still have. Instantaneity is magic.<br />Equally, a project very much like Learning to Love You More could have<br />been effectively accomplished offline, without any recourse to the web.<br />Perhaps email and other forms of instant communication are still the<br />most important functions of the web, perhaps no superior application of<br />it has yet been found. AVATAR spaces, such as Traveler and MUDs, and the<br />use of the GPS (global positioning system) are may be a start of<br />something really web-particular, even given the possible counter<br />argument that avatar applications are just fancy videophones, or fancy<br />walkie-talkies.<br />DM.<br />p.s<br />Anyone interested in how poets and writers are beginning to work with<br />the web should see <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ubu.com/">http://www.ubu.com/</a> You'll see at UBUWEB what an<br />excellent continuity with tried (tired?) forms of<br />concrete/visual/graphic poetries the web provides, without (yet)<br />fundamentally altering their nature.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />7.<br /><br />Date: 12.05.03 <br />From: Gloria Sutton (suttong@humnet.ucla.edu)<br />Subject: The Contingent Object of Art<br /><br />The Contingent Object of Art<br />Martha Buskirk <br />September 2003 <br />MIT Press <br />317 pages, 98 illustrations<br />Cloth: $39.95 <br /><br />These days vague allusions to Marcel Duchamp's "readymade" and Joseph<br />Kosuth's analytic proposition of "art as idea" are tossed out like<br />critical flotation devices keeping artists theoretically buoyant aloft<br />the post-medium, post-studio sea of contemporary art. More specifically,<br />references to conceptual models of art production established in the<br />1-0s and 1970s are often used to validate the appropriation of found<br />images and a reliance on commercial fabrication techniques. The critical<br />syntax of conceptual art and minimalism worked out by an earlier<br />generation of artists and critics has been cut and pasted into a variety<br />of artist statements with little concern for historical specificity. For<br />today's Tivo-centric audience, it's a seamless jump from Yves Klein<br />copyrighting his own version of the color blue in the 1-0s to Etoy<br />incorporating itself and selling stock through its infamous website<br />during the late 1990s.<br /><br />However, as Martha Buskirk's new book, The Contingent Object of Art (MIT<br />Press, September 2003) confirms, the theoretical maneuvering around<br />claims of singular authorship and the rights of ownership in the art<br />world have a more contested history. Eschewing a straight chronological<br />approach, her highly engaging book presents the "greatest hits" of the<br />sixties through the nineties as well-defined case studies. In connecting<br />individual works with their exhibition contexts as well as clearly<br />articulating suspect terms like "authorship" and "originality," Buskirk<br />establishes an expansive conversation about the art projects that have<br />been most influential to today's headliner artists. From each model,<br />Buskirk delineates specific attributes or tools that she uses to unpack<br />the dense and layered work that garners much of the exhibition real<br />estate on the international biennial circuit. For example, she details<br />the practice of issuing authenticity certificates by artists such as<br />Richard Serra and Donald Judd during the late 1-0s as way to distinguish<br />art objects from generic, industrially produced steel boxes. This lesson<br />from minimalism is then applied to read more contemporary forms such as<br />the two 600-pound cubes of lard and chocolate comprising Janine Antoni's<br />Gnaw (1992). Delineating the act of consecrating an ordinary object as a<br />work of fine art from the object's actual physical production is a<br />re-occurring theme in the examples Buskirk holds up for our examination.<br /><br />The Contingent Object of Art is a direct response to the fact that by<br />the end of the twentieth century everything from upturned urinals to<br />gnawed chocolate could be considered art with a capital A. The book is<br />deftly broken into thematic chapters that address the theoretical<br />underpinnings and historical precedents for well-known projects from the<br />seventies onward, including works by Bruce Nauman, Hans Haacke, Gabriel<br />Orozco and Andreas Gursky. Buskirk's detailed descriptions of the<br />individual artworks themselves have a statement-like surety, narrowing<br />in on a precise intention for each project. The reference and scope for<br />interpretation is defined to such an extent that readers are left with<br />no choice, but to accept her version as fixed or final. By eliminating<br />any nuance or historical difference in various actions-Adrian Piper's<br />street actions (Catalysis III and IV) are paired with Sophie Calle's<br />reverse stalking project from 1981 (The Shadow)-Buskirk re-in enforces<br />the dominant narratives established for a group of works which cannot be<br />seen or experienced by contemporary viewers, but are cited with such<br />regularity that they have acquired a myth-like status in the art world.<br />There's a significant difference in historical context between Piper's<br />highly charged physical confrontations with strangers on the streets of<br />New York City in 1970 and Calle's staged dramas enacted over the course<br />of the 12-day Bacchanalian fest such that was the Venice Biennial in<br />1981. Moreover, Buskirk never expands her peripheral vision to include<br />works that fall between the cracks or outside of the purview of the<br />gallery or museum such as early film and video.<br /><br />Overall, Buskirk's tone strikes a balance between exultation and<br />nostalgia for the types of work that put down stakes and challenged<br />categorical definitions of art production. More specific to Rhizome<br />readers, The Contingent Object of Art details how the incorporation (the<br />collecting, curating, and producing value for) new media art and Net.art<br />in particular by museums, has obvious precursors in the galvanizing<br />treatment of installation art in the 1990s, but the prerequisite for<br />institutional legitimacy is afforded by its incorporation of earlier<br />conceptual art practices. Conceptual art has reconfigured the way<br />viewers examine art; the demands we now place on it and the need to have<br />a serial crescendo towards the intensity of experience. In pragmatic<br />terms, issues of copyright, authorship, duration, documentation,<br />built-in obsolescence and the privileging of interactivity, which are<br />all core conditions of new media art find a precedent in the<br />institutional incorporation of Conceptual Art. By presenting works<br />previously regarded as mutually exclusive, The Contingent Object of Art<br />does a great deal to further the conversation on contemporary art away<br />from static issues of form and content toward strategies and operations.<br /><br />-Gloria Sutton <br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />**RHIZOME NEEDS TO RAISE $27K BY FEBRUARY 1, 2004**<br /><br />Do you value Rhizome Digest? If so, consider making a contribution and<br />helping Rhizome.org to be self-sustaining. 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Send a check or money order to Rhizome.org, New Museum,<br />583 Broadway, New York, NY, 10012 or give securely and quickly online:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/support/?digest125">http://www.rhizome.org/support/?digest125</a><br /><br />**BE AN ACTIVE ROOT**<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of<br />the New Museum of Contemporary Art.<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is supported by grants from The Charles Engelhard<br />Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for<br />the Visual Arts, and with public funds from the New York State Council<br />on the Arts, a state agency.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is filtered by Feisal Ahmad (feisal@rhizome.org). ISSN:<br />1525-9110. Volume 8, number 49. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org<br />are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art<br />and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome<br />Digest, please contact info@rhizome.org.<br /><br />To unsubscribe from this list, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/subscribe">http://rhizome.org/subscribe</a>.<br />Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the<br />Member Agreement available online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/29.php">http://rhizome.org/info/29.php</a>.<br /><br />Please invite your friends to visit Rhizome.org on Fridays, when the<br />site is open to members and non-members alike.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br />
