RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.29.06

discussion

Posted Sept. 28 2006 20:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.29.06

RHIZOME DIGEST: September 29, 2006 Content: +note+ 1. Marisa Olson: The Copy and Paste Show +opportunity+ 2. Jenny Porter: Director Vacancy 3. Joseph DeLappe: 2nd Call 1st Reno Interdisciplinary Festival of New Media 4. kristoffer.gansing@k3.mah.se: Networked Digital Storytelling - places left! 5. Karen Gaskill: INTERVAL06 - Call For Submissions +announcement+ 6. ryan griffis: Mon Oct 2 Terminal Air at CAVS 7. Turbulence.org: Recent Turbulence Commissions 8. Marisa Olson: ON and Off at The Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery 9. james: i7o Zhu opening in Ars Virtua Friday at 7pm +interview+ 10. mark cooley: absence / presence: a conversation with artist charles cohen +Commissioned by Rhizome.org for KEYLINES+ 11. Nato Thompson: The New Media Backpedal + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering Organizational Subscriptions, group memberships that can be purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants at institutions to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. For a discounted rate, students or faculty at universities or visitors to art centers can have access to Rhizome?s archives of art and text as well as guides and educational tools to make navigation of this content easy. Rhizome is also offering subsidized Organizational Subscriptions 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 Lauren Cornell at LaurenCornell@Rhizome.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. From: Marisa Olson <marisa@rhizome.org> Date: Sep 29, 2006 Subject: The Copy and Paste Show Rhizome is pleased to announce the opening of The Copy and Paste Show, guest-curated by Hanne Mugaas. This is our second online exhibition in the Time Shares series. THE COPY AND PASTE SHOW <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/events/timeshares/">http://rhizome.org/events/timeshares/</a> The Copy and Paste Show explores the evolution of copy-and-paste culture, where the copying of digital material has become a major technique in the construction of online identity and style. Featured artists include: Seth Price, 808, and artists collaborative, Ida Ekblad and Anders Nordby. Each explores how copy and paste techniques, paired with different digital tools, influence web aesthetics, music production, and relationships on and offline. TIME SHARES Organized by Rhizome and co-presented by the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Time Shares is a series of online exhibitions dedicated to exploring the diversity of contemporary art based on the Internet. Every six weeks, Rhizome and invited curators will launch a new exhibition featuring an international group of artists. The series is a component of Rhizome's Tenth Anniversary Festival of Art & Technology <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/events/tenyear/">http://rhizome.org/events/tenyear/</a> + + + Marisa Olson Editor & Curator Rhizome.org at the New Museum of Contemporary Art + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. From: Jenny Porter <porter@fact.co.uk> Date: Sep 25, 2006 Subject: Director Vacancy Based in Liverpool, European Capital of Culture, 2008, FACT is recognised worldwide as one of Britain's most innovative and enterprising arts organisations; dedicated to the support, development and presentation of artists' work in film, video and new media. Director c. ?50K Following the appointment of FACT's Director, Gill Henderson as the first Director of CreateKX in London, FACT is seeking to appoint a Director with outstanding creative leadership qualities to build on FACT's past and present achievements in the context of the Capital of Culture year and beyond. For more information or to request an application pack please contact: Alan Smith, Operations Director, FACT, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool. L1 4DQ Tel: 0151 707 4444 Email: asmith@fact.co.uk Closing date for applications: Friday 20th October 2006 Interviews in Liverpool. www.fact.co.uk We welcome applications from any individual regardless of ethnic origin, gender, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation or age. All applications will be considered on merit. FACT is a registered charity No. 702781. Company limited by Guarantee Registration No. 2391543 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. From: Joseph DeLappe <delappe@unr.nevada.edu> Date: Sep 25, 2006 Subject: 2nd Call 1st Reno Interdisciplinary Festival of New Media Please post on Rhizome Raw! From: Department of Art/224 University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 Contact: Joseph DeLappe, Chair delappe@unr.nevada.edu Announcement: The First Reno Interdisciplinary Festival of New Media Attention Graduate Students! Call For Proposals: Exhibit, Netart, Present, Perform, Project(full dome) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.unr.edu/art/RIFNM.html">http://www.unr.edu/art/RIFNM.html</a> The 1st Reno Interdisciplinary Festival of New Media will highlight the work of currently enrolled graduate and phd candidates working in experimental digital media at Universities throughout the United States and abroad. Graduate students working in and across disciplines are encouraged to submit works to be considered for this unique opportunity. The event breaks down into five interrelated events/venues: exhibit, netart, perform, project and present. We invite proposals from currently enrolled graduate and phd students to submit work for consideration. Artists working in all visual and performative media incorporating digital systems, including but not limited to: interactive art, robotics, slash artists, movement/dance, gaming, net art, full-dome video/animation, generative systems, sculpture, locative media, electronic music, sound art, experimental theater, performance art, etc. are invited to apply. Collaborations and works in progress are welcome and encouraged. A limited number of travel/accommodation grants are available and will be awarded by the festival jurors. Festival jurors: Joseph DeLappe, Chair, Department of Art/UNR, Marji Vecchio, Director, Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery/UNR, Dan Ruby, Associate Director, Fleischman Planetarium/UNR Deadline for submissions: Must arrive by September 29th, 2006 Entry Information: Please send: - 200 word maximum description of your work/proposal, specify the event/venue to which you are applying - current resume - name and contact info of graduate committee chair/advisor - appropriate documentation of your work product (DVD, CDrom, URL). - please inform us of any technical requirements and/or equipment necessary to show your work. Email applications, where appropriate, are welcome - send these to delappe@unr.nevada.edu . If you wish the return of your material, please include a SASE. Our mailing address: The 1st Reno Interdisciplinary Festival of New Media Digital Media Studio Department of Art/224 University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 USA This event is sponsored by the Benna Foundation for Excellence in the Fine Arts, The University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Art, The Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, the Fleischman Planetarium and Science Center, and the Nevada Museum of Art. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Support Rhizome: buy a hosting plan from BroadSpire <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/hosting/">http://rhizome.org/hosting/</a> Reliable, robust hosting plans from $65 per year. Purchasing hosting from BroadSpire contributes directly to Rhizome's fiscal well-being, so think about about the new Bundle pack, or any other plan, today! About BroadSpire BroadSpire is a mid-size commercial web hosting provider. After conducting a thorough review of the web hosting industry, we selected BroadSpire as our partner because they offer the right combination of affordable plans (prices start at $14.95 per month), dependable customer support, and a full range of services. We have been working with BroadSpire since June 2002, and have been very impressed with the quality of their service. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. From: kristoffer.gansing@k3.mah.se <kristoffer.gansing@k3.mah.se> Date: Sep 26, 2006 Subject: Networked Digital Storytelling - places left! Networked Digital Storytelling Call for Course Participation Time: November 6, 2006 ? January 18, 2007 - 15 ECTS points Place: K3 School of Arts & Communication, Malmo University, Sweden PLACES LEFT IN THE COURSE NETWORKED DIGITAL STORYTELLING ? APPLY NOW! Networked Digital Storytelling is a course that critically explores the artistic possibilities of new networked media such as videoblogs, social media, mashups and locative media. Participants in the course use these technologies in a series of workshops built around the theme of mediating and telling stories about the city. During the workshops there will be guest lectures by artists, social media workers, bloggers, and theorists. Regular teachers are Kristoffer Gansing, PhD student specialising in alternative media, and Tina Giannopoulos, cultural producer and architect. The course ends in a common presentation in the form of an exhibition, installation or urban intervention. How to apply: If you read Swedish fill out the following form: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mah.se/upload/Utbildning/blanketter/anmalan/EfteranmälanH06.p">http://www.mah.se/upload/Utbildning/blanketter/anmalan/EfteranmälanH06.p</a> df The course code is: 00334 More info can be found at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mah.se/efteranmalan">http://www.mah.se/efteranmalan</a> (in Swedish only) If you don?t read Swedish, send an e-mail with a statement of interest to: kristoffer.gansing@k3.mah.se (and you will receive the necessary papers for applying) Workshops & Curriculum 1: Networked Stories / Spatial Stories Untold stories and places of Malmö. Google map mashups + video. With Bitlab Malmö, Surreal Scania. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bitlabmalmo.net">http://www.bitlabmalmo.net</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.surrealscania.se">http://www.surrealscania.se</a> 2: Hybrid Spaces / Hybrid Media In collaboration with tv-tv and the t-vlog project. Ends in a transmission at Copenhagen based tv-station tv-tv. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.t-vlog.net">http://www.t-vlog.net</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tv-tv.dk">http://www.tv-tv.dk</a> 3: Social media Going deeper into technologies of videoblogging, participatory culture and culture jamming. In between workshops there will be a regular theory class, with close analysis of texts and films. We read everything from 60?s expanded cinema gurus like Gene Youngblood to recent online theorists like Adrian Miles and Jill Walker. Full course syllabus is available at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.edu.mah.se/KK3219/syllabus">http://www.edu.mah.se/KK3219/syllabus</a> (literature list is subject to change / update!) Relevant links and References <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.networkedstorytelling.org">http://www.networkedstorytelling.org</a> Blog by Kristoffer Gansing, with info about earlier workshops. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mah.se/K3">http://www.mah.se/K3</a> Malmo University, School of Arts & Communication site. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.edu.mah.se/KK3219/syllabus">http://www.edu.mah.se/KK3219/syllabus</a> The full course syllabus. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://webzone.k3.mah.se/projects/nds">http://webzone.k3.mah.se/projects/nds</a> The internal course page. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. From: Karen Gaskill <karen@interval.org.uk> Date: Sep 29, 2006 Subject: INTERVAL06 - Call For Submissions Becoming Electric An Interval platform event DEADLINE: 5.00PM ON FRIDAY 20TH OCTOBER 2006 Interval invites artists working in new media to submit works that respond or relate to the concept of 'Becoming Electric', for inclusion in the third event in the Interval06 programme. The selected work will be showcased in an exhibition in November 2006 in an empty Public House in Central Manchester. Interval is an independent artist led platform with a focus on new media practice. Established in 2005, it acts as a critical springboard, offering collaborative exhibition opportunities to both emergent and established practitioners using technology as a key component within their work. For more information and a detailed brief please see: www.interval.org.uk and go to Upcoming Events Or download guidelines and a submission form here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.interval.org.uk/downloads/Interval06.pdf">http://www.interval.org.uk/downloads/Interval06.pdf</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.interval.org.uk/downloads/Interval06.doc">http://www.interval.org.uk/downloads/Interval06.doc</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. From: ryan griffis <ryan.griffis@gmail.com> Date: Sep 27, 2006 Subject: Fwd: Mon Oct 2 Terminal Air at CAVS > Center for Advanced Visual Studies / MIT?s School of Architecture > and Planning > 265 Massachusetts Ave, 3rd Fl / Cambridge MA 02139 / 617 253 4415 / > <a rel="nofollow" href="http://cavs.mit.edu">http://cavs.mit.edu</a> > > MON OCTOBER 2nd > 7:00 pm > > The Center for Advanced Visual Studies presents > > Terminal Air (Institute for Applied Autonomy and Trevor Paglen) > > Tad Hirsch (Institute for Applied Autonomy) and experimental > geographer Trevor Paglen will present early research for their new > project, Terminal Air, an interactive installation that enables > audiences to track a fleet of CIA-operated aircraft around the > world. These airplanes, which were first uncovered by an > international network of amateur aviation enthusiasts and later > reported on by various investigative journalists, are known to be > involved in "extraordinary rendition"?the practice of illegally > transporting terrorism suspects to secret overseas military bases > for torture and interrogation. Paglen will also talk about Torture > Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights, which he co- > wrote with journalist AC Thompson. Andrew Woods of Harvard Law > School will also speak. Terminal Air is supported by 2006-2007 > commission from Rhizome.org. > > > Trevor Paglen is an artist, writer, and experimental geographer > working out of the Department of Geography at the University of > California, Berkeley, where he is currently completing a PhD. His > work involves deliberately blurring the lines between social > science, contemporary art, and a host of even more obscure > disciplines in order to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously > researched ways to interpret the world around us. His most recent > projects take up secret military bases, the California prison > system, and the CIA?s practice of ?extraordinary rendition.? > Paglen?s artwork has been shown at the Chicago Museum of > Contemporary Art (2003), the California College of the Arts (2002), > MASSMOCA (2006), Halle 14 - Stiftung Federkiel (2006), Diverse > Works (2005), and numerous other arts venues, universities, > conferences, and public spaces. > > Tad Hirsch is a researcher and PhD candidate in the Smart Cities > Group at MIT's Media Lab, where his work focuses on the > intersections between art, activism, and technology. He is also a > 2005-7 graduate affiliate at the Center for Advanced Visual > Studies. He has worked with Intel's People and Practices Research > Group, Motorola's Advanced Concepts Group and the Interaction > Design Studio at Carnegie Mellon University, and has several years > experience in the nonprofit sector. Tad is also a frequent > collaborator with the Institute for Applied Autonomy, an award- > winning arts collective that exhibits throughout the United States > and Europe. He publishes and lectures widely on a variety of topics > concerning social aspects of technology, and has received several > prestigious commissions and awards. Tad holds degrees from Vassar > College, Carnegie Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute > of Technology. > > The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) was founded in 1998 as a > technological research and development organization dedicated to > the cause of individual and collective self-determination. Their > mission is to study the forces and structures which affect self- > determination and to provide technologies which extend the autonomy > of human activists. > > > <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.paglen.com/">http://www.paglen.com/</a> > <a rel="nofollow" href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~tad/">http://web.media.mit.edu/~tad/</a> > <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.appliedautonomy.com/">http://www.appliedautonomy.com/</a> > > > The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a fellowship program that > commissions and produces new artworks and artistic research within > the context of MIT. A laboratory for interdisciplinary art > practice, the Center facilitates exchange between internationally > known contemporary artists and MIT?s faculty, students, and staff > through public programs, support for long-term art projects, and > residencies for MIT students. > > Call 617 253 4415 for more information or to get involved. > > Thanks to the MIT Arts Council, the LEF Foundation, the Milton and > Sally Avery Foundation, Rhizome.org, and the Loeb Fellowships at > Harvard. > > > Meg Rotzel > Curatorial Associate > Center for Advanced Visual Studies > In the Office M,W,Th > Massachusetts Institute of Technology > 265 Massachusetts Avenue > Cambridge, MA 02139 > 617.253.4415 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. From: Turbulence.org <turbulence@turbulence.org> Date: Sep 28, 2006 Subject: Recent Turbulence Commissions Turbulence Commissions launched during summer 2006: MOBOTAG by Marta Lwin with funding from the Jerome Foundation <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/works/mobotag">http://www.turbulence.org/works/mobotag</a> mobotag reveals the hidden layers of a city through an active exchange of location based media and text messages via the cellphone. It's collaborative phone tagging of the city. Part virtual graffiti, part walking tour, mobotag creates a spontaneous and easy way for tagging a neighborhood via the cellphone. Send and view messages, images, videos and sounds. See art, read stories, and watch a hidden layer of the city reveal itself. Respond with your media and participate in the creative expression and mapping of your neighborhood. mobotag also features art projects including flyHere, a mobile phone audio installation featuring native bird calls; bugBytes, collectible graphical bugs originating at major telecoms around NYC; and lookHere, a written work in short form by a native NY writer. MONOLITH by Michael Takeo Magruder with funds form the National Endowment for the Arts <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/works/monoliths/index.htm">http://www.turbulence.org/works/monoliths/index.htm</a> Monolith juxtaposes two icons of British culture: stone circles (Stonehenge, for instance) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Formulated according to motifs and proportions of ancient architecture, infused with fundamental mathematics of modern digital communication systems, each genesis of the artwork's geometry is unique. Variables such as the time of day, the viewer's location on the Earth, and the position of the Earth around the sun are incorporated into the artwork, thus instilling into the realm functions of a rudimentary clock, global positioning system, and solar calendar. [needs: The technical specifications are detailed on the Setup/Help page. Please read them before proceeding.] MY BEATING BLOG by Yury Gitman with funds from the Jerome Foundation <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/works/beatingheart/blog">http://www.turbulence.org/works/beatingheart/blog</a> My Beating Blog is an attempt to take the journaling aspect of blogging into a surrealistic future in which the author literally and metaphorically bares his heart. For three weeks, a series of posts contextualizing heart-rate visualizations, GPS-maps, and personal journal entries will give online users a rare entrance into personal medical-grade statistics, stalker-level location tracking, and the private thoughts of the blogger. Inevitably, issues regarding privacy, exhibitionism, and voyeurism playfully emerge as the blogosphere is infused with biofeedback and location technology. [needs the following browsers: IE 6.0+, Firefox 0.8+ , Safari 1.2.4+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Opera 8.02+] SWM05: DISTRIBUTED BODIES OF MUSICAL-VISUAL FORM by Troy Innocent and Ollie Olsen with the Shaolin Wooden Men and Harry Lee with funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/works/SWM05/">http://www.turbulence.org/works/SWM05/</a> SWM05 features the distributed bodies of musical-visual form that are inhabited by the Shaolin Wooden Men (SWM), a virtual band, a 'gang of numbers' ? me(a)tacodeflesh. SWM require your assistance to manifest as media creatures. They invite you to send them images of your local environment in which they can appear. Sending images unlocks access to the SWM05 mobile site which consists of downloadable micromusic ringtones and small screen machinima performances. The SWM are everywhere. In a meshwork of wireless entities, they are media creatures seeking a fragmented existence to be consumed in the nanoseconds of play-time in the emerging wireless net. SWM05 will transfigure the SWM by embodying them in a new materiality. MACHINE FRAGMENTS by Onomé Ekeh with funds from The Greenwall Foundation <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/works/machinefragments/machine.html">http://www.turbulence.org/works/machinefragments/machine.html</a> Perhaps the question "can machines think"? should be re-articulated as "is the machine different from you or I"? Why is there a perceptive gap between our tools and ourselves? Do they not constitute consciousness and by extension the body? The cultural schisms that generate this differentiation between "man" and "machine" are also responsible for spawning voids and displacements?and the ghosts that inhabit them. It is these ghosts who constitute Machine Fragments, sound fictions spun from the perspective of sentient machines, testing humans for machine intelligence. Not so much to expose the machinic dimension in humans (we suspected as much), but to arouse the sense that "Machine" is also a kind of gender. [needs Flash player 8+ and speakers; optimized for Internet Explorer and Safari] THE ESSENCE OF A NATION: CHINESE VIRTUAL PERSONS ON THE NET by XiaoQian with funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/works/XiaoQian/">http://www.turbulence.org/works/XiaoQian/</a> My name is XiaoQian, I am an artist and I create virtual persons online. For this website I created 6 chinese virtual persons: Mu Yuming a painter, Shaxpir a hip-hop singer, Wang Shy a ghost in a traditional garden, He Zhengjun a carpenter working with wood and text, Yi Zhe a guest in a wedding and myself XiaoQian. You can email me at xiaoqian at virtualperson.net. [needs Macromedia Flash Player plugin; Internet Explorer 5+, Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0+, or Safari 1.0+] 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: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/blog">http://turbulence.org/blog</a> Upgrade! Boston: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/upgrade">http://turbulence.org/upgrade</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org 2005-2006 Net Art Commissions The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via panel-awarded commissions. For the 2005-2006 Rhizome Commissions, eleven artists/groups were selected to create original works of net art. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/">http://rhizome.org/commissions/</a> The Rhizome Commissions Program is made possible by support from the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial, the Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support has been provided by members of the Rhizome community. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. From: Marisa Olson <marisa@rhizome.org> Date: Sep 28, 2006 Subject: ON and Off at The Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery fyi… ON AND OFF October 6 ? December 2, 2006 Opening Reception: October 5, 6-8pm The Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery is pleased to present ON and Off a new show featuring an international group of contemporary artists. Ten years since it emerged as a medium for contemporary art, the Internet and the work it inspires, is no longer confined by the browser window. The Web influences culture at large: it adapts to new technology, cultivates demographics, and evolves our cultural needs and norms. The works of Vuk Cosic, Lisa Jevbratt, Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, Thomson and Craighead, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES are testament to its expanding role in contemporary life. Long working at the forefront of the medium, these artists explore the particularities of Web technology and its aesthetics and utility in projects that clearly transcend the specificity of "Internet Art." Internationally renowned and widely exhibited both on line and off these artists offer us compelling insights into our simple, everyday desire to be connected. The Gallery is located at 601 W 26th Street, Suite 1240, New York, NY. The Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11-6. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 9. From: james <rhizome@factorynoir.com> Date: Sep 28, 2006 Subject: i7o Zhu opening in Ars Virtua Friday at 7pm Ars Virtua Gallery and New Media Center presents "immersivity through Synchronization" by i7o Zhu opening Friday September 29 at 7pm SLT in Gallery 2 of Ars Virtua. immersivity through Synchronization Minimal and Spatial Audio Visual instalation researching the immersivity value of synchronised stimuli. Deleuze, alluding to Kant and Schelling, at times refers to his philosophy as a transcendental empiricism. In Kant's transcendental idealism, experience only makes sense when organized by intellectual categories (such as space, time, and causality). Taking such intellectual concepts out of the context of experience, according to Kant, spawns seductive but senseless metaphysical beliefs. (For example, extending the concept of causality beyond actual experience results in unverifiable speculation about a first cause.) Deleuze inverts the Kantian arrangement: experience exceeds our concepts by presenting novelty, and this raw experience of difference actualizes an idea, unfettered by our prior categories, forcing us to invent new ways of thinking (RESOURCE - <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleuze">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleuze</a>) Second Life is a 3D online persistent space totally created and evolved by its users. Within this vast and rapidly expanding place, you can do, create or become just about anything you can imagine. Built-in content creation tools let you make almost anything you can imagine, in real time and in collaboration with others. An incredibly detailed digital body ('Avatar') allows a rich and customizable identity. Ars Virtua is a new media center and gallery located entirely in the synthetic world of Second Life. It is a new type of space that leverages the tension between 3-D rendered game space and terrestrial reality, between simulated and simulation. To visit Ars Virtua simply create a free account in Second Life (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://secondlife.com/join">http://secondlife.com/join</a>) and run the current client (http:// secondlife.com/download). Once you have this properly installed follow this link – secondlife://Dowden/42/59 ? directly to Ars Virtua, or use <a rel="nofollow" href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/dowden/42/59/52/?title=Ars%">http://slurl.com/secondlife/dowden/42/59/52/?title=Ars%</a> 20Virtua. Ars Virtua: Gallery 2, Butler (228, 15, 52) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 10. From: mark cooley <flawedart@yahoo.com> Date: Sep 28, 2006 Subject: absence / presence: a conversation with artist charles cohen absence / presence: a conversation with charles cohen A conversation between Charles Cohen and Mark Cooley conducted through electronic mail - 2006 For a hypertext version of this interview please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flawedart.net/interviews/indexcohen.htm">http://www.flawedart.net/interviews/indexcohen.htm</a> See Charles Cohen's work at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.promulgator.com">http://www.promulgator.com</a> MC: I'd like to begin by exploring your use of the "cut-out" in some of your most well known works. I've been covering your Buff series in various new media related courses for a couple of years now, and several questions and points of discussion are frequently raised. Can you speak first about the dichotomy of absence/presence at work in these pieces: How do you wish this dichotomy to play out for your audience, and what role does the content of the original image play in this scenario? CC: If I may, I?d like to dissect the viewing experience into three ?effects? which the cut-out generates. The ?first effect? is the immediate recognition of the void; a mere observation, not an intellectual reaction, per se. The second effect is ?the abstract effect,? which would be any subsequent intellectual activity for the viewer. This sets up an ideal and final ?reflexive effect?. The catalyst for the reaction is expectation. Because we expect nudity (in the Buff series) the suggestive poses of the subject and the conditioned responses of the viewer confront the void. This disconnect of what is expected with what is actually there has a variety of reactions in viewers. After digesting the experience, however, the question of what has happened occurs. This question, a momentary wedge in a normal viewing experience, sets up the ?abstract effect?. The viewer is questioning the nature of this particular type of imagery as well as the effect of imagery in general on the mind. It is no longer a transparent and immediate experience, as it is so often in photography where the experience is oversimplified. Finally, the pinnacle for the artist is to create a third, ?reflexive? effect. The viewer dissects all viewing experiences to the degree where the subtleties of the construction of meaning are understood and, perhaps assumes co-authorship with the artist. MC: You mention co-authorship and I'm interested in pursuing this concept because it echoes many of the discussions I've had with students regarding your work, but before we get into that I am interested in how you came upon the source imagery for Buff and analogtime (full title, Why I prefer digital clocks and can no longer pretend to like analog time) ? I'm wondering if you could speak about the significance of the specific imagery in the two series. While the cut-out seems to set-up a similar relationship between viewer and image in both series, it also seems to lead to very different results in terms of specific associations or meaning. CC: The theme which my work tends to revolve around, the presence of absence, first surfaced in two photographic series, that and set (See linked statements for that and set). This work was created in 1997-1999. As you may or may not know, the Buff series starts with an appropriated image and the analogtime series is from film negatives that I took and happen to be in. The Buff work, which I am most known for, preceded the analogtime series from the Drop Out show at Julie Saul. Buff is an intellectual exercise to dialog with the viewer about expectation and imagery in general. I elaborate on this in-depth in the linked statement. The text from Curve: The Female Nude Now (by Sarah Valdez, Megan Dailey, Jane Harris) is also related and interesting. The analogtime images are an emotional exercise that follows the principles of Buff addressing issues of attachment and lack. I have embedded the intellectual mission of Buff into an emotional narrative in analogtime. And by being ! seductive and generic, the farewell scene sustains some of the abstraction issues that I addressed in Buff. The fact that the main differences relate to love and lust were not planned per se but are certainly very relevant and seem to be a good way to differentiate. The white space in Buff would be a novel, retinal fling (albeit with an important invitation to think) and the analogtime silhouette would be the profound long-term relationship with a pain/pleasure point of entry. The similarity of the white space allows the viewer to project a thought in both cases, but those thoughts are very different for the two series. In Buff, while the exercise for me is detached, general and intellectual, for the viewer it may be more immediate and specific, facilitating co-authorship. While in the analogtime imagery the picture itself is specific, narrative and attached for me, the viewer?s involvement is contingent upon appeal?requiring more participation from the viewer. I never show the two series in the same room and preferably not at the same time as the subtleties compete in the experience. The analytical differences are interesting but don?t translate to an effective installation. MC: I'm interested in touching on this concept of co-authorship that you mentioned previously. As you know, many aspects of digital culture (from products defined as fine art to those defined as entertainment or mass media) are celebrated and formed around ideas of "interactivity". It seems unfortunate that "interactivity", which suggests an opening for co-authorship with the participant, often boils down to a "user" clicking buttons to get to prearranged content. It has been pointed out many times that this kind of "interactivity" is not fundamentally different than flipping through a book or channels on a t.v. remote. Do you think our culture's fascination with gadgets and clicking buttons has had any effect on the kind of conceptual interactivity one can have with (or through) static imagery? Relatedly, I've had many classroom discussions in which I've posed the question, "what is interactivity?" - almost inevitably, responses tend to revolve around manipulating gadge! try. Technologies and representations made with them tend lose their roles as mediators between people and their ideas and become ends unto themselves. Communication and interaction seem lost at this level. Do you think that technology sometimes serves to alienate or distance people from conscious interaction with their environments? I'm also partly interested in this question because much of your work seems to suggest or conjure simultaneous feelings of intimacy and distance or alienation - not only in your Buff and analogtime series, but I get this sense in your set, that and Standard Double series as well. What are your general or specific thoughts along these lines? CC: Hmmm. That?s a great point of entry for me in particular. I was raised on the tube. The effect of the preoccupation (if you don?t mind) of the gadget and related control/interactive devices depends on the individual and has the potential for positive effect. In the analytical realm, however, clicking should never merit interactivity. Perhaps co-authorship is the standard for interactivity. I was just talking with a friend about a more recent addition to the analogtime series that explicitly includes issues of memory, narrative, projection and therefore control. The name analogtime reflects the multi-temporal nature of the images for which the silhouette is directly responsible. By ?multi-temporal? I mean the image depicts the record of a past event/gesture and IS an explicit revisiting of that event in the viewing present as well as a longing for something in the future. The silhouette draws attention to the process of making the image as well as the motivation, and draws the viewer into the equation, making the narrative relative to the present moment. This reflexivity within the image, for the viewer and between the image and the viewer is interactivity. When you ask if technology causes alienation and distance, I say yes, except that distance (and alienation) can be an opportunity to understand the way in which we process mediated images and to enhance interactivity. It only takes the tiniest pause for a numb moment to reveal profound, reflective insights. I was an anthropology major in college and I identified very much with an underlying principle in ethnographic fieldwork ? participant observation. That is, the blending of analytical distance with whole-hearted engagement. It is perhaps recognizing this in my own thinking that drew me toward making art ? for I feel that artwork is an even more satisfactory resolution of these contradictory thoughts than prose. I?ll leave poetry alone except that de-contextualized and duplicitous language has a desirable effect for me. This contradiction or in-between state of participant observation is something that is more difficult to convey than language traditionally permits. If two exclusive voices exist in our mental faculty, that is, solely participation or solely observation, then it is visual language that can set up an experience for communication rather than a verbal account that simply constructs the message for one-way delivery. In the analogtime pieces I am attempting to blend ?account? with ?experience? using conflicting modes of time to address the same contradiction in the image as well as that which sets up the image. The pieces include active gestures like reaching or embracing but they refer to something not there and therefore past. In the set series there is also an underlying duality ? that of natural and artificial light. The images are all taken at either dusk or dawn with an overlap of outdoor lighting ? betwixt and between. That one cannot discern the time of day is intended to alienate the viewer as well as highlight a form of beauty in the lack of knowledge. The same goes for the that series of billboard profiles. There is no face, or information in the image ? the original function debunked as the viewer surrenders to questions, not answers. Ultimately my art and all contemporary art is perhaps a projection of an inner duality that engages and provokes thought in equal amounts. MC: I'm interested to know what your thoughts are on how the cut-out has been popularized in advertising imagery in recent years. There are numerous examples that I've come across, but the obvious and by far the most enduring is the iPod campaign. It interests me because it seems an ideal example of how similar technical and formal applications can be initiated by very different conceptual intentions and work toward very different affects for viewer / participant - or stated another way, an illustration of how context determines meaning. I'd like to know your thoughts, if you've had any, on how the "cut-out" seems to function in your work in comparison / contrast to how it functions in commercial applications - specifically the iPod campaign? CC: I once scribbled, design is to ?ooh!? as art is to ?oh??. Design seeks to hook while art aims to cause pause. Apple and its image makers don?t necessarily want thought, only impulse. Sadly, this is what a viewer often wants too. The viewer wants what the image wants and we gladly cooperate. (This is a plug for a great book, ?What Do Pictures Want? by W.J.T. Mitchell). With this difference between art and design in mind, I try to take advantage of the seduction dynamic with a little kung fu and some blank space. I probably mean some other martial art, but I am referring to the ability to redirect energy coming at you, to turn an ad image on its head gracefully, like Marx did analytically to a table, unlocking the implied forces within and re-empowering the viewer. Marx would clearly side with the viewer (if I haven?t made him roll over yet), because it is the viewer that constructs the meaning of the message. The result is revolutionary. Like a French sabo! t, the silhouette disrupts the fetish mechanism and unleashes a flurry of thought. The ipod ad insidiously lacks who they think you want to be (the silhouette). The message is lack itself?you lack meaning without an ipod. The void I emphasize simply asks the viewer for an idea and in return grants authority to the viewer. Regarding the silhouette, I often consider the allegory of the cave and some general eastern thought, i.e. that the world we experience is merely light and shadow distraction interpreted by an ego mind. I hope to transcend the fiction (rather than profoundly reinforce it) by indicating the relationship between one?s mind and the flickering shadows. My friend Max who works in IT once said, ?it?s amazing how much you can discern about a communication only knowing that it took place?. Perhaps, in looking at a silhouette, the viewer, once implicated and engaged in the dialog, knows the significance of his role and thus the sensation of reality without knowing what in fact that reality is. About the artists Charles Cohen (New York, USA) Currently represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York, Genovese/Sullivan in Boston, Patricia Faure in Los Angeles and Imago Galleries in Palm Desert, Charles Cohen participated in the Core Fellowship program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston after earning his MFA in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. In addition to traditional photography Cohen uses video, digital imaging and sculpture to explore various aspects of a central theme??the presence of absence. Cohen often finds or applies abstraction to mundane subjects in order to complete the meaning of a piece by engaging the viewer. His "Buff" series has been exhibited in New York, Paris, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Portland. It can also be seen in two recently released books: "Digital Art" by Christiane Paul published by Thames & Hudson, and "CURVE: The Female Nude Now" by Dailey, Meghan et al, published by Rizzoli. Mark Cooley is a new genre artist interested in visual rhetoric, forgotten histories and political economy. His work has been exhibited in many international venues both online and off. Mark is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Visual Technology at George Mason University. contact info: mark cooley flawedart(@)yahoo.com flawedart.net charles cohen charles(@)promulgator.com promulgator.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 11. From: Nato Thompson +Commissioned by Rhizome.org+ For KEYLINES, a Project of Rhizome's Tenth Anniversary Festival of Art & Technology <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/events/tenyear/keylines.rhiz">http://www.rhizome.org/events/tenyear/keylines.rhiz</a> +Please visit KEYLINES to respond or post your own essay!+ "The New Media Backpedal" by Nato Thompson The fact that radical actions flourished under Clinton but not under Bush is highly bizarre (if not somewhat amazing at the same time). Surely, one must consider the radical political landscape in the United States at this time and attempt to gain a handle on how best to organize radical political action. Political action is an open-ended concept that for the sake of this discussion, we will break down into two particular modes. There are the classically produced leftist grassroots political actions that work in terms of lobbying, social organizing, banners, street protest, and muckraking journalisms. On the other hand, there are the more, how do you say, theoretical politics. That is to say, the politics of meaning that encompass our everyday experience, often informed by postmodern books, that don't particularly make it onto the front page of the New York Times nor Democracy Now for that matter. Public space, the politics of work, the disciplinary society, the commodification of counter culture, the spectacle, Agamben's camp, ambiguity as a form of meaning production and on and on. These are subjects often written about in lefty art magazines (such as Rhizome) but magically dropped in the left magazines like the Nation, Z Magazine, even Clamor. There is clearly a divide in these two worlds. It is probably not a new one for many of us as it haunts new media in particular. To clarify the gap a little more: there is a form of political resistance that approach politics in what appears to be a straightforward didactic manner. The framework of analysis runs in conjunction with the tradition of street protest in the United States, Democracy Now is often playing on the radio, there is a mystical tally on the newest heinous action in Congress, lobby groups, the prison industry, and utility is often the guide post for political action. And then there are those that are at times somewhat more aloof. They can discuss the character of resistance available in taking a short cut home, they can discuss the Panopticon and the level of systemic biopower available in the military welfare state, they can critique the manner in which contemporary radical politics buy into the spectacle of counter culture, and utility is often considered a complicated riddle not easily solved. Now, you might chuckle or be angered by such a flagrant forced dichotomy and I realize there is movement between these two approaches. But surely the reader understands this divide. Yet, the ability to bridge the gap vacillates dramatically depending on the political temperature of the times. I would go out on a limb and say that during the second Clinton administration, art and politics were allowed to be a bit more theoretic. Questions of the commodification of counter culture, movements toward extending public space and the like were embraced and merged into a growing political movement that used the anti-globalization movement as its spine. Theoretical analysis and pragmatic political gestures merged haphazardly into an evolving platform of political process. Life under Bush is quite different. The disappearance of a coordinated political movement has produced a painful lacuna in the political art scene. The theoretically minded politics of public space, ambiguity and visual culture have in large part retreated toward the academic sub sphere in lieu of a political movement to connect with. Would it be erroneous to place art and technology directly along this path? The radical action leftist magazines have moved back toward embracing a pragmatic politics that utilize typical forms of political resistance (eg. Move.On.org). Without a pragmatic grassroots political movement to connect the dots of political action, aesthetic micro-resistances (such as most art and technology gambits) ultimately add up to gestures of aesthetic and identity posturing interpretable primarily through the lens of new media social capital. This is not to say the need for this form of politics has dried up, but that it lacks a necessary cohesive political community that brings the utilitarian, the ambiguous and the desirous into a unified sphere. In the face of this, what is to be done? New movements emerge (such as the growth of the immigration movement) and an infrastructure of meaning (magazines, spaces, organizations, collectives, radio shows) needs to be produced to close the gap. An infrastructure must be produced that manages the tensions between the theoretical needs of ambiguity and skepticism with the pragmatics of didacticism and action. Without considering the manner in which our efforts work toward this end, new media efficacy runs parallel with the naivetÇ and convenient posturing that is the current landscape of identity under spectacle. These are perilous times and the most risky and beneficial thing we can do, is to build bridges. We must reconnect the dots and apply questions of spectacle, ambiguous new media interventions, and theory driven actions on the same platform as the pragmatic politics of grassroots politics. We must work toward getting back on the streets and challenging power head on. Without an accompanying pragmatic approach, new media drifts backward toward gadgetry, conventions, listservs, and geeky obscurity. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Marisa Olson (marisa@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 11, 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. 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