RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.31.04

discussion

Posted Jan. 30 2004 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.31.04

RHIZOME DIGEST: January 31, 2004 Content: +announcement+ 1. Francis Hwang: Help Rhizome improve its search engine! 2. Renato Posapiani: Nike throws in the towel +opportunity+ 3. David Bernard: Machinista 2004 4. Rasheeqa Ahmad: YAH (YOU ARE HERE) FESTIVAL 2004: Call For Submissions! +interview+ 5. Cornelia Sollfrank: Cornelia Sollfrank's 'net.art generator' as Collectors Object +comment+ 6. Noemata: A proposition for book publishing +feature+ 7. Perry Garvin: Review: Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + **RHIZOME NEEDS TO RAISE $27K BY FEBRUARY 1, 2004** Do you value Rhizome Digest? If so, consider making a contribution and helping Rhizome.org to be self-sustaining. A contribution of $15 will qualify you for a 10-20% discount in items in the New Museum of Contemporary Art's Store, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmuseum.org/comersus/store/comersus_dynamicIndex.asp">http://www.newmuseum.org/comersus/store/comersus_dynamicIndex.asp</a> and a donation of $50 will get you a funky Rhizome t-shirt designed by artist Cary Peppermint. Send a check or money order to Rhizome.org, New Museum, 583 Broadway, New York, NY, 10012 or give securely and quickly online: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/support/?digest0131">http://www.rhizome.org/support/?digest0131</a> **BE AN ACTIVE ROOT** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 1.19.04 From: Francis Hwang (francis@rhizome.org) Subject: Help Rhizome improve its search engine! If you are a Rhizome user who lives in the New York City area, you can help us improve our search engine by coming to our office and participating in a usability study. This study will take place during the week of February 2 to February 6, at our office in the New Museum building in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. It should take around 30 minutes of your time. Study participants will receive a one-year extension of their current Rhizome membership. You can participate if your membership has expired; in that case you will receive a membership that is good for one-year after the day that you come in. Please email me if you would like to participate. Francis + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 1.26.04 From: Renato Posapiani (propaganda@0100101110101101.org) Subject: Nike throws in the towel January 25th, 2004 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nike throws in the towel …and withdraws case against European art project In December there was still uncertainty about the final outcome of the lawsuit filed by Nike International against Public Netbase for producing 0100101110101101.ORG's art project "Nike Ground – Rethinking space". For several weeks, the fate of the renowned Vienna-based net culture platform hung in the balance, its continuing existence threatened by the court action. But we can now confirm that the sportswear company has yielded under the pressure of international public and media attention generated by the action. "We won! – declares satisfied 0100101110101101.ORG spokesman Franco Birkut, – and our victory is proof of at least one thing: the famous "Swoosh" logo belongs to the people who actually wear it every day. These commercial giants think they can beat anyone who annoys them, and they're unable to distinguish an artistic or critical project from unfair competition or commercial fraud. Nike was not the target of our performance, they are just one amongst the many tools we use to make our point. We were not against them, but they reacted in such a hasty and unseemly way, with no style at all. In the end it was a pleasure to play with Nike: the bigger they are, the harder they fall!" "It was worth the risk in order to insist on the right to free artistic expression in urban spaces – Public Netbase director Konrad Becker declares – The intimidation attempts of this company known for its sneaky marketing strategies have turned back against them". The worldwide interest generated by the project can also be explained by the fact that it emphasized the importance of a cutting-edge artistic practice that employs the real means of production of a society increasingly determined by the media and technology. Becker: "The project drew attention to important issues such as the globalized dominance of economic interests over cultural symbols and gave rise to controversial perspectives and contentious interpretations". In mid September 2003, 0100101110101101.ORG started a surreal art project called Nike Ground ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nikeground.com">http://www.nikeground.com</a> ), a "hyper-real theatrical performance" built around a fake guerrilla marketing campaign: Nike was supposedly buying streets and squares in major world capitals, in order to rename them and insert giant monuments of their famous logo. A 13 tons hi-tech container was installed in Vienna, the first city to host a "Nike Square", as part of the action. Nike wasted no time: "These actions have gone beyond a joke. This is not just a prank, it's a breach of our copyright and therefore Nike will take legal action against the instigators of this phoney campaign". On October 14th, Nike released a 20 page injunction requesting the immediate removal of any reference to copyrighted material, and that any activity related to Nike cease immediately. Failure to comply with this request would mean that Nike would claim 78,000 Euros for damages. "When they started legal action against us – says Franco Birkut – they knew perfectly well that we were not a competitor and that they were dealing with an art project, but they continued legal proceedings in order to crush us and erase any trace of the work. We didn't allow them to intimidate us, we ignored their ultimatum and went on with the performance till the end of October, because this was our initial idea". The international press reacted badly to Nike's legal action: "Regardless of the outcome of the trial – wrote Cathy Macherel in Le Courrier – their action will have been success: hasn't operation Nike Ground shown the public the other side of the "Swoosh" corporation advertisement? Far from being a free symbol integrated in the public sphere, here Nike reveals itself as a humorless multinational that has lost all sense of play as soon as someone touches its interests". The Commercial Court has rejected Nike's plea for a provisional injunction on formal grounds. After this refusal Nike didn't take further legal action. The match is over: Nike threw in the towel. Nike Ground is the latest surreal action by the European art group known as 0100101110101101.ORG, a band of media artists who use non conventional communication tactics to obtain the largest visibility with the minimal effort. Past works include staging a hoax involving a completely made-up artist, ripping off the Holy See and spreading a computer virus as a work of art. CONTACTS: 0100101110101101.ORG: HTTP://0100101110101101.ORG Nikeground@0100101110101101.ORG Public Netbase <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.t0.or.at">http://www.t0.or.at</a> office@t0.or.at + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 1.25.04 From: David Bernard (davabernard@yahoo.co.uk) Subject: Machinista 2004 —————————————————— Call For Entries -  DEADLINE: 28th February 2004 —————————————————— MACHINISTA 2004 Submissions for the following three themes are welcomed in all media. 1. "Art from the Machine: gleams of the inhuman" Works created completely or mostly by a machine or an artificial intelligence system. 2. "Artists Against Machinic Standards" Breaking, destroying, hacking, unexpected (non-utilitarian?) usage of customary programs as an art experiment. 3. "Full-Screen Robovision" Moving image works (experimental/scientific imaging, audiovisual code, short films, animation and VJ mixes) illustrating "the world as seen by machines" see <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.machinista.org">http://www.machinista.org</a> for more details and to participate. (Deadline: 28th February 2004) Machinista is a yearly unmediated open-submission online exhibition. Creative and technological practices including visual and software art, science and design projects, moving image, experimental music and performance are featured in various scales and stages of development ranging from documentation of prototypes and exploratory installations to fully operational systems. In 2003 there were 128 submissions featured in Machinista plus offline events in Moscow and Perm in the Urals. MACHINISTA GLASGOW* An offline festival each year in a different host city showcases key entries to the online exhibition. Participants in www.machinista.org are commissioned to travel and present/ exhibit/install/ perform to wide audiences.  This year, Machinista talkes place in Glasgow, Scotland on the weekend of May 7-9 2004 with some additional events later in the year in Perm, Urals. Machinista 2004 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.machinista.org">http://www.machinista.org</a> Machinista 2003 htttp://www.machinista.ru ; (Russian) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.machinista.ru/en">http://www.machinista.ru/en</a> (English) *Supported by the Scottish Arts Council & CCA Glasgow (please forward) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 1.30.04 From: Rasheeqa Ahmad (rasheeqa@broadway.org.uk) Subject: YAH (YOU ARE HERE) FESTIVAL 2004: Call For Submissions! YOU ARE HERE FESTIVAL 2004: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!! On 20th January, the You Are Here Festival team released the submission form and details for the second YAH Festival, taking place from 24th September to 3rd October 2004. Applications are welcomed from anyone, regardless of experience, geography or preferred media. The deadline for submissions is 1st April, so get your thinking caps on! Some brief info for you below, but we suggest you direct yourself to www.yah.org.uk/festival (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.yah.org.uk/festival/index.php">http://www.yah.org.uk/festival/index.php</a>) for more info, and a downloadable application form. You Are Here Festival 2004 Info Friday 24th September - Sunday 3rd October 2004 Nottingham, UK Now in its second year, this annual artist-led event seeks proposals from contemporary artists working in all media. The YAH Festival 2004 will provide a unique promotional platform for artists, groups, and venues across the East Midlands region and beyond. Providing artists and audiences a like with 10 jam-packed days and nights of exhibitions, performances, screenings and discussion. Artists will be selected through open submission on the basis of producing an exciting and diverse programme of work that is responsive to the varied sites that make up the Festival. As the Festival seeks to be responsive to artists? proposals/needs, not all sites are finalised but will fall within the following strands of activity: - Central Venue - a building taken on by the Festival to act as the core of the Festival, taking on a dual role as contact point and venue with an ongoing programme of installed works, shows, performances and events over the 10 days. - The team will select, curate and install a series of solo and group shows/events across several venues (BridlesmithGate Gallery, Lakeside, 1851 Gallery, Bonington Foyer, Powerhouse and the Basement with others to be confirmed). - This year the team is particularly keen to be responsive to artists requirements and develop locating the relevant site for a work. Last year specific works were housed in a range of outside venues, a library and cafes. The Festival is already negotiating the use of sites ranging from churchs to trams. If you have a specific site in mind for a proposal please get in touch to discuss. Submissions Surgery Day If your idea doesn?t fit within what we have described then please get in touch to discuss how the Festival could accommodate or facilitate the proposal, we will also have a day when you can come and talk to us: 15th March 2004 (12-6pm) Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham: Submissions Open day - face to face surgery to develop proposals with the people who will select and develop proposals on behalf of the Festival. To book a place email festival@yah.org.uk Submissions deadline 1st April 2004 The Festival will produce and install key works/events across Nottingham in existing and created venues/sites. The Festival will also collaborate with other groups and organisations to realise events across the region. (If you are an artist or a group with an idea for an event you would like to organise as part of the Festival please get in touch to discuss). Central to our aims is that the artists involved get more than simply the opportunity to exhibit existing work ? through artistic and professional development, collaboration and involvement in the process and the commissioning of new work. So, don't miss your chance to get involved with what looks like being a truly exceptional ten days of activity. The world will be looking in, so make sure they see you… Partners, supporters, friends, galleries, orgs - please do for us what we always do for you, and forward this here email on to your numerous mailing lists. Email the festival address if you want to be involved with the 2004 festival. Don't delay! Also, if you've not registered as a member on the YAH site, do so quickly, as we'll be holding a members-only competition for some cool stuff next month… YAH team, January 2004 www.yah.org.uk (http:www.yah.org.uk) , the arts resource for Nottingham and beyond. To be removed from all of our mailing lists, click here (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.yah.org.uk/mailinglists/">http://www.yah.org.uk/mailinglists/</a> mailinglists.php?p=mlist&amp;rem=rasheeqa@broadway.org.uk) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 1.28.04 From: Cornelia Sollfrank (cornelia@snafu.de) Subject: Cornelia Sollfrank's 'net.art generator' as Collectors Object Net Art as Collectors' Object - How Smart Artists Make the Machine do the Work With the purchase of artist Cornelia Sollfrank's net.art generator 'nag_04', the Sammlung Volksfürsorge becomes a pioneering art collector. In 2003, the Sammlung Volksfürsorge put together one of the largest collections of contemporary art outside a museum. With a budget of EUR 800,000, contemporary works from a wide variety of media were acquired: from painting and sculpture to photography and video art to Net art. The permanent exhibition space for the collection is the newly opened luxury hotel Le Royal Méridien Hamburg on the Outer Alster Lake. The Galerie Ruth Sachse, overseeing the project, proposed acquiring for the collection not only completed images by Cornelia Sollfrank but also the computer program that generates the images. In cooperation with Panos Galanis of IAP GmbH, Hamburg, the artist developed a new net.art generator that works exclusively with images. Since 1999, Cornelia Sollfrank has been making new images, texts and/or automatic collages out of sites and HTML material available on the World Wide Web. So far, five versions of the program based on this concept have been created with varying emphases and formats. What they all share is a user-friendly WWW interface. The programs are based on Perl scripts which, once the user has entered the title of a work and the name of an artist, send the request to a specific search engine. The material called up according to the search terms is then processed in 12 to 14 randomly generated steps and placed in new combinations. The automatically generated images, texts or Web sites are stored in an archive, the 'net.art gallery.' Furthermore, the source code of the generator has not become private property of the collection, but is subject to the General Public License, GPL, which makes it possible for the code to be modified and distributed. Processes of rationalization via computer and automatization become means of artistic production via the net.art generator. Art works, traditionally understood as authentic, unique, creative and innovative can then just as well be created by a computer program. With the advent of new media, classic questions regarding authorship, originality, materiality, the role of the artist and the work are newly challenged. "And surprisingly quickly, you get used to the idea that the production of art can, in the end, only take place via the repetition, theft, quotation, combination and reprocessing of an underlying aesthetic program." Ute Vorkoeper in 'Programmed Seduction' Anyone who finds all that too complicated can go to the six floor of the hotel and see for themselves a series of automatically generated and aesthetically quite appealing images of flowers. Le Royal Méridien Hamburg, An der Alster 52-56, 20099 Hamburg A smart artist makes the machine do the work. Keep on Generating! Internet Addresses: Sammlung Volksfürsorge: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.volksfuersorge.de/kunst">http://www.volksfuersorge.de/kunst</a> Homepage for the net.art generators: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://soundwarez.org/generator">http://soundwarez.org/generator</a> Net.art generator nag_04: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://nag.iap.de">http://nag.iap.de</a> Images (download): <a rel="nofollow" href="http://soundwarez.org/generator/src/imgs.html">http://soundwarez.org/generator/src/imgs.html</a> Contact: Julia Eble Press and Publicity Tel.: 040/2865-4603 FAX: 040/2865-5771 E-Mail: Julia.Eble@volksfuersorge.de ********************************************************************* Net Art as Collectors' Object Cornelia Sollfrank in conversation with Dr. Joachim Lemppenau, Chairman of the Board of Volksfuersorge Versicherungen. As head of the insurance company, he is also responsible for the art collection and, as a jury member, took part in the selection of the artists. Hamburg, November 1, 2003 C.S.: You've acquired one of my net.art generators for your collection. The purchase of a Net art work makes you a pioneer among collectors. What moved you to take this step and introduce Net art to the collection as well? Dr.L.: The net.art generator is a contemporary work of art that makes use of one of the most important media we now have - the Internet. With this purchase, the Sammlung Volksfuersorge is supporting current directions in art. Ownership of a materially tangible art work is not our concern; other sponsors make a sculpture or a painting available to the public in a museum. We find this more appropriate for our time, and besides, we're making the work available to a broader public by doing this on the Internet and with Net art. C.S.: One of the fundamental problems with purchasing Net art is the administration of copyright and rights of ownership regarding data that is online. What does it mean to you to be the owner of this generator? Dr.L.: It was agreed that the net.art generator would have a user-friendly Web interface for anyone who might be interested in using it. So the net.art generator is a sort of public work in our collection. We allow the "user" to create the art on his or her own. Anyone can become a (Net) artist. What's more, the code of the generator, that is, the program, is subject to a license, the so-called General Public License, GPL, which makes it possible for the code to be modified and distributed. C.S.: How will you be handling the needs that arise for the maintenance and administration of an online project? Dr.L.: The budget for the art collection ensures that the work will be maintained by another company for two years. After two years, we can decide how to carry on. (The costs aren't very high.) C.S.: Could you imagine expanding further in this direction, that is, adding another work of Net art to the collection? Dr.L.: The art collection has initially been set up to document exemplary works of contemporary art in various media immediately after the turn of the millennium. The plan does not currently project much further than that, particularly since it's a collection which principally has a single, immobile location - the Hotel Royal Meridien. The net.art generator represents the widest reach in terms of contact since it is accessible via the site www.volksfuersorge.de/kunst. – ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ___ ___ ___ ||a |||r |||t |||w |||a |||r |||e |||z || .org ||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|| |/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\| take it and run! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 1.25.04 From: Noemata (noemata@kunst.no) Subject: A proposition for book publishing A PROPOSITION FOR BOOK PUBLISHING ___ Define a book as the set of pages containing the book's ISBN. By this proposition the book is essentially unbound. In addition, no bound book is possible. Considering a bound book, there will always be pages containing the book's ISBN outside its bounds - a minimal example being a record in the ISBN administration system, if not, the book would simply not be part of the ISBN system. So being part of the ISBN system the book will be unbound per se. With objective irony the ISBN system make the unbounding of books not only possible but the logical conclusion - if a book is uniquely identified by its ISBN, then why not uniquely identify a book by its ISBN?! Following the proposition the books could be considered 'hyperbooks' in the traditional sense, being non-linear, extra-dimensional, fragmented, fractal, viral, etc in varied forms of open-ended, possible, mutable, or generative structures. Another suggestive term could be 'cypherbook' - cypher/cipher meaning 'writing/volume'[1] in general; 'number, zero'[2] as the book is defined nominal empty and by its ISBN only; 'transformed/coded/symbolic'[2] as the content is transformed/coded more extensively by its (unbound) dispersal in different contexts, and with structures codified to a higher degree than traditional books; in addition, an anagrammatic relation to the 'hyperbook' term. A generic term might simply be 'net.book'. The term 'book' itself may take on some specific meanings - the basic notion of a written document, writing on beech, collection of sheets of paper or other material[3]; as cortex, etym. from 'bark', as inscriptions in the outer regions of a structure[4] (in fact, any inscription is 'outer' and marginal in regard to the book as cypher), which brings the image of neural networks closer to the idea of the book; the verbal 'book' links 'booking' up to the nominal use of ISBN to define them; or as 'making a book', bookmakers running the numbers, rackets, a possibly illicit, anarchic use of the international standard book number system. By inverting the definition of a book, actually turning it inside out, the concept of book is attempted brought back to writing, like an expansion of the void towards the periphery through an anti-gravitating force. "The idea of the book, which always refers to a natural totality, is profoundly alien to the sense of writing."[5][6]. Any writing containing the ISBN would be part of the book, thereby the notion of content is also altered, say, like matter of the universe, where only 4% is estimated atomic matter - the rest being dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%). The content of a book could spread out in any degree in the spectral dimensions public-private/information-noise/text-cypher/etc, making book a body of matter in the more physical sense, like consisting of atomic text, dark-ambient text, dark-ambient writing. Concerning licensing, since the books are inherently unbound no overall copyright can apply. If a book cannot be bound, surely it cannot be copyrighted. In fact, copyrighting the book would violate the ISBN system - the ISBN system itself would actually be violating the book's copyright by recording it - which again would violate the book, making it impossible. Copyright issues would therefore have to be partial to the book and in practice distributed to its pages and actual writing which could be copyrighted in the usual manner. Following this, an open source/content copyleft licence[7], would seem the proper thing and default modus for the book and assure its essentially open and free distribution and mutation. Expanding on the idea of constituting the book on its ISBN only, other usages and notions of the book concept could be opened up for creative investigation, one reason being that technology and new media immaterializes and fuses different forms into basically one digital form, and since the content of that form often is aggregates into one big, interconnected blob - or so we would like to think, alltogether emphasizing the virtuality of the book, freed from its material basis. In a more general interpretation, the book could constitute any kind of real or virtual intellectual 'work', ranging from physical artwork to networked ideas, by being its possibly unique identifier, like a signature, tag, etc, and thereby help and preserve different kinds of distributed, networked arts and gain identity - by analogy, maybe as the IP identifies a machine in a network, the ISBN would identify a work in the cultural net, dispersed or immersed into it. To begin with, announcing the publication of 12 books accordingly: ISBN 82-92428-05-4 ISBN 82-92428-06-2 ISBN 82-92428-08-9 ISBN 82-92428-10-0 ISBN 82-92428-11-9 ISBN 82-92428-13-5 ISBN 82-92428-14-3 ISBN 82-92428-18-6 ISBN 82-92428-19-4 ISBN 82-92428-20-8 ISBN 82-92428-21-6 True to the initial proposition these books are defined by their ISBNs only, the content of a book being the (possible empty) set of documents containing the ISBN. Actually, some of these specific books already have some form of content from preliminar usage and are based on various topics[8], but that doesn't change their status or limit their usage as they are principally open, subject to writing, being what is actually written into them, being written, written beings. For practical purposes, once the books attain some sort of substance, stabilizes, or in other ways attain a reportable identity they'd be reported and updated to the appropriate ISBN office by the publisher owning the ISBNs, and thereby available like any other book in their information system. Since the books are unbound they won't have any interface other than their pages' immediate contexts, so if any overall interface at all, it would have to be made, which is precisely an etymologic meaning of 'face' (from facere, to make), so interfacing the book would in a sense also be the making of it (and be part of it in a selvreflexive way). Such interfaces could be readily made for instance using search engines or scripts in indexing/gathering/filtering material into different partitions. Additional structuring of the books could be made using cyphers for signing, authenticating, encrypting material if they were intended for special authoring or ways of reading. A closing topos, restating Baudrillard in his exposition of value[9], query-replaced into this setting of book publishing as seen apt for the purpose: Book stages: natural books, commodity books, structural books (hypertext), fractal books (viral, radiant). Fractal books prolificly only refer to themselves, radiating in all directions - publishing as contiguity. The book no longer has any equivalence, an epidemic of book, metastasis of text, haphazard proliferation and dispersal of book. We should no longer speak of 'book' at all, for this kind of propagation or chain reaction makes all books impossible. Yet things continue to function long after their idea have disappeared and in total indifference to their own content, the paradoxical fact is that they function even better under these circumstances. The book is no longer a metaphor for logos etc or anything at all, but merely the locus of metastasis, of the machine-like connections between all its processes, of an endless programming devoid of any symbolic organization or overarching purpose: the book is thus given over to the pure promiscuity of its relationship to itself as ISBN - the same promiscuity that characterizes networks. Finally, three small images of books for the occation: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://noemata.net/books/b02.jpg">http://noemata.net/books/b02.jpg</a> (6k) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://noemata.net/books/b03.jpg">http://noemata.net/books/b03.jpg</a> (8k) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://noemata.net/books/b06.jpg">http://noemata.net/books/b06.jpg</a> (7k) (Redistribute where appropriate, comments are welcome.) ___ [1] cipher - This word has a comprehensive meaning in Scripture. In the Old Testament it is the rendering of the Hebrew word _sepher_, which properly means a "writing," and then a "volume" (Ex. 17:14; Deut. 28:58; 29:20; Job 19:23) or "roll of a book" (Jer. 36:2, 4). – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Cipher">http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Cipher</a> [2] ¹ci.pher n, often attrib [ME, fr. MF cifre, fr. ML cifra, fr. Ar sifr empty, cipher, zero] (14c) 1 a: zero 1a. b: one that has no weight, worth, or influence: nonentity 2 a: a method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning–compare code 3b b: a message in code 3: arabic numeral 4: a combination of symbolic letters; esp: the interwoven initials of a name – Enc. Britannica [3] book - [Middle English bok, from Old English bc. See bhgo- in Indo-European Roots.] Word History: From an etymological perspective, book and beech are branches of the same tree. The Germanic root of both words is *bk-, ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning ?beech tree.? The Old English form of book is bc, from Germanic *bk-, ?written document, book.? The Old English form of beech is bce, from Germanic *bk-jn, ?beech tree,? because the early Germanic peoples used strips of beech wood to write on. A similar semantic development occurred in Latin. The Latin word for book is liber, whence library. Liber, however, originally meant ?bark? that is, the smooth inner bark of a tree, which the early Romans likewise used to write on. – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Book">http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Book</a> [4] cor·tex (kôrÆteks), n., pl. -ti·ces (-tÃ s?zÅ). 1. Anat., Zool. the outer region of an organ or structure, as the outer portion of the kidney.the cerebral cortex. 2. Bot. the portion of a stem between the epidermis and the vascular tissue; bark.any outer layer, as rind. 3. Mycol. the surface tissue layer of a fungus or lichen, composed of massed hyphal cells. [1650?60; < L: bark, rind, shell, husk] – Random House Dict. [5] The End of the Book: In Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida equates the culture of The Book with logocentrism, the belief in a signifier which is both outside of structure, and hence beyond scrutiny or challenge, and at the very centre, providing it with a central point of reference that anchors meaning… It is the encyclopedic protection of theology and of logocentrism against the disruption of writing, against its aphoristic energy, and … against difference in general. – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0248.html">http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0248.html</a> [6] The Book: The west has been called "the civilization of the book" (Derrida, Of Grammatology 3). – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0246.html">http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0246.html</a> [7] In short, open source/content licences assures different degrees of open and free copying, modification and distribution. – The Open Source Initiative, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.opensource.org">http://www.opensource.org</a> – Creative Commons, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.creativecommons.org">http://www.creativecommons.org</a> [8] Books published by noemata.net – <a rel="nofollow" href="http://noemata.net/books/">http://noemata.net/books/</a> [9] From J Baudrillard, Transparency of Evil. verso. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + For $65 annually, Rhizome members can put their sites on a Linux server, with a whopping 350MB disk storage space, 1GB data transfer per month, catch-all email forwarding, daily web traffic stats, 1 FTP account, and the capability to host your own domain name (or use <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.net/your_account_name">http://rhizome.net/your_account_name</a>). Details at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/services/1.php">http://rhizome.org/services/1.php</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 1.29.04 From: Perry Garvin (garvinpr@fastmail.fm) Subject: Review: Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam Review: Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam Spaceworks at The Tank through Feb. 7 Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam is a show based on the contention that spam e-mails are not just irritating anonymous missives that glut inboxes, but cultural artifacts capable of providing insights into our culture's dreams, fears, obsessions, and hopes. That e-mail sitting in your Junk Mail box condemned to deletion is not just an ad promising a larger penis but evidence of the social anxiety surrounding contemporary standards of masculinity. That offer for a cable descrambler? Not just a method to unlock all five hundred channels on your television but an insight into the ubiquity of 21st century digital piracy. Curators Jesse Jarnow, Daniel Greenfeld, and Mike Rosenthal collectively take on the fictional identity of Dr. Harold R. Tuttledge, a cultural anthropologist from the future sifting- through layers of spam so as to understand this particular culture of ours at the turn of the century (the "Ordovician Gothic" as he labels it). Tuttledge's survey is facilitated by all manner of pseudo-scientific measures; e-mails are classified like organic specimens according to content and method of delivery. They are labeled in a cataloging system of numbers and letters, and organized by type in a book with introductory section headings explaining the cultural context of such future anachronisms as Viagra, breast implants, and war-torn Africa. This approach of presenting spam from the perspective of a future researcher is effective for it disarms the viewer and suggests a perspective from which the examination of junk e-mail for cultural clues might seem worthwhile. As such, the book of compiled spam e-mails, classified and organized, is the best part of the project. With each e-mail isolated from its junk context, in a printed-out format, and treated as a bound volume worthy of study, it is a surprisingly interesting compilation that directs attention to the formal characteristics of a genre of text so commonplace but vehemently shunned. The show veers terribly off course, however, in the physical installation, designed like a science museum show with a series of small exhibits displaying and illustrating select spam e-mails. The exhibition is supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek re-creation of our culture based solely on the information circulated through spam e-mails; a history of deposed African statesmen with money to deposit in first world bank accounts, pills and remedies for all manner of medical ills, real estate opportunities to produce riches beyond imagine, and the like. The show comes off, sadly, as one long gag, contradicting the serious attributes of spam as advocated in the book. Throughout the space, light boxes like those found in science museums, complete with reductive texts, cartoons, diagrams, and graphs, guide the viewer through the classification processes used in analyzing the spam, the history of American salesmanship, and other topics relevant to Dr. Tuttledge's "study." One exhibit presents three spam e-mails - one advertising pornography, another real estate, and the third a work from home opportunity. The content of each is then "illustrated" by an artist's rendering. Oddly the re-creations, despite cogent e-mails as source material, are utterly nonsensical. One suitcase is open, dildos hanging from the upper section, medical pills and pornography on the bottom. Another valise presents architectural diagrams mounted above detritus sinking into a nest of dirt. A third piece of luggage is closed with a child's pink hiking boot glued on top. The sculptures are too busy emulating the characteristics of Dadaist sculpture to effectively direct attention to the subtleties of the e-mails themselves. Another exhibit presents three e-mails of the familiar scam of an African statesman run out of his country with millions of dollars and in need of the safe haven of a bank account. Above these e-mails are dioramas set into the wall depicting the historical facts embedded in the text, meant to give the scam authenticity: photographs of the key players of the saga, African bank notes, maps, and physical artifacts. An audio headset provides an opportunity to hear the e-mails being read. Although the connection between the objects and the e-mails is clear, the dioramas do nothing to tease out the Postmodern implications of the show: the blurring of representation and the real, the power of an illicit mass media to construct historical fact out of fiction, even the cultural consequences of mass communicated scams. Instead, all the exhibit provides is an extended riff on the conventions of museum didactics. To make matters worse, the whole project is marred by inexcusably poor craftsmanship. There are spelling errors not just throughout the wall texts, but even on the cover of the catalog. One of the show's contributing artists who showed me through the space confessed that one of the African statesmen dioramas with a blue robot, toy keg of beer, and map was nothing more than random filler for a diorama that was not completed in time for the opening of the show. Slips like these are inexcusable and such sloppiness casts the entire project's sincerity in doubt. It's difficult to make the case that spam is worth anything more than a mouse drag from the inbox to the trashcan. After all, junk e-mail is the digital form of junk mail?cons, and scams that have been around for centuries. But spam does exist within a cultural present and seeks to salve deep-seated cultural needs, fears, and desires. In the right hands, one could argue for the value of spam as a provider of insight into our culture. Unfortunately, this show is not the place. Its overriding flaw is that instead of focusing on the spam, the show focuses on mocking the conventions of historical museum exhibition design and the consequences of poor anthropological research. This tangential criticism ends up diverting attention from junk e-mail as cultural fact and subordinates it to the status of a foil. - Perry Garvin + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Feisal Ahmad (feisal@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 9, number 5. 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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