<br />RHIZOME DIGEST: January 06, 2006<br /><br />++ Always online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/digest/">http://rhizome.org/digest/</a> ++<br /><br />Content:<br /><br />+note+<br />1. Francis Hwang: Director of Technology's report, December 2005<br /><br />+opportunity+<br />2. patrick lichty: Call for experimental video: ADTV<br />3. Marisa Olson: Submit to ISEA 2006 Symposium<br />4. Lauren Cornell: Assistant Professor position at the The City College of<br />New York<br /><br />+work+<br />5. abe linkoln: UNIVERSAL ACID COUNTDOWN!!!!!!!<br />6. carlos katastrofsky: [ann] [work] new work: russian roulette<br /><br />+announcement+<br />7. Christiane Paul: intelligent agent Vol. 5 No. 2 – end of year special<br />issue (and a Happy New Year!)<br />8. {NetEX}: NetEX: 1 January - a world premiere<br />9. Christiane Paul: artport gatepage Jan 06: Abe Linkoln & Marisa Olson -<br />Abe & MO Sing the Blogs<br />10. Eduardo Navas: FW: Music and the Moving Image Conference–Please<br />Distribute Widely<br /><br />+comment+<br />11. director@eaf.asn.au: Pandilovski in conversation with Holubizky<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome is now offering Organizational Subscriptions, group memberships<br />that can be purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions<br />allow participants at institutions to access Rhizome's services without<br />having to purchase individual memberships. For a discounted rate, students<br />or faculty at universities or visitors to art centers can have access to<br />Rhizome?s archives of art and text as well as guides and educational tools<br />to make navigation of this content easy. Rhizome is also offering<br />subsidized Organizational Subscriptions to qualifying institutions in poor<br />or excluded communities. Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for<br />more information or contact Lauren Cornell at LaurenCornell@Rhizome.org<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />1.<br /><br />From: Francis Hwang <francis@rhizome.org><br />Date: Jan 3, 2006 11:42 AM<br />Subject: Director of Technology's report, December 2005<br /><br />Hi all,<br /><br />Haven't done one of these in a while. The reason now should be, I hope,<br />fairly obvious: We rolled out our redesign in December, which was most of<br />what we were working on for the last few months. It's a fairly big<br />project. By my account, Design & Production intern Jason Huff and I had to<br />edit more than 150 PHP files by hand to do this.<br /><br />(On a technical note: ob_start, register_shutdown_function, and "php_value<br />auto_prepend_file" are three obscure PHP features that helped ease the<br />pain quite a bit. More notes are available at<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://fhwang.net/blog/90.html">http://fhwang.net/blog/90.html</a> if you're interested.)<br /><br />The big rollout is done, and everything major seems to work, but this<br />should be considered a work in progress. Please feel free to report bugs<br />to me, or just suggestions.<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />Francis Hwang<br />Director of Technology<br />Rhizome.org<br />phone: 212-219-1288x202<br />AIM: francisrhizome<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />2.<br /><br />From: patrick lichty <voyd@voyd.com><br />Date: Jan 1, 2006 8:38 PM<br />Subject: Call for experimental video: ADTV<br /><br />Post widely:<br />Call for Experimental Video: ADTV<br /><br />In the ever-accelerating media culture, how can video art explore the<br />contemporary cultural milieu? For that matter, how can it interface with<br />genres like New Media to create novel modes of audience engagement?<br /><br />ADTV (Attention Deficit TV) is an experimental television program created<br />in the spirit of Dada, the Situationists, and Fluxus to address the<br />disjoint nature of contemporary culture in a playful manner. Mixing<br />elements of the attentive, the inattentive, the frenetic, and the<br />discontinuous, ADTV seeks to challenge the established protocols of<br />television, motion graphic design, video art, and New Media.<br /><br />ADTV will consist of 1-3 30-minute pilot episodes which will be<br />'broadcast' from an top-secret media laboratory deep beneath the bowels of<br />a Midwestern US university. Each episode will be of an ad hoc format of<br />segments rarely longer than 30-90 seconds each, with the exact<br />configuration depending on the content and daily occurrences surrounding<br />the show's creative process. Hosted by creators Patrick Lichty and Nathan<br />Murray (with Gregory Little), ADTV wants to provide a potent palaver for<br />the undulating underground of the transmodern mediascape.<br /><br />In the end, our goal is to deliver 20-30 minutes of content akin to the<br />irresistible media train wreck that changes channels every 30 seconds. <br />No need to flip the channel - we'll do it for you.<br /><br />The resulting ADTV episodes will be broadcast on WBGU-TV and distributed<br />via V-Podcast through DVBlog.org<br /><br />Will:<br />ADTV be a high colonic for what ails you?<br />ADTV be a palate cleanser or an after-dinner aperitif?<br />ADTV be a cutting-edge critique of contemporary culture?<br />ADTV be a mirror of a surface-deep media milieu?<br />We have no idea. Our goal is the solely the process of ADTV's media<br />stream-of-consciousness firehose.<br /><br />ADTV Call for Content!<br />While the ADTV archives are brimming with viral little bits of moving<br />media, we want your involvement. What we are looking for are short works<br />for inclusion in the ADTV media stream. Our only requirements are that<br />the media can be broadcast under Fair Use guidelines, and that we can<br />reedit the media to fit our format/purposes (if necessary). All<br />collaborators will be properly credited, and all media will be distributed<br />through a Creative Commons Attribution Agreement.<br /><br />The call begins January 5, and ends April 3. Works received earliest will<br />receive priority attention. Works should be at least 320x240, 15 FPS, and<br />in AVI, QuickTime, DV or MPEG format. Works on CD, DVD, or DV are<br />accepted. While we can accept VHS, specific technical challenges ask that<br />we discourage submission on this format. NTSC or PAL formats are<br />accepted, and all languages are welcome to submit.<br /><br />Please send all media to:<br />ADTV<br />c/o Patrick Lichty<br />1556 Clough St, #28<br />Bowling Green. Ohio 43402<br /><br />Address all inquiries to:<br />voyd@voyd.com<br /><br />For FTP transfer, please contact by email for FTP instructions.<br />Thank you for your interest, and we hope you will participate!<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Support Rhizome: buy a hosting plan from BroadSpire<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/hosting/">http://rhizome.org/hosting/</a><br /><br />Reliable, robust hosting plans from $65 per year.<br /><br />Purchasing hosting from BroadSpire contributes directly to Rhizome's<br />fiscal well-being, so think about about the new Bundle pack, or any other<br />plan, today!<br /><br />About BroadSpire<br /><br />BroadSpire is a mid-size commercial web hosting provider. After conducting<br />a thorough review of the web hosting industry, we selected BroadSpire as<br />our partner because they offer the right combination of affordable plans<br />(prices start at $14.95 per month), dependable customer support, and a<br />full range of services. We have been working with BroadSpire since June<br />2002, and have been very impressed with the quality of their service.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />3.<br /><br />From: Marisa Olson <marisa@rhizome.org><br />Date: Jan 5, 2006 11:36 AM<br />Subject: Submit to ISEA 2006 Symposium<br /><br />Dear Rhizomers,<br /><br />As a member of the planning committee for the 2006 ISEA Symposium, in San<br />Jose, CA, I would like to encourage you to submit proposals in one of two<br />forms…<br /><br />The Symposium Call for Participation for Papers and Presentations can be<br />found here:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/symposiumcall/">http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/symposiumcall/</a><br />The deadline for submission is January 15.<br /><br />The Call for Participation for Workshops can be found here:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/workshopscall/">http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/workshopscall/</a><br />This call is open until January 31st.<br /><br />As you may know, ISEA is one of the most important symposia and new media<br />festivals. In particular, symposium chair Joel Slayton has been working to<br />make the 2006 symposium a new kind of conference that excitingly<br />transcends the model of traditional academic conferences.<br /><br />On top of this, the festival itself promises to be a ton of fun (in the<br />California sun), so you don't want to miss an opportunity to participate.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Marisa<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />4.<br /><br />From: Lauren Cornell <laurencornell@rhizome.org><br />Date: Jan 5, 2006 10:52 PM<br />Subject: Assistant Professor position at the The City College of New York<br /><br />Listing follows.<br /><br />—— Forwarded Message<br />From: doreen maloney <dmalone@uky.edu><br />Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 13:47:08 -0500<br />To: NEWMEDIACAUCUS@LSV.UKY.EDU<br />Subject: job posting<br /><br />Assistant Professor, New Media.<br />Department of Art, The City College of New York.<br />Tenure-track Starting September. 1, 2006, pending budgetary approval.<br />The Department of Art seeks a New Media artist with strong programming and<br />broad technical skills, working in 3D modeling/animation, physical<br />computing, interactive design or other closely related areas of New Media<br />art/design. Candidate will teach undergraduate courses in digital<br />art/design from among 3D and 2DImaging, Multimedia Design and Multimedia<br />Projects, and Critical Issues in Technology. Experience<br />programming/scripting in languages from among C++, Java and Processing,<br />Perl, php and Javascript as well as expertise in electronics is desired.<br />Applicants are expected to have working knowledge of Photoshop,<br />Illustrator and HTML. Candidate should be conversant with contemporary<br />practices, criticism, and theory in New Media and have the ability to<br />articulate these concerns.<br /><br />MFA or equivalent degree, one or more years of University teaching<br />experience (full-time preferred), outstanding creative portfolio with<br />national and international exhibition record and evidence of ongoing<br />creative research are required. Candidate should demonstrate excellent<br />administrative and communication skills. Position includes shared<br />responsibility for program administration as well as department and<br />university committee work and significant student advisement. Successful<br />candidate will show evidence of commitment to undergraduate teaching,<br />personal research and service to department and college.<br /><br />Salary range: $35,031- $65,308 commensurate with qualifications and<br />experience<br /><br />Submit a letter of application, resume, artists' statement and a statement<br />of teaching philosophy, (samples of other expository writing encouraged),<br />extensive visual documentation of own work and up to twenty samples of<br />student work on DVD/CD or online; self-addressed stamped envelope; names,<br />addresses, titles and phone numbers of three references to:<br /><br />Professor Colin Chase, Art Department<br />The City College, CUNY<br />l38th Street & Convent Avenue<br />New York, NY 1001<br />(212) 650-7420<br />fax (212) 650-7438<br /><br />Applications will be reviewed beginning February 15, 2006 and the search<br />will continue until the position is filled.<br /><br />THE CITY COLLEGE OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK IS AN EQUAL<br />OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT/EMPLOYER.<br />Additional information available at www.ccny.cuny.edu.<br />CUNY Personnel Vacancy Notice No.: 11428.<br />–<br />– <br />doreen lamantia maloney<br />Associate Professor of New Media<br />President, New Media Caucus<br />www.newmediacaucus.org<br />College of Fine Arts<br />University of Kentucky<br />www.doreenmaloney.com<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome ArtBase Exhibitions<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/">http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/</a><br /><br />Visit "Net Art's Cyborg[feminist]s, Punks, and Manifestos", an exhibition<br />on the politics of internet appearances, guest-curated by Marina Grzinic<br />from the Rhizome ArtBase.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/art/exhibition/cyborg/">http://www.rhizome.org/art/exhibition/cyborg/</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />5.<br /><br />From: abe linkoln <abe@linkoln.net><br />Date: Dec 31, 2005 1:27 PM<br />Subject: UNIVERSAL ACID COUNTDOWN!!!!!!!<br /><br />Rhizomerz,<br /><br />Marisa Olson and I are doing an online performance today<br /><br />6 video performances, and 6 remixes in 12 hours!<br /><br />First couple of vids are already online, check in all day till midnight<br />west coast time!<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://universalacid.net/">http://universalacid.net/</a><br /><br />:)))))))))))))))))))<br />Abe<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org 2005-2006 Net Art Commissions<br /><br />The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to<br />artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via<br />panel-awarded commissions.<br /><br />For the 2005-2006 Rhizome Commissions, eleven artists/groups were selected<br />to create original works of net art.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/">http://rhizome.org/commissions/</a><br /><br />The Rhizome Commissions Program is made possible by support from the<br />Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial, the<br />Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and<br />the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support has<br />been provided by members of the Rhizome community.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />6.<br /><br />From: carlos katastrofsky <carlos.katastrofsky@gmx.net><br />Date: Jan 4, 2006 2:16 PM<br />Subject: [ann] [work] new work: russian roulette<br /><br />new work: russian roulette<br /><br />play the sometimes lethal game with your computer's life:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://aqua.subnet.at/carlos/projekte/netart/roulette/">http://aqua.subnet.at/carlos/projekte/netart/roulette/</a><br />————————————<br />c a r l o s k a t a s t r o f s k y<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://aqua.subnet.at/carlos">http://aqua.subnet.at/carlos</a><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />7.<br /><br />From: Christiane_Paul@whitney.org <Christiane_Paul@whitney.org><br />Date: Dec 31, 2005 10:52 AM<br />Subject: intelligent agent Vol. 5 No. 2 – end of year special issue (and<br />a Happy New Year!)<br /><br />intelligent agent Vol. 5 No. 2<br />Articles now available at<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.intelligentagent.com">http://www.intelligentagent.com</a><br /><br />+ Special Issue Vol. 5 No. 2:<br />// new media / photoblogging / interviews with Brian Massumi and Marcos<br />Novak //<br /><br />+reviews of games, books<br /><br />All content is available in html and as pdf files.<br /><br />//new media / photoblogging//<br />+ Susan Elizabeth Ryan, What's So New About New Media Art?<br />Susan Ryan traces the art-historical lineage of the slippery term "new<br />media" – from various forms of non-traditional, "oppositional media" to<br />video. Materialism vs. dematerialization, art vs. commerce, and hybrid<br />practices emerge as issues that have characterized "new media" throughout<br />the decades.<br /><br />+ Curt Cloninger, Geeks Inadvertently Making Net Art: SXSW 2005<br />Cloninger reports on his attendance of the South by Southwest (SXSW)<br />Interactive conference where the participants were active flickr.com<br />users: "What resulted was a form of online, indexed photoblogging of a<br />common event that comes closer to achieving the holy grail of compelling<br />non-linear narrative than anything I've come across in a long time."<br /><br />//interviews//<br /><br />+ Thomas Markussen & Thomas Birch, Transforming Digital Architecture from<br />Virtual to Neuro – An Interview with Brian Massumi<br />At the Neuroaesthetics conference in London, Markussen & Birch talked to<br />Brian Massumi about the increasing impact of neuroscience on contemporary<br />architectural theory, which marks a clear change of interests, if not a<br />paradigm shift. Is "virtual" becoming "neuro"?<br /><br />+ Thomas Markussen & Thomas Birch, Minding Houses – A Conversation with<br />Marcos Novak<br />Markussen & Birch talk to architect Marcos Novak, who utilizes<br />nanotechnology in constructing houses of the future out of neurons and<br />atomic particles. Beetle-like buildings with built-in central nervous<br />systems and the ability to think independently are gradually coming to<br />life.<br /><br />//free radical//<br />+ Shawn Rider, Redefine the Grind: "Sociolotron" and the Atypical Gamer<br />Shawn Rider explores social dynamics, sexuality, and violence in<br />Sociolotron, an online game that distinguishes itself from all of the<br />better-known massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)<br />through the dogged pursuit of *removing* any obstacle to character<br />actions. Actions like rape, theft, and general assault or mayhem are<br />possible, and character?s ?social? interactions range from basic sit /<br />stand positions to sexual activities.<br /><br />//reviews//<br />+ Patrick Lichty, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex<br />Patrick Lichty reviews the "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" video<br />game based on the Masamune Shirow cyberepic that has become a staple of<br />anime culture.<br /><br />+ Alan Sondheim, Book Encapsulations<br />Alan Sondheim reviews a selection of books, including "PDF Hacks, 100<br />Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools," "Game Console Hacking," and "Smart Home<br />Hacks."<br /><br />+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br />intelligent agent<br />Editor-in-Chief: Patrick Lichty<br />Director: Christiane Paul<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.intelligentagent.com">http://www.intelligentagent.com</a><br />intelligent agent is a service organization and information<br />provider dedicated to interpreting and promoting art that<br />uses digital technologies for production and presentation.<br />++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />8.<br /><br />From: {NetEX} <virtu@kulturserver-nrw.de><br />Date: Jan 4, 2006 12:28 AM<br />Subject: NetEX: 1 January - a world premiere<br /><br /> a Peaceful and Happy New Year 2006<br />from Cologne/Germany !!<br />—> wish<br />Agricola de Cologne &<br />his [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne<br />www.nmartproject.net<br /><br />Here are the latest news:<br />1.<br />1 January 2006<br />the global networking project<br />RRF [Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting]<br />starts its third year under a new name and new URL<br />[R][R][F]2006—>XP<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org">http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org</a><br /><br />2.<br />1 January 2006<br />Hardly arrived in the new year,<br />the Art Gallery of Knoxville/USA<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theartgalleryofknoxville.com">http://www.theartgalleryofknoxville.com</a><br />is presenting [R][R][F]2006—>XP<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org">http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org</a><br />respectively the complete VideoChannel collection in 10 DVD volumes<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://videochannel.newmediafest.org">http://videochannel.newmediafest.org</a><br /><br />as a world premiere in the framework of the exhibition<br />"Global Groove" (Nation Building as Art)<br />01 -25 January 2006<br />Source: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://netex.nmartproject.net">http://netex.nmartproject.net</a><br /><br />3.<br />27-29 January 2006<br />CeC & CaC<br />The Carnival of e-Creativity & Change-agents Conclave<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theaea.org/cec_cac/cec_part.htm">http://www.theaea.org/cec_cac/cec_part.htm</a><br />organized by The Academy of Electronic Art New Dehli/India<br />www.theaea.org<br />at<br />India International Center New Dehli/India<br />on 27-28-29 January 2006<br /><br />will be presenting of VideoChannel - Selection'03<br />curated by Agricola de Cologne<br />Source: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=3">http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=3</a><br /><br />4.<br />21-27 January 2006<br />MAGMART - the new videoart festival in Naples/Italy will present five<br />digital videos by Agricola de Cologne<br />21-27 January 2006 - www.magmart.it<br />Source: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=6">http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=6</a><br /><br />******************************************<br />NetEX - networked experience<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://netex.nmartproject.net">http://netex.nmartproject.net</a><br />is a free information service from<br />[NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne<br />www.nmartproject.net<br />.<br />info(at)nmartproject.net<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />9.<br /><br />From: Christiane Paul <Christiane_Paul@whitney.org><br />Date: Jan 5, 2006 11:42 AM<br />Subject: artport gatepage Jan 06: Abe Linkoln & Marisa Olson - Abe & MO<br />Sing the Blogs<br /><br />January 06 gatepage<br />for artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet art:<br />Abe & MO Sing the Blogs<br />by Abe Linkoln & Marisa Olson<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://artport.whitney.org">http://artport.whitney.org</a><br />Blogs, like the Blues, have been credited with channeling "the voice of<br />the people," but do blogs adhere to any one set of characteristics that<br />defines them as a genre? And how might blogs be understood as public<br />spaces, in light of the time-based performances that take place there?<br /><br />Selecting the postings that comprise the greatest "hits" of some of their<br />favorite blogs, Abe Linkoln & Marisa Olson "sing the blogs" in order to<br />address these questions. While Linkoln's posts speak to musical genres at<br />large, Olson's posts seek to find harmony with specific models. Both<br />question the status of the author's voice…<br /><br />The whole "album" is presented as a form of reblog, in an effort to<br />self-reflexively dive into the meme culture that is its subject. The<br />artists' blog gets situated as the site of a happening, and their<br />intention is to come back and continue depositing performative ephemera.<br /><br />Linkoln & Olson frequently work in the blog format. Previous examples of<br />their collaborative work include Universal Acid and Blog Art, and separate<br />projects My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (Abe Linkoln's 2004 Blog<br />Mix), Screenfull.net (Linkoln & Jimpunk), and Marisa's American Idol<br />Audition Training Blog.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.universalacid.net/">http://www.universalacid.net/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://blog-art.blogspot.com/">http://blog-art.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://myboyfriendcamebackfromthewar.blogspot.com/">http://myboyfriendcamebackfromthewar.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://screenfull.net/">http://screenfull.net/</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://americanidolauditiontraining.blogs.com/marisa">http://americanidolauditiontraining.blogs.com/marisa</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />10.<br /><br />From: Eduardo Navas <eduardo@navasse.net><br />Date: Jan 5, 2006 6:50 PM<br />Subject: FW: Music and the Moving Image Conference–Please Distribute Widely<br /><br />> The UC Santa Barbara Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music<br />(CISM) is<br />> sponsoring an interdisciplinary graduate conference entitled Music and the<br />> Moving Image . This conference seeks to explore the interaction between the<br />> moving image (film, television, digital media, etc.) and music, sound, and<br />> even "silence" through a wide variety of interdisciplinary approaches. The<br />> conference is organized by graduate students, for graduate students, and<br />will<br />> be held in the UCSB Music Building on January 14th and 15th, 2006. With<br />the<br />> exception of the film screening on Saturday night, the conference is<br />free and<br />> open to the public. Admission to the film screening of The Call of<br />Cthulhu is<br />> $3 for the public and free for conference participants.<br />><br />> Please see the conference schedule below. Additional information can be<br />found<br />> at the conference website:<br />> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicmovingimage">http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicmovingimage</a>.<br />><br />><br />> CONFERENCE SCHEDULE<br />><br />> Saturday January 14, 2006<br />><br />> 9:00-10:00 Registration and Breakfast for Conference Participants (Music<br />> Building)<br />><br />> *Saturday Morning Sessions<br />><br />> 10:00-12:00<br />><br />> Space, Location, and the Mise-en-Scène (Music 1145)<br />> * Nathan Platte (University of Michigan), "The Hungarian, theHappy<br />Farmer, and<br />> 'Home, Sweet Home': Elevating Musical Quotation inHerbert Stothart's<br />Score for<br />> The Wizard of Oz"<br />> * Michael Hetra (San Francisco State University), "The Music ofGodard's Le<br />> Mépris and Week End"<br />> * Patrick Morganelli (University of Southern California), "The Useof Solo<br />> Piano in Film Scoring"<br />> * Jonas Westover (City University of New York), "Frame by Frame:An<br />Homage to<br />> West Side Story in Demy's Les Demoiselles deRochefort"<br />><br />> Sound and the Real (Geiringer Hall)<br />> * Lucia Ricciardelli (University of California, Santa Barbara),"American<br />> Documentary Practice and the Crisis of WesternHistoricism:<br />Deconstructing the<br />> 'Truth' of Omniscient Narration"<br />> * Anita Ip (University of California, Santa Barbara), "A Boatrideon the<br />> Wonkatania: Madness in Film and Opera "<br />> * "Sound Putty" and "Bit Signal Fabric": A PanelDiscussion of Two New<br />Digital<br />> Installations<br />><br />><br />> *Lunch Break<br />><br />> 12:00-1:30<br />><br />> Lunch for Conference Participants (Courtyard or MCC)<br />><br />> Installation: "Sound Putty"<br />> Installation: "Bit Signal Fabric"<br />> Display: "The Music of Bernard Herrmann: An Archival Exhibition" (LLCH)<br />> Sponsored by UCSB Libraries Department of Special Collections<br />><br />><br />> *Saturday Afternoon Sessions<br />><br />> 1:30-3:00<br />><br />> Myth, Sound Editing, and the Music Video (Music 1145)<br />> * Amy Parker (University of Glasgow), "The Pop Video andRoland Barthes'<br />> Mythologies"<br />> * Peter Kaye (Kingston University), "The Anatomy of a ModernAction Cue"<br />> * Tim Rush, Sound Editing Demonstration<br />><br />> The Horror, the Horror!: Sounding the Visceral (Geiringer Hall)<br />> * Russell Knight (University of California, Santa Barbara), "TheVoice of<br />the<br />> Wound: Lavinia's Double Death in Julie Taymor'sTitus"<br />> * Daniel Steinhart (University of California, Los Angeles),"Monster Music:<br />> Sound and Music in the First ThreeFrankenstein Films"<br />> * Kelly Kirshtner (University of California, Irvine), "A CinemaWithout<br />Organs:<br />> Musical Values and Fields of Vibration in HorrorFilm"<br />><br />><br />> 3:15-4:45<br />><br />> The Sights and Sounds of Experimentation: 1965-1975 (Music 1145)<br />> * Jessica Payette (Stanford University), "Musical CounterpointTranslated<br />into<br />> Film: Alfred Leslie's Birth of a Nation"<br />> * Utako Kurihara (Kyusyu University), "The InterrelatedDevelopment of<br />Music,<br />> Color Selection, and Composition of the ScreenPicture in Norman McLaren's<br />> Synchromy"<br />> * Joshua Neves (University of California, Santa Barbara), "Two-Lane<br />Blacktop,<br />> Film Sound and Spectatorship"<br />><br />> New Directions: Temporality, Spatiality, and Contemporary European Film<br />> (Geiringer Hall)<br />> * Travis Allen (University of California, Santa Barbara), "Musicand<br />Society in<br />> Run Lola Run"<br />> * Senta Siewert (University of Amsterdam), "'Rhythm ofYouth. Contemporary<br />> German Films: New Anti-heroes, Pop Music andCinematic Experience"<br />> * Shauna Laurel Jones (University of California, Santa Barbara),"Distance<br />> Makes the Mountains Blue: Music and Icelandic Landscape inNói Albinói"<br />><br />><br />> *Saturday Evening<br />><br />> 5:00-6:15<br />><br />> Keynote Address : "Film Themes: Roxy, Adorno, and the Problem of Cultural<br />> Capital" (LLCH)<br />> Prof. Rick Altman (University of Iowa)<br />><br />> 8:00-10:00<br />><br />> Film Screening: The Call of Cthulhu<br />> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/index.html">http://www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/index.html</a>> followed by talk-back<br />with<br />> screen writer Sean Branney (LLCH)<br />> Admission $3. Free for conference participants.<br />><br />> Sunday January 15, 2006<br />><br />> 9:00-10:00 Breakfast for Conference Participants (Music Building)<br />><br />> *Sunday Morning Sessions<br />><br />> 10:00-12:00<br />><br />> Music Across Media in the Early 20th Century (Music 1145)<br />> * Ciarán Crilly (University College Dublin), "Sounding the Image:Musical<br />and<br />> Cinematic Composition in Satie's Entr'acte"<br />> * Bartholomew Brinkman (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign),"Movies,<br />> Modernity and all that Jazz: Langston Hughes' Montage of aDream Deferred"<br />> * Edmond Johnson (University of California, Santa Barbara),"Figaro! Figaro!<br />> Figaro?: The Intersection of Animation andOpera in Looney Tunes and Merrie<br />> Melodies"<br />> * Matt Mooney (University of California, Irvine), "Between theReels: Live<br />> Performance in the Motion Picture Theatre, 1905-1915"<br />><br />> Visualizing Rock & Roll (Geiringer Hall)<br />> * Suzanne Scott (University of Southern California),"'Shitty Pictures,<br />Man.<br />> Every Single One.': Negotiating Mythin the Elvis Films of the 1960s"<br />> * Carlos Kase (University of Southern California),<br />"Avant-GardeFilmmaking and<br />> Pop Culture Deviance: The Adaptation of Rock & RollMusic and Mythos in the<br />> films of Kenneth Anger"<br />> * Paul N. Reinsch (University of Southern California), "The Beatsand the<br />> Brats: 50s Lipstick Traces in the Song and Film BlankGeneration"<br />> * Annabelle Honess Roe (University of Southern California),"Manchester,<br />Music<br />> and Myth in 24 Hour Party People"<br />><br />><br />> *Lunch Break<br />><br />> 12:00-1:00<br />><br />> Lunch for Conference Participants (Courtyard or MCC)<br />><br />> Installation: "Sound Putty"<br />> Installation: "Bit Signal Fabric"<br />><br />><br />> *Sunday Afternoon<br />><br />> 12:00-1:00<br />><br />> Performance: "Entr'acte" (LLCH)<br />><br />> 2:00-3:00<br />><br />> End of Conference Reception (Location TBA)<br />><br />> –<br />> Music and the Moving Image: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference<br />> January 14-15, 2006 at the University of California, Santa Barbara<br />> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicmovingimage/">http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicmovingimage/</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />11.<br /><br />From: director@eaf.asn.au <director@eaf.asn.au><br />Date: Jan 3, 2006 5:59 AM<br />Subject: Pandilovski in conversation with Holubizky<br /><br />MELENTIE PANDILOVSKI IN CONVERSATION WITH IHOR HOLUBIZKY<br /><br />MP: For the past twenty-five years, you've assumed the roles of an art<br />critic, curator, gallery director [for the private and public art<br />sectors], performance artist, musician etc. You started out in history and<br />political science, but have specialised in art and technology. It reminds<br />me a bit of the situation in Australia, where people frequently wear<br />numerous hats. In your case, was this because of survival or the absolute<br />inner need to express yourself in different roles?<br /><br />IH: The many-hat scenario was of the times, a personal, formative period,<br />as everyone has a coming-of-age or consciousness. For the art and cultural<br />scene in Toronto [Canada for that matter], the 1960s was a 'heady' time<br />[the centenary of nationhood was in 1967] and had resonance into the<br />1970s. I was still in high school in the 1960s. [You make choices, learn<br />to live with them, make something of them, otherwise you live in denial.]<br />I studied political science and history at university, with an emphasis on<br />non-Western histories and the development of the Labor Union<br />movement-because of 'the times'. If you didn't chose a career path, or<br />were not an outright slacker, you lined up on the side of social change,<br />believing that change was necessary and that things could change. The<br />Vietnam War had a lot to do with the radicalisation of that time, as did<br />the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. These were not just 'American<br />Problems'. Opinion was galvanised-you took a position everywhere in the<br />world. The [Vietnam] War had a particular resonance in Canada as a de<br />facto border nation with the United States. Large numbers of American<br />draft dodgers and war resisters [that is, not exclusive to men avoiding<br />military service], found asylum in Canada and naturally, artists. The<br />latter has a history that has not been written. There was a cultural<br />impact, feeding upon what was already in the air, such as Marshall<br />McLuhan's presence. Here was a Canadian who was recognised internationally<br />as an important cultural thinker. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau also had<br />an impact upon the Canadian consciousness in the late 1960s. More than a<br />politician, he was an intellectual; erudite and witty-he touched a social<br />nerve, he had style, he was an adventurer. He was NOT Richard Nixon. Many<br />hats were and could be worn, the rule rather than the exception [and<br />perhaps the same for Australia at the time]. I was disillusioned with the<br />empirical side of political science. It's why I leapt into art and<br />technology-it had all the hallmarks of an adventure, which happened to<br />attract minds from many disciplines. There was optimism [it was the<br />pre-Bill Gates world].<br /><br />Iain Baxter was one of the Canadian artists of the time, daring and<br />radical, a key figure in the conceptual practice. He too had a mixed and<br />many-hatted background-born in England, educated in the USA [degrees in<br />Zoology, Education and Fine Art] and studied in Japan. Baxter formed a<br />collective-corporate approach in the mid-1960s with his N.E. Thing Co [the<br />'anything company'] and later incorporated it, emulating corporate<br />language with a difference. The charter stated the following: i. to<br />produce sensitivity-information ii. to provide a consultation and<br />evaluation service with respect to things iii. to produce, manufacture,<br />import, export, sell and otherwise deal in things of all kinds.<br /><br />There wa no use of the word 'art'-no strategic end or endgame. It was<br />open-ended, anything and everything-so too for other artists in Toronto<br />[Baxter was based in Vancouver at the time]. Michael Snow had a huge<br />presence in the Toronto art scene, beginning in the mid 1950s-a musician,<br />filmmaker, painter and sculptor-still mixing it up. Don Jean-Louis mounted<br />one of the first interactive television-video installations in a private<br />Toronto gallery under a 'corporate' aegis. The 'statement' for his 1969<br />The Nature of the Media is to Expose was concerned with the identity,<br />nature and function of any given number of people, products, things,<br />colours and sounds at any rate of speed and their interrelationship under<br />given conditions-scale considered. In the 1970s Jean-Louis worked<br />collaboratively with people in the film and music industry. They made a<br />short sci-fi feature [receiving awards] and managed the seminal Toronto<br />punk band The Viletones. He also worked in the television graphics<br />department at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as did other artists.<br />They learned about television and applied it to 'non-television<br />solutions'.<br /><br />Intersystems was a mid-1960s Toronto collaboration with electronic<br />composer-musician John Mills-Cockell [he went on to form the synthesizer<br />band Syrinx and then to compose music for theatre], artist Michael Hayden<br />[who now lives in California] and poet Blake Parker. They released an<br />album, staged 'electro-happenings' and built audio-kinetic sculptures.<br />Norman White, an American expatriate who had studied biology, arrived in<br />the late 1960s. He was making electronic/artificial intelligence<br />sculptures and installations and then taught at the Ontario College of Art<br />in the new Photo-Electric Department, which became the New Media<br />Department, when I arrived as a sessional instructor in the mid-1980s.<br />General Idea was the stepchild of these early artist collaborations and<br />actions-they added sexual politics to the mix, engaging and collaborating<br />with other artists, designers, performers and musicians in their 1970s<br />events, publishing FILE magazine and starting Art Metropole [publication<br />and distribution of artist books, editions and videos], which continues<br />today.<br /><br />I spoke to Baxter in early 2005. We discussed that formative 1960s period.<br />He admitted-not that he ever denied it-that he was following his<br />intuition, being in and of the times, working in every corner. I'm not<br />sure if the issue of survival was that much of a factor. As I noted, this<br />was a sense of optimism, which could and did have a critical side to it,<br />an engagement with society and culture on many levels and much more than<br />making things to charm the collectors, critics and curators.<br /><br />My over-narration of the Toronto scene is not to promote it above others,<br />but to illustrate that there are galvanising moments-everywhere-and at<br />different times. When they happen doesn't matter, but historians, even<br />theorists, are hung up on who and what came first. Art and culture is not<br />a horse race, yet there ARE a lot of jockeys with whips.<br /><br />For myself, playing music was a way of knowing something else-learning and<br />participating. It seemed more real than sitting through unreal university<br />classes. When I began working in the gallery world, I had to broaden my<br />skills again-they had to be real and applicable. That's still the case for<br />small staff organisations, but not so for large public galleries. I've<br />worked at both ends of the gallery spectrum. Over the past twenty-five<br />years I have witnessed the rise of a professional class. They're not<br />necessarily specialised, but departmentalised. I joked with a colleague<br />that a skills test for curators should be assembling an IKEA bunk bed<br />against the clock, then disassembling it, and reassembling it. You can<br />muddle and mutter your way through the assembly, but in order to<br />reassemble you have to be paying attention-'be in touch' with the<br />materials and the function-be able to visualise the outcome. MP: You are<br />currently preparing your PhD, whose working title is 'Radical Regionalism,<br />Art and the Modern Age'. Your interest in the directions which modern art<br />takes outside the Eurocentric model has led you to research particular<br />issues of nationhood in Latin America, Russia/Ukraine, the United Kingdom<br />and Australia. You have taken as case studies Juan Manuel Blanes, David<br />Burliuk, Tarsila do Amaral and Ian Fairweather. How many of these specific<br />developments of modern art outside the centre are researched within the<br />canon of modern arts? What is the importance that is given to them?<br /><br />My approach to art history follows the IKEA analogy, except the bunk bed<br />is already made. It looks a bit creaky and doesn't seem to fit well in the<br />room. In taking it apart and reassembling, it may look the same but it has<br />to be usable and in the process I will know more about it. However, as<br />anyone who has IKEA furniture knows, it requires maintenance. You may have<br />to replace or substitute parts, keeping in mind that it was never meant to<br />last. Ongoing repair and reconstruction turns the cheap-and-cheerful<br />modern into a Frankenstein. At that point you have to decide on its future<br />and you still need to replace the bed. What to do-buy another IKEA bed?<br />There are other solutions to the need for sleeping, but raised-platform<br />beds are the Western convention. Then it's a matter of taste and style<br />preference-and budget.<br /><br />To return to the question. Marginalised artists can be canonised. Frida<br />Kahlo is an apt [and extreme] example, but it wasn't that long ago when<br />the mention of her name would have furrowed the brow. Who the hell is<br />Frida Kahlo and why should I care? In some respects she has been cut out<br />of Mexican art history in order to fit a 'liberalised' canonical history.<br />The cult of Frida Kahlo doesn't help the legion of under-recognised<br />Mexican artists. To be pragmatic, it's better than nothing.<br /><br />I did not select the four artists [Blanes, Burliuk, Amaral and<br />Fairweather] as case studies to privilege them, but to acknowledge them,<br />to cut away the deadwood of art history. There could be forty others, four<br />hundred, four thousand! Burliuk was in 'the game' with Kandinsky, Blaue<br />Reiter and the Moscow avant-garde prior to 1920-the year he left for Japan<br />and then the USA in 1922. There is rehabilitation afoot to claim him as<br />the 'father of Russian futurism,' because it is acceptable for the<br />post-Soviet Russians to celebrate their early avant-garde. At the same<br />time, Ukrainian revisionists are claiming him as part of the formative<br />Ukraine avant-garde, even to claim that Burliuk's avant-garde-ness in the<br />Ukraine precedes that of his Moscow endeavours. The Americans, on the<br />other hand, don't care about Burliuk-he doesn't fit any of the national<br />canonical agendas. He's not 'Ashcan', 'Social Surrealist', 'American<br />Scene,' nor strictly speaking an American regionalist. Tarsila do Amaral<br />popped up in the Body Nostalgia exhibition at the National Museum, Tokyo,<br />in 2004, a Brazilian-subject exhibition. She served as a starting point,<br />with Lygia Clark as the 'halfway point' to the real focus, contemporary<br />artists, so no need to deal with her in a broader canonical context. I'd<br />love to see someone do so, but like Burliuk in America, it wouldn't<br />further existing agendas. Fairweather interested me, because his story as<br />encoded in Australian art history, has too many gaps and too many<br />assumptions-the aspirations of Australian art projected onto someone who<br />was, in my view, not that interested in Australia. An artist then in his<br />sixties was an odd choice to be made into a modernist hero. Blanes is too<br />historically remote for anyone outside of South America to care. He died<br />in 1901. There is a story yet to be told about early regional modernists<br />and the rise of modern nationhood-literally postcolonial-independence was<br />declared in 1828. Blanes wanted to paint the national psyche, but also for<br />the Americas. How do you do that? You have to 'generate' the signs. These<br />signs feed mythologies. But the national mythology is part and parcel of<br />the work. Once you remove the object-the painting-from place and context,<br />it's an exotic and puzzling footnote at best-IF we adhere to the<br />generalist-generalising canon.<br /><br />I'm still pondering all this and the 'adherence'. An example: Mary Anne<br />Staniszewski's Believing is Seeing, Creating the Culture of Art [New York:<br />Penguin Books, 1995], has a radical revisionist tone and chastises the<br />American cultural scene for lacking in its resolve to integrate cultures.<br />Yet she writes in her introduction: "[The book] is meant to be a<br />supplement to the canonical texts that shape art and humanities course<br />curriculum. I am not, however, suggesting getting rid of our culture's<br />collective aesthetic memory. In fact, I have gone to great lengths to use<br />the most powerful and famous images of what has been called our 'museum<br />without walls'."<br /><br />Is this a strategic fight-fire-with-fire? Another canonical questioning is<br />that of Matthew Baigell and his postscript to the Artist and Identity in<br />Twentieth-Century America [Cambridge University Press, 2001]: "Someone<br />could write a first rate history of American art as one long essay about<br />identity politics'. Further on he discusses how European Americans had to<br />'invent' native Americans and African Americans in order to distinguish<br />themselves from the Others; how these Others has to 'reinvent' themselves<br />in order to find out who they were on their own terms. Otherness is a<br />two-way street. Does this sound familiar-the 'inventing Asia' discourse,<br />that Asia is an invention of Europeans or of the Antipodes? So who<br />invented Europe? There are many other such questions within regional and<br />national histories. Perhaps it is too complex, too demanding a task.<br /><br />However, I'm not trying to interject yet another category. Radical<br />regionalism is not a movement, it is a way of modelling, a way of getting<br />past less-useful, but oft-repeated truisms that impress the diminutive on<br />art histories and artists. The categorisation of Tony Tuckson is an<br />oft-repeated example, "Tony Tuckson… later recognised as one of<br />Australia's finest abstract expressionist artists". [Museum of<br />Contemporary Art, Sydney, Vision & Context, 1993]. One could have a<br />field-day 'deconstructing' this interjection because the prime topic is<br />not Tuckson as an artist, but Tuckson as a curator and in the MCA<br />publication context, within a section titled "Australian Aboriginal Art".<br />That is, his role as a curator, yet the sentence ends, "openly indebted<br />for inspiration to the abstract languages of Aboriginal and New Guinean<br />art". It doesn't take a screaming revisionist to figure out what's wrong<br />with this sentence, but at the same time, I'm not taking the writer to<br />task. It is the Australian-canonical summation.<br /><br />Look at Robert Hughes' take on Ian Fairweather in The Art of Australia<br />[1966 and 1970], when Fairweather was still alive: "What does the word<br />'great' mean in the context of Australian art… but I think it is at<br />least arguable that [he] is the most gifted painter who has so far<br />appeared in Australia; though even this kind of statement involves one in<br />a distasteful role of tipster". Is 'gifted' the anointment, or does the<br />artist provide 'the gift'? When I listen to Rahsaan Roland Kirk's album<br />Volunteered Slavery, I am always struck by his comment [recorded live at<br />the Monterey Jazz Festival] in tribute to John Coltrane: "Here are three<br />songs [he] left for us to learn." It's all well and good to pay tribute to<br />visual artists, even to canonise them, but do we learn anything from this?<br />It's all-too-easy to shuffle past in mute admiration and accepting<br />'greatness'. I confess that I've never been a great fan of Jackson<br />Pollock's canonisation because it is difficult to filter out from the work<br />itself. In watching the Ed Harris director-commentary for his 2000 film<br />Pollock, I took note of his 'methodology' [it is a 'methodology']. To get<br />'into' the character, he had to learn how to paint, not simply imitate or<br />mimic the action. That's a difficult lesson, but necessary for what he<br />described as "an emotional journey", not an art history film. But there<br />were many other characterisations in the film that were equally important<br />and equally problematic-they were not on screen as much and not so known.<br />Film is a language, so if we take on Roland Barthes' assertion, it is a<br />language of myth. But this analogy has its limits, because only a few art<br />emotional journeys will be made into a film-myth-Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo,<br />Basquiat. Not Ian Fairweather. The reasons are self-evident-the cost is<br />high and the market is small. [Pollock cost approx $6 million to make, but<br />only made $10 million at the box office.]<br /><br /> MP: In a context that is not too distant from your research, the<br />Slovenian art collective IRWIN has positioned through their project EAST<br />ART MAP the notion that East European Art practices have not been<br />validated appropriately in the context of the Western Art canon. How do<br />you feel about this notion?<br /><br />Following on my comments above, I know enough about some national-regional<br />histories to know that they have not been validated. I have hope. Hans<br />Belting does acknowledge the art of 'Eastern Europe' in his 2003 book Art<br />History after Modernism [AHM]. He would not have done that twenty years<br />ago. I think we're at the starting blocks sorting out histories, but<br />applying yet another hierarchical sorting would be counterproductive. I am<br />reading the Belting book at the moment and struck by his [new-found?]<br />candidness and doubts, hence other quotes to follow.<br /><br />MP: Do you see the experiment within arts as alive, and is it today only<br />technological by nature?<br /><br />I think that all compelling art has an experimental aspect. It doesn't<br />need to have a technological component. McLuhan commented on the<br />relationship of artists and technology in his 1969 film Picnic in<br />Space-their role as social navigators, opening up visual worlds and<br />raising ethical questions that never really go away. I knew that it wasn't<br />all social navigation when running a private gallery that specialised in<br />art and technology. Some of it was technological effect, another way to<br />produce a pretty and pleasing thing. Nothing wrong with that, but that's<br />all it was. One artist I worked with in the mid-1970s was American Lew<br />Alquist. He had a sly subversive streak in him, which is what I expect<br />[but not 'demand')] from 'social navigators'. He was demystifying and then<br />generating new mysteries for us to ponder and often said, because the<br />question of is-this-art was often raised, "Not everything is art, but<br />everything is art supplies'. Knowing the difference is crucial. Artists<br />will always push the limits of technology-create languages-and sometimes<br />will succumb to old language with new means. It is the language that<br />matters, not the technology, unless [a BIG unless] it IS a language<br />[by-product] of technology. That's another topic for another time.<br /><br /> MP: You have been dealing extensively with new technologies. How much do<br />you see reflections of Lucio Fontana's 'Manifesto Blanco' in what is<br />happening today with electronic arts?<br /><br />I haven't read it. I should. In lieu of my ignorance, allow me to quote<br />artist Robert Adrian X [Canadian born but has lived in Vienna for the past<br />thirty years], from an email exchange last year about electronic arts: I'm<br />inclined to think that we need new models. After doing a few<br />telecommunication projects [early '80s] and trying to cope with the<br />[apparent?] incommensurability between traditional [industrial] art<br />practice and the fugitive practice of working with electricity, code and<br />telephones, I began to wonder if 'art' was the right word to describe the<br />stuff we were doing with telecommunications. There was no discernible<br />product or material substance-nothing collectable-nothing for the critic<br />to get his/her teeth into, no clear tradition or history: just a few<br />polaroid snaps and fading faxes, low-res video, scraps of computer<br />chit-chat printout. Machines are on: its here-machines are off. It's gone!<br /> MP: Is there a notion of the avant-garde which is still meaningful<br />today?<br /><br />I don't think one can aspire to the avant-garde in the same way as the<br />historical avant-garde was able to act. Renato Poggioli's Theory of the<br />Avant-garde [1962] examined the avant-garde not in terms of "its species<br />as art, but through what it reveals, inside and outside of art itself…<br />an argument of self-assertion [with] a social or antisocial character of<br />the cultural and artists manifestations that it sustains and expresses".<br />Poggioli also noted that "even the avant-garde has to live and work in the<br />present, accept compromises and adjustments, reconcile itself with the<br />official culture of the times, and collaborate with at least some part of<br />the public". In his chapter 'Technology and the Avant-garde', Poggioli<br />proposed that "the avant-garde's experimental nature is not essentially or<br />exclusively a matter of art [but] to experiment with factors extraneous to<br />art itself".<br /><br />Granted, the latter is contestable, but the avant-garde is not something<br />that you can learn in art school. We may not even be able to discern<br />between avant-garde and what is 'cutting edge', which may in turn be what<br />is 'technologically fashionable'. There is an avant-garde today, but I<br />would be hard-pressed to give you an example operating within the art<br />world, or, we may not recognize it as such. Poggioli wrote in his<br />conclusion: "The avant-garde is one of those tendencies destined to become<br />art in spite of itself, even in the out-and-out denial of itself". Add<br />Alquist's statement, mix in McLuhan and there's a topic for a bright young<br />curator to take on, don't you think?<br /><br />If I was going to start with a post-1960 view of avant-garde-ness, it<br />would be with the small oeuvre of filmmaker Arthur Lipsett-between 1963<br />and 1970 [his last completed film-he committed suicide in 1986]. They were<br />done under the umbrella of the National Film Board of Canada. I don't<br />think they really knew what he was up to, but no one could think of a<br />reason to stop him. He slipped in under the radar signal.<br /><br />MP: You curated an exhibition of the painter Tony Scherman within the<br />gallery program of the Art Gallery of Hamilton in 1994. Even though you<br />are aware of its constraints, you still see it as your most important and<br />most radical exhibition, Can you elaborate as to why you think this is the<br />case?<br /><br />The exhibition was an example of slipping under the institutional radar<br />signal. It was a collection show. I wasn't spending big bucks and it<br />occupied a lot of gallery space-a win for the ever-beleaguered budget. The<br />premise was simple enough as not to set off any warnings bells-a painting<br />show. Rather than pull out a shop-worn theme-the face, the land, still<br />life, the this, the that [how many times have we seen these, all watered<br />dow, so that they neither offend nor inspire]-it was a predicated on a<br />discussion, an artist and a curator talking about painting. That's what we<br />did for the first year. THEN we went into the vaults-not to select, but to<br />keep talking. Not what we thought was good, but what kept generating<br />discussion. Clearly, it would not be anything we were indifferent towards.<br />Our final selection spanned two hundred years, beginning with a c.1800<br />Henry Raeburn portrait-that's where it started, not chose to start. The<br />installation, however, was not hung in chronological sequence or by style,<br />but as if our conversation-or passages of conversation-was on the wall.<br />Except, there were no didactic labels. People would have to enter into the<br />conversation-maybe it would be in mid-conversation, or as if eavesdropping<br />on the street. The 'seeing' could start anywhere. I scattered 'church<br />hall' wooden folding chairs around. I encouraged them to be used and moved<br />around the gallery-a place to sit and talk. I checked the location of the<br />chairs on a regular basis-they did shift around, like small herds of<br />caribou, an indication that it was working. I could even imagine where a<br />conversation had ended, in front of one group of paintings or another.<br /><br />I also asked Tony to include his own work. He resisted at first, but I<br />insisted. He didn't have to deny being a painter simply because he was<br />wearing a curatorial hat. I did the selection and decided where they<br />should be installed. We did talk about it, but I don't recall him making<br />any changes.<br /><br />The title we decided on was Prosperity Returns, the oral tradition in<br />painting, which came from a 'chance encounter' with a headline in the<br />financial section of the newspaper. In bad times, everyone wants<br />prosperity to return and no one would care about 'the return of painting'.<br />Did it ever go away? The title expressed optimism.<br /><br />There was no catalogue, although I had started a text. I realised that it<br />would be counterproductive, even redundant. After all, it was the ORAL<br />tradition, not writing about art. [This may have put us at odds with John<br />Berger-but seeing is a step to knowing.] That exhibition has kept me<br />goin-it provided a model that could be re-examined, shifted here and<br />there-made me wary of manufacturing words. Challenging my assumptions,<br />biases and taste.<br /><br />MP: Art has passed through a number of phases in the past twenty-five<br />years. Do you think that there has been a decisive critical shift from<br />postmodernism, or are we still in this historic stage?<br /><br />It certainly seems that way when reading persuasive writers and theorists:<br />their insistence that we are in an age of 'massive change' [to borrow<br />designer Bruce Mau's 'project'], or the silver-tongued paradoxes as in<br />Belting's AHM, an age 'where nothing new is discovered and the old is no<br />longer familiar'. I would interpret the later as myopia-the glut of art<br />production over the past forty years makes it near-to impossible for any<br />one historian, critic, curator or pundit to have the inside track on what<br />it all means. I agree with Belting and have thought that The [notion of]<br />Shock of the New [Ian Dunlop's book, the title then borrowed by Robert<br />Hughes] is a now-historic period. Can anything in art be shocking anymore?<br />Yet, I see 'The New' that reminds me of what I have seen before. Some is<br />work by artists who are forgotten or never known. The more doors you open,<br />the more questions that appear.<br /><br />If we are in an age, it is of the museum and the art spectacle, the<br />proliferation of recurring temporary exhibitions and art fairs, like the<br />era of the mega rock concert in the wake of Woodstock. Some are remembered<br />for things other than the music-such as Altamont-or for their branding<br />[Lollapalooza as a recent example]. Music is not made in these festivals.<br />Music comes from the thoughts of musicians in private before it becomes<br />public. Likewise, for art. More often than not, art is 'merely'<br />consecrated in the new public event. The late art historian Francis<br />Haskell explored the history of art-as-spectacle in The Ephemeral Museum<br />[Yale University Press, 2000], which began in the early nineteenth-century<br />with the 'invention' of the Old Masters loan exhibition and continues.<br />Such exhibitions, he noted, on the anniversary of an artist's birth or<br />death, have become a social obligation at the expense of scholarship. So<br />too, I believe, for twentieth-century modern masters. Enough with the<br />Picasso and Warhol shows.<br /><br />What has changed in the past twenty-five years? What have we added? Rap<br />music and the internet? DEVO recorded Post-post modern man in 1990. As<br />good as any date for the end or demise of Po-Mo. [One of the DEVO 'boys'<br />was a student of Lew Alquist. I note this not for the sake of cultural<br />trivia but to reopen the question, where do ideas begin; as Ralph Waldo<br />Emerson posed in 1841, where does nature-our idea of nature-begin?]<br /><br />MP: Is art in a general state of crisis today? Or is crisis a natural<br />state for the arts in all times?<br /><br />Crisis is just another word for, what ? Nothing left to say [with<br />apologies to Kris Kristofferson]! In 1992, the National Gallery of Canada<br />organised the first national overview of Canadian abstraction of the<br />1950s, titled The Crisis of Abstraction. Was it really a crisis? I don't<br />think so, not for the artists nor for society then. I've seen a Crisis of<br />Impressionism titled show, so why not a crisis of everything show? The<br />Cuban missile crisis was a crisis, but now anything can be a crisis, as<br />over-amplified by 24/7 news channels. In the wake of the predicted<br />disaster of Hurricane Rita [a crisis of global, massive weather change?],<br />there was a Fox News live feed from downtown Beaumont Texas. The on-camera<br />reporter walked to the drive-through bank and pointed at the ATM machine<br />and informed 'the world' that it was out of order and to underscore the<br />importance of this piece of trivia blurted out that there was no<br />indication when it would be operating again!<br /><br />I keep a copy of the 1972 anthology Museums in Crisis close at hand.<br />Valuable insights and nothing much has changed: directors are still<br />beleaguered, curators have dilemmas, trustees have power, museums huddle<br />under corporate wings and the democratic fallacy is perpetuated.<br /><br />MP: In a situation of rampant globalisation and sweeping liberalism, what<br />is the role of art?<br /><br />Maybe that's the crisis, what is the role of art? Perhaps it has been<br />over-named, oversold, and overwritten. There's more to McLuhan than the<br />catch phrase 'global village', which has been overused and vulgarised. SBS<br />broadcasts a program called Global Village. How is it different from<br />National Geographic magazine? It is made for Western audiences, to make<br />them feel comfortable with the notion of a multi-centered world. Is it the<br />same for global-sample exhibitions and biennials-a comfort zone with a<br />tidy tour package of the world of art?<br /><br />MP: What is the role of the independent curator today and are independent<br />curators still necessary? How is curating today different to the era when<br />there weren't as many art institutions globally?<br /><br />Independent curators are highly dependant on the gallery system. Very few<br />can assert true independance as they must toe the line of institutional<br />agendas. By the same token, the 'democracy' of the curatorial team weakens<br />a strong individual voice. The results are exhibitions by committee, which<br />is NOT to say that teamwork is not important in an institution, but it has<br />to embrace all the staff, not just the glamour positions. For more on this<br />topic, see my responses to question 17.<br /><br />If, as many claim, exhibitions are a type of cultural laboratory,<br />shouldn't there be a post-experiment analysis? That doesn't happen. Hefty<br />catalogues are produced in advance of the experiment. At best these are<br />sketches for what has yet to happen, or be determined. For more on this<br />topic, see my response to question 15.<br /><br />MP: How did you come to write art criticism?<br /><br />I thought that writing art criticism was a necessary rite of passage, so I<br />did. In truth, I have only written two or three pieces of outright<br />criticism over twenty years. I regret the first because I criticised the<br />artists. I apologised to them and am still friends with one of the two. My<br />last art criticism in 1999 was, I believe, justified: I criticised the<br />curators. Perhaps this too was unfair because artists are inevitably<br />caught in collateral damage. I see myself as an historian [because my<br />formative period is now history], and an essayist. If I can't add anything<br />to a topic, why write?<br /><br />MP: Tell me something about the role of the art critic today and about how<br />you define the delicate relationship between critics and artists?<br /><br />The long history of critics' hostility towards artists is hardly delicate.<br />Critics DO manufacture words and see confrontation as their right. One<br />example, from Henry Geldzahler's essay in New York Painting and Sculpture:<br />1940-1970: "There were critics [in the 1950s] crying for a return to the<br />figure, for a 'new humanism." [With the appearance of Pop Art] these<br />critics cried 'foul', and they cried it hard and long'. Yet doubts and<br />questions can be raised by critics. An example is in Ira Gitler's liner<br />notes to Bill Evans Trio, Sunday at the Village Vanguard [1961]: "Just<br />because I am a writer-critic in the jazz field doesn't mean that I can't<br />enjoy an album like any layman. It is true that when one is forced to<br />listen to 'x' amount of LPs every week, there are times when the spirit<br />can become hostile toward the very thought of records." Hostility is what<br />I object to-is art a battleground fought over biases and preferences? It's<br />different for the movie industry. Generally speaking, the public decides<br />what it wants to see and why, even if the reviews are universally<br />critical. In one conversation with the [then] art critic for the Globe and<br />Mail, Canada's national newspaper-safe and off-the-cuff because I had just<br />left my gallery position. I was 'independent'-we spoke of one artist who<br />had been highly promoted a few years before and had fallen off the map.<br />The critic said the problem was that the artist believed his own press.<br />Well, who wrote the press? A critic cannot walk away from what they<br />write-their responsibility-and yet they do so, over and over again. Donald<br />Judd wrote in the early 1960s, wearing his art critic hat at the time,<br />"Criticism is pretty much after the fact". [Roger Fry made a similar<br />comment on reviewing his own criticism in 1920.] I can imagine how<br />newspaper critics are chosen: "Let's see, you have no experience and<br />you're an opinionated little fart. Oh, you can be the art critic." Which<br />is also to say, that the automotive critic-writer had better know what<br />they are talking about: more people drive cars than look at art.<br /><br />MP: What do you think of the affirmative writing, which is so often<br />present in the critical writing about the arts?<br /><br />If you mean affirmative writing as in making unsubstantiated claims that<br />bask in its own glow, that's part and parcel of the game. One artist is<br />championed at the expense of many others, one perspective given primacy<br />over others. Multi-perspective publications can often cancel each other<br />out. From Robert Scholes' book on science fiction writing, Structural<br />Fabulation [University of Notre Dame Press, 1975], "Knowing one thing is a<br />way of not knowing something else". I come across a lot of one thing not<br />knowing something else.<br /><br />W. McAllister Johnson on catalogue writing in Art History, Its Uses and<br />Abuses [University of Toronto Press, 1988] says, "a curious contradiction:<br />a catalogue is issued for an exhibition even as it is supposed to record<br />its 'results'! It therefore anticipates the fact… Whatever the time and<br />energy expended in their creation, catalogue production remains a 'cottage<br />industry', whose artisans have very different ideas of their craft.<br />Otherwise put, they may not know it well, if at all."<br /><br />There is another form of affirmative writing and as I have already quoted<br />artist Don Jean-Louis' 1969 affirmative assertion at the outset, here is<br />the last line from curator Germano Celant's 'Stating That', his 1969 Arte<br />Povera catalogue [an affirmative introduction, with doubts expressed].<br />"This book is a precarious and contingent document and lives hazardously<br />in an uncertain artistic-social situation." They are expressing not<br />dissimilar ideas, at the same time and unaware of each other. If I have to<br />chose, I'll choose the artist over the curator in this instance. The<br />artist is closer to 'prime production', whereas the curator is 'exhibiting<br />doubts'. And yet, they are both 'doing their job'.<br /><br />MP: Can you compare the art criticism in North America to the criticism<br />here in Australia?<br /><br />There are good writers in North America and Australia, everywhere for that<br />matter and in unlikely places such as Richard Huntington who writes for<br />the Buffalo News. But no one outside of Buffalo is going to read him. Does<br />that matter? Good art writing should address what is happening in the<br />community-to track it. Keep it clean, keep it honest. The only advice I<br />can give to artists; be mindful of what is written, but to go about your<br />work as if nothing had happened. MP: In your text 'The Man Who Thought His<br />Myopia Was A Vision: Heliocentric Worlds, with apologies to Herman<br />Blount', you give us a very important parallel between the worlds of<br />visual arts and music. You depict the impact that San Ra and his Solar<br />Myth Arkestra had on your formative years, as well as the curatorial<br />experiences acquired at cultural institutions such as the Art Gallery of<br />Hamilton and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. One word that seems<br />to me to be very important is 'independent'. Could you define what<br />'independent' means for you today?<br /><br />I returned to listening to jazz after years of inattention [in my most<br />lucid moments, I could only play fake jazz]. For me, jazz embodies<br />whatever notion of independence [freedom of expression] we can muster. The<br />last two CDs I purchased were the aforementioned Bill Evans and Archie<br />Shepp's Fire Music [1965]. I don't see a contradiction in appreciating the<br />two, as different as they are-Evans and Shepp are independent voices,<br />adding something to the language of culture. I am exercising my<br />independence in buying both of them. The term independent has more<br />relevance in music than it does in the gallery world. The rise of<br />independent music labels-they come and go-is an alternative and a<br />necessity. Musicians need not wait for major labels to discover them. Not<br />all of it is good, but there is a lot of good music that would not be<br />available if left to the devices of the industry. Ironically, major labels<br />will pluck off what they think may generate business for them thereby<br />adding industry currency and credibility. I feel the same way about the<br />well-heeled gallery and museum system. Independent curators are a pool of<br />inexpensive intellectual talent that museums are unwilling to invest in,<br />within 'their own culture'. The temporary-contemporary centres have<br />changed dramatically over the past thirty-five years [less independent as<br />accountability to funding bodies increases], but this is where the action<br />is-the laboratory. Not all experiments will succeed, but the measure of<br />success is not the manufacturing of likely-to-succeed events. Big<br />galleries will trawl these centres for 'artist talent'. One reason for the<br />marginalisation of vanguard jazz in the 1950s and 1960s was the reluctance<br />of a white-dominated music industry to promote afro-American musicians who<br />aligned themselves with radicalised politics. In other words, if you want<br />to be independent, prepare to be poor.<br /><br />I don't wish to criticise the Museum of Contemporary Art. I believe that<br />it has an important role to play, but I didn't feel much like a curator<br />there, more like a 'content provider'. At the Art Gallery of Hamilton<br />there were similar pressures to deliver content that would click the<br />turnstiles as a performance indicator, but there was time for research,<br />even if it was on my own time. Granted, the Art Gallery of Hamilton<br />performance stakes were lower than that of the MCA, so I could/would make<br />time for things that mattered, and in that way, asserting independent<br />thought and still contributing to the organisation. Then again perhaps it<br />was just me and every other MCA curator has been 'happy as a clam'. I<br />confess that I can't listen to Sun Ra everyday. Too intense.<br /><br />MP: What do you think of the situation today for young and emerging<br />artists? It's obvious that they have more chances than fifteen or twenty<br />years ago, simply because of what seems to be a favourable grants policy<br />for emerging artists across the globe. What is the impact [if any] of this<br />policy, in regard to upper-echelon art and the art market?<br /><br />First, I don't have much faith in grants or policies. No matter how<br />committed arts councils are, at regional to national level, they are<br />accountable further up the bureaucratic food chain. Arts funding is an<br />easy cut when 'belts are tightened'. Who receives grants has no bearing on<br />the art market, nor are individual grants any indication of critical mass<br />or commodity market success-to-come. The art market is a wholly different<br />beast from the agendas of arts councils and public-funded galleries.<br />Discourse means nothing in the primary market, and definitely not in the<br />secondary market, where the real profit lies, for the auction houses<br />themselves. The majority of art dealers struggle year-to-year and I know<br />only a handful of artists personally, who can support themselves through<br />the sale of their work. That's not going to change. Moreover, in real<br />economic terms, the art market is not so vast, but it is unregulated.<br /><br />It's tough for young and emerging artists-so many graduates pouring out of<br />art schools into a system than cannot absorb them. What's the outcome?<br />More art teachers? It can't go on forever-the art school system will<br />collapse under its own weight and backlog. That may have a positive<br />result, we can start it all over again.<br /><br /> MP: You are also a musician and you have dealt with music almost as much<br />as the visual arts. You have said that as a musician, you "have learned<br />to let things go and that there was never going to be a perfect<br />performance or recording." Do you feel the same about visual art?<br /><br />Yes, except playing music was more satisfying 'incompleteness'. You learn<br />from your mistakes, and no one was hurt or humiliated [sure, there's<br />bitterness, but you get over it]. Wish I could say the same for the art<br />world.<br /><br /> MP: There is big hype today about Asian contemporary art. We have been<br />aware of a huge number of artists coming from Japan, China etc. The<br />number of Biennials and other grand manifestations in Asia has<br />exponentially grown, which is to say that we are bidding farewell to the<br />Eurocentric art world. Yet, the domain of art theory, criticism and<br />aesthetics still remains ruled by the 'old world'. How do you account for<br />this?<br /><br />Too much has been invested and absorbed, to ever have a blank slate. Then<br />again, art history as we know it is only a hundred or so years old. Yet<br />the hegemony issue is being acknowledged. Belting-AHM [quoting him because<br />he is a 'Euro'] says the pressures on the canon "[do] not mean that the<br />traditional discussion of art history is on the verge of collapse, but it<br />invites us to reopen that discussion to communicate with others from<br />non-Western traditions."<br /><br />That's great-now let's see it in action. Perhaps in a hundred years this<br />may shift. However, let's not conflate the dramatic shifts in world<br />economies with art and culture, nor conflate say, Japan with<br />China-different cultural and social states of mind. China is not going to<br />reinvent capitalism, but it will very soon be the major economic power in<br />the world. Not in old money terms, but in dominating the world of<br />commodity production. Vast and cheap labour is one of the reasons. That's<br />still old capitalism in operation. Lower the cost of production: exploit<br />the workers. In this case, exploiting your own nation's workers in order<br />to drive a wedge into old capitalism. But who is buying the new Asian art?<br />It's the established Western art market that needs fresh goods in order to<br />keep expanding its markets, as the West profited from the Japanese<br />economic boom in selling ITS art to Japan, as the Europeans sold THEIR art<br />to the American nouveau riche a hundred years ago.<br /><br /> MP: What do you think of Canadian art today?<br /><br />I probably know more about Australian art today. My continuing interest in<br />Canada is to the artists, whom I have followed for some time-it's my<br />commitment to them-and unfinished business in Canadian art history. The<br />latter, however, has informed my approach to Australian research and work<br />as a useful comparative study. Anyone committed to the research and study<br />of Canadian art had to know American art history too, not because of<br />influence or 'derivation', but the cultural traffic that was generated by<br />artists themselves. Ideas don't stop at political borders. [This is where<br />my history training comes back into play.]<br /><br /> MP: Most of the international art market has Aboriginal art as a focus<br />for Australia. How do you interpret this?<br /><br />Any market action, critical or commodity, outside of the national scene<br />must have benefits. On the other hand, the breadth of Australian culture<br />is distorted. Maybe this isn't such a bad thing-a payback time, assuming<br />that indigenous artists DO benefit directly. I read with interest Bruce<br />Ferguson's candid comment on Gerald McMaster's appointment as Curator of<br />Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario [Bruce has just been appointed<br />AGO's director of exhibitions and both had worked in the USA for several<br />years]: "I just love the idea of an Indian getting to decide about white<br />man's art… This has never happened before. It's beautiful." Indeed. Now<br />let's see this happen in Australia. I won't go further. Suffice to say,<br />there still much more 'work' to be done in Australia, and then let's see<br />how this is received internationally, in the critical and commodity<br />markets.<br /><br />MP: You have lived in Australia for the past seven years and have followed<br />closely the work of Australian artists. How do you see the place of<br />Australian art within the context of the contemporary art project?<br /><br />Like my continuing interest in Canadian artists, there are emerging to<br />mid-career artists in Australia who are thought-provoking and engaging. I<br />will not name them. That would be unfair and send out an incorrect signal.<br />Equally, I feel that there are Australian artists with a mature practice<br />and senior status who should be better known in the world, but there is no<br />model nor context in which to send their work out. Art as diplomatic<br />mission serves political agendas, not the artist's needs. A recent news<br />channel 'filler' program interviewed celebrity chefs, among others, Jamie<br />Oliver, Gordon Ramsay [both Brits] and an Indian [subcontinent] chef<br />[can't recall his name]. For argument's sake, let's think of 'celebrity<br />chefs' as the curators of the contemporary cuisine project. Oliver<br />pooh-poohed the idea of a Michelin star, but stated that getting one would<br />be easy enough for him. It was a matter of doing the right things to charm<br />the critics. He has other agendas, one of which is a form of social action<br />and responsibility-training the unemployed, improving public school<br />lunches. Ramsay denied that he was a celebrity chef, but said that there<br />was nothing wrong in aspiring to a Michelin star and that it was a<br />legitimate, professional benchmark. Which is to say, he believes in his<br />profession-his craft-as much as Oliver does, but chooses to stay within<br />the prescribed arena of that profession. The question posed to the Indian<br />chef was different. Could Indian cuisine ever gain gourmet status world<br />wide? His response-one billion people eat Indian food everyday, so why not<br />the world? The question was loaded, and the response was wry. Which is to<br />say, the fact that one billion people eat Indian food everyday doesn't<br />matter to those who control the cuisine canon. The canon may simply<br />exclude the one billion because of preferences.<br /><br />There is Australian art that is 'nourished' by the legacies of the<br />national school, what can properly be called 'Australian art' [which then<br />raises the question, what is more Australian than Aboriginal art in all of<br />its forms and manifestations] and art from Australia that speaks to<br />anyone, anywhere, within the prescribed and 'industry-accepted' area of<br />contemporary art. [I know what you mean by the contemporary art project,<br />so I won't unravel the term]. The members of the global cultural politburo<br />are growing, but there's still a pecking order and mandated ambitions.<br />Read the mission statement of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC: "Founded…<br />as an educational institution, [MoMA] is dedicated to being the foremost<br />museum of modern art in the world." They achieved that position a long<br />time ago. Is Tate Modern challenging that position? What's art and culture<br />got to do with it, except where it benefits the museum.<br /><br />I know that I have dodged answering your question directly, but I return<br />to my opening comment about my formative period. I still adhere to that<br />optimism and by the same token, recognise that once a heretic always a<br />heretic, even in moving towards what may appear to others as conservatism.<br />A lot of my work now is historical, but all that means is that there's<br />unfinished business and someone's got to do it. I'm working on two<br />twentieth-century retrospective exhibitions at the moment. One artist is<br />dead, the other is a senior practitioner. It's tougher to communicate with<br />the dead artist, but when I do 'get a message' it's a doozy!<br /><br /> My optimism extends to Australian artists who will think for themselves.<br />As for 'Australian art', it will manage itself. It has up to now. I can<br />only hope that it will manage itself with intelligence, passion and<br />compassion. I have no aspirations for Michelin star cooking, but I do<br />cook every day and I use local ingredients. If I don't, then I'm in a<br />culinary-cultural denial. My results will be enjoyable and fulfilling and<br />to hell with what I'm 'told to do'.<br />This text was commissioned by the Contemporary Art Centre of South<br />Australia, Adelaide, for CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ART+CULTURE Broadsheet<br />magazine, Volume 34 No 4, 2005.<br /><br />–<br />EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION curates its exhibition program to represent<br />new work that expands current debates and ideas in contemporary visual<br />art. The EAF incorporates a gallery space, bookshop and artists studios.<br /><br />Lion Arts Centre North Terrace at Morphett Street Adelaide * PO Box 8091<br />Station Arcade South Australia 5000 * Tel: +618 8211 7505 * Fax +618 8211<br />7323 * eaf@eaf.asn.au * Bookshop: eafbooks@eaf.asn.au *<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.eaf.asn.au">http://www.eaf.asn.au</a> * Director: Melentie Pandilovski<br /><br />The Experimental Art Foundation is assisted by the Commonwealth Government<br />through the Australia Council, it arts funding and advisory body and by<br />the South Australian Government through Arts SA. The EAF is also supported<br />through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the<br />Australian, State and Territory Governments.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of the<br />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 on<br />the Arts, a state agency.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is filtered by Marisa Olson (marisa@rhizome.org). ISSN:<br />1525-9110. Volume 11, number 1. 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 />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br />
