RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.05.04

discussion

Posted Nov. 4 2004 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.05.04

RHIZOME DIGEST: November 5, 2004 Content: +note+ 1. Francis Hwang: Director of Technology's report, October 2004 +announcement+ 2. Cornelia Sollfrank: "Legal Perspective" by Cornelia Sollfrank in Basel 3. Christina McPhee: LOCATION!LOCATION!LOCATION!November 10 at the Exploratorium SF 4. Richard de Boer: DEAF04: Dutch Electronic Art Festival starting on 9 November +opportunity+ 5. Annie Wong: Technical Specialist - Parsons School of Design 6. Rachel Greene: Fwd: Mosaica web project 7. Rachel Greene: Fwd: The Canadian Film Centre's Habitat New Media Lab +work+ 8. Rhizome.org: ust added to the Rhizome ArtBase: ARBUSh by Bruce Caron 9. Rhizome.org: Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase: { Software Structures } by Casey Reas 10. Mendi+Keith Obadike: CDs and a book from Mendi+Keith Obadike +feature+ 11. Gloria Sutton: Exhibiting New Media Art (Part 1 of 2) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 11.02.04 From: Director of Technology's report, October 2004 Subject: Director of Technology's report, October 2004 Hey everybody, A few more fun things happened this past month: 1. Reports page There's now a page that collects a lot of strategic-type documents pertaining to where Rhizome has been and where it's going. It's pretty wonky stuff, but you might find it useful for perspective. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/report/">http://rhizome.org/report/</a> 2. New RSS feed: Opportunities If you're looking for a job, a chance to collaborate, a place to submit your criticism, or other opportunities, point your RSS aggregators to the Opportunities feed and browse away! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/opportunities.rss">http://rhizome.org/syndicate/opportunities.rss</a> And keep in mind that the whole list of RSS feeds is maintained at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/">http://rhizome.org/syndicate/</a> 3. Text display <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/text/">http://rhizome.org/text/</a> now shows published texts in bold, and I fixed a strange pagination bug that happened when you clicked on the "older" or "newer" buttons. And just 'cause we live at internet speeds these days, I added date+time displaying to the texts at thread.rhiz. Francis Hwang Director of Technology Rhizome.org phone: 212-219-1288x202 AIM: francisrhizome + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 10.31.04 From: Cornelia Sollfrank <cornelia@snafu.de> Subject: "Legal Perspective" by Cornelia Sollfrank in Basel "Legal Perspective" Exhibition by Cornelia Sollfrank November 5 - 22nd, 2004 Opening: November 4th, 2004; 8pm For the exhibition Cornelia Sollfrank realized a new work in the trouble spot between a current artistic practice and the laws in force. Part of her original project for the [plug.in] exhibition was to display a series of images which were produced by her net.art generator. For these pieces the net.art generator used Andy Warhol's flower images, and reassembled parts of them to create new images. In the opinion of certain lawyers this project would not have been in accordance with the law and could therefore not be realized. As a consequence, Sollfrank and her camera team visited four lawyers specialized in intellectual property right. She talked with the lawyers about the legal risks implied in running and using the programs and in downloading, saving, publishing and distributing the re-worked images, also with regard to the possibility of displaying her work in [plug.in]. With this project Sollfrank tries not only to make a point for artistic freedom in general, but especially for free experimenting, processing and re-working of exisiting material as a legitimate and serious artistic practice that has been developed throughout the 20th century. The interviews address the limitations of the artistic freedom, which is granted by the basic rights of most countries. They also ask about the infringement of intellectual property rights, which are committed by a computer program, by internet users, and by an artistic practice which is becoming more and more important in a contemporary cultural discourse. The beautiful and visually seducing re-worked Andy Warhol flower images are at the core of the interviews, but must remain absent in the exhibition. What becomes visible instead is the boundary, where it's no longer artists but lawyers and courts which take decisions on cultural developments: The 'legal perspective' as one possible contribution to art history's central discussion about perspective? Collaborating lawyers: RA Peter Eller, Munich; RA Jens Brelle, Hamburg, Dr. Rolf Auf der Mauer, Zurich; Dr. Sven Krüger, Hamburg; The exhibition takes place within ?copy-create-manipulate", a part of the VIPER Festival 2004 which was curated by [plug.in]. Location: [plug-in], St. Alban-Rheinweg 64, CH-4052 Basel Tel. +41 61 283 60 50, Fax +41 61 283 60 51, office@iplugin.org Opening hours: Wed-Sat 2-6 pm, Thu 2-6pm and 8-10pm <a rel="nofollow" href="http://weallplugin.org">http://weallplugin.org</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.viper.ch">http://www.viper.ch</a> – – ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ___ ___ ___ ||a |||r |||t |||w |||a |||r |||e |||z || .org ||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|||__|| |/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\|/__\| take it and run! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 11.01.04 From: Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net> Subject: LOCATION!LOCATION!LOCATION!November 10 at the Exploratorium SF YLEM Forum: LOCATION!LOCATION!LOCATION! Three Projects in Locative Media by California Artists Wednesday, November 10, 7:30 pm McBean Theater, Exploratorium 3501 Lyon St. San Francisco, CA 94123 Free, Open to the public and wheelchair accessible <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/directions.html">http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/directions.html</a>> PROGRAM 1 Slipstreamkonza:Autochamber <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.christinamcphee.net/slipkonza/autochamber.html">http://www.christinamcphee.net/slipkonza/autochamber.html</a>> Christina McPhee with sound collaboration by Henry Warwick Slipstreamkonza is a sonic topology that remediates carbon absorption and release data from the tallgrass prairie. Autochamber is a sound prototype that interprets data from an active climatologic research site using locative robotic sound within an conceptual practice following the historic HPSCHD by Lejaren Hiller and John Cage. Christina McPhee's new work from the series Strike/Slip/Merz_city will open at Transport Gallery in LA in March-April 2005 <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.transportgallery.com/transport/">http://www.transportgallery.com/transport/</a>. Composer Henry Warwick, at home in digital imaging and electronic sound, develops data/ sound topologies. He produced the San Francisco Performance Cinema Symposium (2003) and makes work about the interface of catastrophy and technology. He is a board member of YLEM (<http:/www.ylem.org>;) 2 Remote Location 1:100,000 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.paintersflat.net/remotelocation.html">http://www.paintersflat.net/remotelocation.html</a> Paula Poole and Brett Stalbaum Created during August 2004, Box Elder County, Utah, Remote Location 1:100,000 binds together data about landscape and the landscape as data, using GPS influenced tiles, soil samples, paintings and photo documentation. The project is sponsored by the Center for Land Use Interpretation (<<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.clui.org">http://www.clui.org</a>>) Paula Poole is adapting landscape painting traditions to new media. She centers on the landscape of the Great Basin desert of North America. Brett Stalbaum is a C5 research theorist and software development artist. He cofounded Electronic Disturbance Theater and collaborates with Paula Poole on land/walking/GPS/locative/performance/pictorial works. 3 "34 north 118 west" <a rel="nofollow" href="http://34N118W.net/">http://34N118W.net/</a> Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman "34 north 118 west" uses gps data and interactive map that triggers live data through movement in downtown Los Angeles. "34 north 118 west" won the grand jury prize at the Los Angeles based Art in Motion Festival, Aim IV, in 2003 <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/matrix/aim/aimIV/">http://www.usc.edu/dept/matrix/aim/aimIV/</a>> Jeremy Hight is a writer fascinated by the weather <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://thepharmakon.org/RightAsRain/">http://thepharmakon.org/RightAsRain/</a>> and 'agitated space'. Naomi Spellman works in locative media, networked narrative, and was Artist in Residence at the Media Centre, Huddersfield, U.K.,<<a rel="nofollow" href="http://project_diary.blogspot.com/">http://project_diary.blogspot.com/</a> last summer. Jeff Knowlton's "A text for the navigational age", showed at VRML Art 2000 and Siggraph2000. Also at Huddersfield, UK, Jeff has worked with Naomi to design an 'interpretive engine' for various places on earth, which uses wireless APs in New York to determine more generalised location. Its debut was in October 2004 at Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art and the City, NYC <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.spectropolis.info/">http://www.spectropolis.info/</a> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ylem.org/">http://www.ylem.org/</a>> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 11.04.04 From: Richard de Boer Subject: DEAF04: Dutch Electronic Art Festival starting on 9 November DEAF04: Dutch Electronic Art Festival starting 9 November The seventh edition of the Dutch Electronic Art Festival - DEAF04 will be opened on Tuesday 9 November in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) with a unique opening act by Jamie Lidell, FM Einheit and the Poetry Machine, a computer which generates a stream of word associations. Dutch Electronic Art Festival is a biennial international festival for electronic art, presented by V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The festival is a presentation platform for new media art - some of it commissioned by DEAF - and as a forum for critical debate and art education. By collaborating with local, national and international art and research institutes, the festival creates a synergy between the various art disciplines and the fields of architecture, philosophy, cultural and sociological science. During DEAF04, a number of provocative art projects will address current social and political issues revolving around both open and closed systems. Interactivity plays a central part in this, as it defines the way we think about such systems. Within this thematic framework, DEAF04 presents interactive art as an open system continuously creating new relationships. FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS SEMINARS ON ART AND MEDIA TECHNOLOGY How do we experience mixed virtual and physical environments? Is wearable computing empowering us, or are we becoming more vulnerable and disembodied? How can machines be designed to express emotion by themselves? On Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 November, various seminars are focusing on thought-provoking issues in art and media technology. The seminar Wearable Turbulence focuses on context-aware, human-centred computing; The Art of Immersive Spaces questions the role of human-computer interaction principles in the design of immersive spaces. The seminar Affective Systems presents research in the area of emotional computing. See <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.deaf04.nl">http://www.deaf04.nl</a> TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM FEELINGS ARE ALWAYS LOCAL The central question during the two-day symposium Feelings Are Always Local (Friday 12 & Saturday 13 November) is - how do local systems arise and maintain themselves in large, globalizing networks? Alex Galloway, artist, teacher, computer programmer and joint founder of the Radical Software Group, will discuss the protocols that determine how computer networks and biological networks function and describes how this form of distributed exercise of power can be used for political resistance. Christa Sommerer is an internationally renowned media artist working in the field of interactive computer installation. In her lecture she will elaborate on her work Mobile Feelings II shown in the DEAF04 exhibition. Other speakers are media theorist Arjen Mulder, biologist Tijs Goldschmidt, anthropologist Christopher Kelty, economist Loretta Napoleoni, and neurologist Karim Nader. The symposium is moderated by philosopher Manuel DeLanda. For program details and reservations check <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.deaf04.nl/symposium">http://www.deaf04.nl/symposium</a> WEB-CARTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP TACTICAL URBAN MAP HACK In the Tactical Urban Map Hack workshop locative media artists will work together with the public in the creation of open maps; the content produced by the workshop being consolidated in an online digital map that will be displayed live within the Cartographic Command Center at the festival location. Check <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.deaf04.nl/maphack">http://www.deaf04.nl/maphack</a> ****************************************************** DEAF04 - Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems Tuesday 9 November - Sunday 21 November 2004 Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.deaf04.nl">http://www.deaf04.nl</a> Contact for information & reservations: Tel. + 31 (0)10 750 28 90 Fax + 31 (0)10 750 28 94 E-mail: tickets@v2.nl ****************************************************** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 11.01.04 From: Annie Wong <wonga@newschool.edu> Subject: Technical Specialist - Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, a division of New School University, is seeking a Technical Specialist in its Digital Design Department. The Technical Specialist is responsible for the development and management of systems and resources related primarily to department network presence (web, e-mail and other network services) and the physical computing and programming environment. Parsons School of Design's Digital Design Department is a leader in technology-driven design education. It operates several academic programs including full-time graduate and undergraduate degrees in design and technology and a large group of undergraduate digital electives available to the entire Parsons population. In addition to its academic programs the Digital Design Department serves as a hub for technology related activity throughout the university. Facilities available to the students and faculty are state of the art Responsibilities: + Develop and maintain all aspects of the Digital Design Departmentâ??s network presence, including account administration, web services, file storage, e-mail management, security control and windows and linux server management. + Must be an active participant in a collaborative environment working on an evolving, cutting edge curriculum. + Provide technical support for the physical computing and programming environment including systems installation and maintenance (Macintosh, Windows and Linux), overall lab management, equipment inventory control, and broader design and fabrication environment. + Work with the department to propose new additions to the technology infrastructure related to advanced and experimental digital design research. + Maintain physical lab facility, including equipment and furnishings. + Serve on departmental and university-wide IT committees as a representative of the department. + Assist in technology needs for various departmental events including critiques and annual exhibitions. + Co-ordinate group of undergraduate and graduate student workers to assist and support these tasks. + Lead and participate in specific research and development projects Requirements: The ideal candidate will possess: + Extensive Linux systems administration experience; configuration of mail systems, security, web services, LDAP. + Fluency in scripting languages and back-end technologies (Perl, PHP, mySQL and other open-source languages). + Experience in network troubleshooting and support. + Thorough knowledge of the Macintosh OS and Windows Systems. + Solid organizational skills and team player a must. + Independent problem solving; self-direction is crucial. Benefits Include: Tuition and comprehensive health insurance. Interested persons should email a cover letter and resume to NSUjobs@newschool.edu. Please write Search # 22581 in the subject line to ensure proper distribution of your resume. Parsons School of Design/New School University is committed to maintaining a diverse educational and creative community, a policy of equal opportunity in all its activities and programs, including employment and promotion. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, physical handicap, veteran or marital status. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 11.01.04 From: Rachel Greene <rachel@rhizome.org> Subject: Fwd: Mosaica web project Begin forwarded message: From: Rebecca Roberts <mosaica@yorku.ca> Date: November 1, 2004 11:27:59 AM EST To: Subject: Mosaica web project Call for online projects: Project Mosaica, a new website devoted to contemporary Jewish culture online, is seeking projects from individuals and groups on the theme of Jews and Diaspora: Jewish Culture, Web Culture, New Culture. Two $1,000 (CND) production honoraria will be awarded to the successful candidates whose web projects address the possibilities of the virtual diaspora with this theme. Projects should be innovative and address the visual possibilities of the web as well as contribute to an understanding of the multi-valent nature, complexities, significance and changes in meaning of diaspora. This call is intended to be as inclusive as possible: projects enlisting any and all artistic disciplines are welcome. Provide a project description in 500 words including the following: a statement about the project¹s relationship to Jews and diaspora; why the web is a viable medium for the project; and an explanation of how the project will be sustainable beyond implementation. Include a web-ready presentation. Include a CV. Include a selected portfolio of previous work in CD-R, DV-R or video-DVD (region-one compatible) as appropriate, featuring no more than three images or five minutes of video. Proposals to be submitted in English or French; however, we recognize that other languages may play a role in the final project. Innovative content and its adaptation to web aesthetics will be the primary consideration in the selection process. Artists will maintain copyright of their productions, which will be disseminated by Mosaica on the site <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mosaica.ca">http://www.mosaica.ca</a> and may be presented at public talks and screenings. Submission material will not be returned. Applications must be submitted by January 1, 2005. Online applications are to be submitted to mosaica@yorku.ca Decision date: Candidates will be notified by March 1, 2005. A condition of the honorarium is completion of the project by September 1, 2005. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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: 11.02.04 From: Rachel Greene <rachel@rhizome.org> Subject: Fwd: The Canadian Film Centre's Habitat New Media Lab Begin forwarded message: From: "Edu-News" <info@edu-news.com> Date: November 1, 2004 6:45:13 PM EST To: "rachel@rhizome.org" <rachel@rhizome.org> Subject: The Canadian Film Centre's Habitat New Media Lab Reply-To: Edu-News <info@edu-news.com> Habitat New Media Lab Canadian Film Centre 2489 Bayview Ave. Toronto, ON Canada M2L 1A8 Tel. + 1 416.445.1446 ext. 296 habitat@cdnfilmcentre.com <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cdnfilmcentre.com">http://www.cdnfilmcentre.com</a> The Canadian Film Centre's Habitat New Media Lab is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2005 session of the Interactive Art & Entertainment Programme (IAEP), a five-month, post-graduate residency focused on creating inventive interactive narrative projects for the Canadian and international marketplace. A maximum of 12 spots are available. Established by acclaimed filmmaker Norman Jewison, the Canadian Film Centre created Habitat in 1997 as a collaborative, production-based learning environment where diverse teams push the evolution of art and entertainment. Based on a cycle of training, production and research, Habitat is an internationally acclaimed facility that has produced award-winning new media prototypes ranging from simulation-based interactive documentaries, to wireless storytelling networks, to interactive short films and narrative-driven media installations. Application Deadline: November 29, 2004 For more information or to request an application please contact: habitat@cdnfilmcentre.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 11.04.04 From: "Rhizome.org" <artbase@rhizome.org> Subject: Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase: ARBUSh by Bruce Caron Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase … <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?28944">http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?28944</a> + ARBUSh + + Bruce Caron + This work is for non-commercial use only, and is an expression of the author using found images. + + + Biography Bruce Caron is the Founder and current executive director of the New Media Studio. Trained as a social anthropologist and an urban cultural geographer, he has a wide-ranging background in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. He has served as the President of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners. He is skilled in a variety of multimedia authoring tools. He has experience as a programmer, database manager, graphic designer, videographer, and project manager. Through the New Media Studio, he sees the need to bring new tools and skills to the public to help democratize the technological advantages of the digital revolution. He has taught at colleges and universities in Japan, and at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California. He is a contributing editor of the Kyoto Journal. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 9. Date: 11.04.04 From: "Rhizome.org" <artbase@rhizome.org> Subject: Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase: { Software Structures } by Casey Reas Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase … <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?28465">http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?28465</a> + { Software Structures } + + Casey Reas + The catalyst for this project is the work of Sol LeWitt, specifically his wall drawings. I had a simple question: "Is the history of conceptual art relevant to the idea of software as art?" I began to answer the question by implementing three of Lewitt's drawings in software and then making modifications. After working with the LeWitt plans, I created three structures unique to software. These software structures are text descriptions outlining dynamic relations between elements. They develop in the vague domain of image and then mature in the more defined structures of natural language before any thought is given to a specific machine implementation. Twenty-six pieces of software derived from these structures were written to isolate different components of software structures including interpretation, material, and process. For each, you may view the software, source code, and comments. + + + Biography Casey Reas is an artist and educator exploring kinetic systems through diverse media. Reas has exhibited and lectured in Europe, Asia, and the United States and his work has recently been shown at Ars Electronica (Linz), Microwave (Hong Kong), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Bitforms (New York), DAM (Berlin), and Uijeongbu City (Korea). Reas is currently an Assistant Professor in the Design | Media Arts department at UCLA. Reas received his MS degree in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT where he was a member of John Maeda's Aesthetics and Computation Group. With Ben Fry, he is developing Processing, a programming language and environment built for the electronic arts community. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 10. Date: 11.04.04 From: Mendi+Keith Obadike <mendi@blacknetart.com> Subject: CDs and a book from Mendi+Keith Obadike Artists Mendi+Keith Obadike announce the release of three new works The Sour Thunder, Armor and Flesh, and SOFTSHELL. *The Sour Thunder* Mendi+Keith¹s CD "The Sour Thunder, an internet opera" was just released on Bridge Records. It can be ordered directly from Bridge or through Amazon.com. <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://bridgerecords.com">http://bridgerecords.com</a>> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006A05OU/ref=cm_ea_pl_prod_">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006A05OU/ref=cm_ea_pl_prod_</a> 6/002-4997818-1604865> "The Sour Thunder" blends science fiction and autobiography with hip-hop, new music, and a theatrical bi-lingual text (English and Spanish), creating a personal and surreal tale of cultural and racial identity. Musically, "The Sour Thunder" is told through a series of 23 sound-text pieces and songs. The textures that make up "The Sour Thunder" were created using digitally treated hollow body guitars, Nigerian mbiras, field recordings of environmental sounds, and electronically processed vocals. *Armor and Flesh* Armor and Flesh is a new book by Mendi Obadike. It is available directly from the publisher, Lotus Press, and from Amazon.com. <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0916418936/qid=1089192625/sr=">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0916418936/qid=1089192625/sr=</a> 8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-4997818-1604865?v=glance&s=books&n=507846> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lotuspress.org">http://www.lotuspress.org</a>> The poems in this collection explore protective gestures (physical and emotional hardness) and vulnerability. Armor and Flesh received the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize. *SOFTSHELL* Keith Obadike composed a companion soundscape for Armor and Flesh entitled SOFTSHELL. This composition, built from metallic abstractions and synthesized sinews, functions as a micro score to the book. It is available on a special edition transparent CD from <a rel="nofollow" href="http://Hellomachine.com">http://Hellomachine.com</a>. More information can be found at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blacknetart.com">http://www.blacknetart.com</a>. For more information regarding Mendi + Keith¹s readings, exhibitions, or performances contact Evelyn McGhee at Office@blacknetart.com. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 11. Date: 11.05.04 From: Gloria Sutton <suttong@humnet.ucla.edu> Subject: Exhibiting New Media Art (Part 1 of 2) Rhizome and lists devoted to new media curating such as CRUMB have recently spurred heated discussions about the practical and theoretical issues of exhibiting new media art within a traditional museum context. As I sat eavesdropping on these some of these debates, it became clear to me how much of the critical syntax around exhibition display strategies and audience interaction echoed the conversations of the late 1960s and early 1970s. And more striking to me was the fact that at an earlier moment discussions about contemporary art and new media used to take place in the same conversation, be written about in the same publications and show in the same venues. In the 1960s-1970s artists interested in issues of media, computation, social networks, and communication theories used to be in active dialogue with their contemporaries probing other issues under the general guise of "conceptual art." There was a moment when Stan Vanderbeek would be exhibiting with Robert Whitman and Dan Graham (The Projected Image show at ICA Boston, 1967) or Les Levine could be in the same show as Hans Haacke, Douglas Huebler, and Lawrence Wiener (Software, 1970). Of course back then the issue wasn¹t about NEW media art, but the introduction of media art within established venues for contemporary art and the exponentially increasing impact of media and computer technology on the arts writ large. Questions commonly asked included: what exactly was the role of the arts in a technologically driven society? Are computers, consumer electronics and communication theory transforming art production or simply obscuring it? What was technology¹s relevance to art, if any, and did art operate under a technological imperative? Sound familiar? While these questions could have come from any one of the many new media art discussion lists, they were questions posed by Philip Leider, a founding editor of Artforum, as well as by other critics and artists in the pages of art journals and exhibition catalogs between 1962 and 1972. These lines of inquiry would get rehashed at gallery openings from Howard Wise in New York City to Phyllis Kind in Chicago and the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, which were some of the first commercial venues for media art in the U.S. Queries regarding the relationship between art and technology would find their way into basically every other influential site producing the discourse on art in the 1960s and 1970s. However, within the discordant conversation on art and technology, clear divisions emerged at the end of the1960s. One trajectory followed earlier modernist preoccupations with ³machine art² and the other became more attuned to work based on what could be defined as ³systems and information² technology. In line with recent efforts to look back at new media¹s now historical status (think of Ars Electronica celebrating its 25th anniversary in September 2004 and the upcoming Refresh conference on the history of new media art), I thought it would be worth while to revisit the checklists and arguments posed by three pivotal art exhibitions: The Museum of Modern Art¹s ³The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age² and the Institute of Contemporary London¹s ³Cybernetic Serendipity,² both from 1968 and The Jewish Museum¹s ³Software² exhibition from 1970. These exhibitions can be seen as recorded conversations capturing the particular voices and inflections of the two trajectories of media technology-influenced art practices during this pivotal period in which the terms and conditions for art production were becoming solidified through their institutionalization in art schools and museums. Through published catalogs and reviews, these exhibitions allow us to eavesdrop on the debates, and note the shifting vocabulary and rhetorical strategies regarding media technology¹s application to art, which had a resounding impact on multiple strains of not just of media art, but other neo-avant garde practices including Fluxus, Happenings, and Expanded Cinema and various strains of Conceptual art. This week¹s installment will focus the ³machine art² trajectory established by The Museum of Modern Art¹s historical survey entitled, ³The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age² and the Institute of Contemporary London¹s ³Cybernetic Serendipity,² which focused on ³cybernetic devices² and their material output both from 1968. In a marked contrast from these two exhibitions which prioritized art practices that were invested in melding formalist ideals with motion, light, and digital imaging into different sculptural or three-dimensional forms, ³systems and information² related projects applied a distinctly computing vernacular to the art and technology conversation. In 1970 two exhibitions opening within nine months of one another, presented a survey of contemporary work that attempted to introduce the notion that art could be conceived of, exchanged, transferred, and shared as information. More prominent of the two exhibitions, ³Information² curated by MoMA¹s Kynaston McShine was held between July 2 and September 20, 1970. Next week¹s digest will focus on the show that appeared just north of MoMA, on the upper east side of Manhattan at the Jewish Museum, then known as a supporter of cutting-edge art. ³Software: Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art² was organized by art historian and artist, Jack Burnham who curated twenty-six international contemporary artists into what would become a sprawling display of Conceptual art and engineering experiments and ran from September 16 to November 8 1970. Under examined by art historians, the exhibition presented a decidedly idiosyncratic object of study from the late 1960s. The show¹s unique premise and intriguing mix of disparate artistic practices and media, combined with the fact that the exhibition was organized under the auspices of both The Jewish Theological Seminary and the American Motors Corporation, certainly set it apart from other exhibitions from the same period. More importantly, ³Software² signaled not only a break from the conception of ³technology² as a purely machine-based proposition, but demonstrated that Conceptual artists during the late 1960s were in direct dialogue with artists that actively engaged new technology?a strain of Conceptual art that is usually never discussed in the same room with its more analytic or linguistic based counterparts, but was nevertheless invested in a meta-critical discourse. Machine Art and Cybernetics Historically, the term ³machine art² has tended to refer specifically to works that have incorporated light and movement into sculpture¹s existing vocabulary. The most prevalent result was kinetic sculptures that relied on simple motor-driven devices and the inclusion of various light sources. Early 1960s experiments in light and kinetics included a wide variety of differing approaches to creating three-dimensional, dynamic works. Key examples include Yves Klein¹s, Double Sided Wall of Fire (1961) in which bursts of flames were contained within an evenly spaced geometric grid mounted on a wall. Jean Tinguely¹s Radio Drawing (1962) was comprised of stripped wires and exposed radio components, which were strapped and mounted to a wall. Industrially produced, tube lighting would become the signature material for Dan Flavin¹s fluorescent light sculptures. These iconic sixties works all found a precedent in a variety of earlier modernist models and in particular reference the interests of the Italian Futurists like Boccioni, and Russian Constructivists as represented by Naum Gabo. Bauhaus pedagogy as gleaned from Laszlo Moholy-Nagy became widely influential during this period and in particular instruments such as his Light-Space Modulator (1922-1931) became a reoccurring point of reference for artists experimenting with light and motion in the 1960s. The burgeoning interest in kinetic sculpture in United States is what led René d¹Harnoncout, MoMA¹s Director during the early 1960s, to approach Karl G. Pontus Hultén, then Director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm to curate MoMA¹s first show dedicated to kinetic art. Plans for what would be called ³The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age² began in 1965 and opened at MoMA on November 25, 1968 traveling to Houston and San Francisco over the course of the next year. Although Hultén plainly stated that the exhibition was not intended as an illustrated history of the machine, his introductory essay rehearses the development of machines and devices. In Hultén¹s account, major technological advancements directly correlate to a strictly chronological survey of modern art movements, in which artists are presented as responding to specific moments within this technological linear progression. This method of linking the introduction of new consumer electronics with new art forms becomes the reductive logic that historians will rely on later when they suggest that the Sony Port-o-pac created video art and the introduction of computers begets new media art. That the artists engaged with video and new media were somehow never engaged with earlier representational strategies. Tracing the etymology of the Greek word techné as meaning both art and technics, Hultén situated the origin for ³mechanic art² in ancient Greek and Roman ideas of scientific law and mechanical engineering. The narrative follows mechanical and technical advances in the Western world up through the middle ages, including steam engines, clocks and other precision instruments. Arriving at the nineteenth century, Hultén pointed to the mechanization of labor in England and the proliferation of industrial factories as the precursor for what he described basically as the twentieth century¹s machinist impulse not only within industry, but culture at large. The exhibition solidified the clichéd model of the hybrid scientist/artist by presenting sixteenth century drawings of Leonardo da Vinci¹s flying machines, and ended with a contemporary version through the artist/engineer collaborations, which were picked through a competition process organized by Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT). Between these two bookends, the exhibition was able to represent multiple perspectives from each designated movement in modern art from the Italian Futurists, Cubist painting and collaged works, to Dada and Surrealist experiments in psychic automatism with the intention to present a comprehensive overview of modernist interpretations of technology in various aesthetic forms. Included were also influential pieces from Picabia, Man Ray, Tatlin, Schwitters, Ernst, and Moholy-Nagy (Light Space Modulator, 1921-1930), which would have been considered standard fare for the Museum of Modern Art. More surprising was the inclusion of drawings by Rube Goldberg, Charlie Chaplin¹s films and a proto-type for Buckminster Fuller¹s Dymaxion Car (1933). When Hultén¹s narrative arrived at the late 1930s, he paused to interject the effect of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ³were the most terrible shock that the world has ever received. Fear and horror sapped the faith in technology and the confidence in rational behavior that might have been expected to follow a long period of destruction.² Hultén continued by making the suggestion that from the mid-fifties onward, artists ³devoted themselves to an attempt to establish better relations with technology² and that Pop artists in particular took ³a step toward finding a way out of this alienation.² Curiously, he claims that Pop art was somehow able to evade the alienating impulse of technology in the face of nuclear annihilation by relating, ³mass products to human will.² Positioned in sequence along with the Pop examples was Hans Haacke¹s Ice Stick (1964). A slender metal rod covered in ice and mounted upright on a low podium, the ³stick² contained a motorized freezing coil inside causing the ice to form in thick or thinner layers in relation to the local air temperature and humidity. In the same section, works by Robert Rauschenberg were also included along with Oracle (1965), a collaboration between Rauschenberg and Billy Klüver. In addition, the inclusion of the E.A.T. competition for engineers and artists, along with Kenneth Knowlton¹s computer processed photographic prints and Nam June Paik¹s McLuhan caged (1967) would draw parallel links between their inclusion in ³The Machine² show at MoMA and their earlier incarnation as part of the Institute of Contemporary Art¹s ³Cybernetic Serendipity² exhibition where they were installed in London just a month prior to being shipped to New York. ³Cybernetic Serendipity² was large-scale international exhibition curated by the ICA¹s Associate Director, Jasia Reichardt and ran from August 2 to October 20,1968. According to Reichardt, the exhibition was an attempt to ³explore and demonstrate some of the relationships between technology and creativity.² The selected work could be divided into three distinct sections. The largest was the first group comprised of computer-generated graphics, animated films and musical compositions printed and framed for the viewers. The second group could be described as ³cybernetic devices as works of art² and included environments, remote-control robots and ³painting machines.² The majority of these works were three-dimensional objects presented as sculptural objects in vitrines or on podiums. The third category of work demonstrated various computer functions and offered a history of cybernetics as it related to Norbert Wiener¹s theories on the subject. Within the category of computer graphics, Kenneth Knowlton¹s computer generated images of everyday objects and landscapes were situated among a variety of other types of simple, black and white graphs and schematic geometric forms which were some of the first attempts at computer animation and computer generated imagery. Knowlton¹s crude images with their simple pixilated shapes and rough shading, were made from an early technique of ³scanning² thirty-five millimeter transparencies, which were then digitized into various digital characters and aligned in a particular coded sequence manipulating their scale and color to register at different focal lengths from the page on which they were printed. Nam June Paik¹s electromagnetic manipulations of television sets such as McLuhan caged (1967) were referred to as ³painting with magnetic fields² situating them in the second category of the exhibition. By waving large horseshoe magnets over black and white television sets, Paik was able to manipulate, warp and distort the images that appeared on the screen. Based on Norman Bauman¹s published account of encountering the piece, viewers could actually manipulate the magnets and alter the magnetic fields themselves. Describing the process Bauman extolled, ³The feeling of holding a magnet in your hand and seeing a visible, striking result, must be experienced to be appreciated. This is not chickenshit iron filings, but a real, living, breathing, MAGNETIC FIELD, that you can really use to deflect real, live, glowing, electrons.² While EAT¹s collaborative work was not directly represented in the exhibition, the group must have felt that the audience and artists who would be drawn to ³Cybernetic Serendipity² and the ICA in general were their target audience. They tapped this audience to solicit submissions for their competition to be exhibited at MoMA¹s ³Machine² show in the fall of 1968. EAT took out a full-page ad in the ICA¹s January bulletin promoting the competition for collaborative projects between engineers and artists. EAT offered to facilitate contact between interested parties and would then judge the entries along with a jury of ³scientists and engineers from the technical community who are not necessarily familiar with contemporary art.² While EAT would judge who was awarded the first and second place cash prizes ($3,000 and $1,000 respectively), the ad clearly stated that Hultén would make the final selection of the works to be shown at MoMA. Overall the majority of the work chosen to be included in ³Cybernetic Serendipity² reinforced the focus on the technological apparatus and peripheral devices such as computers, electronic robots, printers, and monitors. A result was that most of these three-dimensional machines were either photographed and the computer generated images printed and then framed and hung on the wall along with explanatory labels. Computer generated films were shown as projected films during the evenings, but then represented in the exhibition and in the catalogue as black and white stills. Through this process, the exhibition transferred the experience of interacting with the machines into iconic images. Visitors were denied the usual spectacles or frustrations that accompany trying to use any type of electronic device in a public space, and the interaction remained confined to a surface glance. However, due to the two dimensional format inherent in the printed catalogue, organizers were able to foreground the discussion regarding technology¹s relevancy to art production specifically in the theories of Norbert Wiener by excerpting sections from his widely influential book The Human Use of Human Beings, which they were not able to do in the exhibition space. - Gloria Sutton Notes: 1 - Based on Jack Burnham¹s definition of systems and information technology as described in ³Art and Technology: The Panacea that Failed,² in The Myths of Information: Technology and Postindustrial Culture, edited by Kathleen Woodward (Madison, Wisconsin: Coda Press, 1980), 213. 2 - Karl Hultén, The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age. exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art and New York Graphic Society, 1968),3; Jasia Reichardt, ³Introduction,² Cybernetic Serendipity. exh. cat. (London: Institute of Contemporary Art and W&J Mackay Press,1968), 5. 3 - Based on Jack Burnham¹s definition of systems and information technology as described in ³Art and Technology: The Panacea that Failed,² in The Myths of Information: Technology and Postindustrial Culture, edited by Kathleen Woodward (Madison, Wisconsin: Coda Press, 1980), 213. 4 - According to the exhibition¹s catalog, The Jewish Museum in New York was governed by The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. While the American Motors Corporation was the show¹s main sponsor, the exhibition benefited from in-kind donations from a variety of computer and consumer electronic companies including Digital Equipment Corp., 3M, and Mohawk Data Systems. 5 - In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue for ³The Machine² Hultén explains the origins of the exhibition as follows: ³Plans for this exhibition were begun several years ago; the first letters discussing it were exchanged in 1965. When René d¹Harnoncourt, the late Director of MoMA asked me whether I should like to organize an exhibition on kinetic art for his institution.² The exhibition traveled to two addition venues: The University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas from March 25-May 18, 1969 and then to the San Francisco¹s Museum of Art from June 23-August 24. 1969, Hultén, 3. 6 - Hultén, 13. 7 - Hultén, 14. 8 - Description based on Anne Rorimer¹s account in New Art in the 60s and 70s: Redefining Reality (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001), 269. 9 - Reichardt, 5. 10 - Norman Bauman, ³Five-Year Guaranty² in Cybernetic Serendipity, exh. cat. (London: Institute of Contemporary Art and W&J Mackay Press,1968), 42. 11 - Description of the competition is based on the instructions listed in the ad EAT took out in the ICA¹s January 1968 Bulletin, a 5²x7² black and white publication that was circulated among the ICA¹s membership and visitors to the gallery. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Kevin McGarry (kevin@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 9, number 44. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org are encouraged. 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