RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.22.02

discussion

Posted Nov. 21 2002 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.22.02

RHIZOME DIGEST: November 22, 2002 Content: +announcement+ 1. Luuk Bouwman: Call for Submissions 2. Joseph Nechvatal: Lanterna Magika, Czech technological art of the 20th Century 3. nat muller: UK Premier of tx0oom in Great Yarmouth +work+ 4. Paul St George: Emergent Art 5. Jo-Anne Green: Turbulence Premiere- "American Internet" by Eryk Salvaggio 6. Rachel Jacobs: Moon Radio webTV winter season +review+ 7. ryan griffis: review of Prema Murthy's _Mythic Hybrid_ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 11.18.02 From: Luuk Bouwman (info@tropisms.org) Subject: Call for Submissions www.tropisms.org is a videoblog that consists of "crudities": pieces of raw experience, regularly uploaded while traveling. In the coming year, a group of young filmmakers will take part in the project, to practically study the idea of laptop cinema. Existing structures such as art- and film festivals will be used to make possible new journeys. If you run a festival or gallery you can send a submission letter to info@tropisms.org or to the address below ? motivate why you want to program us, what?s special about your gallery / festival / city / location. Include $30. Contact: info@tropisms.org Stichting Zig/Zag Admiraal de Ruyterweg 102 1056 GP Amsterdam The Netherlands t: 00 31 (0)20 6839591/ 06 10737560 tropisms will be presented at the Shadowfestival, Nov 27 (www.shadowfestival.nl). >From Nov 28 to Dec 23, Jan de Bruin and Luuk Bouwman will be traveling through the US. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 11.20.02 From: Joseph Nechvatal (joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com) Subject: Lanterna Magika, a point of view on Czech technological art of the 20th Century Anybody around Paris - this is a good show about Czech art-technology. It stays open till January 5th. Check it out. _____________ Lanterna Magika, a point of view on Czech technological art of the 20th Century. As part of the Bohémia Magica, une Saison tchèque en France, l'Espace Electra offers an exhibition on pluridisciplinary Czech art with the emphasis on technology and art in their culture. During the era when surrealism and constructivism were opposed in West-Europe, poetry originated in the Czech Republic linking modernist utopia and irrational thought bringing on the beginning of the exploration of the links between art and technology. With the change of regime in 1989, the sudden access to new technology allows the research to go even deeper, effecting works of art that unite utopia, magic and critique of which only magic subsists. _____________ ESPACE ELECTRA FONDATION EDF 6 Rue Récamier 75007 PARIS Tél. 01 53 63 23 45 Admission free open every day from 12am till 7pm, except for Mondays and bank holidays + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ TV Dinner: The Myth of Interactivity, Thur. 12/5, 6pm Join Edwin Schlossberg (ESI Design) in a discussion about interactivity in new media today (as informed by film, design, and studio art), with panelists Scott Snibbe, Camille Utterback, and Grahame Weinbren. Reservations required,$25(w/ dinner).212.255.5793 x11.www.thekitchen.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 11.18.02 From: nat muller (nat@v2.nl) Subject: UK Premier of tx0oom in Great Yarmouth ://:://Future Physical ?WEAR ME!!!¹ Arts & Technology programme and FoAm VzW and partners bring UK premier of txOom to the Hippodrome Circus Space in Great Yarmouth.//:://: txOom [textiles in bloom] is a responsive PlaySpace where wearable architecture and evolving media worlds blend, engendering a rich and multi-layered experience. Participants will be able to create and influence their own audio-visual landscapes as they tangle in textiles and literally wear and expand the space through their movements and gestures, hence causing physical and digital worlds to converge and stretch. Each player is sensed by the playSpace using motion sensors and vision tracking systems incorporated into the fabric of the space. Gradually, the social interaction between the participants, the responsive sound and visuals projected throughout the PlaySpace will transform and grow. In Great Yarmouth, an important part of the site specific environment is being developed through interaction with local communities , involving creative user workshops researching involvement, playfulness, creativity and learning in responsive environments. (in collaboration with SeaChange) ::://More info::// <a rel="nofollow" href="http://fo.am/txoom/">http://fo.am/txoom/</a> :::Dates and opening hours: 1.12.2002 - 8.12.2002, from 11am to 7pm, except 4.12.2002 (1pm - 8pm) and 8.12.2002 (11pm - 3pm) ::Location: Hippodrome Circus Space, St. George Road, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (UK) :::::Tickets: £4/£2 concessions for 30 minute sessions. :::Box office: 01493 844172. Only 8 people per session. Bookings in advance required. For all ages 5yrs +. //::txOom Credits::// txOom is developed by FoAM VzW in collaboration with Time'sUp (Austria), Future Physical (UK), Interactive Institute (Sweden), KIBLA (Slovenia) and several independent artists and technologists. major funding support: Culture 2000 Programme of the European Union. Ministry of the Flemish Community, Belgium. Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, The Netherlands. FUTURE PHYSICAL (East England Arts/shinkansen in association with the Arts Council of England New Audience Programme), UK Cieffe Benelux txOom is based on the TGarden system (copyright sponge, FoAM and associates) for detailed credits see <a rel="nofollow" href="http://fo.am/txoom/credits.html">http://fo.am/txoom/credits.html</a> WEAR ME!!! Is a co-production between Future Physical (shinkansen/East England Arts), Plan B, FoAm VzW and Norwich Arts Centre in co-operation with SeaChange, Magna, Xybernaut and The Forum with funding assistance from Culture 2000 framework of the European Commission, Arts Council National Touring Programme and PlayGarden. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 11.20.02 From: Paul St George (lists_stgeorge@lgu.ac.uk) Subject: Emergent Art Under the right conditions, complex patterns and sequences emerge from the interaction of simple events. Please see my new work called Emergent Art at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.paulstgeorge.com/emergence/">http://www.paulstgeorge.com/emergence/</a> On the left you will see patterns emerge from the interaction of cells as they obey the rules of Conway's Game of Life. On the right you will see a different representation of the same emerging patterns. The square cells are replaced by vertical lines and the position and colour of the lines are determined according to the sequences of coloured cells. I welcome comments, criticism and also any information about other forms of emergent art. Thank you. – Paul St George <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.paulstgeorge.com/">http://www.paulstgeorge.com/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 11.19.02 From: Jo-Anne Green (j.o.green@verizon.net) Subject: Turbulence Premiere: "American Internet" by Eryk Salvaggio November 19, 2002 For Immediate Release American Internet by Eryk Salvaggio <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/Works/Eryk/ai/index.html">http://turbulence.org/Works/Eryk/ai/index.html</a> Turbulence is proud to present the premiere of Eryk Salvaggio?s commissioned work ?American Internet.? ?It can be said that there is no greater symbol for American Globalization than the logo plastered onto Coca Cola cans. Coca Cola is so linked to America that its factories share a distinction with American embassies and battleships as terrorist targets? There is another equivalent on the internet: ASCII; the universal standard for transmitting data via email and web sites? A universal standard, it is named after its country of origin- The American Standard Code for Information Interchange.? In American Internet Eryk Salvaggio has rendered "portraits" of Coca Cola cans from different countries in ASCI. Accessed through a central index made up of domain extensions from foreign countries, it is his hope that the portraits will be enjoyed for their aesthetic value and at the same time raise questions about globalization. Eryk Salvaggio has been working with new media since 1997. His current work is driven primarily by the "Six Rules For Internet Art," currently the basis of an online show being organized at the University of Denver in Colorado. These rules created a "back to basics" aesthetic that leaves Salvaggio free to play with the rudimentary building blocks of the World Wide Web in ways that may have gone unexplored as new technologies developed. Since the web was created almost exclusively for combinations of text and image, these are the elements he explores in American Internet and in his other recent works–primarily, the aesthetics of textual presentations of information. Salvaggio?s work on the World Trade Center, "September 11th, 2001" was recently reviewed by Matthew Mirapaul in the New York Times. It can be viewed at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.anatomyofhope.net/wtc/2/8.html">http://www.anatomyofhope.net/wtc/2/8.html</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ Metamute continues with its specially commissioned series of articles. The latest are Stewart Home on Martin Amis, Benedict Seymour on Border Crossing, and Nat Muller in conversation with Palestinian filmmaker Azza El Hassan. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.metamute.com">http://www.metamute.com</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 11.19.02 From: Rachel Jacobs (rachel@active-ingredient.co.uk) Subject: Moon Radio webTV winter season www.moonradio.co.uk A Brave New World of Broadcasting Moon Radio webTV is an Internet broadcast channel with a regular programme of new work by contemporary artists, showing live performance, interactive web work, on demand film, and video and audio video mixing. Exploring the live experience through the ever-expanding world of Internet broadcast. Active Ingredient presents 2 new digital projects for Moon Radio WebTV Moon Radio is launching a new season of work for the winter months beginning this November: The Drop Down Menu By Frank Abbott Online from 6pm, Friday 29th November The Drop Down Menu is a website and a building site. It has assembled a raft of menus about the strange transformations things go through. Words turn into actions ?hairdressers and chopping and slicing devices undertake their own transformations- and menus turn into meals. The Drop Down Menu is itself in a constant state of transformation and you can be part of it. Download the Drop Down font and create your masterpiece, send us a snap of your local hairdresser, mail us a digital effect made out of cardboard boxes or work out why it all started with a word. Online on www.moonradio.co.uk To be a witness to the launch ceremony for Drop Down Menu visit the main bar at Broadway Cinema, 14-18 Broad St, Nottingham between 4-6pm on 29th November. Holiday on Ice by Gareth Howell Sunday 15th December Holiday on Ice is an online ice rink, where you can wrap up warm, lace up those old skates and take to the ice with a host of virtual friends. You can visit Holiday on Ice online at www.broadway.org.uk or www.moonradio.co.uk from December 15th. It will also be projected live in Broadway Café bar, 14-18 Broad St, Nottingham, so no swearing or pushing! Moon Radio webTV is funded by East Midlands Arts, EMMI and EMDA, with support from Broadway + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ David Byrne on northern european Blip Hop music and others in LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL special issue no 12. on PLEASURE. Orders from journals-orders@mit.edu for Table of Contents see <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.leonardo.info/lmj">http://www.leonardo.info/lmj</a>. CD features experimental music from EASTERN EUROPE curated by Christian Scheib and Susanna Niedermayr. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 11.18.02 From: ryan griffis (grifray@yahoo.com) Subject: review of Prema Murthy's _Mythic Hybrid_ a (contextual) review of Prema Murthy's _Mythic Hybrid_ <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/Works/mythichybrid/index.html">http://turbulence.org/Works/mythichybrid/index.html</a> _ Mr. Gates seemed as interested in the quality of the young peoples' lives as in the architecture of their software. He asked Mr. Murthy about how employees got to the campus (by bus and by car, with more cars all the time), where they lived and where they ate. Usually one of the cafeterias, for about 40 cents a meal, he was told. Subsidized?, he asked. No, no subsidies. Oh really?, a surprised Mr. Gates said, quickly calculating that employees could eat for about a dollar a day._ <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/international/asia/14INDI.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/international/asia/14INDI.html</a> Despite the establishment and acceptance of the critique of e-utopianism (superhighways and such), the outcome of this acceptance is maybe not what the critics were looking for. It's starting to sound a lot like Madeleine Albright's acceptance of the gruesome death toll from US enforced sanctions on Iraqi civilians. And it's important to note that critiques of techno-utopianism are pretty much kept in close quarters and don't filter out to mainstream life much anyway. Even acknowledgment of the _digital divide_ rarely goes beyond marketing Microsoft to inner city schools. Just take the above quoted conversation, from a NY Times article, between Bill Gates and Mr. Murphy, the chairman of Infosys Technologies, an Indian software company. Spoken, printed, and read with no cynicism, one can see what's going on without a special decoder ring. This conversation occurred during a (supposedly) dual purpose trip by Gates to: one, present India with 100 million from the Gates Foundation to fight the spread of Aids; two, invest 400 million dollars - on behalf of Microsoft - to fight the spread of Linux. Most (mainstream press) articles on Gates's visit represented it as _mixing philanthropy and business_, not as acting in one-and-the-same interests. ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/technology/13SOFT.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/technology/13SOFT.html</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://hrw.org/press/2002/11/india111302.htm">http://hrw.org/press/2002/11/india111302.htm</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021114/ap_wo_en_po/india">http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021114/ap_wo_en_po/india</a> _microsoft_s_largess_1 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1114/p07s02-wosc.html">http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1114/p07s02-wosc.html</a> ) One must look at the Gates's own words for that: _The humanitarian imperative for action is undeniable. But there are other reasons for the West to be concerned in India's future. With one of the largest scientific and technical work forces in the world, it is also an increasingly important business partner…_( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/opinion/09GATE.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/opinion/09GATE.html</a> ) This turn of events caused me to consider the significance of the recent work of Prema Murthy (partly due to the coinciding name of the Infosys chairman), especially _Mythic Hybrid_. As an artist that has been involved in many activities influential for the networked niche of the art world, like Fakeshop, she has also begun a line of work that challenges the current, ongoing status of networked art from a position in desperate need of more attention. In previous works like _rDNA_, _Mimic_ and especially _BindiGirl_, Murthy generates reevaluations of the utopic/dystopic concept of the cyborg from a gendered, embodied perspective. She states this intention clearly in an interview with Josephine Bosma _When I first started on the internet I was really excited about ideas of democracy and how identity did not matter, gender was not an issue… but the more I saw the same kind of disfunctionalities in society being played out in this virgin territory…_ _Mythic Hybrid_, supported by the Creative Capital and Greenwall Foundations and hosted by Turbulence .org, represents Murthy's personal investigations into the effects of the computer industry on the women who work in microelectronics manufacturing. Here, we are given access to Murthy's recombinant thoughts - combining Haraway's _Cyborg Manifesto_ with the material realities at the other end of high tech labor. Just as _BindiGirl_ ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thing.net/~bindigrl/">http://www.thing.net/~bindigrl/</a> ) conflates the oppressive tendencies of both religion and high tech, fetishized porn, _Mythic Hybrid_ problematizes the liberating potential of the network and universalistic notions of emancipatory hybridity. Murthy represents the problem as one, not just of unequal labor/access between North and South, but as one of oppression based on a gendered and hierarchal concept of a North/South divide. _ The boss tells me not to bring our women's problems with us to work if we want to be treated equal. What does he mean by that? I am working here because of my women's problems - because I am a woman. Working here creates my women's problems._ In _Mythic Hybrid_, we are presented with two small video clips of women at work sandwiching statements made by such women about their work environment. The women?s' statements indicate a high level of awareness and consciousness regarding their positions as exploited labor, as well as how this situation is exacerbated by management because of their gender. Taken during Murthy's 2001 trip to India (I'm guessing), these statements confounded even her expectations, based on reports gathered before hand. As she states: _What I found along the way was contrary to expectations ? a group of sane, rational women with identities constructed by a set of complex social and psychological factors._ An audio accompaniment combines what sounds like promotional tracks for Indian high tech products with the sounds of factory activity. These representations are accessed via a search results page that also gives us links to outside sites with information on women workers, globalization, and other relevant topics. Most of us know that _third world_ economies are greatly subjugated by Western ones, but how often do we think of the relationship between oppressed labor and the products of their labor? What about when that labor is performed by women? What do individual Indian women think about the products they make; what's their relationship to networked technology? Murthy gives us the chance to ask such questions, and hopefully take them even further. While these art works are not exactly what has come to be called _tactical media_, they have a great deal to add to such practices, beyond just being sympathetic. Not long ago, I attempted to interview a member of a tactical media collective about a particular production that combined theoretical and pragmatic skills in order to release repressed sexual desire. My first question was how particular feminist ideas had been incorporated to deal with the (likely) possibility that unleashed sexual desire in the current environment would be equally as, or more, harmful to women (and sexual minorities) as our current repressive state. Critical Art Ensemble has noted that the _return of the repressed_ could just as equally be authoritarian as liberating, but that the oppressed have little to lose. To that I would add that they'd have even less to lose if they're involved in the struggle, an idea Murthy's work seems to give some access to. The very technology we use/criticize, whether information or biological technologies, must also be considered within the notion of the _repressed_. It certainly seems like Bill Gates is aware of the stakes, but it appears the workers imagined in _Mythic Hybrid_ are as well: _Well the bosses think they're pretty clever with their doubletalk, and that we're just a bunch of dumb aliens. But it takes two to use a see-saw. What we're gradually figuring out here is how to use their own logic against them._ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization. If you value this free publication, please consider making a contribution within your means at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/support">http://rhizome.org/support</a>. Checks and money orders may be sent to Rhizome.org, 115 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and are gratefully acknowledged at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/10.php">http://rhizome.org/info/10.php</a>. Our financial statement is available upon request. 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 Rachel Greene (rachel@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 7, number 47. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome Digest, please contact info@rhizome.org. To unsubscribe from this list, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/subscribe">http://rhizome.org/subscribe</a>. Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the Member Agreement available online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/29.php">http://rhizome.org/info/29.php</a>. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +