RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.08.05

discussion

Posted Jan. 7 2005 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.08.05

RHIZOME DIGEST: January 8, 2005 Content: +announcement+ 1. Lev Manovich: Soft Cinema installation at Chelsea Art Museum 2. Rachel Greene: Mongrel launch - 15th Jan 2005 - at the Jelliedeel Shed 3. Mark Marino: Bookchin at UCR 1/12/05 +opportunity+ 4. Pau Waelder: Prix Ars Electronica 2005 is Good to Go! 5. Kevin McGarry: Want to Write for Rhizome.org? 6. miranda@TCNJ.EDU: Adjunct Position, College of New Jersey +work+ 7. Christiane Paul, Jim Andrews, Barbara Lattanzi: artport gatepage January 05: C-SPAN x 4 by Barbara Lattanzi 8. Katie Lips: Calling mobile audio (ringtone) enthusiasts and sound artists +interview+ 9. Kevin McGarry: Database Imaginary: Sarah Cook, Steve Dietz, and Anthony Kiendl interviewed by Kevin McGarry +thread+ 10. Jon Thomson, Alexander Galloway, t.whid, Michael Szpakowski, curt cloninger, ryan griffis, M. River, Rob Myers: BEACON + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 1.04.05 From: Lev Manovich <manovich@jupiter.ucsd.edu> Subject: Soft Cinema installation at Chelsea Art Museum MISSION TO EARTH (Soft Cinema Edition) A Media Installation by Lev Manovich Exhibit In The Project Room @ Chelsea Art Museum, NYC 556 West 22nd Street, @ 11th avenue January 8 26, 2004 The Presentation of a new DVD by Lev Manovich and Andreas Kratky SOFT CINEMA: Navigating The Database (The MIT Press, 2005) Opening and Panel at Chelsea Art Museum SATURDAY January 8, 2:00 - 4:30 PM with: Lev Manovich, associate professor of new media, UCSD Christiane Paul, adjunct new media curator, Whitney Museum of American Art Barbara London, curator, video and digital media, Museum of Modern Art Sue Hubbard, art critic, Independent Newspaper, London Ken Feinstein, artist/professor of experimental video WHERE: The Project Room @ Chelsea Art Museum www.chelseaartmuseum.org What kind of cinema is appropriate for the age of Palm Pilot and Google? Automatic surveillance and self-guided missiles? Consumer profiling and CNN? To investigate answers to this question Lev Manovich has paired with award-winning new media artist and designer Andreas Kratky to create the Soft Cinema project. They have also invited contributions from such other leading cultural figures as DJ Spooky, Scanner, George Lewis and Jóhann Jóhannsson (music), servo (architecture), Schoenerwissen/Office for Computational Design (data visualization), and Ross Cooper Studios (media design). SOFT CINEMA: Navigating the Database is the Soft Cinema project¹s first DVD publication published and distributed by The MIT Press (2005). It presents three ?films¹, including Mission to Earth, that were created within the framework of the project. Although the ?films¹ on the DVD reference the familiar genres of cinema, the process by which they were created and the resulting aesthetics fully belong to the software age. They demonstrate the possibilities of soft(ware) cinema - a 'cinema' in which human subjectivity and the variable choices made by custom software combine to create films that can run infinitely without ever exactly repeating the same image sequences, screen layouts and narratives. MISSION TO EARTH (Soft Cinema edition) is a science fiction allegory of the immigrant experience that adopts the variable choices and multi-frame layout of the Soft Cinema system to represent ?variable identity¹. In this gallery installation the film is being assembled in real-time by the Soft Cinema software from a large database of media elements. While the narrative stays the same and repeats every 23 minutes, all other elements can potentially change. As a result, there is no single ?unique¹ version of the film every run produces a new version. FURTHER INFORMATION Soft Cinema Project: www.softcinema.net Complete text used in Mission to Earth is available at www.softcinema.net/mission_to_earth.htm Chelsea Art Museum: www.chelseaartmuseum.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 1.06.05 From: Rachel Greene <rachel@rhizome.org> Subject: Mongrel launch - 15th Jan 2005 - at the Jelliedeel Shed Begin forwarded message: From: "mary jelly" <mary@jelliedeel.org> Date: January 6, 2005 11:43:11 AM EST To: <mary@jelliedeel.org> Subject: Mongrel launch - 15th Jan 2005 - at the Jelliedeel Shed Mongrel invites you to the informal launch of our new space: ³THE JELLIEDEEL SHED² in sunny Southend-on-Sea, and our first arts project for Southend: ³PHONE-SLAM² 16:00pm to 21:00pm Saturday January 15th, 2005. >From 17:00pm, lend us your ear for: ³Phone-Slam² telephony & trash. ³NetMonster: the BlairBush Project² (Harwood) ³Forever Sailor Moon² (Francesca da Rimini) ³The Container Tapes² (Mervin Jarman) Plus a smorgasbord of traditional estuary sustenance: Jelliedeels, Brixton Patties, McCains Oven Chips, Shandy Bass (no salads or other foreign food) ——————————————- The Jelliedeel Shed Unit 38, Grainger Road Industrial Estate, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, SS2 5DD. T: 01702 460590 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jelliedeel.org">http://www.jelliedeel.org</a> Getting there: Trains from Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria. (15, 24 and 55 minutes past the hour, journey time - one hour). Grainger Road estate is 5 mins walk away turn left from the station, across the B&Q car park and take the right fork at the corner shop, then chuck a left into Grainger Rd. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jelliedeel.org/images/jelliedeel-map.jpg">http://www.jelliedeel.org/images/jelliedeel-map.jpg</a> To reserve a jelliedeel RSVP to: mary@jelliedeel.org ——————————————– "Phone-Slam" is part of the "Being Here" arts initiative. Supported by Arts Council England. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 1.07.05 From: Mark Marino <mmarino@lmu.edu> Subject: Bookchin at UCR 1/12/05 global_interface Mellon Workshop presents: Gravedigging and the Internet - A Proposal for the Future A talk by Natalie Bookchin Co-Director of the Photography and Media Program, CalArts. Time: 12:30 pm-2:30 pm, Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Location: Humanities 1500 In this talk, Natalie Bookchin will examine debates about the life and death of net art, framing it within broader conversations proposing the ends of the avant-garde and of utopia in art, political thought, and early visions of the Internet. Attempting to resurrect some supposedly "dead ideas", this talk will offer a proposal for a speculative social network for the future, where visual artists use the Internet to gain more control of the reception and circulation of their work and ideas. In imagining this network, Bookchin will cull from grassroots strategies used and proposed by net art, alternative music, and blogging independent journalists. Based in L.A., Natalie Bookchin has been creating online projects since 1997. She recently worked with political theorist Jackie Stevens <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://jacquelinestevens.org">http://jacquelinestevens.org</a>> to initiate and develop the first phase of the online project agoraXchange <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://agoraXchange.net">http://agoraXchange.net</a>>, an online collaboration for imagining and building a massive multiplayer online game that offers a tangible political alternative to our current world order. She is known internationally for her online art work, including a project entitled Metapet <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://metapet.net/">http://metapet.net/</a>>, a parody of capitalist productivity in which the player must maximize the profit margin without alienating the Metapet worker. She is a recent recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work is exhibited at institutions world-wide including PS1, Mass MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, KunstWerke, Berlin, the Generali Foundation, Vienna, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Shedhale in Zurich. See these online works by Natalie Bookchin: agoraXchange: (in collaboration with Jackie Stevens) <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://agoraxchange.net">http://agoraxchange.net</a>> Metapet: <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://metapet.net">http://metapet.net</a>> Intruder: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.calarts.edu/~bookchin/intruder">http://www.calarts.edu/~bookchin/intruder</a> Additional Information: Open to: Public Admission: Free Sponsor: UCR Mellon workshops Contact Information: For more information concerning this specific event contact: global_interface@hotmail.com or visit: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://globalinterface.blogspot.com">http://globalinterface.blogspot.com</a> For further details of the Mellon Workshop project contact: mellonworkshop@ucr.edu or visit: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ucrmellonworkshop.ucr.edu">http://www.ucrmellonworkshop.ucr.edu</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Kevin McGarry at Kevin@Rhizome.org or Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 1.04.05 From: Pau Waelder <pau@sicplacitum.com> Subject: Prix Ars Electronica 2005 is Good to Go! World's largest CyberArts competition - Six Golden Nicas and â?¬ 110,000 in prize money - Entries commence January 10th. Creatives across the entire spectrum of media art and technology may begin submitting their work to the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica on January 10th. The categories range from [the next idea] and u19 competitions for young people to the classic Ars Electronica disciplines-Digital Musics, Net Vision, Computer Animation and Interactive Art-all the way to Digital Communities with its programmatic commitment to sociopolitical innovation. The deadline for submissions is March 10, 2005. The Prix Ars Electronica is being held for the 19th time this year. This cyberarts competition is conceived as an open platform for works representing a broad spectrum of disciplines in the digital media field at the interface of art, technology and society. Since 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica is the most important and most successful international showcase of the best of digital media art. >>> Details about the categories are provided on the following pages. To submit an entry and for more information, log on to www.aec.at/prix <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/prix">http://www.aec.at/prix</a>> The Categories COMPUTER ANIMATION / VISUAL EFFECTS <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/de/prix/animation/animation.asp">http://www.aec.at/de/prix/animation/animation.asp</a>> The "Computer Animation / Visual Effects" category has been part of the Prix Ars Electronica since its very inception. It recognizes excellence in independent work in the arts and sciences as well as in high-end commercial productions in the film, advertising and entertainment industries. In this category, artistic originality counts just as much as masterful technical achievement. DIGITAL MUSICS <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/de/prix/musics/musics.asp">http://www.aec.at/de/prix/musics/musics.asp</a>> Contemporary digital sound productions from the broad spectrum of "electronica" come in for consideration in the "Digital Musics" category, as do works combining sound and media, computer compositions ranging from electro-acoustic to experimental music, and sound installations. This category's programmatic agenda is to expand horizons beyond the confines of individual genres and artistic currents. INTERACTIVE ART <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/de/prix/interactive/interactive.asp">http://www.aec.at/de/prix/interactive/interactive.asp</a>> The "Interactive Art" category is dedicated to interactive works in all forms and formats, from installations to performances. Here, particular consideration is given to the realization of a powerful artistic concept through the especially appropriate use of technologies, the innovativeness of the interaction design, and the work's inherent potential to expand the human radius of action. NET VISION <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/de/prix/net/net.asp">http://www.aec.at/de/prix/net/net.asp</a>> The "Net Vision" category singles out for recognition artistic projects in the Internet that display brilliance in how they have been engineered, designed and-especially-conceived, works that are outstanding with respect to innovation, interface design and the originality of their content. The way in which a work of net-based art deals with the online medium is essential in this category. DIGITAL COMMUNITIES For the second time in 2005, Prix Ars Electronica will honor important achievements by digital communities. This category focuses attention on the wide-ranging social impact of the Internet as well as on the latest developments in the fields of social software, mobile communications and wireless networks. "Digital Communities" spotlights bold and inspired innovations impacting human coexistence-efforts to bridge the geographical as well as gender-based digital divide, to create outstanding social software or to enhance the accessibility of technological-social infrastructure. This category showcases the political potential of digital and networked systems and is thus designed as a forum for the consideration of a broad spectrum of projects, programs, initiatives and phenomena in which social innovation is taking place, as it were, in real time. A Golden Nica, two Awards of Distinction and up to 12 Honorary Mentions will be awarded in the Digital Communities category in 2005. [the next idea] <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/de/prix/nextidea/index.asp">http://www.aec.at/de/prix/nextidea/index.asp</a>> Art and Technology Grant The aim of this grant focusing on the mutually enriching interplay of art and technology is to nurture concepts for the future that young thinkers are coming up with today. This category's target group includes students at universities, art schools, polytechnic colleges and other educational institutions, as well as all other interested persons throughout the world between the ages of 19 and 27, who have developed a not-yet-realized concept in the fields of media art, media design or media technology. The winner will receive a â?¬ 7,500 grant and an invitation to spend a semester as scientific assistant and artist-in-residence at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. u19 freestyle computing "u19 freestyle computing" is Austria's foremost computer competition for young people. Helping youngsters to bring their ideas to fruition and exhibit their work, and nurturing their abilities, creativity and inventiveness in working with modern technologies and new media is the mission of Prix Ars Electronica's u19 freestyle computing category. Just as the name "freestyle computing" suggests, the spectrum of potential submissions is broad. And a perusal of the 1,103 entries in 2004 confirms that Austrian young people are giving free rein to their creativity. The list of past winners and recipients of Awards of Distinction and Honorary Mentions also displays great diversity, including groups of kids as well as individuals, primary school pupils and high school grads. The thematically wide-ranging creative encounter of Austrian youth with the kaleidoscope of modern technology is being played out in computer animation, robotics, Web design, interactive games and an array of other fields. Ars Electronica Presseteam: Partner der Medien Press Team: Partner of the Media Pressemeldungen/Pressemappen Press Releases/Press Kits <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/press">http://www.aec.at/press</a> Bilder (300 dpi) Images (300 dpi) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aec.at/pictures">http://www.aec.at/pictures</a> Mag. Wolfgang A. Bednarzek MAS Pressesprecher / Press Officer tel: +43.732.7272-38 mob: +43.664.81 26 156 fax: +43.732.7272-638 <a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:wolfgang.bednarzek@aec.at">mailto:wolfgang.bednarzek@aec.at</a> Mag. Robert Bauernhansl Assistent Pressebetreuung / Assistant Press tel: +43.732.7272-966 fax: +43.732.7272-632 <a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:robert.bauernhansl@aec.at">mailto:robert.bauernhansl@aec.at</a> Ars Electronica Center HauptstraÃ?e 2-4, 4040 Linz, Austria + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 1.05.05 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin@rhizome.org> Subject: Want to Write for Rhizome.org? Ongoing, Rhizome.org calls for new writers and correspondents around the world. If you are interested in writing for Net Art News or reporting on international new media arts events for Rhizome, please send an email to kevin@rhizome.org with the subject line intact and with the following information: (Note: currently all editorials commissioned by Rhizome are written in English. Please don't be discouraged if English is not your first language: if you can clearly communicate your ideas and observations, that is what we are looking for.) – Name: Email: Location: Note if you live/work in multiple countries or frequently/easily travel to a certain place. Background and special interests: Briefly describe your experience and familiarity with new media art. Rhizome encourages perspectives from all kinds of practitioners, whether you've been involved with net art for years (artist, programmer, curator, writer? . . .), or have recently encountered the work and ideas discussed here via any other discipline/s (film/video, activism, poetry, performance, education? . . .). Writing sample: Please paste below, or link to, 2 writing samples. Ideally, please submit one shorter sample (150-300 words) and one that is longer (1000+ words). Topics should be relevant to art/technology/culture. No attachments please. – Distribute this message freely–thank you, Kevin Kevin McGarry Content Coordinator, Rhizome.org Editor, Net Art News New Museum of Contemporary Art 210 11th Ave 2nd Fl. New York, NY 10001 tel 212 219 1288 x220 fax 212 431 5328 ema kevin@rhizome.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 1.07.05 From: <miranda@TCNJ.EDU> Subject: Adjunct Position, College of New Jersey The Art Department at the College of New Jersey, located in Ewing, NJ (driving about 40 minutes from Philadelphia and an hour and half from NYC - public transporation available) is seeking an adjunct professor to teach an introductory course in interactive design using either Flash or Director. The course is titled "Experiencing Art" this is a non-art major course in which students take three week workshops in Sculpture, Print, Drawing, Computer Graphics and Interactive Design. The course merely attempts to give non art majors an overview of the various forms of art making. In the past, the Interactive module has been presented using Macromedia Director to present fundamental concepts in building interactive computer applications. The students in the class are divided into groups of 15 and rotate through the semester from one module to the next. The course meets Thursday mornings from 8:30am to 11:30am, the pay is $2835 for the semester, beginning Thursday January 20th through Thursday May5th. The class is taught in the Macintosh environment with the latest version of computer graphics software. TCNJ Art Department Site: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tcnj.edu/~artmain/index.php">http://www.tcnj.edu/~artmain/index.php</a> TCNJ academic calendar: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tcnj.edu/%7Eacademic/calendars/cal2004.html">http://www.tcnj.edu/%7Eacademic/calendars/cal2004.html</a> If you qualify and are interested please contact Ricardo Miranda at miranda@tcnj.edu or call 917 748-9975. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome Member-curated Exhibits <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/member-curated/">http://rhizome.org/art/member-curated/</a> View online exhibits Rhizome members have curated from works in the ArtBase, or learn how to create your own exhibit. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 1.05.05 - 1.06.05 From: <Christiane_Paul@whitney.org>, Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com>, Barbara Lattanzi <threads@wildernesspuppets.net> Subject: artport gatepage January 05: C-SPAN x 4 by Barbara Lattanzi <Christiane_Paul@whitney.org> posted: artport gatepage January 05 features C-SPAN x 4 by Barbara Lattanzi <a rel="nofollow" href="http://artport.whitney.org">http://artport.whitney.org</a> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://artport.whitney.org/">http://artport.whitney.org/</a>> Barbara Lattanzi's C-SPAN x 4 consists of 4 different variations on video clips of current news made available by the C-SPAN Network: · The Interrupting Annotator (allowing users to collaboratively annotate C-Span videos and store and reinsert the comments for subsequent viewers); · C-SPAN Alphaville (which plays the videos with subtitles excerpted from the English version of Jean-Luc Godard's film Alphaville); · C-SPAN Karaoke (which invites you to sing along with the news to tunes such as "It's A Wonderful World"); · In Lieu of Standing on Yer Head (which highlights the idea of political spin by literally turning the news upside down). The strategy of "annotating" the original news clips without changing their contents provides an interesting play with context: through its interventions, C-SPAN x 4 highlights the interplay of text, sound, and image in the construction and change of meaning. Results range from the humorous to the disturbing and cynical. + + + Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com> replied: Hi Barbara, Could you tell me a little about the differences between the web versions and the downloadable versions of this work? Have you selected particular video clips, or do the apps search certain locations for video clips and work with whatever they find? If the latter, how did you arrive at the texts? It's interesting to think of that, erm, cross-product, ie, consider a video * text work where the videos are selected randomly from an unknown pool of videos (though they are all, in this case, concerned with politics) and the texts are drawn somewhat randomly from a pool of pre-composed texts by the author. Annotated video, yes, but also possibly a literary work. This work of yours is quite strong in the possibilities it suggests and its meditation on video and political process. + + + Barbara Lattanzi <threads@wildernesspuppets.net> replied: Hi Jim. thanks for the questions about the project "C-SPAN x 4", and the opportunity to comment on the political content (toward the end of this email). First, just a quick note that the software, including the web versions, are only for Windows PC. (I just clarified this on the web versions today, Jan.6. Some Mac users visiting it yesterday may have tried it and been confused.) Anyone, using either Mac or Windows, should be able to view the Quicktime-format video demos: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://artport.whitney.org">http://artport.whitney.org</a> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://artport.whitney.org/">http://artport.whitney.org/</a>> At 01:42 AM 1/6/2005, you wrote: Could you tell me a little about the differences between the web versions and the downloadable versions of this work? The web browser versions and the downloadable software versions are exactly the same. The minor exception is that, in rare cases, some Mac users with an _older_ version of the Real Video media player may be able to experience the web browser versions of CSPAN x 4. This has to do with a boring technicality. The Mac technical limitation is likely never to be fixed by Macromedia. That limitation prohibits use of Director and Shockwave in conjunction with the newer versions of the Real Video media player, Like they say, "It was nice while it lasted." Have you selected particular video clips, or do the apps search certain locations for video clips and work with whatever they find? There is no filter for "The Interrupting Annotator", one of 4 software applications that make up "CSPAN x 4". A perl script simply goes to the front page of the CSPAN.org website and adds any new video titles to an ongoing, cumulative list of CSPAN titles stored on my website, which then appears as a selectable list for the person using the software. C-SPAN x 4 has an additional 3 software applications. Unlike "The Interrupting Annotator", these other 3 softwares are satirical works. I realized, at the time the Tsunami tragedy occurred, that some sort of filter was needed. I do not want all CSPAN videos to be available to "CSPAN Karaoke", "CSPAN Alphaville", and "In Lieu of Standing on Yer Head". Instead, these 3 softwares receive a filtered list of video titles from the CSPAN website, i.e., the filtered list includes all the staid and proper CSPAN video documents of public policy-making that have become a window onto the corporate and fundamentalist slow-motion hijacking of the US government. If the latter, how did you arrive at the texts? As just described, 3 of the 4 softwares receive a slightly filtered list of CSPAN videos more appropriate to the satirical content of the overlaid texts. The selection of the texts - Alphaville subtitles ("CSPAN Alphaville"), 1970s pop songs ("CSPAN Karaoke") - were based on the possibility of being understood as ironic framing of the CSPAN videos. Since the video titles are constantly being added to, the texts had to be broad enough to "apply" to any of the public policy-making videos. It's interesting to think of that, erm, cross-product, ie, consider a video * text work where the videos are selected randomly from an unknown pool of videos (though they are all, in this case, concerned with politics) and the texts are drawn somewhat randomly from a pool of pre-composed texts by the author. Annotated video, yes, but also possibly a literary work. The CSPAN website is one of the few news-based websites where it is easy to access streaming video in this way. I have been looking into a military news website that uses Flash videos that seem impossible to effectively embed in another frame. And I have never tried those strange "passports" to access CNN streams, etc. There is more research to do in this area of reframing news streams (or video streams with other content). In regard to the potential for text works. I do think that one of the CSPAN x 4 components, "The Interrupting Annotator", could be a useful tool for writing experiments, or for teaching writing as, I think, Alan Sondheim suggested to me. In fact the original prototype for this software used several "seed" texts, one of which was a text written by Alan that he had posted to the Syndicate discussion list. This work of yours is quite strong in the possibilities it suggests and its meditation on video and political process. Its meditation includes a question like "what would it look like to have a kind of video channel that turns everything upside down?". Then realizing it is a not-so-bad distancing strategy for political spin - maybe giving you a bit of mental space for making historical or other associations as you grapple with current events. Or, "what would it be like to watch public policymaking in a convivial anarchic way with friends". And realize that karaoke is a genre retroactively made (at least in my imaginary universe) to ironically enliven the viewing and consideration of public policymaking. I am waiting for CSPAN Karaoke bars to appear - akin to neighborhood sports bars, or to bars where labor union organizing used to be done. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 1.07.05 From: Katie Lips <katie@kisky.co.uk> Subject: Calling mobile audio (ringtone) enthusiasts and sound artists New Digital Art project for creating, converting and sharing original mobile audio…. Use Freeloader to crete your own mobile audio art! Freeloader is a DIY ringtone creation and distribution environment. Â It is a commission by UK based FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) and created by Kisky Netmedia. It allows users to input MP3, MIDI and WAV files and turn them into original ringtone content. The web application converts audio into ringtones suitable for over 350 phones allowing for playback of experimental work for a wide user group. The project is set to develop its content in 2005 through pupils projects, artist lead workshops, and through input from remote users - anyone who wishes to experiment with their own mobile content. If you are a sound artist, musician, composer, or mobile tone enthusiast, or just want a new original ringtone you may like to have a go at making your own tones using Freeloader. All submitted content should be original and copyright free and will be shared with the Freeloader community growing this resource of user-generated content. Freeloader was developed as part of FACT's Stream and Shout Project.   For more information visit: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://freeloader.fact.co.uk">http://freeloader.fact.co.uk</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 9. Date: 1.08.05 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin@rhizome.org> Subject: Database Imaginary: Sarah Cook, Steve Dietz, and Anthony Kiendl interviewed by Kevin McGarry ** DATABASE IMAGINARY at The Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre ** Sarah Cook, Steve Dietz, and Anthony Kiendl interviewed by Kevin McGarry Kevin: While Sarah and I were setting up this interview, she mentioned that Anthony conceived of ³Database Imaginary² about 4 years ago. Anthony, what were the observations that sparked the premise for the exhibition? Anthony: There were a number of factors that led to the premise for this exhibition. If I narrowed it down to two main factors, they would be context and reading. The context was working at the Dunlop Art Gallery where I was Curator until 2002. The Dunlop Art Gallery is a rare thing, a public art gallery located in a library, the Regina Public Library (Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, a province in the middle of Canada). Several galleries still exist in libraries in Canada, but I think the Dunlop is the only one that has the same Board as the library, and actually functions as a department of the library with the same goals and mandate: access to information, visual literacy and so on. As you can imagine, as Curator I was a library manager, and part of the conversations of the library and its staff. Technologies and databases were of course part of the daily conversations and planning of the library. I really don¹t think this exhibition would come about had I been working in an autonomous art gallery, or a gallery in a different context. It was a remarkable experience, and I think, an unparalleled way to look at the presentation of art as visual information, as a public service, and as a right of citizens. This may sound a little tangential here, but I think it is ultimately reflected in the work we chose for this exhibition. Rather than simply being a database, the art in this exhibition often has an approach relevant to social or personal agency and more broadly social context. As for the second factor, reading, it was through reading Lev Manovich¹s writing on databases that I thought of trying to make an exhibition on this theme. Without his work I don¹t think this exhibition would have happened. I¹m so glad his work is part of the exhibition, and his writing will be re-printed in the catalogue. Actually, he came up with the term ³database imaginary² at Sarah¹s colloquium at BALTIC in England. To see if this exhibition idea was compelling to others, and to further elaborate what it actually could be, I invited a group of curators and writers to a brainstorming meeting in Regina. I knew Sarah had worked in a library previously and I was familiar with her curatorial work, so her involvement seemed natural. I had admired Steve Dietz¹s work prior to meeting him on this project, and his knowledge of new media and previous interest in the topic were invaluable. Laura U. Marks had written some interesting and distinct things on new media and I wanted to ensure a feminist perspective, so she came. Sheila Petty at the University of Regina was also invited and brought a film and media studies perspective, as well as several previous projects on race and identity which also related to our interest in agency. Kevin: Sarah and Steve, how did each of you come on board the project, and how has the concept evolved over time? I notice that more than half of the projects in the exhibition were only created over the last 4 years. Did the roster grow gradually, or were most of the selections made at a particular point in the process? Steve: As Anthony mentioned, we were part of a larger group of curators and theorists invited to the Bitmaps thinktank in 2001. Over time specific works changed considerably, but I think from the very beginning we were not very interested in databases as a ³medium² but always in its social implications and imaginative possibilities. The other interesting vector was a lot of discussion about how to present the show. We¹ve ended up with a wide variety of modes, from performance to interactive to cinematic to sculpture to prints to net-based works. I¹m personally very excited about this. Sarah: Working collaboratively in three different countries and three different time zones meant that we had to keep trying to all get around the same table to discuss works that were important to us and to our individual and collective notions of the show. We talked on the phone or by email all the time but actually managed to have two very productive research meetings together with artists, one in Banff as part of Anthony¹s ³Obsession, Compulsion, Collection² curatorial symposium and one in the UK at BALTIC, where I am based, as part of a symposium on ³data-based art² that I organized to conclude Lev Manovich¹s residency there. From my perspective at times the actual checklist of works seemed to split along national lines with Anthony holding to Canadian works and me to UK ones in other cases along chronological lines with Steve bringing to the table newer projects or recent updates of existing works and Anthony and I mining the earlier histories of technology. Steve: From my perspective the process of selection was more attenuated, with these nodal moments of discussion, and in retrospect seems not as important as the ideas we batted about. Sarah: I agree. We¹ve always hoped that as the show tours, the checklist could change to include other older works that weren¹t available in November [2004], or newer works, or other projects that relate to the conditions of the exhibiting venue. Kevin: The notion of the Imaginary is integral to the exhibition, of course, in terms of its title and the creative scenarios the artists find for applying their databases. I¹ve noticed in some cases that when probing the database a transubstantiation occurs from factual to felt; quantitative information returns a result that is Imagined and poetic in form. I¹m talking about one of the interfaces offered by Lisa Jevbratt¹s ³1:1², which visualizes her database of all IP addresses on one webpage, or how Cory Arcangel¹s ³Data Diaries² produces audiovisual content from a bitstream forced into Quicktime. Particularly, I am struck by Graham Harwood¹s ³Lungs², which combines statistics about a given population, ranging from life-expectancy to lung capacity, to calculate a symbolic volume of air that could be expelled to perform a singular scream of X seconds long. Deriving a scream from rational information is beautiful. Can you talk more about your notion of the Imaginary and how it relates to the works you selected? Sarah: In some ways thinking about the imaginary was a way to get at artworks that distanced the notion of a database from the idea of a computer it wasn¹t enough to include just any work that used a database, it seemed more important to choose works that pointed out the kind of idea that wouldn¹t be there were it not for their specific use of the database imagining combinations of data the database hadn¹t accounted for. There¹s a longer history in art of the imagination than of the database and it felt like something familiar or reassuring to hold on to as we navigated the seas of information in search of projects like Graham Harwood/Mongrel¹s ³Lungs². Steve: I agree especially with the part about the ³longer history.² We were interested in evoking the idea that ³database thinking² existed before databases; for example Helguera¹s piece based on Camillo¹s memory theater. And now that databases have become instantiated in nearly every aspect of contemporary culture, I think it¹s important for artists like Harwood to recuperate what this mass of numbers might mean in lived experience or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, to get a certain sense of the sublime, which I think you do with Jevbratt¹s work. Anthony: The idea for the exhibition is somewhat polemical, in proposing that databases are a cultural form. Outside of new media circles, this still may be a contentious or even shocking notion. So part of selecting these works was to actually build an environment in the gallery where this imaginary could be realized. We often talked about the exhibition itself, as a whole, being a walk in database. Not to mention, it really is hard to imagine or visualize a database on the level of a singular piece of art, perhaps more so than as a relational structure. This is despite the fact that databases are ubiquitous. So we were trying to imagine several things ourselves. Kevin: You write in the press release that the works in this show ³deploy databases in imaginative ways to comment on everyday life in the 21st Century.² I think your selections succeed in doing this, particularly by how they reflect the incremental assimilation of digital culture into everyday life. The works narrate the chronological progression of new ideas and concerns thought and felt by artists about everyday lives changing from new technologies. This is evident in a work made around the time of the Internet¹s popular arrival, Natalie Bookchin¹s ³Databank of the Everyday² (1996), which engaged the then new possibility of creating a database to account completely for the artist¹s identity. It reclaimed the form of the database as literary, rather than utilitarian, and the project became in her words, an autobiography. Bookchin describes it as an ³ultimate databank, one with no conceivable limits: the databank of Life Itself² it sounds like something from Borges, and I think it functions as that same kind of conceptual illustration. A lot of my thoughts about this exhibition are about the differences between the artworks that function as conceptual illustrations and those that function as tools that users can implement in order to gain knowledge or to produce experience. Heath Bunting and Kayle Brandon¹s ³The Status Project,² among others, is one work that I believe functions in both ways. How do the works in this show function when they produce the most salient commentary on everyday life? Sarah: I think you may have answered the question yourself I think it is in the incremental. I don¹t think people give databases much thought until they awkwardly bump into one recently I went to the video store to rent a dvd and because I hadn¹t rented one from them in over 6 months they¹d deleted my account from their database, although I had a valid card in my wallet. With some of the works in the show your recognition of the database and its place in your everyday life emerges in a similar way, but with a greater, more serious impact ? a little chink of light is let in to your picture of your place in the world and then it¹s blown open. You hand your drivers liscence over to Swipe to get your drink at the opening night reception and they hand you back a receipt printed with all the data they have mined from the simple bits of discrete information stored in the barcode on your drivers liscence. Steve: So much of our understanding of art is time-based not just the art. So a work like Haacke¹s ³Visitors Survey², which was compiled by computer in real time in Milwaukee had a whole other level of fascination beyond its content that is completely unremarkable now the technology. I would like to think that all of the works in Database Imaginary will hold up similarly well once the technologies they deploy become equally quotidian. Kevin: Do you believe that the use value intrinsic to traditional databases is essential to databases that are created as art, or can these databases fully subsist as conceptual? Sarah: They can subsist as conceptual projects in my mind. Databases are empty until someone fills them. Steve: I agree. In a way, it¹s almost harder to create a useful database that¹s also conceptual rather than a solely conceptual project. Muntadas¹s ³File Room² is different than the American Civil Liberties Union¹s database because of its open source nature, because of its theatrical installation, because of its acceptance of the limits of knowledge and the possibility of false information. But these very factors also make it of potential use to a wider or at least different audience than the ACLU¹s. Anthony: Thankfully, use value is not essential to a database created as art. However, it is interesting to see how that use value may be re-directed to pursue diverse ends, especially in this exhibition, those related to acts of social agency and identity. Also, it may be that use value and concept are not mutually exclusive, or even difficult to separate. Kevin: Many of these projects thrive on unnaturally capturing a complete, finite set of data, or imposing the comprehensive structure of a database on subjects that are not rationally quantifiable. As with Agnes Hegedüs¹ ³Things Spoken²(1999) or David Rokeby¹s ³The Giver of Names² (1997), applying rigidity to subjective or personal materials produces, I think, feelings toward fantasy and infinity. For the works in ³Database Imaginary², it¹s complicated to consider how they are embodied as objects, because one of their distinguishing qualities is their ability to simultaneously manifest as finite and infinite. When new media works are presented in an exhibition, an important consideration is how they are construed as art objects. How does a network of data and behaviours amount to a singular object? What are your thoughts on objecthood and the works in this exhibition? Sarah: I¹d disagree that Rokeby¹s piece ?applies rigidity.¹ It uses a database to show just how subjective data-sets can be. But yes, it does simultaneously manifest the finite and infinite, but I suppose that could almost be said of all ?tangible¹ artworks. The question on objecthood is a good one (it¹s one we debated on the CRUMB list in November as the exhibition opened). We were careful to chose works that we thought would engender a great viewing experience for the visitor to the gallery this would be a different show were it not in a contemplative gallery space, contained within four walls and the average visitor¹s time allocation for engaging with a work. Steve: Another way to look at the two projects you mention is that they examine ways that discrete data that can be sequenced in a potentially infinite number of ways can also tell a story. A lot of the works in the show grapple with this issue from ³Unmovie² to ³Template Cinema², and I think it is a central issue of our time. How do we make sense of all this data? We certainly can¹t package it into a single master narrative. Open-ended and imaginative ³sense-making² is a critical function of much great art, I would argue. Anthony: Those are very interesting questions, because those are for me fundamental preoccupations of this exhibition, and it is complicated. Those questions hang in the air as I walk through the gallery. What are our thoughts on the objecthood and the works in this exhibition? At some level, it is a question asked of all the works in the exhibition, and I suppose one that is answered slightly differently in each piece. There are certainly a number of works that are performative, transient and relational, and therefore I think less object-oriented. I¹m thinking of Swipe for example (although it came in the biggest crates). One of the questions we asked when considering works, one of the guidelines to consider, was how open-ended and transformative the database was. This seemed to distinguish database works from the plethora of ³archive² works, and a number of archive exhibitions such as ³Deep Storage² (at P.S.1). Databases seem to lend themselves to an ongoing transformation by multiple users, whereas archives tend to be more collection oriented in the traditional sense, and perhaps more rigid. Changing an archive, or a museum-style collection seems more precious and controlled than a database. So in that way, the content of the database is contrary to the idea of a singular object. Databases are multiple and mutable, and combining them creates yet another ³object.² Kevin: A debated problem with digital art is that formal aspects of the works often need to be explained to viewers in order to be understood or made meaningful. The workings of a database seem to circumvent this problem it¹s an open book, viewers see the parts contained within and cipher or contribute to the guts themselves to arrive at the art experience and to ³complete² the artwork, as cited from Haacke in your notes. It seems that the structure of the database is ideal for presenting ideas that are less evident in other digital forms. Would you agree? Steve: Of course, many databases are also black boxes. Do we really know how the databases behind ³The Giver of Names² or ³Unmovie² or ³Soft Cinema² are being queried to create their output? I think that understanding the specific algorithms and data structures of a particular work may be less important that giving people permission to enjoy the experience of something they don¹t fully understand. This is often a difficult proposition, especially in a culture like the United States, where I am from, where there appears to be much greater value placed on unequivocalness, even if it is patently false. Kevin: What do you think of Wikipedia? Could it be considered a database? Maybe an anti-database? Its function is similar: to collect information and enable it for retrieval and distribution. However, an entry on Wikipedia is edited by a network of users who distill the most important information an discard the rest. I don¹t think the ideal database would discard anything. Whereas networks of trust and shared accountability power new information technologies, like wikis and de.icio.us, the model of the database has always removed accountability from its producers. Since a database endeavors to organize a comprehensive set of facts, the integrity of its determinations is not subject to bias the producers of a database simply include everything and omit nothing. I would argue that the producers of a traditional database are not accountable for its determinations, only for the consistency of how its contents are indexed. Though a wiki is surely subject to editorial bias, it could offer a new model for a database that also integrates shared accountability. A wiki is also much more concise than a traditional database, and given the overload of information today and endemic data burn out, could the traditional model of the database be or be becoming outmoded? What are your thoughts on the historical trajectories, into the past and into the future, of databases and their creative applications? Sarah: I love the wikipedia and a big part, for me, of working on the show was founding the Faculty of Taxonomy within the University of Openess a wiki-based organization for socializing research in our case, our joint research into the naming and classification systems that structure knowledge. I think one of the biggest challenges in thinking about these artworks in relation to known and possible future manifestations of the database form is the way in which they question on whose authority the structuring systems of classification are established. This then has an impact on how public and private knowledge is reconciled. I¹ve been thinking about this as regards the difference between networked or relational databases and hierarchical ones. The latter seems to imply authorship or editorial bias, whereas the former is geared to get along with others so has to be more open. Steve: You¹ve packed a lot of questions into your last question, and many of them are at the heart of our show. In general, I would say that like perspective, the database is here to stay. That said, there is nothing intrinsic about a database, nor is there anything natural or neutral. Every database is a set of choices, and these choices have consequences. As Denis Wood, the geographer, says about maps: ³Maps serve interests.² The same is true of databases. We should never forget this. But sometimes those interests can be revealed; sometimes those interests can be ³ours²; sometimes those interests can be imagined differently. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://databaseimaginary.banff.org">http://databaseimaginary.banff.org</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 10. Date: 1.05.05 - 1.07.05 From: Jon Thomson <j.thomson@ucl.ac.uk>, Alexander Galloway <galloway@nyu.edu>, "t.whid" <twhid@twhid.com>, Michael Szpakowski <szpako@yahoo.com>, curt cloninger <curt@lab404.com>, ryan griffis <grifray@yahoo.com>, "M. River" <mriver102@yahoo.com>, Rob Myers <robmyers@mac.com> Subject: BEACON Jon Thomson <j.thomson@ucl.ac.uk> posted: BEACON. A new on-line artwork by Thomson & Craighead, 2005. At 00.00hrs on January 1st 2005 an automated beacon began broadcasting on the web at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.automatedbeacon.net">http://www.automatedbeacon.net</a> The beacon continuously relays selected live web searches as they are being made around the world, presenting them back in series and at regular intervals. The beacon has been instigated to act as a silent witness: a feedback loop providing a global snapshot of ourselves to ourselves in real-time. As resources become available, ?Beacon¹ will also begin broadcasting an audio version of this signal across the web and as a series of short wave radio broadcasts and FM local area broadcasts time and places to be confirmed. A physical display system is also being developed for installation in public spaces, galleries &c. Please make any enquiries to: info@automatedbeacon.net best wishes, Jon & Alison + + + Alexander Galloway <galloway@nyu.edu> replied: There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random search strings, here are some: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.metaspy.com/">http://www.metaspy.com/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html">http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wordtracker.com">http://www.wordtracker.com</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/jeevesiq.html">http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/jeevesiq.html</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://50.lycos.com/">http://50.lycos.com/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://buzz.yahoo.com/">http://buzz.yahoo.com/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://search.store.yahoo.com/OT">http://search.store.yahoo.com/OT</a>? How does Beacon differ from these other sites? more specifically, what makes it an artwork? + + + "t.whid" <twhid@twhid.com> replied: Hi all, An oldie but a goodie that seems relevant: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/google_netartmasterpiece.html">http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/google_netartmasterpiece.html</a> submitted in the spirit of discussion. + + + Michael Szpakowski <szpako@yahoo.com> Curious to find myself defending, if this is the right term, a piece like this, which ordinarily would not be at all to my taste . It's the massively concentrated *calling attention to* the linguistic content of the search strings which are here denuded of their original context - assisted by the rather splendidly austere design of the page- which does it for me. The outcome is genuinely poetic and moving , it seems to me, and thank god, irreducible to an artist statement or simple explanation - its something to do with zeitgeist, yes; also something to do with an enormous sense of multitude but also something to do with a linguistic pleasure akin to me to that I derive from the work of Alan Sondheim, for example. And that pleasure isn't simply ,abstractly, linguistic but also refers very directly to the world out there in a sort of updated automatic writing -but rather than the outpourings of a single unconscious, we have access to almost literally a *collective* unconcious. On the whole I'm bored rigid by *good-ideaism*, by the artistic one liner, which has struck me as a particularly lazy form of aspiring to art ( I hated, for example, Data Diaries) - but there's no point arguing when something hits you in the viscera. I'm also generally rather more predisposed in favour of stuff involving perhaps a little more craft ( although there's clearly real care and thought here -reminds me of MTAA in that respect) -but sometimes, as we all know, it just happens. It does here. michael + + + Michael Szpakowski <szpako@yahoo.com> added: <An oldie but a goodie that seems relevant: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/google_netartmasterpiece.html">http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/google_netartmasterpiece.html</a> submitted in the spirit of discussion.> Indeed. This is very interesting -I'd read it on the list & forgotten I had. SO the T&C piece is clearly even more zetigeisty than it felt. The bottom line seems to me though, "artistic intention", which I would maintain is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for art. Not that I don't think the Google display (or the things on Alex Galloway's list) couldn't be an object of *aesthetic* contemplation & pleasure, as indeed can the sunset or thick grey clouds over the Derbyshire moors on a winter's afternoon, without involving human artistic intervention. But art ( as opposed to simply an aesthetic sense) is a *human_activity* or it's nothing, even if this activity is simply a "framing" or conceptualisation - of course then we can argue about the value of each specific piece. ( of course one could argue that the act of contemplation of nature or Google is similar to the above last.. I think this is pushing it a bit however then I think of snow viewing ceremonies &c and the line does seem very blurred.. maybe we just have to have a kind of Wittgensteinian approach to the thing.. and the dynamic nature of human history and thought means inevitably perhaps that *static* definitions are doomed or at least partial, hence the importance of this sort of discussion..) I *do* like this Beacon piece more each time I look at it - and Thomson and Craighead get points for plucking the idea from the zeitgeist and realizing it, I think. michael + + + curt cloninger <curt@lab404.com> replied: As long as we're on the subject, Why is this art: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/search/">http://www.nomemory.org/search/</a> but not this?: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://google.com">http://google.com</a> Perhaps a more pertinent question – is it good/interesting art? Taking an already existing commercial technology, baldfacedly replicating its exact functionality, and then merely couching it in conceptual para-art text, that seems very 1996. One could argue that by *not* modifying the commercial functionality at all, the artist is focusing on the ordinary and foregrounding implicit and profound aspects that may have initially been overlooked. Perhaps in some instances. But honestly, who hasn't done a google search of their own name and mulled over the implications? Jodi.org was answering interview questions with links to google searches of "aaaaaaaaaaaa" back in 199x. Who hasn't already visited metaspy.com and immediately grasped the noospherical implications? For my "search engine art" money, I prefer projects that start with live search feeds but are much more provocatively implemented – the conecpt is integrated into the functionality of the remix; it's not just some conceptual text tacked on. cf: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://deepyoung.org/current/parse/">http://deepyoung.org/current/parse/</a> (particularly gogolchat and prototype #38) [In all fairness, the FM local broadcast aspect of the "beacon" project does reconfigure the tech enough to be interesting to me. But as T. Whid pointed out, the public display aspect has already been done, by Google themselves in the recepetion area of their own corporate offices.] As long as we're on the subject of "search engine art," check google's beta "suggest" function here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1">http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1</a> (details here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html">http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html</a> ) That thing is cool in and of itself already. But it's a commercial product and not "art," so it's still fair game for some wiley net artist to put a new html interface on it and then write some artist statement lamenting how contemporary mindspace is more focused on "SHArper image" than "SHAkespeare." Personally, I'd rather just read an insightful essay on the matter. + + + ryan griffis <grifray@yahoo.com> replied: > [In all fairness, the FM local broadcast aspect of the "beacon" > project does reconfigure the tech enough to be interesting to me. But > as T. Whid pointed out, the public display aspect has already been > done, by Google themselves in the recepetion area of their own > corporate offices.] agree on curt's perspective comments relating to "search art". Natalie Jeremijenko did a project for the Xerox PARC residency (i think it was her at XP anyway) that used real time stock quotes to control the flow of water in a fountain, or something like that. What JS Brown called "using peripheral vision" in his futurist-corporate speak. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://cat.nyu.edu/natalie/projectdatabase/">http://cat.nyu.edu/natalie/projectdatabase/</a> + + + M. River <mriver102@yahoo.com> replied: On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:14 AM, P.Erl wrote: > There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random > search strings. You know what would be very cool? If you made a search engine which only yields results about a child star from 80sâ?? American television who types his diary into a computer (early blog?) in each episode. If only someone would make a search engine like that…if only… + + + Rob Myers <robmyers@mac.com> replied: On Thursday, January 06, 2005, at 01:59PM, M. River <mriver102@yahoo.com> wrote: >> On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:14 AM, P.Erl wrote: >> >> > There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random >> > search strings. > >You know what would be very cool? If you made a search engine which only yields results about a child star from 80s??? American television who types his diary into a computer (early blog?) in each episode. If only someone would make a search engine like that…if only… Which show was that? Hmmm. A history of computer diarists would illuminate the current debate around blogging. Does Ada lovelace count, or do you have to have written your diary on a computer rather than about a computer in your diary? What you *really* want is a meta-search engine that only searches art project search engines. Or failing that, payment from Google for all the cultural assimilation these projects do for them. ;-) + + + Alexander Galloway <galloway@nyu.edu> replied: interesting reply from jon thomson below (forwarded to raw on his request)…. > From: Jon Thomson <j.thomson@ucl.ac.uk> > […] Some of the things mentioned here by Michael were in our minds when > conceiving this work, particularly our desire to contextualise the > search criteria poetically and also to examine the poetic nature of > the terms themselves -as a kind of real-time lament or echo actually. > > And as alex says it's part of a whole host of stuff artists have been > doing with search engine data -us also in previous work of our own. > As artists we're not particularly interested in technical novelty, nor > do we see it as off-limits to further explore the nature of this kind > of data just because others have already made things that use search > engine data flow. > > In more than a few cases, Contemporary Art can suffer from > novelty-lust. Maybe it's some hangover from the Avant Garde? Anyway, > we would like to think that we are simply contributing to a > conversation that's ongoing in this nook of the Contemporary Art > canon. Just as Philosophy seems to extend and extend one long > conversation, we see contemporary art functioning in the same kind of > way. We don't see art works taken individually as necessarily > insular, and in the case of our own art much of it is in dialogue with > Art History at some level, while configuration is of paramount > importance to us. > > In our minds, 'Beacon' is both landscape and portrait, and it's the > kind of convergent simultaneous nature of the gesture that interests > us. > > best wishes, > > Jon & Alison + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 10, number 2. 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>. Please invite your friends to visit Rhizome.org on Fridays, when the site is open to members and non-members alike. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +