RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.16.02

discussion

Posted Aug. 15 2002 20:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.16.02

RHIZOME DIGEST: August 16, 2002 Content: +opportunity+ 1. Mark Segal: SCAN Director +work+ 2. joan escofet: review - a new cultural movement? 3. ARCANGEL: infomera.net - enconstruccion.org VS no-content.net 4. intima: MomEnt.16: Orgasmus im Berlin +announcement+ 5. maria rita Silvestri: Bananaram Italian Net.Art Festival +interview+ 6. cory arcangel: Low Level All Stars – Jan Lund Thomsen / Triangle + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 8.13.02 From: Mark Segal (mark.segal@artsway.org.uk) Subject: SCAN Director SCAN Director £25,000 pa (please see email address for response below - please do not reply to this email)) SCAN is seeking a dynamic and organised individual to establish and develop the network as the major resource/catalyst for production, distribution and presentation of digital arts across the South. Deadline for applications: 2 September 2002 Interviews will be held on 16 September 2002 SCAN: the consortium for digital arts development in the South of England supported by the Regional Arts Lottery Programme through Southern & South East Arts. For application info please send an A4 SAE to: Joanne Bushnell, Chair SCAN, c/o Aspex Gallery 27 Brougham Road, Portsmouth, PO5 4PA Email: jo@aspex.org.uk (NOTE: email enquires will elicit an email response only with attachments. For paper applications please send an SAE) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ **MUTE MAGAZINE NO. 24 OUT NOW** 'Knocking Holes in Fortress Europe', Florian Schneider on no-border activism in the EU; Brian Holmes on resistance to networked individualism; Alvaro de los Angeles on e-Valencia.org and Andrew Goffey on the politics of immunology. More @ <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.metamute.com/">http://www.metamute.com/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 8.14.02 From: joan escofet (grasp@straddle3.net) Subject: review- a new cultural movement? during august and september, in a biweekly basis, context weblog will consist in a review of prior published data – filtered headlines, blogs and series – the goal of this re-presentation is to explore and visualize emerging trends from the vast amount of published data. summer review 1: the pioneers of active appropriation of digital technology are the diyers and hackers. this diy (do it yourself) approach is now assuming the form of a new cultural movement: the software becomes an engine of cultural innovation. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://straddle3.net/context/">http://straddle3.net/context/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ad+ Cover the realm of art, science and technology by subscribing to Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA). Published by LEONARDO, LEA is the leading monthly on-line peer-reviewed journal and web archive in its field. Subscribe now for $35 per year at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/INFORMATION/subscribe.html">http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/INFORMATION/subscribe.html</a>. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 8.14.02 From: Arcangel (arcangel@unosunosyunosceros.com) Subject: infomera.net enconstruccion.org VS no-content.net infomera.net champions of the WWW presents an online ephemeral match enconstruccion.org VS no-content.net mario garcia constructor from enconstruccion.org from mexico with 27 years and 3 in the professional league influenced by siqueiros, carrion and the construction workers will try to certificate in a programming castigate style combat vs brian mackern " no-content.net from montevideo uruguay aka vibri , zigurat99 psycho-byte influenced by las ensenanzas de don juan humito ,bily holliday thelonius monk will use ( depending on ram ) his nubes aleatorias,data-overflow-ascii and chamanic interferences in a blend of tao and rads technique 13 -14 agosto online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.infomera.net/">http://www.infomera.net/</a> enconstruccion.org VS no-content.net they will destroy . create . transform a massive info manipulation combat unique no-database no-rules opn ftp access found about their challenges at : <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.museotamayo.org/inmerso/infomera/batallas/enconstruccionVSnoscont">http://www.museotamayo.org/inmerso/infomera/batallas/enconstruccionVSnoscont</a> ent.htm collect the player cards biographical info ( plus ) an exclusive interview www.enconstruccion.org <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.museotamayo.org/inmerso/infomera/playercards/MARIO.htm">http://www.museotamayo.org/inmerso/infomera/playercards/MARIO.htm</a> www.no-content.net <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.museotamayo.org/inmerso/infomera/playercards/brian.htm">http://www.museotamayo.org/inmerso/infomera/playercards/brian.htm</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.museotamayo.org/infomera">http://www.museotamayo.org/infomera</a> cyberlounge + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 8.14.02 From: intima (igor.stromajer@guest.arnes.si) Subject: MomEnt.16: Orgasmus im Berlin *** MomEnt.16: Orgasmus im Berlin *** low-quality high-standard self-composable net video kit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www2.arnes.si/~ljintima2/moment16">http://www2.arnes.si/~ljintima2/moment16</a> by intima | virtual base _2002 net_video base C | consecutive [unlimited] net_video base P | parallel [limited] 16 net_video files: define function | danger above | observation 3 | no information | observe code 0.60 | control out 4 | control out 9 | start function | move forces | emotion help | no feelings 46 | 14/4328322700324 | no reason 55 | danger positive A | situation love 2 | function completed _tech.definition: PC PIII, 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM, Mac G4, min. 56 kbps | online, MS IE 6+, Netscape 6+, min. resolution: 1024x768, High Color, 14" (opt. 15"), Java Script, multimedia, RealPlayer, wav player, e-mail software (& account), free your mind & the rest will follow _credits: created by igor stromajer. produced by intima | virtual base, 2002 - www.intima.org camera by davide grassi (aksioma.org), dejan habicht (fundamental photography), i. stromajer performed by (alphabetic) marjana harcet, jana kohut, bojana kunst, marcela okretic, sophia okretic, anja planiscek, vlasta vucenik, brane zorman supported by ministry of culture of republic of slovenia. recorded in ljubljana, slovenia - june/july 2002. edited in mirca, croatia - august 2002 - - - intima | virtual base <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.intima.org">http://www.intima.org</a> +38641703291 atom@intima.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 8.9.02 From: maria rita Silvestri (staff@bananram.org) Subject: Bananaram Italian Net.Art Festival >From 18 to 22 September at the Mole Vanvitelliana of Ancona, Italy, takes place Bananaram, first Italian Net.Art Festival. The event consists in installations and interactive multimedia projects exhibition. Projects will offer a large view of the new art: from Netomat, exhibited in 2001 at Data Dynamics, Whitney Museum of NY; to the WAP broadcasting by graffiti artist Joey Krebs from Los Angeles; to 0100101110101101.ORG, mysterious cyber identity who will expose biennale.py, the virus created for the Biennale d Arte of Venezia 2001; to EpidemiC, from Milan who will come to Ancona with their new AntiMafia software, Nikola Tosic with his new Community Mapping, Limiteazero with Active Metaphor, Zanni, Thomson & Craighead and Retroyou. At the Festival artists will perform a presentation of artwork discussing about their new projects. The theme of the exhibition is Net.Art and unconscious needs. Bananaram was created and developed by Gianluca D Agostino, PhD, author of The Art Club, the CNN show and Maria Rita Silvestri,art editor for Random and author of award winning novel The Magic of Art. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 08.04.02 From: cory arcangel (corya@harvestworks.org)_ Subject: Low Level All Stars – Jan Lund Thomsen / Triangle To coincide with the exhibition "Kingdom of Piracy" (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://kop.adac.com.tw/">http://kop.adac.com.tw/</a>) RSG and BEIGE have entered into a head to head, 8-bit computing battle in search of what we call "the low level all-stars." Basically the idea is to hunt down the "true players" of low level 8-bit computer art. The following interview is of Jan Lund Thomsen of the infamous demo group "Triangle". In the following interview Jan describes the art of the cracker "intro" and other issues assiciated with this pre-internet DIY art/craft. Jan touches on fame, floppy disk distribution, and piracy. Part demo, part graffiti, intros are the animations that appear at the start-up of a cracked video game which are designed to showcase the cracker's talent. ++++ Cory Arcangel: In a previous email you indicated that there was a cracking scene, and not an intro scene. An intro is merely an artists' tag of a much larger work. Can you explain why this process eventually grew to become so involved [music / animation]? Jan Lund Thomsen: Intros had to be squeezed into whatever free memory space was left by the game (as both intro and game were loaded into memory in one go.) At some stage you can imagine the people coding these "tags" wanting to see what they could do if they had all the resources of the computer to themselves rather than piggy backing their work onto something else. Thus the demo-scene was born. As demos are a legal activity the natural step was for people to form specialized demo groups that had nothing to do with the cracking scene. >From this rose the competition to do outdo each other, something that is still evident in todays demo scene. Cory Arcangel: Other people we have talked to described themselves as "artists", yet you view your work on the commodore more as a craft. Can you explain what makes you think of yourself as a craftsman? Jan Lund Thomsen: Looking back I'd say I was both - probably around 60/40 in favor of the craft. While coming up with ways to enhance a game (adding high-score savers, better compression, etc.) could be considered an art-form that distinguished one cracked version from another, there was no denying that basic set of skills had to be mastered in order for a cracker to transform the contents of the original media into something that could be easily duplicated, yet preserved the functionality of the original game. As various forms of protection schemes and fastloaders were applied to the games a cracker needed to familiarize himself with those schemes. He also needed the technical skills that would allow him to dig his way through new protection schemes. One of the exiting things about cracking games was that you'd never know what you were up against next time an original tape landed in your mailbox. Cory Arcangel: One of the reasons that I am interested in working on early 8-bit computers is that since most run on 6502 chips, due to the simplicity of 8-bit code and easy access to this code [via disassembler] one can usually modify or at least come to an understanding of any compiled code. This idea in some ways parallels today's open source movement. Would you consider the commodore64 a computer which is open source at its heart? Jan Lund Thomsen: In one word: No. While dissecting and tweaking other peoples code led to greater understanding of the machine and gave insight into new ways to solve old problems noone really spread their applications around to show other people *how* they accomplished something but rather that they *had* accomplished it. Cory Arcangel: You are not in favor of pirating software. Though during your c64 years you played a part in spreading software. Did your philosophy change, or was the cracking scene seen as something different? Jan Lund Thomsen: My philosophy changed. While I don't condone piracy these days, I'm not completely denouncing it either. For me it has a lot to do with my belief in the platform/developer-community in question; my Windows 98 box has programs with "extended" evaluation periods, while every little piece of shareware on my Palm IIIX is legally registered. Cory Arcangel: You have mentioned that cracking games were an "ego thing". Can you explain? Jan Lund Thomsen: The "ego" statement was made in a usenet discussion about peoples motivation for cracking games back in the day. While it may sound strange I never thought of it as making games freely available, or even breaking the law. I considered cracking a display of technical prowess - a matter of me versus the machine. As a cracker I took great pride in my work. Sure, people may have enjoyed playing the cracked versions I produced - but the important factor was that cracking made *ME* feel good. Of course, well-aware that I was in one of the top euro quality-cracking outfits, real competition was only offered by a select few. I also cracked the occasional old game just for the fun of it, never bothering to add an intro or even distribute it. The process of cracking was all-important, distribution and recognition weren't. Cory Arcangel: You received almost no feedback on your work during the era when you were cracking. How was the distribution network for games organized? Jan Lund Thomsen: Well-organised groups flourished due to people specializing in what they did best. No point in making the crackers lick stamps and mail out disks. Bear in mind that this all happened before the internet was something regular Joes had access to. Heck, most people I knew didn't even have modems (although I'm told there were lots of C= BBS'es out there) … The cracker would wrap up his latest product, and give a copy to the group swapper(s) who in turn mailed it out to their contacts. That way everyone knew what other groups were doing. Of course, some people created subscription services which meant that lots of games were distributed to people who weren't associated with the "scene". Add to that the obvious small-time swapping with the kid down the street who also had a C64 and you'd have a pretty good network. Cory Arcangel: Do you still code in 6502? Jan Lund Thomsen: No. Spending too much time on other things. =) <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/Low_Level_All_Stars/">http://www.rhizome.org/Low_Level_All_Stars/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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. 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