<br />RHIZOME DIGEST: July 23, 2004<br /><br />Content:<br /><br />+announcement+<br />1. Rex Bruce: "Cell-Outs and Phonies" at L.A. Center for Digital Art<br /><br />2. Making History: featuring Ariel Yanay-Shani, Dana Levy, Liat & Ariel<br />Shechter-Mayrose<br /> <br />+opportunity+<br />3. Kevin McGarry: FW: FUSE MAG (ic-national)…<br />4. Kevin McGarry: FW: CURATOR OPENING BANFF CENTER (ic-national)…<br /><br />+work+<br />5. Brett Stalbaum: C5 developments: Mt. Fuji, Perfect View<br /><br />+comment+<br />6. valery.grancher: webpaintings history<br />7. valery.grancher: webpaintings history part 2<br /><br />+feature+<br />8. Lewis LaCook: Dream Politics<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />1.<br /><br />Date: 7.22.04<br />From: Rex Bruce <rexbruce@lacda.com><br />Subject: "Cell-Outs and Phonies" at L.A. Center for Digital Art<br /><br />Cell-outs and Phonies:<br />an exhibition of cell phone media<br /><br />August 6-27<br />Opening Reception<br />Friday August 6, 7-11pm<br /><br />As the digital world grows to encompass all aspects of our life, we see the<br />gadgets of our day-to-day existence evolving into expressive art mediums.<br />The advent of cell phones with built-in cameras has sprung a revolution in<br />photography and digital filmmaking; its accessibility is eliminating the<br />boundaries between amateur and professional. Examining the line where art<br />and technology intersect, Cell-outs and Phonies, explores this new way of<br />creating and experiencing digital art.<br /><br />Short films will be shown on LCDs and projected while other images are<br />printed, up-linked or never removed from the actual phone.<br /><br />The opening reception will feature music assembled entirely with ring tones<br />by German experimental group Super Smart and continuous screenings of cell<br />phone videos.<br />Curated by<br />Laura Merians<br /><br />Featuring local and international artists<br />David Zulaica<br />Krista Connerly<br />Mark Beck <br />Batya<br />Gina Clyne<br />Scott Myers<br />Michael Szpakowski<br />Brett Simon<br />Al B. Sure<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />2.<br /><br />Date: 7.23.04<br />From: Making History <virtu@kulturserver-nrw.de><br />Subject: featuring Ariel Yanay-Shani, Dana Levy, Liat & Ariel<br />Shechter-Mayrose<br /><br />"Making History" <br />is a curatorial project by Stephanie Bensaquen<br />prepared in different steps and levels for<br />the global networking project<br />[R][R][F]2004—>XP<br />[Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting]<br />.<br />"Making History" <br />an essay by Stephanie Benzaquen<br />www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/making_history.htm<br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/making_history.htm">http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/making_history.htm</a>><br />.<br />The first part of "Making History" is included and featured<br />on occasion of public_media_sace_festival Yerewan/Armenia<br />www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/accea.htm<br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/accea.htm">http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/accea.htm</a>><br />.<br />and features these three artists<br />see the works and details<br />—> <br />Ariel Yanay-Shani <br />www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/yanay-shani1.htm<br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/yanay-shani1.htm">http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/yanay-shani1.htm</a>><br /> <br />Dana Levy <br />www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/levy1.htm<br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/levy1.htm">http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/levy1.htm</a>><br /> <br />Liat & Ariel Shechter-Mayrose<br />www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/mayrose1.htm<br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/mayrose1.htm">http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/mayrose1.htm</a>><br /> <br />***************************************<br />[R][R][F]2004—>XP<br />[Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting]<br />www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004 <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004">http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004</a>><br />is an ongoing net based project environment<br />created and curated by<br />Agricola de Cologne,<br />media artists and new Media curator from Cologne/Germany.<br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships<br />purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow<br />participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without<br />having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering<br />subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded<br />communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more<br />information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />3.<br /><br />Date: 7.17.04<br />From: Kevin McGarry <Kevin@rhizome.org><br />Subject: FW: FUSE MAG (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of<br />love <br />—— Forwarded Message<br />From: ic-national@lists.instantcoffee.org<br />Reply-To: national@instantcoffee.org<br />Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:37:51 -0400<br />To: ic-national@lists.instantcoffee.org<br />Subject: (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of love<br /><br /> —————————————————————-<br /> 01. Fuse magazine is looking for an Associate Editor, Toronto<br /> —————————————————————-<br /><br />~20 hrs/week. Salary range $14 to 16K<br />Reporting to editorial committee and associate publisher<br /><br />The Magazine:<br />With a twenty-seven year publishing record, Fuse magazineÅs mandate is<br />to provide innovative and culturally sensitive coverage of diverse<br />visual and media arts communities and practices in Canada. Our<br />editorial strategy is to offer readers in-depth critical analysis and<br />assessment of the relationship of the visual arts to the cultural<br />contexts in which it is produced, supported, exhibited and<br />disseminated. There are two general areas in which this analysis is<br />grounded. The first is cultural analysis as expressed in various<br />contemporary artistic practices and cultural expressions, especially<br />practices that are engaged in socially progressive issues. The second,<br />a corollary interest, is the pressures exerted on the cultural sector<br />as expressed in policy shifts of social and cultural institutions, both<br />private and public. As our content crosses many disciplines and<br />cultural perspectives, it is our ambition to ensure that the writing in<br />Fuse remains in the forefront of progressive thinking while being<br />accessible to non-specialist readers.<br />Qualifications:<br />+ editorial experience necessary, magazine experience desired<br />+ strong awareness of contemporary art, especially socially engaged<br />practices<br />+ ability to work to deadline<br /><br />Assets:<br />+ experience working with committees and boards on a nonprofit model<br />+ familiarity with prepress, design, and image processing<br />+ previous grant writing experience also an asset<br />Duties: editorial<br />+ Work with other staff/volunteers in development of workable<br />production schedule<br />+ Work with editorial committee in determining/soliciting content for<br />the magazine (includes drafting of formal solicitation letters).<br />+ Content edit all material for inclusion in magazine<br />+ Delivery of textual material to copyeditor, enter changes as required<br />+ Preparation of all content (visual and textual) for delivery to<br />designer<br />+ Liaise with designer throughout design stage<br />+ Participate in proofedit of final drafts<br /><br />Duties: other<br />+ Represent magazine at various public events<br />+ Write content-specific portion of grants<br /><br />Please submit covering letter, CV, writing samples and previous<br />editorial work as available. Submissions by email preferred (do not<br />send high resolution images, please.). Only those chosen for an<br />interview will be contacted. No telephone calls please.<br /><br />Fuse Magazine<br />454-401 Richmond St W<br />Toronto ON M5V 3A8<br /><br />content@fusemagazine.org<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fusemagazine.org">http://www.fusemagazine.org</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />4.<br /><br />Date: 7.17.04<br />From: Kevin McGarry <Kevin@rhizome.org><br />Subject: FW: CURATOR OPENING BANFF CENTER (ic-national) instant coffee<br />deranged arrangement of love<br />—— Forwarded Message<br />From: ic-national@lists.instantcoffee.org<br />Reply-To: national@instantcoffee.org<br />Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:37:51 -0400<br />To: ic-national@lists.instantcoffee.org<br />Subject: (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of love<br /><br />—————————————————————-<br /> 08. CURATOR OPENING ­ The Banff Centre<br />—————————————————————-<br /><br />The Walter Phillips Gallery is one of Canada¹s leading public art<br />galleries for contemporary art with an international reputation. It is<br />uniquely located within the Visual Arts department of The Banff Centre,<br />in the context of an active artist residency program and in association<br />with the Banff International Curatorial Institute. Research in<br />contemporary art and curatorial studies is the gallery¹s primary<br />activity, from which it derives a range of activities: exhibitions,<br />publications, symposia, lectures, performances, screenings and a<br />significant collection of over 1,400 works.<br /><br />An active exhibition program of at least six exhibitions a year,<br />touring exhibitions and other programs are created by the Director,<br />Curator and contract staff, featuring research and work from the artist<br />residency programs at the Centre and other work of national and<br />international significance. The gallery has a permanent staff of 6<br />with contract and work study positions, and an annual budget of<br />approximately $725,000.<br /><br />The gallery operates a dedicated exhibition space of 325.5 square<br />metres and is responsible for the display of work across the Banff<br />Centre campus.<br /><br />The Banff International Curatorial Institute is a unique division of<br />the department which provides professional development and research<br />opportunities for professional and emerging curators, artists and<br />writers through annual symposia, publications and other activities.<br /><br />Curator ­ Position<br />Collaborating with the Director, Visual Arts & Walter Phillips Gallery,<br />the Curator of the Walter Phillips Gallery for contemporary art,<br />develops and implements all gallery programs and projects. This<br />requires originating, researching and developing annual exhibitions,<br />performances, screenings, publications, special events, and related<br />educational programs. The incumbent plays a key role in researching<br />and securing appropriate external funding support for Gallery activity.<br /><br />Liaises closely with the Visual Arts residency programs, augmenting the<br />activities of the overall Visual Arts department. The Curator develops<br />and maintains a strong curatorial workstudy program in the gallery,<br />providing leadership and mentorship to the participants on an ongoing<br />basis.<br /><br />Develops the program and research role of the Banff International<br />Curatorial Institute, leading the implementation of these initiatives.<br /><br />This position carries day-to-day responsibility for the leadership of<br />gallery activity and budget management, as well as for the<br />administration, registration and logistical coordination of all gallery<br />and related programs. Responsibility also includes a permanent<br />collection of approximately 1,400 objects.<br /><br />Qualifications:<br /><br />? Proven track record of innovative projects in contemporary art. Areas<br />of specialization may include, but are not limited to, Aboriginal art,<br />new media, popular culture/visual culture or curatorial studies within<br />contemporary art context. Gallery and curatorial institute initiatives<br />pay special attention to the social contexts of art.<br />? A minimum of 3-5 years experience in a public art gallery or<br />equivalent<br />? Supervisory experience required.<br />? Track record of successful grant writing and fundraising.<br />? Experience in a post-secondary educational institution in an<br />instructor or administrative capacity is an asset.<br />? MA, MFA or equivalent experience/education in studio art, art<br />history, visual culture, curatorial studies or related discipline.<br />? Collection management experience an asset.<br />? Excellent writing and public speaking ability<br />? 2nd language an asset due to highly international environment.<br />? Applicants must submit two writing samples or publications, a CV and<br />names of three references.<br /><br />To apply for this opportunity, please contact:<br /><br />Dana Tremblay<br />Recruiting Manager<br />The Banff Centre<br />Phone: 403.762.6173<br />E-mail; dana_tremblay@banffcentre.ca<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />5.<br /><br />Date: 7.23.04<br />From: Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum@ucsd.edu><br />Subject: C5 developments: Mt. Fuji, Perfect View<br /><br />The Analogous Landscape: C5 climbs Mt. Fuji<br />July 2004<br />C5 ascended its second ring of fire volcanic peak by summiting Mt. Fuji, the<br />tallest mountain in Japan at 12,395 ft. (3,776 m).<br /><br />A simultaneous climb was executed on Mt. Lassen in California by a stateside<br />C5 team. The Lassen Peak volcano rises 10,457 ft. (3,187 m) above sea level,<br />C5's third major ring of fire volcanic peak.<br /><br />For more infomation on The Analogous Landscape project:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.c5corp.com/projects/analogouslandscape/index.shtml">http://www.c5corp.com/projects/analogouslandscape/index.shtml</a><br /><br />The Perfect View Geocache Expedition Underway<br />July 2004<br />Jack Toolin has logged 6,600 miles on his Honda Super Hawk motorcyle as he<br />traverses the U.S. in pursuit of Perfect View geocache sites solicited from<br />the geocache community. Beginning in San Jose, California on June, 21st he<br />is currently in Maine by way of a southwest/south/northeast route.<br /><br />For more information on the Perfect View Project:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.c5corp.com/projects/perfectview/index.shtml">http://www.c5corp.com/projects/perfectview/index.shtml</a><br /><br />For more information on the the C5 Landscape Initiative:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.c5corp.com">http://www.c5corp.com</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships<br />purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow<br />participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without<br />having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering<br />subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded<br />communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more<br />information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />6.<br /><br />Date: 7.20.04<br />From: "valery.grancher" <valery.grancher@wanadoo.fr><br />Subject: webpaintings history<br /><br />Hello,<br /> <br />Hereafter some news about the webapintings project and its consequence, it<br />has started on 1998, and is now copied by various international artist !<br />I am very pleased to have been the first to paint webpage and to see that<br />this idea is starting a new kind of revolution in artworld world wild:<br />First I was influenced by the great german artist Blank and Jeron who did<br />'dumb your trash" on 1997:<br />They are making sculpture on marble from webpages:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://sero.org/dyt/">http://sero.org/dyt/</a><br /><br />Second I was influenced by the great greek artist Miltos Manetas with his<br />computer and wires paintings:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.manetas.com/splash/index.htm">http://www.manetas.com/splash/index.htm</a><br /><br />So I started on 1998 the "Pump your page" project:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/pump/index2.html">http://www.nomemory.org/pump/index2.html</a><br /><br />and the same year i initiated the "webpaintings" project:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint">http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint</a><br /><br />On 1999 Carlo Zanni sent me an email to show me his great paintings he<br />started to produce on the end on 1998:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.zanni.org/html/empty.htm">http://www.zanni.org/html/empty.htm</a><br /><br />On 1999 Ola Pehrson did a terrific installation, one of my favourite called<br />"Desktop":<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.olapehrson.com/desktop/index.html">http://www.olapehrson.com/desktop/index.html</a><br /><br />This installtion is confronting computer icons as sculpture, paintings,<br />physical space and virtuality by streaming on real time through a webcam a<br />viwe of this installtion: on the screen a new windows 95 screen is appearing<br />In Russia a friend of Olia Liliana called Masha Moriskina painted<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org">http://www.rhizome.org</a> screen on paper with pencil and gouache (2000): A<br />terrific drawing.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/masha/rhizome.jpg">http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/masha/rhizome.jpg</a><br /><br />Then on 2001 after the big and crazy emergence of google, I perceived it as<br />the perfect new internet icon and I produced in Miltos Manetas place<br />(electronic orphanage) in Los Angeles the "google painting" (september<br />2001):<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/googleoil.htm">http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/googleoil.htm</a><br /><br />Shown in Artsonje center in Seoul and Gwangjyu "less ordinary" show on 2002<br />in south Korea.<br />On 2002 the british artist Thomson and Craighead produced a e-bizness:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dot-store.com">http://www.dot-store.com</a><br /><br />dealing with off line net art pieces and one of them is "google tea towels"<br />which is a best seller:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dot-store.com/pages/teatowels.html">http://www.dot-store.com/pages/teatowels.html</a><br /><br />i have boght all the four for my personnal collection, this eally one of the<br />nest webpaings I have ever seen.<br />Still on 2002 Miltos Manetas has done a great project called "internet<br />paintings":<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.manetas.com/internetpaintings/">http://www.manetas.com/internetpaintings/</a><br /><br />On 2003 exonemo (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.exonemo.com">http://www.exonemo.com</a>) produced a project called "Natural<br />process" by mixing and copying two pieces by two artist:<br />"Desktop" 1999 by Ola Pehrson, and "Google paintings" by me: "Natural<br />process flow":<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.exonemo.com/NP/indexE.html">http://www.exonemo.com/NP/indexE.html</a><br /><br />shon on beging 2004 at Mori art Museum and sold to google on May 2004.<br /> <br />We can see that through this tiome line a great revolution is starting and<br />may be subject of a terrific collective show including all of these artists<br />with a great catalog !<br /> <br />read also the conceptual statement of webpaintings!<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/text2.htm">http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/text2.htm</a><br /> <br /> <br />Yours<br /> <br /> <br />Valery Grancher<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org">http://www.nomemory.org</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint">http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemorybazaar.com">http://www.nomemorybazaar.com</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />7.<br /><br />Date: 7.22.04<br />From: "valery.grancher" <valery.grancher@wanadoo.fr><br />Subject: webpaintings history part 2<br /><br />1- Prehistory of webpaintings:<br /><br />On early 80's and 90's some artist has dealt with computer concept and<br />screen both on visual level and conceptual level. They did it at least ten<br />years before internet age !<br />Artist Like Rainer Ganahl and Miltos Manetas have started very soon to deal<br />with computer iconology and environment. Miltos has more dealt with the<br />video game, the computer entertainment revolution and its iconology. Rainer<br />Ganahl has more focused on language concept regarding computer by using the<br />interface metaphor:<br />Rainer has used the guidelines metaphor* He has dealt with it at the age<br />when France was connected to network through minitel !!! (early 80's)<br />For sure rainer Ganahl is according to me a crazy genius who has opened this<br />door in visual art.<br />Surf on these links to see how terrific are these pieces !<br /><br />-<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/magers1990.html">http://www.ganahl.info/magers1990.html</a><br /><br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/magers1990.html">http://www.ganahl.info/magers1990.html</a>> on 1990 with catalog and reviews<br /><br />-<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/dma_dallasmuseumofart.html">http://www.ganahl.info/dma_dallasmuseumofart.html</a><br /><br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/dma_dallasmuseumofart.html">http://www.ganahl.info/dma_dallasmuseumofart.html</a>> 1992 view of an<br />installation at Dalllas Art museum<br /><br />You may check also his first ever one person show only on the web at<br />thing.net:<br />1992 NY - trash can and other computer items<br /><br />-<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/nordan92.html">http://www.ganahl.info/nordan92.html</a> <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/nordan92.html">http://www.ganahl.info/nordan92.html</a>><br /><br />1996: "les ateliers" in Marseille, France<br /><br />-<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/lesatelier96.html">http://www.ganahl.info/lesatelier96.html</a><br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/lesatelier96.html">http://www.ganahl.info/lesatelier96.html</a>><br /><br />Kwangju Biennial, Korea, 1997 commissioned by Harald Szeemann<br /><br />-<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/s_ex_kwangju.html">http://www.ganahl.info/s_ex_kwangju.html</a><br /><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ganahl.info/s_ex_kwangju.html">http://www.ganahl.info/s_ex_kwangju.html</a>><br /><br />Without Rainer Ganahl, the idea of using computer iconology directly in<br />visual art would never emerge !<br />On 1995 another artist called Philip Pocock has printed out a whole website<br />for 'photography after photography' show. On 1996 he did an email reading<br />performance in Berlin with email slide show.<br />At this time, the web interface has not emerged. We can see that these<br />previous work were so closed to webpaintings concept for one simple reason:<br />both of them are dealing with interface iconology. But the web interface is<br />just the son of the computer operating system interface. I have to say if<br />you are just focusing about this point,you are missing another point.<br />Because webpaintings are also dealing with painting iconology and not only<br />computer interface…<br /><br />*J.C Licklider 1905 -1990 was one of the founder of the internet ancestor<br />called arpanet. He has invented the concept of visual interface for<br />computers. He has also conceived the first computer mouse to interact with<br />the visual interface he conceived. He did this great job on early seventies.<br />At the Begining of the eighties he got in the Xerox parc the visit of two<br />major personalities in computer industry: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. We can<br />say today that without Licklider 'windows' software would never exist, and<br />the mac interface would never exist also. By conceiving this kind of<br />interaction with computer on visual level with visual interface and mouse he<br />has defined the concept of "HMI": Human and machine interaction. The visual<br />interface conceived by Licklider to interact with computer program has<br />brought the concept of what we call today 'guidelines':<br />For example the main guidelines in Apple system is the apple icon.<br />The icons abd menu in windows software are also guidelines. They help the<br />computer interactor to navigate in the software.<br /> <br />texte en français sur ce lien:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/history.htm">http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/history.htm</a><br /> <br />Valéry Grancher<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemory.org">http://www.nomemory.org</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomeory.org/webpaint">http://www.nomeory.org/webpaint</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nomemorybazaar.com">http://www.nomemorybazaar.com</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />For $65 annually, Rhizome members can put their sites on a Linux<br />server, with a whopping 350MB disk storage space, 1GB data transfer per<br />month, catch-all email forwarding, daily web traffic stats, 1 FTP<br />account, and the capability to host your own domain name (or use<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.net/your_account_name">http://rhizome.net/your_account_name</a>). Details at:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/services/1.php">http://rhizome.org/services/1.php</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />8.<br /><br />Date: 7/23/04<br />From: Lemmy Caution <llacook@yahoo.com><br />Subject: Dream Politics<br /><br />Dream Politics: Randomness in Network Art<br /><br />Lewis LaCook <br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lewislacook.com">http://www.lewislacook.com</a><br /><br /> <br /><br />INTRODUCTION: Stochastic Computing<br /><br /> <br /><br />Chaos comes before all principles of order & entropy, it's neither a god nor<br />a maggot, its idiotic desires encompass & define every possible<br />choreography, all meaningless aethers & phlogistons: its masks are<br />crystallizations of its own facelessness, like clouds.<br /><br />Everything in nature is perfectly real including consciousness, there's<br />absolutely nothing to worry about. Not only have the chains of the Law been<br />broken, they never existed; demons never guarded the stars, the Empire never<br />got started, Eros never grew a beard.<br /><br />No, listen, what happened was this: they lied to you, sold you ideas of<br />good & evil, gave you distrust of your body & shame for your prophethood<br />of chaos, invented words of disgust for your molecular love, mesmerized you<br />with inattention, bored you with civilization & all its usurious emotions.<br /><br />There is no becoming, no revolution, no struggle, no path; already you're<br />the monarch of your own skin–your inviolable freedom waits to be completed<br />only by the love of other monarchs: a politics of dream, urgent as the<br />blueness of sky. <br /><br />Hakim Bey, Chaos, The Temporary Autonomous Zone<br /><br /> <br /><br />—————————————————————————-<br />———————————————————————-<br /><br /> <br /><br />Computers have a difficult time with spontaneity. By themselves, they're as<br />predictable as any fundamentalist. This is what makes computer programming<br />possible, the assurance I have that the code I write will be executed<br />exactly as I wrote it. If I write a conditional loop, my computer will make<br />a decision based on the parameters I feed to it; it won't take into account<br />the weather, nor its own emotional state, nor will it ever be hung over from<br />ten too many Guinesses and perform the function haphazardly from behind the<br />haze of a violent headache. Computers, it would seem are very clean<br />machines, not subject to noise or entropy. What you code is what you get.<br /><br />This, naturally, hasn't stopped humans from introducing randomness into the<br />computer. Most high-level programming languages have a function to simulate<br />random numbers; and, while said numbers are very often predictable, the<br />results can sometimes seem just as authentically random as more adroit<br />sources of randomness. "True random numbers, captured in the wild, are<br />clearly superior to those bred in captivity by pseudo-random generators?or<br />at least that¹s what the theory of randomness implies." Brian Hayes writes<br />in his essay "Randomness as a Resource" ."But (one researcher) has run the<br />output of various hardware and software generators through a series of<br />statistical tests. The best of the pseudo-random generators earned excellent<br />grades, but three hardware devices flunked. In other words, the fakes look<br />more convincingly random than the real thing."<br /><br />Hayes is writing here of the two main methods of generating random numbers<br />in modern computing: pseudo-random number generation, which is just what<br />those rand() functions do, and the harnessing of external entropy sources,<br />such as atmospheric noise or radioactive decay rates. Entropy is an index of<br />the disorder or noise in a closed system; and, in physics, all systems are<br />sliding inevitably toward disorder. Thus, linking certain parameters in your<br />code to an external source of entropy is the most effective way of utilizing<br />the ultimate disorder of the universe in your scripts. Pseudo-randomness,<br />however, is essential for research purposes, where a sequence of random<br />results must be repeated in order to provide a stable set for analysis.<br /><br />One can wonder why there would be a human desire to introduce randomness<br />into computing. Take, for instance, the World Wide Web; instant global<br />communication there, and wouldn't our ultimate preference be to clear this<br />communication channel of all noise? It turns out, however, that randomness<br />is a vital concept in the development of web networks, and much of the<br />electronic economy would not exist without it. Ever buy anything online?<br />Fill out one of those snoopy forms asking for potentially sensitive data<br />such as your social security number or credit card number? If so, you more<br />than likely want your privileged information to be secure, protected;<br />viewable only by those involved in the transaction, if even then. Encryption<br />is how one secures data over the HTTP protocols the World Wide Web is based<br />on. Encryption performs character substitution on the data, which can then<br />be decrypted (read into human-readable language) via a key file or function,<br />which was at one point randomly or pseudo-randomly generated. Encryption is<br />a sign of trust between a web service and a consumer; and it depends<br />heavily on randomness to ensure that bond.<br /><br />To that end, providing sequences of dependably random integers has proven to<br />be a crucial–and colorful–web service. The wildest example would be the<br />Lavarand system, a random number generator developed at Silicon Graphics.<br />Lavarand was a hybrid of the two methods of random number generation; it<br />seeded pseudo-random functions with an external entropy source; in this<br />case, data derived from the slow motion of blobs in Lava Lite lamps.<br />Lavarand itself seems defunct; though trademarked by Silicon Graphics, the<br />original project seems to have all but disappeared as a service, but Lavarnd<br />(<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lavarnd.com/">http://www.lavarnd.com/</a> ), a similar project derived from the methodology<br />of the original project, continues. The Lavarnd API, downloadable in both C<br />form and as a Perl library at the site, allows developers the freedom of<br />replacing the original Lava Lite lamps with virtually any entropy source;<br />one feature is the ability to use simple web cams, such as the Logitech<br />QuickCam. <br /><br />A similar web service, random.org (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://random.org/">http://random.org/</a> ), uses a radio tuned<br />between stations to inject their data with true random flavor; Swiss<br />Fourmilab offers HotBits (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/">http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/</a> ), which reads<br />radiation via a Geiger-Muller tube detector.<br /><br /> <br /><br />INTRODUCTION: King Dionysus<br /><br />Writing about randomness recently on the rhizome.org list-serv, American<br />artist Jeremy Zilar (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://silencematters.com/">http://silencematters.com/</a> ) doesn't believe in<br />randomness per se. "It is the dialog that we have with the process of<br />observing of ourselves. The observed self, or the object, performance,<br />process being created is a clear reflection of ourselves, and when we are<br />able to gain that distance, we become more aware of what is going on inside,<br />we make changes,. and then we correct the reflection to mirror ourselves<br />once again….Randomness does not occur. It is a controlled element that<br />somehow figures in to the image that we have of ourselves. Even when things<br />do happen by chance, we immediately incorporate that action into the image<br />and judge it's relationship to the whole, and juxtapose the whole to<br />ourselves. If it doesn't fit, we remove it."<br /><br />The distance Zilar writes about here is analogous to the "disinterestedness"<br />that nineteenth-century German philosopher Immanual Kant proposed as a<br />integral element in the aesthetic experience. "…a judgment on the<br />beautiful which is tinged with the slightest interest, is very partial and<br />not a pure judgment of taste," Kant wrote in his Critique of Judgment. "One<br />must not be in the least prepossessed in favour of the real existence of the<br />thing, but must preserve complete indifference in this respect, in order to<br />play the part of judge in matters of taste." In other words, if a painting<br />is figurative, and of a sunset, concerning ourselves with the beauty of the<br />sunset and not of the painting itself is a bad judgment call. The painting<br />is not the sunset. The sunset is not the painting.<br /><br />It's this idea that nudged art toward the nonfigurative. If the<br />contemplation of an art object is a disinterested contemplation, i.e. if we<br />are to consider the painting isolated from what the painting represents,<br />then why produce mimetic art at all? Why not simply delve into a "pure"<br />painting, completely divorced from representation? In the late nineteenth<br />and early twentieth centuries, this became a central theme in the narrative<br />of artistic development: freeing the art object from representation, and<br />breaking through to the realm of pure being. Art, once a way to represent<br />the natural, now strove to create the natural; instead of painting a sunset,<br />the artist wanted to paint an experience that had all the impact of the<br />sunset, but was its own phenomenon. Or, as Remko Scha asserts: "Esthetically<br />motivated art…faces a curious challenge: if it is created by humans, it<br />will always be inferior to nature! In the course of the twentieth century,<br />this challenge has been taken up by many artists. Some of them have<br />suggested that they are in fact natural forces, beyond the ken of ordinary<br />humans. Others have tried to withdraw from their artworks, by developing<br />objective art-generating processes which they initiate without controlling<br />the final result." <br /><br />Or, as Hakim Bey, perhaps the most eloquent proponent of randomness in art,<br />has reassured us: "Everything in nature is perfectly real including<br />consciousness…" <br /><br /> <br /><br />INTRODUCTION: The Bacchanates<br /><br /> <br /><br />"Noise ­ or random data, or interference ­ has long been an obsession of<br />digital artists. That obsession reflects the Nietzschean idea of a creative<br />tension between the Apollonian and Dionysian," maintains Peter Carty in his<br />review of C6 's ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://c6.org/">http://c6.org/</a> )NEST, or Network Examination of<br />Seredipitous Transfer. "First outlined in The Birth of Tragedy, the idea is<br />that Dionysus represents fundamental primal energy, while Apollo stands for<br />rationality, logic and structure. Noise is unbounded dissonance; it is<br />Dionysian. Information which is structured and rendered directly meaningful<br />by IT protocols is Apollonian."<br /><br />NEST (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://c6.org/nest/">http://c6.org/nest/</a> )is a peer-to-peer client with a twist. Unlike<br />Morpheus or Kazaa, NESTers have access to only one file; a single audio<br />file, corrupted by each pass through each user's computer. Instead of using<br />TCP, C6 uses the notoriously unreliable UDP (User Datagram) protocol to hand<br />data off from one client to another. UDP is unreliable because it performs<br />very little error-recovery on the data passed through it; the experience is,<br />as C6 themselves put it, "…much like the children's game of ?Chinese<br />Whispers¹, where each client is linked to their closest geographical<br />neighbour. Passing a ?virtual whisper¹ around the internet, each link in the<br />chain can create new versions with each imperfect cycle."<br /><br />Network art like this is ripe with entropy. There's just no telling what<br />will happen to that audio file as it passes from me to you; but chances are,<br />noise will distort it until it's no longer familiar to us. It's not<br />"interactive" in the way most web and browser-based art has been; there are<br />no Flash rollover buttons, no net video; its meat is the network itself, a<br />network designed to incorporate flaws into its very hide. C6 style<br />themselves as "conceptual marketers" (perhaps in keeping with the vogue of<br />artists appropriating and aping corporate behaviors, and also, as are all<br />such gestures perhaps, tongue-in-cheek), but what they've done here is more<br />conceptual than marketable (fortunately!). NEST is<br />unstable-network-as-aesthetic-experience.<br /><br />Since random.org uses a radio tuned between stations as their entropy<br />source, I often wonder what it would be like if they tuned in to rand()%<br />(<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.r4nd.org/">http://www.r4nd.org/</a> ). This net radio station is a randomness-hound's wet<br />dream: all of the audio is composed at random in realtime, every time you<br />tune in. Named for the ANSI C rand function, the audio programming is a<br />collage of art-coders, including Lia and Carvalhais, Muio.org, Karlheinz<br />Stockhausen (adapted for prime randomnessby Georg Hajdu), and Pix. rand()%<br />was developed by Tom Betts and Joe Gilmore as a commission by Media Centre<br />Network of Huddersfield, England.<br /><br />Listening to rand()% , one might often believe that one's computer is<br />crashing. As with much random and chance art, you either enjoy it or you<br />don't. Helen Valery Jamieson, in a recent post to the Netbehaviour list,<br />expressed frustration with the flaws in randomly-generated artwork. She<br />confessed: "I am not a big fan of randomly generated art; the concept might<br />be interesting but I get bored by it fairly quickly. On the other hand,<br />random elements within a work can be really inspiring. and there's computer<br />random & human random - audience interaction with a programme or with a<br />computer-mediated performance. It's random to the extent that you don't know<br />what the audience is going to come up with, but it's within certain<br />parameters. structured randomness perhaps." As rand()%'s only interaction<br />with the audience is the act of tuning in, those less appreciative of random<br />art might find the station annoying. There is, however, much to love in the<br />program stream: pops, gurgles, grinds and static, peppered with actual notes<br />in some cases, cascade through your PC's speakers when tuned to rand()% .<br />When I was younger, I played in a lot of improvisational fusion bands, but<br />after a few years found myself getting rotyally bored with the experience;<br />it often seemed that all I was doing was going up and down scales in varying<br />increments. rand()%'s artists seem to have solved that problem; but, while<br />the works are composed anew with every listen, there can be an overwhelming<br />sameness to the pieces, as if, in absence of hierarchical structuring, the<br />works are so horizontal that they inspire no emotional interest. From an<br />audience's perspective (and perhaps it's conditioning from so many years<br />of absorbing more traditional 19th century narrative structures), the pieces<br />may seem flat. <br /><br />Which begs the question: since random and chance works are relatively new<br />developments in the history of art (John Cage, perhaps the most famous<br />proponent of random compositional techniques, was, after all, a twentieth<br />century figure), does work like this require a new kind of audience? Network<br />art is even younger; remember, we couldn't even display images over the web<br />until the mid-nineties. Works like NEST and rand()% are radical works in<br />that they are, essentially, networks in themselves (radio was one of the<br />first electric communication networks, along with the telephone system;<br />imagine both of these works performed on analog networks; what if NEST was<br />dependent on the snail mail system? It would resemble the Mail Art movement<br />of the 80s, perhaps), and the concept of network-as-artform is so edgy an<br />idea in 2004 that you might get a bloody nose just thinking about it. It<br />will undoubtably take a decade or so before the aesthetics inherent in<br />network art to leech into the mainstream, and perhaps longer than that for<br />chance art to become commonplace.<br /><br />Until then; enjoy the entropy.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br />____________________________________________________________________________<br />____________________________<br /><br />URLs and Works Cited<br /><br />Bey, Hakim. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic<br />Terrorism . Autonomedia Anti-copyright, 1985, 1991.<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html">http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html</a><br /><br />Carty, Peter. "Deep Corruption on the Web." Metamute Web Exclusive: July<br />14, 2004. <br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.metamute.com/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssu">http://www.metamute.com/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssu</a><br />e=24&NrSection=5&NrArticle=1432&ST_max=0<br /><br />Hayes, Brian. "Randomness as A Resource," American Scientist, Volume 89,<br />Number 4, July-August 2001,<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/20829;jsession">http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/20829;jsession</a><br />id=baadaKyCmrKiRl <br /><br />Jamieson, Helen Valery. "Re: randomness." Post to Netbehaviour list-serv.<br />July 2004. <br /><br />Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment , 1790, James Creed Meredith<br />(translator), <a rel="nofollow" href="http://eserver.org/philosophy/kant/critique-of-judgment.txt">http://eserver.org/philosophy/kant/critique-of-judgment.txt</a><br /><br />Scha, Remko. "Readymades, Artificial Art, New Media", reprinted from<br />Annette W. Balkema and Henk Slager (eds.): Exploding Aesthetics. L&B<br />Series of Philosophy of Art and Art Theory , Vol. 16. Amsterdam & Atlanta:<br />Rodopi, 2001, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://iaaa.nl/rs/Lier&Boog.html">http://iaaa.nl/rs/Lier&Boog.html</a><br /><br />Zilar, Jeremy."Re: randomness." Post to rhizome.org list-serv. July 2004,<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/">http://rhizome.org/</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of<br />the New Museum of Contemporary Art.<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is supported by grants from The Charles Engelhard<br />Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for<br />the Visual Arts, and with public funds from the New York State Council<br />on the Arts, a state agency.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is filtered by Kevin McGarry (kevin@rhizome.org). ISSN:<br />1525-9110. Volume 9, number30. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org<br />are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art<br />and be less than 1500 words. 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