RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.05.05

discussion

Posted June 4 2005 20:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.05.05

RHIZOME DIGEST: June 5, 2005 Content: +note+ 1. Francis Hwang: Director of Technology's report, May 2005 2. Francis Hwang: raw.rss +announcement+ 3. Michael Arnold Mages: June on -empyre-: we-blog with abe linkoln, jimpunk, Chris Ashley and Tom Moody 4. Johannes Grenzfurthner: monochrom\\\'s EXPERIENCE THE EXPERIENCE 5. doron golan: new work at computer fine arts collection +opportunity+ 6. Kevin McGarry: FW: [oldboys] Reminder: MARS PATENT's 'OLDENBURG-REICHE PRIZE' 7. Roopesh Sitharan: Call for participation>>>New Forms Festival 2005: ecologies +commissioned for Rhizome.org+ 8. Joni Taylor: Book Review: "At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet" + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering Organizational Subscriptions, group memberships that can be purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants at institutions to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. For a discounted rate, students or faculty at universities or visitors to art centers can have access to Rhizome?s archives of art and text as well as guides and educational tools to make navigation of this content easy. Rhizome is also offering subsidized Organizational Subscriptions 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 Lauren Cornell at LaurenCornell@Rhizome.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 6.02.05 From: Francis Hwang <francis@rhizome.org> Subject: Director of Technology's report, May 2005 Hi all, An eventful month. Let me go over some of the things I've been doing: 1. Membership policy change Obviously, this was the biggie; a policy six months in the making, and one that we hope will pave the way for us to offer lots of new great stuff. There's already been lots of discussion about it; let me focus on the technical stuff and say that it's my understanding that as of this writing, there are no technical problems with the policy transition. If you see any problems, please feel free to let me know. 2. Made /text/ quite a bit faster I added a little caching code; <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/text/">http://rhizome.org/text/</a> should run quite a bit faster than it used to. I'm looking at site speed more closely than before, so this won't be the last of these sorts of gradual tweaks. One thing I realized is that our front page is about 100k, which seems like it's too big. But then I look at other sites: Eyebeam's reBlog is 512k, Boing Boing is 756k, We Make Money Not Art is 298k, so maybe I've got nothing to worry about. Hard to say. Some of our site users have day jobs as web designers and surf our site from their office's T1 line; some are trying to get by using a computer at a media lab in Bangkok with a 56k modem. You don't want to discount the importance of users with slow bandwidth, but you'd like to keep the page visually interesting, too … Opinions, as always, are welcome. 3. Commissions People are intermittently asking me about this, so: No, we still have not announced the awards for this year's cycle. We're hammering out some last-minute details and are hoping to announce quite soon. We're quite sorry to put people to this sort of inconvenience. Best, Francis Hwang Director of Technology Rhizome.org phone: 212-219-1288x202 AIM: francisrhizome + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 6.03.05 From: Francis Hwang <francis@rhizome.org> Subject: raw.rss Now available at Rhizome: a Raw RSS feed! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/raw.rss">http://rhizome.org/syndicate/raw.rss</a> Right now this feed re-posts the entire text as posted originally. So it's suitable for reading, reposting, etc., etc. There are now three separate ways to track the discussion on Raw: by email, by web, and by RSS syndication feed. I set the feed to track the last 40 items, which right now means it's a sort of big feed, at 87k. Of course with Raw's traffic the way it is, the resulting feed only tracks about the last 36 hours worth of posts. I'm considering excerpting some of the bigger posts, and having more posts per feed, if 36 hours isn't enough … anyway, let me know if you're using it and have suggestions for it. This is one of those things that we couldn't have done three weeks ago. I hope y'all find it useful. Francis Hwang Director of Technology Rhizome.org phone: 212-219-1288x202 AIM: francisrhizome + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 5.31.05 From: Michael Arnold Mages <marnoldm@du.edu> Subject: June on -empyre-: we-blog with abe linkoln, jimpunk, Chris Ashley and Tom Moody -empyre- takes pleasure in welcoming four artists whose work engages the medium of the weblog as a new area for artistic practice. As the heritage of the Internet itself is essentially as a text-transmission device, it is unsurprising that textuality can still be explored, re-positioned and re-presented in compelling ways through the medium of the Internet. As one of the most recent memes to infect mainstream culture the blog is suddenly an essential business tool, an important force in the ongoing development of journalism, and a new conversational network. Mixing the genres of the documentary, the journal, the personal conversation, the usenet discussion board, this month's artists bring the weblog into the realm of artistic practice in the network. =============== abe linkoln lives here: www.linkoln.net <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.linkoln.net">http://www.linkoln.net</a>> here's a tattoo he has: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://linkoln.net/neversaydie.jpg">http://linkoln.net/neversaydie.jpg</a> and he wrote this funny email once: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0308/msg00073.html">http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0308/msg00073.html</a> jimpunk uses the tools of dataculture to create cinematic, yet linguistically-based work that asserts computer control over the browser. jimpunk's work and texts are available through <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jimpunk.com/">http://www.jimpunk.com/</a> Chris Ashley is an artist, writer, and educator living and working in Oakland, California. In addition to his work as a painter, he posts an HTML drawing every day, and regularly posts writing about art on his weblog (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisashley.net">http://www.chrisashley.net</a>). The weblog, called "Look, See", has a full archive of past HTML drawings, images of paintings and drawings, art writing, and writing by others about the HTML drawings. Tom Moody is a visual artist based in New York. His low-tech art made with MSPaintbrush, photocopiers, and consumer printers has appeared in solo shows at Derek Eller Gallery and UP&CO. Documentation of his studio practice, as well as his digital animation, music, and writing on a variety of topics, appears regularly on his weblog at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.digitalmediatree.com/tommoody/">http://www.digitalmediatree.com/tommoody/</a> . Launched in February 2001, the blog was recently recommended along with 11 others in the Art in America article "Art in the Blogosphere." + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org 2005 Net Art Commissions The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via panel-awarded commissions. For the 2005 Rhizome Commissions, seven artists were selected to create artworks relating to the theme of Games: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/2005.rhiz">http://rhizome.org/commissions/2005.rhiz</a> The Rhizome Commissioning Program is made possible by generous support from the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 6.01.05 From: johannes grenzfurthner <jg@monochrom.at> Subject: monochrom\\\'s EXPERIENCE THE EXPERIENCE monochrom: EXPERIENCE THE EXPERIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco June 14-July 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . So-called "experience" is a highly Anglo-American term. Roughly speaking, everything is plugged as "experience". Whether it is a "dining experience" in a restaurant or the "Disney experience" in Orlando or "experience the sorrow and tragedy of Ground Zero" in New York City… everything has to be made "experiencable" or presented as an "experience". Yet there is not even a word for it in German. "Experience" is untranslatable. Of course, this is the same as with all cultural ideas: being untranslatable, ergo driving you crazy. Even though we are coming disguised as tourists, we don't want to always just take. We would also like to give. We bring something with us for North America. And when we leave, we will have gained the experience of how our experience has been experienced. We want to see what that does to us and what the what-it-does-to-us does to North America. We want to convey a total of 7 new "experiences" to the local population in three North American cities, making them "experiencable" in performances and events. More tour infos: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.monochrom.at/experiences/">http://www.monochrom.at/experiences/</a> About monochrom: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.monochrom.at/english/">http://www.monochrom.at/english/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochrom">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochrom</a> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DATES AND EXPERIENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LOS ANGELES Basecamp: The Machine Project (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.machineproject.com/">http://www.machineproject.com/</a>) * Experience The Experience Of Being Buried Alive (June 14) The people present will have an opportunity to be buried alive in a coffin for fifteen minutes. As a framework program there will be lectures about the history of the science of determining death and the medical cultural history of "buried alive". People buried alive not only populate the horror stories of past centuries, but also countless reports in specialized medical literature. The theme of unintentional resurrection by grave robbers also runs through forensic protocols. Even in the 19th century it was said that every tenth person was buried alive. No wonder that the fear of this fate was immense and led - especially in the German-speaking region - to all kinds of precautions to avoid it. Various death test methods were developed, for instance. "Security coffins" with bell pulls and air hoses were patented; mortuaries were built, in which corpses were left for days to natural decay. * Experience The Experience Of A Magnetism Party (June 18) Electromagnetic data carriers are subject to the influences of time. Errors thus accumulate, due to mechanical influences, chemical influences, thermic influences, influences from external magnetic fields. The data carriers age, and the information stored on them is affected. The bits can no longer be read, or they are altered, or the information is lost. Accompanied by contemporary alternative mainstream techno and house rhythms and using several heavy-duty neodym magnets, monochrom will delete all the data carriers that can be found. Naturally the public is invited to bring data carriers themselves. The destruction of magnetic storage media is a form of destruction that can reasonably be called unspectacular. But it is important. Our society collects and collects and collects. The hard drives are full. However, we can also dispense with the bourgeois-humanist criticism of the "information flood", this maelstrom that is said to attack the printed word. The Magnetism Party is therefore an attempt to actively come to terms with one aspect of the information society that is almost completely ignored by our epistemological machinery. Delete is just another word for nothing left to lose. * Experience the Experience of a Brick of Coke (June 21) Sugar has always been expensive enough that in a variety of cultures and eras it has even been used as a medium of exchange. In Europe sugar was first introduced around the year 600, and it reached England via the Mediterranean region in the 11th century - of course as a luxury good reserved for the ruling class. The first recorded delivery of slaves (to Lagos, Portugal in 1444) was intended for sugar cultivation on Portugalâ??s Atlantic islands. In order to provide sufficient â??personnelâ?? for the colonies overseas, the slave trade was promoted intensively. Sugar was in part responsible for the development of the gigantic preindustrial bureaucratic mercantile system of â??prosperity.â?? Refined white sugar was the symbol of European conquest and of century-long repression and colonial dependency. Sugar still dominates the Western meal plan as the main energy provider. The â??formerâ?? tropical colonies are still ruled by the multinational concerns of the sugar industry. Coca Cola is the largest seller on the world market. monochrom is going to put several gallons of Coca Cola into a pot and boil it down until the residue left behind can be molded into a brick. A symbolic endeavor! * Experience The Experience Of An Illegal Space Race (June 25) The California desert begins just a few minutes' drive away from the gallery. We will place the planets true to scale in the desert (sun, 4 meters in diameter, Pluto, one centimeter in diameter, about 20 miles away). Then we will conduct a car race. The team that makes it through the desert fastest wins the "illegal space race". In conclusion, of course, the speeds of the cars will be calculated, for example, how much faster than light they were. Planetary scientists will be on hand as guests to comment on the events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VANCOUVER Basecamp: Contemporary Art Gallery (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/">http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/</a>) * Experience The Experience Of Being Buried Alive (June 30) (See above) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SAN FRANCISCO Basecamp: RxGallery/Blasthaus (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rxgallery.com/">http://www.rxgallery.com/</a>) * Experience The Experience Of Being Buried Alive (July 8) (See above) * Experience the Experience of Growing Money (July 10) Money is frozen desire. Thus it governs the world. Money is used for all forms of trade, from daily shopping at the supermarket to trafficking in human beings and drugs. In the course of all these transactions, our money wears out quickly, especially the smaller bank notes that are changing hands constantly. Although paper money (consisting of a robust blend of 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen) is manufactured to endure intensive use (4,000 folds in each direction without tearing!), a dollar bill only lasts an average of 18 months in the USA. The Federal Reserve is responsible for ensuring that money is not too worn, torn or soiled. For this purpose, all bank notes that are returned to the Fed by other financial institutions are tested, and the bills that don't make the grade are pulled out of circulation. Money is dirty, and thus it is a living entity. This is something we take literally: money is an ideal environment for microscopic organisms and bacteria. We want to make your money grow. In a potent nutrient fluid under heat lamps we want to get as much life as we can out of your dollar bills. Take part! * Experience the Experience of Catapulting Wireless Devices (Workshop: July 9; Event: July 16) The term catapult (from the Greek kata + paltes, to hurl down or against) generally refers to a machine that converts conserved energy into movement (movement energy) with the aim of putting an object at rest into a state of motion (to 'catapult'). In antiquity and during the Middle Ages, the catapult was used to hurl stones or arrows. These devices were primarily implemented during sieges. The propulsion medium for this sort of catapult was usually a material such as wood, rope or sinew under tension, with the tension having been accumulated through the work of the operating personnel (bow and arrow principle). The catapult is one of the oldest machines in the history of technology. It is no coincidence that monochrom would like to instigate a creative return. The knife edge of technology hype is sharp, most of all on the west coast of the United States. Thus monochrom would like to initiate a competition. We invite interested persons to design and build a catapult capable of hurling a cell phone or a PDA unit the greatest possible distance. In order to ensure that no participant has any unfair advantage, monochrom will provide a specifications list regarding materials (e.g. metal) that may not be used and other limitations (e.g. size and weight). * Experience the Experience of 1 Baud (Workshop: July 17; Event: July 22) The International Code of Signals serves to facilitate communication at sea. It defines the meaning of alphabetical identification codes for safety and navigation purposes. The key for 'sending' was drafted by a committee of the British Board of Trade in 1855 and published in 1857. The 1969 edition, revised in 2003, is still in use today.We have expanded the flag alphabet, not just so that it also includes the @ sign, but so that city dwellers have access to pure communication. The flag alphabet will be taught in a workshop lasting several hours. After a few days set aside for study and practice, we would like, in the form of a competition, to send an identical message across the city over two equally long routes simultaneously. Will it work? + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 6.01.05 From: doron golan <v@computerfinearts.com> Subject: new work at computer fine arts collection Xavier Cahen - Louvre 01/15/05 and 03/20 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/cahen/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/cahen/</a> G.H Hovagimyan - Vanity Search <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/hovagimyan/vanitysearch/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/hovagimyan/vanitysearch/</a> Patrick Lichty - Sprawl <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/lichty/sprawl/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/lichty/sprawl/</a> Lokiss - Has Had and Like Love <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/lokiss/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/lokiss/</a> Jody Zellen - War Stories <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/zellen/war/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/zellen/war/</a> utensil.net (Beth Stryker + Sawad Brooks): 1+1 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/utensil/1+1/">http://www.computerfinearts.com/collection/utensil/1+1/</a> doron golan <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.computerfinearts.com">http://www.computerfinearts.com</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Support Rhizome: buy a hosting plan from BroadSpire <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/hosting/">http://rhizome.org/hosting/</a> Reliable, robust hosting plans from $65 per year. Purchasing hosting from BroadSpire contributes directly to Rhizome's fiscal well-being, so think about about the new Bundle pack, or any other plan, today! About BroadSpire BroadSpire is a mid-size commercial web hosting provider. After conducting a thorough review of the web hosting industry, we selected BroadSpire as our partner because they offer the right combination of affordable plans (prices start at $14.95 per month), dependable customer support, and a full range of services. We have been working with BroadSpire since June 2002, and have been very impressed with the quality of their service. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 5.31.05 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin@rhizome.org> Subject: FW: [oldboys] Reminder: MARS PATENT's 'OLDENBURG-REICHE PRIZE' —— Forwarded Message From: helene von oldenburg <info@arachno-space.net> Reply-To: oldboys@lists.ccc.de Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 16:30:16 +0200 To: oldboys@lists.ccc.de Subject: [oldboys] Reminder: MARS PATENT's 'OLDENBURG-REICHE PRIZE' Last call for the 'OLDENBURG-REICHE PRIZE'. If you are thinking of submitting - now is the time to do it. Deadline June, 15th, 2005 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ MARS PATENT 's Competition 2004 / 2005 'OLDENBURG-REICHE PRIZE' Rules and Information for the Competition 2004 / 2005 In 2004 the MARS PATENT¹s founders Claudia Reiche and Helene von Oldenburg agreed to underwrite a contest designed to prove that MARS PATENT¹s HRM_1.0n, the ³High Reality Machine² works and to explain its principle functions. Explain the High Reality Machine (HRM_1.0n)! The authors pledged a Grand Prize of two polished brass plates for the first scientist or artist whose solution is convincing to the MARS PATENT¹s Grand Jury. This Jury consists of 5 (five) randomly chosen members of the Friends of the MARS PATENT with an international reputation and experiences as jury or progamm committee members, chairs of institutions or else. This jury will stay anonymous until the results of the reviewing process being declared to guarantee their independency. One brass plate with the engraved name of the winner will be teleported by the HRM_1.0n to the Mars Exhibition site (MES), and fixed with 2 brass screws on a beautiful rock on Mars, coordinates: Latitude 19° N, Longitude 281° E, facing south. The second brass plate will be given to the winner at her or his free disposition. If there are two equally convincing submissions, the female author will be declared winner. Submissions should be e-mailed to: office@mars-patent.org The winner will be notified as soon as possible and presented on the MARS PATENT¹s website, as will every submission to allow a public discussion of the submissions and the jury¹s choice. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ go: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mars-patent.org">http://www.mars-patent.org</a> THE MARS PATENT The first Interplanetarian Exhibition Space on Mars Claudia Reiche Helene von Oldenburg + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome ArtBase Exhibitions <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/">http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/</a> Visit the fourth ArtBase Exhibition "City/Observer," curated by Yukie Kamiya of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and designed by T.Whid of MTAA. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/city/">http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/city/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 6.02.05 From: Roopesh Sitharan <intergra@rocketmail.com> Subject: Call for participation>>>New Forms Festival 2005: ecologies New Forms Festival 2005: ecologies (September 15-24, 2005) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada NFF 05: Ecologies The Festival is comprised of five sections: Low art, Film, Exhibition, Performance and Conference. NFF 05 Ecologies explores the complex interconnections in our inhabited world. With a focus on the ecologies of technology and beyond; we examine past, present and future models and ways of seeing, hearing and feeling our environment. This year's festival recognizes the wisdom that nature provides in terms of the technological world around us, and how these interpretations play out within arts, activism and culture. The physical environment, the embodiment of technologies that we create, and environmental issues all play a part in this larger discourse. These include issues of sustainability, inter-relationships, variety, complexity, balance, organism, spirit, non-linear approaches to space and time, and non-linear relationships. Systems and ecologies are expansive and all around us, and impact everything from the programming we use in the virtual world, to our sacred environments. As technology interconnects with our themes of 'Ecology' and 'Environment', we ask where will this interconnection lead us? This year's festival will look at this question in a multitude of ways, bridging different interpretations on these themes into one greater ecological perspective. The selected sub-themes for each section of this year's festival will be drawn from: - Media ecologies - Acoustic ecology - Eco Systems: Negotiating Natural, Cultural and Technological Systems in a Post-traditional Ecology - Visual ecology - Systems - Cybernetics - Complexity/chaos - Natural Elements to Performance - The Natural Environment - Cultural ecologies - Network ecologies - Politics of nature - Interacting with live instrumentation. - Home and inhabited world - Location and dislocation. All submissions for the festival should identify the specific event in the festival that they are submitting to. Further to the word application, which can be downloaded through our website at www.newformsfestival.com, all submissions for exhibition/performance/low art should be accompanied by a hard copy of works being submitted for the festival, with an entire performance/installation in full. All conference submission guidelines accompany this call, and can be sent via email to submissions AT newformsfestival.com. Email all submission forms and pdf/word documents to submissions AT newformsfestival.com. Accepted media for preview: Quicktime on CD/DVD ROM, TAPE(NTSC), CD92s, websites. No demo versions please - only finished works will be looked at. Where appropriate, an explanation should be given as to which aspects of the works the jury should consider in particular. Please send all applications to : New Forms Festival 05. #200-252 East 1st Avenue. Vancouver, B.C. V5T-1A6. For any inquiries please email curatorial AT newformsfest + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 6.05.05 From: joni taylor <joniponi2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Book Review: "At A Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet" At a Distance Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet Edited by Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark The fact that the editors of ³At A Distance² are both from Australia comes as no surprise. Having lived there, I often wonder if my own passion for the Internet came about because it allowed me to feel like I was ³connected² to the rest of the world. As pointed out in their introduction, the matter of geographical distance and the necessity of communication go hand in hand. But this book is about the precursors to the Internet–artistic and activist exchanges that were happening long before I set up my first Internet account. It¹s a timely publication, and one that has many repercussions in the current trend of locative high tech communication. The book spans the 60¹s to the 80¹s and traces the inter-relations of art and activist activities that used PUBLIC communication devices–like mail, fax, satellite, radio, phone and early networking technologies: what the editors call Distance Art/Activism. Chandler and Neumark have brought together a huge collection of authors (20 chapters) ranging from critics and theorists to the artists that were directly involved in the many projects and experiments that made up this movement. I find the recurring elements of play and networking to most distinguish Distance Art/Activism. In this ³post-digital² age, many art movements of the last 40 years sound more like technical jargon, and, more often than not, refer directly to the machines that created them. Some are better known than others, like "Mail Art," "Computer Art" and "Net Art;" others like "Fax Art" and "Satellite Art" remain obscure footnotes in reference books. What ³At A Distance² does is point out that the importance of these projects is not solely determined by specific technologies, but more generally by the impulse to send signals or art across distances. Access All Areas Communication is the presence of a Third, the presence of a parasite……. Just as the roll of the dice never eliminates chance, a signal can never eliminate noise². - Siegert, "Relays" This noise that Siegert writes of can be heard in all Distance Art/Activism. It¹s the chance the mail will be lost, stolen or torn. It¹s the hiss, or the cross line on that interstate call, and it¹s the virus, the glitch, the ghost in the machine. What struck me about Distance Art/Activism is that it always uses the systems put in place by something other than the art machine. Systems put in there by the state (Post), by businesses (Fax), by corporate giants (Satellites) and by universities (early computer networking). It¹s an iconoclastic challenge to these institutions and thus a true crossing over of artist/activist. The postal system was the first communication service to be ³infiltrated² by artists, and Mail Art is a reoccurring theme through out the book. (Neumark¹s grandfather's envelope-making inventions actually inspired the editor to research Post and Mail Art). Fluxus artist Robert Filliou wrote in the 60s of an ³eternal network²–an artistic exchange to be developed through the postal service. This method was uncontrollable and random, leaving space for play, chance and surprise. Sending art through the mail was affordable, it reached everywhere, it was anonymous ³an open space for cultural experimentation, a free space.² And the post office provided artists with the distribution network. In what echoes the cries for the democratization of the Internet, Dada expert Klaus Groh stated ³Mail Art is more open, more democratic than all artistic production before. It is open for everyone² To continue chronologically, the next mode of communication utilized for art and activism occurred within the corporate office environment. As faster and more streamlined communication devices were being set up, there were more opportunities to play with the bureaucracy that created them. Net theorist Tilman Baumgartel gives an example of the NE Thing Company Ltd, a precursor to many of today's online pseudo-identities. By utilizing the telefax machine, (then usually only used by rich businesses), NE Thing marketed themselves as a company, and were invited to trade and art fairs. By using the telefax, they existed in a non-space similar to the net. They could be ³everywhere and nowhere² at the same time; they played with space itself. This was a fore-runner to the many later online groups (such as ubermorgen and the Yes Men) who use the Internet to set up fake institutions. The Telephone, traditionally a one-to-one form of communication became a one-to-many under the hands of bands like Negativeland. Band member Don Joyce writes an autobiographical account of his radio show "Over the Edge," and how the band used the audio detritus of the times–found sound, telephones, prank calling, electronic machines (and literally the kitchen sink)–to transform the medium of radio into a telephonic and playful art, in their own wonderful way. Playing with satellites may seem like a utopian dream but as pointed out, they have been used both for artistic and activist purposes. ³Mobile Image² was a project by Californian activists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, when they were given access to a satellite by NASA . Paper Tiger Television and Deep Dish TV was another initiative to subvert the high technology of space and used it for distributing activist video content. Deep Dish TV was downlinked by at least 186 stations and came with a zine with contact information to video activists around the Globe. The Network The word Network has become attached to Internet or Web based communication, but the authors have included a range of examples proving that networks were in fact occurring long before we started buying 10 metres of category 5 cable. A topic that is echoed time and time again throughout the book is the idea of Distance Art/Activism being ³objectless," and a challenge to ³inspired authorship² by being collaborative by nature. Fluxus was also a networked based movement, with the emphasis on collectivity and collaboration, rather than individuality and exclusivity. Fluxus member George Maciunus himself wrote ³Fluxus is a collective and should not be associated with any particular Fluxus individual. Flux tends to de-individualise individuals². In an essay by Fluxus expert and writer Owen Smith, he points out that what the critical and open ended thinking of Fluxus offered to art is parallel to what the open source movement offers to computer programming today. ³At A Distance² provides an informative overview of the many early pioneers of networked systems, and is a useful resource for those interested in its early incarnations. Network pioneer and creator of the term ³distributed authorship² Roy Ascott gives an autobiographical account of his travels from Californian esoterics to his electronic collaborations that led to the formation of telematic or telemadic connectivism. ³The world in 24 hours²(1982) was an important telecommunications project organised by Robert Adrian X for the Ars Electronica. It linked artists in 16 cities on 3 continents for 24 hours with the goal to follow the midday sun around the earth. Another exhibition ³ZERO- the art of being everywhere² set up ZEROnet as a bulletin board and was a precursor to networks such as artex and other netcommunity groups such as The WELL and The Thing. Early telecommunication technologies such the IP sharp APL Time sharing network, slowscan tv and Audiolink were used to allow artists to engage in this new form of distributed authorship. Other important experiments/shows in the history of networked performances were Realtime (1993) and Chip Radio (1992). Both were held in Austria and experimented with telerobotics and radio space. Musicians Chris Brown and John Bischoff give an autobiographical view of the history of the ³League of Automatic Music Composers² which they founded in the mid 70¹s. They designed and built their own hardware, playing with the capabilities of the microcomputer (aka personal computer). Another form of distributed authorship was the radio experiments of Japanese mini FM developer Tetsu Kogawa. In an interview with the editors he explains how by using recording devices he encouraged his students to create a collective expression, a reversal of the Burroughs cut-up. In the final chapter theorist Sean Cubbit brings these historical networking movements up-to-date. He writes ³The old art of objects and even of ideas pale into the past: We have the future to build, and it will be global, networked and utterly new, or it will not be the future at all.² Together the editors and authors of ³At A Distance² create an informative and in-depth analysis of a movement that has–both directly and indirectly–led to many of today's art and activist movements. In this age of rapidly developing communication systems, where new devices are still largely in the hands of corporate communication networks, it is an inspiring and timely read. Joni Taylor + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 23. 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>. 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