RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.18.04

discussion

Posted June 17 2004 20:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.18.04

RHIZOME DIGEST: June 18, 2004 Content: +announcement+ 1. matthew fuller: fenlandia 2. Clemente Padín: Art.Emotion 04 3. Noel Kelly: XÃVER Visual Arts @ Fused 2004, Dublin, Ireland +opportunity+ 4. patrick lichty: Mobile Exposure - Call for mobile video 5. Brooke Singer: Computer Technician Position Available @ SUNY Purchase, New Media Program 6. Justine Bizzocchi: DiGRA 2005 Conference Announced 7. ryan griffis: Orlo News + call +scene report+ 8. Tom Brecelic: The Next Wave, Unpopular Culture, by Tom Brecelic + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 6.15.04 From: matthew fuller <fuller@xs4all.nl> Subject: fenlandia fenlandia <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.susan-collins.net/fenlandia">http://www.susan-collins.net/fenlandia</a> a new online work by Susan Collins Over 12 months from May 2004, images will be recorded from various sites - rural and technological - in the Silicon Fen area of East Anglia (UK). The first site is Sutton Gault in Cambridgeshire (from the chimney of a 17C coaching inn). The webcam records images pixel by pixel. Each image is collected from top to bottom and left to right in horizontal bands continuously, recording fluctuations in light and movement throughout the day (and night). It will record at different rates over the course of the year and is currently set to record a pixel a second, so that the whole image is made up of individual pixels collected over 21.33 hours. A selection of these images are displayed in the archive section of this website, which will be added to as the year progresses. fenlandia is being developed as a distributable artwork which can be viewed full screen and updated live to your computer in real time. Currently the (beta version) display software is available for Mac OS X. PC and Mac OS9 versions will follow shortly. fenlandia has been commissioned for Silicon Fen <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.silicon-fen.net">http://www.silicon-fen.net</a> By Film and Video Umbrella and Norwich School of Art and Design + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 6.15.04 From: Clemente Padín <7w1k4nc9@adinet.com.uy> Subject: Art.Emotion 04 ART.FICIAL EMOTION II    =    ART.IFICIAL EMOCION II in/en Itau Cultural, Av. Paulista 149, Sao Paulo, Brazil TECHNOLOGICAL DIVERGENCES  =   DIVERGENCIAS TECNOLOGICAS Exhibition opening: July 1st (closes September 26th) = Apertura exposicion: 1ro. Julio (cierra 26 Setiembre) Conference: from July 2nd to July 5th  =  Conferencias: del 1ro. al 5 de Julio Organization/Organizacion: Arlindo Machado and/y Gilbertto Prado   2nd July - 2:30 PM Opening: Homage to Haroldo de Campos and Julio Plaza Augusto de Campos (Brazil) Regina Silveira (Brazil) Irene Machado (Brazil) Arlindo Machado (Brazil) Gilbertto Prado (Brazil) 2nd July - 7:30 PM Networks and the New Spaces for Intervention Fred Forest (France) Paulo Bruscky (Brazil) Clemente Padin (Uruguay) Gilbertto Prado (Brazil) Maria Luiza Fragoso (moderator) 3rd July - 10:00.AM Art & Tecnology: How to Politicize the Discussion? Antoni Muntadas (Spain) Jorge La Ferla (Argentina) Davide Grassi (Slovenia) Oliver Ressler (Germany) Coco Fusco (Cuba/EUA) Lucas Bambozzi (moderator) 3rd July - 2:30 PM Poetics and Perspectives of Media Arts Anne-Marie Duguet (France) François Soulages (France) Ivana Bentes (Brazil) Christine Mello (Brazil) Cláudia Giannetti (Brazil/Spain) Milton Sogabe (moderator) 3rd July - 7:30 PM Digital Inclusion, Free Software, Open Sources Susana Noguero (Spain) André Lemos (Brazil) Rejane Spitz (Brazil) Hernani Dimantas (Brazil) Angie Bonino (Peru) Guilherme Kujawski (moderator) 4th July - 10:00 AM Conflict and Resistance in the Global Society Fran Ilich (Mexico) Maria C. Costa (Brasil) Maurício Dias & Walter Riedwec (Brazil & Switzerland) José-Carlos Mariategui (Peru) Fábio Duarte (moderator) 4th July - 2:30 PM Emergent Realities Diana Domingues (Brazil) Rodrigo Alonso (Argentina) Sílvia Laurentiz (Brazil) Iliana Hernandez (Colombia) Marcos Cuzziol (moderator) 4th July - 7:30 PM The City as Interface Christian Huebler - Knowbotic  (Netherlands/Germany) Giselle Beiguelman (Brazil) Michael Rakowitz (USA) Simone Michelin (Brazil) Nelson Brissac Peixoto (Brazil) Marcelo Tramontano (moderator) 5th July - 10:00 AM Immersive Virtual Spaces Jeffrey Shaw (Australia) Arlindo Machado (Brazil) Tânia Fraga (Brazil) Rejane Cantoni (Brazil) André Parente (Brazil) Lúcia Leão (moderator) 5th July - 10:00 AM Immersive Virtual Spaces Jeffrey Shaw (Australia) Arlindo Machado (Brazil) Tânia Fraga (Brazil) Rejane Cantoni (Brazil) André Parente (Brazil) Lúcia Leão (moderator) 5th July - 2:30 PM The New Biological Paradigm Eduardo Kac (Brazil/EUA) Paula Sibilia (Brazil) Annick Bureaud (France) Roy Ascott (Great Britain) Eduardo de Jesus (moderator) 5th July - 7:30 PM Subjectivities on Line Suzette Venturelli (Brazil) Sara Diamond (Canada) Giselle Beiguelman (Brazil) Minerva Cuevas (México) Mariela Yeregui (Argentina) Paula Perissinoto (moderator) ———————————————————————— Another service to the community of Clemente Padin, follow his example! Otro servicio a la comunidad de Clemente Padin, siga su ejemplo! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 6.16.04 From: Noel Kelly <art.info@artprojectsnetwork.net> Subject: XÃVER Visual Arts @ Fused 2004, Dublin, Ireland XÃ?VER Visual Arts @ Fused 2004 curated by The Art Projects Network 21st June - 20th July 2004 South Dublin Libraries: Tallaght, Castletymon, Lucan, Ballyroan, Clondalkin, and County Hall Multimedia Center KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia FUSED:XÃ?VER is a curated website exhibition. This website is made available to the online community both locally and internationally, as well as being available free of charge within the 5 local libraries in the area. Within thiss website are 12 featured artists working in the area of new media that is either realised or supported by Internet-based Art Works. Also contained within the website are links to chosen artists' notebooks, web logs (blogs), on-line diaries, and other sites that enhance the understanding of new media and contemporary visual art. The exhibition space also provides for a discussion area so that all viewers can enter into dialogue about their experiences, and opinions. Featured artists: Lionello Borean & Chiara Grandesso, Geoffrey Thomas, Heath Bunting, Reynald Drouhin, Joseph & Donna McElroy, Lasse Rae, Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Pierre Mertens, Vuk Cosic, and Shirin Kouladjie. On June 24th @ 4pm, in the Loose End Studio, Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Pierre Mertens will provide an opportunity for dialogue. This discussion on the role of new media, and its assistance in the realisation of the possible, the impossible, the improbable, and the ideal seeks to explore where the limits lie, and more importantly who sets these limits. This exhibition will simultaneously open in Multimedia Center KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artprojectsnetwork.net/DublinSouth/">http://www.artprojectsnetwork.net/DublinSouth/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + For $65 annually, Rhizome members can put their sites on a Linux server, with a whopping 350MB disk storage space, 1GB data transfer per month, catch-all email forwarding, daily web traffic stats, 1 FTP account, and the capability to host your own domain name (or use <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.net/your_account_name">http://rhizome.net/your_account_name</a>). Details at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/services/1.php">http://rhizome.org/services/1.php</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 6/13/04 From: patrick lichty <voyd@voyd.com> Subject: Mobile Exposure - Call for mobile video (Distribute widely) Call for works Mobile Exposure An international exhibition of Mobile Video Presented by Microcinema International Curated by Patrick Lichty Deadline: Nov. 31, 2004 Project launch: February 2005 Even though the use of mobile phones for still photography is Gaining more widespread acceptance, more and more cell phones, PDA's and handheld devices are being equipped with video capabilities. What then, are the potentials of the handheld device as a cinematic tool for expression & activism To paraphrase Antin, what are the distinctive qualities of cell Phone video, and how do the stories and images from this technological set differ from its predecessors? Does the intimacy and mobility of the video-enabled cell phone create a change in perspective? Does it represent a culture of universal surveillance where there is a universal intimacy but a complete lack of private space? How does the mobile perspective shift our perception in the way the mediated image of the cellular/network individual is represented? Does its low-resolution somehow challenge the aesthetics, 'truthfulness', or technofetishism of the increasingly filmic nature of video? These are some of the questions that Mobile Exposure hopes to address. CALL FOR WORKS The Mobile Exposure handheld video program is an exploration of the potentials of mobile motion imaging. Practitioners are invited to submit all lengths of work, although the focus will be on short works (less than 15 minutes in length). CALL FOR ESSAYS/CRITICAL WORKS Along with the video program Microcinema invites scholars, writers, and curators for their comments upon the role mobile cinematography will have in the ongoing evolution of video, as well as the cultural effects that the handheld perspective might shift mediated culture from a critical perspective. Over 1000 words preferred; images are also encouraged, and text format in plain text, Rich Text Format, MS Word, or Word Perfect 9 or less, MLA format. Essays will be considered for inclusion in the exhibition catalogue as well as consideration for publication in Intelligent Agent Magazine. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES A brief description of the work(s) of up to 150 words and a short biography of up to 50 words maximum is also requested. Please submit work in DV, VHS, Quicktime, AVI, MPG or other native format (if available). Please keep in mind that it is our intent to try to show these works in theatrical and mobile settings, with the theatrical setting being the taking priority. We will try to handle all format conversion, but any assistance on the part of the artist (multiple formats) is helpful. Still .jpeg or .gif (PC formatted) should be included on a CD. Please mail all submissions to: Mobile Exposure c/o Microcinema International 1530 Sul Ross 1 Houston, TX 77006 Please address all inquiries to: Patrick Lichty voyd@voyd.com TERMS Upon acceptance, practitioners will be contacted by Microcinema International regarding the exposure of works through exhibition, online media, screenings, promotional materials, and on print media (prints/catalogues) for gallery showings. Selected works will be considered for inclusion on a DVD for distribution through Microcinema International's Blackchair DVD Collection, and may be featured on the Microcinema.com website. About Patrick Lichty Lichty is an artist, scholar, and curator in New Media and technological arts, and is noted for his expertise in arts using mobile technologies. He is Editor-in-Chief of Intelligent Agent Magazine. About Microcinema International Microcinema's mission is to curate, exhibit, promote, and distribute innovative international moving image artists whose deeply personal and culturally relevant works are typically marginalized by the mainstream entertainment industry. Microcinema's Independent Exposure is a touring screening program of independent films, videos, and digital art that has been in existence since 1996. Independent Exposure is screened worldwide at various microcinemas and alternative venues and festivals around the world. Microcinema has presented the short film, video and digital works of over 1200 artists in 43 countries plus Palestine and Antarctica. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 6.14.04 From: Brooke Singer <brooke@bsing.net> Subject: Computer Technician Position Available @ SUNY Purchase, New Media Program New Media Computer Technician - $40k deadline: July 1st 2004. Position to be filled by August 15th 2004 Purchase College/State University of New York seeks to hire an experienced computer technician to serve the New Media Program. Requirements: The successful applicant will have at least a bachelor's degree, solid computer skills, including experience in video post-production and server administration, and the ability to communicate and work with faculty, student and technical staff. Duties expected of the successful applicant include: 1. Maintain, administer, backup and supervise: An 18 seat PC computer lab ; Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Adobe PhotoShop, Macromedia Flash, Java, MIDI and more; A 12 seat PC video editing/3D computer lab; A Cross platform research lab of 4 workstations running appropriate software for student and faculty projects;Two department servers. 2. Consult with the department faculty and participate in the planning, designing and equipping of the new digital media facilities as well as develop long range resource upgrade strategies. 3. Work collaboratively with faculty and staff to devise and support the successful implementation of technology in the classroom, including managing the allocation of server space. 4. Identify, train and supervise College Lab Assistants and student assistants appointed to the areas and facilities, which utilize computers and digital technology systems. 5. Help plan and then manage anticipated new technologies. Future capabilities could include running streaming audio and video and supporting peer-to-peer applications. 6. In addition to above technical responsibilities, the person would be available during specified hours to help students with video post-production and senior projects as well as mentor student technical workers. As the facilities evolve, there is a requirement as well as opportunity for continual learning and professional growth. Send a letter describing qualifications and experience with a current resume and names of three references to: Purchase College Office of Human Resources 735 Anderson Hill Road Purchase, NY 10577 human.resources@purchase.edu An Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 6/18/04 From: Justine Bizzocchi <justine@direct.ca> Subject: DiGRA 2005 Conference Announced [June 16, 2004] Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and Simon Fraser University, Canada, hereby announce that the agreement for the organisation of the 2005 Digital Games Research Conference ("DiGRA 2005") has been signed. The conference will take place from June 17 to June 20, 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The event will bring together the digital games research communities from around the world as well as keynote speakers from Europe, America and Asia and looks set to be the largest academic digital games research conference ever held in North America. The 2005 conference is the second in the series of world conferences, designed to facilitate dissemination of information from the increasing multidisciplinary research, both theoretical and practical, on digital games, game playing and players, game design, user communities, cultures and contexts. "Scientific and scholarly advances in games research are currently rapid, and conferences like DiGRA 2005 are important for the discussion, critique, and community formation", says Frans Mäyrä, President of DiGRA. "To further these aims, particular attention will be paid to the review process and publication of the conference papers, to further contribute to the growing standards of this new field." Of the 2005 conference, titled 'Changing Views: Worlds in Play', the Conference Chair, Professor Suzanne de Castell, says, "The goal of this conference is to facilitate a richer and more comprehensive grasp of the present and future capabilities and applications of digital games by inviting and supporting work which demonstrates the values, means and ends of 'changing views' in and on digital games and games research. This work necessarily embraces interdisciplinarity and internationalism, and is, in sum, work which bridges between and across worlds in play. To that end, a wide range of approaches and formats are encouraged, including paper presentations, symposia, poster presentations, author sessions, workshops, senior scholar roundtables, and, especially, innovative formats which bring together games researchers and developers and emerging user communities." "Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. A high tech city, it is home to companies such as Electronic Arts and Creo, cutting edge learning institutions such as SFU Surrey, and innovative technical research institutions. Simon Fraser University offers all the crucial elements necessary to host an event of this calibre; the location, the facilities, the support, the desire, and the determination to host a significant, successful and memorable DiGRA conference. More information and a call for papers will appear soon at www.digra.org, www.gamesconference.org, and in the mailing lists (digra-announce@uta.fi, Gamesnetwork@uta.fi). Suzanne de Castell Frans Mäyrä Professor President Simon Fraser University Digital Games Research Association <decaste@sfu.ca> <frans.mayra@uta.fi> ==================================== Simon Fraser University opened in September 1965. In less than 40 years SFU has gained an international reputation for its strengths in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as for its innovative interdisciplinary and professional programs. It has been rated as Canada's best comprehensive university five times (1993, '96, '97, '98, and '00) in the annual rankings of Maclean's magazine and has consistently placed at, or near, the top of the publication's national evaluations. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is a non-profit international academic association, established in 2003. The main aims of DiGRA are to encourage high-level digital games relevant research, and to promote international collaboration and dissemination of work by its members through research, development, commercial, practitioner and policy communities, networks and organisations. ——— + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 6/18/04 From: ryan griffis <grifray@yahoo.com> Subject: Orlo News + call *BIG ORLO NEWS* 1. NEW WEBSITE! 2. NEW SHOW! 3. NEW CALL TO ARTISTS! 1. After many months of discussions about how to improve and update our website, Orlo is very pleased to announce that we have completed the first phase of our new site. We will now have better capability to bring you all the amazing programming at Orlo through the window of the World "Wild&Free" Web! Please join us at www.orlo.org and let us know what you think. In the coming months we are looking forward to moving into the archival stage of developing this exciting resource. 2. Orlo has an amazing new show at the Orlo Exhibition Space. We welcome Keith Yurdana and his stunning work. We are currently holding open hours on Saturdays from 2-6pm or by appt. Be sure to call the office before you come, as our volunteer hosts are, well, volunteers. 3. We are spreading the word far and wide about our next show featuring proposals for what Portland should do with Ross Island once it is aqcuired back by the city. Please read below the call to artists and let us know if you are interested in participating in this exciting show. Call to Artists and Designers ********************************************************** ORLO invites artists and creative designers to offer proposals for imaginative engagement with Ross Island as it is restored and brought back into the city's natural and cultural life. The restoration of Ross Island offers a unique opportunity to explore how natural and cultural values can be powerfully linked together through the integration of art, ecology, and design.  1. Intro- describe R.I. and the opportunity for art/nature/culture. 2. Call to Artists and Designers 3. Goals, Criteria, Format, Duedate, Mailing 4. Outcomes 5. For further information 1. Introduction: The Opportunity Ross Island, in the midst of the Willamette River and within sight of downtown, will be handed over to the City of Portland after 75 years of industrial use. After a ten year restoration process, Ross Island will become the next important addition to Portland's urban wildlife refuge system. The island is 1 1/4-miles long and over 1/2-mile wide. It is ecologically connected to 160-acre Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge by the narrow Holgate Channel. On the west bank side it faces Portland's South Waterfront district, currently being designed as an important new urban development complex with a 100 to 150-foot greenway along the river. When restored, the Island will include a large lagoon with both deep and shallow water, forested berms or uplands, and extensive shoreline. Its ecological functions include offering refugia for migrating salmon and nesting sites for great blue herons and bald eagles, and represents the only remaining relatively natural island in the Portland harbor. Ross Island will become one of the premier wildlife habitats in Portland Park and Recreation's 10,000 acre park system and one of the most ecologically important elements of the interconnected regional greenspace system. The restored Ross Island will thus be a unique opportunity to explore how natural and cultural values can be powerfully linked together through art and design. Seeing people and nature as "opposites" has been a destructive thought-pattern for a long time. Ross Island is a place where Portland can evolve beyond that separation toward original ways of co-existence. Artists and designers are presented with a multi-dimensional problem: the differing yet overlapping needs/pressures of culture and nature; the different physical locales of Ross Island, Oaks Bottom, South Waterfront; the larger contexts of metropolis and urban ecosystem, past, present, future. How to experience, explore, and create in the spaces thus defined–with all their practical and ecological limits–and their corresponding opportunities for creative solution? 2. Call to Artists and Designers ORLO invites artists and creative designers to offer proposals for imaginative engagement with Ross Island as it is restored and brought back into the city's natural and cultural life. All media and approaches are welcome: traditional, nontraditional, conceptual, etc. Proposals could be creative responses to any of the following questions: " How could the public be brought to understand, support, and participate in the restoration process? " What ultimate result for the Island itself can artists envision that would both respect the natural values, and imaginatively engage people who live and work nearby? " How could art or design help reveal the real although sometimes invisible connectedness of Island, river, ecology, and people? " How could we see the various histories inscribed here–Native American and settler, and also natural? " What contradictions, complications, dangers, or challenges are implied? 3. Goals, Criteria, Format, Duedate: Orlo's goals are three: 1) To awaken public awareness and support for the Ross Island restoration through the proposed or actual artworks/designs. 2) To generate imaginative and possibly new ways for people to enjoy a natural area in their midst, from any perspective or vantage (Island, riverbanks, elsewhere). 3) To re-conceptualize and explore more deeply the human/natural interaction, via the various discourses of gallery show, catalog, essays, and public dialogue. Criteria: -The ecological integrity of Ross Island is an essential value for all work.. (Bald eagle and great blue heron nesting areas, in particular, are Extremely sensitive to human encroachment.) But this value need not rule out Wildly imagined designs. -sites for art/design could include Island, east riverbank, west riverbank, gallery. -temporary or permanent okay -any medium of art, urban design, or landscape design Format and duedate for submissions: -Conceptual ideas and sketches, works on paper, small-scale architectural models -No larger than 36 inches in any dimension. -The artist will be responsible for shipping costs both directions. -Must be received at ORLO by August 12, 2004. Mail or deliver to: ORLO Ross Island Art/Ecology Design Project PO Box 10342 2516 NW 29th Portland, OR 97296 4. Outcomes: " A gallery show (August 28- October 9, 2004) will present designs. These will be either finished works, or graphic presentations of proposed designs.. " All artists/designers will receive a certificate of participation in Orlo's Design Project for Ross Island and a membership in Orlo. " A symposium panel will discuss art, ecology, and restoration " A catalog with critical essay(s) will document the show and symposium. " Orlo's Bear Deluxe magazine (46,000 readers) will provide the medium for continuing discussion and (with other media) will make the announcements and results available to a broad public. " Longer-term outcomes: Orlo hopes that some of the proposals will be so wonderful that a public agency or private foundation will provide funding and support for actual installation. But we have no control over that! 5. For Further Information: Orlo website- www.orlo.org Virtual tour of Willamette River, Ross Island, South Waterfront, Oaks Bottom: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.river.ci.portland.or.us/tour/vt.htm#">http://www.river.ci.portland.or.us/tour/vt.htm#</a> South Waterfront Greenway Development Plan (March 2003 report from River Renaissance): <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.portlandparks.org/Planning/PDFfiles/">http://www.portlandparks.org/Planning/PDFfiles/</a> swfg_Exhibit%20A%20SoWa%20GDP.pdf Wild in the City, A Guide to Portland¹s Natural Areas, Eds. Mike Houck and M J Cody,  (Oregon Historical Society Press, 2000) for detailed discussion of Oaks Bottom, Ross Island, ecological context. Wild on the Willamette, Exploring the Lower Willamette River, a Portland Audubon Society map of the lower Willamette between the Willamette Narrows and the Columbia River. ### Orlo The Orlo Exhibition Space The Bear Deluxe Magazine Mailing address: P.O. Box 10342 Street address: 2516 NW 29th (see www.orlo.org for directions) Portland, Oregon  97296 Phone: 503-242-1047 Fx: 503-243-2645 (call first) email: bear@orlo.org url: www.orlo.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 6/18/04 From: Tom Brecelic <t_brecelic@yahoo.com> Subject: The Next Wave, Unpopular Culture, by Tom Brecelic The Next Wave, Unpopular Culture, by tom brecelic One hot summer night in Newcastle a small group of agitating twenty-somethings left a four-story-high social comment "THIS IS NOT ART² on the side of an abandoned building in the West End of Newcastle, the central Coast of New South Wales. A long time ago the building was the headquarters of the Latec Insurance Group, but it's been empty for years; something of a sign of the city's decline. Now everyone calls it the "THIS IS NOT ART building." One of these artists was Marcus Westbury, a former organizer of the LOUD, Noise, and This Is Not Art festivals. He¹s also the dissenter and artistic director of the 10th Next Wave Festival, Australia¹s only youth-arts festival curated exclusively by emerging artists under the age of 30. Flagrantly shunning anything mainstream, this year¹s festival, held in Melbourne, Australia, 18-30 May, was dedicated to ?Unpopular Culture¹. The under-thirty artists conformed their works to the notion that popular culture is bland and uninteresting. As Westbury says, the artists were encouraged to "reflect, reject, dissect and infect the way the world does business." The Next Wave Festival engulfed Melbourne¹s CBD, flooding through nooks, crannies, alleyways, public spaces, even the sky, before it rippled outwards across urban, suburban and regional environs with a series of satellite events. The high art versus popular culture debate is largely misplaced, asserts Westbury, who thinks the real debate is about ideas and their application. ³It¹s about commercial versus independent culture and not about the relatively worth of different historical and contemporary forms.² The festival encourage audiences to cross pollinate between different events through staggered starting times, close proximity between events, and the construction of social spaces. ³I hope that the net effect will be a festival that causes people to react, reflect and respond and not merely a bit of entertainment,² says Westbury. Pushing the threshold of Political Correctness was Azlan McLennan who only a few weeks earlier exhibited 24/7 with Utako Shind. 24/7 installation was displayed in a Flinders Street shop front featured a Star of David and a written list of alleged atrocities by Israel against Palestinians. The installation, partly funded by the Melbourne City Council, was closed after Jewish groups, councilors and both sides of State Government condemned it as inflammatory, offensive and anti-Semitic, opening up the debate of censorship. "I don¹t think it¹s justifiable for politicians to pull works or exhibitions based on short-term pressures,² says Westbury. "I think we have a great system here in Melbourne of arms-length arts funding and it has served the state and the city really well. Melbourne is the city in Australia that young artists look to, and that¹s the main reason why I - and many people I know - moved here. It¹s refreshing work, and very rare for artists to push the envelope of expression for fear of artistic persecution by the current right wing Howard government who concocted the biggest media performance to get re-elected in the 2001 federal elections. They whipped the ³throw baby overboard² affair, whipping up racist and xenophobic sentiment by accusing Iraqi asylum seekers of throwing their children over board. At least 24/7 was grounded on truth, and it¹s also an indictment against the one sided mainstream reporting of the Palestinian/Israel debate that most people seem to subscribe too. The Next Wave was originally set up to present ideas without being didactic or formulaic about the artists approached theme. Ten festivals later, this year¹s theme of Unpopular Culture is certainly a departure from 2002 The Next Wave: Wide Awake Dreaming at Twilight, which explored ideas of collective dreaming and slipping between subliminal states of alertness. Motion is inherent to animation - without it there is only image. Four independent animators examined their own learning curves, influences, passions and persuasions on the subject of motion with Critical Culture AniMotion, presented on 28 May at the Next Wave Festival Club by four artists, David Blumenstein, Isobel Knowles , Joel Zika and Phip Murray. This sparked a passionate debate on the course Australian animation has taken in the wake of the recent Oscar Award, Australian Adam Elliot¹s who won the category of best animation with his Harvey Crumpet. ³Pop culture has been manufactured over the last sort of 20 years or so, ³says Marcus Westbury. ³It tended to be much more top down, much more based around a very hierarchical distribution be it through television, or books or magazines or any other form of pop culture. ³Now people are noticing its cultural legacy,² he says. ³That animation is becoming a very grass roots phenomenon and it's actually seeding influences and ideas all over the place.² He says people are noticing shows like South Park and The Simpson¹s, and he expects that there will be a whole range of things going on like that in next five or ten years, spurring an animation revolution. The Next Wave Festival is supported by The Program, www.theprogram.net.au , an informative arts and culture based website which aims to help connect young people with all aspects of the arts community and which is also sponsored by the Australia Council. The Kickstart Program is for young emerging artists seeking support for the creation of new works or projects in art forms as varied as visual arts, dance, theatre, new media, film, music, text, community cultural development, sound art, video, and just about anything else you can think of. The 2003 program saw 19 projects selected for development, most of which had an outcome in the 2004 Next Wave festival. The 2005 Kickstart Program will be launched in August this year to germinate new projects for The Next Wave 2006 that¹s become one of the premium New Media Festivals in the Southern Hemisphere. In the wake of the Next Wave Festival, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, one of the main venues of Unpopular Culture, recently pulled the plug on the The Shadowers, by Sydney artist Monika Tichacek, which was commissioned earlier this year by the ACMI. Depicting images of self-mutilation, this $3000 commissioned video shows the artist nailing her tongue to a tree stump, sewing her legs together and simulating strangulation. Which was then removed from the exhibition space it was intended for. ACMI eventually screened The Shadowers in a small room in fear of agitating a very sensitive art set in Melbourne. ³The reason I was given was that the work was too intense to be viewed by a broad audience, children in particular, and I agree with that," said the media artist. Melbourne has become the new media capital of Australia, where flirting with preconceived thresholds seem the norm which seems the big attraction for the down under art scene. ² I am personally very attracted to art that is made by artists that are engaged with bigger questions about the world regardless of whether I personally agree with their views or not. I think we are big enough as a society to have those discussions,² says Westbury who by his very nature, is certainly a champion of Unpopular Culture. - Tom Brecelic + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 9, number 25. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome Digest, please contact info@rhizome.org. To unsubscribe from this list, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/subscribe">http://rhizome.org/subscribe</a>. Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the Member Agreement available online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/29.php">http://rhizome.org/info/29.php</a>. 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