RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.14.04

discussion

Posted May 13 2004 20:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.14.04

RHIZOME DIGEST: May 14, 2004 Content: +announcement+ 1. matthew fuller: Freestyle - FLOSS in Design 2. Pau Welder: Ars Electronica in New York 3. Pau Welder: "Access" wins Webby Award in net art category 4. Alessandro Ludovico: Neural n.21 english ed. (Rechenzentrum, Retroyou, B.Holmes, Telestreet, Plagiarism…) +opportunity+ 5. Rachel Greene: Fwd: updated info on Eurographics 04 art show 6. Jo-Anne Green: New American Radio +work+ 7. Regina CÃ©lia Pinto: Oulipoems and Sporkworld +scene report+ 8. Rebecca Zorach: Version>04:invisibleNetworks + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 5.08.04 From: matthew fuller (fuller@xs4all.nl) Subject: Freestyle - FLOSS In Design Freestyle - FLOSS In Design A seminar on Free, Libre and Open Source Software in Design Over the last few years 'Free Libre and Open Source Software' FLOSS, a form of collaborative software development has proven itself as a driving force of digital networks, especially the internet. Now this approach is beginning to open up new approaches in design and visual culture. This seminar will present clear information on this software and how it both challenges and provides new opportunities for media design. Speakers: Kit Blake - Silva, content management system, Rotterdam; <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.infrae.com">http://www.infrae.com</a> Erik Dooper - Open Source Software Lab, Amsterdam, will demo Scribus, SodiPodi and Inkscape. DTP and vector graphics applications. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ossl.org/">http://www.ossl.org/</a> Rishab Aiyer Ghosh - Economist and editor of FirstMonday, Maastricht; <a rel="nofollow" href="http://orbiten.org/rishab.html">http://orbiten.org/rishab.html</a> Graham Harwood - artist, London, speaking about The GIMP, image manipulation software; <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.scotoma.org/">http://www.scotoma.org/</a> Jaromil - GNU/Linux developer, South Italy, currently resident at Montevideo, Amsterdam; Dynebolic, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dyne.org/">http://www.dyne.org/</a> Willi LeMaitre & Eric Rosenzweig - PlayList, software tools for collaborative video work; <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.w----e.net">http://www.w----e.net</a> Roger Teeuwen - Graphic Designer, Rotterdam Antoine van de Ven - V2_Lab, Rotterdam, presents V2_Jam, research on combining and integrating open source media software; <a rel="nofollow" href="http://lab.v2.nl">http://lab.v2.nl</a> Wednesday, May 19 | 10.30 - 17.00hrs | V2 Eendrachtstraat 10 | Rotterdam Fee for the day: 5euro, 2.50euro concessions Advance Reservations: Eliane Roest (V2_), (010) 206 72 72, eliane at v2.nl This seminar is jointly held by: Media Design Research, Piet Zwart Institute <a rel="nofollow" href="http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/">http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/</a> Interactive Media, Hogeschool van Amsterdam <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.hva.nl/">http://www.hva.nl/</a> V2_Organisation, Institute for the Unstable Media <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.v2.nl/">http://www.v2.nl/</a> STREAM: This seminar will be streamed via <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.v2.nl/live/">http://www.v2.nl/live/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 5.10.04 From: Pau Waelder (pau@sicplacitum.com) Subject: Ars Electronica in New York Digital Avant-Garde: Celebrating 25 Years of Ars Electronica Exhibition, screenings and talks at Eyebeam, American Museum of the Moving Image and Austrian Cultural Forum U.S. premiere exhibition of innovative digital media works of the past and present, sponsored by SAP, the world's leading supplier of business software. New York, NY, May 10, 2004 - Ars Electronica, one of the world's most renowned institutions involved with digital media culture, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this summer. To mark the occasion, Ars Electronica will collaborate with the American Museum of the Moving Image, Eyebeam, and the Austrian Cultural Forum, to present Digital Avant-Garde, a series of exhibitions, screenings, and discussions in New York City from May 20 to July 18, 2004. Since its formation in 1979 in Linz, Austria, Ars Electronica has championed innovative media works that combine art and technology through the presentation of international festivals and a museum, and through the Futurelab, a pioneering research facility for developing new works. Digital Avant-Garde will showcase fascinating digital-media projects that include winners from past festival competitions in the Prix Ars Electronica's interactive art category as well as the latest trends in this art form represented by installations produced at the Ars Electronica Futurelab and works that have come out of Ars Electronica's artist-in-residence program. In addition to these exhibitions, ancillary presentations such as workshops, chats with the artists, screenings and symposia will provide background on the history of digital creativity and current developments in the field. This program is being made possible by the generous support of SAP, the world's leading supplier of business software. With queries please contact: ________________________________________________ Wolfgang A. Bednarzek AEC Ars Electronica Center Linz HauptstraÃ?e 2, 4040 Linz, Austria tel ++43.732.7272-38 fax ++43.732.7272-638 wolfgang.bednarzek@aec.at + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 5.13.04 From: Pau Waelder (pau@sicplacitum.com) Subject: "Access" wins Webby Award in net art category "Access" by Marie Sester, is the winner of the Webby Awards in the net art category. Presented in Ars Electronica in september 2003, this interactive installation lets web users track anonymous individuals in public places, by pursuing them with a robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system. The project website now displays information, photos and videos of past exhibitions. The people's voice winner was Dragan Espenschied's "Gravity", presented at Olia Lialina's online gallery art.teleportacia.org Nominees for this category included Anne-Marie Schleiner's "Velvet Strike" project and Johannes Gees' "Communimage". Links: Access - Marie Sester <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.accessproject.net/index.html">http://www.accessproject.net/index.html</a> Gravity - Dragan Espenchied <a rel="nofollow" href="http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/GRAVITY/">http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/GRAVITY/</a> Webby Awards winners <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html">http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for more information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel@Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 5.14.04 From: Alessandro Ludovico (a.ludovico@neural.it) Subject: Neural n.21 english ed. (Rechenzentrum, Retroyou, B.Holmes, Telestreet, Plagiarism…) The second printed English edition of Neural is out. (this is a quarterly message. If you don't like it, reply with remove in the subject. Thanks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.neural.it/n/n21e.htm">http://www.neural.it/n/n21e.htm</a> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :: 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION! :: 3 issues + 1 electronic music cd :: Europe 19,60 euro. :: World 28,60 U.S: Dollars. :: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://neural.it/subscribe/">http://neural.it/subscribe/</a> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [Neural n.21 contents] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <hacktivism> . Brian Holmes interview, Telestreet, . Chaos Communication Camp, Hackit 03 . news (Hippies From Hell, Superbot, MindGuard, CopVision, Domain Name Anarchy). . reviews: (Lovink-My 1st Recession, Cyber Rights, Tactical Reality Dict., World Inf., Safe Distance,…) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <e.music> . Rechenzentrum (interview), . C505 (interview), . Ryoichi Kurokawa (interview), . Audiopad (interview), . Donna Summer (interview), . 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Details at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/services/1.php">http://rhizome.org/services/1.php</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + SPECIAL FOR MAY 15 - JUNE 15: All those who sign on to Copper or higher hosting plans during these dates will receive three months of full service for only $1.00! That's (Copper) starting you out with 400MB disk storage space, 2GB of data transfer, 5 POP accounts, and 5 email forwarding accounts. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 5.10.04 From: Rachel Greene (rachel@rhizome.org) Subject: Fwd: updated info on Eurographics 04 art show…please distribute (please pardon cross-posting) EUROGRAPHICS 2004Â  – ART SHOW – Deadline is June 1 Flash: John Lansdown Award: Â  The prestigious John Lansdown Award will be selected by the Art Show jury. The award will be dedicated to an interactive web site or CD-ROM that works technically and artistically and that is innovative in its use of interaction. It should reflect on the quality of work that would be worthy of the John Lansdown award. The Awardee will receive 500 Euros. John Lansdown, who died in February 1999, was an inspirational leader who encouraged innovation in others by his own creative works. At Eurographics 2000, a Multimedia prize competition was set up in his honour. John was known for the way he saw things from a different angle to most of us, often bringing new insights by an off-beat approach, and for his long term role as secretary to the Computer Art Society (CAS).Â Â  The CAS was formed in 1968 as branch of the British Computer Society by John Lansdown (architect) and Alan Sutcliffe (pioneer of computer music) (UK).Â  Travel Burseries: A limited number of travel burseries of â?¬300 each, will be awarded to selected artists who to make project presentations as part of the official EG04 programme. All works selected will be presented during the conference, represented on the EGÂ  2004 website, and available in a small publication. A poster will be created with all selected works represented in the show. All selected artists will get free access to the conference. EUROGRAPHICS 2004 The annual conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics. Eurographics 2004 will be held in Grenoble (France) from August 30 until September 3, 2004. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://eg04.inrialpes.fr/">http://eg04.inrialpes.fr/</a> Call for Contributions to the Art Show Â  Topic : artÂ  science Media :Â  computer graphicsÂ  multimediaÂ  animationÂ  game Support : CD-Roms, DVDs, Web-based works The EG 2004 - Art Show competition is open to all artists and researchers who explore science through graphics and visual methods: 3D interactive, 3D environments, games, animation, multimedia or any other graphic process. The purpose is to bring artists and researchers together, establish new collaborations and discussion of graphics processes in use and in development. A juried Art Show,Â  from submitted works of artists working onÂ  topics related to science (medicine, biology, physics) utilising computerÂ  and graphics. ART SHOW JURYÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Kathy Rae Huffman, Director of Visual Arts, Cornerhouse, Manchester UKÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Arghyro Paouri, Media Artist, INRIA, France Karel Dudesek, Professor on MA in Interactive Digital Media, Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, Kent, UKÂ  Jean-Jacques Bourdin, Professor of Computer Graphics, Paris 8 University, FranceÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Nathalie Magnan, Professor National School of Fine Arts, Dijon, France Annie Luciani - Director, Laboratorie Informatique et Creation Artistique (ICA), Grenoble Important dates DeadlineÂ  June 1st, 2004 NotificationÂ  End of June Instructions:Â  Applications and work samples CD-Roms, DVDs,Â  must be received by June 1st 2004, to the following address : Arghyro PAOURI INRIA BP 105 78153 LE CHESNAY CEDEXÂ  FRANCE Arghyro.Paouri@inria.fr Â  Everything will be acknowledged by e-mailÂ  put EG 2004Â  Art Show on the subject for questions **Â  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CIRCULATE THIS CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONSÂ  ** Kathy Rae HuffmanKathy Rae Huffman Director of Visual Arts Cornerhouse 70 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5NH +44.161.200.1523 kathy.rae.huffman@cornerhouse.org <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cornerhouse.org">http://www.cornerhouse.org</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 5.13.04 From: Jo-Anne Green <jo@turbulence.org> Subject: New American Radio May 13, 2004 New American Radio New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. is pleased to announce the availability of 115 full-length "New American Radio" works for online listening at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://somewhere.org">http://somewhere.org</a>; and the release of an article about the series and radio art by Jacki Apple. "Although avant-garde artists have experimented with radio since its inception, it was the advent in the 1970s of non-commercial, listener-sponsored public radio on the FM band, including college and local community stations that opened up the possibilities of art on the airwaves, not simply as an isolated incident but as a viable alternative to rigidly formatted commercial radio dominated by advertising interests. This new opportunity was augmented by the revolution in both recording and broadcast technology and easy consumer access to sophisticated equipment and processes that rapidly changed the nature of production and distribution. Thus in the 1980s radio and audio artworks–sound art, experimental narratives, sonic geographies, pseudo documentaries, radio cinema, conceptual and multimedia performances–a whole panoply of broadcast interventions that confronted the politics of culture, subverted mass media news and entertainment, and challenged aural perceptions, infiltrated the broadcast landscape and acquired an audience. New American Radio was foremost among the series nurturing this work, commissioning, producing and distributing contemporary American radio art nationally and internationally for over ten years." From "New American Radio and Radio Art" by Jacki Apple. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://somewhere.org/NAR/writings/apple.htm">http://somewhere.org/NAR/writings/apple.htm</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 5.15.04 From: Regina CÃ©lia Pinto (reginapinto@arteonline.arq.br) Subject: Oulipoems and Sporkworld Millie Niss is launching her Oulipoems: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sporkworld.org/oulipoems">http://www.sporkworld.org/oulipoems</a> The six works presented in Oulipoems range from poems, to poetry games, to tools for writing poetry. They are inspired by the Oulipo movement, a French literary movement which combines writing and mathematics. Members of the Oulipo create works of literature that are governed by rules ("constraints"). For example, all words might have to contain only the vowel 'e' or words might be spelled phonetically. Members of the Ouliopo are also interested in algorithmically generated texts, including, especially, text-generating machines which can result in an infinite, or at least very large, number of different texts… I do recomend this work! Also Browser at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sporkworld.org/">http://www.sporkworld.org/</a> , an amazing website. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 5.14.04 From: Rebecca Zorach (rezorach@midway.uchicago.edu) Subject: Version>04:invisibleNetworks Version>04:invisibleNetworks In the words of the hardworking organizers of Chicagoâ??s Version>04:invisibleNetworks (April 16-May 1, 2004, www.versionfest.org), the festival sought â??to uncover and open channels of discussion, hidden orders, unseen hands, blackboxes, backdoors, wormholes and access points. Participants in Version>04: invisibleNetworks will function as nodes and hubs in this amorphous system and construct this yearâ??s decentralized convergence.â?? Wait. â??Decentralized convergenceâ??? Is this self-contradictory? A productive tension between coming together and dispersing, and especially between publicity and invisibility, was both manifested and critically explored in a variety of interesting ways throughout Version>04. My own experience of it was necessarily partial, and my reflections can claim to be neither comprehensive nor adequate or representative â?? but such is the nature of the beast. The past two Versions took place over a few days each and were centered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (on the themes of â??the commonsâ?? and â??technotopia vs. technopacalypseâ??). Version>04 was more spread out in both space and time â?? it took place over three weekends and the intervening weeks at a wide variety of venues. It comprised a wide range of media: sound, video, internet, poster, bicycle, performance/intervention, city walk, presentation, booth, discussion. These were organized into a variety of threads (VRSN.SCREEN, VRSN.SOUND, ART OF CULTURAL INTERFERENCE, etc.). Exhibitions included the participatory ZROX at BuddY, in which people were invited to bring work and/or to use a photocopier to make their own reproductions of the work hanging on the walls, and In These Timesâ??s â??Paper Politicsâ?? exhibition of politically-engaged hand-printed media (both provided an eclectic sampling of the inventive, the visually compelling, the witty, and the irate). Screenings included â??Cultural Autopsyâ?? with works providing critical external views of western culture, selected and introduced by Arjon Dunnewind, director of Impakt Festival in the Netherlands Fenslerfilmâ??s wickedly funny series of remixed GI Joe PSAs, and a screening of the soon-to-be released, devastating film The Corporation (directed by Canadian filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott). A range of bicycle-based media included a Zinemobile from Quimbyâ??s that could be biked around to distribute zines; the Human TV Network with its battery powered, bicycle-mounted TVs; and Joshua Klinbergâ??s presentation of Bikes against Bush bicycle-based activist devices. Pink Bloque contributed (remotely) to the convergence through its rousing performances at the Washington, DC March for Womenâ??s Lives. Anti Gravity Surprise unleashed utopian energies by encouraging people to fill in and wear buttons that read â??I want a president who [blank].â?? On the closing night of the convergence, the Yes Men made an appearance, fresh from their infiltration of the Heritage Foundationâ??s annual meeting of rightwing think tanks. The Yes Men, in that they combine website parody, physical world interventions, and email announcements, typify (or at least provide the most celebrated example of) the kinds of tactical relationships to technology highlighted by Version>04. An obvious emphasis on political action emerges from the preceding list, though some of these actions are political simply by virtue of the fact that they deviate from the expectations of regimented and surveilled daily life. If Version>04â??s decentralized spatio-temporal orientation also represents a less specific focus on â??new mediaâ?? (and perhaps, I should say, on â??artâ??) than previous Versions, it also suggests the extension of networked media and metaphors (rhizomatically, as it were, both in form and content) into other forms of aesthetic and cultural production and political action. Apart from facilitating communication on a basic, pragmatic level, what does the internet offer to creative political action? It offers its metaphors: the network, the chain of replication, the virus. It offers the opening up of possibilities for different temporalities, different broadcast modes, different styles of creating networks and collaborations. Even the significance of what goes on at the â??basic, pragmatic levelâ?? â?? the possibility of sending an email to five or twenty people, writing a blog for an audience of a dozen or a hundred â?? is not to be underestimated. Much recent discourse links the notion of the internet as a â??network of networksâ?? with the emerging â??movement of movementsâ??â?? molecular, networked resistance to corporate globalization and violence. While on the one hand this implies deterritorialization, drift, and loosely affiliated nodes, on the other hand it privileges the real-time, the face-to-face, the ostensibly more authentic, the one-on-one or n-on-n – where n is â??small,â?? whatever that means. What constitutes small and how does such a group conduct itself? (Small enough to fit in a room? Small enough to sit in a circle?) Modernity and its media, with their universalizing/singularizing force, their extreme poles of â??privateâ?? individual and mass â??public,â?? donâ??t help understand small-group dynamics (or see the family as the only model). If postmodernism supplies some of the theory, it doesnâ??t necessarily follow that it provides tools to guide the practice. How can collaborations of various kinds foster sustainable alternatives to dominant culture? As part of the follow-up to Version>04, co-organizer Daniel Tucker is circulating questionnaires on collaborative practice that might prove useful to a continuing discussion on this topic. On this topic and others, a series of conversations emerged at organized discussions on collaboration and alternative resource spaces at particular spaces (Polvo and BuddY) and in ways that were both more formal (lectures and other presentations) and more informal (casual conversation) at the â??nfo xpoâ?? at the Chicago Cultural Center. Many of the participants in Version>04 staffed booths at the nfo xpo, which provided an informal space in which exhibitors could network with each other and the public in an unstructured way, and also attend presentations happening next door in the CCCâ??s auditorium. Because the CCC is in the heart of downtown Chicago, office workers on their lunch hour â?? unsuspecting as well as informed â?? also wandered in and out. High Schoolâ??s â??Map Roomâ?? exhibition, with a selection of works addressing â??cartographies of power, satellite maps of secret facilities, left wing dialectics and investigations of (sub)urban spaces and real estateâ?? This exhibition framed an important set of issues: an effective metaphor of â??mappingâ?? emerges as the correlative to the creative network (graphing, creating alternative spaces and redescribing existing ones, documenting, recording, situating relationships). This is not a new idea (constituting something of a trend in recent art) but its proximity to the notion of the invisible network was a provocative one. Mapping inherently makes something visible, but alternative maps can make different kinds of things visible, such as human narratives, memories and emotions associated with particular places: psychogeographies. Some works sought to render visible the invisible geographies of power and privilege that construct the urban environment (such as the critical city walks were conducted by Ryan Griffis of Temporary Travel Office and Michael Piazza of the Stockyard Institute). Other street actions temporarily reclaimed public space from consumer capitalism, as in interventions by UK participants Ange Taggart of My Dads Strip Club and Richard Dedomenici (acting as â??insecurity guards,â?? altering Starbucks cups to read â??Fuck Off,â?? and pushing vacuum cleaners to â??clean up after capitalismâ?? â?? what Dedomeniciâ??s website calls â??poetic acts of low-grade civil disobedienceâ??). Members of Carbon Defense League (now headquartered at RPI in Troy, NY, but still engaged in projects in Pittsburgh, where the group originated) presented and led discussion of their maphub project (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://hactivist.com/maphub/overview.html">http://hactivist.com/maphub/overview.html</a>). This will create a map interface that keys narratives, descriptions, discussion forums and user communities to points on a Pittsburgh map and will also provide kiosks around the city to make the project broadly available. Finally, map-themed net art projects in the VERSION_NET thread include [murmur] (an audio project in which sites in Toronto are linked to audio stories accessible by cell phone), trace route, kmuni city project, and radial (links all available at the dolphin icon at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.versionfest.org">http://www.versionfest.org</a>). Invisibility has a lot of potential valences. As the Notes from Nowhere collective (some of whom were on hand to present their work) writes in We Are Everywhere, â??Clandestinity can be the key to our survival, or it can be our downfall.â?? The clandestine can be the way in which the communicative modes and styles and technologies of corporate culture can be unobtrusively used against it through mimicry and culture jamming. Secrecy can mean escaping surveillance and detection. Invisibility can mean submerging individual identities into a powerful collective force. It can also result in restricting oneself to solipsism and inefficacy – not having an audience or not feeling recognized. Elements of invisibleNetworks confronted the governmental deployment of secrecy and surveillance, the secret histories of covert action by (for instance) the CIA, the absolute demonization of the secrecy of the â??enemy.â?? As Jack Bratich pointed out, in his talk on â??Secrecy as Spectacle and as Strategy,â?? the putative WMDs donâ??t need to be found if, by racist definition, Iraqis are so cunning and secretive that they must have hidden them with absolute success. Using a series of film and video clips, Mary Pattenâ??s talk, â??The Romance of Clandestinity,â?? usefully contrasted the allure of the idea of secrecy as tinged by celebrity culture (in which concealing necessarily implies some form of revealing), with unromantic practices of clandestinity, anonymity, and unobtrusiveness in struggles both historical and present. Invisibility can also be the way in which some stories donâ??t get told and some people(s) remain unrepresented. Secrecy can lead to paranoia â?? sometimes quite appropriate, sometimes corrosive. Thus, the theme requires rigorous, if provisional and flexible, distinctions. Within these distinctions â?? while remaining clear-sighted about the risk of â??solipsism and inefficacyâ?? â?? a crucial lesson, I think, is not to expect direct political impact ALL the time. One question that arose in conversations in and around Version>04 is the role of surplus aesthetic investment â?? aesthetic attention that goes beyond communicative functionality, or even (in terms of hand-production and small-scale actions) might restrict potential audience. One of the lessons of Version is that there is a time and place for both aesthetic surplus and communicative directness. And activist cultures also need what Marc Herbst called â??radical group therapy,â?? something that can take a variety of forms, some of them aesthetic. Creating a sustainable activist culture not just communicating a political message, but creating a culture that people canâ??t help but want to be part of. Finally, the small number of complaints I heard about Version>04 were about access (some found the schedule a bit opaque and its changes frustrating) and a corresponding homogeneity of audience (this varied from event to event, but at many of them, most attendees could be described as young white artists). The frustration with flexibility â?? when itâ??s someone elseâ??s flexibility and not oneâ??s own – and the homogeneity of audience might index some of the potential downsides of the â??invisible networkâ?? or the privileging of the small group. Niche markets, the production of highly specialized consumer identities and the development of more and more narrowly defined demographics, an emphasis on personal networks and informal modes of communication â?? these have also been appropriated or promoted by corporate marketing strategists. The small scale of the collaborative affinity group is not necessarily an antidote to manipulation or power relations. The invisible network is a generative concept, but not an unproblematic utopia. The temporality of the convergence is further extended by the continued internet presence, with its series of â??hubsâ?? (websites related by affinity, influence, or submission to the conceptualization of this yearâ??s theme) and â??worksâ?? (selected internet works curated by co-organizer jonCates) and an â??invisible network repositoryâ?? that are all well worth exploring. In terms of the actual time frame the sixteen days of Version>04 made for a less concentrated experience. But perhaps the best thing about it for someone living in Chicago was that it allowed events to enter into the rhythm of the everyday â?? making the semi-surreptitious, partially-networked, critically-conscious festival a model for what life could be like all the time. Co-organizers: Select Media, Logan Bay, Dakota Brown, jonCates, Dara Greenwald, Matt Malooly, Ed Marszewski, Rotten Milk, Joe Proulx, Yoshie Suzuki, Daniel Tucker and a host of co-conspirators. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 20. Article submissions to list@rhizome.org are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art and be less than 1500 words. 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