RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.13.06

discussion

Posted Jan. 12 2006 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.13.06

RHIZOME DIGEST: January 13, 2006 ++ Always online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/digest/">http://rhizome.org/digest/</a> ++ Content: +opportunity+ 1. Turbulence.org: Call for Entries: Turbulence New England Initiative II 2. Ken Goldberg: faculty position: berkeley media arts / theory 3. iris mayr: Prix Ars Electronica 2006 - Participants Welcome! +work+ 4. jimpunk: www.pulp.href - +(a)(b)©(d)(e)(f) - #########0||E 5. Randall Packer: America's Grave Opening at American University +announcement+ 6. Lauren Cornell: Surge + 7. Luís Silva: First meeting of The Upgrade! Lisbon +comment+ 8. Jim Andrews: On the 25th anniv of MM's death +thread+ 9. Rob Myers <rob@robmyers.org>, Pall Thayer <p_thay@alcor.concordia.ca>, Dirk Vekemans <dv@vilt.net>, Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk>, manik <manik@ptt.yu>, Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk>, judsoN <office@plasmastudii.org>: draw-something + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Lauren Cornell at LaurenCornell@Rhizome.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. From: Turbulence.org <turbulence@turbulence.org> Date: Jan 9, 2006 10:33 PM Subject: Call for Entries: Turbulence New England Initiative II Call for Entries: Turbulence New England Initiative II Turbulence.org is pleased to announce its ?New England Initiative II,? a juried, networked art competition. Three projects by New England artists will be commissioned and exhibited on Turbulence (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org">http://turbulence.org</a>) and in real space (venue to be announced). Each award will be $3,500. The jury consists of Julian Bleecker, Michelle Thursz, and Helen Thorington. This project is made possible with funds from the LEF Foundation. PROJECT CONCEPT: Net art projects are ?art projects for which the Net is both a sufficient and necessary condition of viewing/ expressing/ participating? (Steve Dietz). They live in the public world of the Internet. Recently, however, wireless telecommunications technologies have enabled computation to migrate out of the desktop PC into the physical world, creating the possibility of ?hybrid? networked art, works that intermingle and fuse previously discrete identities, disciplines, and/or fields of activity such as the Internet and urban space. (See the networked_performance blog?<a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/blog?specifically">http://turbulence.org/blog?specifically</a> the categories ?Locative Media? and ?Mobile Art and Culture.?) Borders are disintegrating and new identities are emerging. We encourage applications by net artists and artists working on networked hybrid projects. PROJECT TIMELINE: Proposal Deadline: February 28, 2006 Selected Projects Announcement: March 15, 2006 Project Launch/Exhibition: October 1, 2006 SELECTION CRITERIA: (1) artistic merit of the proposed project; (2) originality; (3) degree of performativity and audience participation; (4) level of programming skill and degree of technological innovation; and (5) extent of collaborative and interdisciplinary activity. PROPOSAL GUIDELINES: (a) Your name, email address, and web site URL (if you have one). (b) A description of the project's core concept and how it will make creative use of digital networks (500 words maximum). © Details of how the project will be realized, including what software/programming will be used. Specs for the Turbulence server are available at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.turbulence.org/comp_05/server.htm">http://www.turbulence.org/comp_05/server.htm</a>. You may request additional software but we cannot guarantee it. (d) Names of collaborators, their areas of expertise, and their specific roles in the project. (e) A project budget, including other funding sources for this project, if any. (f) Your résumé/CV and one for each of your collaborators. (g) Up to five examples of prior work accessible on the web. Email submissions (the web site URL) to turbulence@turbulence.org with NE 2 in the subject field. JUROR BIOGRAPHIES: Julian Bleecker [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.techkwondo.com/">http://www.techkwondo.com/</a>] Julian Bleecker has been involved in technology design for over 15 years, creating mobile, wireless, and networked-based applications across a diversity of project idioms including entertainment, art-technology, brand marketing, university research and development, interactive advertising and museum exhibition. His expertise is technology implementation, innovation and concept development. Bleecker is currently Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division and Critical Theory departments, and is participating in a research group at the Annenberg Center's Institute for Media Literacy exploring the future of mobile technology applications. He has a Ph.D. from the History of Consciousness Board at the University of California Santa Cruz, a Masters of Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. Helen Thorington [<a rel="nofollow" href="http://new-radio.org/helen">http://new-radio.org/helen</a>] is co-director of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore), the founder and producer of the national weekly radio series, New American Radio (1987-1998), and the founder and producer of the Turbulence and Somewhere websites. She is a writer, sound composer, and radio producer, whose radio documentary, dramatic work, and sound/music compositions have been aired nationally and internationally for the past twenty-three years. Thorington has created compositions for film and installation that have been premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, the Whitney Biennial, and in the Whitney Museum?s Annual Performance series. She has produced three narrative works for the net, and the distributed performance Adrift which was presented at the 1997 Ars Electronica Festival and at the New Museum in New York City, 2001, among other places. Thorington has also composed for dance and performed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Jacob?s Pillow, MA in 2002, and at The Kitchen, New York City in 2003. She won two radio awards in 2003 for her 9_11_Scapes composition; and was recently commissioned by Deep Wireless, a Toronto radio festival, to create Calling to Mind. Thorington has lectured, presented on panels, and served as a juror on many occasions. Her recent articles on networked musical performances include ?Breaking Out: The Trip Back? (Contemporary Music Review, Vol 24, No 6. December 2005, 445-458); and ?Music, Sound and the Networked_Performance Blog? for the Extensible Toy Piano Symposium at Clark University, Massachusetts, November 5, 2005. Michele Thursz (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.michelethursz.com">http://www.michelethursz.com</a>) is an independent curator and consultant for art-makers and distributors. Her current project is Post Media Network; Post Media is a term and action demonstrating the continuous evolution of uses of media and their effect on artists practice, and culture-at-large. In 1999 she co-founded and directed the Moving Image Gallery, NYC. Moving Image Gallery was one of the first galleries to show electronic and computer-based mediums, exhibiting such artist as Golan Levin, Cory Arcangel and Yael Kanerek. Thursz? recent curatorial projects include ?Copy it, Steal it, Share it?, Borusan Gallery, Istanbul, and ?Nown?, Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh; ?public.exe: Public Excution?, Exit Art, NYC, and ?Democracy is Fun?, White Box, NYC. She has written essays about contemporary art for catalogues and has lectured on contemporary art and curatorial practice. Thursz?s actions and exhibits have been reviewed and featured in the New York Times, Forbes Best of the Web, ArtByte, Wired News, Art Forum, and many international periodicals and web publications. Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://new-radio.org">http://new-radio.org</a> New York: 917.548.7780 ? Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org">http://turbulence.org</a> New American Radio: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://somewhere.org">http://somewhere.org</a> Networked_Performance Blog: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/blog">http://turbulence.org/blog</a> Upgrade! Boston: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/upgrade">http://turbulence.org/upgrade</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. From: Ken Goldberg <goldberg@ieor.berkeley.edu> Date: Jan 10, 2006 5:32 PM Subject: faculty position: berkeley media arts / theory Just announced: Faculty Opening in Theory and Practice of Interactive Media University of California at Berkeley Center for New Media Application deadline: 10 March, 2006 Theory and Practice of Interactive Media. Tenure track, Assistant Professor position to develop teaching research, and service programs in the production of interactive media. Candidate will be expected to contribute to research and teaching objectives of the Center for New Media (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://cnm.berkeley.edu/">http://cnm.berkeley.edu/</a>). Possible subject domains include visual, acoustic, compositional, dramatic, tactile, and cultural aspects of interactive media, and their inclusion into computational representations (such as personal digital assistants, e-books, interactive educational tools, wearable and other digital art, personal security devices, media-rich cell phones, multimedia tools for the disabled, interactive architectural spaces, etc.) Preference will be given to applicants with a background in and/or research commitment to both technical and humanistic/societal disciplines. Examples of technical disciplines include, but are not limited to, computer science, information science, media technology, and product design. Examples of humanistic/societal disciplines include but are not limited to semiotics, film studies, media studies, linguistics, communication, and social science. Technical expertise should include one or more of the following areas: multimedia databases, metadata for media, computer vision/audition, computer graphics, information retrieval, human-computer interface, game designing, and media authoring systems. Research background should demonstrate integration and synergy between technical and humanistic/societal approaches to the representation of New Media. Successful candidate will be appointed in relevant department/departments; possible primary home departments include Engineering, Computer Science, Information School, Architecture, Art Practice, Music, English, Journalism, Film Studies and Education. Ph.D., MFA or equivalent terminal degree. Applications must include a C.V.; a letter describing the candidate's background and interests, including a brief description of possible courses; a one-page statement outlining a vision for interactive media in the context of interdisciplinary new media studies, two recent essay-length publications or creative activity demonstrated by video documentation (preferably DVD) in a short 5-minute overview format and an extended format, and names and full contact information for three recommenders. Female and minority candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Application Deadline: March 10, 2006. Mail to: Alice Agogino, Chair, Search Committee, Center for New Media, 390 Wurster Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1839. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer. Keywords: New Media, Design, Communication, Engineering, Computer Science, Architecture, Art, Music, English, Journalism, Film and Education + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. From: iris mayr <iris.mayr@liwest.at> Date: Jan 12, 2006 12:47 PM Subject: Prix Ars Electronica 2006 - Participants Welcome! Prix Ars Electronica 2006 International Competition for Cyberarts The Prix Ars Electronica - International Competition for Cyberarts is being conducted for the 19th time in 2006. In addition to the classic categories-Interactive Art, Net Vision, Computer Animation / Visual Effects and Digital Musics-Digital Communities and [the next idea] Art and Technology Grant competition that debuted last year will be reprised. Prix Ars Electronica 2006 Start of Online Submissions: January 10, 2006 Online Submission Deadline: March 17, 2006 Details about entering are available online only at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://prixars.aec.at">http://prixars.aec.at</a> Total Prize Money: 117,500 Euro 6 Golden Nicas 12 Awards of Distinction Up to 12 Honorary Mentions in each category For further information please contact Iris Mayr: info@prixars.aec.at COMPUTERANIMATION / VISUAL EFFECTS The "Computer Animation / Visual Effects" category has been part of the Prix Ars Electronica since its very inception. It recognizes excellence in independent work in the arts and sciences as well as in high-end commercial productions in the film, advertising and entertainment industries. In this category, artistic originality counts just as much as masterful technical achievement. DIGITAL MUSICS Contemporary digital sound productions from the broad spectrum of "electronica" come in for consideration in the "Digital Musics" category, as do works combining sound and media, computer compositions ranging from electro-acoustic to experimental music, or sound installations. This category's programmatic agenda is to expand horizons beyond the confines of individual genres and artistic currents. INTERACTIVE ART The "Interactive Art" category is dedicated to interactive works in all forms and formats, from installations to performances. Here, particular consideration is given to the realization of a powerful artistic concept through the especially appropriate use of technologies, the innovativeness of the interaction design, and the work's inherent potential to expand the human radius of action. NET VISION The "Net Vision" category singles out for recognition artistic projects in the Internet that display brilliance in how they have been engineered, designed and-especially-conceived, works that are outstanding with respect to innovation, interface design and the originality of their content. The way in which a work of net-based art deals with the online medium is essential in this category. DIGITAL COMMUNITIES This category focuses attention on the wide-ranging social impact of the Internet as well as on the latest developments in the fields of social software, mobile communications and wireless networks. "Digital Communities" spotlights bold and inspired innovations impacting human coexistence, bridging the geographical as well as gender-based digital divide, or creating outstanding social software and enhancing accessibility of technological-social infrastructure. This category showcases the political potential of digital and networked systems and is thus designed as a forum for the consideration of a broad spectrum of projects, programs, initiatives and phenomena in which social innovation is taking place, as it were, in real time. A Golden Nica, two Awards of Distinction and up to 12 Honorary Mentions will be awarded in the Digital Communities category in 2006. [the next idea] Art and Technology Grant The aim of this grant focusing on the mutually enriching interplay of art and technology is to nurture concepts for the future that young thinkers are coming up with today. This category?s target group includes interested persons throughout the world between the ages of 19 and 27, who have developed a not-yet-realized concept in the fields of media art, media design or media technology. The winner will receive a 7,500-euro grant and an invitation to spend a semester as scientific assistant and artist-in-residence at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. Iris Mayr Prix Ars Electronica | Project Manager Ars Electronica Center Linz Hauptstraße 2 A-4040 Linz Code: Prix Tel. ++43.732.7272-74 Fax ++43.732.7272-676 info@prixars.aec.at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://prixars.aec.at">http://prixars.aec.at</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. From: jimpunk <www@jimpunk.com> Date: Jan 9, 2006 10:27 PM Subject: www.pulp.href - +(a)(b)©(d)(e)(f) - #########0||E * <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jimpunk.com/www.pulp.href/">http://www.jimpunk.com/www.pulp.href/</a> randWin 8or9 albat blue sxtunt rewnd xxxx3_ Narn_ secret security sirene theykee toon (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) pressent cmcstrp drugs maltese g-h.ref p4r4ch boxdogs poseid_ p_jack Robert paint_ vendetta wind (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) benicio hido inthestre j-m-He jodie error flight93 tiiiitprnt twcemrB x oopentry gundown_ N_C (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) john Michell plane pulp1 mywav TaxiDriver thegrey EE ttiiuhi phne MDasn mi4mi blank (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (a) (b) © (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (d) (e) (f) (X) <a href="<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/&quot">http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/";</a>; target="_blank" title=" Download the latest QT plug-in ">Need QuickTime 7</a> && l4yErs + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome ArtBase Exhibitions <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/">http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/</a> Visit "Net Art's Cyborg[feminist]s, Punks, and Manifestos", an exhibition on the politics of internet appearances, guest-curated by Marina Grzinic from the Rhizome ArtBase. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/art/exhibition/cyborg/">http://www.rhizome.org/art/exhibition/cyborg/</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. From: Randall Packer <rpacker@zakros.com> Date: Jan 12, 2006 12:57 PM Subject: America's Grave Opening at American University AMERICA'S GRAVE A multimedia installation by Randall Packer In collaboration with John Anderson <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.usdat.us/grave">http://www.usdat.us/grave</a> Presented by the US Department of Art & Technology <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.usdat.us">http://www.usdat.us</a> On view at the American University Museum Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC AU Art faculty show: From the Studio January 18 - March 12 Artists Reception: Saturday, January 21, 5 - 8 pm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org 2005-2006 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 2005-2006 Rhizome Commissions, eleven artists/groups were selected to create original works of net art. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/">http://rhizome.org/commissions/</a> The Rhizome Commissions Program is made possible by support from the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial, the Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support has been provided by members of the Rhizome community. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. From: Lauren Cornell <laurencornell@rhizome.org> Date: Jan 10, 2006 5:26 PM Subject: Surge + Hello, I'd like to call your attention to Surge - the online exhibition organized collaboratively by Rhizome and free103point9 - that opened today! You can see the exhibition here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.free103point9.org/surge.html">http://www.free103point9.org/surge.html</a> Also, please see our events page for other upcoming Rhizome events, including a panel at Electronic Arts Intermix (NY) in February. I will send out a reminder about this closer to the event. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/32.php">http://rhizome.org/info/32.php</a> All the best, Lauren – Lauren Cornell Executive Director, Rhizome.org New Museum of Contemporary Art 210 Eleventh Ave, NYC, NY 10001 tel. 212.219.1222 X 208 fax. 212.431.5328 ema. laurencornell@rhizome.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. From: Luís Silva <silva.luis@netcabo.pt> Date: Jan 12, 2006 7:09 AM Subject: First meeting of The Upgrade! Lisbon Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea welcomes, from this January, The Upgrade! Lisbon, a monthly gathering of new media artists, curators and general public that fosters dialogue and creates opportunities for collaboration within the new media art community. At each meeting one artist/curator present work in progress, past work or a concept and participate in a discussion with those attending the presentation. We would be delighted if you could come - whether you are an artist, a techie or simply someone who is interested in new media art! The Upgrade! (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://theupgrade.net">http://theupgrade.net</a>) was started by Yael Kanarek in 1999 and is currently hosted by Eyebeam, New York City. Upgrade! affiliates include Vancouver (2003, curated by Kate Armstrong), Montreal (2004, curated by tobias c. van Veen), Boston (2005, curated by Jo-Anne Green), Seoul (2005, curated by Suhjung Hur), Tel Aviv (2005, curated by Mushon Shual), Munich (2005, curated by Tamiko Thiel), Oklahoma City (2005, Adam Brown), Chicago (2005, Open Node), Istanbul (2005, curated by basak senova), Scotland (2005, curated by Cezanne Charles, Robb Mitchell and Michelle Kasprzak) and Sofia (2005, curated by Kyd Campbell). Last September saw the first Upgrade! International Meeting at Eyebeam, New York. For a few days there was a show featuring documentation of works by 131 artists who participate at Upgrade! all over the world. Also, lectures about how each Upgrade! node forms its presence and community and about the potential of such a network were held. The next Upgrade! International Meeting will happen in 2006. Calendar of events: January 17th (19:00) : Patrícia Gouveia e Nuno Correia Role Playing Egas February: André Sier March: Susana Mendes Silva For further information or project submission please contact me. Best wishes, Luís Silva The Upgrade! Lisbon <a rel="nofollow" href="http://theupgrade.net">http://theupgrade.net</a> silva.luis@netcabo.pt + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. From: Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com> Date: Jan 10, 2006 9:25 AM Subject: On the 25th anniv of MM's death Here is an article by Olivia Ward published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Marshall McLuhan, who lived in Toronto for many years and was born in the prairies. Toronto Star Pubdate:January 01, 2006 Page: D1 Section:Ideas URL: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135985417041&call_pageid=1105528093962">http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135985417041&call_pageid=1105528093962</a> WE ARE ALL McLUHANS NOW By Olivia Ward Toronto Star When Canadian communications visionary Marshall McLuhan wrote his landmark works in the 1960s, they were greeted with shock and awe. The realization that we live in a "global village" without boundaries of time or space was revolutionary. And the expectation of electronic communications expanding to invade every aspect of our lives was both thrilling and devastating. But flash forward 25 years from the day McLuhan died, on Dec. 31, 1980, and the picture changes dramatically. The merging of the human and the technological is so entrenched that news pops out of hand-held receivers round the clock, children without computers are considered deprived, and urban streetscapes are filled with people babbling into thin air, their ears pressed to tiny mobile phones. In the brave new 2000s, cars talk to us, Fluffy and Fido make way for electronic pets, every day leaves a new data trail, and warfare is conducted like a video game. McLuhan would have been unsurprised by any of that. In his own lifetime his message, and the electronic media it described, became second nature to people worldwide, making him not so much irrelevant as self-evident. He fell victim to his own quip, "Tomorrow is our permanent address." Now, after a slump in popularity during his final years, he is more alive than ever in the minds of a new generation of cyberthinkers. "The underlying concept of McLuhan's view of electronic technology is that it has become an extension of our senses, particularly those of sight and sound," says British writer Benjamin Symes in his essay Marshall McLuhan's "Global Village." "We can now hear and see events that take place thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds, often quicker than we hear of events in our own villages or even families, and McLuhan argues that it is the speed of these electronic media that allow us to act and react to global issues at the same speed as normal face-to-face verbal communications," Symes says. McLuhan's place as a godfather of contemporary communications theory is thus assured. But scholars and techno gurus still debate exactly what his legacy is. "Marshall McLuhan's lasting contribution is his vision of the ways in which history and culture and individuals are modified and, to some extent, determined by technology," says Victoria-based Jim Andrews, an artist, critic, and founder of the vispo.com website. Before McLuhan, Andrews points out in his essay McLuhan Reconsidered, language, money and the media were seen primarily as tools. But McLuhan's followers now understand that he issued a wake-up call about the extent to which people's very identities are determined by the tools that they themselves invent. "Tools are not simply things we pick up," Andrews points out. "They become part of who we are. McLuhan proposed that notion, showing tools as extensions of humanity. That's one of his really big ideas." Arthur Kroker of the University of Victoria goes farther. McLuhan, he says, predicted with deadly accuracy that "we are the first human beings to live completely within the mediated environment of the technostructure." That means that the content of what we see and hear around us matters less than its effect. "For the first time, the central nervous system has been 'exteriorized," says Kroker, U Vic's Canada Research Chair in technology, culture and theory. "It is our plight to be processed through the technological simulacrum… in a 'technostructure' which is nothing but a vast simulation and amplification of the bodily senses." And, says Kroker, "we are all McLuhans now. We live in the electronic culture that he prophesied. And since he wrote about it, technology has become more pervasive, but silent. It's invisible. From iPods to cell phones, to electronic games, it increasingly occupies the full range of human activity." McLuhan also hinted at the ultimate convergence of humankind and technology, adds Kroker. "It might be that we are the first species in the process of creating our own successors." For the average computer-clued person of today, the kind of communication McLuhan predicted means a constant barrage of news, views, ads, and messages from friends and colleagues. But, says Donald Theall, professor emeritus of Trent University's cultural studies program, he also had a significant impact on the arts. "McLuhan's most important legacy is that he introduced to a large audience the intrinsic connection between the arts, including the popular arts and the newer post-electronic media, with the new techno-scientific world of the 20th century," he says. "This legacy is increasingly important as the digital age unfolds, since it allows for the convergence of all modes of expression from gesture and speech to electric and digital communication to be more fully and richly exploited and understood." To some media mavens, McLuhan is a kind of patron saint - including the staff of Wired magazine, which once featured him on its masthead. But, says the magazine's contributing editor Gary Wolf, in his essay The Wisdom of Saint Marshall, the Holy Fool, he is also a "martyr," because of his perhaps naive "hope for a human engagement with media that goes beyond technological idiocy and numb submission. McLuhan's jokes and satirical put-ons were challenges to understand where our media were leading us, and there is no clear evidence that we have been able to respond to his challenge." Not all of McLuhan's admirers are uncritical. "Though 99 per cent of what he wrote was horse manure, the remaining one per cent was dead on," says Cecil Adams, the pseudonym of an American media critic, author and founder of The Straight Dope website. And, he adds, "McLuhan was the opposite of most academics, who can minutely describe each tree but haven't a clue about the forest. He was dreadful on matters of detail, but presciently grasped where the world was headed. What John the Baptist was to Christianity, McLuhan was to the information age." Religious metaphors are often used to describe McLuhan. And he was, in fact, a convinced Catholic who attended mass regularly and was alarmed by the dehumanization of the globalized society he could see approaching all too rapidly - a dichotomy between religion and science that would also be a vital part of 21st-century life. There is a link between the popularization of fundamentalist religion and McLuhan's theories, says Jim Andrews. "The prospect of the U.S. being dominated by fundamentalist Christianity is a good example of the relevance of his thought," he says. "McLuhan's predictions of possible returns to tribalistic mentalities are coming true in the form of the renewed power of fundamentalism more or less globally." At first, McLuhan saw the idea of a global village as benign. "The aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a natural adjunct of electric technology," he wrote in the introduction to his 1964 book Understanding Media. "There is a deep faith to be found in this attitude - a faith that concerns the ultimate harmony of all being." The optimism wasn't to last. By the time McLuhan co-wrote (with Quentin Fiore) The Medium is the Massage, one of his best known works, three years later, he was not only disenchanted but worried, says Wired magazine's Wolf. "When he used his most oracular tone, McLuhan's description of man's servitude to media was chilling," he said. "McLuhan believed that the message of electronic media brought dangerous news for humanity: It brought news of the end of humanity as it has known itself in the 3,000 years since the invention of the phonetic alphabet." But although McLuhan's insights are serious, and occasionally profound, serious students of his work also have to contend with his other side - that of a pop media guru whose less-than-15 minutes of on-screen fame came in the Woody Allen film Annie Hall, in which an arrogant intellectual bore who is "explaining" McLuhan's theories is deflated by the man himself. "That's the way many people know him," says Wolf, who admits that even the techno devotees of Wired have scarcely looked at his writings. Theall, who was acquainted with McLuhan and has written on him extensively, agrees that he is "in some ways overrated in that many of his most basic insights were popular, poetic rephrasings of the traditions and the contemporary artistic community which he studied so deeply." Although he had a broad and sweeping vision, Theall says, McLuhan made the mistake of not defending the depth and complexity of his thinking, instead "seeking support and approval from the corporate community, the media and even populists who did not respect the intellectual world that he represented." McLuhan may have done himself few favours in academia by catering to the public instead of the pundits. But he himself was amused by the popularization of his ideas, even those that were spinoffs and loose interpretations. "He was a personality who could be simultaneously charming and exasperating, but never boring or dull," says Theall, who recalls that McLuhan gave university bureaucracy short shrift but threw himself enthusiastically into entertaining his guests at home. McLuhan's populist side may also have foreshadowed the trend to making academia accessible through the media stardom of its professors, who now host TV specials and series for ordinary viewers. In the final analysis, says Wolf, what were seen as weaknesses in McLuhan during his lifetime were his strengths for the future. "He wasn't uptight enough for some people. Great intellectuals can become dated because they make a very rigorous and self-conscious effort to maintain their identities. Then time moves on and they're left behind. "McLuhan's ambiguity, his comedy, and even his parody were his strengths. Those are something more than a single work of art, because they won't date. "Everyone knows McLuhan's name, but nobody really knows who he was. He was really a sceptic about human identity, which is very contemporary. He really did dissolve his identity in the medium. Now we consume him every day, but we just don't put his name on it." + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 9. From: Rob Myers <rob@robmyers.org>, Pall Thayer <p_thay@alcor.concordia.ca>, Dirk Vekemans <dv@vilt.net>, Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk>, manik <manik@ptt.yu>, Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk>, judsoN <office@plasmastudii.org> Date: Jan 10 - 12, 2006 3:56 PM Subject: draw-something +Rob Myers <rob@robmyers.org> posted:+ I have been working on my program draw-something. There's a Flash version (made with MTASC): <a rel="nofollow" href="http://draw-something.robmyers.org/">http://draw-something.robmyers.org/</a> And the Lisp version now makes multiple figures and coloured figures: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.robmyers.org/weblog/2006/01/11/purely-random-colour/">http://www.robmyers.org/weblog/2006/01/11/purely-random-colour/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.robmyers.org/weblog/2006/01/08/draw-something-drawing/">http://www.robmyers.org/weblog/2006/01/08/draw-something-drawing/</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.robmyers.org/weblog/2006/01/08/a-change-of-algorithm-for-">http://www.robmyers.org/weblog/2006/01/08/a-change-of-algorithm-for-</a> draw-something/ Source for all versions available from sourceforge CVS along with some recent release bundles: http:://rob-art.sourceforge.net/ +Pall Thayer <p_thay@alcor.concordia.ca> replied:+ I was looking at this and find it interesting. Thanks for sharing the code with us. There are a couple of questions that come to mind. I'd like to know if you have any plans of making the lines more "pencil"- like by creating a more expressive line. I feel this is an issue that has been largely overlooked by people working with automated drawing processes. They tend to look really flat and dead because of it. AARON, for instance, suffers from a severe case of flatness that could be easily cured by some simple, maybe even random, variation in line thickness and length. There's an interesting project called Freestyle that's working on this (among other things) at http:// freestyle.sourceforge.net/index.php (source available). Also, I noticed this on your blog: "The shapes are random. The colours are random. At worst I?m showing one in every three of these images. Randomness gives good results far more often than it should. Is it the heuristics I?m coding in, or is aesthetics really random? Time to start adding rules." I think it has to do with the range of data. Random is going to use the whole range of data equally whereas something like weather is going to be concentrated in predictable area's of the full range. Personally, I think it's really interesting to see what happens with different types of data. If you experiment with different data sources, I think you'll find that they each have their own significant character which could in turn be interesting to mix together. +Dirk Vekemans <dv@vilt.net> replied:+ For me randomness, the concept, is a nightmare, it's quicksand, it is the one thing i can think of that's worse then (pick any random worst horror). The day Superman solves random we'll all go to heaven (yes, even you manik). Try it: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random</a> They (we) can't even get the wikipedia article straightened out. +Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk> replied:+ I love randomness. Much of my art work is based on randomness. Much of my life has been affected by seemingly random events and coincidences. I don't know where I'd be without randomness. I don't want it solved or defined. Maybe randomness is an illusion, and it's all preordained, but I don't care, I still love randomness. +Dirk Vekemans <dv@vilt.net> replied:+ Hi there Zev: once again, you're talking zen. These are pleasant thoughts though. So yes & perhaps if you love it you get to know it in the end, as a reward for letting it happen. Miracles, or tales thereoff, always include some form of randomness, too. But the point is (i think, do correct me if i'm wrong, cause i really don't know any of this for sure): when you're programming, mostly either you want to know exactly what will happen or you want to be able to count on it that what will happen in the program is not determined by your previous code. So you want it to be a random sequence. But that's where the problems start. First you need to deal with pseudo-random, i. e. seemingly random things that only act truly random for a given amount of cycles before it starts reiterating. When that happens the sequence can only be 'just' another predetermined, programmed cycle. Pseudo-random is not a major problem unless you need to program very important encryption software. If you're involved in such a thing, you can make your fortune by coming up with the 'cheepest' algorhythm giving the highest degree of randomness. Cheep in processing time to run the darn thing, that is. Pseudo-random is also a problem, i think, for those of us who want to make works of art that include randomness in its concept. In some cases pseudo-random won't do conceptually, because it would be cheating on the idea you're trying to present. In some of those hard cases, you might solve the problem by reverting to external inputs like radio static of the degeneration rate of radio-activity. Alan Sondheim uses a 100 year old instrument called a Crookes spinthariscope for it. They sell these beautiful instruments as plastic leaded toys these days: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.unitednuclear.com/spinthariscope.htm">http://www.unitednuclear.com/spinthariscope.htm</a> But in a few scenario's using such equipment, or a random generating service like <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.random.org/">http://www.random.org/</a> might not be possible. And when you have finally succesfully included pure randomness in your artwork, or when you're satisfied with the amount of imperfection, you still need to make sense of it (ok:some artists don't, but because of the random thing they'll never know for sure just how meaningless it is). You don't need to solve the riddle of the universe at that point, but you want to have a clear idea of what you're doing, how the random part strikes the balance with the programmed part including the personal, stylish part every programmer puts in her programming and their personal assesment of what is beautiful, valuable, aesthetically pleasing or any perversions thereoff. So if you ask yourself what is your take on random, you are perhaps required to ask yourself a question that goes to the core of what you're trying to accomplish. It's about how much control you want to have over what you are doing, the inner/outer balance of it, the IOwhy of an artist. There are times when you don't want to be face to face with these questions. I can write poetry or nag on art like this for ages without getting emotionally affected when i don't want that. Merely calling the Math.random class in my actionScript sometimes gives me the creeps, involuntarily. I can't predict it, but when that happens, it take it to be a sign. +manik <manik@ptt.yu> replied:+ Hi Dirk, This is MANIK from hell. Let's get to work:for you randomness mean same as a concept("For me randomness, the concept, …) This is interesting idea and I dare to see rot of it could be in Dutchman's fight for fertility land,fight against nature(fait against randomness of see, the concept of other entity,God maybe.)American Pioneer have some of that madness but they were cruel murder if is necessary,and of curse God was good/necessary for pardon of sins)."So help me God!",they said and kill some Iraqi child,or Indian,it doesn't matter. Man have to established full control,he's uber alles,he rule over nature-in this moment this represent retro-modernistic concept with element of fascism(genetic control and modular stile of space/mind strategic organization),fancy,inn,mostly in design,and fashion,in "modular"architecture etc…Significant historical example were Mondrian's neoplasticism,and Le Corbusier buildings.But even in Mondrians work was element of randomness,intentionally provoke suspense(Bugi-Vugi serial from NYC,40-this,…to much randomness,to many blots). [….] +Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk> replied:+ it's always back to Zen, isn't it. three things here - the perception of randomness, whether the randomness actually exists or not, and the computer's ability to simulate it. A lot of our work at www.artafterscience.com is (pseudo) random. If we take, say, a hundred images, a hundred sound clips, and, let's say there are a hundred perceived colours (just for arguements sake). So we have a million different combinations, and if we add a (pseudo) random position, or movement, or the number of objects appearing, or the time it stays on the screen, then the number goes much, much higher. so the random possibility of someone saying, "didn't I see that exact image before" is about the same if it were pseudo random or truely random. If the computer can simulate at least the perception of randomness, so that, for example, the viewer cannot which image will come up next, then I can live with that. Our experience, tho, is that the difficult part isn't so much in the scripting (easy for me to say since it's Adrian Marshall who does the scripting) but in molding it into a creative vision, understanding what we want to do, see how it works audio-visually, deciding on the parameters of the randomness, on the nature of the imagery used, and so on and so on. I don't know any of this for sure either, tho, and nobody else does either. +Dirk Vekemans <dv@vilt.net> replied:+ > Namens Zev Robinson > If the computer can simulate at least the perception of > randomness, so that, for example, the viewer cannot which > image will come up next, then I can live with that. Well in my PCU part of my Cathedral, for instance, i can't: for now i have to use pseudo-random, because i haven't found a solution yet, but it is conceptually wrong. The idea of the thing (however stupid that may be) calls for it to be(come) exactly what the words about it say: a view (visualisation) of the Cathedral over time. That might include true randomness, it certainly may *not* include pseudo-random sequences, not even if no-one would ever see the difference (which i doubt, in this case) > Our experience, tho, is that the difficult part isn't so much > in the scripting (easy for me to say since it's Adrian > Marshall who does the > scripting) but in molding it into a creative vision, > understanding what we want to do, see how it works > audio-visually, deciding on the parameters of the randomness, > on the nature of the imagery used, and so on and so on. Earlier discussions on this list have shown statements like these to be rather tricky. I take it you're not downplaying the programmers part in the art, but some of us believe you cannot just 'outsource' your scripting part to someone who has little to say in the conceptual work. Perhaps this little random topic can be a good example of how the minute decisions you make as a programmer do matter to the conceptual soundness of the thing. Personally, i've learned some (web)programming the hard way and i'm by no means a full fledge professionally trained programmer, but i prefer to hack my own stuff together no matter how much time i loose in the process. Entrusting a skilled programmer with the task would be like writing a poem in Dutch and have someone translate it to English and then claim i'm an English poet. But i'm a literary person, a fetishist obstinate self-indulgent fool insisting authorship includes dealing with every aspect of the thing. As such however i vainly venture this kind of approach can be meaningful for the small audience i aim for, even in these rapidly deteriorating conditions. I'm dead serious about that. Let us not conjecture (????????????) at random (????) about (????) the greatest (????????) things. Heraclitus said that. Don't know if the Greek comes through. The urgency is not about power or control and now that i'm rambling anyway: not solely about art either, its about finding a perfect expression at the right time. It matters because its about choice, a global choice if you want, so if we're not sure we need to find a way to be more so. (The choice has long been made for us but we need an awareness of it so we know what, if anything, to do, …) Ah forget it, told you it was a bad sign… +judsoN <office@plasmastudii.org> replied:+ i get the giggles thinking about randomness. some folks don't like any at all, consider it is really mostly used as a crutch when you aren't monitoring enough input variables (mostly true if you use electronic sensors-serial in), or as a shortcut for making a decision. and folks often do use it that way. though it's hardly the only way to think about it. some folks think there is a purity of randomness. that a pseudo-random number generator (every programming language has a random() function, and they all work the same way) is not as purely random as the un-virtual version. furthermore, seeding a random() function with a random function is somehow "more" random. but if you think of randomness, not as a conscious-less choice, but merely as unpredictable by humans, the difference between random and pseudo random() is unimportant. in neither case will our audience guess. the end effect is the same. if you imagine that randomness is like a language for the muses/ spirits. just because we don't recognize intentions is hardly any indication they don't exist. random IS intentional, but we just don't understand the preferences. the muses can only speak to our world via these unpredictable choices. it's like a prisoner tapping signals in morse code on the wall. but in this case, it's as if no one understands morse code. the tapping sounds meaningless (random) to us on the other side. but it's really a communication. adding randomness (unpredictability, regardless of technicalities) is like giving the muses some input in your work. (the more they are involved, the better they tend to favor it too). no one needn't get bogged down with anything more technical than that. giving up some control, an offering to the muses, is a great thing. probably the only thing. +Pall Thayer <p_thay@alcor.concordia.ca> replied:+ Perhaps random is "the spiritual in digital art." However, not being of a spiritual nature, I agree with Dirk. Conceptually, random is as empty as it gets. +Zev Robinson <zr@zrdesign.co.uk> replied:+ I'm not sure that as a concept random is any more empty than any other concept. Just because something cannot be defined (if that's what you're saying, Pall) doesn't mean it's empty. If you reflect on the events on your life that are (seemingly) random (but may be fate or predestiny) then you won't come up empty, I would guess. […] just to be clear, no I'm not downplaying a programmers part in creating anything, and, also I'm not outsourcing the programming. Adrian Marshall and I collaborate on our projects with a lot of testing things out, back and forth on ideas, how it is working, etc. I know people who outsource their paintings, let assistants make all sorts of decisions including what colors to use, and then claim it as their own, and sell it for a lot of money. Movies and medival cathedrals are huge collaborative efforts, with various people contributing their various areas of expertise. Some photographers insist on doing their own developing/darkroom work, others are happy to let others do it for them. It's a question of choices and priorities. So how you, Dirk, Pall, or anyone else, are, what you do, or create, is up to you, but doesn't mean that it should apply to anyone else. I may find something interesting or not, I might like something or not, but it's the variety of approaches that is interesting. I've also had repeated experiences with works of art over the years, mainly paintings that I go back to look at, but also music, literature, films. Each time my perception of them is different, so in that sense there is no repetition. I'm also not sure if true randomness exists or not, or if it's all fate/destiny, or a combination of the two. But much, much better pseudo randomness than pseudo certainty. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Marisa Olson (marisa@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 11, number 2. 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