RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.13.04

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Posted Feb. 12 2004 19:00

RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.13.04

RHIZOME DIGEST: February 13, 2004 Content: +announcement+ 1. Francis Hwang: Rhizome.org Net Art Commissions – Deadline extended to March 7 +opportunity+ 2. Joe Reinsel: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 4th ANNUAL ONCE.TWICE:FESTIVAL 3. Mark Biggs: Instructor/Assistant Professor of Multimedia 4. Joy Garnett: JOB OPENING: NYU: Assistant/Associate Professor, Tenure Track 5. Tara McPherson: Fellowship for New Journal +feature+ 6. Alex Galloway: book excerpt: "Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization" 7. Jonah Brucker-Cohen: Report From Transmediale.04: Fly Utopia! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 2.12.04 From: Francis Hwang (francis@rhizome.org) Subject: Rhizome.org Net Art Commissions – Deadline extended to March 7 Friends, We are extending the deadline for the Rhizome.org Net Art Commissions to Sunday, March 7. Below is the Call For Proposals, which can also be found at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/">http://rhizome.org/commissions/</a> . Francis + + + RHIZOME.ORG NET ART COMMISSIONS CALL FOR PROPOSALS +Deadline for proposals: March 7, 2004+ Rhizome.org is pleased to announce that with support from The Jerome Foundation and the Greenwall Foundation, five new net art projects (works of art that are made to be experienced online) will be commissioned in 2004. The fee for each commission will range from $1,500 ? $3,500. Rhizome.org is an online platform for the global new media art community. We are committed to supporting the creation, presentation, discussion and preservation of art that engages new technologies in significant ways. We emphasize innovation and inclusiveness in all of our programs and activities. Artists are invited to submit proposals for works of art that focus on the theme of games. +Games+ For the last several decades, computer-based games, through their ubiquity, economic influence, and innovative use of new technologies, have become a significant cultural force, surpassing Hollywood films in total revenues. For a number of years, new media artists have been exploring the possibilities of gaming platforms and creating art games that mix the best qualities of commercial games ? accessibility, interactivity, user-engagement ? with critical and progressive approaches to narrative and aesthetics. Artists seeking a Rhizome.org 2004 commission should propose projects that will contribute to the art game genre, or reflect in some way on the following broad interpretations of ?game? found at Dictionary.com, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=game">http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=game</a>. Viewers/players should be able to access the projects online, whether by playing them through a web browser, downloading software, or some other use of internet technologies. When evaluating proposals, the jury will consider artistic merit, technical feasibility, and technical accessibility. Although we will provide some technical assistance with final integration into the Rhizome.org web site, artists are expected to develop game-related projects independently and without significant technical assistance from Rhizome.org. Commissioned projects will be listed on the main Rhizome Commission page and included in the Rhizome ArtBase. + How to Submit a Proposal + The jury will only consider proposals from members of Rhizome.org. To sign up for Rhizome membership, please visit: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rhizome.org/preferences/user.rhiz?action=1&new=user">http://www.rhizome.org/preferences/user.rhiz?action=1&new=user</a> There are two parts to proposal submission: 1. You must create a proposal in the form of a web site that includes the following key elements: + Project description (500 words maximum) that discusses your project?s core concept, how you will realize your project and your project?s feasibility. If you plan to work with assistants, consultants or collaborators, their roles and (if possible) names should be included. + You are encouraged, but not required, to include a production timeline and a project budget, which should include your own fee. If you have other funding sources for your project, please indicate this in your budget. + Your resume or Curriculum Vitae. For collaborative groups, provide either a collective CV or the CV?s of all participants. + Up to 10 work samples. Note: More is not necessarily better. You should include only work samples that are relevant to your proposal. If your proposal has nothing to do with photography, don?t include images from your photography portfolio. Please provide contextualizing information (title, date, medium, perhaps a brief description) to help the jury understand what they are looking at. The work sample can take any form, as long as it is accessible via the web. When designing your web-based proposal, please note that the jury will have limited time for evaluations, so try to make your site clear and concise. When your web-based proposal is complete, you are ready for Part Two of the proposal process: 2. Submit your proposal for a Rhizome.org Net Art Commission via an online form at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/submit_2004.rhiz">http://rhizome.org/commissions/submit_2004.rhiz</a>. We do not accept proposals via email, snail mail or other means. Proposals will be accepted until 5:00pm EST (that?s New York time) on Sunday, March 7, 2004. The form at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/submit_2004.rhiz">http://rhizome.org/commissions/submit_2004.rhiz</a> requires the following information: + Name of artist or collaborative group + Email address + Place of residence (city, state/province, country) + Title of the project (this can be tentative) + Brief description of project (50 words maximum) + URL of web-based proposal + Jury + Proposals will be reviewed by a jury consisting of German critic Tilman Baumgartel, artist Natalie Bookchin of CalArts, Rachel Greene of Rhizome.org, Francis Hwang of Rhizome.org, and Japanese curator Yukiko Shikata. Rhizome.org members will also participate in the evaluation and awarding process through secure web-based forms. Winners will be contacted on or after April 5, 2004. Each winner will be asked to sign an agreement with Rhizome.org governing the terms of the commission. + Winners + Winners will be announced on April 19, 2004. Commissioned projects must be completed by October 22, 2004. + Questions + If you have any questions about the Rhizome.org Net Art Commissions, please contact Feisal Ahmad at feisal@rhizome.org or 212.219.1288. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 2.09.04 From: Joe Reinsel (jreinsel@jhu.edu) Subject: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 4th ANNUAL ONCE.TWICE:FESTIVAL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ? 4th ANNUAL ONCE.TWICE:FESTIVAL :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. The Once.Twice:Festival of Sound and Video is an annual three-day event taking place in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The festival aims to promote innovation in the production and presentation of audio and video electronic art, in particular (though not limited to) artists whose work explores the potential of new digital audio and video processing techniques. Since the first festival in spring of 2001, Once.Twice has brought over 50 nationally and internationally renowned artists to perform alongside Baltimore city and area talent, including: Andreas Berthling, Sutekh, Safety Scissors, Giles Hendrix, Timeblind, Kit Clayton, Algorithm, Taylor Deupree, Sammy Dee, Sue Costabile, Andreas Tilliander, Smith-N-Hack, William Basinski, Deadbeat, Geoff White, Crack Haus, Magda, Errorsmith, and Tomas Jirku. This year, in an effort to expand upon the visual facet of the festival, the organizers of Once.Twice are soliciting video submissions to be curated for an afternoon screening at the Johns Hopkins University on Saturday, April 17th, shortly before an evening of live audio/video collaborative performances featuring AGF + Sue Costabile, Christopher Willits + Scott Pagano, and Mylena Bergeron + Caroline Hayeur. Entries of any theme / style are welcome, but participants are encouraged to manifest both conceptual and practical forms of experimentation in their submissions. The basic guidelines are as follows: - Entries should be limited to 10 minutes in length - All submissions must be Quicktime compatible, on CD or DVD - Entries must include a $15 submission fee Entries must be received by March 15th, 2004 for consideration. First, Second, and Third place prizes will be awarded in name only, as well as honorable mentions. Final selections for the April 17th screening will be curated by Joe Reinsel, Digital Audio Specialist of the Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center, Sue Costabile, San Francisco visual artist and co-organizer of the Orthlorng Musork recording label and Scott Pagano, San Francisco based visual artist and curator of the Reline DVD compilation series. All entries must include a $15 submission fee as either a check or international money order, made out to Benjamin Parris, and sent to the following address: Benjamin Parris Johns Hopkins University Department of English 146 Gilman Hall / 3400 North Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218 USA – upcoming… April 15th - 17th, 2004 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Baltimore's 4th Annual once.twice:festival of sound and video art feat. AKUFEN . DIMBIMAN . AGF . CHRISTOPHER WILLITS . DABRYE . SUE COSTABILE . MATTHEW DEAR . GHISLAIN POIRIER. NAUTICAL ALMANAC.JIMMY EDGAR MYLENA BERGERON . CAROLINE HAYEUR . SCOTT PAGANO + more TBA www.oncetwicesound.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 2.09.04 From: Mark Biggs (mmb772f@smsu.edu) Subject: Instructor/Assistant Professor of Multimedia The Media, Journalism, & Film Department at SMSU anticipates an August 2004 opening for an Instructor or Assistant Professor in multimedia. A master's degree in multimedia or related field plus two years professional experience is required for the instructor position. An MFA or Ph.D. in electronic arts or related field is required for the assistant professor position. Must be qualified to teach courses in web design, and introductory and advanced interactivity design. Familiarity with Macs, Director, Flash and Dreamweaver is desirable. Please send application letter, vitae, transcripts, three letters of reference, and evidence of research and teaching effectiveness to Mark Biggs, Southwest Missouri State University, 901 National Avenue, Springfield, MO 65804. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 2.10.04 From: Joy Garnett (joyeria@walrus.com) Subject: JOB OPENING: NYU: Assistant/Associate Professor, Tenure Track FYI: ———- Forwarded message ———- Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 10:22:13 -0800 From: Edu-News (info@edu-news.com) To: joy garnett (underbelly@newsgrist.com) Subject: NYU: Assistant/Associate Professor, Tenure Track Department of Art and Art Professions New York University, Steinhardt School of Education <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nyu.edu/education/art">http://www.nyu.edu/education/art</a> contact: artdept@nyu.edu Digital Media/Studio Artist Assistant/Associate Professor, Tenure Track Department of Art and Art Professions New York University The Department seeks a Studio Artist working with digital technology to theorize and develop the use of technology in the department's traditional studio areas, including printmaking, painting, sculpture, craft media, photography and art in media (digital, photography, video). The digital artist position is based in studio art but will intersect with all of the department's art professions programs, including art education, art therapy, visual arts administration and visual culture. (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nyu.edu/education/art">http://www.nyu.edu/education/art</a>) Responsibilities: Teach undergraduate and graduate courses; sustain a high level of exhibition and/or scholarship, advise students, develop innovative curricula and courses, build alliances and outreach initiatives with related departments and other schools in New York University and participate in all areas of faculty activities. Qualifications: M.F.A. and/or Doctorate, minimum of three years experience teaching at the college level; substantial record of exhibition and/or a record of or potential for publication; knowledge of digital technology, its theory and practice. Please send letter of application, curriculum vitae, and examples of work to: Chair, Digital Media/Studio Art Search Committee, Department of Art and Art Professions, NYU Steinhardt School of Education 34 Stuyvesant Street, New York, NY 10003. Review of applications begins immediately and deadline for receipt of applications is March 1, 2004. NYU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Artforum: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artforum.com/">http://www.artforum.com/</a> E-flux: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.e-flux.com/">http://www.e-flux.com/</a> Artforum 350 Seventh Ave, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10001 TO UNSUBSCRIBE: <a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:leave-edunews@krsna.srvmail.com">mailto:leave-edunews@krsna.srvmail.com</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 2.12.04 From: Tara McPherson (tmcphers@usc.edu) Subject: Fellowship for New Journal Summer Fellowship Call for Projects Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular The Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML) at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication is pleased to announce a Fellowship program for summer 2004 to foster innovative research for its new electronic publishing venture, Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular. Vectors is a new, international electronic journal dedicated to expanding the potentials of academic publication via emergent and transitional media. Vectors brings together visionary scholars with cutting-edge designers and technologists to propose a thorough rethinking of the dynamic relationship of form to content in academic research, focusing on the ways technology shapes, transforms and reconfigures social and cultural relations. Vectors will adhere to the highest standards of quality in a strenuously reviewed format. The journal is edited by Tara McPherson and Steve Anderson and guided by the collective knowledge of a prestigious international board. About the Fellowships . Vectors Fellowships will be awarded to up to six individuals or teams of collaborators in the early to mid- stages of development of a scholarly multimedia project related to the themes of Evidence or Mobility. Completed projects will be included in the first two issues of the journal beginning in fall 2004. Vectors will feature next-generation multimedia work, moving far beyond the ?text with image? format of most online scholarly publications. Fall 2004: Evidence . The first issue of the journal will be devoted to a broad reconsideration of the notion of Evidence and its multiple transformations in contemporary scholarship and digital culture. Spring 2004: Mobility . The second issue will be devoted to exploring the shifting concepts and practices of Mobility in contemporary culture, creatively limning the possibilities and limits of such a concept for understanding 21st century life. About the Awards All fellowship recipients will participate in a one-week residency June 21-25, 2004 at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy in Los Angeles, where they will have access to the IML?s state of the art, Mac-based production facilities. Fellows will have continuing access to work in collaboration with world-class designers and the IML?s technical support and programming team throughout the project?s development. The residency will include colloquia and working sessions where participants will have the chance to develop project foundations and collectively engage relevant issues in scholarly multimedia. Applicants need not be proficient with new media authoring; however, evidence of successful collaboration and scholarly innovation is desirable. Fellowship awards will include an honorarium of $2000 for each participant or team of collaborators, in addition to travel and accommodation expenses. About the Proposals We are seeking project proposals that creatively address issues related to the first two themes of Evidence and Mobility. While the format of the journal is meant to explore innovative forms of multimedia scholarship, we are not necessarily looking for projects that are about new media. Rather, we are interested in the various ways that new media suggest a transformation of scholarship, art and communication practices and their relevance to everyday life in an unevenly mediated world. Applicants are encouraged to think beyond the computer screen to consider possibilities created by the proliferation of wireless technology, handheld devices, alternative exhibition venues, etc. Fellows will also have the possibility to imagine scholarly applications for newly developing technologies through productive collaborations with scientists and engineers. Projects may translate existing scholarly work or be entirely conceived for new media. We are particularly interested in work that re-imagines the role of the user and seeks to reach broader publics while creatively exploring the value of collaboration and interactivity. Proposals should include the following: . Title of project and a one-sentence description . A 3-5 page description of the project concept, goals and outcome (this description should address questions of audience, innovative uses of interactivity, address and form, as well the project?s contribution to the field of multimedia scholarship and to contemporary scholarship more generally) . Brief biography of each applicant, including relevant qualifications and experience for this fellowship . Full CV for each applicant . Anticipated required resources (design, technical, hardware, software, exhibition, etc.) . Projected timeline . Sample media if available (CD, DVD, VHS (any standard), or NTSC Mini-DV); for electronic submissions, URLs are preferred but still images may be sent as e-mail attachments if necessary) Please submit to: Vectors Summer Fellowships Institute for Multimedia Literacy 746 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90089 e-mail: vectors@annenberg.edu Priority will be given to applications received by March 12, 2004. Fellowship recipients will be notified in mid-April. Additional Information For additional information about the Vectors Summer Fellowship Program, please consult our informational website at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.iml.annenberg.edu/vectors">http://www.iml.annenberg.edu/vectors</a> . Questions may be directed to Associate Editor Steve Anderson, sanderson@annenberg.edu . + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 2.09.04 From: Alex Galloway (galloway@nyu.edu) Subject: book excerpt: "Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization" +book release party+ 6:00 pm on Friday, Feb. 27 Interactive Telecommunications Program 721 Broadway, 4th floor, New York, NY. rhizomers.. i wanted to post some excerpts from my new book which i'm very excited about.. The book is about computer networks and the concept of "protocol" that ties the networks together. i also have chapters on net art, tactical media, and hackers. more to come in a couple weeks! best, -ag + + + "Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization" by Alexander R. Galloway The MIT Press (March, 2004), 248 pages, ISBN 0262072475 book homepage: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/protocol">http://mitpress.mit.edu/protocol</a> table of contents: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ag111/Protocol-contents.doc">http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ag111/Protocol-contents.doc</a> amazon page: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262072475">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262072475</a> — Excerpt from the "Introduction": This book is about a diagram, a technology, and a management style. The diagram is the distributed network, a structural form without center that resembles a web or meshwork. The technology is the digital computer, an abstract machine able to perform the work of any other machine (provided it can be described logically). The management style is protocol, the principle of organization native to computers in distributed networks. All three come together to define a new apparatus of control that has achieved importance at the start of the new millennium. Much work has been done recently on theorizing the present historical moment and on offering periodizations to explain its historical trajectory. I am particularly inspired by five pages from Gilles Deleuze, "Postscript on Control Societies," which begin to define a chronological period after the modern age that is founded neither on the central control of the sovereign nor on the decentralized control of the prison or the factory. My book aims to flesh out the specificity of this third historical wave by focusing on the controlling computer technologies native to it. How would control exist after decentralization? In former times control was a little easier to explain. In what Michel Foucault called the sovereign societies of the classical era, characterized by centralized power and sovereign fiat, control existed as an extension of the word and deed of the master, assisted by violence and other coercive factors. Later, the disciplinary societies of the modern era took hold, replacing violence with more bureaucratic forms of command and control. Deleuze has extended this periodization into the present day by suggesting that after the disciplinary societies come the societies of control. Deleuze believed that there exist wholly new technologies concurrent with the societies of control. "The old sovereign societies worked with simple machines, levers, pulleys, clocks," he writes, "but recent disciplinary societies were equipped with thermodynamic machines… control societies operate with a third generation of machines, with information technology and computers." Just as Marx rooted his economic theory in a strict analysis of the factory's productive machinery, Deleuze heralds the coming productive power of computers to explain the sociopolitical logics of our own age. According to Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), the shift from disciplinary societies to control societies goes something like this: "Before computerized information management, the heart of institutional command and control was easy to locate. In fact, the conspicuous appearance of the halls of power was used by regimes to maintain their hegemony…. Even though the monuments of power still stand, visibly present in stable locations, the agency that maintains power is neither visible nor stable. Power no longer permanently resides in these monuments, and command and control now move about as desired." The most extensive "computerized information management" system existing today is the Internet. The Internet is a global distributed computer network. It has its roots in the American academic and military culture of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1950s, in response to the Soviet Sputnik launch and other fears connected to the Cold War, Paul Baran at the Rand Corporation decided to create a computer network that was independent of centralized command and control, and would thus be able to withstand a nuclear attack that targets such centralized hubs. In August 1964, he published an eleven-volume memorandum for the Rand Corporation outlining his research. Baran's network was based on a technology called packet-switching that allows messages to break themselves apart into small fragments. Each fragment, or packet, is able to find its own way to its destination. Once there, the packets reassemble to create the original message. In 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the U.S. Department of Defense started the ARPAnet, the first network to use Baran's packet-switching technology. The ARPAnet allowed academics to share resources and transfer files. In its early years, the ARPAnet (later renamed DARPAnet) existed unnoticed by the outside world, with only a few hundred participating computers, or "hosts." All addressing for this network was maintained by a single machine located at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. By 1984 the network had grown larger. Paul Mockapetris invented a new addressing scheme, this one decentralized, called the Domain Name System (DNS). The computers had changed also. By the late 1970s and early 1980s personal computers were coming to market and appearing in homes and offices. In 1977, researchers at Berkeley released the highly influential "BSD" flavor of the UNIX operating system, which was available to other institutions at virtually no cost. With the help of BSD, UNIX would become the most important computer operating system of the 1980s. In the early 1980s, the suite of protocols known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) was also developed and included with most UNIX servers. TCP/IP allowed for cheap, ubiquitous connectivity. In 1988, the Defense department transferred control of the central "backbone" of the Internet over to the National Science Foundation, who in turn transferred control to commercial telecommunications interests in 1995. In that year, there were 24 million Internet users. Today, the Internet is a global distributed network connecting billions of people around the world. At the core of networked computing is the concept of protocol. A computer protocol is a set of recommendations and rules that outline specific technical standards. The protocols that govern much of the Internet are contained in what are called RFC (Request For Comments) documents. Called "the primary documentation of the Internet," these technical memoranda detail the vast majority of standards and protocols in use on the Internet today. The RFCs are published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). They are freely available and used predominantly by engineers who wish to build hardware or software that meets common specifications. The IETF is affiliated with the Internet Society, an altruistic, technocratic organization that wishes "[t]o assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world." Other protocols are developed and maintained by other organizations. For example, many of the protocols used on the World Wide Web (a network within the Internet) are governed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This international consortium was created in October 1994 to develop common protocols such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets. Scores of other protocols have been created for a variety of other purposes by many different professional societies and organizations. They are covered in more detail in chapter 4 [on "Institutionalization"]. Protocol is not a new word. Prior to its usage in computing, protocol referred to any type of correct or proper behavior within a specific system of conventions. It is an important concept in the area of social etiquette as well as in the fields of diplomacy and international relations. Etymologically it refers to a fly-leaf glued to the beginning of a document, but in familiar usage the word came to mean any introductory paper summarizing the key points of a diplomatic agreement or treaty. However, with the advent of digital computing, the term has taken on a slightly different meaning. Now, protocols refer specifically to standards governing the implementation of specific technologies. Like their diplomatic predecessors, computer protocols establish the essential points necessary to enact an agreed-upon standard of action. Like their diplomatic predecessors, computer protocols are vetted out between negotiating parties and then materialized in the real world by large populations of participants (in one case citizens, and in the other computer users). Yet instead of governing social or political practices as did their diplomatic predecessors, computer protocols govern how specific technologies are agreed to, adopted, implemented, and ultimately used by people around the world. What was once a question of consideration and sense is now a question of logic and physics. To help understand the concept of computer protocols, consider the analogy of the highway system. Many different combinations of roads are available to a person driving from point A to point B. However, en route one is compelled to stop at red lights, stay between the white lines, follow a reasonably direct path, and so on. These conventional rules that govern the set of possible behavior patterns within a heterogeneous system are what computer scientists call protocol. Thus, protocol is a technique for achieving voluntary regulation within a contingent environment. These regulations always operate at the level of coding–they encode packets of information so they may be transported; they code documents so they may be effectively parsed; they code communication so local devices may effectively communicate with foreign devices. Protocols are highly formal; that is, they encapsulate information inside a technically defined wrapper, while remaining relatively indifferent to the content of information contained within. Viewed as a whole, protocol is a distributed management system that allows control to exist within a heterogeneous material milieu. It is common for contemporary critics to describe the Internet as an unpredictable mass of data–rhizomatic and lacking central organization. This position states that since new communication technologies are based on the elimination of centralized command and hierarchical control, it follows that the world is witnessing a general disappearance of control as such. This could not be further from the truth. I argue in this book that protocol is how technological control exists after decentralization. The "after" in my title refers to both the historical moment after decentralization has come into existence, but also–and more important–the historical phase after decentralization, that is, after it is dead and gone, replaced as the supreme social management style by the diagram of distribution. [Excerpt reprinted with the permission of The MIT Press.] <a rel="nofollow" href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/protocol">http://mitpress.mit.edu/protocol</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ag111/Protocol-contents.doc">http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ag111/Protocol-contents.doc</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262072475">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262072475</a> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 2.12.04 From: Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah@coin-operated.com) Subject: Report From Transmediale.04: Fly Utopia! Report From Transmediale.04: Fly Utopia! 1/31/04 - 2/4/04 Haus Der Culturen Der Welt, Berlin <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.transmediale.de">http://www.transmediale.de</a> By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah(at)coin-operated.com) In the backdrop of a snowy Berlin skyline, Transmediale.04 opened with a hefty line-up of theorists, performers, artists, and practitioners. Billed as the second largest media arts festival in Europe (next to Ars Electronica), the event featured award categories of Software, Interaction, and Image, and showcased a wide assortment of themes ranging from locative mobile media to social fictions to speculative programming and MIDI scrap-yard workshops. This year's theme was "Fly Utopia," perhaps a reaction to the idealistic vision of technology as a harbinger of the promised land of connected toasters and robot butlers. Instead of exhibiting nicely "packaged" products or projects, the festival aimed to add accountability to practice by focusing on social and political movements that question the status quo. Whether these themes were embodied in art objects or a way of thinking seemed less important than the overall message: creativity breeds disruption. The opening ceremony discussions began with the idea of "utopia" as coined by Thomas Moore, specifying an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants live under perfect conditions. Some participants argued that technology has augmented this definition, especially with the use and dissemination of the Internet, where the concept of "place" has lost meaning as a fixed location. This discussion generated questions throughout the festival, such as how historical visions of the future, especially those of technology, have kept us questioning our fate. Beginning with the theme of bio-technological utopia, several projects and lectures presented a future consisting of everything from human-grown organs to planned and assisted ritualistic death. Designer Fiona Raby's (RCA) former students presented their work within the context of "Immortality," a sub-section of a larger inquiry entitled "Consuming Monsters." Specific projects included the "Toy Communicator," a telematic device to allow people to talk to their pets when they are away. Another piece, "Planned Death," consisted of a kit for committing suicide when one reaches a state of physical perfection. All of these future products were on display in the Transmediale exhibition space as wary reminders of the future of our imperfection. Along similar lines was Shilpa Gupta's "Your Kidney Supermarket," an installation commenting on a bleak future of organ trading across national borders, consisting of several dozen kidneys in a hypothetical showroom. Despite its lack of noticeable technology, the project displayed how close we have come to commodification of anything (including human organs). Another interesting lecture was about constructing the national identity of the principality of SeaLand (sealandgov.com), a sovereign island micro nation situated in international waters, 6 miles from the coast of Britain. This identity overhaul included designing stamps with pictures of corporate scandals and failed political regimes, and coins made to look like writeable CD media. One of the most heated conference debates occurred after Andreas Broegger's talk "From Art as Software to Software as Art." This presentation featured details of two influential art interventions from the 1970's: Jack Burnham's "Software" show at the Jewish Museum in NYC and the magazine "Radical Software." Broegger's aim was to show how a shift in attention has occurred away from simply taking art objects at face value and towards examining the processes and ideas they instill and execute. Arguments were vented that the 1970's show was trying to appropriate a definition of the term "software" while today's "software art" is more about utilizing and positioning the software as an art object unto itself. In this regard, the Radical Software magazine can be seen as distilling cultural processes into information processes as a type of software creation. I tend to think that today's software art has an interest in not only what it represents as executable code, but also in how people use and experience it in their everyday lives. Since software was not a pervasive technology in the 70's, this question of defining the term existed as artistic experiments and conceptual models of what the future of technology might hold. Today a glitchy network protocol can be called art, whereas the 1970's birthed the idea that computational technology could be re-purposed for artistic interventions in the first place. Moving into mobile space, the MobiloTopia panel featured artists working with location-based or "locative" media. Marc Tuters opened the discussion with an overview of the "Locative Media Lab," a dispersed network of practitioners focusing on the creative practice and use of portable, context-aware technologies. His talk featured a breakdown of the cultural theory and representative images of future utopias as envisioned from the past. Ben Russell followed by offering an overview of current systems for location tracking and surveillance. He presented a case for creating localized street level sharing systems, where for instance, people would be able to use their neighbors' garden equipment if they knew it was available on a shared map. This idea would certainly work in a utopian version of the world, but may not be likely in today's ultra paranoid, terrorist-alert police state. Drew Hemment of FutureSonic spoke about how locative media feeds into emergent art practice; whereby navigating real space is the impetus for the work (think GPS drawing). Finally, Teri Rueb showed documentation of her "Trace" project, an interactive, location-aware sound installation where hiking in a forest recalled sounds clips that commemorated personal loss. The award presentations for image, interaction, and software consisted of short talks by the nominated artists. In the image category, Julien Maire's "DEMI-PAS" was a remarkable projection system featuring interchangeable slides, each with tiny motorized dioramas. Everyday, repetitive scenes were depicted, including a man washing his car or smoke blowing from a factory, but their intricacies were precise and beautiful. In the interactive category, Simon Schiessl's "Haptic Opposition" won over the judges with a simple motorized LED text display that responded to user aggression by becoming more anxious and nervous during repeated interaction. I was a bit surprised that Schiessl seemed more impressed by the technology of the piece rather than its social potential for interface design. Finally, the software art presentation of Robert Luxemburg's "The Conceptual Crisis of Private Property as a Crisis in Practice" was premised on the idea of a screen shot that, when run through a PHP script, would be transformed into the full text of Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon." Although the concept of decryption of proprietary file formats is not new (take DeCSS for example), the idea that one file could be masked within the binary data of another begins to get scary. For a festival themed on questioning the future, there existed almost a fearful reluctance to discuss what might happen if we ever reach utopia. There might be bio-products in our food, computer-predicted life experiences, and organ superstores on every corner, but what will happen to society in general? Will a resistance form? Will technology eventually catch up with us and deter our fetishistic instincts? Forget living! Is utopia something worth dying for? Does anyone care? As the festival closed, a central question remained stuck in my mind: If creativity is our salvation, why does the dream of utopia always seem to cloud its potential? Most of the projects shown at Transmediale seemed to grapple with the idea that technology can produce beauty through simplicity. This was also evident with most of the invited speakers, who spoke of utopia within a defined context rather than masked jargon. Overall, the festival offered a taste of both questioning and embracing the road ahead, and it promises to be even more inspirational next year. Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah(at)coin-operated.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Feisal Ahmad (feisal@rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 9, number 7. 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>. Please invite your friends to visit Rhizome.org on Fridays, when the site is open to members and non-members alike. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +