The Rhizome Digest merged into the Rhizome News in November 2008. These pages serve as an archive for 6-years worth of discussions and happenings from when the Digest was simply a plain-text, weekly email.

Subject: RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.12.02
From: list@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:58:06 -0500
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org

RHIZOME DIGEST: January 12, 2002

Content:

+editor's note+
1. beverly tang: Rhizome.LA Sound Art Event--Jan 28, 2002

+work+
2. brody: ADAM_KILLER & WHITE_PICNIC_GLITCH

+opportunity+
3. Jaka Zeleznikar: call--Break 21 festival
4. Lev Manovich: Two Digital Artists Positions At Ucsd: DEADLINE 1/18/02

+announcement+
5. Ulrich Wegenast: Web Art & Online Voting at 15th Stuttgart Filmwinter

+interview+
6. alex galloway: "You'll show me yours"--Interview with Mark Daggett

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1.

Date: 1.7.02
From: beverly tang (b AT sublimina.com)
Subject: Rhizome.LA Sound Art Event--Jan 28, 2002

Los Angeles, CA--Rhizome.LA is pleased to announce the lineup for
Monday, January 28, 2002. The event will consist of musical performances
by Kim Cascone, Steve Roden and Sutekh, and a panel discussion with
sound artists Matt Bonal, Kim Cascone, David Cotner, J.Frede, Steve
Roden and Sutekh.

A new genre of music has developed over the past couple of years. Some
fans call it "microsound," "glitch," "lowercase," or "post-digital," but
like a hologram, the genre can change radically as one shifts their
perspective. The boundaries of music have been further blurred due to
recent advances in digital audio technology and as a result new issues
have challenged the mainstream notions of music. The composers
participating in this Rhizome.LA event will help shed some light on
these issues by participating in a panel discussion chaired by Beverly
Tang. The bleeding edge of musical aesthetics will be examined and
promises to provide much in the way of cultural stimulation.

Later in the evening there will be concerts by Steven Roden, Sutekh and
Kim Cascone. Mr. Roden works with small incidental sounds that tend to
be filtered out by most listeners. Roden uses digital technology to
bring out these invisible worlds of sound for us to hear. His work can
be likened to "hearing sound as if you were looking through a
microscope." Sutekh, best known for his work in the California style of
electronica, will perform textural sound experiments constructed with
otherworldly mixtures of synthetic and found sounds. This will prove to
be a rare and special treat for all Sutekh fans. Kim Cascone will
complete the evening with a dense field of synthetic sounds created with
custom software developed in Max/MSP. Cascone's work is titled "Dust
Theories" and was recently performed on a European tour last fall.

Rhizome.LA, an offshoot of Rhizome, is an event series that presents new
media art to the public in Los Angeles. Rhizome.org is an online
platform for the global new media art community. A nonprofit
organization based in New York City, Rhizome's programs support the
creation, presentation, discussion and preservation of contemporary art
that engages new technologies in significant ways. For more information
about Rhizome.org, and to become a member of the Rhizome community, go
to http://www.rhizome.org.

Location: Whose Café, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 462 8500

Date: Monday, January 28, 2002

Time: 7:30pm

Price: $5-10 Sliding Donation

http://rhizome.org
http://rhizome.org/LA

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+ad+

Artistic Environments of Telepresence on the World Wide Web" by Luisa
Paraguai Donati and Gilbertto Prado addresses the use of live images in
artistic spaces. Find out what events you'll participate in via the web.
Pick up a copy of LEONARDO's Digital Salon, Volume 34 Number 5 and
visit: AT : http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo

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2.

Date: 1.10.02
From: brody (brody AT tmpspace.com)
Subject: ADAM_KILLER & WHITE_PICNIC_GLITCH

ADAM_KILLER, 2000
computer game conversion
www.tmpspace.com/adam_killer

WHITE_PICNIC_GLITCH, 2001
computer game conversion
www.tmpspace.com/white_picnic_glitch

My history is up for grabs. I will set up trade alliances, and enter
into truces. Or will I just let my Babylonian Bowmen rain terror down on
my enemies' heads. I will lead a team of specialists into an abyss of
vast caverns, snake-like passageways and luring dead-ends. I will
command squads with precision and power using a GPS, night-vision,
battlefield computers, and modular body armor. My unique magic system
allows me to change the spells and creatures I bring into battle each
time. I will stay frosty as the world explodes around me and my mission
goals change on the fly. I will customize my squad into specialized
experts in snipercraft, demolitions, and stealth. I will drive them
crazy with impossible challenges like giant pyramids and microscopic
fairways. I will tread lightly, the depths belong to twisted cults,
mutants, and hideous creatures that were never meant to exist. I will
catch all the rip-roaring action from film-quality multiple camera
angles: cockpit, chase close, chase far, dash, television camera, sides,
front, ground, sliding, and even skycam views. I will plow through snow
packed roads, bust out from a wall of fog and be blinded by oncoming
rain. All while piloting the most badass 'Mechs ever.

http://www.tmpspace.com/adam_killer
http://www.tmpspace.com/white_picnic_glitch

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+ad+

**METAMUTE ECHELON COMPETITION WINNERS: Metamute announces the winners
of the Echelon competition. 1st prize: The Avatar Group - Isis, followed
by runners up: Tessa Laird - Pink Noise and Edward Lear - The Owl and
the Pussycat Assassinate the EuroFeds. Read all the entries:
http://www.metamute.com/mfiles/index.htm

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3.

Date: 1.7.02
From: Jaka Zeleznikar (jaka AT jaka.org)
Subject: call--Break 21 festival

Break 21
6th International Festival of Emerging Artists

May 19th - 24th, 2002
Ljubljana, Slovenia

http://www.break21.com

Organiser
K6/4, Kersnikova 6, Ljubljana, Slovenia

BREAK 21 - Statement of Purpose
The festival is dedicated to younger, not yet recognised artists who
modulate their artistic expression within research artistic practice.
The age limit has been abandoned by this year's festival to be able to
follow the theme more thoroughly. Besides artistic works, selected
through Call for Applications, selectors have the opportunity to invite
authors, whose known works may add up to the entire exhibition of the
chosen theme. However we will prefer the latest projects, which are, in
our opinion, important for the discourse, pursued by the festival, in
the selection.

In the year 2002, the festival's construction will differ from the last
five editions. We will invite only the artists, who are indispensable
for the presentation or installation of their works, to Ljubljana; the
rest of them will be presented with their works. Holders of the
programmes will take up the roles of selectors since they have already
been connected to permanent activities of the K6/4 board. The festival
will thus obtain the content frame, which can already be detected in the
current activities of the K4 club, which will provide the sound, the
Kapelica gallery, which covers the field of the visual arts and
performances, and the Kiberpipa, which covers the field of cybernetics,
video and film production. We also invited a few associates, who
specialise in the field of cartoons, animated films, short films, web
art, designing, culinary art and fashion to help us in the selection.
Custodians of the festival (we invited them from Zagreb, Croatia, this
year) proposed the theme, which, we believe, opens an extremely
important, stigmatised and taboo field in totalitarianism of the
consumer society. Custodians will make a selection of applicants
together with selectors/advisors, who are experts for specific artistic
fields. Concurrently, uniform criteria of the selection are being
guaranteed.

We tend to create the selection and the Break 21 festival upon explicit
artistic projects, texts, and not numerous exhibits to be able to
reflect upon the selected field precisely enough, since the selected
field will be presented in the collection of texts after the festival.
We expect around 60 participants, including artists, researches,
engineers, theoretician and publicists to participate at the festival.
In the postproduction of the festival, a catalogue on CD ROM will be
published. Later on, we will publish a printed collection of texts and
artistic project, presented at the Break 21 festival, and projects,
which influenced the development of the selected theme greatly, for
which we would like to become the reference in the future.

http://www.break21.com

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+ad+

STATE OF THE ARTS SYMPOSIUM * UCLA APRIL 4-6, 2002 * RHIZOME DISCOUNT *
<http://www.eliterature.org/state> ELO invites Rhizome subscribers to
join leading web artists, writers, critics, theorists for the seminal
e-lit event of 2002. Rhizome subscribers who register before FEB 15 2002
may register at ELO member rates ($25 discount).

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4.

Date: 1.9.02
From: Lev Manovich (manovich AT ucsd.edu)
Subject: Two Digital Artists Positions At Ucsd: DEADLINE 1/18/02

TWO TENURE-TRACK DIGITAL ARTS POSITIONS at
VISUAL ARTS DEPARTMENT, University of California, San Diego

http://visarts.ucsd.edu

COMPUTER ARTIST. Assistant Professor, tenure-track, beginning July 1,
2002. Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience and based
upon UC pay scales. We seek an artist with a proven exhibition record
whose work exhibits an in-depth understanding of computing and its
relationship to contemporary art and its discourses. UCSD is a research
university that actively promotes and supports creative work and
advanced research in computing within a broadly interdisciplinary arts
department that includes studio, media, and art history, theory and
criticism. Opportunities for developing research include grants, state-
of-the-art facilities including CRCA (Center for Research in Computing
and the Arts), the Supercomputer Center, and the new California
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and cross-
campus collaborations. Teaching will include both graduate seminars and
undergraduate courses, including courses in an Interdisciplinary
Computing and the Arts Major with the department of Music. Candidates
must demonstrate in their work and teaching a substantial engagement
with the computing arts and their relationship to broader discourses of
contemporary art and culture.

MEDIA ARTIST. Assistant Professor, tenure-track, beginning July 1,
2002. Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience and based
on UC pay scales. We seek an artist with a strong exhibition record who
works in video, film, and/or photography and who is also seriously
engaged with new media, one whose practice will inventively bridge our
highly ranked programs in media and the digital arts. UCSD is a
research university that actively promotes and supports creative work
within a broadly interdisciplinary arts department that includes studio,
media, computing, and art history, theory, and criticism. Opportunities
for developing research include grants, state-of-the-art facilities, and
cross-campus collaborations.

http://visarts.ucsd.edu

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5.

Date: 1.10.02
From: Ulrich Wegenast (ulrich_wegenast AT HOTMAIL.COM)
Subject: Web Art & Online Voting at 15th Stuttgart Filmwinter

the warm up of the 15th Stuttgart Filmwinter has started! From now on
you can visit the nominated internet submissions for the new media
competition on our web site:

http://www.filmwinter.de

You can vote for the best internet project. The best web site will be
awarde the City of Stuttgart Prize for New Media amounting 2.000 Euro.

The voting ends on January 20 at 2 p.m. The award ceremony takes place
on the 20th at 8 p.m. at the Stuttgart Filmhaus, Friedrichstr. 23 A.

You find the voting form under "programme" and "International
Competition New Media".

+ + +

Additionally there will be the opening of the first Filmwinter Warm Up
exhibition at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Solitude 3.
Today, Thursday, January 10, an exhibition with two installations by the
British media artist Imogen Stidworthy opens at 8 p.m.

http://www.filmwinter.de

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6.

Date: 1.9.2002
From: alex galloway (alex AT rhizome.org)
Subject: "You'll show me yours"--Interview with Mark Daggett
Keywords: privacy, gaming, design, browser

[Mark Daggett is an artist and graphic designer. His work has been
displayed at PS1, Ars Electronica and the Whitney Museum's "Artport." He
has also developed games and DVD's for major motion pictures including
"The Matrix" and "The Perfect Storm."]

+ + +

Q: You recently released a screen saver called "Deskswap"
(http://www.deskswap.com). Can you explain what it is and how it works?

Daggett: "DeskSwap" is an online screensaver that allows people to
exchange images of their desktop with each other. When the user stops
using their computer, "DeskSwap" starts as a normal screensaver. It
quickly takes a snapshot of the user's screen and uploads it to the
"DeskSwap" server. Since screensavers only become active during periods
of inactivity, "DeskSwap" catches candid images of the user's desktop.

"DeskSwap" has two modes a "peer to peer" mode where the user's can
choose a specific person to swap desktops with and a "round robin" mode
where the user joins a ring of other people who trade with each other.

Q: How many people use "DeskSwap" on a regular basis? Do you have users
who are upset about swapping their desktops with other people?

Daggett: "DeskSwap" does raise several issues about privacy, but for the
most part the users of "DeskSwap" are either not bothered or not aware
of those issues. Most of the people who are hot and bothered about
privacy don't install the software. Presently there are almost 20,000
"DeskSwap" users since the project launched in September.

Q: That's a lot of people. Can you talk about your collaborative
process... Did you have to team up with programmers to create a system
robust enough to accommodate so many users? Was the collaboration an
enjoyable experience?

Daggett: Yes, it is a lot of people but according to the developers the
server can easily handle more. In addition the server can be distributed
so that others can run their own server, which would make "DeskSwap"
infinitely scalable. Originally, I built the piece myself, I made a
working demo as a proof of concept and showed it around to my friends
and other developers and tried to drum up interest in the project.
Derrick Woolworth who is an uber-programmer friend of mine really liked
the idea but in his words thought the programming was "a pile of shit."
He offered to re-write the server for me. Vincent Toms offered to write
a new client for me and together we all came up with the version of
"DeskSwap" that is available today. I have had very painful
collaborative experiences with other developers in the past mainly
because I was not clear what I wanted them to develop for me. It was
helpful that I already had a working model for them to work from. In
general, they were very good to put up with my crazy sometimes ill-
informed ideas about peer-to-peer technologies; a common response to my
questions would be "Why would you want to do that?" The thing that made
this collaboration work was that ultimately I made lots of technical
concessions and they labored intensely to make sure the client and
server had all the functionality I was hoping for.

Q: Your work often takes the web browser itself as a type of artistic
medium. Can you describe the blur technique used in your "Blur Browser"?
(http://www.flavoredthunder.com/dev/browser-gestures/)?

Daggett: The "Blur Browser" is a part of a larger series called "Browser
Gestures." "Browser Gestures" is an ongoing series of applications that
reinterpret what a browser is. Originally, these experiments were
started to unsettle the page metaphor, which dominates how people
typically expect web sites to be displayed. In the case of the "Blur
Browser" it takes the page that the user requested and anti-aliases the
contents of the page until it becomes an abstract color field.

Q: But it's more than anti-aliasing, right? It's computer feedback. The
analogy I use is to close-circuit video. If you point a video camera
at it's own monitor the image starts to fold in on itself in an endless
feedback loop. This is essentially the same visual technique you are
using, only on a computer. How did you discover this technique?

Daggett: That is a good comparison. The "Blur Browser" does create a
feedback loop when it starts. Since the user can guide the direction of
the blur with the movement of his/her mouse some very interesting vortex
type effects can be created. I discovered the technique the same way I
imagine the video artist discovered the feedback loop. The video artist
pointed the camera and the monitor to see what would happen and I did
the same with the computer: I fed the visual output back in as input for
the imaging subroutine.

Q: What other techniques have you experimented with?

Daggett: I am working right now on various types of image processing,
along the lines of the blurs but with more depth and subtleties. In
addition to the imaging effects I am experimenting with real-time 3D.

Q: What do you like most about 3D? The relationship to gaming? The
immersive quality?

Daggett: I am very interested in the pop culture significance of 3D
gaming to today's society. I imagine that if Warhol was painting today
that his celebrities might be Mario or Lara Croft. Since games have
become so technically sophisticated it's easier for the player to use
these game characters as surrogates for entertainment's sake. For game
players these characters are more interesting role-playing objects than
imagining oneself as the lead in a movie. They truly have become
celebrities and idols for many of the players.

I am working with real time 3D engines now mainly because of the
fluidity of motion that they provide. 3D games and environments are
immersive because people desperately want to believe in them. So I have
a willing audience who are going to give me the benefit of the doubt
because they are in search of entertainment and escapism. Because they
assume I am going to entertain them, the audience is completely
receptive to whatever I want to give them.

Q: You also work as a game designer. Do you ever call upon your game-
making skills while crafting an art project? What are some of the skills
that cross over between the two genres?

Daggett: I am part of the "garage game" scene, which is a group of
basement developers that make small games for fun and sometime (very
rarely) for profit. It is an enjoyable way to make games. The same
programming skills that I use in making games often are used in my art
and the reverse is also true. Also I find that sometimes organizing my
art projects the same way I might lay out my games helps clear up
exactly what I am trying to accomplish in my work. The trick of course
is to make sure that the art still develops through the process of
making it and that the structure is not so rigid that innovation and
inspiration aren't stifled.

Q: What are your future projects?

Daggett: I am working on a follow up to "DeskSwap" right now. It is
going to be a virus greeting card system, I think. I'll know more as it
starts to work. I am also working on some 3D environments. Oh, and I am
going to write a book and I am going to lose 30 pounds.

http://www.deskswap.com
http://www.flavoredthunder.com/dev/browser-gestures
http://www.flavoredthunder.com

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Rhizome Digest is filtered by Alex Galloway (alex AT rhizome.org).
ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 7, number 2. Article submissions to
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