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: 2.17.02
From: list@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 12:32:58 -0500
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org
RHIZOME DIGEST: February 17, 2002

Content:

+work+
1. Steve Dietz: only 582 days left!

+announcement+
2. Tilman Baumgaertel: announcing "net.art 2.0"

+comment+
3. Eryk Salvaggio: Six Rules Towards A New Internet Art
4. La Societe Anonyme: Redefinition of artistic practices in the 21st
century (LSA47)

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1.

Date: 2.17.02
From: Steve Dietz (steve.dietz AT walkerart.org)
Subject: only 582 days left!

Free Radio Linux
by r a d i o q u a l i a

http://radioqualia.va.com.au/freeradiolinux/
http://crossfade.walkerart.org/

Free Radio Linux, a new project by r a d i o q u a l i a, commissioned
by Gallery 9/Walker Art Center, is a the first net.radio distribution of
the world's most popular open source software - the operating system,
Linux.

Free Radio Linux is an online and on-air radio station. The sound
transmission is a computerised reading of the entire source code used to
create the Linux Kernel, the basis of all distributions of Linux.

Launched February 3, the fourth anniversary of the day the Open Source
Initiative (http://www.opensource.org/) coined the term "open source" as
a label for freely published source code
(http://www.opensource.org/docs/history.html), there are only
approximately 582 days before the code has been fully netcast.

Each line of code is read by an automated computer voice - a speech.bot
utility built by r a d i o q u a l i a. The speech.bot's output is
encoded into an audio stream, using the open source codec, Ogg Vorbis
(http://www.vorbis.com), and sent out live on the internet. FM, AM and
Shortwave radio stations from around the world will also relay the audio
stream on various occasions.

The Linux kernel contains 4,141,432 millions lines of code. Reading the
entire kernel will take an estimated 14253.43 hours, or 593.89 days.
Listeners can track the progress of Free Radio Linux by listening to the
audio stream, or checking the text-based progress field in the ./listen
section of the website (http://www.radioqualia.net/freeradiolinux)

./ BACKGROUND : LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE

Since Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds
(http://www.cs.Helsinki.FI/u/torvalds/) started development of the
operating system, Linux in 1991, the collaborative model of software
development has reached profound new heights. Consisting of millions of
lines of source code, Linux has been mutated, improved and sent
spiraling off into new directions by literally thousands of programmers
from all around the world. This is because Torvalds promoted a simple
approach to the development of Linux: he made the code available for
users of the operating system to read, view and alter. Sharing their
ideas on the software and potential improvements was a core part of
Torvalds' ethic. Due to the extraordinary success of Linux, the ethic of
code sharing has reached new heights of popularity. Code sharing is no
longer a process specific to computer science, rather it has become an
ideology embraced by business, the computer using public, and a
multitude of cultural, artistic and academic sectors. When Linux won one
of electronic art's most prestigious prizes, the Prix Ars Electronica
(http://prixars.aec.at/history/net/1999/E99net_01.htm) for .net
excellence in 1999, Open Source completed its journey from a prosaic
functional process to a phenomenon verging on art.

./ FREE RADIO MEETS FREE SOFTWARE

In the hierarchy of media, radio reigns. There are more computers than
modems, more phones than computers, and more radios than phones. Radio
is the closest we have to an egalitarian method of information
distribution. Free Radio Linux advocates that radio is the best method
for distributing the world's most popular free software.

Free Radio Linux is therefore be a networked broadcast system,
transmitting on ether-net via open source audio codec, Ogg Vorbis and
relayed on AM, Shortwave and FM frequencies, by a collection of ham
radio amateurs and radio professionals.

Free Radio Linux also continues the tradition of FM 'code stations' of
the early-mid eighties. These stations were pirate broadcasters who
distributed bootleg software programmes via radio transmitters, allowing
early hackers with home computers, such as Sinclair ZX80-81s, Commodore
64s, and Acorns, to demodulate the signal through a modem and run the
code. The modern day equivalent, Free Radio Linux, similarly enables
anyone with notepad to transcribe the code and utilise it at his or her
convenience.

http://radioqualia.va.com.au/freeradiolinux/
http://crossfade.walkerart.org/
http://www.opensource.org/
http://www.opensource.org/docs/history.html
http://www.vorbis.com
http://www.radioqualia.net/freeradiolinux
http://www.cs.Helsinki.FI/u/torvalds
http://prixars.aec.at/history/net/1999/E99net_01.htm

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+ad+

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<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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2.

Date: 2.13.02
From: Tilman Baumgaertel (tilman_baumgaertel AT csi.com)
Subject: announcing "net.art 2.0"

net.art 2.0.--Neue Materialien zur Netzkunst /New Materials towards Net
Art
Tilman Baumgärtel (Editor)

Publisher: Institut für moderne Kunst Nürnberg.
Bilingual (german/english).
Translated by David Hudson
264 pages with 136 pics, most of the in color.
Softcover.
32 Euro
ISBN 3-933096-66-9

The saga contines. Since the publication of the book "net.art -
Materialien zur Netzkunst" (exclusively in german) by Tilman Baumgärtel
in 1999, developments in the area of Net art have been continuing apace.
"net.art 2.0" describes more recent developments in Net art, this time
giving voice to Nam June Paik and Douglas Davis among others. It was the
work of artists such as these in the 1970s and '80s that paved the way
for Internet art. Moreover "net.art 2.0" brings to light a series of
works challenging the computer itself as an artistic medium, or putting
it to artistic uses for which computers were never conceived.

"net.art 2.0" primarily consists of interviews with some of the main
players of Net art--artists whose keynote work and mojor projects in
recent years (such as Julia Scher, Peter Halley, Blank & Jeron, Jodi,
etoy, Micromusic.net, Ken Goldberg and Lisa Jevbratt) were carried out
in this medium, thereby rising the profile of the field and giving it
new focus. The interviews are complemented by the inclusion of an
appendix and a comprehensive essay by the author. This investigates what
is peculiar to Internet art, and seeks to identify its relevance to the
debate in contemporary art. "net.art 2.0" provides access to the
innovative terrain of Internet art.

http://www.vfmk.de/028.html
http://rhizome.org/store/

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+ad+

Read Peter Anders article "Anthropic Cyberspace"
in the latest LEONARDO Digital Salon Volume 34 Number 5.
Learn first hand about defining electronic space
and give yourself space to think.
Visit our web site AT http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo

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3.

Date: 2.12.02
From: Eryk Salvaggio (eryk AT maine.rr.com)
Subject: Six Rules Towards A New Internet Art

Boundaries are what inspired the "heroic period" of early net.art--
boundaries such as bandwidth, browser design limits, etc. Ironically; as
bandwidth has expanded and browers more flexible, we have also seen a
homoginization of net.art. A design aesthetic prevails; as we see
slicker and slicker "art" sites with no message or point or content.
Several of the following limitations are designed to deflect the
trappings of tradition set up by the original net.art form which we seem
mired in. The new net.art will not appeal to net.art purists nor the
designers with a bent towards untraditional displays; instead it is a
reflection of what I see as "the new cliches."

The following was drawn up in my frustration at viewing work on the
internet as of late, in an attempt to find for myself what it is that
has started to bore me so much about art on the web. The "manifesto" was
written as a means of provocation to thought in other artists on the web
who are not looking at the traps they are falling into; as well as
tendencies in my own work that I was unsatisfied with. You will notice
that the work I list below is not "boring" but merely rampant; I am not
saying that work created against the rules I'm setting forth can't be
interesting; but merely that these modes are already prevalent, and
that steps should be taken by any artist who is interested in expanding
the medium by posit rather than reproduction. Work created under the New
Net Art Banner will work within the following selected boundaries--at
least 7 of these criteria must be met for a work to be considered "New
Net Art."

If no one responds to it, I am quitting the list.

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1. No Flash.

This has nothing to do with corporate/anti-corporate; and should not be
mistaken as the most radical rule. The no-flash rule is in effect by
simple virtue of its rampant use in net.art work at the expense of
diversity. Because flash is so common, we see common systems of
animation; common color schemes, common layouts. This rule should be
taken with the understanding that under the rules for "new net.art"
there is an allowance for up to 30% of a site to consist of flash and
shockwave.

2. No introduction pages.

There will be no thesis; critical reviews or explanations of intent or
content before displaying the work. The use of such pages is alienating
and self-important and detracts from the responsibility of the viewer to
interact with the work in order to discover its meaning; this results in
a decreased sense of intimacy within net.art.

3. No more art for the sake of error.

No more art will be produced using broken code; flashing gifs or
anything relating to computer viruses or corrupted data. This work is
already a predominant aesthetic.

4. Images must be unique to the sitemaker.

Any images used on the site must be scanned or photographed by the
artist embedding it into html. Images found on the internet may not be
recycled or re-appropriated. This is intended to develop a unique,
localized feel to all new net.art; as well as contribute to a new
exploration of the documentary in net.art.

5. Technology is not a subject. The internet is not a subject.

New net.art cannot be "reflective of the internet or technology or its
impact." These subjects are irrelevant; as the internet is not "new" and
its impact has been largely explored.

6. The work stands alone.

No CV may be included in the promotion or distribution of communications
art. The CV is irrelevant to the experience of any art and should not be
included in any materials used to promote the site.

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+ad+

**MUTE MAGAZINE ART ISSUE** Peter Fend 10 page special, Andrew Gellatly
on selling art online, Benedict Seymour on the closure of London's Lux
Centre, Michael Corris on Conceptual art, Hari Kunzru in Las Vegas.
Reviews: Don't blow IT conference, Wizards of OS, Wolfgang Shaehle's
2001 Show http://www.metamute.com/mutemagazine/current/index.htm

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4.

Date: 2.14.02
From: La Societe Anonyme (lsa AT aleph-arts.org)
Subject: Redefinition of artistic practices in the 21st century (LSA47)

Redefinition of artistic practices in the 21st century (LSA47)
a 37 scenes/statements webfilm/manifesto
La Société Anonyme*
http://aleph-arts.org/lsa/lsa47/

a few excerpts:

1. [...] Nobody is author: every producer is an anonymous society--
indeed we would say: the product of an anonymous society.

2. The figure of the artist is living on borrowed time. [...]

3. "Works of art" do not exist. What do exist are labours and practices
that we can call artistic. They have to do with meaningful, affective
and cultural production, and they have specific roles in relation to the
subjects of experience. [...]

7. Artistic work no longer has to do with representation. [...]

9. The transformations of current societies determines the complete
inadequacy of the presently hegemonic regime of public circulation of
artistic production. [...]

10. In the societies of the 21st century, art will not be exhibited. It
will be broadcasted.

12.The more the new artistic practices move away from their objectives
of object production, the less pertinent such traditional articulations
of their marketing and their collection will appear. [...]

13. In the societies of the 21st century, artists will not receive their
income from the appreciation associated with the merchandising of the
objects produced by their work, but instead [...]

20. The work carried out by the artist as producer is situated in the
orbit of any other activity, of whatever activity. [...]

21. Art no longer belongs to the order of a symbolic economy presided
over by the anthropological figures of waste [...] In the new economies
of false sustained opulence, artists cannot accept that their practices
be inscribed in any way in the registers as any updated form of luxury.

22. The transformation of the new societies puts in the forefront
immaterial labour , the production of meaning and emotions, the making
of intellectual and affective labour. The most important challenge that
the contemporary artistic practices face is the redefinition of their
anthropological role in relation to this great displacement.

25. Intellectual property and authorship rights, as such, will become
the main battle horse of this contemporary re-centering of the relations
of production. [...]

26. It is necessary of find formulas that respect authors" rights while
simultaneously respecting the collective right to public and open access
to the totality of knowledge and practices of symbolic production,
profoundly revising the concept of intellectual property. [...]

27. The refocusing brought about by the immaterial labour at the very
operational core of the new economies supposes a great transformation:
the whole spectrum of a production that used to be considered
"superstructural" has now become the nucleus of the contemporary
anthropological commerce.

28. If the new societies can nowadays be defined as societies of
immaterial labour, societies of knowledge, it must then be recognized
that the practices of symbolic production [...] take on a leading role,
one that is absolute and of utmost priority. [...]

29. First responsibility: that acquired insofar as the production of
forms of socialization and individualization. [...]

30. The artist as producer is a) a generator of narratives of mutual
recognition; b) an inducer of intensified situations of encounter and
socialization of experience; and c) a producer of mediations for their
exchange in the public sphere.

31. The artist as producer intervenes, more and more, in the real time
of the dominion of experience, not in the deferred time of
representation. [...] More and more, the artist is a producer of "live"

32. The second great responsibility of the artistic producer in
contemporary societies: the one that concerns her in relation to the
process of diffuse "aesthetization" of the contemporary world without
which the new capitalism would not be thinkable. [...]

33. The religion of our time is called: aesthetic justification of
existence--worshiped under an evidently cheapened, trivialized form
[...]

36. What is at stake in the new societies of advanced capitalism is the
process by which it is going to be decided which are and which are going
to be the mechanisms and apparatus of subjection and socialization that
are to be constituted as hegemonic [...]

37. Resisting the effect of deintensification, qualitative
impoverishment and expropriation of what is authentic in experience
inherent in its management by the entertainment industry, could be the
leitmotiv of a new politics. [...]

http://aleph-arts.org/lsa/lsa47/

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* La Société Anonyme is a fluctuating group of artists and theoreticians
who work specifically on the relations between critical thinking and
artistic practices.

LSA was founded in 1990 and has so far produced 45 works, including
texts, videos, installations and web pieces.

La Société is currently working on the problematics of the web, as
related to a critical extinction of the separated existence of art in
contemporary societies.

http://aleph-arts.org/lsa/
http://aleph-arts.org/lsa/lsa47/

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