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.
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Subject: RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.13.03 From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME) Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 22:45:42 -0500 Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org RHIZOME DIGEST: December 13, 2003 Content: +announcement+ 1. Pau Waelder: Blogtalk 2.0 - (conference) 2. Drew Hemment: futuresonic04 | mobile connections + turntable re:mix +opportunity+ 3. Melinda Klayman: Leonardo Announces SpaceartS: The Space and the Arts Database 4. Esther Schooler: Interactive Media Faculty Position 5. Brooke Knight: New Media Studies Position, Emerson College 6. Vicente Matallana: Araneum -Net Art Commissions Deadline Extended application deadline until January 2st 2004 +interview+ 7. Kanarinka: interview with Giselle Bieguelman +feature+ 8. Jonah Brucker-Cohen: Interview with Brody Condon + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + **RHIZOME NEEDS TO RAISE $27K BY FEBRUARY 1, 2004** Do you value Rhizome Digest? If so, consider making a contribution and helping Rhizome.org to be self-sustaining. A contribution of $15 will qualify you for a 10-20% discount in items in the New Museum of Contemporary Art's Store, http://www.newmuseum.org/comersus/store/comersus_dynamicIndex.asp and a donation of $50 will get you a funky Rhizome t-shirt designed by artist Cary Peppermint. Send a check or money order to Rhizome.org, New Museum, 583 Broadway, New York, NY, 10012 or give securely and quickly online: http://www.rhizome.org/support/?digest1212 **BE AN ACTIVE ROOT** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 12.09.03 From: Pau Waelder (pau AT sicplacitum.com) Subject: Blogtalk 2.0 - (conference) From: Blogtalk 2.0 Subject: Blogtalk 2.0 Call Vienna, Austria Blogtalk 2.0 conference is designed to initiate a dialog between bloggers, developers, researchers and others who share, enjoy and analyse the benefits of blogging. The focus is on weblogs as an expression of a culture based on the exchange of information, ideas and knowledge. In the spirit of the free exchange of opinions, links and thoughts we wish to engage a wide range of participants from the blogosphere in this discourse. Please submit a proposal, spread the word of this unique conference. BlogTalk 2.0 will be held in Vienna, Austria. We aim to held the conference from the 5th. to 6th. of July in 2004. Info: http://blogtalk.net + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 12.10.03 From: Drew Hemment (drew AT futuresonic.com) Subject: futuresonic04 | mobile connections + turntable re:mix FINAL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS deadline extended to 16.01.04* futuresonic04 29.04.04 - 02.05.04 urbis and city wide manchester. uk an international festival of electronic music and media arts featuring artistic showcases, club events, workshops, discussions, installations and interventions futuresonic04 theme | mobile connections artistic projects exploring how perceptions of space and time are reconfigured by wireless and mobile media, from the radio to mobile telephony and wireless networks. themes to include wireless interfaces, locative media, location based sound, and mobile phone culture futuresonic04 theme | turntable re:mix to mark the 25th anniversary of the technics 1200mk2 record deck, one of the most iconic cultural artefacts of the 20th century, a series of events will showcase the many diverse forms of turntable music and look over the horizon at emerging formats and post-turntable music futuresonic04 | conference a conference hosted by urbis will explore the theme of mobile connections futuresonic04 | participate we welcome submissions of artistic projects for the mobile connections artistic programme and conference. the deadline for submissions has been extended to 16.01.04. | electronic submissions to 04 AT futuresonic.com | postal submissions to futuresonic. po box 20. manchester. m60 1we. uk *the deadline extension covers submissions of individual performances, projects and conference presentations only. submissions of events and conference sessions will no longer be accepted. we regret that we cannot promise to respond to every request individually. futuresonic04 | satellites a series of mobile connections events will be staged prior to futuresonic04, commencing with the mobiliotopia session at transmediale04 presented in collaboration with the locative media lab. www.mobileconnections.org || MOBILE CONNECTIONS AT FUTURESONIC04 || the mobile connections artistic programme and associated conference is a collaboration between futuresonic, urbis, university of salford and liverpool school of art and design, john moores university. out of the galleries and off the screen the futuresonic04 international festival of electronic music and media arts shall explore the theme of mobile connections, bringing together media artists, musicians, game developers and technical innovators working in wireless and locative media, to present a range of artistic projects, workshops and debates. just as recording enabled sound to be heard apart from the place and time of its creation and radio made possible remote listening, so a new generation of communication media is now reconfiguring perceptions of space and time, and transforming the nature of the art object and the musical event. the emergence of locative media art, predictions of the imminent bursting of the 802.11 bubble, and the introduction of location based services for mobile phones have brought into focus a set of interests concerned with wireless and locative media, and have created a space that increasing numbers of artists are starting to explore. mobile connections will explore how wireless technologies enable place and location to be experienced in different ways, and look at the diverse ways in which artists have pushed the limits, and solicited unexpected or unforeseen results, from communication media past and present, from the radio and turntable, to mobile telephony, streaming and wireless lan. | areas of interest | wireless interfaces | wireless technologies offer non-restrictive interfaces that enable movement and interaction free from cables and physical connections. how do these change the relationship between technology and the body, and what artistic interventions are available at the interface between the body and the nearest node? location based sound | location location location. how can sound artists explore the convergence of wireless and locative media, what new perspectives does it suggest on site specific sound, and how can urban space be navigated through sound? locative media | an emerging artform is coalescing around programmers, artists and theorists who are exploring how locative media can be appropriated for user-led mapping and collaborative cartography. leading practitioners will be brought together to explore the expansive domain of ?geo hacking? in which augmented reality coincides with social and geographical space in many interesting ways. mobile gaming | how will a new generation of games platforms exploit location data and use wireless technologies and mobile phones to create game zones that occupy urban spaces and that are intertwined with the fabric of everyday life? communication and control | where is the cutting edge of location research, who is controlling it, and how do communication and control converge when technologies previously used for surveillance are marketed as consumer products? mobile city | how do mobile and wireless technologies enable us to experience the city in different ways, and how is culture being transformed at a time at which, with the introduction of a new generation of always-on mobile media players, the mobile looks set to become a primary media platform? | futuresonic04 | since its first major festival in 1996, futuresonic has sought to explore the connections between electronic music, media arts and contemporary culture. futuresonic04 will present a wide range of artistic showcases, discussions and workshops, with one curatorial strand exploring the area of mobile connections, and another presenting a series of turntable music events to mark the 25th anniversary of the technics 1200mk2 record deck, a device that has connected the diverse circuits of electronic music and that has become one of the most iconic cultural artefacts of the 20th century. in 2002 futuresonic presented some highly successful events under the banner of migrations, looking at movements of peoples and sounds, and the many transverse connections between artforms and cultures. futuresonic04 will shift the focus to the new kinds of events and artforms made possible by communications technologies, and to a different kind of mobility or connectedness that plays upon the limits of technological media. | urbis | the festival will be hosted by urbis, a landmark six-story glass building rising high above manchester city centre. its mission as a centre for urban culture is to reveal trends and elements of contemporary urban culture and explore the cities of today and tomorrow. three floors of multimedia exhibitions explore life in cities around the world and how people experience the urban environment, while its 1st floor and events programme explores the best of what is now and what could be next in urbanity. mobile technology is increasingly becoming the common language of the urban interface, and as such is an area of great interest for urbis. | information | futuresonic04 festival information: www.futuresonic.com mobile connections information: www.mobileconnections.org *full programme available from february 04* + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 http://rhizome.net/your_account_name). PLUS, those who sign up for Rhizome hosting before January 15, 2004 will receive a *FREE* domain name for one year. And there is more, the hosted can take comfort in knowing they're being active roots in the rhizome schema, helping the .ORG self-sustain. Details at: https://www.broadspire.com/order/rhizome/freedomain.html + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 12.08.03 From: Melinda Klayman (mklayman AT leonardo.info) Subject: Leonardo Announces SpaceartS: The Space and the Arts Database Leonardo Announces SpaceartS: The Space and the Arts Database http://www.spacearts.info Leonardo/OLATS and the Ours Foundation have joined forces to create a database about space art documenting the works of artists who, since the mid-19th Century, have taken outer space as a theme, subject, or object for their creations. When completed, this database will host over a thousand entries. Artists are invited to submit their work for inclusion in the database. Entry forms to submit your artworks are available online at www.spacearts.info. The SpaceartS database project is funded by the European Space Agency and is co-sponsored by the International Academy of Astronuatics; Advisors to the project include: * IAAA (International Association ofAstronomical Artists) - www.iaaa.org * MIR, aninternational consortium of institutions with space art activites. MIRincludes: Leonardo/OLATS, Arts Catalyst, V2, Projekt Atol (Slovenia), andthe Multimedia Complex of Actual Art (Russia). * Maisond'Ailleurs/Museum of Science Fiction, Yverdon - www.ailleurs.ch For 35 years Leonardo has documented the work of artists involved in space exploration; It has co-sponsored 6 Space and the Arts workshops and promoted the interaction of artists, scientists, and engineers involved in space. The SpaceartS database can be found at http://www.spacearts.info . Further information can be found at: Leonardo/OLATS : Space Arts Workshops documentation at http://www.olats.org/setF3.html or Leonardo/ISAST: Space Arts Working Group at http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/spaceart/space.html + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 12.08.03 From: Esther Schooler (eschoole AT mica.edu) Subject: Interactive Media Faculty Position The Maryland Institute College of Art seeks a dynamic individual with experience creating online/offline interactive environments. Applicants will demonstrate expertise with one or more of the following: 2D or 3D Interface design; programming for Internet; databases; and interactivity w/micro-controllers. The successful candidate will teach 9 credits per semester of introductory to advanced level courses; develop advanced studio courses which address contemporary issues; participate in departmental operations including advising, committee service departmental and student activities. Required qualifications include a MFA degree or equivalent professional experience; knowledge of contemporary issues; outstanding portfolio of professional work; three years college level teaching experience beyond teaching assistantships or equivalent professional experience. Salary commensurate with experience and college policy; Excellent benefits package. To apply: The college will review applications as received; deadline for final submission is January 16, 2004. To Apply, send: Letter of application; CV; list of 3 references w/address, phone, email; portfolio of professional work and, if available, 20 images of students' work plus a descriptive list; CD, DVD, or videotape; URL ok but please provide backup disk. All materials must be labeled with candidate?s name and address. Please include detailed playback instructions regarding required platform, formats, resolution, sequence, etc. Include SASE for return. To:Interactive Media Faculty Search; Office of Academic Affairs; Maryland Institute College of Art; 1300 W. Mt. Royal Avenue; Baltimore, MD 21217. AA/EOE/WMA. No phone calls please. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 12.09.03 From: Brooke Knight (brooke_knight AT emerson.edu) Subject: New Media Studies Position, Emerson College Assistant Professor of New Media Studies Emerson College The Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College seeks candidates for a tenure track position in New Media Studies at the level of assistant professor. The candidate must have a background in cultural, visual, or media studies, art history, or related fields with a specialization in the study of emerging digital creative processes. The candidate must be able to teach all levels of new media studies courses; history, aesthetics and analysis of new media arts; and studies in digital culture. In addition the candidate must be able to teach an introductory course in media studies. A Ph.D. is required, as well as a significant record of traditional or electronic publications. At least two years of teaching experience at the college level is required. The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to assist the department in developing meaningful connections across audio, film, media studies, new media, photography, screenwriting, video, and art history. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Applicants should send a curriculum vita, a cover letter, the names and contact information of at least three references to: Chair, Studies Search Committee Department of Visual and Media Arts c/o Dean's Office, School of the Arts Emerson College 120 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02116-4624. Review of applications will begin November 15, 2003, and will continue until the position is filled. Emerson College is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and is strongly committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 12.12.03 From: Vicente Matallana (vicente AT laagencia.org) Subject: Araneum -Net Art Commissions Deadline Extended application deadline until January 2st 2004 Extended application deadline until January 2st 2004 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ARANEUM Art, Science and Technology Award Awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCYT) www.araneum.es +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology announces its 1st Science, Art and Technology Award ARANEUM, a collaboration with the ARCO Foundation. Applications will be accepted in the following two fields: ³Internet-related artwork² and ³Research project on Internet creativity.² The proposals selected for the ³Internet-related artwork² category will receive 20,000.00 Euros; the selected ³Research project on Internet creativity² will receive 10,000.00 for its development. The aplication dead line has been extended until January 2st 2004, 05:00 pm. GMT+1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The jury, composed of José Luis Brea, Rachel Greene, Olia Lialina will be presided by Mr. Jorge Pérez Martínez who is currently the Director General for the Development of the Information Society of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. Among other things, he is also the spokesperson for the Interregional Commission of Cooperation for Development. Born on July 5, 1954, Mr. Jorge Pérez Martínez holds a doctoral degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) as well as a degree in Political Science and Sociology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). As a Professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación (ETSI - Superior Technical School of Telecommunications Engineers) since 1990, his research has been oriented towards the social and economic aspects of Information and Communications Technologies as well as towards the policies and regulations of telecommunications. ------ Fin del mensaje reenviado + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 12.09.03 From: Kanarinka (kanarinka AT ikatun.com) Subject: interview with Giselle Bieguelman Interview with Giselle Bieguelman by kanarinka ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) background from Bieguelman's website www.desvirtual.com: Giselle Beiguelman is a new media artist and multimedia essayist who teaches Digital Culture at the Graduation Program in Communication and Semiotics of PUC-SP (São Paulo, Brazil). Her work includes the award-winning "The Book after the Book" (1999) "Content = No Cache" (2000), nominated for the Trace/ Alt-X New Media Competition, and "Recycled" (2001). kanarinka: I became interested in Giselle Bieguelman's work after reading about her project poetrica [http://www.poetrica.net/] in which people from around the world send messages via the web, SMS, and WAP to be displayed on large advertising billboards in Sao Paulo. My questions to Bieguelman center around the fascinating way her projects break down fixed notions of space (such as public private real virtual) and her projects' connections to everyday activities like reading, writing, and travelling through your daily environment (which for many of us is urban and saturated with advertising messages). ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) interview kanarinka: It looks like you began working with the internet first as a poet and that you have recently moved into creating large-scale public installations where people submit text messages via the internet for display in public places. Could you describe how/why you shifted from net.based poetry to net. based public installation? Bieguelman: I don?t think there was a shift, but a link. Actually my first contact with new media was related to public art, working with a non-profit organization Arte/Cidade (www.artecidade.org.br) devoted to arts and urbanism responsible for amazing urban interventions in downtown São Paulo, curated and coordinated by the Brazilian philosopher Nelson Brissac. In 1994 they were preparing a CD-ROM with artists and architects involved in their ?The City and its Fluxes? project. It changed my mind and my life. I was captured by the computer but all my work by this time was devoted to visual poetry. The web redirected this thematic and made me pay attention to ways of reading in entropic situations. Wireless communication spread the meaning of reading in entropic situations and I think ?Wop Art? (Op Art for Wap) (www.desvirtual.com/wopart) , a wap site I did in 2001, was a new turning point that pointed to the possibility of working with literature and with urban space. The first result of this was ?Did You Read the East?? (2002), my first intervention in public space using electronic billboards and on line public streaming. It was done for Arte/Cidade East Zone project and it was a dialogue with the graffiti of São Paulo East Zone that resulted in a series of six videopoems. The audience was invited to choose one of them and upload to a commercial electronic billboard. They appeared in the schedule of billboard between regular ads. It was a very good experience because made possible to connect net based poetry to net based public intervention. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: Could you describe the poetrica project? Is it similar to other projects that you have done in the past? What has the response to poetrica been like (how many submissions, what have the reviews been like, general public reception)? Have the responses to poetrica been different in Sao Paulo where the billboards are versus on the internet? Bieguelman: Poétrica (www.poetrica.net) is an investigation about reading and reception in cybrid and entropy situations. It involves a series of visual poems conceived by myself with non-fonetic fonts (dings and system fonts) and a teleintervention mediated by creations made by the public using the same typographic background. Poétrica is an upgrade or expansion of things I?ve been researching in The Book after the Book (1999), Wop Art (2001), and my former public interventions Did you Read the East? And egoscópio _or egoscope (both from 2002), all at www.desvirtual.com. Poétrica is a work in progress. It begun in October and ends in February. The opening was at Galeria Vermelho, in São Paulo. The closing, at Kulturforum, in Berlin, during P0es1s exhibiton. All the broadcasted images were produced anywhere and submitted by SMS, the web and by wap. They appeared in three large electronic billboards located in downtown São Paulo, around Galeria Vermelho, between Paulista, Consolação and Rebouças avenues. I received more than 3 thousand submissions and they are very similar: poetic experiences, love messages and urban messages (Rick, I will be at 5 in?). The critical reception was very good too, including mailing lists, Television, newspapers etc. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: What do you mean by the term "nomad poems"? What do you think is the relationship of the text in the poems submitted to space? I am particularly fascinated by the complex interplay that your project creates between space and the activities of "reading" and "writing". What are you thoughts on those relationships? Bieguelman: They are nomad poems because they do not have a link to a specific support. For instance: Those images produced in the teleintervention were also transmitted back by on line webcams and reproduced in different devices (mobile phones, Palms, computers) and, in some cases, printed in large formats. All images are archived at the web site gallery. Nevertheless, they result always in imagetic meanings independent of textuality and unlinked to their places of production and transmission. Everything that is created is seen, read and perceived in different ways, according to its reception context and this is not a consequence of the screen sizes to which the submitted images adhere. But due to a particular esthetic phenomenon pertaining to nomadic literature: on being hybrid and unlinked to support, it dematerializes the medium, and the interface construes itself as the message. This is maybe the most interesting change in the ways in reading today. The nomadic reader is someone who reads on the move, in moblie phones and PDAs, in accordance to entropy and acceleration logic, it is a kind of multi-task reader adapted to distributed content who reads in between, while doing other things? Poétrica seeks that reader: the inhabitant of the global city. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: I am particularly interested in your work from the standpoint of the everyday activity of "reading". We all read billboards and advertisements every day of our lives, yet you are subverting the normal content of these consumer messages and inserting a new, "global" text into a local, specific context. How does this affect the "reading" activity that we conduct in our daily environment? Bieguelman: It is disturbing? It makes the passive reader (this one who is in his car or crossing the street) to pay attention in something and in some ways discover that it is something disturbing because it was already there? The city is a kind of mega stoned book, multimedia and distributed that we read intentionally or not. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: What are your thoughts on working in both real and virtual space? How and why do you choose to navigate both of these domains (or, perhaps more importantly, do you consider them separate?) Is the activity of "reading" different or altered across net space and/or public space? Bieguelman: I do not consider them separate. Poétrica deals with cybridism, it means its default situation is a cross platform of numerous on and off line network (traffic, electricity, billboards, mobile phones, handhelds). And this, this ?cybrid? state is what alters the activity of reading as an activity of dispersion and distribution rather than concentration and convergence. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: Have you had any unexpected responses or messages submitted to poetrica? What do you think is the space of "indeterminacy" in poetrica, e.g. what spaces did you as the artist leave open for participants to fill in? I was surprised by the large number of love messages? The indeterminacy is everywhere (connection, for example?) but I think the most interesting challenge of the project was to make people face the strange situation of hacking the advertisement structure as part of their public space signing it with non phonetic phrases that points to a new code, but a code they could understand and share with other participants. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: What do you think is the role writing and reading in the urban landscape? Bieguelman: It is one of the rules of the game? The metropolitan landscape today is a kind of photoshop image. Everything can be pasted to everything. The modernist dream is over and there is no logic neither formal logic. The lansdcape is so polluted by ads, signs, outdoors, banners and in cities like São Paulo, all covered by different grafitti _ a kind of visual guerrilla_ that you should be reading all the time. The city today is a palimpsest to be deciphered. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: Could you explain more what you mean by teleintervention? Would you say that poetrica has a political agenda (i.e. what do you think that a teleintervention intervenes into)? Bieguelman: Teleinterventions are urban intervention mediated by telecommunication. Poétrica, egoscópio an Did You Read the East have a political agenda not only because you hack the advertisement structure and use this as part of your public space, but also because they question the role of the author and the work of art aura. ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) kanarinka: What are the dates/locations where poetrica will be shown? Bieguelman: It was in SP from October to November. It is now at turbulence.org with ICONOgraphy_ curated by Patrick Lichty [http://www.turbulence.org/curators/icon/index.htm] (?only? net action) and it will be in Berlin next February, as part of P0eS1s project curated by Friedrich Block. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 12.09.03 From: Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah AT coin-operated.com) Subject: Interview with Brody Condon Interview with Brody Condon By Jonah Brucker-Cohen (jonah AT coin-operated.com) Introduction If life were a game, LA based artist, Brody Condon, would probably be its designer. From recreating the political mess of the FBI's assault on David Koresh's Branch Davidian Complex with his C-Level collaboration, "Waco: Resurrection", to emphasizing the violence quotient of mainstream video games with "Adam Killer", Condon's work is both a reflection on the history of gaming and a cautionary realization of its future. His presence in next year's Whitney Biennial, "Velvet Strike", (created with fellow artists Anne-Marie Schliener and Joane Leandre), is a slap in the face to the hard-core gaming community. The online multi-player shooter subverts the death and destruction of "Counter-Strike", by allowing players to plaster graphics of peace symbols and anti-war slogans on the 3D walls. This year, one of Condon's students designed a game called "9-11 Survivor", a third person's victim's perspective of the tragic event that was eventually pulled offline for obvious reasons. If the future of gaming combines virtual and physical space with themes based on actual events, Condon might be leading the revolution. His work is a poignant, although sometimes upsetting vision of the merging of interactive entertainment, international media, and personal life experiences. What follows is an interview I conducted with Condon about his motives as an artist, academic, game designer, and pop culture enthusiast. Your Name: Brody Condon Age: 29 Occupation/Affiliation: variable Education: MFA University of California at San Diego URL: http://www.tmpspace.com/ JBC: What do you love about games? What do you hate about them? BC: I don't play games as much as I used to. I tend to be more interested in the elements that surround games and game culture. To some extent, most of the screen based games I consumed in the past, and continue to consume now, are forgettable. I suppose I am bitter about all the lost years of screen time. I could have been accomplishing something at least pseudo-productive. On a more positive note, I still love the pure aesthetic joy of watching the progression from one graphics generation to another. Forming a intuitive relationship with those images, and now having the ability to crack them open, rearrange, and play with those aesthetics and structures at this point through emulators, PC game modding, and console hacking, etc. is a blessing. JBC: Are you satisfied with the state of games today? What would you change or leave the same? BC: As happy as I am with movement of games and game culture into the mainstream, I somehow yearn for the days when being "the kid who could beat ANY game," was not exactly a badge of honor. It took a certain sense of fortitude to persist in your gaming hobby. It was dangerous to walk around your neighborhood on a weekend with a couple cartridges and an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons First Edition Player's Handbook under your arm. Little did the guy who came at me on the sidewalk know that D&D books could be used as weapons. Especially if stacked properly in a thin duffel bag and swung by the handles, they can become a sort of make-shift bludgeoning weapon. Years later I found out that guy had a father that committed suicide, then he broke his leg and dropped out of school at some point. Eventually after a party he wandered out to the highway and threw himself into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer. I'm not kidding. JBC: Your work seems to be about emphasizing cliches found in games, especially the death scene in "Adam Killer". What is important about this topic and what has this approach taught you? BC: I am interested in these cliched game play structures as a material. Whether it is a kid making images of his domestic environment juxtaposed with the trademark FPS hand and gun at the bottom of the image, or the concept of the "re-spawn", which contains interesting links to reincarnation and resurrection. Again, these cliches are also great cultural indicators. They represent and at the same time repetitively inform the emotions and psychology of the player. What does the empty shell of the character mesh, which has an interior constructed of "gibs", or small gut-like portions, that explode and replace the body mesh inform us about our current relationship with death and the interior of the body? Given the long history of representation of the body, I find this contemporary shift in those representations and the material they are created with a great site to dig for content. At the same time, it's a desperate attempt to work out the box that the consumption of those images have placed me in. JBC: You also seem to focus on aggregating the connection between real life events and how these could or might be played out in gaming environments. Do you see game spaces as a logical extension of physical spaces or an antithesis? How do real events affect gaming and vice versa? BC: Game spaces may be no more antithetical to, or extensions of, actual spaces than the perspective translation of 3-dimensional natural phenomena onto 2-dimensional surfaces in the 15th century. The tools have just been updated. A Cartesian grid with simulated perspective is the first thing I see when I open up my 3D modeling program. The crossover between level and environment design in games, and traditional architectural practice is obviously growing due the success of game environments that mimic reality. Scenarios like The Getaway, and True Crime Streets of LA are GTA3 knockoffs that take place in simulations London and LA are great examples. This simulation of a city's architecture and urban planning has the ability to alter the perception of the city to those that live in and outside the city, possibly as much as the actual physical site. What also interests me are the subtle differences in the game version, the easy rearrangement of structures and streets to fit game play scenarios. On the other hand, I feel like architecture has taken these environments too lightly. Especially fantasy environments are discarded as only an aesthetic surface, and not as inspiration for new structures and patterns of movement through them. Imagine constructed spaces inspired by the idea of going downtown to your bank, jumping from platform to platform, to reach your ATM located in a floating Necropolis of the Undead Scourge from Warcraft III. JBC: Is there anything a game can't emulate? What are the main problems in games today? What are they missing and what are they failing at? BC: There are a horde of problems. I suppose targeting problematic issues in gaming depends on what angle you are concerned with, cultural implications, business strategies, game dev education, etc. However, the core problem is not located within games, it is the lack of any substantial media literacy dialogue within the public school education system in the states. Not to mention the current information bubble that surrounds us here like an invisible shield. JBC: Are people who play games (such as hardcore gamers) interested in your work? Who plays your games and how are they affected? BC: [My] work has been labeled "Gayer than actual gay people." by the online gaming community. In this case it was specifically about the work "Velvet-Strike" that I contributed to. We (Anne-Marie Schliener and Joane Leandre) also received near death threats and other fun comments such as: ----- Original Message ----- Subject: Velvet-Strike... POINTLESS! Hi, I wanted to say I don't support YOUR stupid little brigade to create peace and love and shit like that, face it its just POINTLESS BULLSHIT! If you think that you can actually stop hate, then you're just a fucking moron, it's like trying to say that the DEA will actually stop drug trafficking. Those two things will never be stopped. Human nature is to hate the enemy. And another thing don't flood are fucking games with this "LOVEY DOVEY BULLSHIT!" I almost hate you people more than my enemies. So one last thing, If you and your queer little hippy friends don't like America, then FUCKING LEAVE! GO FUCK UP CANADA OR SOMETHING!!! - Sincerely, your worst enemy -------------------------------- Otherwise, I think any direct and positive relationship with the actual game development community has been fairly non-existent, and mostly relegated to the traditional and media art circuit. However, now that we have made the jump from modifying and hacking existing games to using middleware game engines, there is more industry crossover in a playable piece I recently worked on like Waco: Resurrection ( www.waco.c-level.cc ). However, I should say I've ran into developers and gamers that love the work. It is really such a broad range of individuals that make up the industry and consumer base. Either way, a vernacular dialogue has been started on the ground. Debates are flowing in the game community blogs and forums, at game industry conferences, and among the general public concerning the relationship of games to culture, and the alternative possibilities for game development outside of escapist fantasy narratives and sports simulations. JBC: Do you think there is a connection between reality TV and gaming? BC: Hard to say, I have never watched a reality TV show from start to finish. Living in LA, you can sort of throw a stick and find someone who knows about these things, so I just went outside and asked my landlord this question. Him and his wife were contestants on that early reality show, The Amazing Race. He never played games, so we were stuck on this one. However, he did say that the show broke up his marriage, and that those shows are fixed. JBC: What is your opinion on pervasive gaming? Do you think it's a genre that could succeed and become mainstream like PC, Massively multi-Player Online Games (MMOG), and console games? (When I say "pervasive gaming", I am referring to projects like Blast Theory's "Can You See Me Now?" and It's Alive's "BotFighters". Games that mix digital and real spaces.) BC: I'm not in the business of prophesizing successful tech, but I checked out Blast Theory's website, and they seem to be having a good time running around in those cool workout-suits with all that nifty PDA gear on them. I'm all for it. As far as the cell phone "pervasive" gaming is concerned, there is such a different relationship with cell phone technology there (UK). I can't imagine how that would go over with a consumer in the US. A car ran over my cell phone and it gives me a headache whenever I use it. I recently spent some time at a SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) event where hundreds of people gathered in the desert for a week of heavily immersive medieval reenactment. True "pervasive" gaming, at these events there are regular battles of hundreds of individuals in homemade armor beating the hell out of each other with sticks in regimented battles. There are bridge battles, castle sieges, etc. The most interesting intersection with screen-based gaming is their incorporation of "Capture the Flag", and "Resurrection" game play structures. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome.org is a 501(c)(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 AT rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 8, number 50. Article submissions to list AT 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 AT rhizome.org. To unsubscribe from this list, visit http://rhizome.org/subscribe. Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the Member Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php. Please invite your friends to visit Rhizome.org on Fridays, when the site is open to members and non-members alike. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + |
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