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: 7.23.04 From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME) Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 14:06:53 -0700 Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org RHIZOME DIGEST: July 23, 2004 Content: +announcement+ 1. Rex Bruce: "Cell-Outs and Phonies" at L.A. Center for Digital Art 2. Making History: featuring Ariel Yanay-Shani, Dana Levy, Liat & Ariel Shechter-Mayrose +opportunity+ 3. Kevin McGarry: FW: FUSE MAG (ic-national)... 4. Kevin McGarry: FW: CURATOR OPENING BANFF CENTER (ic-national)... +work+ 5. Brett Stalbaum: C5 developments: Mt. Fuji, Perfect View +comment+ 6. valery.grancher: webpaintings history 7. valery.grancher: webpaintings history part 2 +feature+ 8. Lewis LaCook: Dream Politics + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 7.22.04 From: Rex Bruce <rexbruce AT lacda.com> Subject: "Cell-Outs and Phonies" at L.A. Center for Digital Art Cell-outs and Phonies: an exhibition of cell phone media August 6-27 Opening Reception Friday August 6, 7-11pm As the digital world grows to encompass all aspects of our life, we see the gadgets of our day-to-day existence evolving into expressive art mediums. The advent of cell phones with built-in cameras has sprung a revolution in photography and digital filmmaking; its accessibility is eliminating the boundaries between amateur and professional. Examining the line where art and technology intersect, Cell-outs and Phonies, explores this new way of creating and experiencing digital art. Short films will be shown on LCDs and projected while other images are printed, up-linked or never removed from the actual phone. The opening reception will feature music assembled entirely with ring tones by German experimental group Super Smart and continuous screenings of cell phone videos. Curated by Laura Merians Featuring local and international artists David Zulaica Krista Connerly Mark Beck Batya Gina Clyne Scott Myers Michael Szpakowski Brett Simon Al B. Sure + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 7.23.04 From: Making History <virtu AT kulturserver-nrw.de> Subject: featuring Ariel Yanay-Shani, Dana Levy, Liat & Ariel Shechter-Mayrose "Making History" is a curatorial project by Stephanie Bensaquen prepared in different steps and levels for the global networking project [R][R][F]2004--->XP [Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting] . "Making History" an essay by Stephanie Benzaquen www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/making_history.htm <http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/making_history.htm> . The first part of "Making History" is included and featured on occasion of public_media_sace_festival Yerewan/Armenia www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/accea.htm <http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/accea.htm> . and features these three artists see the works and details ---> Ariel Yanay-Shani www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/yanay-shani1.htm <http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/yanay-shani1.htm> Dana Levy www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/levy1.htm <http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/levy1.htm> Liat & Ariel Shechter-Mayrose www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/mayrose1.htm <http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/mayrose1.htm> *************************************** [R][R][F]2004--->XP [Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting] www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004 <http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004> is an ongoing net based project environment created and curated by Agricola de Cologne, media artists and new Media curator from Cologne/Germany. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit http://rhizome.org/info/org.php for more information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel AT Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 7.17.04 From: Kevin McGarry <Kevin AT rhizome.org> Subject: FW: FUSE MAG (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of love ------ Forwarded Message From: ic-national AT lists.instantcoffee.org Reply-To: national AT instantcoffee.org Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:37:51 -0400 To: ic-national AT lists.instantcoffee.org Subject: (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of love ---------------------------------------------------------------- 01. Fuse magazine is looking for an Associate Editor, Toronto ---------------------------------------------------------------- ~20 hrs/week. Salary range $14 to 16K Reporting to editorial committee and associate publisher The Magazine: With a twenty-seven year publishing record, Fuse magazineÅs mandate is to provide innovative and culturally sensitive coverage of diverse visual and media arts communities and practices in Canada. Our editorial strategy is to offer readers in-depth critical analysis and assessment of the relationship of the visual arts to the cultural contexts in which it is produced, supported, exhibited and disseminated. There are two general areas in which this analysis is grounded. The first is cultural analysis as expressed in various contemporary artistic practices and cultural expressions, especially practices that are engaged in socially progressive issues. The second, a corollary interest, is the pressures exerted on the cultural sector as expressed in policy shifts of social and cultural institutions, both private and public. As our content crosses many disciplines and cultural perspectives, it is our ambition to ensure that the writing in Fuse remains in the forefront of progressive thinking while being accessible to non-specialist readers. Qualifications: + editorial experience necessary, magazine experience desired + strong awareness of contemporary art, especially socially engaged practices + ability to work to deadline Assets: + experience working with committees and boards on a nonprofit model + familiarity with prepress, design, and image processing + previous grant writing experience also an asset Duties: editorial + Work with other staff/volunteers in development of workable production schedule + Work with editorial committee in determining/soliciting content for the magazine (includes drafting of formal solicitation letters). + Content edit all material for inclusion in magazine + Delivery of textual material to copyeditor, enter changes as required + Preparation of all content (visual and textual) for delivery to designer + Liaise with designer throughout design stage + Participate in proofedit of final drafts Duties: other + Represent magazine at various public events + Write content-specific portion of grants Please submit covering letter, CV, writing samples and previous editorial work as available. Submissions by email preferred (do not send high resolution images, please.). Only those chosen for an interview will be contacted. No telephone calls please. Fuse Magazine 454-401 Richmond St W Toronto ON M5V 3A8 content AT fusemagazine.org http://www.fusemagazine.org + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 7.17.04 From: Kevin McGarry <Kevin AT rhizome.org> Subject: FW: CURATOR OPENING BANFF CENTER (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of love ------ Forwarded Message From: ic-national AT lists.instantcoffee.org Reply-To: national AT instantcoffee.org Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:37:51 -0400 To: ic-national AT lists.instantcoffee.org Subject: (ic-national) instant coffee deranged arrangement of love ---------------------------------------------------------------- 08. CURATOR OPENING The Banff Centre ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Walter Phillips Gallery is one of Canada¹s leading public art galleries for contemporary art with an international reputation. It is uniquely located within the Visual Arts department of The Banff Centre, in the context of an active artist residency program and in association with the Banff International Curatorial Institute. Research in contemporary art and curatorial studies is the gallery¹s primary activity, from which it derives a range of activities: exhibitions, publications, symposia, lectures, performances, screenings and a significant collection of over 1,400 works. An active exhibition program of at least six exhibitions a year, touring exhibitions and other programs are created by the Director, Curator and contract staff, featuring research and work from the artist residency programs at the Centre and other work of national and international significance. The gallery has a permanent staff of 6 with contract and work study positions, and an annual budget of approximately $725,000. The gallery operates a dedicated exhibition space of 325.5 square metres and is responsible for the display of work across the Banff Centre campus. The Banff International Curatorial Institute is a unique division of the department which provides professional development and research opportunities for professional and emerging curators, artists and writers through annual symposia, publications and other activities. Curator Position Collaborating with the Director, Visual Arts & Walter Phillips Gallery, the Curator of the Walter Phillips Gallery for contemporary art, develops and implements all gallery programs and projects. This requires originating, researching and developing annual exhibitions, performances, screenings, publications, special events, and related educational programs. The incumbent plays a key role in researching and securing appropriate external funding support for Gallery activity. Liaises closely with the Visual Arts residency programs, augmenting the activities of the overall Visual Arts department. The Curator develops and maintains a strong curatorial workstudy program in the gallery, providing leadership and mentorship to the participants on an ongoing basis. Develops the program and research role of the Banff International Curatorial Institute, leading the implementation of these initiatives. This position carries day-to-day responsibility for the leadership of gallery activity and budget management, as well as for the administration, registration and logistical coordination of all gallery and related programs. Responsibility also includes a permanent collection of approximately 1,400 objects. Qualifications: ? Proven track record of innovative projects in contemporary art. Areas of specialization may include, but are not limited to, Aboriginal art, new media, popular culture/visual culture or curatorial studies within contemporary art context. Gallery and curatorial institute initiatives pay special attention to the social contexts of art. ? A minimum of 3-5 years experience in a public art gallery or equivalent ? Supervisory experience required. ? Track record of successful grant writing and fundraising. ? Experience in a post-secondary educational institution in an instructor or administrative capacity is an asset. ? MA, MFA or equivalent experience/education in studio art, art history, visual culture, curatorial studies or related discipline. ? Collection management experience an asset. ? Excellent writing and public speaking ability ? 2nd language an asset due to highly international environment. ? Applicants must submit two writing samples or publications, a CV and names of three references. To apply for this opportunity, please contact: Dana Tremblay Recruiting Manager The Banff Centre Phone: 403.762.6173 E-mail; dana_tremblay AT banffcentre.ca + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 7.23.04 From: Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum AT ucsd.edu> Subject: C5 developments: Mt. Fuji, Perfect View The Analogous Landscape: C5 climbs Mt. Fuji July 2004 C5 ascended its second ring of fire volcanic peak by summiting Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan at 12,395 ft. (3,776 m). A simultaneous climb was executed on Mt. Lassen in California by a stateside C5 team. The Lassen Peak volcano rises 10,457 ft. (3,187 m) above sea level, C5's third major ring of fire volcanic peak. For more infomation on The Analogous Landscape project: http://www.c5corp.com/projects/analogouslandscape/index.shtml The Perfect View Geocache Expedition Underway July 2004 Jack Toolin has logged 6,600 miles on his Honda Super Hawk motorcyle as he traverses the U.S. in pursuit of Perfect View geocache sites solicited from the geocache community. Beginning in San Jose, California on June, 21st he is currently in Maine by way of a southwest/south/northeast route. For more information on the Perfect View Project: http://www.c5corp.com/projects/perfectview/index.shtml For more information on the the C5 Landscape Initiative: http://www.c5corp.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded communities.) Please visit http://rhizome.org/info/org.php for more information or contact Rachel Greene at Rachel AT Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 7.20.04 From: "valery.grancher" <valery.grancher AT wanadoo.fr> Subject: webpaintings history Hello, Hereafter some news about the webapintings project and its consequence, it has started on 1998, and is now copied by various international artist ! I am very pleased to have been the first to paint webpage and to see that this idea is starting a new kind of revolution in artworld world wild: First I was influenced by the great german artist Blank and Jeron who did 'dumb your trash" on 1997: They are making sculpture on marble from webpages: http://sero.org/dyt/ Second I was influenced by the great greek artist Miltos Manetas with his computer and wires paintings: http://www.manetas.com/splash/index.htm So I started on 1998 the "Pump your page" project: http://www.nomemory.org/pump/index2.html and the same year i initiated the "webpaintings" project: http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint On 1999 Carlo Zanni sent me an email to show me his great paintings he started to produce on the end on 1998: http://www.zanni.org/html/empty.htm On 1999 Ola Pehrson did a terrific installation, one of my favourite called "Desktop": http://www.olapehrson.com/desktop/index.html This installtion is confronting computer icons as sculpture, paintings, physical space and virtuality by streaming on real time through a webcam a viwe of this installtion: on the screen a new windows 95 screen is appearing In Russia a friend of Olia Liliana called Masha Moriskina painted http://www.rhizome.org screen on paper with pencil and gouache (2000): A terrific drawing. http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/masha/rhizome.jpg Then on 2001 after the big and crazy emergence of google, I perceived it as the perfect new internet icon and I produced in Miltos Manetas place (electronic orphanage) in Los Angeles the "google painting" (september 2001): http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/googleoil.htm Shown in Artsonje center in Seoul and Gwangjyu "less ordinary" show on 2002 in south Korea. On 2002 the british artist Thomson and Craighead produced a e-bizness: http://www.dot-store.com dealing with off line net art pieces and one of them is "google tea towels" which is a best seller: http://www.dot-store.com/pages/teatowels.html i have boght all the four for my personnal collection, this eally one of the nest webpaings I have ever seen. Still on 2002 Miltos Manetas has done a great project called "internet paintings": http://www.manetas.com/internetpaintings/ On 2003 exonemo (http://www.exonemo.com) produced a project called "Natural process" by mixing and copying two pieces by two artist: "Desktop" 1999 by Ola Pehrson, and "Google paintings" by me: "Natural process flow": http://www.exonemo.com/NP/indexE.html shon on beging 2004 at Mori art Museum and sold to google on May 2004. We can see that through this tiome line a great revolution is starting and may be subject of a terrific collective show including all of these artists with a great catalog ! read also the conceptual statement of webpaintings! http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/text2.htm Yours Valery Grancher http://www.nomemory.org http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint http://www.nomemorybazaar.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 7.22.04 From: "valery.grancher" <valery.grancher AT wanadoo.fr> Subject: webpaintings history part 2 1- Prehistory of webpaintings: On early 80's and 90's some artist has dealt with computer concept and screen both on visual level and conceptual level. They did it at least ten years before internet age ! Artist Like Rainer Ganahl and Miltos Manetas have started very soon to deal with computer iconology and environment. Miltos has more dealt with the video game, the computer entertainment revolution and its iconology. Rainer Ganahl has more focused on language concept regarding computer by using the interface metaphor: Rainer has used the guidelines metaphor* He has dealt with it at the age when France was connected to network through minitel !!! (early 80's) For sure rainer Ganahl is according to me a crazy genius who has opened this door in visual art. Surf on these links to see how terrific are these pieces ! -http://www.ganahl.info/magers1990.html <http://www.ganahl.info/magers1990.html> on 1990 with catalog and reviews -http://www.ganahl.info/dma_dallasmuseumofart.html <http://www.ganahl.info/dma_dallasmuseumofart.html> 1992 view of an installation at Dalllas Art museum You may check also his first ever one person show only on the web at thing.net: 1992 NY - trash can and other computer items -http://www.ganahl.info/nordan92.html <http://www.ganahl.info/nordan92.html> 1996: "les ateliers" in Marseille, France -http://www.ganahl.info/lesatelier96.html <http://www.ganahl.info/lesatelier96.html> Kwangju Biennial, Korea, 1997 commissioned by Harald Szeemann -http://www.ganahl.info/s_ex_kwangju.html <http://www.ganahl.info/s_ex_kwangju.html> Without Rainer Ganahl, the idea of using computer iconology directly in visual art would never emerge ! On 1995 another artist called Philip Pocock has printed out a whole website for 'photography after photography' show. On 1996 he did an email reading performance in Berlin with email slide show. At this time, the web interface has not emerged. We can see that these previous work were so closed to webpaintings concept for one simple reason: both of them are dealing with interface iconology. But the web interface is just the son of the computer operating system interface. I have to say if you are just focusing about this point,you are missing another point. Because webpaintings are also dealing with painting iconology and not only computer interface... *J.C Licklider 1905 -1990 was one of the founder of the internet ancestor called arpanet. He has invented the concept of visual interface for computers. He has also conceived the first computer mouse to interact with the visual interface he conceived. He did this great job on early seventies. At the Begining of the eighties he got in the Xerox parc the visit of two major personalities in computer industry: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. We can say today that without Licklider 'windows' software would never exist, and the mac interface would never exist also. By conceiving this kind of interaction with computer on visual level with visual interface and mouse he has defined the concept of "HMI": Human and machine interaction. The visual interface conceived by Licklider to interact with computer program has brought the concept of what we call today 'guidelines': For example the main guidelines in Apple system is the apple icon. The icons abd menu in windows software are also guidelines. They help the computer interactor to navigate in the software. texte en français sur ce lien: http://www.nomemory.org/webpaint/data/history.htm Valéry Grancher http://www.nomemory.org http://www.nomeory.org/webpaint http://www.nomemorybazaar.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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). Details at: http://rhizome.org/services/1.php + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 7/23/04 From: Lemmy Caution <llacook AT yahoo.com> Subject: Dream Politics Dream Politics: Randomness in Network Art Lewis LaCook http://www.lewislacook.com INTRODUCTION: Stochastic Computing Chaos comes before all principles of order & entropy, it's neither a god nor a maggot, its idiotic desires encompass & define every possible choreography, all meaningless aethers & phlogistons: its masks are crystallizations of its own facelessness, like clouds. Everything in nature is perfectly real including consciousness, there's absolutely nothing to worry about. Not only have the chains of the Law been broken, they never existed; demons never guarded the stars, the Empire never got started, Eros never grew a beard. No, listen, what happened was this: they lied to you, sold you ideas of good & evil, gave you distrust of your body & shame for your prophethood of chaos, invented words of disgust for your molecular love, mesmerized you with inattention, bored you with civilization & all its usurious emotions. There is no becoming, no revolution, no struggle, no path; already you're the monarch of your own skin--your inviolable freedom waits to be completed only by the love of other monarchs: a politics of dream, urgent as the blueness of sky. Hakim Bey, Chaos, The Temporary Autonomous Zone ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Computers have a difficult time with spontaneity. By themselves, they're as predictable as any fundamentalist. This is what makes computer programming possible, the assurance I have that the code I write will be executed exactly as I wrote it. If I write a conditional loop, my computer will make a decision based on the parameters I feed to it; it won't take into account the weather, nor its own emotional state, nor will it ever be hung over from ten too many Guinesses and perform the function haphazardly from behind the haze of a violent headache. Computers, it would seem are very clean machines, not subject to noise or entropy. What you code is what you get. This, naturally, hasn't stopped humans from introducing randomness into the computer. Most high-level programming languages have a function to simulate random numbers; and, while said numbers are very often predictable, the results can sometimes seem just as authentically random as more adroit sources of randomness. "True random numbers, captured in the wild, are clearly superior to those bred in captivity by pseudo-random generators?or at least that¹s what the theory of randomness implies." Brian Hayes writes in his essay "Randomness as a Resource" ."But (one researcher) has run the output of various hardware and software generators through a series of statistical tests. The best of the pseudo-random generators earned excellent grades, but three hardware devices flunked. In other words, the fakes look more convincingly random than the real thing." Hayes is writing here of the two main methods of generating random numbers in modern computing: pseudo-random number generation, which is just what those rand() functions do, and the harnessing of external entropy sources, such as atmospheric noise or radioactive decay rates. Entropy is an index of the disorder or noise in a closed system; and, in physics, all systems are sliding inevitably toward disorder. Thus, linking certain parameters in your code to an external source of entropy is the most effective way of utilizing the ultimate disorder of the universe in your scripts. Pseudo-randomness, however, is essential for research purposes, where a sequence of random results must be repeated in order to provide a stable set for analysis. One can wonder why there would be a human desire to introduce randomness into computing. Take, for instance, the World Wide Web; instant global communication there, and wouldn't our ultimate preference be to clear this communication channel of all noise? It turns out, however, that randomness is a vital concept in the development of web networks, and much of the electronic economy would not exist without it. Ever buy anything online? Fill out one of those snoopy forms asking for potentially sensitive data such as your social security number or credit card number? If so, you more than likely want your privileged information to be secure, protected; viewable only by those involved in the transaction, if even then. Encryption is how one secures data over the HTTP protocols the World Wide Web is based on. Encryption performs character substitution on the data, which can then be decrypted (read into human-readable language) via a key file or function, which was at one point randomly or pseudo-randomly generated. Encryption is a sign of trust between a web service and a consumer; and it depends heavily on randomness to ensure that bond. To that end, providing sequences of dependably random integers has proven to be a crucial--and colorful--web service. The wildest example would be the Lavarand system, a random number generator developed at Silicon Graphics. Lavarand was a hybrid of the two methods of random number generation; it seeded pseudo-random functions with an external entropy source; in this case, data derived from the slow motion of blobs in Lava Lite lamps. Lavarand itself seems defunct; though trademarked by Silicon Graphics, the original project seems to have all but disappeared as a service, but Lavarnd (http://www.lavarnd.com/ ), a similar project derived from the methodology of the original project, continues. The Lavarnd API, downloadable in both C form and as a Perl library at the site, allows developers the freedom of replacing the original Lava Lite lamps with virtually any entropy source; one feature is the ability to use simple web cams, such as the Logitech QuickCam. A similar web service, random.org (http://random.org/ ), uses a radio tuned between stations to inject their data with true random flavor; Swiss Fourmilab offers HotBits (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ ), which reads radiation via a Geiger-Muller tube detector. INTRODUCTION: King Dionysus Writing about randomness recently on the rhizome.org list-serv, American artist Jeremy Zilar (http://silencematters.com/ ) doesn't believe in randomness per se. "It is the dialog that we have with the process of observing of ourselves. The observed self, or the object, performance, process being created is a clear reflection of ourselves, and when we are able to gain that distance, we become more aware of what is going on inside, we make changes,. and then we correct the reflection to mirror ourselves once again....Randomness does not occur. It is a controlled element that somehow figures in to the image that we have of ourselves. Even when things do happen by chance, we immediately incorporate that action into the image and judge it's relationship to the whole, and juxtapose the whole to ourselves. If it doesn't fit, we remove it." The distance Zilar writes about here is analogous to the "disinterestedness" that nineteenth-century German philosopher Immanual Kant proposed as a integral element in the aesthetic experience. "...a judgment on the beautiful which is tinged with the slightest interest, is very partial and not a pure judgment of taste," Kant wrote in his Critique of Judgment. "One must not be in the least prepossessed in favour of the real existence of the thing, but must preserve complete indifference in this respect, in order to play the part of judge in matters of taste." In other words, if a painting is figurative, and of a sunset, concerning ourselves with the beauty of the sunset and not of the painting itself is a bad judgment call. The painting is not the sunset. The sunset is not the painting. It's this idea that nudged art toward the nonfigurative. If the contemplation of an art object is a disinterested contemplation, i.e. if we are to consider the painting isolated from what the painting represents, then why produce mimetic art at all? Why not simply delve into a "pure" painting, completely divorced from representation? In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this became a central theme in the narrative of artistic development: freeing the art object from representation, and breaking through to the realm of pure being. Art, once a way to represent the natural, now strove to create the natural; instead of painting a sunset, the artist wanted to paint an experience that had all the impact of the sunset, but was its own phenomenon. Or, as Remko Scha asserts: "Esthetically motivated art...faces a curious challenge: if it is created by humans, it will always be inferior to nature! In the course of the twentieth century, this challenge has been taken up by many artists. Some of them have suggested that they are in fact natural forces, beyond the ken of ordinary humans. Others have tried to withdraw from their artworks, by developing objective art-generating processes which they initiate without controlling the final result." Or, as Hakim Bey, perhaps the most eloquent proponent of randomness in art, has reassured us: "Everything in nature is perfectly real including consciousness..." INTRODUCTION: The Bacchanates "Noise or random data, or interference has long been an obsession of digital artists. That obsession reflects the Nietzschean idea of a creative tension between the Apollonian and Dionysian," maintains Peter Carty in his review of C6 's ( http://c6.org/ )NEST, or Network Examination of Seredipitous Transfer. "First outlined in The Birth of Tragedy, the idea is that Dionysus represents fundamental primal energy, while Apollo stands for rationality, logic and structure. Noise is unbounded dissonance; it is Dionysian. Information which is structured and rendered directly meaningful by IT protocols is Apollonian." NEST (http://c6.org/nest/ )is a peer-to-peer client with a twist. Unlike Morpheus or Kazaa, NESTers have access to only one file; a single audio file, corrupted by each pass through each user's computer. Instead of using TCP, C6 uses the notoriously unreliable UDP (User Datagram) protocol to hand data off from one client to another. UDP is unreliable because it performs very little error-recovery on the data passed through it; the experience is, as C6 themselves put it, "...much like the children's game of ?Chinese Whispers¹, where each client is linked to their closest geographical neighbour. Passing a ?virtual whisper¹ around the internet, each link in the chain can create new versions with each imperfect cycle." Network art like this is ripe with entropy. There's just no telling what will happen to that audio file as it passes from me to you; but chances are, noise will distort it until it's no longer familiar to us. It's not "interactive" in the way most web and browser-based art has been; there are no Flash rollover buttons, no net video; its meat is the network itself, a network designed to incorporate flaws into its very hide. C6 style themselves as "conceptual marketers" (perhaps in keeping with the vogue of artists appropriating and aping corporate behaviors, and also, as are all such gestures perhaps, tongue-in-cheek), but what they've done here is more conceptual than marketable (fortunately!). NEST is unstable-network-as-aesthetic-experience. Since random.org uses a radio tuned between stations as their entropy source, I often wonder what it would be like if they tuned in to rand()% (http://www.r4nd.org/ ). This net radio station is a randomness-hound's wet dream: all of the audio is composed at random in realtime, every time you tune in. Named for the ANSI C rand function, the audio programming is a collage of art-coders, including Lia and Carvalhais, Muio.org, Karlheinz Stockhausen (adapted for prime randomnessby Georg Hajdu), and Pix. rand()% was developed by Tom Betts and Joe Gilmore as a commission by Media Centre Network of Huddersfield, England. Listening to rand()% , one might often believe that one's computer is crashing. As with much random and chance art, you either enjoy it or you don't. Helen Valery Jamieson, in a recent post to the Netbehaviour list, expressed frustration with the flaws in randomly-generated artwork. She confessed: "I am not a big fan of randomly generated art; the concept might be interesting but I get bored by it fairly quickly. On the other hand, random elements within a work can be really inspiring. and there's computer random & human random - audience interaction with a programme or with a computer-mediated performance. It's random to the extent that you don't know what the audience is going to come up with, but it's within certain parameters. structured randomness perhaps." As rand()%'s only interaction with the audience is the act of tuning in, those less appreciative of random art might find the station annoying. There is, however, much to love in the program stream: pops, gurgles, grinds and static, peppered with actual notes in some cases, cascade through your PC's speakers when tuned to rand()% . When I was younger, I played in a lot of improvisational fusion bands, but after a few years found myself getting rotyally bored with the experience; it often seemed that all I was doing was going up and down scales in varying increments. rand()%'s artists seem to have solved that problem; but, while the works are composed anew with every listen, there can be an overwhelming sameness to the pieces, as if, in absence of hierarchical structuring, the works are so horizontal that they inspire no emotional interest. From an audience's perspective (and perhaps it's conditioning from so many years of absorbing more traditional 19th century narrative structures), the pieces may seem flat. Which begs the question: since random and chance works are relatively new developments in the history of art (John Cage, perhaps the most famous proponent of random compositional techniques, was, after all, a twentieth century figure), does work like this require a new kind of audience? Network art is even younger; remember, we couldn't even display images over the web until the mid-nineties. Works like NEST and rand()% are radical works in that they are, essentially, networks in themselves (radio was one of the first electric communication networks, along with the telephone system; imagine both of these works performed on analog networks; what if NEST was dependent on the snail mail system? It would resemble the Mail Art movement of the 80s, perhaps), and the concept of network-as-artform is so edgy an idea in 2004 that you might get a bloody nose just thinking about it. It will undoubtably take a decade or so before the aesthetics inherent in network art to leech into the mainstream, and perhaps longer than that for chance art to become commonplace. Until then; enjoy the entropy. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________ URLs and Works Cited Bey, Hakim. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism . Autonomedia Anti-copyright, 1985, 1991. http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html Carty, Peter. "Deep Corruption on the Web." Metamute Web Exclusive: July 14, 2004. http://www.metamute.com/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssu e=24&NrSection=5&NrArticle=1432&ST_max=0 Hayes, Brian. "Randomness as A Resource," American Scientist, Volume 89, Number 4, July-August 2001, http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/20829;jsession id=baadaKyCmrKiRl Jamieson, Helen Valery. "Re: randomness." Post to Netbehaviour list-serv. July 2004. Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment , 1790, James Creed Meredith (translator), http://eserver.org/philosophy/kant/critique-of-judgment.txt Scha, Remko. "Readymades, Artificial Art, New Media", reprinted from Annette W. Balkema and Henk Slager (eds.): Exploding Aesthetics. L&B Series of Philosophy of Art and Art Theory , Vol. 16. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi, 2001, http://iaaa.nl/rs/Lier&Boog.html Zilar, Jeremy."Re: randomness." Post to rhizome.org list-serv. July 2004, http://rhizome.org/ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Kevin McGarry (kevin AT rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 9, number30. 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. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + |
-RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.12.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.5.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.27.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.20.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.13.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.6.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.30.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.23.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.16.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.9.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.2.08 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.19.2007 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.12.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.5.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.28.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.21.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.14.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.7.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.31.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.24.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.17.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.10.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.3.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.26.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.19.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.12.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.5.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.29.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.22.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.15.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.8.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.1.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.25.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.18.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.11.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.4.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.27.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.20.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.13.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.6.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.30.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.23.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.16.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.9.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.2.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.25.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.18.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.11.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.4.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.28.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.14.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.28.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.14.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.7.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.31.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.24.01 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.17.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.03.07 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.20.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.13.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.06.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: November 29, 2006 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.22.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.15.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.08.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.27.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.20.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.13.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.06.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.29.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.22.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.15.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.08.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 09.01.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 08.25.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 08.18.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 08.11.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 08.06.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 07.28.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 07.21.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 07.14.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 07.07.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 06.30.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 06.23.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 06.16.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 06.02.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 05.26.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 05.19.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 05.12.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 05.05.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 04.28.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 04.21.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 04.14.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 04.07.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.31.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.24.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.17.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.12.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.03.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.24.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.17.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.10.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.03.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.27.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.20.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.13.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.06.06 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.30.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.23.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.16.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.09.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.02.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.25.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.18.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.11.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.4.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.28.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.21.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.14.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.07.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.30.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.23.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.16.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.9.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.2.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.26.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.22.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.14.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.07.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.31.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.24.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.17.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.10.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.03.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.26.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.19.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.12.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.05.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.29.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.22.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.15.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.08.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.29.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.22.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.15.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.01.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.25.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.18.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.11.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.04.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.25.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.18.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.11.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.04.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.28.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.21.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.14.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.08.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.01.05 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.17.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.10.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.03.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.26.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.19.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.12.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.05.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.29.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.22.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.15.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.08.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.01.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.24.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.17.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.10.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.03.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.27.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.20.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.13.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.06.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.30.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.23.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.16.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.09.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.02.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.25.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.18.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.11.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.04.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.28.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.21.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.14.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.07.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.30.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.16.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.09.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 04.02.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.27.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.19.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.13.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 03.05.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.27.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.20.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.13.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 02.06.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.31.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.23.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.16.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.10.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 01.05.04 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.21.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.13.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.05.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.28.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.21.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.14.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.07.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.31.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.25.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.18.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.10.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.03.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.27.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.19.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.13.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.05.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.29.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.22.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.17.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.09.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.17.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.10.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.03.03 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.20.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.13.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.06.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.29.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.22.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.15.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 11.01.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.25.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.18.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.11.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 10.04.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.27.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.20.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.13.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 9.6.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.30.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.23.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.16.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST:8.9.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 8.02.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.26.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.19.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.12.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.5.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.28.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.21.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.14.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.7.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 6.2.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.26.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.19.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.12.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.5.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.28.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.21.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.14.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 4.7.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.31.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.23.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.15.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.8.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 3.3.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.24.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.17.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.10.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.1.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.27.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.18.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.12.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.6.02 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.30.01 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.23.01 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 06.29.01 -RHIZOME DIGEST: 12.2.00 |
