The Rhizome Digest merged into the Rhizome News in November 2008. These pages serve as an archive for 6-years worth of discussions and happenings from when the Digest was simply a plain-text, weekly email.
|
Subject: RHIZOME DIGEST: 1.14.05 From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 18:47:44 -0800 Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org RHIZOME DIGEST: January 14, 2005 Content: +announcement+ 1. Rob La Frenais: RESEARCH IS NOT TERRORISM! 2. matthew fuller: A Decade of Webdesign 3. Alexander Galloway: The Mario Movie 4. Rachel Greene: Fwd: The Status Sweepstake. +opportunity+ 5. Kevin McGarry: FW: Eyebeam - Open Call for Proposals 6. Rachel Greene: Fwd: University of Illinois at Chicago: Tenure-track Teaching Position in Electronic Visualization 7. Kevin McGarry: FW: Loyola Marymount University - Assistant Professor of Photography -Tenure Track 8. wolfgang muench: media art & film jobs in singapore +work+ 9. Rhizome.org: Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase: 800-178968 by Luca Bertini +comment+ 10. Ivan Pope: The 'Long Tail' of Contemporary Art +book review+ 11. Defne Ayas: Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1. Date: 1.11.05 From: Rob La Frenais <roblafrenais AT clara.co.uk> Subject: RESEARCH IS NOT TERRORISM! The Arts Catalyst presents RESEARCH IS NOT TERRORISM! In person: STEVE KURTZ of Critical Art Ensemble, artist, activist and researcher, detained last year by the FBI and still facing charges with CLAIRE PENTECOST from the Critical Art Ensemble Defence Fund. Royal Institution of Great Britain 21 Albemarle Street London W1S 2BS UK Monday 7 February 2005 8pm Book online at www.artwords.co.uk (from 11th Jan) or buy tickets from Artwords shops in the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Shoreditch, London, UK STEVE KURTZ, member of the internationally celebrated Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), was detained by the FBI last year. He faces a pre-trial hearing in the US on February 10 and speaks 3 days earlier in the UK about this fundamental threat to academic freedom of expression. CAE is known for its critical discourse and activist practice. CAE stands for the bottom-up appropriation of scientific knowledge and its utilisation for tactical purposes. In recent projects, CAE has created a mobile DNA extractor, which tests groceries for possible genetic modification, and a transgenic bacteria release mechanism. It was this equipment and Kurtz' home biotech lab that generated a chain of bizarre events after the death of Kurtz's wife when Kurtz himself was detained by the FBI as a suspected bio-terrorist. Although the bioterrorism charges against Kurtz were finally dropped in late 2004 by a Grand Jury, after an international storm of protest, he was charged with mail fraud (a charge traditionally used by the Department of Justice when they can't pin another charge on someone they think should be gagged or neutralised). Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. The charges concern technicalities of how Ferrell helped Kurtz to obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for an art project. These new charges still carry a potential jail sentence of 20 years and threaten many researchers in the sciences who source material in a similar way. You can read more about this case at www.caedefensefund.org The Arts Catalyst www.artscatalyst.org Steve Kurtz will also be speaking at transmediale 05, Berlin, on Sunday 8 February 2005, 3pm, discussing his new project on biowarfare. www.transmediale.de Presented in association with transmediale 05, Berlin Funded by Arts Council of England + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Date: 1.12.05 From: matthew fuller <fuller AT xs4all.nl> Subject: A Decade of Webdesign ----------------------------- A Decade of Webdesign Two day international conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Friday 21 and Saturday 22 January, 2005. More information & registration at www.decadeofwebdesign.org Entrance fee (including lunch): 30 euros per day / 50 euros for two days, Students: 17,50 / 30 euros Make web history at www.designtimeline.org! Organization: Piet Zwart Institute, MA Media Design Research, Rotterdam (http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/) Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam (www.networkcultures.org) Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (www.stedelijk.nl) ----------------------------- Conference Programme: FRIDAY JANUARY 21 10:20 Doors Open 10:45 Introduction to the conference by Geert Lovink 11:00 Histories of Web Design with: Adrian Mackenzie, Peter Lunenfeld, Franziska Nori chair: Matthew Fuller What do technical and cultural historians, or those active in the world of museums, propose as ways to make an account of the last decade? 13:00 Lunch break & Timeline Hot Spots 14:00 Distributed Design with: John Chris Jones, Olia Lialina, Hayo Wagenaar chair: Femke Snelting The web amplified an explosion of non-professional design. This panel will ask what happens to design once it becomes a non-specialist network process. 16:00 Tea break & Timeline Hot Spots 16:30 Meaning Structures with: Steven Pemberton, Angela Beesley, Schoenerwissen/OfCD Moderator: Richard Rogers As automated site-design becomes increasingly important, the history of the interweaving of technology and culture up to the point of semantic engineering is mapped out. 18:00 End 18:30 Conference dinner at the Westergasterras SATURDAY JANUARY 22 10.30 Doors open 11:00 Digital Work with: Danny O'Brien, Michael Indergaard, Rosalind Gill Moderator: Geert Lovink Can we redesign work? From economics, sociology and design, key observers and critics of the changing patterns of work in web design will comment on the decade and encourage you to have your say. 13:00 Lunchbreak & Timeline Hot Spots 14:00 Modeling the User with: Helen Petrie, Geke van Dijk, Peter Luining Moderator: Caroline Nevejan Creativity and usability have often been set up as the two key poles of web design. This panel asks instead for a more sophisticated narrative about the change in understanding of user needs and desires over the last ten years. 16:00 Tea break & Timeline Hot Spots 16:30 Plenary Session With all speakers. 18:00 - 19:30 Drinks at Club 11 Don't forget to register at www.decadeofwebdesign.org Also, please check the resource section for interviews with Max Bruinsma and Luna Maurer, and extended bios of the speakers, by INC researcher Goran Batic. http://www.decadeofwebdesign.org/resource.html + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 3. Date: 1.12.05 From: Alexander Galloway <galloway AT nyu.edu> Subject: The Mario Movie [This text accompanies the publication of the source code to "The Mario Movie," opening at Deitch Projects in New York this Saturday January 15th. Cory Arcangel also has a second show opening this Thursday at Team gallery in New York. -ag] "The Mario Movie," Deitch Projects, New York City, January 2005 Cory Arcangel (Beige) and Paper Rad This is a group effort, so let me first introduce the principle actors. Paper Rad: Benjamin Jones, Jacob Ciocci, and Jessica Ciocci. Beige: Cory Arcangel, Paul B. Davis, Joe Bonn, and Joe Beuckman. They work in collectives for the same reason that punks play in bands: it's funner that way, and it's easier to make more noise. There is the Lennon/McCartney question of who is responsible for what, and I can't make head nor tails of it. But from what I know Ben and the Paper Rad kids have a shameless affection for dirt-style, fan fiction comics about Garfield and Howard the Duck. And then there's Paul who I am told once entered the DMC turntable competition under the DJ name "Spin Laden." (He advanced through the opening heats, a challenge in itself, before being thrown off for scratching in the Notorious B.I.G. lyric "Time to get paid / blow up like the World Trade.") The clothes that the Paper Rad kids wear they sew themselves. Cory wears them too, I think, when he's not wearing pizza-shaped animal pullovers knit at home with his other chums. And on more than one occasion, I've been present when, sauntering past a stray guitar, in a Kmart aisle or friend's house party it doesn't matter which, Cory has spontaneously tapped out the full arpeggios of Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" with ten fingers at full frills. Then there was the music performance in Brooklyn when the Paper Rad three sat cross-legged on the floor performing a pretend recital on some Sony "My First Laptops," while the music was droning on prerecorded throughout. I thought electronic music was the one thing you didn't have to lip-sync? Oh well. Here's how I understand it: I've done way more ecstasy than Beige and Paper Rad put together, but they've done way more acid. And that makes all the difference. As Ben scribbled in a comic once, "Can one be tanned at night by stars?" But it gets weirder: "The Mario Movie," Deitch Projects, New York City, January 2005. There is not much a rational person can say about a psychedelic rave fantasy, with messed up graphics, with castles floating on rainbow colored clouds, with dance parties and raves in underwater dungeons, all starring Mario the plumber who does little more than weep through the tumult. And the whole thing plays live off a hand-soldered video game cartridge. Gosh. But if I may observe one thing it would be merely the following: this is the real deal. Which is to say that it's not the real deal. This is computer code. But what you see is not what you get. To watch the code itself would bore to distraction. Instead this code runs on a video game console that converts it into sound and image. The game console is the Nintendo Entertainment System, known affectionately as "the NES" to every youngster lucky enough to receive one for Christmas in 1985. (Raised by hippies in Oregon, we were not so fortunate.) The NES is a magical device, for given the proper code it can synthesize any sort of video signal from scratch. This is not the sort of video made with a camera and edited on a computer, mind you. How do we know? First, the compiled Mario Movie is 32 kilobytes in size, or about twice as long as the few paragraphs you are reading now. Even compressed, a ten minute video is roughly a thousand times larger. Second, the movie runs directly off the customized game cartridge pushed into the socket of the NES console--without, Cory is keen to observe, altering the factory-soldered graphics chip shipped on the original '80s cartridges. "Yo sound the bells / school is in sucker," MC Hammer would come to say a few years later. "U can't touch this." This is the real deal. Because of this, computer art is more like sculpture than like painting or video. In making the work computer artists actually fabricate the substrate of the medium, they don't apply things to surfaces or use prefab tools to move images on a screen. The code is the medium. So in writing code, and running it, the computer artist builds the work from the ground up. It's all math and electricity. To engineer the soundtrack, Cory pokes the audio registers on the NES's chip in specific frequencies. When he does they chirp. To get the video, he writes hundreds of lines of code, code like "lda $2002" (translation: load the value from memory position 2002 into the "a" register in the processor), or like "jsr vwait" (translation: jump ahead to the subroutine called "vwait" to stall for a few milliseconds while the television¹s electron beam repositions itself). What appears on the screen is the image of pure data. It is, in a manner of speaking, what numbers look like (if they could). Translation: this is not video art. Maybe call it math art, geek art, whatever. The Mario Movie makes tedium profound, and the other way around. They say everything becomes interesting in the long run. Super Mario Bros might be nostalgia to you. But it's not to them. All media is dead media, that's what Paper Rad and Cory understand. It's all garbage from the beginning--so don't yearn for a time when it was otherwise. When you understand media as trash then there is no nostalgia. If there is any shred of longing that remains in the work, it's not for our childhood friend Mario. It's for an acid high, for a simulated hiatus in a far off land that no one has ever been to. It's for watching a cartoon schmuck trip rather than you. It's nostalgia for raves sucked from the fevered brains of raver-haters. Everything is as new as it is old. Everything is as sucky as it is good. This is the movie. http://www.paperrad.org/ http://www.beigerecords.com/cory http://www.teamgal.com/home.html + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 Kevin McGarry at Kevin AT Rhizome.org or Rachel Greene at Rachel AT Rhizome.org. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4. Date: 1.12.05 From: Rachel Greene <rachel AT rhizome.org> Subject: Fwd: The Status Sweepstake. Begin forwarded message: From: heath bunting <heath AT irational.org> Date: January 12, 2005 7:32:04 PM EST To: Kayle Brandon <kayle AT irational.org> Subject: The Status Sweepstake. The Status Sweepstake. Saturday 22 January 2005 AT Decoy, 22 Green St, Digbeth, Birmingham B12 0NE Modelled upon The United States' Visa lottery: http://www.usgreencardlottery.org/ The Duo Collective: http://duo.irational.org present The Status Sweepstake: http://status.irational.org/status_sweepstake/ taking place during the DIY CULTURE festival: http://stuffit.org/diy/ Timetable: 12:00 Presentation of the Status Project - http://status.irational.org/ 13:00 Last chance to obtain statuses in and around town. 18:00 Picking of winner and awarding of new identity. Instructions: During the proceeding week, create one or more true statuses for the following identity: Unisex Name: Terry Smith Date of birth: 1 April 1976 The status project manual may be of use. http://status.irational.org/cgi-bin/statuses/statuses.pl Collaboration and trading before and during the event is encouraged. Then on Saturday, bring your statuses to DIY CULTURE festival to be entered in The Status Sweepstake. A winner will be randomly chosen from the participants and will receive all statuses entered and will thus be furnished with a functioning alternate identity. Fictional statuses may be used to obtained legitimate statuses, but may not be entered in the draw. For example, you can create a fake student card to obtain an ISIC card, but we will only accept the ISIC card. Best of luck. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 5. Date: 1.11.04 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin AT rhizome.org> Subject: FW: Eyebeam - Open Call for Proposals ------ Forwarded Message From: Margaret Heinlen <margaret AT eyebeam.org> Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 11:35:03 -0500 Subject: Eyebeam - Open Call for Proposals EYEBEAM IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE TWO OPEN CALLS FOR PROPOSALS - Artists in Residence (AIR) Program Winter/Spring 2005 - Social Sculpture Commission in Conjuntion with the LMCC Eyebeam is now accepting applications for the next round of Artists in Residence Program as well as the Social Sculpture Commission, our first public art commission conducted in conjunction with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). Applications accepted Jan. 5 - Feb. 13, 2005 Artists in Residence Program: Artists receive production support through 24/7 access to newly renovated studios in Eyebeam¹s Chelsea facility in New York City; a $1500 honorarium; the opportunity to participate in public programs (exhibition, prototyping events, live events); access to production and exhibition equipment; technical support from Eyebeam staff and production help from interns. Artists may work with the resources of the Moving Image Studio, R&D Lab and Education Studios depending on the needs of their project. Eyebeam's AIR Program is a multidisciplinary initiative that supports creative research, production and presentation of projects that query art, technology and culture. Projects range from moving image, sound and physical computing works, to software, websites, technical prototypes, performances, workshops and other kinds of public interventions. For more information please visit our website: www.eyebeam.org/production/AIR/AIR.html. To complete an online application please visit:www.eyebeam.org/production/AIR/onlineapp/join_detail.php? program_id=628438 Social Sculpture Commission: Eyebeam and the LMCC jointly offer a commission to support artists creating work that engages the public in new ways. These artistic interventions into social processes can take a variety of forms, including gaming, tactical media, network, interactive installation, moving image or conceptual projects that blur traditional boundaries between production, education and exhibition. Though projects will culminate in some form of final work/intervention/demonstration, the process by which these experiences come about will be strongly considered. The program, running from March - August '05, provides a grant of digital production services at Eyebeam's studios (including moving image / sound production, programming and systems design), a stipend of $20,000 for producing the work, and public development support from LMCC. For more information please visit our website, www.eyebeam.org/production/MID/commission/socialsculpture.html To complete an online application please visit:www.eyebeam.org/production/AIR/onlineapp/join_detail.php? program_id=496693 For more information on Eyebeam and upcoming events and programs please visit www.eyebeam.org. Eyebeam's Artists in Residence Program is made possible through the generous support of Atlantic Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Alienware, the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the LEF Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, the Sony Corporation, Lily Whitall and the Avery Foundation. If you would like to unsubscribe from the Eyebeam email list please send an email to info AT eyebeam.org. To join this list, please visit our web site and complete the online form. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Rhizome Member-curated Exhibits http://rhizome.org/art/member-curated/ View online exhibits Rhizome members have curated from works in the ArtBase, or learn how to create your own exhibit. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 6. Date: 1.11.05 From: Rachel Greene <rachel AT rhizome.org> Subject: Fwd: University of Illinois at Chicago: Tenure-track Teaching Position in Electronic Visualization Begin forwarded message: From: "Edu-News" <info AT edu-news.com> Date: January 11, 2005 10:15:43 AM EST To: "rachel AT rhizome.org" <rachel AT rhizome.org> Subject: University of Illinois at Chicago: Tenure-track Teaching Position in Electronic Visualization Reply-To: Edu-News <info AT edu-news.com> Tenure-track Teaching Position in Electronic Visualization The School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago is seeking a full-time tenure-track faculty member at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor to teach real-time computer graphics programming, interactive computer experiences and/or the production of 3D computer animation. The candidate would be encouraged to participate as a leader in research and media creation at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) and the new Center for Virtual Reality in the Arts. There are opportunities for cross-disciplinary teaching with our Graphic Design and Industrial Design programs. Appointment begins August 16, 2005. Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications. Qualifications Terminal degree (MFA, MS, MA, PhD) in electronic visualization or equivalent required. College level teaching experience with demonstrated commitment to undergraduate and graduate education. Strong professional/research record in art or design with emphasis on real-time interactive graphics and/or virtual reality. Experience in graphics programming languages as well as interactive media theory and practice. General Information The computer art and design experience in both undergraduate and graduate Electronic Visualization programs focuses on real-time and interactive computer graphics, utilizing both programming languages and software packages. The undergraduate program is taught in the collaborative Design Visualization Laboratory (DVL) sharing resources with Industrial Design and Graphic Design. The graduate program operates out of the world renowned Electronic Visualization Laboratory, which is a shared facility of the School of Art and Design and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The Electronic Visualization program is also interested in developing curriculum in the areas of computational design, museum exhibit design, game design, and location-based entertainment. Application Procedure Complete applications must include a letter of intent not more than one page, a resume with exhibition/publication record, a list of three references (including phone and e-mail), and documentation of visual work (preferred formats: DVD and/or CD ROM in standard web formats of VHS (NTSC) video tape). Web sites will also be reviewed when appropriate. An index of the visual documentation with project descriptions and applicant's role in any collaboration should accompany the application. Please send to: Chair, Electronic Visualization Search Committee School of Art and Design (M/C 036) The University of Illinois at Chicago 929 West Harrison Street Chicago, Illinois 60607-7038 See http://www.uic.edu/aa/artd/teach_pos_ev.html for complete information on the position. See http://www.evl.uic.edu for more information on EVL. See http://www.uic.edu/aa/artd for more information on the School of Art and Design. Deadline For fullest consideration applications must be submitted by February 1, 2005. Review of applications will continue until position is filled. The University of Illinois is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7. Date: 1.12.05 From: Kevin McGarry <kevin AT rhizome.org> Subject: FW: Loyola Marymount University - Assistant Professor of Photography -Tenure Track ------ Forwarded Message From: calls AT theredproject.com Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 00:48:04 -0800 (PST) To: kevin AT rhizome.org Subject: calls x 57 pt 1 Assistant Professor of Photography -Tenure Track Loyola Marymount University Start Fall 2005. Seeking innovative photographer. Submit letter of application, teaching philosophy, CV, 20 slides of recent work and 20 slides of student work and/or CD-ROM/DVD, syllabi and relevant undergraduate curriculum plans, 3 letters of recommendation, SASE for return of materials. Send to Rev. Michael R. Tang, Chair, Department of Art & Art History, MS-8346, Loyola Marymount University, One LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045-2659. Deadline March 1, 2005, or until filled. Requirements: The ideal candidate will possess an MFA, have both traditional and digital skills, and be well versed in the History and Criticism of Photography. Additional areas of competence include: Color, Studio, Documentary, Alternative Processes and/or New Media. Active exhibition record and three years teaching experience at the college level preferred with a demonstration of teaching excellence. Required Education: MFA. The Department of Art & Art History has approximately 180 students majoring in studio arts (fine arts, graphic design, multimedia arts, art education), and approximately 30 students majoring in art history. It has a well equipped B&W and Color photolab with a full time lab tech. The Department also hosts 2 computer graphics classrooms and a lab for student digital work. LMU is a private liberal arts Catholic University in Los Angeles 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Academic Organization: 80+ majors and programs in 4 colleges. It is a comprehensive university in the mainstream of American Catholic higher education and seeks professionally outstanding applicants who value its mission and share its commitment to academic excellence, the education of the whole person, and the building of a just society. (Visit http://www.lmu.edu for more information.) LMU is an equal opportunity institution actively working to promote an intercultural learning community. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x The Calls and Opps Email list is Edited by Michael Mandiberg This is a gift economy product. If you can, please give back. Send a check to Mandiberg, PO BOX 220051, BKYN, NY 11222 Or make a donation towards server costs, click below: http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=752 Open Source: please keep the header and footer intact Sources: listings come from calls sent directly to me, listervs (syndicate, nettime, rhizome, thingist, LACN), online sources (artswire, fine art forum, artservis) and email newsletters (ANAT, franklin furnace, LMCC, Experimenta) To join the list, go to http://theredproject.com/calls x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8. Date: 1.13.05 From: wolfgang muench <wolfgang.muench AT lasallesia.edu.sg> Subject: media art & film jobs in singapore LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts in Singapore is offering positions in the faculty of media arts: Senior Lecturer / Lecturer - Interactive Art Programme Leader - Media Arts Head of School of Film for more information, please contact me or visit the college's website (->about us->carreer opportunities) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 9. Date: 1.13.05 From: Rhizome.org <artbase AT rhizome.org> Subject: Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase: 800-178968 by Luca Bertini Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase ... http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?30479 + 800-178968 + + Luca Bertini + A toll-free number which will try to establish with you an obsessive and addictive relationship. Calling you back. Even after a few weeks. Pleading with you to come back. 800-178968 is a project of an invasive nature, capable of insinuating itself into the homes and mobile phones of the people contacted, violating their privacy, and becoming a part of their daily lives. The adverts for it -which began three months before the start of the service-, hidden among information channels (and adopting their language, codes and instruments), reach an audience/spectator still unaware. And thus more vulnerable, because they are incapable of recognising the artefact. The 800-178968 project has been designed and developed to interact with a "conscious" audience, close to the world of art and its problems but, and above all, for everyday people. The project ended on July 2003 with over 10.000 people contacted + + + Biography Luca Bertini '79 | lives and work in Milan + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 10. Date: 1.12.05 From: Ivan Pope <ivan2 AT ivanpope.com> Subject: The 'Long Tail' of Contemporary Art This is a repost of something I wrote for my blog Absent Without Leave http://blog.ivanpope.com The 'Long Tail' of Contemporary Art January 10, 2005 What Envelops Me <http://blog.ivanpope.com/awol/what_envelops_me/index.html> The concept of the 'Long Tail' (LT) has suddenly become commonplace across the networks. The Long Tail can be simplistically described as the mass of product that is suddenly available to the mass of consumers due to the effect of computer power and computer networks. For example, in music it used to be almost impossible for musicians and bands who didn't have contracts with major record labels to get their albums made and distributed. Now, the combination of access to cheap reproduction technology (including no-cost download systems), distribution via networks, online payment systems and, crucially, an efficient word of mouth recommendation structure, more and more 'unknown' music is selling to more and more consumers. Record companies shriek that they are being ripped off, when it is more likely that consumers have gone elsewhere to find music that really appeals to them. As we become more and more confident with the networks and we learn to use tools, such as blogs and their associated management systems, that give us constant interaction, the Long Tail of almost any area becomes evident and valuable. There is also an element of trust and belief. The first wave of recommendation sites were almost universally distrusted. Why would you believe someone who had a vested interest in recommending things? Now we've all moved on. We have gotten to know how networks of sites work, and to recognise authority, even without using tools such as Technorati <http://www.technorati.com/>. Chris Anderson at The Long Tail <http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2004/12/recommendations.html> on how Blogs are becoming key players in the LT recommendation game. /Blogs are shaping up to be an equally powerful source of influential recommendations. There are independent enthusiast sites such as PVRblog and Horticultural (an organic gardening blog), commercial blogs such as Gizmodo and Joystiq, and then the random recommendations of whichever blogger you happen to read for any reason (there does seem to be a natural connection between mavens, who know a lot and like to share their knowledge, and blogging). What they may lack in polish and scope, they more than make up in credibility: their readers know that there is a real person there that they can trust./ So the Long Tail is when massive inventory can be made available to the mass of consumers at minimal additional cost or effort. It's about routing around bottlenecks and opening up supply to meet the demand. Most industries have some form of artificial bottleneck, created over time by the industry itself, the better to manage and assure profit. The art world is notorious for this, from the creation and support of a 'superstar' system, to management of access to magazines, galleries, art schools, agents, curators, museums, public venues and auction houses. The glamorous world of contemporary art, with its round of international festivals, prizes, exhibitions, collectors and top galleries, carries a huge Long Tail. For every artist who makes a living through the gallery system, there are hundreds or even thousands who carry on making art alongside other ways of making a living. Historically this Long Tail of art either suffered in silence or attempted to make some return on their investment by selling through local galleries. However, local galleries, by their very nature, will never reach a sizable potential customer base. And a global customer base which must by definition be fairly huge, can never find the artists that move them and in whose work they may want to invest. Thus, a classic Long Tail exists, swinging behind the small body that is contemorary art. It's not really that all the artists who currently struggle with a day job or a teaching job and who make art on the side, who still dream of 'making it', will suddenly be able to quit their jobs and move full time into the studio. It's that there exists a huge Long Tail of art and artists, and there are countless opportunities to start to convert this tail into sales, into collectors. A support system for the contemporary art Long Tail is building by the week. Since I have been blogging my art regularly I have noticed a lot more artist blogs arriving on a regular basis. The more artists that blog, the more regular reading there is for the non-artist public. The more popular blogs are, the more likely people are to read artists blogs. The more artists and curators and gallery workers and museum staff and writers and teachers blog, the more power the movement will have against the usual art press. No Artforum can cover more than a tiny subset of the global exhibition scene. This have historically given them vast power, a power that is guarded and welcomed by the equally bottlenecked gallery system. A global system of public writing about local art scenes, multiple reports of high end art events, individual artists, collectors and general public all blogging away, will create an alternative ecosystem to the established art industry. This has obviously been happening for years to some degree, with online galleries, individual sales sites and collective endeavours springing up. But the critical underpinnings of these endeavours has not been there - and it is hard for consumers to find, let alone believe in, these outlets without a thriving media that is intimately related to and interested in these projects. Now we can see that the combination of blogging and online galleries may give rise to a new ecosystem of art. The Long Tail of art may be about to be exposed. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 11. Date: 1.14.05 From: Defne Ayas <dayas AT newmuseum.org> Subject: Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music Editors Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner Reviewed by DA "Over the past half-century, a new audio culture has emerged, a culture of musicians, composers, sound artists, scholars, and listeners attentive to sonic substance, the act of listening, and the creative possibilities of sound recording, playback and transmission." In Audio Culture, editors Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner bring to readers an educated, timely and much needed critical perspective of our contemporary musical experience through the writings of some of the most important musical thinkers, including Jacques Attali, John Cage, Umberto Eco, Brian Eno, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varese, just to name a few. Audio Culture offers a collection of essays that filter a range of experimental musical practices in an unusually refreshing way. Maybe not since Gregory Whitehead's reader "Wireless Imagination" (1994), which recorded the "silent" history of audio, has literature on this subject sufficiently captured the attention of both the sound enthusiasts and academics at the same time. Having brought together an intriguing selection of articles from a range of significant radio-sonic heroes as well as important thinkers and philosophers, the editors decided that this time a book should not conform to the highly traditional and historical categories and definitions of music but investigate new paradigms for music criticism and history, even for artmaking. The book explores a number of potential connections between musical forms and practices, while highlighting the conceptual cues they share. The underlining suggestion is that there are numerous links at play between movements and time periods, and it is perfectly ok to imagine minimalism--considered to be rather an academic form--and Techno juxtaposed together, or to find the "hyperlinks" branching out from experimental noise music to HipHop. The result is an elegant anthology that compiles the manifestos of "old masters" such as Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo and statements by Edgard Varese and John Cage while also spotlighting an interview on integration of technology into artistic production by Christian Marclay as well as an almost architectural analysis of DJ culture as put forth by omnipresent DJ Spooky. A topic such as "noise as music" that has reached beyond its academic boundaries and become a widely accepted norm within popular music (revealing the shifting definition of "music" as opposed to "noise" or arbitrary sounds) gets its fair share of analysis for instance. Aldous Huxley wrote in 1994: "The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise [?]; for all the resources of our almost miraculous technology have been thrown into the current assault against silence." A few years before, however, John Cage had already proclaimed that "whereas, in the past the point of disagreement has been between dissonance and consonance, it will be, in the immediate future, between noise and so-called musical sounds." The essay as such guides readers on a journey from the nineteenth century pioneering challengers of tonality, through various debates on the classification of "silence" and "noise", towards the eventually widely accepted greater sonorous possibilities within our definition of music. Another topic analyzed at length is the role of technology in shaping the reception, modes of listening and production of music in last few decades. With regards to musical perception and reception, Glenn Gould writes that through technology and recordings, "today's listeners have come to associate musical performance with sounds possessed of characteristics which two generations ago were neither available to the profession nor wanted by the public - characteristics such as analytic clarity, immediacy, and indeed tactile proximity." Gould thought that the live concert had been eclipsed by the audio recording, which could produce a superior interpretation the pure composition, while remaining untainted from any performance bias. For the composer, on the other hand, technological advancements in recording and mixing suddenly enabled non-instrumental sounds to compete on a common level with traditional sounds, opening whole new possibilities of sonorous combinations. Brian Eno explains at length in his essay how he came to coin the term Ambient Music as an emerging musical style of refined environmental music. One cannot underestimate the complexity of the task of reanalyzing a quite large section of culture that has undergone globalization and been therefore affected by cross-pollination of media, technology and culture-?which brought a certain degree of democratization. It is to the credit of the book that it keeps up with the most interesting key texts and ideas in the field and does not make a huge demand on our Windows-culture-inflicted patience. The book is ambitious enough to cater to a broader audience and manages to respond to the numerous demands made upon it. As many know, listening to extended works of experimental music can make the both unsympathetic and sympathetic ears nervous and uncomfortable, and reading the long literature about it may often seem a daunting chore. The reader--educated in the field or not--finds a surprisingly large selection devoted to exploring the critical role of sound in the history of twentieth century art and its implications on the most recent developments in the emerging fields such as Electronica, ambient music, and Techno. The book is each divided into smaller topics such as "Experimental Music" or "Minimalism", each consisting roughly of a handful of essays drawn from a heterogeneous collection of sources. The editors provide context to each small topic and respective essay in an introductory paragraph, which makes the writings very accessible to readers who are not familiar with the author or topic under discussion. Texts and ideas come from a variety of sources including magazines, journals and on-line. With its focus on different musical strategies for composition, improvisation and interpretation that are continually being adjusted and reshaped, Audio Culture succinctly captures the last fifty years that has been the most fascinating times for avant-garde experimentation, performances and sonic landscapes. By treating the existing genealogies between myriads of practices in a progressive fashion, it gives the last decade, which confused us all for definitions in its vibrancy, its much needed attention and vocabulary. Audio Culture guides the readers an intellectual journey from the year 1877 when the first recording fundamentally transformed sound, towards almost better understanding our present culture of omnipresent ipod-users, polyphonic cell-phone ringers and Bjork's Medula, helping both the experts and enthusiasts to new ways of thinking, tracing, developing and presenting audio culture. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 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 10, number 3. 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 |