The Rhizome Archive | Rhizome Digest: Highlights from the New Media Art Field

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: 07.28.06
From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:41:57 -0700
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org

RHIZOME DIGEST: July 28, 2006

Content:

+opportunity+
1. Tamas Banovich: The4thScreen - deadline - Jury - event
2. joy garnett: Open call: Intersection for the Arts (San Francisco) Fall
2006 Exhibition - "Terror?"
3. mpgough AT gmail.com: Transubstantiate - open call
4. daubner AT alcor.concordia.ca: Call for Papers

+announcement+
5. marc garrett: New Reviews/Interviews on Furtherfield.org (July 06)
6. zanni.org: new work by Carlo Zanni
7. James: Ars Virtua Opening Friday July 28

+Thread+
8. Jim Andrews, Eric Dymond, Salvatore Iaconesi, Steve OR Steven Read,
Alexis Turner, rob AT robmyers.org, Pall Thayer, Marisa Olson, M. River,
Michael Szpakowski, marc, josephgray AT grauwald.com, mark cooley: net art?

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Rhizome is now offering Organizational Subscriptions, group memberships
that can be purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions
allow participants at institutions to access Rhizome's services without
having to purchase individual memberships. For a discounted rate, students
or faculty at universities or visitors to art centers can have access to
Rhizome?s archives of art and text as well as guides and educational tools
to make navigation of this content easy. Rhizome is also offering
subsidized Organizational Subscriptions to qualifying institutions in poor
or excluded communities. Please visit http://rhizome.org/info/org.php for
more information or contact Lauren Cornell at LaurenCornell AT Rhizome.org

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

1.

From: Tamas Banovich <tamas AT thing.net>
Date: Jul 23, 2006
Subject: The4thScreen - deadline - Jury - event

for immediate release:
July 20 , 2006
The4thScreen: a global fest of art & innovation for mobile phones

The extended deadline for submissions to the 2006 The4thScreen festival is
coming up in five days, on July 25.

The entries will be judged by our distinguished Jury :

Laurie Anderson
Jacqueline Bosnjak
J.C. Herz
Warrington Hudlin
Surj Patel
Eric Paulos
Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky
Christiane Paul
Holly Willis
more information about the Jury, go to: http://The4thScreen.net/jury.php

There will be a presentation of selected entries on Sunday July 30 at 8pm
at the 'Scanners': The 2006 New York Video Festival. A co-presentation of
the Film Society and Lincoln Center Festival 2006'.
http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/scanners06.html

The4thScreen Festival'06 is produced by Postmasters Productions in
partnership with the Museum of the Moving Image and Polytechnic
University, New York.

contact: Tamas Banovich, Festival Director
tamas AT The4thScreen.net
The4thScreen
459 W19 Street New York, NY10011 USA
phone: 212 229 9736
mobile: 917 400 2381
http://The4thScreen.net

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

2.

From: joy garnett <joy.garnett AT gmail.com>
Date: Jul 26, 2006
Subject: Open call: Intersection for the Arts (San Francisco) Fall 2006
Exhibition - "Terror?"

fyi:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Intersection for the Arts is launching a building-wide exploration of how
each one of us experiences and understands fear and terror, which will
culminate in a visual arts exhibition opening September 2006. There are a
number of ways in which you can participate - through contributing your
artwork to Intersection's first open call juried show in over a decade, to
sharing your stories or your experiences.

INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL FOR ART
Intersection's Fall 2006 Exhibition - "Terror?"
http://www.theintersection.org/

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Are you scared? What are you scared of? How does fear immobilize or
control you and the world around you? What does fear cost? Where does
personal fear intersect with larger societal and political messages of
terror? These are some of the questions we are interested in exploring
through Terror?, a networking experiment investigating how people all over
the world experience fear and how it affects our lives. Utilizing the
internet as a starting place, this project is about searching for new and
true definitions for a word that has become all too pervasive. Where are
we now - five years from September 11, 2001? How much do we really know
about what people around the world are experiencing? What kind of a here
and now do we have? And, what kind of future? How do we actively and
hopefully break through media distortions, manufactured information and a
seemingly constant war agenda? Selected entries will be exhibited at
Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, California, U.S. for two
months beginning on the 5-year Anniversary of 9/11 - September 11 through
November 11, 2006.

Please include a self addressed stamped envelope with proper postage for
the return of your work. You will be notified by email of your involvement
in the exhibition, so please be sure to provide a valid e-mail address
with your materials. Intersection is not responsible for
returning works submitted without a self addressed stamped envelope.
Following the exhibition, selected works may be passed along to other
non-governmental international organizations and entities in order to
continue to develop and deepen networks. The artist agrees to provide for
the return of work, including adequate provisions for shipping costs and
insurance. Local artists in Northern California can arrange to drop off
for consideration and pick up at the close of the exhibition work directly
at Intersection. There is no entry fee for submitting work for
consideration.

It is our hope that this experiment can live and grow beyond the walls of
Intersection for the Arts. If you have ideas about how to continue his
exploration in your own gallery or space or in a completely different way,
please contact us at terror AT theintersection.org.

MEDIA
Works submitted should be 2-D works (painting, illustration, design,
collage, photography, printmaking, Xerox, textile) no larger than 11
inches high by 8.5 inches wide (or for international entries, standard A4
paper, 297mm high by 210mm wide). Digital submissions will only be
accepted in PDF format, and must be formatted to print no larger than 11
inches high by 8.5 inches wide (or for international entries, standard A4
size, 297mm high by 210mm wide). We will accept up to 5 works per artist
for consideration.

ENTRY DEADLINE
Submissions must be received at Intersection for the Arts by Tuesday
August 15, 2006.

EXHIBITION DATES
Selected entries will be exhibited at Intersection for the Arts in San
Francisco, California, United States from September 11 through November
11, 2006.

STORY PROJECT-SEEKING YOUR SUBMISSIONS
Are you scared? What are you scared of? Do you ever feel immobilized,
paralyzed? Why? How does fear control you and the world around you? What
does fear cost? Where does personal fear intersect with larger societal
and political messages of terror? These are some of the questions we are
interested in exploring through Terror?, an international
interdisciplinary project investigating how each one of us experiences
fear and how it affects our lives.

Please send us your thoughts and reactions to the above questions. With
the Terror? Story Project, we aim to collect, reflect upon and incorporate
your responses to these questions as we prepare to open a major
installation in solemn commemoration of the 5th Anniversary of September
11, 2001. Your response may be woven into Constructed Fears, an Open
Process Series event on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 designed to involve as
many people as we can in the visioning for this important project which
will open on September 11, 2006.

We hope to collect and share answers & feedback to the above questions via
theatrical readings and performances by local artists. With our Open
Process Series, we hope also to democratize the artistic process by
inviting as many people to contribute and help shape the ideas as we can.

We are looking to hear from as many people and share as many stories and
as possible for this first event surrounding Terror?

Please send your responses to:
Terror? Story Project
Intersection for the Arts
446 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Or send your submissions via email to Rebeka Rodriguez at
rebeka AT theintersection.org

Intersection for the Arts
446 Valencia Street (btwn 15/16), Mission District
San Francisco, CA 94103
Reservations at www.theintersection.org

INTERSECTION FOR THE ARTS is San Francisco's oldest alternative art space
and provides a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists
and audiences can intersect one another. At Intersection, experimentation
and risk are possible, debate and critical inquiry are embraced, community
is essential, resources and experience are democratized, and today's
issues are thrashed about in the heat and immediacy of live art. We depend
on the support of people like you. To become a Member, simply visit our
Website and click on the Donate Now icon at www.theintersection.org. All
Members receive a Limited Edition T-shirt.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

3.

From: mpgough AT gmail.com <mpgough AT gmail.com>
Date: Jul 28, 2006
Subject: Transubstantiate - open call

Transubstantiate: a peer-reviewed, online journal for performance
technologies praxis.

Call for submissions:

Transubstantiate welcomes submissions for its inaugural issue on the theme
of ?Disruptive Innovation?. We seek examples of new thinking and practice
that overturn and/or reassess existing performance technology praxis.
Submissions may be presented as papers, reviews , audio, visuals (stills /
video) and code. Authors may use multiple formats in a single submission.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Networked performance.
* Disruptive innovations & discourse.
* Pedagogy, ontologies and epistemologies.
* Choreography for iPod.

Choreographies for iPod must be specifically devised works and may take
the form of:

* Video / stills.
* Audio description / instructions.
* Text description / instructions.
* ?Soundscore? with text description / instructions.

Transubstantiate encourages submissions that take an alternative stance on
established modes of mediated performance. Submissions should be
equivalent to 3000 ? 8000 words in .doc, mp3, .jpg or .mp4 (video) format.

The deadline for submissions is 1st November 2006.

For more information or to submit please contact the editorial &
curatorial board via curators[at]transubstantiate[dot]org.

The liminal is limited; transubstantiate.
http://transubstantiate.org

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Support Rhizome: buy a hosting plan from BroadSpire

http://rhizome.org/hosting/

Reliable, robust hosting plans from $65 per year.

Purchasing hosting from BroadSpire contributes directly to Rhizome's
fiscal well-being, so think about about the new Bundle pack, or any other
plan, today!

About BroadSpire

BroadSpire is a mid-size commercial web hosting provider. After conducting
a thorough review of the web hosting industry, we selected BroadSpire as
our partner because they offer the right combination of affordable plans
(prices start at $14.95 per month), dependable customer support, and a
full range of services. We have been working with BroadSpire since June
2002, and have been very impressed with the quality of their service.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

4.

From: daubner AT alcor.concordia.ca <daubner AT alcor.concordia.ca>
Date: Jul 28, 2006
Subject: Call for Papers

Call for Papers for the colloquium
MOBILE/ IMMOBILIZED: Art, biotechnologies & (Dis)abilities
Montréal, October 2007

Please submit, to the Centre Interuniversitaire en arts médiatiques,
<gram AT uqam.ca>
- a short biography (15 lines)
- an abstract of 250 words maximum
before September 1 2006

?A human being would lack nothing, if one were to admit that there are
a thousand ways to live.? Canguilhem

Following the activities that took place within the framework of two
colloquia, "Interfaces et Sensoralité" (2003) and "Arts & Biotechnologies"
(2004), and based on the work with the handicapped conducted, over several
years, by the group at Cyprès in Marseille, we believe it is opportune to
provide a site for insightful reflections on questions relating to
(dis)abilities. At the intersection of several contemporary art projects,
bioscientific research and technological innovations, the notion of
deficiency seems to be one of the most fertile and troubling forces. It
certainly has a pronounced affect on the experimental art scene, where it
generates a significant array of creative, phantasmagorical and symbolic
artworks.

Redesigning the Human

Indeed, it seems important, at the present time, to evaluate how
technologies and biotechnologies affect the condition of viability, of
autonomy and disability of people, and to observe any signs of evolution
that signal an increase in cognitive, mental, imaginary and symbolic
capabilities. All disciplines involved in the redesigning of the human
being are included within the framework of this colloquium. On the one
hand, these disciplines occupy the central stage, determining and
illuminating the orientation and objectives of the project Mobile /
Immobilized, and on the other hand, they serve as a gauge, allowing one to
evaluate the techno-anthropological and political impact of practices
exerted by humans on humans.

The Augmented Body

Increasingly, technological developments give the impression that human
beings are inadequately equipped. This section of the colloquium
concentrates on artistic works whose orientation and experimental factors
open up conceptual possibilities as well as practical applications for
people with deficiencies or constraints (Virtual reality, biofeedback,
motion captures, interactivity, synthetic voices, sound, technological
extensions, implants, etc.)

Artworks will also be presented by people with disabilities who have,
because of their deficiencies and their differences, strengthened their
sensorial capabilities, and so produce unique poetic and phantasmagorical
worlds with technological tools (images, digital photographs, video?).
Since such works are adapted to particular disabilities, in certain cases
they may result in technical or technological solutions that offer
potential uses for the broader
public.

Art as a Life Laboratory

The question here is the study of artistic approaches that propose an
important slippage towards a centre of gravity different from the site of
current art practices. It is a matter of considering new artworks and
artistic processes as cognitive tools, charged at one and the same time
with an emotion and with indissociable cognition, artworks that permit one
to conceive of strategies for inventive learning and adaptation in order
to try to find new symbolic and sensory forms. These approaches permit one
to redefine artistic activity in terms of the laboratory of life by
actively participating in the development of tools that work for, and in
concert with, handicapped persons. This can be done by considering
specific imaginaries, unique forms of
creations and creativity, and modes of global communication.

Artists, theorists, (bio)scientists, and (bio)engineers) working in
related fields are invited to present their artworks, ideas and research,
as well as certain developments and applications in this domain.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

5.

From: marc garrett <marc.garrett AT furtherfield.org>
Date: Jul 26, 2006
Subject: New Reviews/Interviews on Furtherfield.org (July 06).

New Reviews/Interviews on Furtherfield.org (July 06).

http://www.furtherfield.org

The Ultrasound of Therapy by Staalplaat Soundsystem.
One of a number of pieces reclaiming the body from a post-material world.
A therapeutic process including anything in the range from homeopathy to
electroshock therapy brings the bodies back to life. Staalplaat
Soundsystem, the audio art collective based in Amsterdam, celebrates the
physical power of sound in an installation, which is currently shown at
Manchester?s Cornerhouse. Reviewer: Mathias Fuchs.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=193

An Interview with Jeanie Finlay about Homemaker.
Entering the domestic spaces of seven people living in Tokyo or
Derbyshire, Finlay centres in on the household as a way of uncovering
individual interaction with public and private selves. Telling personal
stories with the aid of house-hold objects, fragments of narrative, and
new media technologies is a new way of thinking about portraiture.
Interview by Jess Laccetti.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=192

Handmade Electronic Music.
A review of The Art of Hardware Hacking by Nicolas Collins.
In Nicolas Collins? book, we shake off the bounds of mass produced
software, of expensive consumer electronics and re-enter the exploratory
worlds of early electronic experimentalists such as David Tudor & Alvin
Lucier, riding the pulsating waves of sonic history through to
contemporary hardware hackers & instrument builders such as Xentos ?Fray?
Bentos, Phil Archer, John Bowers & of course Nicolas Collins himself. What
an enlightening journey it is too. Reviewer: Liam Wells.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=191

Tijuana Calling: an exercise on virtual coyote tactics.
Mark Tribe, founder of Rhizome.org and the man behind Tijuana Calling,
defines the net-based works as ?playful disruptions? that address urgent
issues such as migration flows, cultural translation, surveillance and
hybridity. Indeed, the common thread that connects Turista Fronterizo
(Ricardo Dominguez and Coco Fusco), Tj Cybercholos (Fran Illich), LowDrone
(Angel Nevarez and Alex Rivera), Corridos (Anne-Marie Schleiner and Luis
Hernandez) and DENTIMUNDO (Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga) is the commitment to
pollute cyberspace through an intermittent translation of the borderland
experience. An insight into border-crossing in a borderless space, Tijuana
Calling, an on-line exhibition features five commissioned projects by
artists living on both sides of the border Mexico-U.S. Presented in
October 2005, the exhibition is one of the ?scenarios? of inSite_05, a
network of art practices exploring the cultural and sociological nature of
the Tijuana-San Diego borderland.
Reviewer: Maria Guglietti.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=190

All reviews:
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreviews.php
Reviewers at Furtherfield:
http://www.furtherfield.org/reviewersbio.php

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

BNMI Announces International Co-production Labs
BNMI has launched its new co-production residency model which includes
three exceptional programs led by three peer advisors. Apply today for one
of these outstanding opportunities!

Co-production Lab: Almost Perfect
Program Dates: November 5 - December 2, 2006
Application Deadline: July 15, 2006
Peer Advisors: Chantal Dumas (CND), Paula Levine (CND/US), Julian Priest
(DK, UK)

Co-production Lab: Liminal Screen
Program Dates: March 5 - March 30, 2007
Application Deadline: October 2, 2006
Peer Advisors: Willy Le Maitre, (CND) Kate Rich (UK), Amra Baksic Camo (Bih)

Co-production Lab: Reference Check
Program Dates: June 24 - July 21, 2007
Application Deadline: December 1, 2006
Peer Advisors: Andreas Broeckmann (De), Anne Galloway (CND), Sarat Maharaj
(Sa/UK)

For more information visit: www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/coproduction
or email <bnmi_info AT banffcentre.ca>

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

6.

From: zanni.org <cz AT zanni.org>
Date: Jul 28, 2006
Subject: new work by Carlo Zanni

http://www.ThePossibleTies.com
http://www.ThePossibleTies.com

ONCE INTERACTION MET CONTEMPLATION
NOW CINEMA MEETS YOU

Opening: August 3rd 2006 at La Rada Centro Per l?Arte, Locarno
as part of WIRELESS a show in partnership with 59° LOCARNO INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL

The Possible Ties Between Illness and Success

the new work by Carlo Zanni
http://www.ThePossibleTies.com

a data cinema project about providing success appropriating other people's
lives

Random and Artificial are proud to present The Possible Ties Between
Illness and Success by Carlo Zanni, a two minutes short movie transformed
by an Internet data flux and re-edited server-side when web statistics
(Google Analytics) are available: the public can watch a new movie every
day.

The core idea of the work is the relationship between manic-depressive
illness forms and success at large, a theme it symbolically tracks through
the filming of a ill man lying in a bed and the presence of his partner
(actress Stefania Orsola Garello). The man?s body (actor Ignazio Oliva)
progressively fills with stains: quantity and position depend on the
number of users (and country of origin) visiting the website. The more
users, the more stains, thus causing the "illness" to spread all over the
body. The public grants success while appropriating the body of the
artist.

The title of this work has been derived from a review of a book called
Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
by psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison. This is basically a work dedicated
to all those people living beside someone suffering or experiencing
bipolar disorders.

Music for the film is by acclaimed composer Gabriel Yared (The English
Patient, Cold Mountain); words of the voice playing over the film are
taken from the last page of American Purgatorio, a novel by Brooklyn based
American writer John Haskell, who also plays the text in the English
version.

?Art as disease. And success as a contagious and self-destructing process.
In a challenging mix between cinema and live Internet data. The Possible
Ties Between Illness and Success is a visual statement about the ancient
theme of malaise as a typical artistic condition, built with tools and
metaphors of our technological era.? (Valentina Tanni)

THE POSSIBLE TIES BETWEEN ILLNESS AND SUCCESS
a work by Carlo Zanni
words by John Haskell
music by Gabriel Yared
with Stefania Orsola Garello and Ignazio Oliva
Opening August 3rd 2006 at La Rada Centro Per l?Arte, Locarno
As part of ?Wireless? show curated by Noah Stolz and Fabiola Naldi
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH 59° LOCARNO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Web: http://www.ThePossibleTies.com
Press Info: info AT thepossibleties.com
Press PDF: http://www.thepossibleties.com/press/possible-ties-pdf-press.pdf

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

7.

From: James <rhizome AT factorynoir.com>
Date: Jul 26, 2006
Subject: Ars Virtua Opening Friday July 28

Ars Virtua presents "The Second Life Landscape Initiative"

"A landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including
physical elements such as landforms, living elements of flora and fauna,
abstract elements such as lighting and weather conditions, and human
elements..."

--wikipedia

The landscape is well understood in real-space as a driving force of the
economy, an inspiration and a refuge.

Ars Virtua is proud to present the Second Life Landscape Initiative. In
this exhibit we are testing the boundaries of translation and connection.
What happens to our relationship with the environment when we enter the
synthetic world?

We examine four plots of land through data, analysis, visual imagery and
prose. We then ask the viewer to engage the landscape and form their own
memories and associations.

This exhibit looks at the land of Second Life through several lenses and
tries to find a closer connection, this is not merely the distant gaze of
the scientist but the the gaze of a lover or of a poet. We examine the
data, forms, texture, images and stories that come from the land. Ars
Virtua invites it's viewers to come to the show and then to walk the
surrounding lands of Butler and Dowden in search of their own narratives.

We will be highlighting the work of Lucid Vindaloo, LestatDe Lioncourt,
Fiend Ludwig, Zero Philo

The SLLI (Second Life Landscape Initiative) opens Friday July 28th at 7pm
SLT in Gallery 2 of Ars Virtua along the Butler/Dowden sims.

Located at the border of Butler and Dowden in Second Life's virtual
environment, Ars Virtua's 3000 square meter two story building is divided
into main and secondary galleries and a residency space. In order to visit
Ars Virtua you will need to create a free account at Second Life
(http://secondlife.com/join) and need to be running the current client.
Once you have this properly installed you should be able to follow this
link directly to Ars Virtua

secondlife://butler/228/15

Ars Virtua: Gallery 2, Butler (228, 15, 52)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Butler/228/15/32/

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Rhizome.org 2005-2006 Net Art Commissions

The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to
artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via
panel-awarded commissions.

For the 2005-2006 Rhizome Commissions, eleven artists/groups were selected
to create original works of net art.

http://rhizome.org/commissions/

The Rhizome Commissions Program is made possible by support from the
Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial, the
Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and
the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support has
been provided by members of the Rhizome community.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

8.

From: Jim Andrews <jim AT vispo.com>, Eric Dymond <dymond AT idirect.ca>,
Salvatore Iaconesi <salvatore.iaconesi AT fastwebnet.it>, Steve OR Steven
Read <steveread AT mindspring.com>, Alexis Turner
<subbies AT redheadedstepchild.org>, rob AT robmyers.org <rob AT robmyers.org>,
Pall Thayer <p_thay AT alcor.concordia.ca>, Marisa Olson
<marisa AT rhizome.org>, M. River <mriver102 AT yahoo.com>, Michael Szpakowski
<szpako AT yahoo.com>, marc <marc.garrett AT furtherfield.org>,
josephgray AT grauwald.com <josephgray AT grauwald.com>, mark cooley
<flawedart AT yahoo.com>
Date: Jul 18-28, 2006
Subject: net art?

+Jim Andrews posted:+

is it my imagination or is it the case that there are fewer and fewer
posting on rhizome.org concerning net art, as opposed to news items about
gallery or museum etc work?

does this reflect more concern among the rhizome people for such work
rather than netart?

+Eric Dymond replied:+

Good point Jim. I hope it's just that the summer creates a less charged
atmosphere, I think it's just a more reflective time.
Hopefully when September rolls around the discussions re. net.art will
resume. I remeber someone on Matrix (Interaccess' old BBS) posting a
message about letting the computers rest when the weather is so nice (I
think it was Tom Leonardt) and it's not such a bad idea. Input time rather
than output time.

+Salvatore Iaconesi replied:+

There is this thing.. post-media...

With the death of interaction-design critique is looking for "the next
thing to sell". So they are inventing post-media.

It is a wonderful theory that effectively creates from scratch "something"
that can be shown and sold in galleries and events.

Take the various disciplines of digital arts (be them network, software,
generative.. whatever), apply post-medianism to them, and here you go:
something materialized in the physical world, ready to be given a price
tag, and sold.

"We make money, not art", ok. But is the focus changing direction?

The artist "was" dead. And it was a good thing.

Apart from that: welcome to all the event descriptions and reportages (
even mine :) ); i read them all. They are interesting and show that
there is activity and thought, and a will to break the barriers running
between who's connected and who's not.

+Jim Andrews replied:+

"post-media" was invented quite a while ago, i believe. i think it's a
guattari term? anyway, check out http://aleph-arts.org/epm/eng , for
instance, which has been and gone, but discusses "post-media". Or do you
mean post-post-media?

In the "Webs" section of that site, they say

"Without Rhizome, there would be no 'international net.art community', or
if there were, it wouldn't have the same form as it does. Rhizome is the
place where 'everybody' gets informed and communicates the results of
their creative practices on the Internet -and logically it is also the
place where everybody goes to find out what's happening. Thanks to this,
the form that the net.art community has adopted looks, at least here, like
a 'community of media producers' -that is, like one where the audience and
the collective of 'broadcasters' tend to coincide. If that is indeed the
case, it is due above all to the experience of these kinds of lists, which
incite their audience to online participation."

To me, an 'international net.art community' does indeed need some net art.

+Eric Dymond replied:+

is this a net aet vs networked art question7

+Steve OR Steven Read replied:+

It has become fashionable to bring internet/media art ideas into 'real'
spaces, integrating with nature or urban areas or galleries or mechanics
or such. These fashions come and go like the winds. This has happened with
painting too, but luckily painting always 'triumphs' and comes back strong
time and time again. Hopefully the same will be true for the
fill-in-the-blank flavor of 'new media art' which one personally digs,
net.art or otherwise. I don't think net.art is already dead, maybe it just
smells a little funny?

+Alexis Turner replied:+

Of course it's not dead. To be dead, net.art - art created for the
Internet -
would require either the Internet or art to stop happening altogether.

Personally, I'd wager to say it hasn't really happened yet at all. Just some
cute but ineffective stabs at it the way a little baby stabs a piece of
chalk at
the sidewalk.

+Salvatore Iaconesi replied:+

> "post-media" was invented quite a while ago, i believe. i think it's a
guattari term?

yup! it's correct. and i'm not referring to post-post media either :)

the two essential theoretical components of the theory ("equal dignity of
all medias", and "mix'em up", as correctly reported by aleph-arts, which
is a quite good site!) have some breathtakingly wonderful effects, and
some darker ones. as with everything.

on on side, this "declaration" of dignity is a formalization of some of
the concepts that helped make netart, software art, webart (and the rest
of the family! :) ) concrete practices and disciplines (somehow too
beautifully chaotic in essence, to be referred to as "disciplines" in the
classical way... but that's the nice part of it, isn't it? ).

on the oter side it formalized, in too many cases, a merge in perspective
of two very different worlds. digital is essentially different from
physical. this does not mean it shouldn't have connections, or that you
shouldn't mix both up, but the difference is something to understand and
to use, if you feel like it.

and this created a.. what shall we call it.. a "tension", a little nervous
twitch...

in one way or another there is this distributed feeling of "searching" ..
is it the search for a definition? is it a search of recognition? of fame
and money? of something to sell in galleries and the like?

too many times it's just a search of something that sounds like "i have A
and B... i distort the way i use A and/or B and then i mix them up.. then
i show it" .. and it reminds me too much of every art fair that i go to:
the painting stuff is too many times a sterile search of the "next thing",
in the same way ...

this i think is the main glitch in things. as eric said in a wonderful way
"networked art vs net art": do you use the media? do you build using the
media? do you communicate through the media?

and, most of all: do you care about the concept? about the action? about
the effect? about the significate? about me?

which are extremely different things!

+rob AT robmyers.org replied:+

> the two essential theoretical components of the theory ("equal
> dignity of all medias", and "mix'em up",

Or, alternatively, "give the market what it wants".

"Postproduction" by Nicolas Bourriad looks at this sort of thing as a
follow up to his earlier "Relational Aesthetics".

"Museum, Inc.: Inside the Global Art World" by Paul Werner gives an
insider's view of how contemporary art helps launder reputations and
ideology.

And "Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity" by Johanna Drucker
might be good for anyone who still needs an October detox.

+Jim Andrews replied:+

digital art is a wide field. there is much happening for performance,
installations, mobile networks, workshops, conferences, and so on, offline
or concerning local networks. and that's all good to hear about. you click
links on rhizome.org's home page and you go to sites informing you of such
things, and you read descriptions of the projects and see photos maybe
even a video or whatever. documentation about the project.

but i would also like to be informed via rhizome.org's web site of
projects where you experience the art itself online, not just
documentation about the art. and maybe it's my imagination but it seems
to me i see less and less of that on rhizome.org's web site.

net art is for the world. or much of it is, deals with language issues in
an international way, ie, presents the work in more than one language or
has much to say independent of its particular written/spoken language. i'd
like to see more of this sort of art on rhizome.org's home page.

+Pall Thayer replied:+

I agree and second.

+Marisa Olson replied:+

Regarding Rhizome's front page content...

The reblog is managed by the Site Editors, so it is a reflection of their
diverse interests as much as what people are posting to Raw or on other
blogs that are then reblogged.

When I assign articles for Rhizome News, I try to maintain a balance
between various practices within our 'wide field,' as you put it,
including online & offline work. These News pieces also get reblogged.
Additionally, we are working on automating announcements about new Member
Curated exhibits and new additions to the ArtBase, so that they are
instantly reblogged. This may help in bumping up the number of
internet-based works that are linked on the front page.

Meanwhile, we'd love to see more of you initiating Member Curated shows...
It would be interesting to see what you are currently looking at, and how
you're contextualizing it...

I hope everyone's having a nice summer!

+Eric Dymond replied:+

It's nice to see the wide field being covered, it's great to see how the
protocols of the net have invaded other art practices.
It would also be nice to see a bias toward net.art on the main page.
Works that are complete unto themselves when viewed online.
It probably should be Rhizome's main focus. Not that the other mongrel
works should be ignored, but after all I think net.art relies upon Rhizome
as a its champion.

+M. River replied:+

I disagree with your call to narrow focus Rhizome on "net.art"

Why? I feel that what you are really looking for, what you really miss
finding here, is screen based work that looks like the good old days of
net.art. Works that might make your browser jump around and flash on and
off. It's been done. It's over. Move on.

The net has changed and so has net art. My baseline definition of net art
has always been - art that is located in an exchange between two or more
computers via that net. Rhizome still posts about "net art" all the time.
It's still here. It's here every day. p2p, rss, flickr, myspace, google
ads, multi player, remote viewing, blog, vlog, blah, blah, blah...

And this concludes M.River of MTAA's quarterly rant/networked performance
onRhizome.org

Keeping it real since 97...

+Michael Szpakowski replied:+

Absolutely! Spot on.

+Eric Dymond replied:+

I still think Jims observation was true, and I doubt this is a natural
evolution. Just a maturing venue starting to look more and more like Art
Forum and seeking a broader base.
And your Baseline looks pretty thin from here. But hey the lines are
showing on all of us.
;-)

+Pall Thayer replied:+

I too disagree with such a call. However, I don't agree that screen-based
net.art is "done" or "over." There's still a lot of potential to be
explored. It may not be "in" at the moment, but that doesn't mean it's
"done." So it's up to the artists. Either go with the flow or go with your
convictions. If you feel you have something to add to screen-based
net.art, then do. My computer screen has 786, 432 pixels and millions of
colors. There must be something in there that hasn't been explored yet and
is worth exploring.

+josephgray AT grauwald.com replied:+

not to mention that those 786,432 pixels can be updated at least 60 times
a second...

interactive network fed screen based media is defiantly stuck in a box,
but is by no means dead

+marc replied:+

Why has everyone conformed to using the term 'net.art', as in net.dot.art?

Historically net.art, mainly belonged to just a few elite artists working
on th Internet, Vuk Cosic made sure of this, and Manovich etc...

I have always been interested in those who did not bandwagon jump onto the
term 'net.art '- those who used 'net art' (without the dot), are the real
blood of net art - for they have to deal with not being supported by
history and cannons, and institutions.

+Jim Andrews replied:+

> I disagree with your call to narrow focus Rhizome on net.art
>
> Why? I feel that what you are really looking for, what you really
> miss finding here, is screen based work that looks like the good
> old days of net.art. Works that might make your browser jump
> around and flash on and off. Its been done. Its over. Move on.
>
> The net has changed and so has net art. My baseline definition of
> net art has always been - art that is located in an exchange
> between two or more computers via that net. Rhizome still posts
> about net art all the time. Its still here. Its here every day.
> p2p, rss, flickr, myspace, google ads, multi player, remote
> viewing, blog, vlog, blah, blah, blah
>
> And this concludes M.River of MTAAs quarterly rant/networked
> performance on Rhizome.org
>
> Keeping it real since 97

miss jodi? i always thought net.art was fabulous as in 'fable'. more than
a few of us are not included in the cliquish way "net.art" is understood,
though we were working at that time and continue at it to this day.
"net.art" is a story told by museum curators posing as anti-gallery, isn't
it?

but to move on,

"My baseline definition of net art has always been - art that is located
in an exchange between two or more computers via that net."

it's true that the notion of net art is broadened to things like "p2p,
rss, flickr, myspace, google ads, multi player, remote viewing, blog,
vlog, blah, blah, blah". and pretty much all of the quoted examples
operate on the public internet. as opposed to solely local networks or
internet2 etc. stuff that operates solely on local networks or requires
internet2 is surely still 'net art'. but if you're not in the local
network or you're not at a research facility, in the case of internet2,
you're out of the loop.

what i enjoy about net art is its international dimension that operates
beyond the local and toward very wide availability. and work that is
adventurous imaginatively and with whatever technologies support that wide
availability, such as the ones you mention and also shockwave, flash,
java, etc. but, mainly, works that you can experience on the net wherever
you are. if rhizome's membership is to be international, it has to give us
peons in the sticks something beyond documentation of stuff that happens
elsewhere.

+ Jim Andrews added:+

> I disagree with your call to narrow focus Rhizome on net.art
>
> Why? I feel that what you are really looking for, what you really
> miss finding here, is screen based work that looks like the good
> old days of net.art. Works that might make your browser jump
> around and flash on and off. Its been done. Its over. Move on.

I'm not sure you were implying that screen-based net art is over. That's a
pretty wide range, actually. So I kind of doubt it. I mean, that includes
audio as well as visual. And interactive possibilities. So the information
space is wider than video for the net, say, includes video for the net.

My own feeling is that monitor-based net art will be around as long as the
internet is around, though of course the monitors will change, maybe the
mouse/keyboard io will change, the computers themselves will change,
browsers will change and maybe something else will replace them, the
typical bandwidth will change, and so forth.

Also, the social structures of net communication will broaden. But one
thing I hope will continue is ease of getting international information.
There are exceptions, such as China, where tens of thousands of people are
employed to enforce bans on looking abroad into innumerable information
sources. And North Korea. But if people can see what's going on elsewhere
in the world, they are less likely to tolerate a situation at home that
doesn't live up to what people elsewhere in the world have, or where the
government is feeding them propaganda.

So, in a sense, international net art is a part of an ideal of global
communications. And it isn't a cure all, global communications. But it
beats a situation where people are treated like mushrooms: keep em in the
dark and feed them shit.

And part of that ideal is access to work that in some sense transcends not
only national boundaries but language boundaries. Art that is for the
world. The art of global communications. I hope that is around for a long
time. And screen-based net art is an important part of it.

Moreover, the artistic possibilities it presents, it seems to me, are a
very long way from exhaustion.

Rhizome has been a crucial organization in propagating this ideal. I
really hope it continues to do so.

+mark cooley replied:+

i also disagree with m river's statement -

> Why? I feel that what you are really looking for, what you really
> miss finding here, is screen based work that looks like the good
> old days of net.art. Works that might make your browser jump
> around and flash on and off. Its been done. Its over. Move on.

the subject of what is dead and what is not - what is cool and what is
drool has come up fairly often here. i remember the fairly animated
discussion some time ago concerning the supposed "death of netart". what
is usually lacking in these bold statements about getting passed the past
- going on to new brave new frontiers etc. is the basic question "why"?
maybe some things are worth keeping around. How ridiculous it is anyway
to talk of abandoning things that are 10 years old or less. I think Jim
is right, is there no more to be explored with screen based netart - it's
been exhausted in that short of time? It must not have had much to offer
in the first place. But beyond that, back to the question "why". I think
that it needs to be addressed that the rhizome community is part of at
least two industries that are interconnected - the culture industry and
the technology industry. Both industries are themselves expressions of
this thing called capitalism. i think it's worth exploring the desire to
constantly "move on" in terms of the consumer society. this fiction that
envelops both the culture industry (fine art) and the technology industry
says that "new is always better," "innovation always leads to better
things." Aren't we just feeding the beast here when we say that we need
to move on for no better reason that something has already been done? is
nothing worth saying twice? is art is out there to be consumed and thrown
away like everything else? this is why i think the discourse around
tactical media is so much more constructive than that of fine art - when
media tacticians "move on" it is in relation to something - in relation to
a social context that means something conceptually. If a tactical media
piece works it's because the producers were aware of social context and
how their work will operate within it. if your a tactical media
practitioner and you start using video news releases, for example, it's
not because you want to be the first cutting edge artists to do that -
it's because that's what will work if you want to get on the 6:00 news.
there's a goal there that is real. i have little use for all these avant
garde-isms that attempt to discredit with silly statements like "that's
been done". yeah so? the question is, "did it work, and if so, what did
it work to do?" then we can ask, "should we do it again? will it work a
second time? Who wants to live in a society where everyone throws away
the language and tools of their culture every couple of years?

+M. River replied:+

mark cooley wrote:

> i also disagree with m river's statement -

I'd like taht on a t-shirt :)

"the subject of what is dead and what is not - what is cool and what is
drool has come up fairly often here. i remember the fairly animated
discussion some time ago concerning the supposed "death of netart". what
is usually lacking in these bold statements about getting passed the past
- going on to new brave new frontiers etc. is the basic question "why"?
maybe some things are worth keeping around."

Ok. One more try and then I'll stop. I'll try to be a bit straight forward
this time. I'll try to be a bit more 'let's hold hands'. I might even
proof read and spell check. Might.

What I'd like to suggest, in response to the 'rhiz should get back to
netart' thought are 2 things.

First off, and what people seem to agree with, netart has changed. (side
note: Yes, I use the 'net.art' name when thinking about that group and
that time and 'netart' about the practice in general.) Netart has changed.
Netart is changing. No, it's not done/dead/over. 'Done' refers to art and
ideas that we all worked on some time ago. I enjoy the work I made 5 or 10
years ago. I think it's interesting. I think all the work back then was
brave and full of life. Do I want to go back? No. Do I want to see net
artist keep mining the concepts and forms that we started with? No.

Which leads us to point #2.

Beware mannerism. Beware nostalgia. Pollack made drip paintings.
Interesting. Watching a painter make a drip painting 10 years later? Not
so interesting. In fact, it might be a bit, well... sad. But then again,
it could be done in way that takes on the materials and practice of drip
painting and makes it relevant to the time. (full disclosure, t.whid and I
made a Pollack painting this year... don't get any bright ideas) But this
is not what I hear in the 'let's get back to netart call' What I'm hearing
is pixel counts.

Now, as far as 'capitalism, the consumer society and this fictional
envelop of the avant garde...' one of the reason tactical media has an
impact might be because some smart people realized that the street may no
longer be the center of power. They stopped making posters and started
making websites. Be it drip painting, or political change, we can respect
and try to understand the past but let's not live in it. It's over. It's
done. Move on.

So, that's my second try. I'll give up now. Although, I would still like
to hear more about two of the other points brought up in this thread -
the age old problem in netart of global / local and the change in what I
think t.whid called 'the discrete netart object.'

+Pall Thayer replied:+

As a tech-art journal, it's Rhizome's job to keep up with the new. What's
happening now? What directions might things be moving in?

However, as far as personal practice goes, I think that the artists who
maintain some sort of focus rather than trying to jump on the bandwagon
every time something new pops up, will be more satisfied with the fruits
of their labor in the long run.

The difference between work done by people who have really taken the time
to discover, understand and conquer (or succumb to) their chosen medium or
media and the work done by those who barely spend enough time with it to
scratch the surface before they move on to something else, is huge.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

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 Marisa Olson (marisa AT rhizome.org). ISSN:
1525-9110. Volume 11, number 28. 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.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +