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: 10.27.06
From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:47:00 -0700
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org

RHIZOME DIGEST: October 27, 2006

Content:

+note+
1. Marisa Olson: Call for Rhizome Site Editors

+opportunity+
2. Ceci: Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Visual Media and Gaming
3. Rachel Greene: MediaShed/Mongrel looking for European partners
4. Vicente Matallana: ARCO/BEEP NEW MEDIA ART AWARDS
5. atimko AT graystoneadv.com: New Media Position SUNY Oswego
6. llhenzl AT wisc.edu: Faculty Position in Digital Media
7. Stephanie Dinkins: HISTORIAN OF CONTEMPORARY/MODERN ART Search, SUNY
STONY BROOK

+announcement+
8. lvestal AT stanford.edu: Sliding Scale:Gail Wight exhibition
9. secondary.memory AT gmail.com: Openlab 3 - Exhibition and 2 Events (Free)
10. mosaica AT yorku.ca: Mosaica-Call for projects 07
11. Pau Alsina: :::::: new video-interviews in Artnodes :::::::
12. marc: 5+5=5.

+thread+
13. Sean Capone, patrick lichty, Jim Andrews, Geert Dekkers, T.Whid: On
8-Bit Aesthetics: Hackers or Hacks?

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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

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1.

From: Marisa Olson <marisa AT rhizome.org>
Date: Oct 27, 2006
Subject: Call for Rhizome Site Editors

Dear all,

We've recently seen some turnover among our Site Editors (formerly known
as 'Superusers'), with some inactive members stepping down and some
becoming "Emeritus." At this time, I would like to add four new Site
Editors to our roster--and more in the future. I'm hoping that some of you
will be interested in getting involved.

It would be ideal to bring on people who are familiar with new media art
and have a background of involvement in the Rhizome community. One of our
goals with a collectively-edited reblog was to have a diversity of voices
representing our diverse field, something that only happens when people
are able to fully commit to this volunteer position, which entails
reblogging at least ten items per month. Community participation is
crucial to the Reblog's success, and I thank you for considering this
commitment. Below is the official 'job description.' Please email me,
off-list, if you are interested or have any questions.

Rhizome's Site Editors play an important role in determining the content
that appears on our website. Each Site Editor actively researches and
publishes texts on our front page Reblog, including select posts from the
Rhizome Raw discussion list, which Site Editors evaluate for merit,
quality, and historical significance. Each of these texts is permanently
archived and the discussions, announcements, reviews, essays, and other
posts published from Raw are assigned searchable "metadata" terms by Site
Editors, published to the Rhizome Rare discussion list, and posted on the
Reblog. Site Editors are then actively involved in historicizing and
initiating discourse about new media art.

Thanks,
Marisa

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Marisa Olson
Editor & Curator
Rhizome.org at the
New Museum of Contemporary Art

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2.

From: Ceci <ceci AT rhizome.org>
Date: Oct 23, 2006
Subject: Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Visual Media and Gaming

Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Visual Media and Gaming

The Arts, Media and Engineering Program (AME) (http://ame.asu.edu) at
Arizona State University is announcing an opening for a tenure-track
assistant professor in Visual Media and Gaming.

The goal of AME is transdisciplinary research and education in the
integrated development of experiential media systems. The program has
established its own graduate interdisciplinary curriculum which includes
AME concentrations in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and
Informatics, Dance, Music, Theater and Visual Arts, Design, Psychology,
Bioengineering, Education, and a soon to be launched PhD in Media Arts and
Sciences. Ten AME faculty and 30 affiliated faculty from the participating
departments work collaboratively with graduate students supported by
research assistantships for the creation of innovative media systems and
applications. AME has state of the art media facilities.

The successful candidate will take a leadership role in the design and
development of the visual aspects of multimodal interactive systems and
gaming technologies at AME and will also lead student training in this
area. The individual hired will spearhead research in cutting-edge areas:
interactive graphics and animation, interactive visual narrative, visual
displays for everyday systems, gaming systems. The appointee¹s efforts
will merge with efforts of other AME faculty for the achievement of
significant advancements in interactive media. Teaching assignments are
reasonable and will relate to the appointee¹s interests, research and
creation.

Required Qualifications: Doctoral degree in Media or Visual Art or closely
related field OR master¹s degree in Media or Visual Art and a minimum of
four years industry experience in media and/or gaming AND a creative
and/or scholarly record with emphasis on visuals for digital media
appropriate to rank.

Desired Qualifications: Interdisciplinary experience in research and
creation spanning Media, Arts and Engineering; industry experience,
development of commercial or widely used public domain visual media or
gaming products, funded research in visual media and gaming.

Application Deadline: January 15, 2007; if not filled, every FOUR weeks
thereafter until search is closed. Anticipated start date is August 16,
2007.

Application Procedure: Send a letter of interest; CV; representative media
products, demos of work or publications; and, names, addresses and
telephone numbers for three professional references to: Chair, Visual
Media and Gaming Search Committee, AME, Box 878709, Tempe, Arizona
85287-8709. Background check required for employment. For more
information write to:
vmg-search AT asu.edu.

Arizona State University is an AA/EO employer

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3.

From: Rachel Greene <rachel AT rhizome.org>
Date: Oct 24, 2006
Subject: MediaShed/Mongrel looking for European partners

From: harwood AT mediashed.org
Subject: MediaShed/Mongrel looking for European partners
Date: October 24, 2006 8:05:13 AM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Sorry for cross posting: Please pass on to anyone interested.

________________________________________________________________________

Hi

Mongrel/MediaShed with (Southend-on-Sea Borough Council) are looking for
potential partners to join them in a CULTURE 2007 funding bid to build:

"a coherent, global and complete tool for multicultural cooperation in
Europe that should contribute actively to the development of a European
identity from the grassroots"

taken from:

http://www.culture2007.info/#2007

We think the best way to achieve this is to work closely with people who
would not normally see themselves as mainstream Europeans.
Mongrel/MediaShed is looking for three or four groups ? from European
'marginal' locations either central/eastern European, immigrant groups, or
economically impoverished. We propose to hold workshops between the host
organisations involved? Create a software scheduler so people can sign up
on line and organise themselves and listen to the archive. Then we will
create three monthly events together. Each event will be edited down to
create an audio CD.

At the end of the project the partners will have created a software
scheduler and a network for people to plugging into that creates a
European platform for cultural participation and exchange.

We propose the project be based on the successful mongrel.org.uk pilot
SkintStream

http://www.mediashed.org/?q=skintstream
http://skintstream.mediashed.org

Background
The idea of SkintStream is to connect audiences and cultural spaces
previously separated by economic, geographic and political factors. The
aim is not to provide a platform for established musicians but to produce
a network for hard-to-reach and disadvantaged groups and grass roots
producers ? a ?poor to poor? network.

SkintStream uses streaming technology to create an audio ?conversation?
between groups separated by different types of distance(physical,
cultural, economic). It also seeks to overcome institutional frameworks
that are designed for passive consumption rather than open invitation and
active collaboration. Passing the mic around the particpant groups allows
us to reflect on the cultural space each sound is coming from and asks
questions like: is geographic isolation a factor in cultural expression?
Can we still think of ourselves as being in margins or centres when
digital technologies allow us to bridge distances and make our own
connections?

Passing the Mic
A SkintStream event takes the form of an internet broadcast or
collaborative radio programme between different groups that are
geographicly seperated by ?passing the mic? between them. For the pilot
broadcast five different community groups around the world, from the UK to
South Africa, each had a half hour slot in which to perform. Their
contributions ranged from live music from local performers, DJ-ing and
conversational pieces describing life in each location and the importance
their music had for them. It was also easy to include additional sources
during the event (such as Voice Over IP chatting between spaces such as
through Skype) and to mix them as it suited.

At the end of each half hour slot the turn was passed to the next space.
During one event several rotations can be completed, allowing contributors
to both take a break and to respond later to other spaces contributions.

The first SkintStream event consisted of:
Container Project - Clarendon (Jamaica)
Sound Kitchen Studio/MMC - Johannesburg (South Africa)
Nostalgie Ya Mboka - London (UK)
Cue Music at Southend YMCA - Southend (UK)
Regent Park Focus - Toronto (Canada)

Benefits
As well as broadcasting their own content, each space also receives
everyone else?s live audio stream and is able to use that to build their
own event, gig or party around the shared material in a way that makes
sense to them. The resultant broadcast is also available to the general
public over the internet using an audio application (like iTunes). The
SkintStream web site describes how each participant can schedule their
slot, documentation on how to stream their contribution and how anyone can
record the live stream for themselves. The pilot event resulted in an
incredibly rich audio CD which is as playable as and more revealing than
an established radio station.

The advantages of the SkintStream model include:
It is a flexible model for collaborative events that can incorporate any
kind of audio content;
It builds international connections yet can take a different form to suit
each participant group;
It is scalable, accommodating more participants or longer events;
It can be expanded into other media such as video, text, etc and other
event formats;
It is cheap ? using easily available equipment and free open source software.

The pilot stream went out live on 8 June 2005 between 6pm-11pm GMT. An
edited version of the pilot SkintStream session is available on CD

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------

About Mongrel:

Mongrel is an internationally recognised artists group specialising in
digital media. We have an international reputation for our pioneering arts
projects, including the first on-line commission from the Tate Gallery
London and work in the permanent collections of the Pompidou Centre Paris
and the Centre for Media Arts in Karlsruhe (ZKM).

Combined with this we usually work with marginalised peoples who are on
low incomes, socially excluded and cultural minorities. We do this buy
helping people to do things for themselves, creating community software
and digital arts based projects that we then promote to a state of high
visibility through our international network of arts connections. The
groups gain a visible voice, self reliance, self confidence and informal
training allowing them to get a foot hold into mainstream training,
education, culture and the economic life most of us take for granted.

http://www.mongrel.org.uk

About MediaShed:

The MediaShed is the first "free-media" space to open in the east of
England. It's a place where members can come hang out, learn, propose some
training, create and propose new projects using free-media or show things
they have made on one of our screening nights. The MediaShed is designed
to be as open and accessible as possible, welcoming all.

Free-media is best thought of as a means of doing art, making things or
just saying what you want for little or no financial cost by using public
domain software and recycled equipment. It is also about saying what you
want "freely", using accessible media that can be taken apart and reused
without unnecessary restrictions and controls - "free as in free speech".

http://www.mediashed.org

Interested: then Email: Harwood AT mediashed.org and we will pass the details
on to Southend-on-sea BC

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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.

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4.

From: Vicente Matallana <ube AT laagencia.org>
Date: Oct 25, 2006
Subject: ARCO/BEEP NEW MEDIA ART AWARDS

ARCO/BEEP NEW MEDIA ART AWARDS
2nd edition
Conceded by BEEP, in collaboration with ARCO
Worth 8.000 euros and 6.000 euros

The goal of these awards is to advance the production and exhibition of
New Media Art, and art linked to new technologies. Its purpose is to
promote new high-tech art, and to foster communication between the
manufacturers/creators of this new technology and those who create art. A
natural collaboration, which will benefit and enrich both sides.
There are two ACQUISITION PRIZES:
1) AT ARCO Prize: worth 8.000 euros. To be eligible, an artwork must be
shown by a gallery at the 26th edition of ARCO, the International
Contemporary Art Fair, in Madrid (15-19 February 2007), and must have a
significant component involving new technology or electronic media.
2) OFF-ARCO Prize: worth 6.000 euros. Artworks presented by individual
artists or collectives.
The prizes will be awarded by an international jury of prestigious
specialists.
Registration form will be available from the 30th of October on the
ARCO/BEEP NEW MEDIA ART Prize website http://www.arco.beep.es

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5.

From: atimko AT graystoneadv.com <atimko AT graystoneadv.com>
Date: Oct 25, 2006
Subject: New Media Position SUNY Oswego

SUNY Oswego's Communication Studies Department has a tenure track position
at the assistant professor rank in the area of New Media. The ideal
candidate would teach a combination of undergraduate and graduate courses,
which will not only develop both beginning and advanced practical skills,
but will also examine the theoretical dimensions of New Media. Committee
work and advisement is expected.

The successful candidate's degrees might be in any number of fields, but
at least one degree should reflect a solid grounding in communication
theory. A terminal degree is required. Successful candidates must be
committed to teaching diverse students in a multicultural environment.
The ideal candidate would have several years of teaching experience and a
record of successful grant administration are desirable.

For complete information about this position and application procedures,
please go to: www.oswego.edu/vacancies.

SUNY Oswego is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.

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6.

From: llhenzl AT wisc.edu <llhenzl AT wisc.edu>
Date: Oct 26, 2006
Subject: Faculty Position in Digital Media

FACULTY POSITION: DIGITAL MEDIA

The Department of Communication Arts at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison seeks a creative artist in digital media for the newly
created Hamel Family Professorship in Communication Arts. Tenure-track,
Assistant Professor position to begin Fall 2007. Develop and teach
courses in the theory and practice of digital/new media. Preferred
candidate should also possess skills in video production, editing, and
post-production sound. MFA or advanced degree and national exhibition
record required. See also http://commarts.wisc.edu. Submit curriculum
vitae, letter detailing interests and capabilities, examples of creative
work and/or relevant scholarly writings, and three letters of
recommendation to Vance Kepley, Chair, Department of Communication Arts,
University of Wisconsin, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706. Deadline
to assure consideration December 1, 2006. EOE/AA. Unless confidentiality
is requested in writing, information regarding the applicants must be
released upon request. Finalists cannot be guaranteed confidentiality.

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7.

From: Stephanie Dinkins <sdink AT yahoo.com>
Date: Oct 26, 2006
Subject: HISTORIAN OF CONTEMPORARY/MODERN ART Search, SUNY STONY BROOK

HISTORIAN OF CONTEMPORARY/MODERN ART, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT
STONY BROOK. Open rank. For more information:
http://www.art.sunysb.edu/#

We seek an innovative scholar with emphasis on post-War art and a strong
grounding in theory, criticism, and/or visual culture, PhD and a record of
scholarship and teaching at levels appropriate to rank are expected.
Start date August 2007. Application deadline: December 1, 2006.

The State University of New York at Stony Brook is an Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Applications from women, people
of color, individuals with disabilities, and Veterans are especially
welcome.

Please send letter of application, CV, selected publications, and names of
three references (with mail and email addresses, plus phone numbers) to:
Contemporary/Modern art Search Committee, Department of Art, State
University of New York at Stony Brook, Staller Center, Stony Brook, NY
11794-5400.

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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.

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8.

From: lvestal AT stanford.edu <lvestal AT stanford.edu>
Date: Oct 24, 2006
Subject: Sliding Scale:Gail Wight exhibition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 16 2006
Lisa Vestal, Publicist 650-725-3107, lvestal AT stanford.edu
DIGITAL IMAGES AVAILABLE

Sliding Scale: Gail Wight

Stanford, CA-The Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University is
pleased to present Sliding Scale: Gail Wight, an exhibition that opens
November 7, on view through December 10, 2006 at the Thomas Welton
Stanford Art Gallery where a reception will take place on November 10 with
honored guest, Gail Wight.

When conducting an experiment a scientist should always control as many
variables as possible, reducing the object of the investigation to the one
aspect she is seeking to understand. This insight has been the great
strength of the scientific method; it has allowed enormous increases in
our understanding of the world through the summation of millions of tiny
investigations. As we have become increasingly aware in the last fifty
years, however, conducting research at such a level of abstraction is also
science?s most dangerous weakness. In ?Sliding Scale,? Gail Wight?s art
playfully resists the dematerialization of the objects of scientific
investigation. Mice eat through a representation of their genome,
butterflies struggle to escape their pins, and beetles tell their stories.

Wight?s art simultaneously takes on the two great flaws of abstract
scientific thinking?oversimplification and loss of perspective. In
Crossing a live mouse plays with a robotic one, and the viewer is left
marveling at the incredible complexity of the living being. Recursive
Mutations gives a muse the chance to redesign it own genome through its
interaction with the paper it lived on. With humor, ?Sliding Scale? asks
the viewer what has been lost in abstracting a mouse to its genes or to a
mechanical prototype that replicates only some of its functions. As
viewers zoom in and out with The Meaning of Miniscule they find that where
they end up is not where they began. And Kings Play Cards reminds us all
that no field, including science, is exempt from the lure of the hot new
thing or the enticement of corporate dollars. Wight?s art prompts viewers
to see the objects of scientific research and the larger field of science
in a new and different light.

Through ?Sliding Scale? Gail Wight will be adding her voice to the
conference, "Imaging Environment: Maps, Models, Metaphors," November 8-10
at the Stanford Humanities Center, which brings together scholars from the
sciences and the humanities to consider how the environment shapes how we
study and use it.

VISITOR INFORMATION: Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery is open Tuesday
through Friday, 10 am ? 5 pm and Saturday and Sunday, 1-5 pm. Admission
is free. The Gallery
is located on the Stanford campus, off Palm Drive at 435 Lasuen Mall.
Parking is free after 4 pm and all day on weekends. Information:
650-723-3404, www.art.stanford.edu

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9.

From: secondary.memory AT gmail.com <secondary.memory AT gmail.com>
Date: Oct 24, 2006
Subject: Openlab 3 - Exhibition and 2 Events (Free)

OPENLAB 3
Group Show, 4/11-11/11/2006 1-7pm

Auto-Italia South London Gallery
82-86 Queens Road
SE152QX Peckham, London

Opening Event and Private View, 4/11/2006 4 -12 pm
Closing Event, 11/11/2006 4-12 pm

OpenLab is delighted to present OpenLab3, an group exhibition with an
opening and closing event featuring musical performances by more than 20
artists and musicians of the OpenLab collective. OpenLab engages in the
aesthetics and politics of Free Open Source Software Culture. Free
Software Culture seeks to emphasise transparency of the creative process
by making all stages of development available to others, enabling them to
learn how the creation works and alter it for their own purposes. When
this idea is applied to artistic practices, the boundaries between the
artistic usage of software tools and their collaborative development
become blurred. The workings of the artist's tools are exposed, and the
artists are actively engaged in developing media technologies. They can
modify them to suit their goals, rather than creating works by using
existing tools that impose "their way of doing things" on the artwork.

This group exhibition brings together interactive installations, sonic
interventions, video works and animations which explore the audio-visual
code of this network culture: computers start to paint pictures on their
own, expose their internal circuits and "commit suicide"; birds will sing
and fly around in multiple realities, the skylines of two cosmopolitan
cities merge, language, meaning and time burst into fragments and
recombine. The range of the combined works points to the strength of Open
Source Culture â?? its increasing versatility as artistic playground
essential to contemporary debates and its continued importance not just in
the invention of new media realities but also in tackling themes of
â??realâ?? time and space.

The two music events feature sound and multimedia performances of artists
who use and develop open-source tools such as PD, Supercollider,
Processing and Fluxus. They will perform prepared sets and code their
music live in various programing languages. Musicians will also experiment
with a set of live instrument swapping. By exchanging PD-Patches, they
will challenge each other in an uncharted space of sonic manipulation. The
performances will span from excursions into the symphonica, experimental
noise and soundscapes to electronica and beat-oriented minimal
techno-sets.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Rob Canning, Chun Lee, Claude Heiland-Allen, Carl
Forsell, Sabine Gottfried, Karsten Gebbert, Paul Webb, Rob Munro, Chiharu
Kaido, Evan Raskob, U-Sun, Ryan Jordan, Oli Laruelle, Robert Atwood, Luke
Jordan, Rene, Monica Subrotova & Daniel Kordik, Michael Woelkner, Andy
Farnell, Martin Aaserud, Ryan Jordan & Rachel Horne, Dave Griffith & Alex
McLean

For more information please visit http://openlab.pawfal.org
or contact Sabine Gottfried, sabine.gottfried AT gmail.com

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10.

From: mosaica AT yorku.ca <mosaica AT yorku.ca>
Date: Oct 25, 2006
Subject: Mosaica-Call for projects 07

CALL FOR ONLINE PROJECTS FOR WWW. MOSAICA.CA

Project Mosaica, a website devoted to contemporary Jewish culture online,
is seeking projects from individuals or groups on the theme of Jews and
Diaspora: Jewish Culture, Web Culture, New Culture. Once again, two 1,000
CAN $
production honoraria will be awarded to the successful candidates whose
web projects address the possibilities of the virtual diaspora with this
theme.

CRITERIA FOR PROJECTS
Projects should be innovative and address the visual possibilities of the
web as well as contribute to an understanding of the multivalent nature,
complexities, significance and changes in meaning of Diaspora or
transnationalism. The call is intended to be as inclusive as possible:
projects from all artistic disciplines are welcomed.

All proposals must:
* Provide a project description in 500 words including the following: a
statement about the project?s relationship to Jews and Diaspora; why the
web is a viable medium for the project; and an explanation of how the
project will be sustainable beyond implementation.
* Include a web-ready presentation
* Include a CV
* Include a selected portfolio of previous work in CD-R, DVD-R or video
DVD (Region 1 compatible ) featuring not more than 3 images or 5 minutes
video per project.
* Proposals to be submitted in English or French, however we recognize
that other languages may play a role in the final project.

Innovative content and its adaptation to web aesthetics will be the
primary consideration in the selection process. Artists will maintain
copyright of their productions which will be disseminated by Mosaica on
the site
www.mosaica.ca and presented at public talks and screening(s).Submission
material will not be returned.

Applications must be submitted by December 1, 2006
Online applications are to be submitted to: mosaica AT yorku.ca
Decision Date: Candidates will be notified by January 15, 2007
A condition of the honorarium is completion of the project by April 1, 2007

Mosaica: Jewish Culture, Web Culture, New Culture
http://www.mosaica.ca/

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11.

From: Pau Alsina <palsinag AT uoc.edu>
Date: Oct 26, 2006
Subject: :::::: new video-interviews in Artnodes :::::::

Artnodes publishes a new series of interviews with international experts
in digital art and culture

20/10/2006.- Artnodes, the UOC?s internet space on the interrelations
between art, science and technology, is to publish six new interviews with
international experts on digital art, which are to remain on the website
permanently. This series of interviews reflects on some of the hottest
issues in digital art and culture, including surveillance technology, the
effects of software on our daily lives and virtual reality communities.
Barcelona

On this occasion, the experts interviewed are Erkki Huhtamo, Andreas
Broeckmann (artistic director of Transmediale), Alex Galloway, Jonah
Brucker-Cohen, David Rokeby, and Marc Downie.

These experts discuss issues such as the effects of software on our daily
lives, the development of media archaeology, surveillance technology in
artistic projects, physical toy interfaces linked to surveillance
software, connected virtual reality communities and the creation of sound
by virtual reality creatures.

The interviews and videos, made by Pau Alsina, Alba Colombo and Pau
Waelder, will remain on Artnodes permanently. Artnodes usually publishes
documents to inspire theoretical reflection on or historical study of this
field of interdisciplinary creativity.

Available at:

http://www.uoc.edu/artnodes/eng/

The Artnodes area
Artnodes is an area at the Open University of Catalonia?s network
dedicated to the interrelations of art, science and technology. The
Artnodes area includes an academic journal, a specialist information and
documentation portal and projects such as LABS or YASMIN in collaboration.
Since 2003, it has organised face-to-face and virtual events relating to
digital art and other intersections between art, science and technology.


Best,

Pau Alsina
palsinag AT uoc.edu

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

12.

From: marc <marc.garrett AT furtherfield.org>
Date: Oct 27, 2006
Subject: 5+5=5.

5+5=5.

5 short movies by 5 film makers about 5 networked art projects.
http://netartfilm.furtherfield.org

Free Media - Mongrel
Polyfaith - Chris Dooks
Golden Shot (Revisited) - Simon Poulter
Want and Need - C6
VisitorsStudio - Furtherfield

5 short movies by 5 film makers about 5 networked art projects exploring
imaginative and critical approaches to social engagement. Furtherfield has
commissioned 5 short movies about 5 UK-produced networked art projects
which explore critical approaches to social engagement.

These pieces offer alternative interfaces to the artworks and the
every-day artistic practices of their producers. They introduce the
motivations and social contexts of artists and artists' groups who are
working with DIY approaches to digital technology and its culture, where
medium and distribution channels merge.

These movies each feature the concepts, contexts and techniques involved
in the creation of five specific pieces of work. They include
conversations between artists, audiences/participants and film- makers,
talking on their own terms.

------------------------------------------------------------>
Original concept and production Furtherfield, London, UK, 2006.
In association with HTTP Gallery [House of Technologically Termed
Praxis], London, UK.
Made with the support of Stiftelsen Laangmanska Kulturfonden and Mejan
Labs in Stockholm, Sweden - Arts Council of England and Awards for All
in UK.

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

13.

From: Sean Capone <sean AT positrongraphic.com>, patrick lichty
<voyd AT voyd.com>, Jim Andrews <jim AT vispo.com>, Geert Dekkers
<geert AT nznl.com>, T.Whid <twhid AT twhid.com>
Date: Oct 21-25, 2006
Subject: On 8-Bit Aesthetics: Hackers or Hacks?

+Sean Capone posted: +

Hello. Without being *too* confrontational, I would like to hear some
opinions weighed in about the 'scene' of 8-bit, hack-art & machinima art
and why it's worthy of so much attention. Honestly, I've tried to wrap my
head around it and I'm just not getting it, especially in response to a)
the recent front-page post on Rhizome on Paul Davis and b) Cory Arcangel's
recent show at Team Gallery. While I won't say that 'most new media art is
crap' like the recent post-discussion, my reaction to these works is
dismissive at least, negative at worst. I'll ask the worst question one
can ask: "Why is this 'Art'?"
These works seem a bit more of an exploitation of an existing technology
platform in order to fetishize a certain in-vogue nostalgia about this
time period (the 80s) rather than anything about "computer art which is
aesthetically aware of both its own identity and the underlying process
which supports it." This seems to have a very limited agency. Why the
Nintendo in particular, why not, say, the Amiga, which was a platform more
widely embraced at the time by videoartist-programmer-demoscene people
during the same time period? The urge to "(release) bits from their
imprisonment within the restrictive, limiting boundaries of corporate
software applications" is amusing but ultimately not very creative, is it;
perhaps even reactionary? While these systems may certainly have potential
as A/V devices, they *were* designed as video-game platforms; to invest it
with liberatory hacker activism (activision?) is to give it more
importance than it perhaps deserves, and serves only as a circular,
self-legitmizing exercise.
The gimmick, in other words, seems to come before the concept. I feel
compelled to compare the silliness of the wholesale sampling and
re-presentation in these works with, say, the Japanese group Delaware's
highly entertaining, beautiful and original installations and performances
that are inspired by the limitations of low-resolution electronic
displays. Or on another level, Paul Chan's engaging, poetic and
politically conscious animation video works. The difference being,
something new is being created, not as nostalgia, not as a prank, but as a
creative praxis.
So basically, what do we take away from this work once the nostalgia
factor seems too distant or antiquated, or not really that clever to start
with? Davis speaks of the "intentionality of artist(s) who seek to engage
the computing process at a fundamental level", you mean, like artists who
write their own code to create their own electronic spaces without the
safety net of pre-digested consumerist codes and signs, or at least is
engaged in some type of dialogue with them on a critical or aesthetic
level? Sampling/hacking culture and re-presenting it is not the issue
here...or not the only issue anyway.
Thanks for letting me rant--hope for productive discussion.


+patrick lichty replied: +

As someone who's striving to define a broad methodology of "Digital
Minimalism", in context of my own cultural, critical, and aesthetic
research, in context with others' work as a set of trends
(8-bit/neo-retro, Digital NeoPop, DM, and so on,) I'd like to venture a
few comments.

<snip>
> I'll ask the worst question one can ask: "Why is this 'Art'?"

**************************************************************
Without sounding flip, I'd say that because a lot of people have said it
is. And mainly because people like Arcangel have taken a quirky, affable
demeanor and overlaid it onto a very smart contextual strategy that ties
in with the emergence of so many aspects of digital culture that have
become widespread. Also because there are systems in place to make media
art objects that are instantly recognizeable and can enter the gallery
system of economic exchange and collections. Also, if you believe Yoko
Ono (from the same issue of Contemporary that Cory's in) that there are
finally digital aesthetics that are stable and don't change, and can be
specialized in for a long time.

Is it ironic that some of the current digital contemporaries are working
in systems that don't change? Not on your life.

I think there's a lot of friction about 'craft', that is, the amount of
work placed in a work. For example, when Cory and I did respective halves
of a semester - long residency at the University of Akron last year, he
had an interesting slogan.

"Do as little as humanly possible", and I think this had to do with
recontextualizing a cultural artifact and making it an art object, which
is exactly what Kac, Debord, and Duchamp did so well. For him, it's a
frustration with media art, and for me, it's been a break with
technological determinism in New Media. That is, feeling that one has to
use the latest and greatest technology because it's also in vogue.

Slocum is a supreme craftsman. He knows the Atari 2600 kernel as well as
anyone. Where Arcangel get in with context and personality, Slocum does
it with virtuosity and referral to the culture of the 2600, retro, pop,
I'd say perhaps even false nostalgia.

Both are really good at what they do, they made the contacts, people
believe in what they're doing, and there you have high art.

******************************************
These works seem a bit more of an exploitation of an existing technology
platform in order to fetishize a certain in-vogue nostalgia about this
time period (the 80s) rather than anything about "computer art which is
aesthetically aware of both its own identity and the underlying process
which supports it."
******************************************

But the contemporary art world doesn't identify with that. Actually, they
don't care that much about it except in that it might have a somewhat
shamanic appeal at times. They want to get something that both exploits
its media and methods deeply and fits lock-step with the progression of
the Western art historical tradition.. For example, Murakami cites
classical Japanese culture, colonized by American pop culture. We love
the manga eye, and it even got on a Vuitton Bag. But he also takes and
makes odd garage kits that he insinuates into pop culture as well. That's
interesting.

Back to the self-referentiality of the computational process, except for
bitforms, who cares about that in an art context, and still Steve presents
very formal pieces from his artists, which gets the collectors.

But what about Warhol? He sold a nostalgia for American Pop & Mass
Culture like there was no tomorrow, and we're still recovering.

But back to your idea here, much of what's on the wall has to do as much
with the title and the colophon as the process, and that's back to
context. Forgive me if I'm not making the connection; but I get the
feeling that you're looking for recognition for works that deeply explore
the computational process as method, and I honestly think that's outside
the context of most of the contemporary art world.

***********************************************
This seems to have a very limited agency.
***********************************************

Sure. It limits your discourse. Reassures people where you're going to
be in ten years, and gives them some reassurance in investing in your
objects.

**************************************************
Why the Nintendo in particular, why not, say, the Amiga, which was a
platform more widely embraced at the time by
videoartist-programmer-demoscene people during the same time period?
**************************************************

Different sectors of culture. Tetris and Super Mario are the two most
widely known games of all time, and were both on Nintendo. Nintendo is
the platform that got the game industry out of the post 2600- crash. It
has nothing to do with the art community, it has to do with the mass
community, because that's what more people are going to identify with.

***************************************************
The urge to "(release) bits from their imprisonment within the
restrictive, limiting boundaries of corporate software applications" is
amusing but ultimately not very creative, is it; perhaps even reactionary?

***************************************************
Actually, it is. Read some of the interviews with Cory. For him, it's
"Beyond punk"... Part of that is pure rhetoric, too.

***************************************************
While these systems may certainly have potential as A/V devices, they
*were* designed as video-game platforms; to invest it with liberatory
hacker activism (activision?) is to give it more importance than it
perhaps deserves, and serves only as a circular, self-legitmizing
exercise.
***************************************************

Is the platform that important, as long as it communicates message and
intent? For Paul, it's usually the Atari that forms a lot of his cultural
context, and for Cory, it's largely the Nintendo. It's what shaped them.
But, is repurposing a game platform as an art one like calling a urinal a
fountain? I think there's a different gesture here, but similarities
worth watching.
**************************************************

The gimmick, in other words, seems to come before the concept. I feel
compelled to compare the silliness of the wholesale sampling and
re-presentation in these works with, say, the Japanese group Delaware's
highly entertaining, beautiful and original installations and performances
that are inspired by the limitations of low-resolution electronic
displays. Or on another level, Paul Chan's engaging, poetic and
politically conscious animation video works. The difference being,
something new is being created, not as nostalgia, not as a prank, but as a
creative praxis.

***************************************************
Exactly, context and intent go hand in hand and each of the artists has
them. Cory, Paperrad, Paul, and that clade just clothe their work in a
poppy irony and slacker package that fits with the current obsession of
youth and the crossing of nostalgia for the early gen-x'ers youth. It's
all pretty tight.

**************************************************

So basically, what do we take away from this work once the nostalgia
factor seems too distant or antiquated, or not really that clever to start
with?

***************************************************

There's a lot that's tying in with history here, and think of it like
performance and entertainment as well, and less as comp sci. It's fun,
and there is a real cultural undertone in the gallery at times that is a
backlash from the uber-dry 80's and 90's. I think that there are people
who actually want to have fun in the gallery; to be amused and then
appreciate a sense of formalism, which Cory has in his pixelated stuff.
It's a pixilated landscape you can put on your wall made by a sl/h/acker
kid who wants to mess around with the stuff he grew up with while being
cognizant of contemporary art politics. Whenever I was in New York, Cory
was always asking me how to get that break, as I'm sure he was asking
everyone. He was busting tail.

***************************************************
Davis speaks of the "intentionality of artist(s) who seek to engage the
computing process at a fundamental level", you mean, like artists who
write their own code to create their own electronic spaces without the
safety net of pre-digested consumerist codes and signs, or at least is
engaged in some type of dialogue with them on a critical or aesthetic
level?
***************************************************

But this isn't what they're doing. They're playing with art history and
cultural effects/affects and weaving it into a contextual praxis. In many
ways, it goes back to Duchamp, Nauman and high modernism, which secretly,
a lot of contemporary at has not let go of, and probably won't for a good
while, at least until the collectors die...

In my opinion, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that you're looking for an
art that operates under a different operational framework than what you're
looking for, and that puzzles you. I think that what you're looking for
is something that's more likely in an ISEA or SIGGRAPH, which are niche
cultures.

In response to Paul Chan, who is also in the current Contemporary, it's
intent, context, and lineage again, as Obrist asked if he had taken a nod
from Brackhage (historical grounding - right there.).

My read is that all of the artists (and I love Delaware, by the way, need
to remember them in the DM revisions) are operating in their own spheres,
aligning themselves with certain currents (I seem to have fallen in with
much of what remains of Fluxus from time to time), and doing it pretty
well.

What do you think?


+Jim Andrews replied: +
That's a really interesting post. Thanks.

I'm curious about your def of "technological determinism" as the "feeling
that one has to use the latest and greatest technology because it's also
in vogue."

How does that sort of def relate to the sort of def by daniel chandler we
see at http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/tdet01.html of
"technological determinism"? i also wrote a little bit about it at
http://vispo.com/writings/essays/mcluhana.htm .

<snip>


+patrick lichty replied: +

Good point - my def isn't exactly 'correct' in that in addition to
Chandler's more traditional definition, I often mix in a bit of the
'panic' stance that the perceived relevance of tech art is often defined
by the currentness of the technology. In many ways, I've heard people
(almost) sneer at the idea of static or obsolete technology platforms.
It's basic technofetishism for novel devices, that's all. Consumption,
fear of obsolescence driven by the tech consumer sector, and desire of the
new and shiny (why the hell else am I trying to hack one of those new
Optimus OLED keyboards?).

If you might have a better term, I'm all ears, no sarcasm intended.

But I'm tired of it being assumed that I'm supposed to get the new machine
every 18 months, and get the $1500 (or so) software upgrade so that I'm
somehow 'current' in terms of techne. That's just one concept, but I
think that in the long term, it's just unsustainable on so many levels.
And, there is all this amazing techno-detritus (physical and cultural)
which we can collage, montage, pastiche, and recontextualize.

And, when I realized in 2000 or so that it isn't about the latest tech
UNLESS that's the context you're critiquing, and I understood the cultural
frame from the onset, I've felt this urge to inform my work historically,
pare down the systems, look at how media and object can converge without
sacrificing either.

So from that, I've really gotten into simpler works with tighter contexts
and very clear intentions and likewise clear historical references (many
works; some I'm just going off, but you have to do that as a palate
cleanser).


+Jim Andrews replied: +

I think your link between 'technological determinism' and the "feeling
that one has to use the latest and greatest technology because it's also
in vogue," is interesting. They are linked, it seems to me, though they
are not the same thing. Daniel Chandler says "Just like these other
deterministic theories, technological determinism seeks to explain social
and historical phenomena in terms of one principal or determining factor.
It is a doctrine of historical or causal primacy" (
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/tdet01.html ). As Chandler
points out or implies, those who have labelled Marshall McLuhan's work,
for instance, as 'technological determinism' have done so, in part, in a
gesture of critique: the label tacitly critques the work as
disproportionately emphasizing the role of technology concerning
"historical or causal primacy". Was McLuhan a 'technological determinist'?
The short answer is that McLuhan was concerned with exploring the ways in
which culture and history are determined by technology, not the ways in
which they aren't; he may have overstated his case, but has posed
interesting questions.

The term 'technological determinism', like other 'determinisms,' is a term
fashioned to reject the work so labelled.

Nonetheless, we do experience pressures to use "the latest and greatest
technology", whether it's getting a new computer or using recent tech in
our art or whatever. For instance, commercial multimedia developers find
it very difficult to pitch Director projects to business clients. The
clients want Flash, not Director. Because of the market penetration of the
Flash plugin versus the Shockwave plugin, primarily. Also because of the
uncertainty concerning the status of Director as a continuing development
platform ('is it dead yet?'). And so on.

As a result of the difficulties commercial multimedia developers
experience pitching Director projects, the pace of development of Director
slows, and Flash begins to catch up with Director concerning many
features. And then even in the art world, the credibility of Director
versus Flash projects comes into question regardless of the quality of the
apps.

Flash reaches more computers than does Director. Because, until relatively
recently, the Shockwave installation was around 6 or 7 Mb whereas the
Flash plugin installation required only a, what, 200 to 400 Kb download.
The Shockwave plugin is now only 2 Mb. But it was 6 or 7 at a crucial time
when bandwidth issues were decisive. Also, of course, Flash allows
developers to do more with less programming knowledge. That also has been
decisive in reaching the multimedia developer audience.

Flash's strength compared with Director has been its populist approach.
Populist concerning both the audience and the developer community. Its
weaknesses, relative to Director, concern its slowness, its less
featureful state, and its relative lack of granularity.

Commercial multimedia developers creating web-based content have pretty
much been forced by economic necessity to use Flash rather than Director.
They haven't been in an economic position to be able to choose. This is a
type of 'determinism'. The market is determining what tools they have to
use to pay the bills, not their choice as to which tool they would like to
use.

So already we have something a little bit different from 'technological
determinism' because we see that the market is very active in determining
the technology, rather than a situation where the technology enjoys
"causal primacy".

<snip>


+Sean Capone replied:+

Patrick:
Thanks for your considered & frank response. This is the type of answer I
was hoping for when I capitalized 'Art'; in other words, "why is this work
relevant as objects within the system of production of the art world,"
quite a distinction from 'art' as a personal creative act..

However I remain unconvinced on several fronts.

*****************************************************************

>...he had an interesting slogan: "Do as little as humanly possible"...

*****************************************************************

Yeah, it shows.

The question is, is this in itself an ironic statement against
'operationality'? Or does it demonstrate that the chosen method of
production doesn't have that much to offer in the first place? I do
believe that to be a self-styled new media artist or critical practioneer
relies on a built-in sense of technological determinism to begin with. I
mean, it's just naive not to assume some measure of complicity. By this I
mean that, technology is a craft, culture and society is heavily invested
in it, these objects are a source of fascination and a means of production
and to some extent we acknowledge that we all 'understand' technology and
that the genie is not going back into the bottle. While the line from
Duchamp to Warhol to Arcangel et. al. is somewhat legitimate, it is not
smooth or reliable. To put it bluntly, Duchamp and Warhol were actually
doing pretty different things at key moments in art & cultural history.
You can't merely replicate their 'automatic' processes at thi!
s point. And Warhol was many things, but he was certainly not lazy about
his craft. He did cast an unfortunate spell across future schools of art
practice, however: by appearing to do nothing (by becoming purely
automatic), one can become as big a celebrity as the celebrity culture
one's images are about.

**************************************************************

> Both are really good at what they do, they made the contacts, people
> believe in what they're doing, and there you have high art.

**************************************************************

Yup. Until the collectors realize that they aren't *just* purchasing
'affability' or a personality but objects. This seems a good place to
insert a discussion on the ephemerality of New Media Art collecting..



*****************************************************************

> They want to get something that both
> exploits its media and methods deeply and fits lock-step with the
> progression of the Western art historical tradition.. For example,
> Murakami cites classical Japanese culture, colonized by American pop
> culture.

*****************************************************************

Yeah, but unless I'm mistaken, Murakami samples it & injects his own
exhuberance/cynicism and artistic labor (or that of his 'factory
workers')--& does not simply tweak someone else's manga characters? I hate
to get into a discussion about Originality vs. Creative Paucity but, well,
there it is.



*******************************************************************

> Back to the self-referentiality of the computational process, except
> for bitforms, who cares about that in an art context, and still Steve
> presents very formal pieces from his artists, which gets the
> collectors... Forgive me if I'm not making the connection; but I get the
> feeling that you're looking for recognition for works that deeply
> explore the computational process as method, and I honestly think
> that's
> outside the context of most of the contemporary art world.

******************************************************************

That's actually not what I was suggesting (a la Casey Reas, Bitforms et
al). The quote about 'artists involved with computational process' was
from the Paul Davis quote on Rhizome's front page. But out of context with
the art world? I don't know about that--Arcangel's work is heavily
invested in its own process and presence as a (at the time) cutting-edge
piece of consumer electronic culture. The art world has accepted this
process-oreinted model within Media Arts, I do believe. But the production
is a less-than-mordant cut-and-paste approach (slacker postmodernism?)as
opposed to the lineage of past practicioneers of
hack/electronic/computation art, since the sixties at least: Nam Jun Paik,
the Vasulkas, Dan Sandin, etc (or more recent artists & theorists like
Alan Rath, George LeGrady, Lynn Hershman & other 'New Image'
artists)...this seems like a more relevant pre-to-post digital lineage to
me than that of Warhol, Duchamp etc.

HOWEVER back to the discussion, as far as their currency as 'Art' within
the system of objects within the art world, these aesthetic experiments
seem wholly relevant to the degree that much Art operates with fairly open
ends anyway. Installation, conceptualism, Media Art left the question of
'Art' hanging open, dangling, questions asked but unanswered, art as
process, flow, social experiment, event...art that moves beyond
representation, in other words, into the experiential.



> ***********************************************************

> It limits your discourse. Reassures people where you're going
> to
> be in ten years, and gives them some reassurance in investing in your
> objects.

************************************************************
Would seem to be the opposite to me--a limited discourse seems less
reassuring lest it reveal itself as a micro-trend. Ehh, I'll take your
word for it.



*****************************************

> It
> has nothing to do with the art community, it has to do with the mass
> community, because that's what more people are going to identify with.

******************************************
Sure. Curators & gallery owners fill their shows with the mass community,
but that's not their target audience, is it? It has everything to do with
the art community. The art community (purchasers, collectors) seem to rely
on that sense of youthful zeitgeist, as distanced from it as they actually
are, because that's the narrative of the art world since the 80's (at
least definitively).


********************************************************

But, is repurposing a game platform as an art one like
> calling a urinal a fountain? I think there's a different gesture
> here,
> but similarities worth watching.

> **************************************************

Yes, with apprehension.


> ***************************************************

> Exactly, context and intent go hand in hand and each of the artists
> has
> them. Cory, Paperrad, Paul, and that clade just clothe their work in
> a
> poppy irony and slacker package that fits with the current obsession
> of
> youth and the crossing of nostalgia for the early gen-x'ers youth.
> It's
> all pretty tight.
> It's a pixilated landscape you can put on your wall made by a
> sl/h/acker
> kid who wants to mess around with the stuff he grew up with while
> being
> cognizant of contemporary art politics.

> ***************************************************

Yup, it's that great "I can do that too" feeling that engenders a cuddly
feeling of tribal belonging...but without actually doing it, or doing it
poorly, because the "youth-obsessed" codes are easily recognized and
recapitulated without inquiry. (Now I feel like a bit of a reactionary,
like one of those critics who didn't get Action Painting or whatever).
It's all pretty tight, indeed...to the point where it almost reads as a
contrived authenticity, and already seems a bit dusty...or maybe I just
wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member. There
goes *my* art career...



**************************************************************

> But this isn't what they're doing. They're playing with art history
> and
> cultural effects/affects and weaving it into a contextual praxis. In
> many ways, it goes back to Duchamp, Nauman and high modernism,

**************************************************************
Yah, although I think the lineage starts a bit later, (see above) or at
least the line isn't so smooth from Duchamp's act, taking place during
manifesto-oriented High Art Culture (Dada, Surrealism etc) during the
swing of Modernism from Europe to the States, to those taking place in
contemporary culture, adrift on an ocean of techno-consumer waste instead
of historical European tradition...
Bla bla bla. In the visual arts, "static art objects are a historical
given...Does [interactive art] even have a place within the art world? The
grand historical narratives have come to an end, now, 'to be a member of
the art world is to have learned what it means to participate in the
discourse of reasons of one's culture."--Regina Cornwell.


***************************************************************

> In my opinion, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that you're looking for
> an art that operates under a different operational framework than what
> you're looking for, and that puzzles you. I think that what you're
> looking for is something that's more likely in an ISEA or SIGGRAPH,
> which are niche cultures.

***************************************************************
While I *do* work regularly in the field of 'high-tech' graphics, I am
less invested in this world than you might think. I haven't attended
Siggraph in almost ten years. I *am* looking for an electronic art that,
quite the opposite to your suggestion, does not exist solely to pose
statements or congratulate itself about its own techn(o)ntology. (How's
that for a great artword?). To this degree, making a piece of
self-conscious, visibly low-tech Nintendo art has a closer resemblance to
a glamorous HDRI rendered Pixar creation than might appear: both are
hopelessly enamored with its own reflection, and exist as little more than
surface affectation.
I *will* cite one of Cory's pieces that I adore: his Quicktime
visualization of the contents of his hard-drive as multi-scalar pattern
noise--that piece definitely got to me as a piece which was...well, an
Object, conscious of but transcendant of it own Objecthood--you know what
I mean?

*******************************

> What do you think?

*******************************
I think you are on the effin' money but could try to place this genre more
within a critical context of digital, video & moving image arts,
especially within post-80s New Media discourse...it's time to let Warhol &
Duchamp off the hook as justifications for torpor and naked theft, or as
Dan Clowes satirized it, the old 'tampon-in-a-teacup' trick. Why shouldn't
artists have to work?


+Geert Dekkers replied: +

Just a quick note -- and just on the first two sections underneath.

Personally, when considering Cory Archangel, I can only recall two or
three objects I really like, and think are quite important. The quicktime
work "data diaries" is indeed one of them, "Super Mario Clouds" is
another. The link is clear -- from 60s/70s minimalism and straight on
from there. The works are produced in context with art objects already
circulating within the art community, as part of an ongoing dialogue. The
examples I mentioned are not only bringing 60s/70s minimalism aesthetic
up to date, but also letting us (well, me at least) see the 60s/70s
minimalism in a new light.

Apart from that, the artist Cory Archangel is important because he engages
in the art community. This is his goal:
?My goal was to be considered an artist, not a computer artist, to have
the computer considered in a gallery context,? Arcangel says. ?Strip away
the video game part, strip away the hacking, and essentially what I?m
doing is minimalist video art.?

http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/winter2004/feat_newmedia.html

Of course all this doesn't mean I'm "right". In other words, doesn't mean
that the art community or the society as a whole will share my opinion in
the long run. We'll just have to wait and see.

And as for the stress on "craft" - there are a great number of art objects
produced and immersed into the art community (and I dont think that
either Duchamp or Warhol are good examples) that are low tech and/or
require very little effort to produce. Its obvious that this is not a
criterium for their importance. So why should you ever considering
entering this into the discussion?


+T.Whid replied: +

It should also be pointed out that Cory's current show at Team doesn't
have anything to do with 8-bit.

See for yourself here:
<http://www.teamgal.com/arcangel/06show/index.html>

Cory was the poster boy for 8-bit in the art world, but, like any other
decent artist (especially young artist), he's exploring new ideas.

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