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: 9.12.07
From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:47:16 -0400
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org

RHIZOME DIGEST: September 12, 2007

Content:

+opportunity+
1. ana otero: CALL FOR PROPOSALS - Stranger of the Month (Next Wave Festival 2008)
2. propaganda AT goto10.org: Call for Papers: FLOSS+Art !!!DEADLINE EXTENDED!!! 1st Nov 2007
3. Turbulence: "Nothing Happens" Live Now! Call for Participation

+announcement+
4. Jean-Baptiste Naudy: Paraflows 07: annual convention for digital arts and cultures at MAK, Vienna.
5. Ryan Griffis: Just Spaces, 26 Sept-18 Nov, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
6. erich AT laboralcentrodearte.org: LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial - GAMEWORLD EXPANSION PACK: PLAYWARE
7. beate zurwehme: Media Art Festival 07

+thread+
8. Max Herman, Lee Wells, Brett Stalbaum, Pall Thayer, Rob Myers, mez breeze , Jim Andrews: A New Art-Historical Period: Networkism

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1.

From: ana otero <4anaotero AT gmail.com>
Date: Sep 6, 2007
Subject: CALL FOR PROPOSALS - Stranger of the Month (Next Wave Festival 2008)

// Call for Expressions of Interest
// Stranger of the Month (Next Wave Festival 2008)
// Deadline: 12th October 2007


Combining the collaborative impulse in contemporary art with user-centric trends in new media, Stranger of the Month draws upon the wisdom of the crowd.

Taking the stranger as its subject, artists conduct a viral marketing campaign throughout media platforms to engage and produce a community of participants. Through this process, it becomes apparent that publics emerge by virtue of being addressed; they are relational, not static.

Interaction with its publics will be entirely mediated; artists may either inhabit social networking sites to contact their participants, such as Facebook, or 43Things, or alternately, they may use traditional spaces for public broadcast, such as the classified sections of the local newspaper or community bulletin boards.

Written instructions may stand-alone for their critical merit, or alternatively invite a variety of responses from participants. Both written instructions and generated responses will be presented throughout public spaces such as Federation Square, during the 2008 Next Wave Festival, and be reproduced in an online instructional manual.

Expressions of interest should include:

- A 200 word paragraph describing what you'd like to do
- Two JPEG images of the artist's most recent work
- A 200wd bio and one-page CV

Interested? Send your questions or applications to curator[at]strangerofthemonth.com , or mail a letter to our postal address.

Our mailing address is:
Stranger of the Month
PO Box 171
East Melbourne
Victoria 3002
Australia

Find Out More:
An information session will be held at the Meat Market, North Melbourne, Thursday, September 6, 2007, from 6-8pm.

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NEW COMMISSION – INVITATION TO TENDER

The UK Northern Way Virtual Gateway Commission

The Northern Way, working with Arts Council England to deliver the £10m 'Welcome to the North' public art programme, wishes to commission a truly innovative and or original virtual artwork ‘Gateway to the North’.

Tenders are invited from organisations seeking to work with a named artist(s), individual artists or collaborating artists for this major commission. The emphasis of this new commission will be on its virtual long-term presence, although it can also include physical manifestations that make a link between the real and virtual, and is open to a range of artforms and media including: sound, software art, blogging, performance and events, online worlds and mapping systems eg Second Life, GoogleEarth. The proposals will need to include a web-based accessible platform and applicants are also welcome to consider the use of a number of other distribution and presentation platforms such as podcasts and videocasts; CD and DVD; mobile phones and locative media.The commission will: make connections across the three Northern regions; reference and conceptualise the North through its geographical, social, cultural and economic landscapes;provide an opportunity for all users to engage with the commission; provide a platform which is accessible to local, regional, national and international audiences; represent or consider the North in all its diversity. The proposal will also need to include a detailed education programme, evaluation programme and PR/marketing. The commission must be completed no later than the end of March 2008. The commission is open to artists in the UK and beyond. Full details and specifications are available from: Kath Savage on 01924 486 212 or kath.savage AT artscouncil.org.uk. The closing date for applications is 14 September 2007, 12 noon. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview to present their proposals. The Northern Way a unique collaboration of regions and cities from across the North of England, led by the three Northern Regional Development Agencies: Yorkshire Forward, Northwest Regional Development Agency and One NorthEast. This is a 20 year strategy to transform the economy of the North of England. Success will be determined by the bridging of a £30 billion output gap betwe!
en the N
o
rth and the average for England. More information about Arts Council England and the Northern Way can be found at www.artscouncil.org.uk and http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/

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2.

From: propaganda AT goto10.org <propaganda AT goto10.org>
Date: Sep 11, 2007
Subject: Call for Papers: FLOSS+Art !!!DEADLINE EXTENDED!!! 1st Nov 2007

sorry for >< please >>
--

Extended Deadline

Thanks to all the persons and groups who have replied to the call so far! Due to a growing demand for extra time, we have decided to extend the deadline. Please note that this new deadline will *not* be extended. Every paper/article/map received after the 1st of November 2007 midnight will not be published in the book.

--

FLOSS+Art
Call for Papers
NEW DEADLINE: November 1st 2007

people.makeart is a new project by GOTO10.

It is a repository of articles and lecture materials focused on the relationship between FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) and digital arts, as well as a database of free digital art projects.

The selected papers will be published on the people.makeart website and will be printed in the FLOSS+Art book, scheduled for spring 2008, using OpenMute's POD publishing service.

GOTO10 is now accepting new, old and recycled papers/articles/interviews/maps on the following issues:

- opening digital art's practice, code and culture
- FLOSS communities VS. art collectives
- digital art licensing, copying and distributing, using open content models
- role of the artist in FLOSS development
- influence of FLOSS on digital art practices
- free software to produce art and the art of producing free software
- economy of an open digital artwork
- FLOSS as an embedded political message in digital art
- paradox and limitations of open licenses for digital art
- FLOSS as a way to quote and embed other artworks in a new one
- digital artist as a FLOSS developer/user and vice-versa
- definitions and manifestos for a free software art
- branching and forking of an open digital artwork
- opening digital art to ensure future maintainance and porting


Submission Procedures:

- Submit your final paper to pmafloss-at-goto10-dot-org no later than September 15th, 2007. Include the text "FLOSS+Art" followed by your paper's title in your e-mail subject line.
- Submit as many papers as you want, one mail submission for each.
- Accepted formats : plaintext, LaTeX, OpenDocument No other file format will be accepted.
- The paper must be attached to the mail, do not send us links
- The submitted paper must be written in English
- Paper must be 1500 words minimum

More information: http://people.makeart.goto10.org/

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3.

From: Turbulence <turbulence AT turbulence.org>
Date: Sep 6, 2007
Subject: "Nothing Happens" Live Now! Call for Participation

"Nothing Happens" Live Now! Call for Participation
Nurit Bar-Shai, with Rich Miller, Yishay Schwerd, Zach Lieberman and John
Schimmel
http://turbulence.org/Works/nothingHappens/
OK Center for Contemporary Art: CyberArts 2007
Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria
September 6 - October 14, 2007

"Nothing Happens" is a networked online performance in which the viewers work together to make a series of objects tip over. The performance consists of three acts, which are centered on staged environments - a high shelf, a deserted corner, and a cluttered tabletop. Each scene contains a central protagonist, respectively: a cardboard box, a clear pint glass full of water, and a wooden chair. In all three acts, web-enabled physical devices controlled by the viewer's clicks make these objects tip over. In addition, each change is recorded as a snapshot-image, creating not only an archive of the work, but a collective creative result: a stop-motion-animation sequence, in which viewers can browse through the entire history of the performance both during it and after its conclusion.

Nothing Happens received a Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention in the Hybrid Art category.

"Nothing Happens - a performance in three acts" is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from The Greenwall Foundation. Additional support was provided by the OK Center Linz, the Israeli Cultural Foreign Ministry, ITP/NYU and 3rd Ward.

Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director
New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org
New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856
Turbulence: http://turbulence.org
Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog
Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review
Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade
New American Radio: http://somewhere.org

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Organizational memberships with Rhizome

Sign your library, university or organization up for a Rhizome organizational membership! Give your community access to the largest online archives of digital art and new media art-related writing, the opportunity to organize member-curated exhibitions, participate in critical discussion, community boards, and learn about residency, educational and professional possibilities. Rhizome also offers subsidized memberships for qualifying institutions with limited access to the Internet. Please visit http://rhizome.org/info/org.php for more information or contact sales AT rhizome.org

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4.

From: Jean-Baptiste Naudy <jbnaudy AT gmail.com>
Date: Sep 10, 2007
Subject: Paraflows 07: annual convention for digital arts and cultures at MAK, Vienna.

Paraflows '07 - annual convention for digital arts and cultures.
UN_SPACE

The second annual paraflows festival for digital art and cultures establishes in Vienna a new festival tradition. As an annual fixture between the Ars Elektronica and the Steirischer Herbst, paraflows functions both as a platform for the young local net art and net culture scene and as an interface to the more famous domestic and international positions within media art.

UN_SPACE is the title of this year's paraflows festival – taking place for the second time already. The topic is the exploration of inaccessible, invisible, theoretical, and immaterial spaces.

At the MAK-Gegenwartskunstdepot Gefechtsturm Arenbergpark, about 30 positions in net art and net culture, as well as in adjacent artistic strategies will attempt an approach to the UN_SPACE. Real spaces, like architectures and geographical areas, as well as their importance will be examined. In addition, the exhibition will deal with virtual spaces like the ones to be found in media and net art. One can even say that social and personal spatial dimensions and territories are virtual. Here, it is essential to ask for their qualities, their importance, their individual approachability and – deriving from these - the concepts of opening up these spaces. But we also understand UN_SPACE as the elimination of distances, frontiers, and barriers encroaching upon the cultural, social, political and media-related reality.

Artists: Ruben Aubrecht, Hubert Blanz, cym, Depart, George Drivas,
Ursula Endlicher, Jason Freeman, Verena Friedrich, Grübl & Grübl, Susan Härtig, Kurt Hofstetter, Alan Hook, Barbara Husar, Jacob Kirkegaard, Helga Köcher & Ilse Chlan, Kozek Hörlonski, Krüger & Pardeller, Manuela Mark, Roland Maurmair, Michaela Mück, Pash, Chiara Passa, Leo Peschta, Gerhard Ramsebner, Fabian Seiz, Laura Skocek, Société Réaliste, State of Sabotage, Markus Sulzbacher, Evamaria Trischak, Herwig Turk & Günter Stöger, ubermorgen .com, Peter Wehinger, Herwig Weiser, Susanne Wiegner, Michael Zeltner & Florian Hufsky.

An exhibition curated by Judith Fegerl and Günther Friesinger.

MAK
Gegenwartskunstdepot Gefechtsturm Arenbergpark
Dannebergplatz/Barmherzigengasse,
1030 Vienna

Festival Opening am 13. September 2007 at 17 Uhr
Opening Hours Mo-Sa 15 - 19 Uhr, So 11 - 16 Uhr

Download the full program at: www.paraflows.at

SOCIETE REALISTE ----------------
Ferenc Gróf / Jean-Baptiste Naudy
intelligence AT societerealiste.net
http://www.societerealiste.net

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Rhizome Commissions Program

Rhizome 2008 Commissions Announced!
This year, eleven emerging artists/ collectives were awarded commissions in support of new works of Internet-based art. The projects include distributed sound experiments, visually compelling interactive images that blend the sublime and the ridiculous, and pioneering applications that encourage the flowering of creativity across commercial areas of the web. Follow the link below for descriptions of and links to the eleven winning proposals, which also includes our first-ever Community Award, a project designed to enhance participation and communication on Rhizome.
http://rhizome.org/commissions/2007/

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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5.

From: Ryan Griffis <ryan.griffis AT gmail.com>
Date: Sep 10, 2007
Subject: Just Spaces, 26 Sept-18 Nov, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

Just Space(s)
September 26 – November 18, 2007
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
Organized by Ava Bromberg and Nicholas Brown
http://www.justspaces.org/

OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, September 26, 7-9pm

Download "Just Space(s)" Press Release & Events Schedule:
http://www.justspaces.org/press/just_spaces_press_FINAL.pdf

======

/// INTRODUCTION ///

Everyday we confront spaces that don't work - from our neighborhoods and parks, to our prisons, pipelines and borders. In this exhibition and programming series, artists, scholars and activists reveal how these spaces function - and dysfunction - making way for thought and action to create just societies and spaces.

The projects in this exhibition reflect the renewed recognition that space matters to cutting edge activist practices and to artists and scholars whose work pursues similar goals of social justice. A spatial frame offers new insights into understanding not only how injustices are produced, but also how spatial consciousness can advance the pursuit of social justice, informing concrete claims and the practices that make these claims visible. Understanding that space - like justice - is never simply handed out or given, that both are socially produced, differentiated, experienced and contested on constantly shifting social, political, economic, and geographical terrains, means that justice - if it is to be concretely achieved, experienced, and reproduced - must be engaged on spatial as well as social terms.

By transforming LACE, in part, into an active learning environment, Just Space(s) seeks to provide visitors with tools to consider alternatives to reactionary and essentializing political discourse that tends to dominate and frame our conceptions of justice - and constrain our abilities to imagine and implement it. The exhibition presents some of the most innovative and efficacious contemporary artistic, activist, and scholarly work engaging social and spatial analyses. In addition, a library/infoshop and symposia and event series extend the scope and scale of the main exhibition. Taken in whole or in part, Just Space(s) aims not merely to show what is unjust about our world, but to inspire visitors to consider what the active production of just space(s) might look like. It asks a crucial question: How do we move from injustice to justice exactly where we stand - in our neighborhoods and our institutions, at the level of the body, the home, the street corner, the city, the region, the network, the supranational trade agreement and every space within, between, and beyond? While much theorizing about - and active experimentation with - the role and potential of a spatial justice framework remains undone, this exhibition and its public programming contribute to the articulation of a powerful concept/tool that links critical theory and ethical practice.

Just Space(s) builds upon the recent publication of a special volume of Critical Planning (UCLA Journal of Urban Planning, Volume 14, Summer 2007) on the theme of spatial justice, which also serves as a companion to the exhibition. Follow the links below to download PDFs of selected essays from the special volume, including "Editorial Note: Why Spatial Justice?" by Ava Bromberg, Gregory D. Morrow, and Deirdre Pfeiffer, and a spatial justice bibliography. Visit the Critical Planning website for more information and to purchase a copy of the journal.

http://criticalspatialpractice.blogspot.com/2007/08/spatial-justice.html
http://www.spa.ucla.edu/critplan/current_issue.htm

http://www.justspaces.org/
http://criticalspatialpractice.blogspot.com/2007/09/just-spaces.html

======

LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
6522 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Wed-Sun 12-6pm, Fri 12-9pm
323.957.1777 / http://www.welcometolace.org

======

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW, SYMPOSIA & LIBRARY/INFOSHOP

http://www.justspaces.org/overview.htm
http://www.justspaces.org/symposia.htm
http://www.justspaces.org/infoshop.htm

======

EXHIBITION THEMES & PROJECTS

http://www.justspaces.org/themes.htm

THEME#1 >>> (IM)MOBILITY / PRISONS AND THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The Corrections Documentary Project (Ashley Hunt) /// Million Dollar
Blocks (Spatial Information Design Lab) /// Up the Ridge (Appalshop's
Holler to the Hood)

THEME#2 >>> (IM)MOBILITY / BORDERS, LABOR, MIGRATION

The Black Sea Files (Ursula Biemann) /// Political Equator (Teddy
Cruz) /// disOrientation Guide (Counter-Cartographies Collective) ///
Spatial Justice for Ayn Hawd (Sabine Horlitz and Oliver Clemens) ///
Searching for Our Destination (Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri ) ///
Water Station Maps and Warning Posters (Humane Borders and No More
Deaths) /// Host Not Found: A Traveling Monument of the Suppression of
Search (Markus Miessen and Patricia Reed)

THEME#3 >>> ECONOMIC JUSTICE / THE RIGHT TO THE CITY

The Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice (Strategic
Actions for a Just Economy) /// Listening, Collaboration, Solidarity
(CampBaltimore) /// UTOPIA-dystopia (Los Angeles Poverty Department)
/// Principles of Unity (Right to the City Alliance) /// RFK in EKY
(Appalshop and John Malpede) /// Spatializing Labor Campaigns (Service
Employees International Union)

THEME#4 >>> ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE / PUBLIC HEALTH

Syracuse City Hunger Project Maps (Syracuse Community Geography) ///
LATWIDNO - Land access to which is denied no one (Sarah Lewison and
Erin McGonigle) /// Invisible5 (Amy Balkin, Tim Halbur, and Kim
Stringfellow) /// Public Green (Lize Mogel) /// Public Access 101 -
Malibu Public Beaches (Los Angeles Urban Rangers) /// Best Not to Be
Here? (Marie Cieri)

THEME#5 >>> RACIALIZATION OF SPACE / SPATIALIZATION OF RACE

However Unspectacular: A New Suburbanism (The Center for Urban
Pedagogy) /// Detroit's Underdevelopment (Adrian Blackwell) /// The
New Yorkers' Guide to Military Recruitment in the 5 Boroughs (Friends
of William Blake) /// A People's Guide to Los Angeles (Laura Pulido)

THEME#6 >>> LAND / INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGIES, LAND CLAIMS & TREATY
RIGHTS

A Century of Genocide in the Americas: The Residential School
Experience (Rosemary Gibbons and Dax Thomas - Boarding School Healing
Project) /// Dakota Commemorative March (Waziyatawin Angela Wilson and
David Miller) /// Secret Military Landscapes and the Pentagon's "Black
World" (Trevor Paglen) /// Spiral Lands (Andrea Geyer)

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6.

From: erich AT laboralcentrodearte.org <erich AT laboralcentrodearte.org>
Date: Sep 11, 2007
Subject: LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial - GAMEWORLD EXPANSION PACK: PLAYWARE

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial

GAMEWORLD EXPANSION PACK: PLAYWARE

An exhibition curated by:
Ars Electronica Linz & Museum of Moving Image

Opening: 21.09.07 - 7pm

Duration: 21.09.07-21.03.08

PROJECTS

Multiplayer Digital Art Installations:
Bump (Assocreation), Freqtric Project (Tetsuaki Baba), Iamascope
(Sidney Fels), Jam-o-Drum CircleMaze (Clifton Forlines & Tina Blaine),
Metafi eld Maze (Bill Keays), Perfect Time (h.o), PingPongPlus (Hiroshi
Ishii & Members of the Tangible Media Group), Reactable (Sergi Jordà
& Grupo de Tecnología Musical de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra),
Small Fish (Masaki Fujihata, Wolfgang Münch, Kiyoshi Furukawa),
Tug of War (Ars Electronica FutureLab)

Art Games:
Armadillo Run (Peter Stock), Electroplankton (Toshio Iwai),
flOw (thatgamecompany), Golf? (Chronic Logic, Detective Brand),
Line Rider (Boštjan Cadež), LocoRoco (Tsutomu Kuono),
mono (Binary Zoo), Neon (Jeff Minter), Okami (Clover Studios),
Rez (United Game Artists), Shift (Max McGuire), Toribash
(Hampa Söderström), vib-ribbon (NanaOn-Sha)

Exhibition Design:
Leeser Architecture

Opening Hours: Wednesday to Monday, from 12 noon to 8pm

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial
Los Prados, 121
33394 Gijon - Asturias
T. +34 98 518 55 77 F. +34 98 533 53 77
info AT laboralcentrodearte.org
www.laboralcentrodearte.org

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7.

From: beate zurwehme <beate AT zurwehme.org>
Date: Sep 12, 2007
Subject: Media Art Festival 07

Vooraankondiging Media Art Friesland

English text: see below

MEDIA ART FESTIVAL 07: FOCUS OP MEDIAKUNST

Van 20-30 september is er het Media Art Festival 07. Dit jaar alweer
11de editie met op verschillende plaatsen in Friesland en Groningen 10
dagen lang mediakunst!

Dompel jezelf onder in internationale film, video, nieuwe media, muziek
en geluid, installaties, performances, Internet, presentaties &
workshops. Onze visie is “kunst is voor iedereen.”

PERS OPENING

Voorafgaand aan de publieksopening is er een opening voor de pers om
14.00 uur in Amicitia, Nieuweweg 1a Leeuwarden

OFFICIËLE OPENING

De heer Heiner Holtappels, Directeur Nederlands Instituut voor
Mediakunst/ Montevideo Amsterdam, hoofd van de afdeling beeldende
kunsten - AVANS/AKA Arnhem en lid van de Raad voor Cultuur opent op 20
september om 17.00 uur in Festivalcentrum Amicitia, Nieuweweg 1a 8911
LK te Leeuwarden.

Na de officiële opening kunt u de tentoonstelling Jong Talent met
Nederlandse examinandi en de Spotlight expositie van Jayce Salloum
(CAN) en Ulu Braun (GER) bezichtigen. Ook bent u van harte welkom bij
de performances van Powerplant en Meri Nikula (FI).

De Spotlight expositie ‘Across the channel’ wordt geopend om 19.00 uur
in VHDG, M.H. Trompstraat 4a, 8921 GH Leeuwarden.

AMICITIA

Het karakteristieke Amicitia is opnieuw het festivalcentrum. Hier
bevindt zich de nationale tentoonstelling Jong Talent met ruim 25 jonge
beloftes van de elf kunstacademies.

De internationale solo-exposities Spotlight, met Jayce Salloum (CDN) -
‘Middle East trilogie: history redux’; een maatschappij kritisch en
persoonlijk beeld uit de jaren ’90 met een nog steeds actueel
onderwerp.

‘Marked Worlds’ van Ulu Braun (GER) met schokerend romantische collages
en de Nederlandse premières van zijn films Südwest en Rhubarber Boy.

De beste film- en videowerken uit het internationale circuit worden
getoond in de Film/videosalon. Drie thema’s met elk drie
programmablokken spelen in op de discours in Nederland en daarbuiten.
Anagolue vs digital gaat in op de vergankelijkheid en het gebruik van
media. Persoonlijke essays en shockerende mystieke verhalen vinden hun
plek in Document. World view overstijgt clichés en toont hoe
kunstenaars reflecteren op de spanning tussen traditie en nieuwe
invloeden.

Verder nog speciale film/videoprogramma’s van de Tent Academy Awards
2007 Rotterdam met 15 juweeltjes van Nederlandse bodem. De Nederlandse
première van On/Off nos désorders van Pierre Yves Cruaud (F) waarin hij
een persoonlijke reflectie geeft op het feit dat hij zonder oorlog is
opgegroeid.

Ook in Amicitia is de Markt. Hier kan je terecht met praktische vragen
over het werkveld en verblijf in het buitenland. Pitch is de plek waar
de nieuwe lichting Jong Talent hun werk verklaart voor publiek en open
staat voor vragen. En in de eerste Friese Pecha Kucha, het Japanse
presentatiepodium voor iedereen, kan je je eigen ei kwijt.

SATELLIETLOCATIES

Het Fries Museum Leeuwarden herbergt de solo expositie Spotlight
‘Landscape of human exhistance’ van Max Hattler (GER/UK). Hattler
onderzoekt de mystieke ruimte tussen abstract en figuratief verhalen
vertellen.

VHDG Leeuwarden toont de tentoonstelling ‘Across the channel’ met het
Engelse Tank.tv en Singleshotvideo.

In Museum Smallingerland Drachten is er de Spotlight LANDED van de
Duitse filmmaker Telemach Wiesinger met de poëtische landschapsfilms
LANDED (RE EDITED 2006) en de première van zijn nieuwste film 3X1.
Galerie Sign presenteert de 10 nominaties voor de Internationale
Student Media Art Festival Award.

Xperience, het multimedia evenement, omvat overdag workshops,
presentaties en demonstraties in Amicitia en ’s avonds en ’s nachts
optredens en performances in 058Podium. Met Eric Ross (USA), beroemd
door avant-gardistische muziek met de Theremin en Mary Ross (USA), die
beide al ruim 30 jaar met video en performance werken. TEAM WORK AWARD
winnaars Andreas Gogol en Telemach Wiesinger (GER) met unieke
filmperformance LANDED TAKES & SOUND TIMES. Nils Muehlenbruch (NL) -
Bits & Pieces met urbane animaties. Max Hattler (GER/UK) veejayed met
beeld en geluid gebaseerd op de levenstijl en muziek van zijn vader.
Jean Parlette is een kwartet dat de op samples gebaseerde folktronica
van Jos Blomsma live ten gehore brengt. Tot slot elektronische
dansmuziek ‘Fusion Cooking’:

Na meer dan 10 jaar keert dj a Door alias Rico S. weer terug naar de
plek waar hij zijn Dj carrière ooit begon: Leeuwarden.

Kom voor inspiratie. Kom om contacten te leggen. En kom om te
ontdekken, delen en doen. Media Art Festival 07 neemt je mee naar het
onbekende in de mediakunst. Verrijk jezelf met frisse innovaties en
geef je creatieve gedachten de loop!

Voor meer informatie kunt u de website bezoeken www.mediaartfriesland.nl

In de bijlage vindt u het verkorte persbericht.

Wij hopen u te mogen verwelkomen.

Namens Media Art, Nadine Bors en Geebie Keyzer

Postadres:
F.D.Nieuwenhuisstraat 53
8862 WC Harlingen

Bezoekadres:
Amicitia
Nieuweweg 1a
8911 LK Leeuwarden
o: +31 (0)58 2155204
m: +31 (0)6 14301304
info AT mediaartfriesland.nl
www.mediaartfriesland.nl


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

Announcing Media Art Friesland

MEDIA ART FESTIVAL 07: FOCUS ON MEDIA ART

From 20-30 September Media Art Festival 07 takes place. This year sees
the 11th edition with ten days of media art at different locations in
Friesland and Groningen!

Submerge yourself in international film, video, new media, music and
sound, installations, performances, Internet, presentations &
workshops. Our vision is “art is for everyone.”

PRESS OPENING

Before the official opening, a special press opening will take place at
14.00 hours in Amicitia, Nieuweweg 1a Leeuwarden.

OFFICIAL OPENING

Mister Heiner Holtappels, director of the Dutch Institute for Media
Art/ Montevideo Amsterdam, head of the department of visual arts –
AVANS/AKA Arnhem and member of the Raad voor Cultuur, will perform the
opening at 17.00 hours in Festivalcentre Amicitia, Nieuweweg 1a, 8911
LK Leeuwarden.

After the official opening you are welcome to view the exhibition Young
Talent by various Dutch graduates, and the Spotlight exhibitions by
Jayce Salloum (CAN) and Ulu Braun (GER). You are also invited to the
performances by Powerplant van Meri Nikula (FIN).

The Spotlight exhibition ‘Across the channel’ will be opened at 19.00
hours at VHDG, M.H. Trompstraat 4a, 8921 GH Leeuwarden.

AMICITIA

The characteristic building Amicitia is once again the festival centre.
The national exhibition Young Talent is housed here, with over 25
promising talents from the eleven art academies.

De international solo exhibitions Spotlight, with Jayce Salloum (CAN) –
‘Middle East trilogy: history redux’; a social critique and personal
image from the 90’s with a still very actual subject.

‘Marked Worlds’ by Ulu Braun (GER) with shockingly romantic collages
and the Dutch premieres of his films Südwest and Rhubarber Boy.
The best film- and video works from the international circuit are shown
in the Film/video salon. Three themes with three programme blocks each,
discuss hot topics in the Netherlands and abroad. In Analogue vs.
digital it is all about transient nature and use of media. Personal
essays and shocking, mystical stories find their place in Document.
World View overcomes clichés and shows how artists reflect on the
tension between tradition and new influences.

Furthermore there are special film/video programmes by the Tent Academy
Awards 2007 Rotterdam with 15 gems of Dutch origin. The Dutch premiere
of On/Off nos désorders by Pierre Yves Cruaud (F) in which he gives a
personal reflection upon growing up without a war.
The Market with Kunstenaars&co and Trans Artists is also housed here
for practical questions about the field of work and staying abroad. The
Pitch, in which the latest group of Young Talent explain their work and
motivations for an audience and will be taking questions. And the first
Frisian Pecha Kucha by the Nieuwe Garde Leeuwarden, the Japanese
presentation stage for everyone.

SATELLITE LOCATIONS
The Fries Museum hosts the solo exhibition Spotlight ‘Landscape of
human exhistance’ by Max Hattler (GER/UK); He examines the mystical
space between telling stories in an abstract and figurative manner.

VHDG shows ‘Acsoss the channel’, an exhibition with the English Tank.tv
and Singleshotvideo.

Spotlight LANDED by German filmmaker Telemach Wiesinger can be seen in
Museum Smallingerland, with the poetical landscape films LANDED (RE
EDITION 2006) and the premiere of his latest film 3x1. Galerie Sign
shows the 10 nominations for the International Student Media Art
Festival Award.

Xperience, the multimedia event, consists of workshops, presentations
and demonstrations in Amicitia by day, and shows and performances in
058Podium by night. With Eric Ross (USA), famous for his experimental
music with the Theremin (the first electronic musical instrument,
devised in 1919) and Mary Ross (USA), who have worked together for over
30 years, and video performances. TEAM WORK AWARD winners Andreas Gogol
and Telemach Wiesinger (GER) with unique filmperformances LANDED TAKES
& SOUND TIMES, Nils Muehlenbruch (NL) - Bits & Pieces with urban
animations. Max Hattler veejays with sound and images to the lifestyle
and music of his father. Jean Parlette is a quartet that plays live to
samples based on the folktronica of Jos Blomsma. And last but not
least, electronic dancemusic ‘Fusion Cooking’:
After more that 10 years DJ a Door aka Rico S. returns to the place
where he once began his dj career: Leeuwarden.

Come for inspirations, come to make contacts and come to share and do.
Media Art Festival 07 offers you a glimpse into the world of media art.
Enrich yourself with fresh innovations and let your creative
imaginations run free!

For more information visit the website www.mediaartfriesland.nl

Enclosed you will find a summarized press release.

We hope to welcome you.
On behalf of Media Art,
Nadine Bors and Geebie Keyzer

Postal address:
F.D.Nieuwenhuisstraat 53
8862 WC Harlingen

Visiting address:
Amicitia
Nieuweweg 1a
8911 LK Leeuwarden
o: +31 (0)58 2155204
m: +31 (0)6 14301304
info AT mediaartfriesland.nl
www.mediaartfriesland.nl

+ -- --
| interlinking of media
| practice with gender related issues
http://zurwehme.org/
http://www.myspace.com/beatezurwehme

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

8.

From: Max Herman <maxnmherman AT hotmail.com>, Lee Wells <lee AT leewells.org>, Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum AT ucsd.edu>, Pall Thayer <pallthay AT gmail.com>, Rob Myers <rob AT robmyers.org>, mez breeze <netwurker AT gmail.com>, Jim Andrews <jim AT vispo.com>
Date: Sep 9-12, 2007
Subject: A New Art-Historical Period: Networkism

+ Max Herman posted: +

I have just gotten back from a vacation and wanted to get back on the list
until the end of the conference. I am not sure where we left off regarding
the less discussion-oriented state of the rhizome raw list since 2000-2004
and other topics. These are of course good topics but they won't always be
in the foreground. Oftentimes it's OK to switch to other topics.

I believe that one explanation of many of the recent topics is that we are
in a new art-historical period as of, say, 1998 because of computer
networks. This period I would propose to be most properly called
"Networkism."

This would be analogous to "Modernism" which can be said to have started in
1898 or Romanticism which started in 1798 with the publication of the
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth. The Preface is
discussed in my project for this year's Genius 2000 Conference at my
website.

If the above is true, we are in a new art-historical period which is not
widely acknowledged. Most people say we are still in Postmodernism i.e. the
Postmodern period. So, people disagree on that.

The disagreement on this can be because people sense that there isn't much
to say about the prior period, and it's getting awkward--an awkward silence
of sorts--but there's no defined new period and that also has people awkward
and worried.

In addition, there are all these new computer networks. Regardless of the
new-period question and related tension, they are a problem for art. That
new item in the blog about the center in Linz shows networks are an
aesthetic issue. But if Stallabrass is the one I knew from before who wrote
about "transgression," they might define the networks backward so to speak
into the Postmodernism setup. This is certainly the escape-velocity pull
affecting a new period regardless of what kind it is or when it has
occurred.

(Since typing the above I can confirm that he is not the "Peter Stallybrass"
who wrote about transgression. That was very popular when I was in
academics and I thought that it was overrated. Rather he is Julian
Stallabrass, who states online that he likes Benjamin and Adorno which as
you can see are often quoted in Genius 2000. However he may be more
left-leaning than myself, I can't say for sure. Lastly he works at the
Courtauld Institute, the collection of which includes the painting Le Lac
D'Annecy, which I also cited in my essay for the conference this year.
Therefore I am not necessarily against this new center in Linz.)

Finally, a big new change has occurred in the military-industrial or
military-technological environment which could be called World War IV or the
Second Cold War. This can be said to be be oriented around the pursuit by
the U.S. of a "one superpower option" as per the 2004 book by James Mann
called "Rise of the Vulcans." Such a development certainly causes more
danger and stress and makes even art-historical questions more tense,
complicated, and risky.

My personal take on all of this is that the O.S.O. is the best of many
difficult options. Therefore it should be given the benefit of the doubt
rather than rejected in a reckless way. The computers I think have
superficial impacts on art history but also substantive impacts and the key
goal is to have a good effect on the latter rather than blather about the
former. Mr. Stallabrass and the new center in Linz may be a great move in
this direction and toward High Networkism.

And, due to all of this we are in fact in a new art-historical period most
properly called Networkism or the Network Period.

Branching off from this would be many worthwhile topics such as how to make
good art or engage in good aesthetic behavior during the period, given its
character or as Shakespeare said "the form and pressure of the time."

I would also think that to understand this period you have to understand
that not everything becomes a rhizome just because of the internet, you
still have arborescent structures which in fact make the rhizomatic
structures possible (to hearken back to a prior topic). I.e. it is not a
homogeneous gruel.

I accept however that this is by far the minority opinion and I'm not going
to blame Rhizome Raw or the government or whoever for that obvious and you
might say inevitable fact. Indeed you might say such considerations are
very proper and amazingly right.

Therefore I would propose to discuss the above or other issues that may be
related.


+ Lee Wells replied: +

I don't think this Networkism thing is going to stick but go for it.
Isn't the whole ism thing is dead anyway. Maybe it should be Ismism if we
are to continue the nonsense. (see http://www.ismism.com/ ) But that was so
last century... right? I do think you are onto something though but I
believe it goes way beyond that. Humanity has entered into a new period in
history perhaps better defined by the term Meta. The key question in the art
sense anyway would be; Have we left modernism completely or is this just
stage two? Did postmodernism never brake free? Conceptual pullet-proof glass
ceiling scenario. Who needs bullets when we have consumer grade lasers.

The situation will always be different as long as time plays a part in the
equation.

I do like the fact that you are bold enough (as you have always been) to
throw something out there but the concept of a network is nothing new. Its
just getting a little bit more media hype these days. I mean the brain is a
network and scientist know that, but the fun part is that they don't
understand it completely YET..... Humanity/culture has just discovered a new
and interesting way to think about it. The computer and the recent
advent/inventions of new medias such as mobile phones, internet,
collaboration toolkits and web 2.0 social network portals basically just
speeds up the process for everyone from point a to point b. Connecting the
dots has never been easier. I still can't wait until they figure out this
whole real-time thing....

But since we are throwing ideas into the soup I have been a fan since the
late 90's of the basic concepts behind the term Meta. I think it qualifies
well by itself and does help define certain characteristics and traits of
the contemporary early 21 century (post 911 era) The year 2000 still sits on
the cusp, 911 and the terror war pushed/accelerated things over the edge and
forced the change upon the world. The convergence is here and we have no
choice but to deal with it. ***** See textbook definitions below *****

I can also get all hippy and say we have fully entered the Age of Aquarius,
the new 2000 year cycle. Which relates well with Meta too. The key phrase
for Aquarius is "I Know," but that knowledge is not a righteous, superior or
exclusionary knowledge. It's a sort of wisdom that draws people together,
for Aquarians are, above all else, social animals. They crave interaction
with large groups of people, thriving in humanitarian and social causes and
in any situation where collective thought, innovation and cooperation are
required. They tend to be eccentric and disdainful of tradition and -- while
they love magic and believe in the esoteric arts -- prefer to discover
knowledge through scientific experimentation and exploration.

......It is kind of magic that we can communicate through cell phones and
surf the web in the park. Something that we were only getting a small taste
of 10 years ago. I don't think culture will have a clear understanding of
what's really going on presently until around 2012 and 2025. It will be
interesting to see if some pr firm and a media savvy artist/critic/historian
will be able to secure the defining ism of the early 21st century. I guess
we have to wait and see. I think the best way would be to pay reasonable
sums of money to a small handful of art historians, academics, critics, and
curators to promote the idea in their books and public lectures. I hear they
are easier then the politicians to get on the payroll.......


+ Brett Stalbaum replied: +

I've always been curious about the assumptive privileging of one
abstraction layer over another... What about databasism (after all, the
internet is itself - the IP part of TCP-IP = a distributed hierarchical
database, as is fundamentally the http protocol), or GUIism or (least
elegantly) "business-logicism" or perhaps "algorithmicism"? Or if we
must focus on the one layer, then would formalist network art practice
be TCP-IPism, while in net art - which might most closely map to some
notion of networkism - we can see that it at least once assumed that the
communication layer of the newly available technology (well, new to the
consumers) had unique and exploitable congruences with conceptual art
ideas such as social sculpture? So I guess we could use the greater
mouthful theory here and say something like "computationally mediated
social communicationism" or even just get it over with by using
"computationally mediated social sculpture". The latter two if only to
distinguish net art or networkism from mail art, which was really the
same kind of hierarchical addressing system art transporting
communications, but with a quite different transport layer.

But all that said, as a materialist with some interest characterizing
the same shift that Max senses (I strongly agree with him on this) I
prefer to keep my analysis closer to the base than networkism alone
would seem to allow.
(http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol4_No4_freerad_afterlandart_stalbaum.htm)
Maybe all of this semanticism trying to describe what elsewhere has been
called the N-state following the postmodern can be analyzed in an other
way, as in, databasism as interested in the material foundations and
material consequences of the medium, networkism interested in the social
(Web 2.0 and "social software", anyone?), leaving GUIism (or Pixelism
perhaps?) for the aesthetes to argue about? Or maybe we will more or
less abandon these isms when it becomes clear that they were an
entertaining but increasingly irrelevant intellectual artifact of the
abundant energy resources available during the cheap oil era. (In which
case a few special people will still plunk away at keyboards and squint
at the few remaining screens looking for news that rice is being
delivered to the neighborhood - after which the town crier will be
notified and the word spread...)


+ Max Herman replied: +

Hi Lee,

You bring up some interesting points and I will respond in detail later this
evening. At first glance I believe that Networkism properly understood
addresses all of the objections you cite below.

It also seems to me that Networkism will have to be created and developed
mainly outside the academy (like Wordsworth and Groote) and established art
circles for several reasons including inertia, time pressure, and
creativity. In this it will resemble Romanticism mainly and Modernism
somewhat less.

Therefore the work of defining the new Network Period is especially relevant
to Rhizome and Rhizome Raw and is in my view the true goal of the "social
sculpture" that Curt mentioned earlier viz. Mark Tribe and Joseph Beuys.


+ Max Herman added: +

Awesome post Brett, I sure do miss these educational postings and replies.
I will also reply to this one in detail later if I can finish my laundry,
groceries, and homework.

Not sure if you are still in touch with Lisa Jevbratt but she had a diagram
which I think would be a major reference element in "my version" of
Networkism. She presented it at a SJSU talk I went to in 1999 or so. It
defined the author-text-reader process differently than the
poststructuralist/postmodern way, and in a way I thought agreed very
usefully with the more substantial literary implications and challenges of
the Network Period.

Recall "the Eternal Network" which was a mail-art project long before the PC
internet. Also the "Approaching Abstraction" theme of Ars this year shows I
think that the issue is the ideas or thinking (genius) and the techware, not
just the techware. If you have more info on Lev's panel that would interest
me re this too.

So I affirmatively agree--the network has many elements, ingredients,
factors, and a lot of history too, and one doesn't want to mangle any of the
evidence and thereby spite the investigation. Hence a big big
umbrella-period, Networkism.

Or by whatever name, the new period has a great lot of information,
currents, and material to address--much new, much old--which is why the
prior period is less suited (arguably). The new one is tasked notably or
even first with some level of integration,
making-sense-out-of-without-reducing, processing the material. I heard this
also relates to current business and science apps trying "to make all the
vast amount of data usable."


+ Pall Thayer replied: +

I don't think "Approaching Abstraction" is a theme for this year's Ars
Electronica. They wouldn't be caught dead using a theme like that.
You're not allowed to talk about abstraction in art anymore, except as
an art historical reference. You're not allowed to talk about isms
either unless you're talking about the end of postmodernism.

Aside from all that, isn't it equally important to examine how artists
work with the network's "elements, ingredients, factors and history?"


+ Max Herman replied: +

I saw that phrase in the Front Page area, is that called the Reblog area?
In any event "network" is both something concrete and an abstraction (an
idea, like "triangle" or "imaginary number") it seems. I thought the phrase
meant "we are moving toward the network as an idea whereas previously we
thought of it mainly as a concrete material." I'll check this some more,
and we can also ask the Reblogger!

So, it is definitely important to see how artists work with the "elements,
ingredients, factors and history" of networks and this "working with"
involves perforce ideas, thinking, approaching, and abstraction. Perhaps
I'm misusing the word abstraction but the dictionary says it means

abstraction definition
n.
1.
a. The act of abstracting or the state of having been abstracted.
b. An abstract concept, idea, or term.
c. An abstract quality.
2. Preoccupation; absent-mindedness.
3. An abstract work of art.
abstraction synonyms
noun
The condition of being so lost in solitary thought as to be unaware of one's
surroundings: absent-mindedness, bemusement, brown study, daydreaming,
muse2, reverie, study, trance. See awareness

Also by way of example, we can look at the new Viking excavation from 800
a.d. Looking at that we would look at the transportation network (the
boats) and then also the ideas and thoughts about their network existence
and their roles in it that the people using the boats had. In this manner
study of ancient and medieval times are completely relevant and very
valuable in how we think about networks today and for the future, danger and
opportunities, mundane work, beauty, virtue, etc.

Networkism also means looking at the past (such as Rembrandt's Lucretia or
paintings of St. Francis of Assisi by Caravaggio and Giotto) in a new way,
emphasizing different elements or factors, seeing and actively making
different organized associations on purpose.

Also Pall, some places (like here) it seems just fine to talk about
abstraction. Those places where such things are allowed or disallowed are
much less creative and more hidebound. Not likely to define a new period by
any means, due to exactly that foolish kind of herd convention which is
itself a very mannered artificial activity.

As to "isms," that's a prejudicial term which suggests a paucity of decent
frameworks. The old frame is very tired and works poorly but it's the only
one so people prefer to avoid discussing it and are ashamed of it even
though they still use it like crazy. That's a good indicator a new frame is
needed, recommended, and desirable. It also explains the reluctance and
ossification, arguably.

Let's also remember that the nineteenth century ended in the Decadent
Period, exemplified by Oscar Wilde pand others, in which frames of thinking
were viewed very skeptically. It was kind of a fallow period after which
Modernism came up. I think there is an analogy here to the 1990's and the
first decade of the twenty-first century to the Decadent Period, i.e., it's
after Postmodernism (analogous to Neoclassicism and Victorianism) but before
Networkism (analogous to Romanticism and Modernism).

And not being "allowed" to talk about something quite harmless, that's just
kooky and definitely definitely why I left the academic world. It makes a
terrible setting for innovation.


+ Rob Myers < replied: +

Pall Thayer wrote:
> You're not allowed to talk about abstraction in art anymore, except as
> an art historical reference.

You're not? But what about the market? The market is a massive
abstraction, the economic-aesthetic equivalent of a hedge fund market.

> You're not allowed to talk about isms
> either unless you're talking about the end of postmodernism.

It's all neoconceptualism now.

> Aside from all that, isn't it equally important to examine how artists
> work with the network's "elements, ingredients, factors and history?"

Ah, Relational Art (or managerialism as it's called outside of art).


+ Pall Thayer replied: +

> > Aside from all that, isn't it equally important to examine how artists
> > work with the network's "elements, ingredients, factors and history?"
>
> Ah, Relational Art (or managerialism as it's called outside of art).

Good thing you didn't call it "Relational-ISM." On a slightly more
serious note, what I was referring to was the methods used by artists
to work with the Internet's elements, ingredients, etc... i.e.
programming code.

But given that you have pointed out all of these isms, I suggest we
consider a combination of Brett's and your notions and go with
"neo-computationally mediated social conceptualism".


+ Max Herman replied: +

Dear Anonymous,

I don't think it's half so cloak and dagger as you make it sound. Of course
there is a veritable ocean of poison and danger but everyone on the street
and their brother knows that. The goal is to keep making
aesthetic-evolutionary progress while keeping safe. This requires a proper
contemplation of the O.S.O. and its necessity as well as forgiveness, the
Eumenides, proper discretion, and many other serious issues.

If you want a concise summary of some of my views on this and how they
relate to Networkism please check
www.geocities.com/genius-2000/PoliticalAesthetics.html. In fact,
Networkism--high Networkism, not the claptrap kind--is exactly about how to
continue and preserve aesthetic evolution given the extreme, extreme dangers
facing everything in the Network Period. It's not "connect to X for instant
Utopia" or "a world without borders or boundaries."

>Don't forget the worms are possibly poisonous and your handing them out to
>everyone you meet on the street.


+ Max Herman added: +

Intermittent reply below:

>From: Lee Wells <lee AT leewells.org>
>To: Max Herman <maxnmherman AT hotmail.com>,Rhizome <list AT rhizome.org>
>Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: A New Art-Historical Period: Networkism
>Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:36:39 -0400
>
>Hi Max:
>Nice to see you back on the list. I cannot believe that geocities is still
>around.
>
>I don't think this Networkism thing is going to stick but go for it.
>Isn't the whole ism thing is dead anyway. Maybe it should be Ismism if we
>are to continue the nonsense. (see http://www.ismism.com/ ) But that was so
>last century... right?

Well, the "ism" problem is definitely a problem. However, you could of
course just say "the name of the new period is 'the Network Period' and it
has certain ideas, themes, priciples, &c. associated with it." So having
particular primary themes or ideas correlating to a period with particular
characteristics and problems, I don't see that as an arbitrary and hence
counterproductive "ism," empty ideological posturing, etc., necessarily.
Though it certainly could devolve into that. Perhaps using the suffix is a
respectable way to say "caveat emptor."

I do think you are onto something though but I
>believe it goes way beyond that. Humanity has entered into a new period in
>history perhaps better defined by the term Meta.

I'm not familiar with this term or its use regarding the current
art-historical period or art-history in general.

The key question in the art
>sense anyway would be; Have we left modernism completely or is this just
>stage two? Did postmodernism never brake free? Conceptual pullet-proof
>glass
>ceiling scenario. Who needs bullets when we have consumer grade lasers.

I don't think that the modern age, in the sense of ancient/medieval/modern,
is over yet. Some aspects of Modernism proper I think have been found
unworkable or improvable. Postmodernism is really just counter- or
end-modernism or the denouement of Modernism, so it could not break free of
Modernism by definition.

Modernism the art-historical period has ended, but the modern
(post-medieval) age is still going and Networkism is (I'm arguing) the next
logical and necessary art-historical period within it. The modern age won't
end I don't think until we get a "planetary civilization" to use Michio
Kaku's term. I think Networkism will help us to get there in the best
possible condition.

>
>The situation will always be different as long as time plays a part in the
>equation.
>
>I do like the fact that you are bold enough (as you have always been) to
>throw something out there but the concept of a network is nothing new. Its
>just getting a little bit more media hype these days. I mean the brain is a
>network and scientist know that, but the fun part is that they don't
>understand it completely YET..... Humanity/culture has just discovered a
>new
>and interesting way to think about it. The computer and the recent
>advent/inventions of new medias such as mobile phones, internet,
>collaboration toolkits and web 2.0 social network portals basically just
>speeds up the process for everyone from point a to point b. Connecting the
>dots has never been easier. I still can't wait until they figure out this
>whole real-time thing....

I think the fact that networks are not new, but are wreaking such havoc on
us now, is what makes them such fascinating subjects and ample material to
warrant a full one-century art-historical exploration. I think every past
society has had to address the issue of the network. Ideals of beauty and
virtue are interwoven with network ideas all the way back to cave-dwelling
times and even pre-human species. This universality makes networks far from
played out or trivial. It makes them the basis of "a new kind of art," to
paraphrase Stephen Wolfram's "a new kind of science."

>
>But since we are throwing ideas into the soup I have been a fan since the
>late 90's of the basic concepts behind the term Meta. I think it qualifies
>well by itself and does help define certain characteristics and traits of
>the contemporary early 21 century (post 911 era) The year 2000 still sits
>on
>the cusp, 911 and the terror war pushed/accelerated things over the edge
>and
>forced the change upon the world. The convergence is here and we have no
>choice but to deal with it. ***** See textbook definitions below *****

I'll have to note these as I refer to them below.

>
>I can also get all hippy and say we have fully entered the Age of Aquarius,
>the new 2000 year cycle.

The poet William Butler Yeats also saw history going in 2000-year cycles,
positing the Greek, the Christian, and the whatever-we're-in-now one. There
are lots of interesting historical-cycle theories and Networkism does not
preclude any of them a priori, because network phenomenon are in no way
exclusive of cyclical phenomena. On the contrary, networks are very
cyclical in their behavior over time.

Which relates well with Meta too. The key phrase
>for Aquarius is "I Know," but that knowledge is not a righteous, superior
>or
>exclusionary knowledge. It's a sort of wisdom that draws people together,
>for Aquarians are, above all else, social animals. They crave interaction
>with large groups of people, thriving in humanitarian and social causes and
>in any situation where collective thought, innovation and cooperation are
>required. They tend to be eccentric and disdainful of tradition and --
>while
>they love magic and believe in the esoteric arts -- prefer to discover
>knowledge through scientific experimentation and exploration.

Sounds good! I'm not very knowledgeable about the Zodiac however. But it
definitely sounds like the Aquarians love networks.

>
>......It is kind of magic that we can communicate through cell phones and
>surf the web in the park.

I don't see it as that as magical. The meaning of technology depends upon
what you use it for.

Something that we were only getting a small taste
>of 10 years ago. I don't think culture will have a clear understanding of
>what's really going on presently until around 2012 and 2025. It will be
>interesting to see if some pr firm and a media savvy
>artist/critic/historian
>will be able to secure the defining ism of the early 21st century. I guess
>we have to wait and see.

To be sure history and later times will have their assessment to make. Yet
that does not mean we cannot propose things to do in the present or make art
in the present. After all, what will they have to look back on if no one
makes any art-choices on purpose now? And, how will they be able to propose
what something now means if they have no take of their own on what 2012 or
2025 means? I like how Shakespeare and Cezanne did take the guts to assert
what their presents meant. That's part of making art.

I think the best way would be to pay reasonable
>sums of money to a small handful of art historians, academics, critics, and
>curators to promote the idea in their books and public lectures. I hear
>they
>are easier then the politicians to get on the payroll.......

I don't have any extra money to hire people to work on Networkism, so I'm
just working on it myself. When a new art-historical period comes along
there's no money in it at first.

>From: Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum AT ucsd.edu>
>Reply-To: Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum AT ucsd.edu>
>To: list AT rhizome.org
>Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: A New Art-Historical Period: Networkism
>Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:15:32 -0700
>
>I've always been curious about the assumptive privileging of one
>abstraction layer over another... What about databasism (after all, the
>internet is itself - the IP part of TCP-IP = a distributed hierarchical
>database, as is fundamentally the http protocol), or GUIism or (least
>elegantly) "business-logicism" or perhaps "algorithmicism"? Or if we must
>focus on the one layer, then would formalist network art practice be
>TCP-IPism, while in net art - which might most closely map to some notion
>of networkism - we can see that it at least once assumed that the
>communication layer of the newly available technology (well, new to the
>consumers) had unique and exploitable congruences with conceptual art ideas
>such as social sculpture? So I guess we could use the greater mouthful
>theory here and say something like "computationally mediated social
>communicationism" or even just get it over with by using "computationally
>mediated social sculpture".

I guess I'd have to say the big umbrella applies. Networks are
heterogeneous in space and time. They are neither all arborescent nor all
rhizomatic. They consist of populations of individuals, and take their
characteristics from both individual and population dynamics. I don't think
they necessarily have to involve computers or even wires. They can be (and
I think first started for humans as) eye and voice signals moving human to
human on the actual physical air, analog.

The latter two if only
>to distinguish net art or networkism from mail art, which was really the
>same kind of hierarchical addressing system art transporting
>communications, but with a quite different transport layer.

I could never get an understanding of what net art was, except that G2K
perhaps wasn't it. In any case, I'd say there are many genres of art within
the period of Networkism, including mail art, painting, lounge dancing, and
performance karate. Pre-computer societies are definitely relevant because
they had networks too. One of my favorite examples is the subscription and
delivery-by-horse-drawn-wagon network that carried the first novels as
"packets" to people distributed across the countryside. As to major
upheavals etc., that and newspapers caused a lot of issues as they were big
"jumps" in human network activity. Even the big old temples and pyramids
were a network--database heavy, slow, physically centralized and strict with
permissions.

>
>But all that said, as a materialist with some interest characterizing the
>same shift that Max senses (I strongly agree with him on this) I prefer to
>keep my analysis closer to the base than networkism alone would seem to
>allow.

I think that a very very wide diversity of work would be possible under
Networkism even if it was an enforcement concept, which it isn't. It's
really a hypothetical-directional concept i.e. a heuristic. That relates to
computers too I think and I bet even what Curt said about Venn. And, as a
full-scale art-historical period it would have to be explored as it relates
to business, psychotherapy, gardening, tourism, parenting, civic design, you
name it, just like Modernism and Romanticism were. Let us not forget either
that the U.S. military is pursuing a transformation (oft cited) to a network
model. Networks are "the primary given condition" of our new century and
art is bound to reflect that in one way or another, and by whatever name one
might choose. I find it interesting that former times were not by any means
devoid of network characteristics and are therefore far from useless or
unbeautiful from our vantage point today.

>(http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol4_No4_freerad_afterlandart_stalbaum.htm)
>Maybe all of this semanticism trying to describe what elsewhere has been
>called the N-state

I'm quite interested in this idea of the N-state. Do you know of a URL
reference?

following the postmodern can be analyzed in
>an other way, as in, databasism as interested in the material foundations
>and material consequences of the medium, networkism interested in the
>social (Web 2.0 and "social software", anyone?),

This is one area I personally wish to clarify in my own work and am working
on currently. Networkism is not a glorification of "connectedness" per se.
It's just as much about being on the lookout for tawdry or superficial or
even sociopathic network behavior. By my sense of it Networkism would also
comprehend (or certainly should) databasism and material questions. Hence
the distinction between High and Low Networkism is quite necessary, though
kitschphobia is far from desirable.

>leaving GUIism (or Pixelism perhaps?) for the aesthetes to argue about? Or
>maybe we will more or less abandon these isms when it becomes clear that
>they were an entertaining but increasingly irrelevant intellectual artifact
>of the abundant energy resources available during the cheap oil era.

Culture is far from irrelevant and will not be irrelevant in the future.
"Culture" is the contemporary or modern counterpart of the polis. It's what
people live in. But yes we may all be headed on the fast track to Soylent
Green. Have you read Das Glasperlenspiel? NN used to mention it all the
time. The main character was gradually convinced he had to leave the ivory
tower and engage the outside world because of massive military meltdown.
Kind of like little Frodo Baggins and many other heroes of fairylands far
away.

Yet schadenfreude is not necessarily the most virtuous task to set one's
self. I think Networkism can help to fix some of the big problems you
allude to if done right. Or to put it another way, any art-historical
period which did happen to help the big problems out there by means of
aesthetic evolution would have to deal primarily with "the problem of the
network," and the most responsible thing to do now is to focus and that and
get to work. Without upsetting the apple cart.


+ Max Herman added: +

One way of relating Networkism to art of the past, present, and future is by
means of the prevalent usage of heroism, heroic cycles, and related forms.
For example, the tragic hero in ancient drama plays a particular in the
network of the classical polis. The chorus, dramatist, audience, and judges
also play a special role. The hero becomes a special location for a special
kind of information, and the heroic cycle interacts with other network
cycles.

Over time, heroic roles shifted, for example to various types of persons or
to the author or artist personally. Divine roles are also related to heroic
roles and thus also have a network function.

Heroism is a way of emphasizing information and amplifying its effect within
a network. One could also call it a way of emphasizing or defining certain
types of information by type or location. Further, it reflects a place
where cycles and processes of development can take place within the
individual and within the polis, culture, state, or network.

Hence when DuChamp for example dealt with the issue of an artist signing an
artwork, he can very usefully be thought of as addressing network and heroic
issues. Or in the stories surrounding Heracles in ancient Greek myth,
network processes and principles are defined, articulated, and shared.

Networkism then becomes a way to evaluate and understand heroism, heroic
cycles, and related phenomena in the past, present, and future. It is not
just about computer hardware and software, though it most certainly can deal
with those as well. Economics, science, biology, physics, neuroscience,
religion, and many other spheres and disciplines have similar relationships
to networks.

Postmodernism I would argue has a less valuable, nuanced, and capable method
for interpreting heroism and is therefore less interesting and productive
than Networkism in the current time.

Also, the "hero" is the focus of attention, expression, or activity.
Therefore if the focus is on the purchaser or the gallery owner or somebody,
that person is the "hero" within the system and the motive of the aesthetic
patterning. The character of the information represented by the hero is
amplified out into the rest of the network, shaping or influencing it and
thereby carrying out the aesthetic evolution (for good or ill) of the
culture or population-network.

So again when DuChamp signed the urinal the "hero" role was switched from
the object to the signer of the object. In medieval art, by contrast, the
artist was very anonymous and the heroic role was played by the art object
itself and still moreso by the divine order to which it pointed.

Observing this relation of the hero to the network allows a very great deal
of past and present art to be understood clearly and newly articulated by
Networkism in a variety of good ways.


+ Pall Thayer replied: +

I like this notion of the "hero." It's interesting. But wouldn't it
make sense to say that after Modernism the "hero" begins to fade or
perhaps that the "heroic" becomes somewhat distributed? I'll agree
that Duchamp's signature becomes the hero in the case of the urinal
but what about Sol Lewitt's wall paintings? Is the hero the one who
composes the instructions or the one who follows them? In generative,
interactive work is the hero the one who composes "the system" or
those who contribute to and essentially feed the work, maintaining its
existence?


+ mez breeze replied: +

On 9/12/07, Pall Thayer <pallthay AT gmail.com> wrote:
> I like this notion of the "hero." It's interesting. But wouldn't it
> make sense to say that after Modernism the "hero" begins to fade or
> perhaps that the "heroic" becomes somewhat distributed?

re: this comment and the concept of networkism in general, find my new
theory twitter stream condensed in2 linearity...

4rm the netwurker herself,
][mez][

--

_Reality Mapping: Navigating the Social-Nodes_

Web 2.0 is based on a collusive tapestry of adjoining social nodes.
Social Networks such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Orkut, Liveleak,
YouTube, Twitter and Pownce aren't prefaced on pre-set connotative
connections maintained through historicized emotional depth or
satisfied by biological drives. Friends aren't friends as we have come
to know them: there is no establishment of shared geophysical
experiences, no cathartic or chronologically defined friendship
markers evident. What's important is [inter]action and the quantity of
it - the residual volume of contact and the fact of shared connection
minus a meatbody context. Identity is constructed in these friendship
pathways via the idea of notations; of naming labels, of icon
attribution, and of clustered info-snippets streamlined through an
interface designed for momentary persona snapshots.

_Distributed Identity Compensation_

In digitized social networks there is no place for psychologically
defined notions of personality as a cohesive, definable whole.
Identity manifests through notational distributions found in multiple
profiles across various platforms. Ego-mediated variables are replaced
with actuated identity markers defined by the ability to establish
links to others likewise devoid of any traditional geophysical
baggage. For these articulated identities [now known as versionals]
connection is the vital point of communication; not the content, not
the geophysical inflection, not the biologically-saturated ties linked
to survival, competition, and traditional concrete community building.
This method of clustered distribution provokes a type of reality lag
found in capitalistic and ideologically frameworked nations; those
devoted to maintaining established notions of individuals definable by
consumerism and Darwinian drives, monetary wealth,
institution-adherence, and paranoid-inducing security.

_Versional Space-Walking_

Mobile technologies such as phones and other wireless tech-detritus
have likewise altered the nature of individualised space with
unwitting listeners in proximity switching to socially-mediated
communication channels. Private data is is now dispersed publically,
infiltrating individualised mono-access to private spheres and
rewriting them as open-ended versional noise. There is no definitive
narrative stream or beginning> middle>end but clusters of "incomplete"
identity snippets.

_Social Infowork: Versionals Don't Do Hollywood_

Contemporary entertainment models are significantly threatened by a
versional/distributed identity ethos. The proscribed linearities of
passive, individuated entertainment experiences [ie television, cinema
and literature] are being currently eroded via clustered peer2peer,
gamer-defined, remixed, mashedup copyright left content. Information
and work boundaries are collapsing. Pop-cultural lexicons are moving
towards a type of modulated system based on versional directed
traffic. Hollywood's kneejerk reaction is epitomized in their rush to
remake outmoded movie sequels and for tv networks to rehash content
dependent on narrative rite-of-passage tropes. The viewer investment
in following an unfolding plot and/or seeking a concrete meaning [ie
art/entertainment viewed as a purveyor of ritualised morality lessons]
has morphed via social networking into a focus on connective
experientiality.

_Doubling the Virtual: Decay of Real Reality_

Notions of a legitimate reality as defined by a grounded geophysical
state are altering. Base biological data is being mined and mapped as
a potential infostream to harvest and alter [ think: the potential
FLOSS utilization of the mapping of the human genome]. Google
Earth/Maps/Streetview software exposes geography as an infowork
entertainment stream.Versional operation in social networks and avatar
use in virtual worlds such as Second Life and MMOGs also contribute to
this shift. One such example is a double-virtual layered reality
presented in aspects of the MMOG World of Warcraft in the Caverns of
Time instance "Old Hillsbrad". When entering the instance, each
character involved is transported to a parallel reality version of an
area of the game they have previously [and probably extensively]
encountered. The primary game reality is replaced by a secondary
reality, complete with altered gameworld parameters such as
substantial differences in topography. The avatars themselves
shapeshift in order to reflect the relevant aspect of game lore with
each "toon" displaying now as a human. In these manifestations,
ego-stitched/physical reality and identity concepts are bifurcated
through multiple projections - there is no "real" reality concept
emphasized.

_Credibility Busting: Citizen Media For The Win_

Institutionalised information facets that are currently viewed as
"factual" are not immune to the versional effect. Canonized
distributions embodying previously established credibility markers
such as scientific methodology>evidence>history-as-truth are being
repulsed to encourage more elastic variations on present non-credible
information sources like Wikipedia, who draw on constantly changing
data sources. Versionals, being post-[singular]identities, act to
obfuscate regular information hierarchies and rewrite "credible"
information source-points via blogging, wiki creation, photo
aggregationism, p2p file sharing, textual moment-capture and
info-flagging [microblogging, instant messaging, tagging, social
bookmarking], video snippeting, and identity diffusion. Versionals are
the new cultural black.


+ Max Herman replied: +

Those are very good questions Pall and thanks for the kind reception of the
hero idea. I had that first in 1993, well before G2K and Networkism. I
first noticed in the study of Greek tragedy as in this paper at
http://www.geocities.com/genius-2000/HandOPaperWord5.html :

'The convention of heroism is one of the most ancient and widespread
literary methods through which human experience is transformed into
literature. In a very literal sense, Hamlet and Oedipus both “become”
literature. This is of course in the obvious sense that they are central
components of the plays in which they appear; it is also the case in how
they function within the context of the plays themselves. At Hamlet’s
death, he pleads with Horatio to

“Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain

To tell my story...” (5.2.349-51).

'In this way, Hamlet’s life, though it ends in tragedy, becomes a story
providing instruction and guidance to Denmark for the future. In the same
way, Hamlet becomes, as a literary hero, a source of instruction for those
of us who read his story as Shakespeare (not Horatio) told it.

'Oedipus also becomes a living example for the people of Thebes. The chorus
says it will “lull myself to sleep with your name” (T:ll. 1222-23), and
“There is much to ask and much to learn and much to see” (T:ll. 1304-5).'

So I see the changes of how heroism works all through history. You might
say that in ancient Egypt the Pharoah was the hero or "central actor."

As to Sol Dewitt, I'm not very familiar with his work. In a lot of the
"direction-writing" art pieces I think that the artist is the hero, although
there is a definite element or reference to the participants being the hero.
This is more often considered as a question of authorship however, I
think. Sometimes it's referred to as the "center," as I recently heard
Richard Serra say about his art--the person walking through the sculpture
becomes the center, or words to that effect.

So it's complicated but definitely interesting. Also postmodernism had
perhaps a simpler row to hoe by alluding to unclear "centers of authorship"
because this take on things paradoxically results in a very solidifying
effect on the object. I.e. new criticism wanted to only look at the poem
itself, so they eschewed biographical details. Postmodernism wanted to
fragment the text too, but by also fragmenting the author they ended up with
a big "blob-text" which still retained all of its mystery and pre-eminence!
So it was sort of a switcheroo.

Just to sum up I believe this is all caused in part--Modernism and
Postmodernism are caused in part--by both the tremendous dangers and
challenges of looking at aesthetic evolution as a network phenomenon, and
the fact that prior to them all of the aesthetic meaning was centered in the
objects (i.e. the objects were the network, the infrastructure was the
people walking around to look at them/read them).

Another minor item I wanted to include as it relates to Adorno and
Horkheimer, who Julian Stallabrass references, as they are mentioned in my
book of 2005 "Genius 2000: A New Network." It does relate to some of the
heroism issue too, in the sense that on one level the artist is the hero in
a lot of ways.

Heroism is frankly about the learning process and development or evolution
process within a network setting, i.e. in a setting composed of lots of free
individuals interacting. The hero does stuff or says stuff and the chorus
and audience learn, absorb, contemplate, and then reciprocally react in some
way through their own activity as free individuals.


909.
Is Adorno and Horkheimer's short book Dialectic of Enlightenment incredibly
important to G2K?

It's focal. I had inklings of the critique of instrumental reason in 1993
when I wrote "Shakespeare's Ghost" and saw the inversions in heroic purpose,
the negative feedback looping that could occur. I looked up "plot" in the
dictionary, and also "Art." "Art" comes from the Indo-European "joint," as
in "arthritis." It also connects to arm, army, artist, and that is how I
got the essential idea of instrumentality, of a weapon--it's not an end in
itself. I got that idea from Hamlet in 1993. So it was early on.
"Literary Change" about the graven image and the Second Commandment was
1994. Both of these were key, one Athens and the other Jerusalem. I "got"
them both before reading Habermas' PPP or Adorno. But they confirmed it.
Instrumental reason, "art," regresses into self-enslavement, back to mythic
sacrifice, back to a wild state. I had all this by fall 1995, as you can
see in my papers from Syracuse.

http://us.share.geocities.com/genius-2000/bookfinal.html


+ Jim Andrews replied: +

much as i'm a fan of the internet, as brett pointed out, the term
'networkism' seems too limited to describe the phenomenon. 'computational
media' is not even broad enough, because it's not so much a matter of
digital media as computation. there is no proof, and probably never will be,
that there exist thought processes of which humans are capable and computers
are not. the significance of this is beyond a matter of media. computers are
not simply universal media machines.


+ Max Herman replied: +

Networkism is not primarily descriptive of what people are doing on the
internet and other computer networks. It is more prescriptive--how to make the best art to protect and foster aesthetic evolution under network conditions past, present, and future Network conditions would certainly exist without
the internet and existed even back in the time of sailing ships, railroads,
TV, VCRs, regular rotary dial phones, street markets, and so forth.

Thus, in my understanding Networkism would still be the current
art-historical period even if there were no computers or internet.
Modernism and Postmodernism could still have occurred and lost usefulness
(run their course, reached a point of diminishing returns) for aesthetic
evolution even if the internet were not up yet. Internetism could be
thought of as one form of Low Networkism.

As to computers thinking like humans, or the two being cognitively the same
or similar, I suppose that would be just as much a valid theme under
Networkism as it would under Postmodernism or N-state or what have you.

Just as Romanticism was both dissatisfied with current convention and aimed
to get back to the true essence (eternal essence) of poetry, true Networkism
views itself as a move away from contemporary mistakes or false paths and
back toward the best, truest, most beautiful meaning of art in all forms
(including poetry), i.e. the aesthetic evolution of humanity to its best
possible state of existence.

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

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Rhizome Digest is filtered by Marisa Olson (marisa AT rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 12, number 36. 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.

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