Ada_list August 2006

ada_list@list.waikato.ac.nz

36 participants
50 discussions

Fwd: Grow Your Own Media Lab - free workshops - Barrow

by Helen Varley Jamieson

not sure whether the medialab discussion is still going on out there but this might be relevant ... > >GROW YOUR OWN MEDIA LAB - FREE WORKSHOPS IN BARROW, CUMBRIA - STARTS >SEPTEMBER 9TH - PLACES STILL AVAILABLE > >Grow Your Own Media Lab is a trans-regional action research project >that aims to investigate, improve and document a low cost, >participatory, open source media lab model. > >folly is delivering a series of 5 GYOML workshops throughout >September-December at The Canteen Film Project, based in Northern >Riviera in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The workshops will give >participants the opportunity to work in a variety of computer-based >artistic disciplines under the guidance of some of the best-known >and well-respected artists working in the field. > >The Workshops will be led by 7 artists from the international collectives > >Openlab - http://www.pawfal.org/openlab/ >Goto10 - http://goto10.org/ >and dyne.org - http://www.dyne.org/ > >Session One: The introduction to dyne11 and puredyne, 9th September 2006 >Session Two: Realtime audiovisuals (Puredata/Gem), 30th September 2006 >Session Three: Realtime animation workshop (Fluxus), 21st October 2006 >Session Four: Building networked games with SVS, 11th November 2006 >Session Five: Home Studio (jack, ardour, weq24, hydrogen, wired...), >2nd December 2006 > >All workshops will run from 11am to 4.30pm at The Canteen in Barrow, Cumbria > >How to Get Involved: >The GYOML project is FREE to attend. For further information and to >book your place - contact Jennifer Stoddart, programme assistant at >E: >mailto:jennifer.stoddart@folly.co.uk T: 01524 388550 V: http://www.folly.co.uk -- ____________________________________________________________ helen varley jamieson: creative catalyst helen(a)creative-catalyst.com http://www.creative-catalyst.com http://www.avatarbodycollision.org http://www.upstage.org.nz http://www.writerfind.com/hjamieson.htm ____________________________________________________________

15 years, 1 month

Re: [Ada_list] [Ada_List] poly (vs apple)

by Melanie Swalwell

Michael, There was a news story in the Dom Post in May this year, with a photo of Neil Scott with a Poly. From memory he was in New Zealand to receive an honorary doctorate (at Canterbury?). It's gone off the stuff page, but a database search should bring it up. Mark Williams at NZFA spoke with him then, so you could try contacting him. Melanie VUW homepage http://www.vuw.ac.nz/seft/media-studies/staff/melanieswalwell.aspx "Cast-offs from the Golden Age" http://www.vectorsjournal.org/issues/03_issue/goldenage/recollection.php NZTronix, the blog http://www.nztronix.org.nz ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:22:46 -0700 From: michael(a)creationz.co.nz Subject: Re: [Ada_list] [Ada_List] poly (vs apple) To: ada_list(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Message-ID: <44f11e166dd3b_6a8a20175bcc1ae(a)ellipsis.tmail> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 I am on the trial of the Poly 1 computer. I came upon one at MOTAT and have chosen it for my Kiwi Nuggets series in PRODESiGN - so thanks for the leads in the discussion below. Have you found out any more since? I have some other leads to follow - my interest is the design of the box itself though the software story and commercial politics makes for greate context. Michael

15 years, 1 month

Re: [Ada_list] [Ada_List] FW: new Thames and Hudson digital art book,

by tim＠soundbite.co.nz

>A coffee table book about digital media?! Makes me think of 'dancing about >architecture'. Does either come with a DVD/CDROM and/or lots of links to >explore? i reserved it at the public library (wellington) & discovered a few new artists via it.... can't complain..... and yes I will return it soon! links to artists from the book are listed here: http://www.thamesandhudson.com/en/1/9780500238172.mxs?&&&

15 years, 1 month

phD positions in the Netherlands

by Sonja van Kerkhoff

-- phD positions in the Netherlands :) naku na, Sonja The Department of Philosophy of the University of Twente in the Netherlands is looking for Two Ph.D. Students (M/F, fulltime) Two PhD students for the international research project: Evaluating the Cultural Quality of New Media Towards a Philosophy of Human-Media Relations. Women are strongly encouraged to apply. The two PhD positions are part of a prestigious and exciting international research project in philosophy named "Evaluating the Cultural Quality of New Media". This five-year project, which will include five researchers and will involve collaboration with leading international scholars and research centres, has as its aim to develop a framework for better normative analyses of new media and new media culture, especially in relation to their contribution to the quality of life ("the good life") and the quality of society. Project leader is Dr. Philip Brey. Two postdocs have already been appointed to the project: dr. A. Briggle, PhD, University of Colorado and dr. E. Spence, PhD, Sydney University. The project will be part of a new international Centre of Excellence in Ethics and Technology of the departments of philosophy of Twente University, Delft University of Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology. Applications are accepted for three different projects: Ph.D Project 1 - The Quality of Virtual Environments and Tools This subproject aims to perform a philosophical analysis of the implications of the ever increasing virtualization for the quality of life and of society. Virtualization is defined as the digital production of interactive structures, whether graphical or symbolic, that mirror things and events in the physical world. What are the implications of this process for moral and social identity, embodiment, and conceptions of reality, and how can these implications be normatively evaluated? Ph.D. Project 2 - The Quality of Computer-Mediated Social Relations This subproject focuses on computer-mediated social relations and practices in friendships, love relationships, and community life. Increasingly, the social world is held together by electronic networks. More and more, communication, social relationships, and community formation take place over such networks. The aim of the project is to perform a philosophical analysis of the implications of this trend for the quality of life and of society. Ph.D. Project 3 - Societal Appraisals of the Cultural Quality of New Media This subproject will perform a study of appraisals of new media that are made by representatives of major ideologies or worldviews, with the aim of assessing how they relate to conceptions of the good life and the good society held by these ideologies. It will study liberal, communitarian, conservative, religious and postmaterialist evaluations of new media, and will try to assess which ideologies see themselves as winners and losers in the development of a new media culture. It will also provide critiques of current ideological stances on new media. Only the two best candidates out of all applicants will be offered a position. Selection will only be based on the quality of the candidate, and not on his or her preference for a particular project, except that the two PhD appointments will be for different projects. You may apply for more than one project if you wish. Profile For all three projects: a Master's degree or equivalent degree in philosophy, preferably including a good background in ethics or social and political philosophy. Consideration will also be given to candidates with a multidisciplinary Master's degree on a topic relevant to the project and some background in philosophy, and to exceptional candidates with only a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Demonstrable interest in philosophical issues relating to information technology and new media. Good analytical skills. Good communication skills in English, in writing as well as orally. Creativity, open-mindedness, and an ability to develop new ideas. Offer A four-year full-time Ph.D. position starting November 1, 2006. The gross salary is EUR 1.933,- in the first year going up to EUR 2.472,- in the fourth year (EUR 25.552,- and EUR 32.677,- per annum, respectively, including vacation pay). Each Ph.D. position comes with a budget of up to EUR 8,000,- for travel and conference attendance. Information and application A description of the overall project, the three subprojects and a FAQ can be retrieved from http://www.ceptes.nl/vici. Applicants are advised to read these texts carefully before applying. For questions not answered on the website you can contact the project leader, dr. Philip Brey (e-mail: p.a.e.brey(a)utwente.nl). Your application should contain the following documents: a letter of application which explains your interest in the position and explains your qualifications (this letter should contain some suggestions on how you would want to approach the project you apply for); a curriculum vitae which includes the name and e-mail address/telephone number of one of your professors, preferably the supervisor of your master's thesis; a (digital or paper) copy of your master's thesis; copies of publications, if any; an academic transcript that contains a list of subjects taken and grades received (this may be an unofficial version or scanned copy; we can request the original later). Optionally, you can also include letters of recommendation from your professors. Your application can be sent by e-mail (preferred) or by normal post to dr. ir. J.F.C. Verberne (e-mail: pz-gw(a)gw.utwente.nl), managing director of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, the Netherlands. Please mention the vacancy number: 06/072-1 (project 1), 06/072-2 (project 2), or 06/072-3 (project 3). Your application should be in by October 2, 2006. Job interviews will be held between October 9 and 13.

15 years, 1 month

some piccies

by adam

hi, just thought i would throw this into the mix: http://flickr.com/search/?q=waves+riga&m=text i found these photos online when looking for documentation of the Waves festival I was talking about in earlier posts. just posting them to give anyone thats interested an idea of Waves and for those that attended ISEA a reference to contrast that experience and contextualise my comments the photos give quite a good idea of the setup and feeling of the exhibition adam -- Adam Hyde ~/.usnl selected projects http://www.xs4all.nl/~adam the streaming suitcase http://www.streamingsuitcase.com simpel http://www.simpel.cc r a d i o q u a l i a http://www.radioqualia.net Free as in 'media' email : adam(a)xs4all.nl sip : adam(a)papercuptelephoone.org skype : esetqualia

15 years, 1 month

isea review

by adam

hi all, just got back to amsterdam from extra time in San Jose. I was wondering what peoples impressions were? Sorry if this has already done the rounds of the list, I have been psuedo offline for a week or so... My impressions of the event were mixed. I think NZ had a very strong presence and it was the event more than any other that marks a coming of age of NZ digital media art on the world stage (so to speak). Having the large screens of Douglas'work (Cloud Shape Classifier) was really amazing as they hit you immediately as you walked into the main exhibition room. Looked fantastic. Also, I believe that Caro and Angela had about 2000 kids go through Animalia and by the sounds of it it was a huge success. I also saw Zitas work and it looked really great although possibly a little hard to find amongst the screens in the mid part of the south hall, which is a shame as it is a very strong work. I missed almost everything else (including the symposium) as I was having various logistical problems with re:mote and the internal (dis)organisation of ISEA. What was everyones impression of ISEA? I missed checking out thoroughly Ians, Natalies, and Rachels work which I regret. How did you each feel it went? I also missed the Pacific Rim forum...any feedback on how it went Danny? adam -- Adam Hyde ~/.nl selected projects http://www.xs4all.nl/~adam the streaming suitcase http://www.streamingsuitcase.com r a d i o q u a l i a http://www.radioqualia.net Free as in 'media' email : adam(a)xs4all.nl sip : adam(a)papercuptelephoone.org skype : esetqualia

15 years, 1 month

FW: Siggraph? & new Thames and Hudson digital art book, "Art of the Digital Age"

by Brit Bunkley

I'm wondering if anyone made it to the East Coast for the Boston art show "Interactions" at Siggraph? I didn't see any familiar NZ faces, but I did run into quite a few people who took part in Intersculpt (and other related digital sculpture/3D permutations). It was easy to miss people since it was quite crowded. (And I was a bit foggy, and often absent recovering from a bad back contusion and broken ribs received installation day.) Just under 20,000 people attended the conference as a whole (on the low side). A majority are in the special effects film/TV industry, which is the backbone of Siggraph. They and a accompanying trade show (Adobe, Intel, etc.) essentially fund the entire operation through admissions to the event along with stall fees. Nevertheless a significant minority are in the fine arts. A friend, who had been to several Siggraph shows told me that this Siggraph Art Show was one of the best he seen, and much better than the last few. (He enjoyed Isea enormously as well this year.)Bonnie Mitchell who organized the art show and her staff did an amazing job. The show had fewer digital prints than in recent years, but to its credit included more intriguing performances, sculpture, video, animations interactive work and installations. Several art panels were presented over the 5 day event. My favorite was one chaired by Ian Gwilt of UTS (formerly of the U of Manchester, Unitec and Wanganui Polytechnic) on relational aesthetics in digital art. The art show was next to the emerging technologies studio, whose highlight for many was a model of a house that through the low-tech use of light and a spinning base, seemingly warped and shattered as it spun. BTW...Has anyone has read the new hardbound Thames and Hudson digital art book, "Art of the Digital Age" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500238170/sr=8-10/qid=1156706384/ref=pd_bb s_10/002-9415440-8767234?ie=UTF8 ? (Bruce Wands who wrote it was at Siggraph hawking the book.) Although it is more varied (including a section on Intersculpt), I personally feel that the artwork included is not as well edited/curated as in Christine Paul's digital art paperback, the other Thames and Hudson digital arts overview. On the other hand it has more pictures and seems to be functioning well as a general pictorial coffee table survey of digital media. Best, Brit -----Original Message----- From: Douglas Bagnall [mailto:douglas@paradise.net.nz] Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 10:06 PM To: ada list Subject: Re: [Ada_list] isea review adam wrote: > I missed almost everything else (including the symposium) as I was > having various logistical problems with re:mote and the internal > (dis)organisation of ISEA. What was everyones impression of ISEA? I suppose the disorganisation was inevitable given that ISEA is always, wherever it is, the first thing of its kind, ever. Superpower sponsorship seemed to exacerbate rather than ameliorate the confusion. It was harder to get boring things like projectors, network connections, and mains power, than it was to get, in my case, a strange bead-curtain monitor that cost $US100 per pixel. Apart from the budgetary distortion, the sponsors did irreparable damage to the opening sequence. Some events were too exclusive to admit artists (which obviously infuriated those who didn't sneak in), while others were marred by interminable speeches. While this made the symposium proceedings look good, it destroyed what should have been a binding social event. Participants fled in all directions, then spent the rest of the week seeking the defining group encounter that had been stolen from them by corporate puffery. One curious aspect to the show is that almost nobody turned up. South Hall was set up like a trade show, but it seemed to be always stuck at five minutes to opening time. There were stallholders but no punters. I was able to ride my bike around, without swerving for pedestrians. Other places were popular though. Apart from Animalia, there were patterns projected on the town hall which were very well received. One night I saw about a thousand people sitting there with picnics and whatnot, watching the projection meander through its cycle. It was like Guy Fawkes in Wellington -- people love public art that lets them gather and stare together. Almost every artist I spoke too was dissatisfied. Most complained about the lack of technical or curatorial support. Some mentioned the scarcity of free wine. Not many mentioned the absence of audience, but for my part, it added a tinge of futility. Staff members' character flaws were discussed, and the liveliness of San Jose was impugned. Not entirely fairly in my opinion, but I had a bicycle and could get to things that others couldn't. One artist run space was open until late each night, with new things every day. To the south of downtown large bands played in Mexican bars. Danny has mentioned the grand spectacle of Fry's San Jose. It was an OK city, like a warmer, friendlier, Spanish speaking Christchurch. Anyway, these conversations of complaint helped build artistic networks and the sense of a shared project. I don't actually think the organisers did too badly considering the circumstances. There were too few workers, there were too many sponsors, and there was a rather too optimistic schedule of logistics. Perhaps South Hall was just a little too big and tent-like, and perhaps San Jose's events calender was already too crowded with car races and baseball for an art show to register public interest. I can't help but compare ZeroOne to Prospect 2004, the next biggest show I have been in. Prospect had 40 odd artists; it was shown in actual real galleries with real gallery staff; it had one sponsor, and perhaps two dozen dynamic artworks. It was the biggest NZ survey show in years, and people have complained about it being too big, and about it being wrong, and something about a donkey. ZeroOne had 5 times the artists; no real galleries; too few real gallery workers; countless sponsors; and every work was trying to be a technical novelty. It is no wonder that it was wobbly. It was crazily ambitious. But for the artists whose work was broken or improperly displayed due to a lack of standard prerequisites, there is no consolation in that. I personally spent a lot of time and money working on things that, it turned out, were never going to work because the promised infrastructure did not exist. If I think about it in a certain way, it seems worse than a complete waste of effort, more like a swindle. But generally I am quite pleased I went, to meet people, to see how these things work, and to escape this bloody winter. Also, in keeping with the trade show appearance, scouts from other festivals were there, and I have had interesting enquiries. I was trying to resolve not to do any such thing again, but I expect some of these invitations will put the lie to that, and I will go to these festivals without expecting then to be better organised or more artist friendly. This probably summarises what I am trying to say in an actions-louder-than-words way. Despite all the complaints, nobody really suffered and it was an interesting trip. > I also missed the Pacific Rim forum...any feedback on how it went? I'd better start another email for this one. douglas _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list Ada_list(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/ -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.5/425 - Release Date: 8/22/2006 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. 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15 years, 1 month

Re: [Ada_list] [Ada_List] poly (vs apple)

by michael＠creationz.co.nz

I am on the trial of the Poly 1 computer. I came upon one at MOTAT and have chosen it for my Kiwi Nuggets series in PRODESiGN - so thanks for the leads in the discussion below. Have you found out any more since? I have some other leads to follow - my interest is the design of the box itself though the software story and commercial politics makes for greate context. Michael >On Jul 31, 2005, at 22:13 PM Douglas Bagnall wrote: >Back in March, Melanie Swalwell wrote: > >[http://list.waikato.ac.nz/pipermail/ada_list/2005-March/000833.html] > > > I'd be keen to hear some more about the Poly. Have you had any > > responses? > >No. Well, almost none. Mark Williams at the Film Archive has been >investigating, and I suspect he is secretly planning an exhibition on >the subject. > >Also, a few weeks ago, I was at the National Library and I looked at >1983 editions of Bits and Bytes magazine. Volume 1, Number 1 has a >feature article on the Poly vs Apple controversy. I wrote some notes >but have since forgotten their meaning, so the following may be >inaccurate. > >The Poly came out in 1981 or early 1982 and was intended for >educational use. Much was made of its facility for networking. It >seems that number of Polys could be wired together and kept in sync by >the teacher. Although this now sounds pedagogically quaint, a few >schools signed up to buy them. > >In 1983 a networkable Poly cost $8090, but it appears the complete >teaching kit ran into the hundreds of thousands. In response to the >Poly, Apple reduced the price for schools of an Apple II from $4812 to >$1200. Customs decided that Apple was "dumping", which seems to have >had a precise technical meaning in those days of import regulation. >They imposed a duty of $820, bringing the price up to $2020. Apple >changed their price to $2020, rather than pay the duty (Customs could >not complain, because their duty was defined as setting the fair >price). > >Money was valuable then. I recall you could get lollies valued at >fractions of a cent. $8090 would get you a largish McCahon or a few >houses in Wanaka, so even if Apple had stuck to their original price, >the Poly may not have taken off. Nevertheless, Polycorp was blaming >Apple, Customs, and the Government for their impending failure. > >By way of comparison, here are prices for other computers advertised >in Bits and Bytes, vol 1, nos 1-3 (retail prices, some educational >discounts offered but not revealed): > > ZX81 $199 > VIC20 $899 > Atari 400 $1295 > Atari 800 $2695 > Dick Smith 80 $1295 > BBC Micro $1595 > >The Apple II was designed in 1976. It was inferior to the 1982 BBC >Micro in every possible regard, despite retailing at three times the >price. The IBM PC had been out for a couple of years, and the Mac was >due in January 1984. In these circumstances, $1200 actually sounds >like a reasonable price for the Apple II, but of course you don't buy >from Apple expecting value or quality. > >The Poly used the 6809 processor. This was an advance on the 6502s >and z80s that everyone else used, although it was admired as much for >conceptual elegance as increased performance. Unfortunately the 6809 >was a year or two late for the 8 bit era, and hence was mainly used in >idiosyncratic late machines like the Poly, the Dragon (Welsh) and the >Peach (Japanese). > >Bits and Bytes mentions some system of layered video, allowing >graphics and text on the same screen. 21 colours could be used at >once, exactly 5 more than was common. > >Its networking system appears to have involved an ad-hoc protocol over >a serial bus. As far as I can tell, the Poly system was technically >inferior to ethernet, which had had a decade of development, but was >was just then becoming widely available, with the first Apple II >ethernet card released in 1982. The reporter didn't seem to >understand much about networking. > >It seems that what the Poly developers really cared about was >software, or rather, a particular mode of software use and development >that they imagined would suit schools. They thought that, with the >Poly, teachers could easily develop teaching software that could be >shared between schools. In 1983 only a tiny portion of the curriculum >had been Polyised, but they didn't think the rest was far off. > >Polycorp's mistakes are obvious enough. They wasted effort on >irrelevant details, fighting rather than harnessing the flow of >commodification. If they had resisted the urge to reinvent hardware >and had targeted their software at (say) ethernet connected IBM PCs, >they might well have got it into a few more schools, and lasted as a >company for a few more years. There is something to be said for >waiting until the appropriate technology arrives, rather than trying >to force it. > >I think this is a general and well learnt lesson of the last 25 years, >not hindsight specific to Polycorp. Now most people have a sensible, >incremental approach to changing the world with computers. For >example, Vicki Smith and Karla Ptacek have had school kids >collaborating across the world, using generic hardware, operating >systems, and network protocols, with only a little bit of specialised >(buggy) software. And now there is Skolelinux[1] which perhaps has >similar aims to Polycorp, but actually saves schools money relative to >the alternatives, by borrowing as much as possible from existing ideas >and technology. > >Apart from Bits and Bytes and Mark Williams, another source of Poly >information is http://www.embassy.org.nz/computer/progeni.htm > >[1]http://www.skolelinux.org/portal/about/what > > >douglas

15 years, 1 month

From Rhizome - Randall Packer's Conference Report: Where Art Thou Net.Art? On Zero One/ ISEA 2006

by Helen Varley Jamieson

apologies for x-posting to those of you subscribed to rhizome; here's one person's reflections on ISEA & zero one. some of the nz artists who attended will be talking about their experiences at the ADA Swaray in UpStage on sunday 10 september, 9pm nz time, http://upstage.org.nz:8084 h : ) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + From: Randall Packer <rpacker(a)zakros.com> Date: Aug 25, 2006 Subject: Conference Report: Where Art Thou Net.Art? On Zero One/ ISEA 2006 +Commissioned by Rhizome.org+ Conference Report: Where Art Thou Net.Art? On Zero One/ ISEA 2006 by Randall Packer The long awaited Zero One/ ISEA 2006 took over San Jose, California, two weeks ago in a sprawling, city-wide, mega-festival celebrating art and technology in the heart of Silicon Valley. Much has already been written about it, from daily observations in the local papers to a feature in the New York Times, from the Blogosphere to the listservs. As one who has been immersed in the new media scene since the late 1980s, I would like to contribute a bit of historical context to the discussion: I offer my commentary from a pre-millennial perspective, when the dream emerged in the 1990s, during an era of optimism and promise, the dream of a new art form that would side-step a mainstream art world mired in curators, museums, galleries, objects, and old aesthetic issues. This was the dream of Net.Art, a revolutionary new international movement of artists, techies, and hackers, led in large part by the unassuming, unabashedly ambitious new media curator from the Walker Art Center, Steve Dietz, now director of Zero One. These were heady times indeed. I met Steve in 1997 while I was in residence at the San Jose Museum of Art. His research had brought him to the holy Mecca of new media, Silicon Valley and the community of artists in the Bay Area who had been working with new technologies since the dawn of the personal computer. He wanted to meet Joel Slayton (who would later become director of the 2006 ISEA Symposium), so I escorted him over to San Jose State University where Joel is head of the CADRE Laboratory for New Media. Shortly thereafter, Steve launched two groundbreaking Net.Art exhibitions, Shock of the View, and Beyond Interface, both of which brought together leading Net artists exploding on the scene: Mark Amerika, Natalie Bookchin, Masaki Fujihata, Ken Goldberg, Eduardo Kac, Jodi, Mark Napier, Alexei Shulgin, to name just a few. It was a time of artistic transformation, new paradigms, hypernovels, distributed authorship, and globally extended, real-time, robotic, collective art. It seemed anything was possible. By 1999, David Ross was Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Intel was pouring millions into Artmuseum.net, and there seemed no end to the surging tide of experimental new media art. It was at that time that early discussion began of an international festival of art and technology in Silicon Valley. Beau Takahara founded the organization Ground Zero, which would later become Zero One. But with the new millennium the tides would turn: Natalie Bookchin announced the death of Net.Art, the tech boom was a bust, and both David Ross and Steve Dietz were ousted from their museum jobs for harboring visionary aspirations in an economic downturn. So with the announcement that the Zero One Festival and the ISEA Symposium would launch in 2006 in San Jose, with Steve Dietz at the helm, it was something like the Phoenix rising from the ashes. And it rose with a bang! "Seven Days of Art and Interconnectivity," with over 200 participating artists, an international symposium, city-wide public installations, exhibitions, concerts, performances, pubic spectacles, performative-live-distributed cinema, wi-fi interventions, container culture, skateboard orchestras, digital dance, sine wave surfing, datamatics, surveillance balloons, a pigeon blog, the squirrel-driven Karaoke Ice Battle on wheels, and to top it off a nostalgic, bombastic blast-from-the-past from Survival Research Laboratories. The 13th International Symposium on Electronic Art Exhibition took over the sprawling South Hall at the Convention Center. Its themes: Interactive City, Pacific Rim, Transvergence, Edgy Products, and on and on- spoke of enough technology to wire a third world nation. And so, with all the buzz, and the sheer largesse of this ambitious festival of new media, I couldnít help ponder how it was connected to the original Net.Art dream, when a new art form arose from networking every computer on every desktop and engaging a global audience in new, pervasive ways that became possible as technology was increasingly ubiquitous and transparent. The Net.Art dream would call into question our relationship to the new media, as art has always aspired, to critique its impact on our lives, our culture, our communications systems, our relationships, our view of the world, our own changing humanity in a technological world. I couldnít help but to wonder, what exactly happened to that dream, once driven by a small fringe core of artists, writers, thinkers, and curators, and now practiced by literally thousands of techno-artists emerging from every university and art school across the planet, many of whom converged in San Jose for Zero One / ISEA. The first thing that came to mind was that art and technology no longer exists on the fringe of the artworld, and in fact, the demarcation between art and engineering has blurred considerably. At Zero One you couldnít tell the artist from the engineer (Billy Kl¸ver must be rolling in his grave). Joseph Beuysís notions of social sculpture, or Allan Kaprowís participatory Happenings now inform the new systems of art that have dissolved the distinction between artist and non-artist, between performer and audience. For example, the Interactive City theme, organized by Eric Paulos, sought "urban-scale projects for which the city is not merely a palimpsest of our desires but an active participant in their formation." In the installations of Jennifer Steinkamp at the San Jose Museum of Art, I saw suburban moms taking snapshots of their kids in strollers bathed in layers of colored light. In the Listening Post by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin, also at SJMA, the artists orchestrated chat room discussion, in real-time, from around the globe. Etoyís mesmerizing Mission Eternity involved a trailer installation parked outside SJMA in the downtown Plaza, which investigated personal data storage for the afterlife (ashes to ashes, bits to bits). There was good art and there was bad art, but everywhere you turned there was art or something like art permeating the physical spaces of downtown San Jose (including the mobile light rail cars and the dome of City Hall), as well as the invisible ether of the airwaves, from bluetooth networks to cellular tours (the latest rage). There was very little time to spend with any particular work. Everyone was engaged in high gear, moving from one venue to the next. In Bill Violaís keynote address, he made the prescient remark, "artists are jumping into a train for a high speed ride while theyíre still laying the tracks ahead." The hyper-adrenalin flow resonated in the on-line commentary as well, where, if you read the considerable Blog chatter surrounding Zero One/ ISEA, you would find that the experience became concentrated on sheer movement and the social networking that reigns supreme at all conferences and festivals. And so what about the dream of Net.Art? Those of us who have spent countless hours, in the past decade, bemoaning the loss of the dream could now say that the dream had been realized (for better or for worse). I heard artist friends complain about the democratization of Net.Art, the selling out of Net.Art, the "mainstreamization" of Net.Art, and other remarks I wonít mention here, and yet, I think that we would all agree that the uber-dream of Net.Art -- to dismantle the precious nature of the object, an art that would defy the walls of the museum, that would, as expressed in Roy Ascottís Museum of A Third Kind, reject the notion of the physical museum space altogether, the dream of Net.Art as a force that would rewire the experience of art, a "fantasy beyond control" according to Lynn Hershman -- had become a living, breathing reality in San Jose for those compressed seven days. And if you turned to the Blogosphere there were plenty of critics: Patrick Lichty wrote, "There are many topics, like locative media, data mapping, ecologies, and so on that are being explored. On a rhetorical level I have to ask whether these are the right ones and why these are the ones that are compelling to us." And on the CRUMB list, I found an insightful comment by Molly Hankwitz, who said, "I think the process of interaction must be done very carefully. The worst thing is the mainstreaming of situationism into a middle class playground." Finally, I turn to Mark Amerika, one of the original dreamers, for a closing observation: "Net art is in many ways still the most alive and accessed art movement ever to NOT be absorbed into the commercial art world- and that's fantastic!" Perhaps the success of Zero One / ISEA was in its commitment to concentrate on experimental media art, to emphasize media artís inclusive, democratic, and participatory nature, and lastly, that contemporary art must embrace the new technologies - shamelessly, fearlessly, defiantly. Net.Art may be dead, but Net Art 2.0 is alive and kicking. Randall Packer is a widely-exhibited artist, composer, educator, and scholar. He is Assistant Professor of Multimedia at American University in Washington, DC, and the author of Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + -- ____________________________________________________________ helen varley jamieson: creative catalyst helen(a)creative-catalyst.com http://www.creative-catalyst.com http://www.avatarbodycollision.org http://www.upstage.org.nz http://www.writerfind.com/hjamieson.htm ____________________________________________________________

15 years, 1 month

digital sound distribution

by Matthew Middleton

Hello. Introducing myself, I am Matt Middleton and I maintain the Crude web-site. I have almost entirely shifted my focus from manual forms of audio distribution and production to digital modes. I can now easily distribute music up to 100 MB at a time through a third party file host. I make futuristic, experimental electronic music that can be used for gaming, digital video, radio, advertising, incidental musics, remote performance and web-based digital archives. listen here: http://crude.co.nz/NOISE_SUITE.htm here: http://crude.co.nz/Audio%20Suite.htm and here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Crudecasts with ambiguous pseudo-telepathic sincerity, matt middleton IP adress --------------------------------- On Yahoo!7 Answers: Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people

15 years, 1 month

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Ada_list August 2006