September 28- October 4, 2003

Originally published on 09/23/03 Freecooperation is a "two day conference about the art of collaboration, models of critical web-based art, and the role media technologies play in the making of social networks" taking place at SUNY, Buffalo, America from April 24 to 25 of 2004. It is organized by Trebor Scholz and Geert Lovink. "Trebor Scholz, a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program, taught at the Bauhaus (Weimar) and is currently a professor at the Department of Media Study at SUNY, Buffalo. He exhibits and lectures widely in the US and Europe. He participated in this year's Venice Biennial (with Martha Rosler/ Fleas) and in last year's Sao Paolo Bienial. http://molodiez.org" "Geert Lovink, founder of numerous Internet projects such as Nettime, recently published under MIT Press his writing on critical Internet culture Dark Fiber and Uncanny Networks, a collection of his interview. In October of 2003, V2_Publishing will bring out his latest study on Internet culture My First Recession." But that's way too far ahead to think of for the moment. What we are interested in here is The List that has started up to discuss, debate, and generally flesh out ideas before the conference. Intended to go beyond "outmoded top-down" structures used in the presentation and creation of interactive / online art, The List (and ultimately the conference) strives to bring together artists, designers, social scientists, engineers, and scientists in ongoing collaborations and exchanges of knowledge directed toward the creation of prototype projects. Currently, The List has only just started and is a series of introductions; but, with the credentials of the organizers and subscribers joining every day, discussion is sure to get fast and furious in the next few weeks. DonÕt miss out on what might be the foundations of new rhizomic structures never thought of before! :: Garrett Lynch :: Originally published on 09/19/03 For those who did not know, the Net Art Open Exhibitions were... fake! Below is the explanation from the organizers: ------------------------ ANNOUNCEMENT Irish Museum of Modern Art website a fake In 2002 and 2003 the Irish Museum of Modern Art held the Net Art Open exhibitions which many net artists participated in. Well it probably comes as no surprise to find out that irishmuseumofmodernart.com was a fake. The site was an intervention by Irish artists Arthur X Doyle and Conor McGarrigle conceived as an intervention to protest against IMMA's lack of engagement with net art. The Net Art Open exhibitions, however, were a real attempt to look at new ways of curating net art in an institutional setting. In order for them to succeed we obviously couldn't come out and say that it was a fake outright so we included many, many clues as to the real intent so that artists submitting would know the score. While we had no qualms about conning museum curators this was not an attempt to fool artists. From general feedback we received the fact that it was a fake probably increased participation. The site is now retired but has been fully archived at Stunned stunned.org/imma which includes the full background to the site, press coverage and site referrer logs. all the best Conor Stunned http://www.stunned.org ------------------------ posted by :: Eduardo Navas :: Originally published on 09/18/03 Are net artists avant-garde? If you compare Ola Pehrson's latest artwork, NASDAQ vocal index 2003, with Igor Stromajer's net art piece from 1999, Oppera Teorettikka Internettikka, you are tempted to say yes. Both works show a lot of similarities, such as the use of choirs to sing code and the presentation in a performance like setting. The only difference is that where Stromeijer's piece is about singing html code, Peherson's is about singing stock market prices. As net artists are more familiar with code (most of them code their work themselves), it is easy to assume that this kind of works will be made sooner by net artists, hence avant-garde. That said, I still would rather go for the idea that some things are just in the air (zeitgeist). Anyway, what you see in both works is the tendency to translate abstract code into a more understandable language, something we will probably see more of in the near future. :: Peter Luining :: Originally published on 09/18/03 Electrohype is organizing an exhibition of 24 artists--presenting work on the Macintosh Classic II computer entitled the Classic II Exhibition--to take place at Electrohype-ROM in Malmo, Sweden from December 12th of 2003 to January 20th of 2004. An obvious tribute to the exhibition Mac Classics (the immaculate machines) at the Postmasters Gallery in New York in 1997, the exhibition strives to show work that is less advanced software / hardware centric and more art based. "Electrohype will provide the opportunity and the hardware. Artists are hereby invited to provide the content. Hopefully we will be able to compile an exhibition utilizing all 24 computers, an exhibition that will reflect both on the development of computer-based art and the current situation. The Classic II show will be an exhibition that will cause a stir and an exhibition that will be remembered." The deadline for the exhibition is November 15th. Please see the site for further info. :: Garrett Lynch ::