:: Saturday, February 22, 2003 ::

Martin Wattenberg has developed a simple net piece resembling Alexander Calder's sculptures. If anyone has never seen an actual Calder art work, then Living Mobile II is the perfect on-line experience. Each element's movement is very well balanced thereby giving a realistic sense of weight and volume. A very minimal yet extremely complicated project.
Artist: Martin Wattenberg
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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If your looking for books on new media, net.art and cyberculture topics the best place to look is the Resource Center For Cyberculture Studies. Technically a list of books, papers and resources published by the University of Washington for their Department of communication, however accessible by the general public, this list is the most comprehensive on the internet. It covers books not just in English, but also French, German and Italian with reviews and responses to the reviews by the authors from time to time. If only all universities made their resources publically accessible like this!!
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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When viewing Flight 404, one may wonder if it is some sort of fictional narrative. The basic premise is of an airplane flight that simply vanished. To this day, Flight 404 has been able to shift in refreshing and unpredictable ways as it currently features its fifth installment. An interesting section that should be visited is the passengers's manifest -- the link is at the top of the splash interface. Flight 404 is intriguing because of its combination of graphic design and art aesthetics. As some readers may know, these creative areas are not always in full harmony when claiming creative grounds. But Flight 404 is a great hybrid.
Artist: Flight 404 Search and Discovery


:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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ascii art is one of the earliest net art genres. A good webring to look into to better understand the aesthetics supporting this art form is ascii Arts Ring. ascii stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." Those interested in learning about ascii codes go to the ascii table.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Jorge Luiz Antonio has developed an extremely and perhaps over the top "stupid" little net piece that makes mousing over a futile endeavor. Interrogasom could be considered a website making fun of the quest for possibilities that artists often yearn for. If anything, the simplicity of this project points to the dependency on language to create meaning.
Artist:Jorge Luiz Antonio.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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The Golden Pixel awards - Application deadline 28th February 2003.
http://www.goldenpixil.com

Small new festival opening up digital arts in Wales. Submission to most of the categories is open only to those who ether are Welsh or have worked on the project they are submitting with someone who is Welsh, however for anyone interested there is an international section open to all. Further info can be found on the website.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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For any of you interested in the depiction of current real world events by net.artists in the virtual one, three items passed by my inbox this week which are reactionary in differing and unique ways.

The first is a project set up by the net.art collective furtherfield.org called "day in day out" principally to document the diaries of people taking part in anti-war and human rights violations protests all over the world. Notably this includes events such as Iraq and the impending war, president Mugabi being invited to France by President Jacques Chirac etc. No rules and all contributions will be used as material for an exhibition at a later date.

The second is an amusing yet sinister interpretation of a common 404 page not found error surely a piece to download and keep?

Finally an article on canada.com posted through cyberculture by Alan Sondheim on the new way to protest, minus all the inconveniences!
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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FUTURE PHYSICAL PRESENTS BIO & ECO-TECH NETWORK EXCHANGES
Wednesday 19th - Saturday 22nd February 2003, Colchester, England.
http://www.futurephysical.org/

Future Physical have just announced a series of Lectures and events that will be happening from 19/02/03 - 22/02/03, all of which will be webcast either live or after the event on demand. Future physical are as they state themselves "a cultural programme exploring the changing boundaries between the virtual and the physical" and have over the past year allowed the public to have access to technologies such as wearable computers via lectures, events and workshops. For full information as regards to the programme see the website.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Peter Horvarth has created an amazing quicktime net installation called Either Side of an Empty Room. The introduction presents the net project as an abstract self-portrait. The narrative, however, is so open ended that the idea of portraiture is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind, but rather more universal humanist issues such as the quest for meaning. A fast connection is needed to properly view this project. It is really an amazing treat to watch various windows appear as the narrative evolves. Quicktime has never looked better.
Artist: Peter Horvath
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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In Everything.Net artist Don Ritter attempts to calculate every possible number and combination of thoughts, persons, societies, objects and histories.
The numbers and possibilities are overwhelming and fascinating, especially to a right-brainer like myself who always blindly trusts the figures in scientific journals, national debt calculators, and heresay of mathmatical types alike. What's even more interesting is the attempt to calculate such abstract notions as thoughts and histories throughout all of time. Prepare to leave the site with the feeling of awe and wonder you get after reading a Hawkins book or Einstein theory.
Artist: Don Ritter
:: Kristen Palana [+] ::
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Tamara Lai is making her final call for paticipation for the online project "URBANGS", see text below for futher information or visit the site

URBANGS fear in town / peur dans la ville - DEADLINE

URBANGS : 40 participants, number of places available : 9, DEADLINE 28 fevrier / february 2003

la ville / the town
votre ville / your town

les hommes et les femmes qu'on y croise... men and women that we meet... / des gens comme vous et moi? people like you and me? / qui sont-ils? who are they? / que font-ils ? what do they do ? / ˆ quoi pensent-ils? what are they thinking?

Ceci est une narration non-lineaire : ni debut ni fin ni chronologie. Tournez les pages l'une apres l'autre, ouvrez plusieurs fenetres a la fois, suivant les capacites de votre machine. Jouez, associez les idees librement, l'histoire se construit d'elle-meme, jamais la meme...

This is a non-linear narration : no beginning no end nor chronology. Turn the pages one after one, or open several windows at the same time, according to the capacities of your machine. Play with, associate the ideas freely, the history builds itself, never the same...
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Annie Abrahams is interested in people's personal relationships with computers. In Being Human, Abrahams explores the idea of relationships through Greek, French, and English languages. Realplayer clips reassure the user about unspecifed matters, while other sections of the website asks to explain if one is, or is not a work of art. Other pages ask if one would like to kiss the computer, and then have the computer kiss one back. Abrahams has also developed Separation a site that is sensitive to mouse clicking. Both sites expose the preocupation with the computer's influence in how humans define themselves as "human."
Artist: Annie Abrahams
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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b-l-u-e-s-c-r-e-e-n.net is a website over-emphasizing net interactivity. It consists of several repeated links lined up in columns, reading from left to right. The net project relies on literal readings, that is the links specifically perform what the text describes. Some of the pages include puns on flash loaders, a browser showing the html code of webpages, and playful sets of folders that disappear as one mouses over them. Bluescreen is nonsensical net poetry that at every turn tests the user's patience. One should be prepared to spend some time on this website.
Artist: BlueScreen
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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On Sunday February 16, Ian Clarke lectured on freenetproject.org at C-level in Los Angeles. The freenetproject is yet another peer to peer network that is actually very efficiently decentralized. Unlike Napster which was very much centralized by having all information requests going through a main point, and Kazaa and Limewire's dependency on "superusers's" bandwidth for swapping files, freenet relies on a constant flow of information which moves from peer to peer. It is probably the most efficient way for staying anonymous on the net, and definitely worth checking out.
Collaborators: Visit website for details.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Ceci n'est pas un mensonge (It is not a Lie) is a website completely dependent on obessive mouse clicking. The more one clicks the more distorted the images become. When first entering the website, a series of architectural structures are presented. The architectural spaces are complemented by squarish caption bubbles that are often found in comic books. If the user clicks long enough the images become completely pixelated, and this seems to point to how meaning can keep "running" and reshaped through rhetoric. A muffled frantic sound composition emphasizes the abstract references to distorted communication.
Artist: Andy Deck.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Collective Presence is an interactive project combining recent reality TV aesthetics and 1990's interactive performance art processes. After surfing the Collective Presence website, one is left wondering how the project incorporates performance artist Stelarc's interest in body experience but in a safer way than his performances. Contemporary performance art seems to be heavily influenced by entertainment value. Much like pop art borrowed from mainstream culture in the 1960's, now net-art borrows from popular TV shows.
Artists: see credits. (original post from net art news)
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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