:: Friday, March 07, 2003 ::

Check out the Kunstbar -brought to you by the Petrie Lounge artists from Whitehouse Animation Inc. In this mini epic Flash film, we are taken on a journey through modern art history as seen through the bottom of a shot glass, or two, or three...
I like the idea of being able to injest a beverage that enables one so easily to slip into the (imagined) mindset of artists whom we know only through their work and writings. The styles change rapidly, as they should. Nice pacing and flow in this film. Well worth a look even though the download time is 7 minutes for a 56k dial up modem connection.
Artists: Denis Gonzolez, John Halfpenny, Chris Labonte, Paul Teglas, and Steve Whitehouse
:: Kristen Palana [+] ::
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The art of copying websites as art is as old as 1997 when Vuk Cosic copied the website of the Documenta X that was meant to disappear from the net after the exhibition in physical space would be over. In 1999 it was 0100101110101101.org that made the hearts of many beat faster when they copied a Hell project called surface that only was meant to be accessable for a short time. About a year later Florian Cramer copied 0100101110101101.org and put it on the net under the name 0100101110110101.org, nobody noticed the difference and Florian began to start netart projects under the name of his site. One of his first was aimed at Rhizome's artbase and with such a name it didn't seem to be hard at all to get in with a piece of netart. Soon after that he was invited for all kind of web projects by people that ofcourse actually thought that he was 0100101110101101.org though at that time both sites already looked different. The latest project in this genre was by the artists from "b-l-u-e-s-c-r-e-e-n" that on 15 februari 2003 (the day Rhizome officially became a paid service) put a complete copy of Rhizome's artbase up under the name "netartconnexion".
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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I've been a fan of the artist Frank Fietzek since his project "Parasites" which was highly commended in the Ars Electronica 2001. This was mainly due to a comination of simplicity and utilitarianism in his interactive installations but also because of the relevance it had to one of my works "For those who fear intimacy / For those who fear loneliness". Having only just stumbled accross his website, users may find it interesting to peruse works such as "Hamster", "Tafel" and "Surveillance" (also part of the "ctrl-alt" expo at the ZKM last year if I'm not mistaken).
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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"I-love-u" has launched their March edition under the title of "Kult". This ezine / rolling exhibition has been going for a few years now and continues to have regular contributors to keep it going. While not forcibly a net.art ezine there is room for possibilities and the editors and very open minded. Contribute if you can to the April edition which has the theme of "mini".

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Mobilegaze is currently featuring interviews by various new media artists that are part of the latest Mobilegaze net exhibition Matter And Memory. Learn the reasons why Heavy Industries uses text and no graphics in their flash animations, how boredomsearch.net explores the humanization of computer technology, and about the inspiration behind Jessica Irish's Inflat-O-scape. Other interviews of notice are Peter Horvath and Stanza's. There is plenty to read -- too many artists to name here. And make sure to browse through the actual mobilegaze net exhibition. This one is worth coming back to again and again.
Curators: Valerie Lamontagne, Brad Todd
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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For those how are interested in in some more netart history: "Introduction to net.art" (1994-1999) formulated by Bookchin & Shulgin was carved in stone by Blank & Jeron. The representation procedure B & J used was derived from their project "Dump your Trash!". With the aid of a software agent, this on-line cemetery recycles existing web pages into new pages. Pages filed at this site stay stored, even after the original site has long been shut down. On the one hand, the real texts carved in stone secure their presence in physical space and at the same time indicate the subversive character of the information overkill.
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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The results of Alex Shulgin's Form Art competition (1997) still look surprisingly fresh and exciting. The competition was announced as: "a new art form based on the Internet technology" and shows various netart works that use standard html elements as pushbuttons, radiobuttons, scrollbars, etc. as material.
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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From time to time there's a real gem of work that passes through rhizome's net.art news announcements and this week, this came through....

Cory Arcangel has created a piece of what I would term (and I don't often say this!!) an exceptional piece of net.art. Mainly known for working with sound and video games, such as his released album "8-bit Construction Set". In this piece, "Data Diaries" Arcangel's work uses Quicktime to read "the binary data daily passing through his computer's RAM" to create a non interactive, heavy in sound, heavy in image piece.

What qualifies it as net.art is quite difficult with this piece as strictly speaking it would work on a technical level on ether cd-rom or video. Perhaps this is a sign of a truer art form that is free from its medium? But on a conceptual level this work resides firmly in an internet space. With idea's of memory, persistence, authorship, stream of conscience v's stream of data, the relation between a user and their computer (or vice versa) and the intersection of text (data) and image (light), the creation of a website around this work ensures that the computers purest data, its raw memory is shared with as wide an audience as possible.

There is off course something personal that every computer user inbues in their computer and it could be claimed that those in new media use them as sketchbooks for their own raw memories and ideas. Alex Galloway comments in the introduction "What did Cory Arcangel do in this piece? Next to nothing.", hardly, Arcangel has managed to reveal his own identity in a very unique way, to stream his 'memory' over the internet, surely this is the perfect avatar free of its body?
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Bleb.net is one of those sites that leave you with more questions than you started with. The splashpage consists of random art picks ranging from modified major credit card logos to images of Jesus Christ. Once inside, various projects are available for endless clicking enjoyment. Some very good ones include: schizomatic, pluto-logos, Lord Hombre, and Rhizomat Portal. Biomorphism and its relation to net technology is a recurring theme. The web projects also seem influenced by the outproductive ideas of Deleuze and Guatarri.
Artist: Jason Brown
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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The heavy weights of the WWW will go at it in the upcoming infomera.net curated by Arcangel Constantini at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico. Players will battle with no database all done in real time. Some of the players include: superbad.com vs. redsmoke.com, endconstruction.org vs. nocontent.net, area3.net vs. subculture.com, among many others. Do check out the "concept page" for a nice surprise...
Curator: Arcangel Constantini
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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The Dutch Art Initiative w139 commisions netart projects since 2000. The latest addition to their "site:specific" collection is a netart piece by Andy Deck called "The BOXPLORER". Which is a browser that offers a rectangular view of the World Wide Web. It abstracts layouts to produce what are frequently rather colorful compositions. Just type your favorite url and start to navigate rectangular.
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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For some peope the piece "pmf" by Rafael Rozendael is art, others would say it is design, and again others would say it's a joke. He himself calls it neen, a word that was developed by the California based branding company "Lexicon" for artist Milton Manetas, who wanted to have a name for a post art movement. Neen is a palindrome (like Dada) and coincidentally, in old Greek, means "exactly now", even more coincidentally, in Dutch, it means "No". But ofcourse you should judge yourself what you think of "pmf".
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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One of my huge concerns for about the last two years as I've become more and more technical in my work, has been the preservation and documentation of new media works. During my usage of the internet many works I have greatly admired have long since vanished and even a few of my own have come offline due to server problems etc. This is the nature of net.art itself, constant flux, yet the work also needs to be preserved in some formalised way so a cultural / artistic gap is'nt created for the future.

"Rivets + Denizens Collaborative Curatorial Models in Theory and Practice" is one of the discourses created by the online journal "Switch". Officially "SWITCH is the new media art journal of the CADRE Laboratory for New Media of the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University" and their goal is to create discourse around topics such as these.

"Intelligent agent" a "quarterly publication as an online magazine in a new modular format" is a second website resource for anyone interested in reading more formalised articles.

If that still is'nt enough for you then i'd strongly suggest joining the "Crumb" organised list which can be subscribed to here - "new media curating". Their theme this month is "Curatorial models".
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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This months theme on the new media art mailing list -EMPYRE- is "Unstable Ground: Curating New Media".
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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Ascii art is as old as ascii. In the early years of the internet ascii art flourished and up till now it keeps inspiring netartists. A piece that still stands as one of the landmarks is ASCII Art Ensemble's "deep.ASCII" (1998) which is a streaming ascii version of the cult porn movie "Deep Throat".
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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SHIFT | BIN from the Japanese e-zine SHIFT is an interesting showcase of interactive audiovisual works by leading edge designers and netartists. Most pieces are with sound and made with Flash and Director, so make sure you have your speakers turned on and the shockwave plugin installed.
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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If anyone is missing Las Vegas, then the nearest stop to get a gambling fix is marchtowar.com. Here, bets can be placed on what day the War with Iraq will start. 20% of the money will go to the person closest to predicting the start date of war, and the rest will be donated to humanitarian organizations working in Iraq. This is a legitimate internet activity. Donations are accepted through Pay-pal. it should be noted that not everyone is allowed to claim the prize at the moment, only people living in Massachusetts. So if money is recieved from outside the state, it will be considered a straight donation.
Artist: unknown.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Art in Motion is on its fourth successful year -- this time with the title: Interference Patterns. The international juried exhibition organized by The University of Southern California School of Fine Arts is currently showing at The Armory Center of the Arts in Pasadena California. Attending the exhibition turns out to be an overwhelming experience, as all of the installations are running at once in an open space, and the multilayered sound inevitably creates a massive abstract noise. The only major downside of the timebased exhibition is that there is no proper documentation on the web whatsoever -- except for jpeg-stills. Even the featured net projects are not accessible from the AIM website. This is too bad, as many people who are not in Los Angeles are unable to at least get an idea of what is being shown in the gallery space. So why write about it on Net Art Review one might ask? Well, regardless of the omission of net documentation, the image stills and commentaries are worth browsing through.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Levitated.net is a site i had'nt seen before but was forwarded to me in an email by a friend. The site is'nt a collection of new media art as such but more "the sketches and applications generated as a byproduct of research" done in and around levitated.net's studio in the states. The site is both visually stunning and incredibly useful as everything shown in flash on the site is downloadable as the open .fla format for researchers / artists / programmers to use and develop further. The work concentrates on highly concepual ideas concerned with computers, new media and mathematics. Don't miss gems such as network simulations, golden rule principles, odd perspectives and potential 3d menus.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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