:: Saturday, April 19, 2003 ::

Mail art has been around for quite some time. Here are two mail art links recently added to the New Media Fix: iuoma.org, and its public listing on Yahoo. It should be noted that mail art is not necessarily e-mail art, though the terms can crossover sometimes -- but look over the sites to get a better understanding of the art medium. The resources are listed in the Fix due to mail art's close relationship to the net as an early medium preceding decentralized communication.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Hey my Friend What's the Matter? is a net piece by Pino Boresta. The project combines established art strategies, such as documentation of a past event (photo stills), performance (the actual act that was photographed), and user interactivity (visitors to the site being invited to contribute an opinion).

The photo stills, of a person who is about to jump off a building, look like documentation of a performance as well as evidence for a criminal case; the effectiveness of the piece relies on a fine balance between the two possibilities -- the latter being the rhetorical platform upon which the art piece was developed. Fact or fiction? Send your opinion and contribute to the performative/interactive net project.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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How far can simple jpegs and gifs be taken to make a 'deep' art statement on net technology? Very far. Abe Linkoln recently released Complex Net Art Diagram a project inspired by MTAA's Simple Net Art Diagram. Linkoln has pushed the principle behind the original diagram to a rather complex level, where ideologies are unexpectedly mixed with pseudo-code aesthetics.
Original source of reference: Rhizome digest
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Criticism of the recent war in Iraq has been overwhelming. Net Art Review has received quite a few web projects that openly critique the coalition -- more specifically the United States. To do justice to the art work that has been submitted, here is a brief note on some of the latest pieces:

no+war is actually a resource where different ways for protesting the war can be found. The site is promoting submissions for e-cards. Many of the submissions are from Latin America, and are categorized by country. Some pieces are a bit reactionary, pointing to extreme conspiracy theories. But as a way to vent personal opinions, this website is a valuable source for the global community. It might also be a good reality check for politicians to understand the nature of global dissent from the recent war.
Artist: Luciano Ferrer

War Product presents four screens with images ranging from rubber penises to Horror film serial killers. A voice repeating a countdown is heard throughout the presentation. This project needs a bit of time to be understood. Its statement is extreme, but again, worth considering as dissent.
Artist: Mark Cooley

:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Paul Thayer is a netartist from Island whose core work evolves around sound, computers and the internet. His latest piece PANSE is an Mp3 streaming audio program with a tcp server running at 130.208.220.190 port 6667 that allows for multi-user, realtime interaction. An example of this realtime interaction is the Flashmovie on the frontpage that allows you to change the sound, but it should be noted that you should be streaming sound when you actually want to hear this. Access to the server is completely open so anyone who has a bit of knowledge of programming can create an interface, in Flash for instance, to control the audio program. But Panse can do more, on this page you can find a small collection of experiments with the PANSE server by Paul Thayer. Besides all this active input you can of course also choose to listen to the MP3 stream.
:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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Keeping up with global awareness:

Frontline recently released The Liberal Divide, an online feature on Tony Blair. Its most recent TV report focuses on North Korea.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Incident have just launched their exhibition "DRAPE" (look under "hors series > drape"), the fourth exhibition in their series resulting from a call for participation through mailing lists. The theme for the exhibition (drape/curtain) is as the last two have been, founded in classical art themes yet exhibited here (obviously) in new media forms. Its as the 'collective' incident say "C'est un sujet d'école", (its a subject of art school) associated with life drawing classes where ideas such as texture and gravity are foremost to the composition yet (note the irony!) have little ground in new media and so makes the subject more challenging / less restraining. A fifth call for works will be made under the theme of "NATURE MORTE" (dead nature) soon so keep an eye on those mailing lists.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Arte.tv is a good resource for new media video documentaries. Press release excerpt:

"The research project DATABASE OF VIRTUAL ART at Humboldt University has recently created a video documentary series of contemporary media artists like Maurice Benayoun, Jeffrey Shaw, Jean-Michel Bruyère, Luc Courchesne, Masaki Fujihata, Lev Manovich and Zoe Beloff... These videos, representing a small portion of the complex database - going public this summer - are now already available through the ARTE website. Samples from our work can be found: arte.tv"

This website offers great documentation of new media installations. All videos share the same visual graphic introduction which is actually quite a treat in itself. The documentation is some of the best to hit the net. On a technical level, the sound quality and video compression makes each documentary worth several replays.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Here is a streaming event that might be worth checking out:

On April 15, Turbulence and The New Museum will be presenting Lost Guides, a live and streaming performance by Angie Eng. Here is part of the press release:

"Artist/director Angie Eng, with artists Gabrielle Latessa, Benton C. Bainbridge, Brian Moran, and architects Omar Khan and Laura Garofalo (Liminal Projects) will perform Lost Guides, an audio/visual performance at the New Museum’s Zenith Media lounge. Demonstrating how sounds and visuals can transform static space, the artists will create audio samples and digital images in real-time that are projected onto the surface of a Mylar tent located in the center of the gallery space. The performance can be viewed live on the web at Turbulence.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 15, 2003, 7:00-8.00 pm (Eastern Standard Time)

WHERE: Zenith Media Lounge, New Museum of Contemporary Art, 583 Broadway, New York; and live on"

For more details log on to Turbulence's Lost Guides link.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Creative Capital recently published highlights of their 2002 grantees. All artists interested in applying for grants should look in Creative Capital's schedule for application. (hint: no grants are available until next year.)
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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