:: Saturday, May 10, 2003 ::

Here are the latest additions to the New Media Fix:

DAM (Digital Art Museum) features artists working with digital technology. Browsing through its chronology is quite informative as one gets a good sense of the creative development in new media.

maccsi.org (El Museo Contemporaneo de Caracas) has been featuring new media art for quite sometime now. Some of the invited artists include Cory Arcangel, Carlos J. Gómez de Llanera ,Paola Tabora, among several others.

La Chambre Blanche offers residencies to artists working in the emerging field of new media. Valerie Lamontagne presented on her current project this past Friday. Lamontagne's project will be exhibited online at La Chambre Blanche for the next few months.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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It seems like the same misunderstandings that previous artforms have faced when museums start to develop major surveys are currently affecting new media.

Not to beat a dead horse, but a recent comment posted by Olia Lialina at Rhizome makes a good case as to the inconsistencies Matt Mirapaul mentioned in his NY Times article, which I posted a few hours ago. Lialina is part of the New York Digital Salon Exhibition. The main issue here is how documentation does not work for net art when approached with a traditional curatorial method.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Legitimation is in the air for net art. Matt Mirapaul, in the New York Times, recently reviewed The New York Digital Salon's ten year anniversary exhibition. This time, unlike in the past, The Salon decided to invite new media curators to select important work that would be considered a survey of the first decade of new media. Mirapaul is critical of such approach as too many flaws to be listed here were quite obvious according to his review.

A compelling comment by independent curator Timothy Druckrey, on the many inconsistencies of the exhibit, summarizes what all innovative art production seems to face as it becomes absorbed by the art mainstream. "To attempt to leap into legitimacy in this way demonstrates the woeful condition of media art in the United States."
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Arte Digital Rosario 2003 an upcoming online/offline exhibition to take place at The Center of Contemporary Expressions in Rosario, Argentina, is currently accepting submissions of creative works in four different categories, which are CD-Rom, onLine/web, video and installation. Artists can submit up to four works, one per category. Here is more specific information off the press announcement:

Preselection: A preliminary jury established by the organisers will select - according to artistic merit,expression, originality and creativity .

Submission: starts 02 april 2003.

Deadline: for entries is 02 june 2003.

Works will only be accepted when the postage date does not exceed deadline. The organisation of the Festival cannot be held responsible for eventual damage done to works in transit. These works will be advertised in the Press and may be included in all and any promotional pieces produced and broadcast by the Festival. Copy of the selected works will be held as property of nonetart , as part of the historical collection of Art Digital Rosario muestra 0. These works can be accessed and viewed by the public, free of charge, as well as exhibited in other festivals, screenings, shows and cultural activities, always mentioning the piece's participation in the Festival.

This event is scheduled to happen semi-annually. For more specific information contact coordinator/curator Gabriel Otero or click, on the web link at the top.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Le Musee di-visioniste is making a call for net based art projects on the theme of artistic '[Self]-representation'. Note that this is not an exhibition of artists portfolios!

"In 2002, le Musee di-visioniste realized a first version of '[self] - representation' which can be visited on le-musee-divisioniste.org (Edition 5 of Featured Artists series, including the exhibition 'Mirror at the Bottom - artists portraiting themselves'). The new version will be extended by a selection of new exciting projects."

For further information and requirements on submitting work please see the website.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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The questions are abundant on Mediatopia.net. Through a striking opening and an average interface the site reveals a multitude of topics raging from government intelligence gathering to digital love. Tensions are exposed and desires embellish theories of the cyberspace. Ideologically charged electrons paint flesh filled world of vanguard reflections. Artist represented include: Michael Alstad, Anonymous, Kate Armstrong, Lara Bank, Andrew Bucksbarg, Jeremy Hight, Catherine D'Ignazio, Wolf Kahlen, Jeff Knowlton, Shirin Kouladjie, Naomi Spellman, Stanza, Geoff Thomas, Jaka Zeleznikar, as well as writers: Linda Carroli, John Grech, Eduardo Navas, Brian Walsh, including contributions from anonymous authors.

The discourse is omnipresent in all pixels.
:: ludmil trenkov [+] ::
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Numero Verde is a new media piece that intrudes the privacy of cell-phone users even weeks after the service may be thought of having stopped. The project was developed for the art community, but is mainly aimed at the everyday person.

Simultaneously working in the art world and the everyday community has always been an odd space in which to develop art. The reason for this is due to the necessary contextualization that any art practice relies on in order to be contemplated -- that is in the priviledged realm of aesthetics, which does not always meet the practical demands of everyday reality. In Numero Verde the phone users, who become the subjects of contemplation, may find the obtrusion of their privacy simply insulting, while the priviledged viewers, a.k.a. the art community, are able to consider the cell-phone performances intriguing, because these expose the vulnerability of private life. Numero Verde can inevitably be considered elitist, thereby creating a friction between the subjects (or unaware performers of the piece), and the priviledged audience who is entertained. This is an issue that comes up with all public performances, and is definitely being pushed to the edge in the cell-phone project.
Artist: Luca Bertini
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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On the cutting edge of new technologies we find hybrid creative practices like 'tech-based art.' Artslab recently released a study on artists who can function by being fully marketable, yet not-for-profit. This is a rather odd model which may not work, unless artists are willing to give up the criticality upon which modern/postmodern creative research is founded. The details of criticism's role can not be explained in this brief comment, but it is a very heavy issue that plagues all artists upon facing the real world as professionals.

The study is quite interesting, and sounds at times more like a conceptual art piece in disguise that will be contextualized as 'social critique' at a later point -- or simply, it is too idealistic. No, my comment is not sarcastic, but simply skeptical.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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The New American Radio has a brand new look. The website archives audio work by important theorists and artists. Here is part of the press release:

"A weekly series distributed to public radio stations nationwide from 1987-1998, NEW AMERICAN RADIO includes over 300 original works commissioned from such artists as Pauline Oliveros, Rachel Rosenthal, Christian Marclay, Alvin Curran, and Carl Hancock Rux. During its 15 years of broadcast life, NAR became known—nationally and internationally—as the principal source of radio experimentation in America, ranking with such high-profile international programs as ABC Australia’s “The Listening Room.” Its works, which won numerous prizes in competitions worldwide, were aired throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Although now off-air, NAR enjoys an active afterlife on the Internet, where full-length programs, audio excerpts, scripts and other artist writings are available."
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Sonar online is currently presenting London Calling a curated exhibition by Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana. Here is part of the press release:

"In 2001 Sónar dedicated SonarMática, the multimedia exhibition of the festival, to the British capital through an overview called 'Invisible London.' Within the framework of that exhibition, Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana, two journalists specialised in multimedia art, presented a selection of websites by London artists who use the Internet as a support, medium and content of the their works. [...] SonarOnline presents an updated version of this list as well as an exclusive interview of Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana for the www.sonar.es users."

Some good stuff is featured. I actually like the fact that mixmasters Coldcut are recommended as net art -- a refreshing sound of breakbeats, scratches, and remixes along with good concept development can not go wrong, though I admit that their website, as well developed as it is, is more of a portal to some of their musical material.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Conceptual artist damali ayo recently launched the web project Rent-a-Negro; an art piece critiquing the exoticization of black culture. The net project presents the 'negro' available for diverse social occasions. Based on ayo's project, one could say that racism has now become part of capitalism as yet another efficient form of production.

Rent-a-Negro critiques racial issues in a similar way as Keith + Mendi Obadike's The Interaction of Coloreds; where 'color' is questioned in terms of marketing efficiency. Obadike's net project, like ayo's, shows that, thanks to technology, bigotry can be suspended, thus enabling a supossed disinterested selling pitch to come forward.

The only downside of Rent-a-Negro would be its lack of documentation. As a conceptual piece, the necessity to adopt naturalized forms of internet marketing becomes vital in order to produce an excess of meaning, that would open up the object of contemplation for critique. This is something that Keith + Mendi Obadike's project does pull off by presenting different skin colors as a way of measuring marketing (racial) efficiency.

ayo's piece has caused quite a stir in the rhizome list, as many netizens have posted their opinions about racism. Even though rhizome is not open for everyone to read, I will here provide the link to the thread, in order to enable some of you to further consider the complexity of our current state of diversity.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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