:: Saturday, July 26, 2003 ::

Its rare I'll mention a book here but with one like "Making Art of Databases", I think you'll understand my overwhelming joy, eagerness to rush out, buy it and add it to my bookshelf which is being increasingly dominated by "MIT Press" publications!!

The "V2_" Organisation in Holland, organised some masterclasses in association with the Zentrum für Kunst and Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica Center in Linz, and the Center for Culture and Communication (C3) in Budapest around the topic of the dominance of the database (in particular over narrative) in new media art.

New media has been used repeatedly to organise media into catalogs / structures / databases, one example being photography galleries on the internet. Yet new media artists themselves have been inverting this classic create art and catalog it system by integrating catalogs / structures / databases into their art works, questioning what is an art work? Is the uniqueness of an art work relevant anymore? Is an art work the sum of its parts? What is the relationship between the artist and their art? etc etc.

No co-incidence you'll find that Lev Manovich was one of the main agitators at the masterclasses after his proclamination in "The Language of New Media" (2001) that essentially all new media is a database. This book essentially documents the masterclass and its results. Don't expect any definitive answers but this is certainly a step in the right direction towards an understanding, appreciation and acceptance of new media art forms in mass culture.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

"Greylines" by the collaborative group "Slateford", Simon Yuill (Scotland) and Tryggve Askildsen (Norway), is a series of "code doodles", nothing more nothing less, created via email exchanges between the two artists.

Partly inspired by their joint admiration for the early twentieth-century experimental animators Hans Richter and Oskar Fischinger, these downloadable director pieces play with shape, opacity, movement and gesture.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

How does TV culture affect new media and the web?

Now the above question can be entertained in Jim Punk's latest blogspot: http://544x378.free.fr/(WebTV)/index.htm. WebTV is a blog specializing in graphics as opposed to text. The result is a commentary on TV culture as a medium affecting new technologies such as the web. WebTV uses TV language to create a daily journal. Jim Punk's new blogspot may be an omen of what TV will be like in the future. Today it is possible to choose TV programs at will from cable companies, thanks to digital technology; tomorrow viewers might be able to insert their own material into a TV program, much like punk's weblog, to be watched in their homes.

You can be invited by Jim Punk to participate. If you are interested, it might be a good idea to drop him a line. You can visit his website: jimpunk.com for more information on his net art projects.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

An upcoming event this Monday, 28/07/03, for those of you attending "Siggraph 2003". Uebergeek (Amy Alexander) and Navasse (Eduardo Navas) perform their "CompuCulture a la Geek" VJ/DJ set at Cafe CRCA @ The Reincarnation Building in San Diego, America.

Visuals will be supplied from VJ Uebergeek's "B0timati0n 2" (the Internet Geek VJ) and "Extreme Whitespace" (performance typing a la Linux terminal), while sound will be performed by Navasse, thats netartreviews Edwardo Navas, under the theme of "the graphic as a metaphor for collaboration".

For more information see here.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

Walter Benjamin is best known for his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Benjamin's most polemic statement is on the aura (uniqueness/cultural specificity) of the work of art, which according to him, withers away when the object is mechanically reproduced. The aura of the work of art was more recently reconsidered by Douglas Davis in his online essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction." Here the death of the aura is again revisited not in relation to objects but rather in relation to information networks.

And then along comes an artist...

Arcangel Constantini has developed the online project The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical vs. Digital Reproduction; which, in a way, reconsiders ideas in both of the aforementioned essays (although he does not reference either writer directly). Constantini's project presents computer manipulated reproductions of serigraph prints; each reproduction is available for purchase only during the moment of presentation. The user can purchase the moment for whatever amount desired. Once the window is closed, the object only exists in the collector's memory. A record of all virtual collectors is also kept in the website's database.

Constantini is interested in the tension between concrete space and digital space. He questions: "In concrete space is there such a thing as a copy, or is each reproduction an original? In virtual space, is the original the code and the copy the interpretation of such code?" These and other questions hunted Constantini while developing Mechanical vs. Digital. And the end result is an intriguing piece of online art, which exposes the current roles of the work of art as an object of contemplation, a marketable item, a form of communication, and a critique of its supporting culture.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical vs. Digital Reproduction effectively shows that the work of art is now completely dependent on its context for use value, which means that contextualization may be taking over where the aura left off. There may no longer be an original work of art, but there will always be original and unique experiences -- and this, Constantini's work is able to bring to netizens all around the internet.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Here is a great online event opportunity:

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goto("net.art")
www.escaner.cl/netart
chile - uruguay
NeT.ArT Invitation
We invite you to visit our website: goto("net.art")
A meeting point to learn, discuss, share and create, focused on digital art and 'Net Art'. Become part of our site by sending work (preferably prepared especially for goto("net.art"). There is a free choice of subject and the size must be no more than 500kb, although the optimum size is 100kb. The work must be animated or interactive. We do not accept simple images. Formats accepted: gif. flash, html, mov, etc. No time limit.
Send to: ytoaranda@terra.cl ? yto11@terra.cl
The work will be published at goto("net.art").
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For further information contact Clemente Padin and Isabel Aranda



:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

This review for Valérie Lamontagne's new project "Sister Valérie of the Internet" came to me in the last few days via the "noemalab" mailing list and struck me as being both unique and linked to Tamara Laï's recent call for contributions to her "portrait of god" project, (see that, cross referencing!).

Its not often you see two net.art pieces on the subject of religion in the same week. Granted they both take very different approachs. Tamara Laï's question whether new spaces require new religions while Valérie Lamontagne's takes advantage of the bizare online cultural phenomenon of people wanting to write about every little detail of their lives. Two artists, ironically both French speaking artists, 'using' religion in unique and interesting ways and in such a would-be godless place, questions whether net.art is gradually moving away from the cold inhuman style its so often accused of and suggests that even in new places we can never escape ourselves or our culture.

Valérie Lamontagne's "Sister Valérie of the Internet", a net.performance alowing users to confess their sins online, is the chosen "Splash Page Project" for the months of July/August on "Year Zero One". Further information, dates and times for the performance can be seen on the "Year Zero One" page or the "Sister Valérie of the Internet" project page, so go redeem yourself!
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

Javamuseum is currently accepting proposals for three different events:

a) extended deadline 1 September 2003
*Perspectives'03* - Call for entries

b) extended deadline : 1 September 2003
*"Feature" Netart from German Speaking countries""
Call for submissions - in German
www.javamuseum.org/deu.htm

c) deadline 30 September 2003
*"Feature: Netart from Great Britain and Ireland"

2. Cinematheque
MediaCentre at Musee di-visioniste
show casing streaming media
www.le-musee-divisioniste.org/mediacentre/

deadline 30 September 2003
Slowtime?......... Call for proposals

3. Violence Online Festival
www.newmediafest.org/violence/

deadline ongoing
call for proposals
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for further info visit javamuseum.org
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

New Forms Festival 2003 is taking place in Canada in less than a month. Book your airline tickets, this event is worth noting! Our very own Garrett Lynch will be part of the conference as panel moderator on New Media, and his art work will be presented as part of the expo as well. Here is part of press release:

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New Forms Festival 2003: Inter[sec/ac]tion: A convergence of music, new media and art

Vancouver July 2 - The New Forms Festival is taking shape. Only four weeks remain before this unique event that celebrates emerging forms of digital art, music, performance, and interactive environments begins.

Wednesday, July 30th to Saturday, August 2nd in Vancouver, BC. Canada
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The events include Gallery receptions, night performances, a conference and late night events. For more information contact:

Sarah Tesla, Media & Communications Director
New Forms Media Society
P: 604.879.2666
Fax: 604.648.2754
tesla@newformsfestival.com
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

ISEA2004 is open for proposals. Here is part of the press release:

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ISEA2004: STOCKHOLM HELSINKI TALINN
New media meets art, science, research and popular culture
Networked Experience seeks to articulate the new technologies as they are employed in contemporary art and cultural practises in order to investigate and discuss the structures of modern society. It will concentrate on cultural production, which explores social, political, aesthetic and ethical concerns, and uses the internet as a creative laboratory for the exchange and distribution of ideas and knowledge. It will serve as a platform to stimulate the critical discourse in terms of content production of new media art and culture. The approach will be multidisciplinary and there will be a special focus on global artistic networks and collaborations.

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for further information, please visit the website: ISEA2004
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Here are the latest additions to the New Media Fix:

CRCA (Center for Research in Computing and the Arts) is a research Center functioning in University of California San Diego.

Rhizomes.net is an online journal featuring creative presentations of media criticism (see weekly features for a brief review).

Variablemedia.org lends its virtual space from one to three months to artists.

This week's recommended fix is asci.org
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Maps / graphing applications of the internet have existed almost as long as the internet itelf. Originally being created only in the domain of scientists and programmers, for a few years now net.artists have have been making attempts of their own to understand the structure of the space they work in.

"Flexplorer" is the latest example of such attempts by erational.org created in flash. Not without its problems (as all internet mapping systems are due to the huge task of such an undertaking), "Flexplorer" is valid research towards an understanding of how we tend to visualise information structures on computers by using visual clues of things around us. The stem, head and petals of a flower, the spiraling outward growth of a snails shell etc. All of the above are examples of sophistication from a central starting point and this is what "Flexplorer" does. It starts with a point on the network, a url, a webpage, and spiders out via links on that page to create an ever increasing complex structure.

For me "Flexplorer" lacks a certain artistic touch that would make it a unique vision of the network. Little is done to take it much further than I/O/D's "Web Stalker" in how it displays the webpage and its locality. In fact it could be said that the visualisation is what we have come to expect in those few years that we have been using the network and have been baraged by images of complex structures of information via popular culture. Yet that said, this is version 1.0 of "Flexplorer" and so this is most probably one to watch for the future!
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

processing - new work on flight404.com

webcam:landscape
webcam:sonic
webcam:fireflies

processing represents the most dramatic shift in work on Robert Hodgin's 'digital playground' flight404.com since its inception three years ago. Alongside pieces like 'ribbon' inspired by Yugo Nakamura (yugop.com) version 6 of the site features new generative work which experiments with real time webcam filtering. Complex algorithms interpret video feed, colour tracking and audio input to creating exquisite environments and video imagery.

:: Neil Jenkins [+] ::
...