:: Saturday, December 06, 2003 ::

Flash and the film industry have made an interesting coupling ever since we saw highly animated sites such as the "Requiem for a dream" site created by hi-res in 2000. Flash's strong animation capabilities and the film industries need to get accross the esentially linear format of the medium compliment each other well. Narrative on the net gaining creditability and the cinema scratching that itching for interactivity.

Announcing the forthcoming release of Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" in March 2004 is the website for "The Dreamers". In the story of the film, "the tumultuous political landscape of Paris in 1968 is the backdrop as three young cineastes are drawn together through their passion for film." The website does'nt give too much of the story away, it's more of a wander through the atmosphere of the film. No evident menus, buttons or any typical website conventions on the site, instead the user clicks their way through scenes heavily packed with animation (photographic collage style) and sound. Sometimes finding new scenes, sometimes revisiting old, already viewed scenes, it does'nt seem to matter as each scene adds to create the journey through the site to no particular place. While visually and aurally superb the only fault is the lack of intimacy or tacile suggestion one would hope for with such a style.

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Snowed in? Or are you one of those warm folks in California rubbing it in by deliberately staying inside?
No matter. Check out Blob Production's The Beatbox DJ Mixer
It's an interactive music mixing console that lets you choose from loads of rhythms, beats, instruments, and voices so that you can be Mastah' DJ So and So.
This site used to have a multiuser feature, but truth be told, I prefer mixing solo.
Blob has lots of other music and gaming features worth taking a look at.
You'll need Flash MX Player or Shockwave Player for most of the features.
:: Kristen Palana [+] ::
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Short interview with Michiel Knaven. http://www.michaelmedia.org

Please see our latest ::Weekly Features:: for the complete interview.

:: Peter Luining [+] ::
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2003
Turbulence Artists' Studios: "co~dec" by M. Takeo Magruder
http://turbulence.org/studios/takeo

With "co~dec," M. Takeo Magruder continues his quest to create art/media hybrids for the net. It is a "translation" of a one hour CNN news broadcast that has been dissected, compressed—in time, space, and color—then decompressed to its original length. In ambiguous silence "co~dec" slows the net to a crawl (and probably your computer as well, since the piece is very processor intensive).

Takeo's grids, calculations, and crafted methodologies morph into organic, meditative spaces. Stripped of "facts" the linear structure of the piece softens into blurred faces, billowing clouds, shifting sands, and remote explosions. While Takeo transforms television noise into tranquil reflection, his work by no means encourages passivity. Peering into our screens, we are compelled to search for those "facts": who’s face? which desert? what explosion?

BIOGRAPHY

M. Takeo Magruder is an American artist residing in the UK. He received a bachelors degree in biological science from the University of Virginia in 1996. Although Takeo has no formal art training, he has "taken the initiative to both experience vast quantities of original art (from all periods and cultures) and learn the historical/artistic context of the work." He has exhibited his videos, installations, sculptures and net.art at numerous venues worldwide. Upcoming exhibitions include the Royal Society of British Sculptors, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, U.K.; M.S. Noordereiland Gallery, Rotterdam, Holland; and 17th Stuttgart Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany. Takeo is the recipient of a 2004 Turbulence commission funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about Turbulence’s Artists’ Studios, please visit
http://turbulence.org/studios
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

A press release for everyone:
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A Call to Artists and other Regular People

Please contribute to my new project: "public alley 818, Boston, MA, USA"
- http://www.ikatun.com/k/publicalley818/

"public alley 818" is an urban intervention (It intervenes right into an alley near my house). Recently I have begun exploring questions of potentiality, play and public space through the creation of Fluxus/Ono-like scores. In this project, I would like you to contribute the instruction pieces and I will carry (some of) them out in public alley 818 in Boston.

I would like to invite you all to take a moment to dream up an instruction piece for public alley 818 in Boston, MA, USA.

Thanks in advance for your participation/collaboration!"

best wishes,
kanarinka

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

"Merry Christmas, Applet Art from Bora Bora" is the latest exhibition of world's first net art gallery "art.teleportacia.org". The work is a result of the idea to make an ode to the java applet, a format that slowly is dying on the internet. To catch the happy old style applet atmosphere people from the Island Bora Bora were invited to make work based on the possibilities of these applets.

:: Peter Luining [+] ::
...

This is not a review or press release but rather a job opportunity some of our readers might find very interesting. Three positions available at University of Texas:

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The University of Texas at Dallas
Tenure-track, Open Rank Faculty Positions in Arts and Technology

The School of Arts and Humanities at The University of Texas at Dallas invites applications for three tenure-track positions (rank open) in a new interdisciplinary program in Arts & Technology that focuses on the productive interaction of technology and the creative arts and the humanities. Currently offering the B.A., M.A., and M.F.A. (with plans to add a Ph.D.), the program focuses on the creation, application, and cultural implications of interactive digital content. Successful candidates will have an appropriate terminal degree, evidence of scholarly and/or artistic excellence, commitment to interdisciplinary education, and willingness to help build an innovative academic program that complements the current degrees (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) of an interdisciplinary school built on three interrelated areas: Literary Studies, Historical Studies, and Aesthetic Studies.

Appointment effective September 1, 2004. Applications in the following areas are sought:

Computer Animation (Search 1017):
Expertise in computer animation research as well as experience in the design and development of animations for various applications, including games and entertainment, training, immersive research, special effects and/or interactive publications. Experience with MAYA and other professional animation software is required.

Game Studies and Interactive Narrative (Search 1018):
Expertise in research and production in digital games, interactive narrative or drama, interactive television, virtual or augmented reality, time-based interactive installations, and/or media theory. Preference to candidates who have created original work in interactive genres and who are prepared to teach core digital courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Media Studies (Search 1019):
Expertise in the history, esthetics, ethical implications, and/or philosophy of technological innovation in general and specifically of the new media that have emerged from the convergence of computing and media technologies.

Send letter of application, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a sample of work (pointer to an online portfolio preferred) to: Academic Search # (see above), The University of Texas at Dallas, P.O. Box 830688, MS AD 23, Richardson, TX 75083-0688. Review of applications will begin December 15, 2003.

Indication of sex and ethnicity for affirmation action statistical purposes is requested but not required. The University is an EO/AA employer and strongly encourages applications from candidates who would enhance the diversity of its faculty.

For information about UTD, see http://www.utdallas.edu
About A&H, see http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/ah
About Arts & Technology, see http://iiae.utdallas.edu

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

Dicshunary.com is a project I've been aware of for quite some time now that has gone through various incarnations.

Working on the edge of language to provide a system of documenting words that evolve as rapidly as the computer culture that uses them, the dicshunary
"aims to provide a home for all the small, endangered werds that might only exist in the language of one neighbourhood, one family or even one person" and that never quite make it to dictionaries for one reason or another.

Revolutionary redefinition of languages or redundant codification of content, you decide!

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

Here are the latest additions to the New Media Fix:

Version Fest is an online resource providing exhibiting opportunities for the new media community.

Banquete.org is currently presenting "Metabolism and Communication"

The fix of the week is Digital Vision
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Here is a call for entries to Athica's (Athens Institute of Contemporary Art) Virtual Art Gallery version 3...

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The Beauty and the Beast

ATHICA, Athens Institute of Contemporary Art, welcomes submissions of web-site artist projects to be featured at ATHICA's Virtual Art Gallery, Version 3 entitled, The Beauty and the Beast.

Recognizing the grand splendor of endless pixilated color, and the overwhelming barrage and burden of information, both of which reach the sublime, the submitted net art works should be distinguished in design, rigorous in idea and execution and should be specifically intended for the Internet medium.

Deadline - December 21, 2003. Please forward html address of artist project, artist statement, and art- based resume to

Didi Dunphy, ATHICA Virtual Art Curator, at didi@athica.org.

Launch date for the new selections in the Virtual Art Gallery at ATHICA is January 26, 2004.

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
...

Yesterday I visited one of Amsterdam's most hyped art events: the open ateliers of the Rijksacademie. Which is seen by many as the place where you'll see the latest trends in art. The Rijksacademie is an international post graduate artschool that delivered artists like Thomas Demand, Georgina Star and Michael Radecker. To my suprise I noticed that an Indian artist called Kiran Subbaiah, who amongst others presented an installation that showed movement of anything happing in his space with a delay of a few seconds projected on 2 walls, also did some some netart projects. Check them out here: http://www.geocities.com/antikiran.



:: Peter Luining [+] ::
...