:: Saturday, March 27, 2004 ::

A friendly reminder in support of scale, a new journal with an interesting concept for online and offline publishing. Their monthly deadline approaches; official release follows:

The deadline for Scale Vol.01, No.3 is quickly approaching. Please consider submitting your article for publication. Guidelines for format type, style, and size may be found at: http://scale.ucsd.edu

SCALE is a monthly publication with a general focus on issues of art, aesthetics and computation. It is distributed in both print and PDF. Scale Vol.01,No.03 will host a new guest editor, and feature submissions from a range of New Media intellectuals.

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

no-org.net are making a call for submissions for their next, their second, exhibition concentrating on video-net-art works. "The aim of the exhibition is to explore the singularities of the video art on the net." Deadline for submissions is 31st of April. For further information please see the site.

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Is there such a thing as an online retrospective? Furtherfield.org is testing the possibilities with Andy Deck's first retrospective. Here is what Furthefield proposes in their launch-release:

This is Furtherfield’s first ever ‘artist’s retrospective’. We’ve been puzzling over what this might actually mean in the context of a platform such as this, and why we would do such an ‘art world’ thing? Well, in the case of the work of Andy Deck, someone’s got to do it and why not us? It’s got to be done and it should have been done already, so now we are doing it.

Perhaps it is also because with Deck’s work there is coherence, a crystal clear dedication, a purpose to his oeuvre that offers an unique perspective on the artistic/critical history of the Internet. In committing ourselves to a retrospective we create an alternative context, a choice. History is subjective, fickle and can be divisive, which can all too often make being seen a political situation whether one wishes it to be or not.

Furthefield's premise is mainly a conceptual model; that is, they treat Deck's material with the same approach as their other features, but what makes it different is using the term "retropective," and placing an emphasis on hindsight as a critical model.

What does it mean to take an established model such as a retrospective to focus on an artist's work, which mainly functions online, is something that can surely be debated. However, whether one agrees with the premise or not, one thing that must be acknowledged is that Andy Deck is an innovator in online practice. So log on and enjoy his work.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

Subsequent to todays ruling by the EU against Microsoft on more anti-trust violations (abusing their near monopoly in the software market and forcing competitors out of business) and ordering them to pay 497.2 Million Euros, a record fine by the EU, its possibly a good idea to side step the multinationals and have a look at what single individuals can achieve with limited access to resources and funds.

Dyne:bolic is a free software operating system developed as a Linux based front end by Jaromil. Now there are lots of Linux front ends out there however some points that seem to be getting Dyne:bolic a lot of attention are...

1) It's particularly developed with multimedia production in mind so is an ideal system for new media artists and creatives aspiring to avoid suporting the major system developers and their agendas.
2) As well as being developed under the GNU General Public License (Copyleft), it's developed under a Rastafarian approach to software development promoting values such as freedom of choice, the way we communicate and share information and knowledge.
3) And lastly, a small detail but almost certainly allowing the possibility to 'try before you buy' (the later being metaphorical here of course), the fact that it can be burned to a cd and run from that cd on quite modest computers (pentium1 or k5 PC 64Mb RAM).

While far from posing a threat to companies like Microsoft, Apple etc. developers of software and systems like these should be commended for their valuable efforts to speak out and raise awareness for what is essentially the commodification and branding of information which until now has remained in the public domain. Without developers like these, artists like us would not have alternative means and methods and rapidly find the new digital domain simply a corporate space.

:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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This is the last Reminder of Turbulence.org's international commissions. Please find all the information at: Turbulence's guidelines. Deadline is coming up: March 31, 2004.

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

Activism has been part of online communication since the beginning of the global network. Two particular activist groups that are very well known, and worth mentioning to our readers are Critical Art Ensemble and Electronic Disturbance Theater. Interestingly enough there is no official website for the latter, but Ricardo Dominguez, one of its members, seems to be most active these days.

These particular groups work on and off the network creating interventions mostly in the political arena. They are often dependent on the net's power of global communication while their work is developed in a real space, where actual individuals are affected by the outcomes. Some of the pieces are more theatrical and others are more guerrilla-like (that is people are not aware they are part of a performance).

Critical Art Ensemble have developed projects like Flesh Machine, which consists of questioning "various elements of new reproductive technology." And Ricardo Dominguez has a consise history of activism with the Zapatista struggle in Mexico. Dominguez has also developed several interventions with Electronic Civil Disobedience, which promote virtual sit-ins as well as performances in protest.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
...

"Slowtime? -Quicktime as an Artistic Medium"

Quicktime is one of the most popular file formats for streaming media, and the format of choice for producing video for the Internet. According to Slowtime Quicktime also has several features that make it a unique and expressive artistic medium.

The title “Slowtime” is meant to symbolize the range of possibilities of this time based medium, including its interactive ad 3D features.
The show was curated by Agricola de Cologne for Cinematheque.
Due to the show’s wide range of net artists and styles, it has been divided into four parts-the most recent being launched February 19th, 2004. Though viewers have access to the entire show, it is this most recent 4th edition I will focus on briefly today.

Dana Cooley’s “Be Quiet 2003” is an interesting visual commentary on the nature of Quicktime as more of a cinematic scrapbook rather than a full-on Hollywood movie experience. Her images capture fleeting moments that hiccup and loop along with changing texts.

Arlene Ducao has a three part 3D animation entitled “The Penetrating Needle (2002).” The figures depict person to person interactions, and both “mundane and necessary systems of generosity and mistreatment.” The fact that the animation is in three parts addresses the fact that most Internet Quicktimes must be adjusted for length and quality due to bandwidth limitations.

“Monitor” by Kevin Hamilton is an interesting depiction of a looping clip from a famous American war epic, presented as surveillance footage where a figure performs a repetitive act to mark time. The fact that the clip is a loop creates an uneasy feeling of being trapped in time.

There are many other notable works by net artists in the show. My only complaint about “Slowtime” would be lack of a “skip intro” button, and that some artists' works are unavailable due to each artist having their work on separate servers. Overall though, I found the show to be an excellent showcase for the potential of Quicktime video.

:: Kristen Palana [+] ::
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