:: Saturday, December 18, 2004 ::

On-line magazines come and go. Some try to follow the format of more established print journals while others try to stay away from formulaic formats and explore the potential of web publishing.

There are online publishings, however, that fall inbetween the lines. Petite Mort is one of these online-zines. The publication is only on its second issue, but its potential is already apparent. The content is always dense and well researched. Much of the material can be considered for primary research, considering that it mainly consists of interviews with artists like MTAA, Lamar Peterson, and Amy Sarkisian among many others. In fact, this is the forte of the online-zine: interviews.

A strength of Petit-Mort is that it does not worry too much about how often it is published. The collaborators are honest about their process and worry more about gathering quality material rather than putting out writings that might not be worth publishing. This leads to quality over quantity; something that helps the magazine escape the problems of having to publish on a specific deadline. The downside might be that people may not frequent the website as much, but hey! there is plenty to read so this makes it possible for people to dig into each interview and learn a bit about the featured artists. The visuals are very well developed; in fact, I find the design of the zine quite refreshing as it uses online publishing in a very economic way, where things are downloaded fast and read in the expected format of websites while making the most of traditional page layouts common in print-magazines. This makes the information much more accessible and fun to read.

Lastly, the magazine is open to all types of subjects, as the publishers describe it as follows: "Our content focuses on wide spectrum of underrepresented talents in the arts, music, writing, and sciences." Sounds like anything may go... but not really, while their interests may be hard to narrow down, their aesthetic is quite specific. Petite Mort is open enough to focus on interesting ideas that cannot be pinned down to specific thematics, but rather ever-changing subjects. Quite a site to visit, considering the overwhelment of blogging publications these days. So, take your time and enjoy each of the interviews, whether you are interested in music, science, new media or fine arts (straight up), chances are you will find something for you in Petite Mort.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Want a pizza? Cory Arcangel makes it easy with Pizza Party: a software for people “who spend so much time at the command-line that they don't have time to pick up the phone...”. Just type in the size, the toppings, the quantity and sit down waiting for the Pizza coming to your door! Sorry, non US residents have to be content with a demo video of the functioning of Pizza Party!


:: Daniele Balit [+] ::
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For those who may not already know, Google is out to create a virtual library. The search engine juggernaut is working with Harvard, University of Michigan, Stanford as well as the New York public library.

In the News Hour, yesterday, Jason Pontin explained that the process of digitizing all the books from these institutions would take a long time. Google has claimed they will be scanning 50,000 pages a day, but considering the millions of books that need to be digitized, this will be a rather slow process. 7 to 10 years was speculated by Ray Suarez, the interviewer.

Copyright is crucial here, as it has been with all other new media developments. Neither of the interviewees could give Suarez a straight answer on the implications of legal infringments over intellectual property.

What is certain is that this move by Google and the other institutions involved will change the way people do research. Indeed Paul Le Clerc, from the New York public library was already pointing this out.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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LOS ANGELES AREA

This Sunday, December 19th at 3pm EZTV will host a panel discussion with Digital Art pioneers David Em, Tony Longson & Michael Wright. The event will be moderated by Paul Brown of the DASH project.

EZTV  
1629 18th Street Ste. 6
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310 829 3389  

EZTVCyber@aol.com

:: [+] ::
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Selected News

Microsoft is off to the search engine war; repeat, MS is off to the search engine war.

File sharing goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.

IBM deals with the Chinese market: to change the world(?)

Mapping the brain; start with a mouse--not your computer mouse... Paul Allen is out to make history again.

Hmm... Mozilla, still beating the MS giant...
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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chico.art.net

Featuring works by
Lionello Borean + Chiara Grandesso
Katie Bush
David Crawford
Carla Diana
Robert J. Krawczyk
Geoffrey Thomas
Jody Zellen

http://www.csuchico.edu/art/net

December 2004 - March 2005

Produced by
the Electronic Arts Program at
California State University, Chico
:: molly hankwitz [+] ::
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