"The Augmented Plateau: Art and Virtual Worlds in HUMlab 2007-2013"

10 April - 30 April 2014 @ HUMlab-X, the Arts Campus at Umeå University, Sweden

Opening Hours: Monday - Friday, Noon - 4pm, closed on weekends (17, 18 and 21 April Closed)

Opening: 10 April, between 4pm - 6pm

PARTICIPANTS (in alphabetical order):
Alpha Auer, Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, Fau Ferdinand, Garrett Lynch, Katerina Karoussos, Pyewacket Kazyanenko, SaveMe Oh, Selavy Oh, Oberon Onmura, Maya Paris, Kristine Schomaker, Goodwind Seiling, Alan Sondheim, Eupalinos Ugajin, and Juria Yoshikawa

With Loving Support of:
Marx Catteneo, Jo Ellsmere, Mab MacMoragh, Steve Millar, and Evo Szuyuan.

HUMlab is a humanities-led, interdisciplinary digital lab at Umeå University in Sweden. For the last seven years, HUMlab has given support to Second Life (SL) artists by hosting their works on SL HUMlab Island for constructions as well as organising exhibitions at HUMlab's Real-Life multimedia venue.

In 2007-08 Humlab hosted on its Second Life sim Goodwind Seiling's "N00sphere Playground" for the Virtual Moves exhibition at the National Gallery in Copenhagen. Later, it further supported Avatar Orchestra Metaverse for their constructions and premier performances of "XAANADRuul" and "The Heart of Tones" before providing a home for the Yoshikaze "Up-In-The-Air" virtual artist residency programme in 2010. Since then, HUMlab has been a host for nine Second Life artists in Yoshikaze artist residency as well as one artist talk by Kristine Schomaker on her project "My Life as an Avatar." The work conducted in HUMlab and Yoshikaze by virtual world artists and creators has led to a number of academic publications and conference presentations and also resulted in two self-published artist books. Another outcome of HUMlab's engagement for the advancement of virtual worlds and art was their assistance in bringing an ambitious mixed-reality project by Goodwind Seiling to fruition. The project "Experimentation #1" was based on the use of Kinect to control avatar movements and would have been unable to be realised without HUMlab's support.

This year between 10 April and 30 April, HUMlab and Yoshikaze proudly present a group exhibition with all the artists who have been involved in shaping HUMlab's engagement in supporting SL artists and their art. This include, besides those mentioned above, Alan Sondheim, Juria Yoshikawa, Garrett Lynch, Selavy Oh, Katerina Karoussos, Fau Ferdinand, Pyewacket Kazyanenko, Oberon Onmura, Alpha Auer, Maya Paris, Eupalinos Ugajin and SaveMe Oh. We would also like to acknowledge the following SL artists for this show: Machinimatographers Marx Catteneo, Mab MacMoragh, Steve Millar, and Evo Szuyuan, as well as Puppeteer Jo Ellsmere. The exhibition takes place at the newly acquired HUMlab-X at the Art Campus of Umeå University.

New Yoshikaze Artist in Residence on HUMlab SL Island

We welcome Pyewacket Kazyanenko as the new artist in residence within the Yoshikaze artists' studio in Second Life, run by Goodwind Seiling aka Sachiko Hayashi and provided by HUMlab. Pyewacket Kazyanenko states in an Outline and Intent for Yoshikaze Residency:

I've spent the last few years working with Stelarc in simple virtual displays and performance. In my virtual work, amongst achievements and satisfying victories , things inevitability go wrong, strange things happen, sculpts appear wrong, scripts and codes don’t work correctly, robots break. Not being much of a coder or a mathematician, my approach to working with code and 3D environments has always had a naive and random quality. In my exploration with the Yoshikaze residency I hope to further my relationship with the 'glitch' in virtual worlds. The genera of digital glitch art has become quite popular but little has been explored in virtual worlds. I will enter the space with an empty pallet, clear mind and simply explore, try and make happen the wrong, the glitch and the obscure, mixed with ongoing adventures and inspirations that happen daily inworld. My research into avatar psychology and the notion of 'artistic role play' will also have some effect on what I will be doing. This brings the digital unconscious into the work with dreams, desires, needs, failures, a sense of humour and a longing for creativity.

We look forward to the coming months. If you would like to keep up to date with what Pye is doing, the Yoshikaze blog is being updated regularly and you can visit Pye in world from 15 February until the 15 May from the slurl to Yoshikaze: http://slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/95/215/351

Kristine Schomaker's "My Life as an Avatar: The Gracie Kendal Project" & "1000+Avatars"

Yoshikaze presents Kristine Schomaker's

"My Life as an Avatar: The Gracie Kendal Project" (http://graciekendal.wordpress.com)

& 

"1000+Avatars" (http://1000avatars.wordpress.com)

via Skype Video

4pm on 30 January 2012, RL HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden

In "The Gracie Kendal Project" Kristine Schomaker investigates our obsession with the notion of the physical ideal, through her own relation to her alternative ego Gracie Kendal, the Second Life avatar.  The interaction between Gracie Kendal and Kristine Schomaker has resulted in virtual dialogues between the two, revealing the conflicts and even dependency of her dual selves, as well as the influences and impacts one has upon the other.

"1000+Avatars" is an off-shoot project from "The Gracie Kendal Project", however, in its own right.  By documenting individual portraits of more than 1000 avatars in Second Life, the project bears a testimony to the avatar constructions of our time and witnesses the unique composition of our desires in the pursuit of that construct.

Gracie Kendal/Kristine Schomaker is a new breed of Second Life artist.  Rather than pursuing the futuristic vision of the technological possibilities of the virtual, her projects firmly place themselves within the social, historical and psychological context in which ""[t]he avatar becomes a vehicle for personal and public reflection."

Yoshikaze is proud to organise a presentation by Kristine Schomaker on 30 January, 2012.  The presentation will be held from 4pm at HUMlab, Umeå University,  via Skype video connection with Kristine Schomaker in her location in Los Angeles.

Yoshikaze curator: Goodwind Seiling/Sachiko Hayashi.  Yoshikaze is part of SL HUMlab activity. 

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[Description of the Projects by Kristine Schomaker]

In 2006 I began using new media to bring more attention to the obsession our society has with physical appearance. The media is often the hub of this obsession, typified by stars and models with eating disorders, reality TV shows about plastic surgery and advertisements defining the paragon of beauty. This results in an internal conflict between our reality and the idealized.

The Gracie Kendal Project is a close-up daily view of a personal, social and psychological co-existence with my virtual persona. My work deals with the process of becoming self-aware while living in a society obsessed with physical appearance. It is symbolic of the personal anxiety and loss of identity occurring in a world where visually aggressive advertisements dictate who you are supposed to be. In this environment I find it difficult to be comfortable in my own skin.

Every day I would take pictures of both myself and Gracie and place them next to each other comparing the physical with the virtual, the real with the ideal. After observing how we were interacting with each other through photos, I realized there was a dialogue forming. The natural extension in this story was for this dialogue to be realized through actual conversations between Gracie and I.

Through written chat and eventually comic-like banter, we express our inner dialogue in a public way. We have developed a co-dependent relationship in which each of us wishes she were the other. I yearn to have the life she does, the beauty, the success, and independence. She yearns to be free from the constraints of pixels.Using Gracie as a form of self-presentation, I started to explore my relationship with my body as well as question my own identity. I realized that everything going on in my life was manifesting in my body and in the figure of Gracie. Both were becoming a site for anxiety, fear, stress, grief, loneliness and depression. My body and that of my avatar became a source of autobiographical material in which a story was being written.

Comparing the ‘perfect’ Gracie with my real self, I will bring more attention to the obsession our society has with physical appearance. I am hoping to engage with every person who believes they are unattractive, overweight and afraid. I hope young girls will see my project and feel empowered to be brave. I plan to videotape my performances with my avatar and post them on YouTube. I hope to give talks about my project to appropriate organizations and schools, boys and girls clubs and eating disorder groups.

While working on My Life as an Avatar on a personal level, I was compelled to expand my project universally to explore notions of online identity in the construction of other people’s avatars. My 1000+ Avatar project consists of individual portraits of over 1000 avatars within the virtual world of Second Life. This project also questions and explores commonly held assumptions about stereotypes, judgment, self-awareness and those marginalized by race, gender, sexual preference and physical appearance.

The 1000 Avatar portraits zoom in on the complex social and cultural conventions that determine our identity. The avatar becomes a vehicle for personal and public reflection. This series of portraits is a contemporary anthropology of a cross section of avatars from the virtual world of Second Life in the early 21st century. In these portraits, I explore the representation of the avatar as a construct, distinct from any traditional notion of the ‘self’. I examine the sitter’s identity and probe below the avatar surface to reveal and comment upon their character, personality and their diversity.

The subjects are neither simulacra nor characters in a game: they are people, complete, complex identities with defined social roles. The avatar becomes the projection of our identity. Each portrait represents a different personality, a singular life. These people entered the brave new world of virtual environments as explorers, searching for anything and everything, finding a new empowerment- and a new freedom to be themselves. Experimentation is welcome. As an avatar, they are provided with a safe environment which allows everyone to divulge and consider boundaries and barriers that aren’t readily accepted in the physical world.

Fau Ferdinand in HUMlab

 

Yoshikaze Secodn Life "Up-In-The-Air" Residency presents

Fau Ferdinand aka Yael Gilks

23 - 27 January 2012

@ HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden

Opening Hours: 8am - 4 pm Weekdays

Opening: 23 January Between 2pm - 4pm

Artist Talk at 2pm

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"On virtual landscapes and real feelings.

Photons, camera lens, screen, eye -  mashed then mashed again.

Are landscapes seen from afar not virtual ? I can hardly see a thing but colour anyway, unless it’s on a screen near me soon.

The shrinking field of view, that particular scene  affects me - that  bird I couldn’t save. The cat too fast and ants have spread the word. Life abounds around death.

I join in, giving up on quality  to make believe I’m really there though I was there.

Inflation and deflation of an avatar that was death before processing. Death gets pregnant by Deformation.

The avatar, as the persona, is a battlefield.

I’m what eats me.

Distress grabbed." 

(Fau Ferdinand)

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Fau Ferdinand, a.k.a. Yael Gilks, is an established Second Life performance artist, who has produced memorable works since her entry into SL in 2004.  Her work manifests metamorphosis of life, often dealing with the theme of life and death,  from one state of existence to another,  in a manner almost expressed as surreal.  Dissolving in fluidity, her subjects enter her world through the dreamscape which surrounds her Self.

During her residency at Yoshikaze, she has taken a step into a new direction, in which video/machinima proceeds not only as a mere documentation of her virtual performance but as a hybrid medium of the virtual and videoart for which she expands her theme as the end result.

Between 23 - 27 January 2012 at HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden, Yoshikaze is pleased to present her first independent videowork "Bird Funeral" which she has completed during her Yoshikaze residency.  In addition the exhibition offers an opportunity to experience two additional derivative videoworks, into which "Bird Funeral" with the elements from the virtual world has metamorphosed itself through the techniques of moving image.

Currently Fau Ferdinand/Yael Gilks is a co-director and co-curator of SL sim Odyssey.  Her work "Bird Funeral" completed at Yoshikaze is online at http://vimeo.com/32119484.  The remains of "Bird Funeral" can be experienced inworld at Yoshikaze residency spot: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/84/216/701.

Curated by Goodwind Seiling/Sachiko Hayashi in collaboration with HUMlab.  The poster design by Beatrice Rosberg at HUMlab.

Yoshikaze "Up-in-the-Air" Residency (www.slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/95/215/351) is a Second Life residency programme run by Sachiko Hayashi together with SL HUMlab sim manager James Barrett from HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden. As part of HUMlab, its 3264 sqm land in Second Life supports SL artists in their pursuit of virtual art practices and researches.  For inquiries, please contact: goodwind.seiling@gmail.com.

Yoshikaze is funded and hosted by HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden.

Yoshikaze blog: http://yoshikaze.blogspot.com
Yoshikaze vimeo: http://vimeo.com/yoshikaze

Philosophy, the Body and Virual Worlds

Katerina Karoussos has created a video "NOETIC GRACE - FROM IMAGE TO IMAGO" during her Yoshikaze residency on the HUMlab Island in Second Life:



Until later this week it is possible to view the video and documentation from the residency in Second Life, please go to http://slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/98/233/351/,

The following is the slide show from her presentation at RL HUMlab, Umeå University.

Conference show

View more presentations from Jim Barrett

As the manager of the HUMlab project in Second Life, I would like to thank Katerina and Sachiko Hayashi, the curator of the Yoshikazi Up-in-the-air residency. This residency has expanded the perimeters of the project. From next week we will be welcoming another artist into the project and I will announce that on this blog shortly.

Yoshikaze Up-in-the-Air Residency Exhibition in HUMlab

This is a short video of myself presenting artist Garrett Lynch's work from a two month Yoshikaze residency on the HUMlab Second Life Island last Wednesday. Garrett made a performance that was mix of video streaming, coded prims and sound in Second Life, and that is what you can see on the big screen. The smaller screens show various video installation pieces Garrett made during the residency.

Thanks to Garrett, Sachiko Hayashi, Calle, Johan, Toby, Stephanie (who made the video), Jon, Emma and the whole HUMlab crew.

Garrett Lynch in HUMlab

Yoshikaze "Up-In-The-Air" Second Life Residency Presents

GARRETT LYNCH

8-14 February, 2011

at HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden

Opening Hours : 8am-4pm (Weekdays)

Opening : 8 February Between 2pm-4pm

Mixed Reality Performance by the Artist at the Opening at 3pm (CET)

Open to SL Audience at 6am (SLT)

Live Streaming of the Performance: http://www.asquare.org/work/yoshikaze

Yoshikaze Second Life Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/95/215/351

"Identity is the basis of my practice in Second Life, a practice which forms a part of my larger networked practice that deals with networks as a site and context for artistic initiation, creation and discourse. …Online worlds such as Second Life however move identity beyond the codified online usernames or static visual iconography that we have until now employed." (Garrett Lynch)

Centered around his avatar as the sole subject of his ongoing research into virtual identity, Garrett Lynch represents a new generation of Second Life artists for whom the shift in focus from novelty in the virtual to a deepened sense of the virtual has come to emerge as a natural progression. By incorporating Google Earth, Max/Msp and CamTwist into Second Life art practice, Lynch's work establishes a unique path which inquires into our confounding cognitive process of differentiating the real from the virtual. Beneath his tech savviness that expands Second Life's boundary into several external devices lies the core of his exploration into the nature of representation in the era of virtuality, the unknown territory of multiple realities which even encompasses several layers of virtualities.

During December 2010 and January 2011 Garrett Lynch has produced a number of remarkable works at the Humlab island in Second Life as the resident Yoshikaze's "Up-In-The-Air" artist. Yoshikaze is proud to present these works in an exhibition at HUMlab, Umeå University, between 8-14 February 2011. In conjunction with the HUMlab exhibition, the Yoshikaze studio in Second Life will be open to the public.

For more information, please visit http://yoshikaze.blogspot.com/2011/02/announcing-garrett-lynch-exhibition.html

Sachiko Hayashi: Yoshikaze Curator

James Barrett: SL HUMlab Sim Manager

Yoshikaze "Up-in-the-Air" Residency (http://yoshikaze.blogspot.com) is a Second Life residency programme run by Sachiko Hayashi with James Barrett from HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden. As part of HUMlab (http://www.humlab.umu.se/english), Yoshikaze supports SL artists in their pursuit of virtual art practices and researches.

Art Exhibition: Alan Sondheim in HUMlab

Second Life Yoshikaze "Up-in-the-Air" Residency presents

Alan Sondheim

15 -22 September, 2010
@HUMlab, Umea University, Sweden

Opening hours : 8AM-4PM (Weekdays)

Opening : 2PM-4PM, 15 September, 2010
Artist present via video link from New York

Yoshikaze "Up-in-the-Air" Residency is glad to present work by Alan Sondheim at HUMlab, Umea University in Sweden. The exhibition runs between 15th and 22nd of September, and will show A. Sondheim's work completed during his residency at Yoshikaze on HUMlab Island in Second Life.

Yoshikaze "Up-in-the-Air" Residency is a new Second Life residency programme run by Sachiko Hayashi together with sim manager James Barrett from HUMlab, Umea University. Alan Sondheim has been Yoshikaze's first artist-in-residence since 20 May, during which time he has produced tremendous amount of work of highest quality in Second Life. These works, which have been documented as machinimas, audio files and still images, will be shown on eleven monitors in HUMlab's brand new exhibition space at Umea University.

Alan Sondheim:

"For the past several months, as a result of the HUMlab residency, I've been working on avatars and installations in the virtual world Second Life. My main concerns have been the relationship between narrative and architecture, the relationship between language (inscription) and a 'natural' virtual world, the creation of installations that have no referents in the physical world, and the interrelationships among body, sexuality, language, and virtuality….
The images, videos, and documents in this exhibition reflect the varied stages of the installation and performance work. I'm fascinated with the idea of creating the inconceivable, working always in dialog with the software and hardware themselves. And I'm driven, above all, by two things - a real sense of wonder about the world, and the desire to know as much as I can about its structure and phenomenology. Serious play in virtual worlds is an amazingly productive process in this regard, resulting in what I call 'ontological mashups' that seem to constitute the very substance of our being."

In conjunction with HUMlab exhibition, Yoshikaze Studio in Second Life will be open to the public. Between 15-22 September, please visit

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/95/215/351/

to experience Alan Sondheim's work inworld (Second Life is required as a free download).

Yoshikaze Curator: Sachiko Hayashi
SL-HUMlab Manager: James Barrett

Yoshikaze Blog: http://yoshikaze.blogspot.com
Yoshikaze on Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/user3882081

HUMlab is an internationally established platform for the digital humanities and new media. Centered around an exciting studio environment of about 500 m2, HUMlab offers interesting technology, prominent international visitors, often several simultaneously ongoing activiites and a rich mixture of competences and interests. Over the years HUMlab has received internationally renowned guest lecturers, among them Katherine Hayles and Steina Vasulka.
More info on HUMlab > www.humlab.umu.se/english , http://yoshikaze.blogspot.com/2010/05/humlab-rl-sl.html

Hz Journal #13

Fresh, new and online:

Hz
www.hz-journal.org
#13 presents:

[ARTICLES]

"Program" System of Digital Art:"BOOM! Fast and Frozen Permutation" – Taiwan-Australia New Media Art Exhibition
by Yu-Chuan Tseng
Yu-Chuan Tseng reports on Taiwan-Australia New Media Art Exhibition from the perspective: "An important element of digital computer technology ... has digital art features of aesthetic concepts and behavioral structure....'program' is an important factor in constructing the work."

Games: The Art of Making, Bending, and Breaking Rules
by Andrew Yashar Ames
"In interactive art, the observer and the work are constructed by rules that can be bent or broken, but cannot be absent." Andrew Y. Ames examines "Game-based art..[with] implied and explicit rules that artists expose and exploit for aesthetic and ideological purposes."

The Miracles of Feedback
by Mario van Horrik
"This paper deals with my fascination for acoustic feedback... I want to express my doubts, theories, and questions, as well as our motives and enthusiasm for using this medium." Sound artist Mario van Horrik explains his involvement over two decades with acoustic feedback experiments.

Hz vs Church
by Novi_sad
Sound artist/composer Novi_sad's project "'Hz vs Church' aims to use Churches (or other big sized public buildings) as post loudspeakers in order to create, unfold and play live various sounds which appear in the 'aural surface' by using and manipulating in real time different kinds of frequencies."

We Are Not Alone
by Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico
"Network and information technologies, with a mutagen leap, directly connect the mind of the human being to hyper-contents and to hyper-contexts, creating perspectives that are totally new." Iaconesi/Persico on their projects which emerge as one of the possibilities/directions network technology brings forward.

Intimate Transactions: Close Encounters of Another Kind
by Tony Fry
"Crucially, the interactive intent of the work was to create a means to reflect upon a particular kind of experience – the experience of our being relationally connected as a collective body." Writer/theorist Tony Fry on Keith Armstrong(creative director)'s "Intimate Transactions," and its link to Ecosophy.

[NET ART]

Pollen Soup by Pierre Proske

Sharedscapes - Points of View on Landscapes by Grégoire Zabé

Cityscapes by Myron Turner

Passivitate Imunitass (Activista)by Poderiu

88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (To Be Played with the Left Hand)by David Clark
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Talan Memmott in HUMlab

The Topic of the Seminar: In[ter]venting Multi-Modal Rhetoric(s)/(a) Poetics of Emergence


A Portrait of Selves

Yesterday I attended two seminars in HUMlab, one on fan fiction, which was very interesting but primarily focusing on pedagogy and younger authors (not really my scene), and one on digital poetics. The second of these (which was actually the first in the order of the day) has been making me think since I attended it. Talan Memmott presented a word and image performance with a basis in critical theory, art and design (although he is no fan of the last term). When I was actually listening to the seminar I found some of it difficult to follow, dense and intense at the same time. But then afterwards we adjourned to the pub with a chance for chat I (drank very little and) went back over the talk and began to realize how close much of it was to the area I am working with in my own research. As a result, today I have felt a renewed sense of focus in my thesis writing (I managed a page today, not bad considering I only started working on it a 16:00..a long story, single parenthood continues for another 24 hours).
I have spent the last few days in a bit of a confused state about how to finish a chapter I have been (re)working on for a month now. Talan's wild imagery and persistent questioning of the possibilities helped me see what it is I am trying to say.
If you want to see the seminar here is the link to it.

Online Journal Hz #12 is HERE

Subject: Hz #12

Hz
www.hz-journal.org

#12 presents:

[ARTICLES]

Spectral Memories: the Aesthetics of the Phonographic Recording by Dugal McKinnon
Sonic artist/Composer Dugal McKinnon examines the aesthetics of the phonographic recording: "how is the record, as a technology with a well-documented history, also a signifying medium that has generated certain meanings, and modes of aesthetic production and reception?"

_Augmentology Extracts_ by Mez Breeze
Futurist and cyber poet Mez Breeze explores concepts that shape and are shaped by an extensive range of online/synthetic encounters through the phenomena Reality Mixing, Game Addiction and Avatar Formation. Three extracts from augmentology.com

Sound Art and Public Auditory Awareness by Ariel Bustamante
Ariel Bustamante explores the connection between Sound Art and public auditory sensibilities by reviewing works by Max Neuhaus, Sam Auinger and Bruce Odland, Christina Kubisch, and Scout Arford and Randy Yau.

Second Lives, Virtual Identities and Fragging by Matthew Board
"The use of the virtual identity, whether through Second Life, the persona of the hacker or an online identity gives the digital artist the freedom to explore creative strategies that would otherwise be much more difficult to realize." Matthew Board investigates online art practice.

YMYI - You Move You Interact by João Martinho Moura and Jorge Sousa
"YMYI (You Move You Interact) is an interactive installation, where one is supposed to build up a body language dialogue with an artificial system so as to effectively achieve a synchronized performance between the real user's body and the virtual object itself."

Pixelgrain by John Grande
Writer John Grande's essay on "Pixelgrain" project by the artists Michael Alstad and Leah Lazariuk, an online repository of documents and ideas linked to the fading symbol of the Canadian prairie grain elevator.

[NET ART]

Spamology by Irad Lee

Self-Portrait by Ethan Ham

All The News by Jody Zellen

MyNovel.org by Alan Bigelow

Nothing At All (Here) by Jeremy Hight

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Troyano: Digital Art and Culture

Troyano is a collective of independent Chilean artists from Santiago, which organizes cultural activities relative to art and technology. TROYANO formed in 2005 to do interdisciplinary research on art and digital culture. Their recent publication, Art and Digital Culture, brought together work from contributors as diverse as artists and theorists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, and the U.S. This publication grew out of two major conferences TROYANO organized in 2005 and 2006 with the support of the Spanish Cultural Center and the Museum of Contemporary art in Santiago, Chile: Elena (2005) and Updating, Art and Technology (2006).

Toryano want to propose in the contemporary Chilean society a debate on the “creative” use of media in opposition to a purely economic, utilitarian and commercial vision of technology diffusion. Chile has been in close commercial relationships with Japan, Taiwan (and now China) for decades, it's an important copper producer (the copper is a fundamental component to produce technology) and it has been always projected to a reliable and dynamic “modernity” (but also neo-free trader and reassuring for Western Countries) so the critical position of the Troyano group is an unfounded position.

A Video of TROYANO presenting their bilingual publication, Art and Digital Culture, at CRCA on UCSD campus, on Tuesday, May 29th 2007. (Realplayer, 1.23 mins) An interesting insight into Latin American digital media activism and cultural actions presented in English.

TROYANO: CRITICAL CHILE NEAR AT THE FUTURE (a text interview of three of four components of this group - formed by Ignacio Nieto, Italo Tello, Ricardo Vega ed Alejando Albornoz)

No Result is Still a Result

Lars Cuzner, an artist researcher working in HUMlab, has just created a project where

An invitation and call for rejected proposals will go out to artists, scientists, project coordinators etc. These proposals will be entered into the database and the process of recycling from the intellectual landfill of dismissed ideas can begin. Other calls for rejected proposals will be done online as well as similar exhibitions in other places.

The ideas that have been rejected are given new life in Fresh Out of Ideas,

If we view each rejected proposal as an individual within a population, the individuals consist of DNA; e.g. we can view each sentence as a gene. Some texts have a combination of genes that are more successful than others based on criteria specific to the grant or call. When the criteria change, so does the relative fitness of the individual. The fittest individuals have a better chance to reproduce and hence their genes have a higher probability of being represented in the next generation. Through this process of selection, reproduction and gene mixing, new individuals/proposals with potentially higher fitness than their parents will be generated.
The fitness function of the genetic algorithm will primarily be based on the criteria of the call for proposals in question. In addition, the selection pressure can be adjusted and refined by means of specific concepts that the applicant supplies interactively by mapping grant topics, themes, key words, shared metaphors etc.

If you think Fresh Out of Ideas is worth creating you can vote for it on the Rhizome 2009 Commissions after April 17. I know I will be :-)

New Media Writing and Digital Art

The New River journal of digital writing and art Fall 2007
All the News That’s Fit to Print by Jody Zellen :: The Wave by Heather Raikes :: Digital Paintings by Karin Kuhlmann :: A Sky of Cinders by Tim Lockridge :: Marginalia in the Library of Babel by Mark Marino :: Semantic Disturbances by Agam Andreas :: (NON)sense for to from Eva Hesse by Carrie Meadows.

New Media Writing and Digital Art

In the new tradition of including the realm of digital art in the journal, there are several pieces in this issue that can be considered solely digital art, and those that bridge the line between art and hypertext. Karin Kuhlmann’s three-dimensional algorhythmic works create a similar satisfaction to viewing a traditional canvas, but are amazing in their digital method.

Digital writing rarely appears in such a way that demands the reader remain within a sequential order of screens. Hypertext relies on surprising associations and non-linear linking to keep the reader’s interest. There are several pieces in this issue that bridge the distinctions of new media writing and digital art. For instance, Jody Zellen’s “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” uses text from The New York Times to create a beautiful and effective piece of interactive art. Zellen’s work incorporates a type of found poetry consisting of juxtaposed headlines which the reader can keep clicking to create new lines. This is work that is both visually satisfying and pertinent. The reader is able to create her or his own meanings with each new page. In a similar way, Heather Raikes’ “The Wave,” uses choreography and visually stimulating links along with original text to create the world of the piece.

The work of A. Andreas also functions as digital art. Andreas’ pieces do not move from node to node, as the aforementioned works, but exist as artistic compositions that use movement and color to create the tone of each work. Words appear unexpectedly, in a less linear fashion, and contribute to the associations the viewers make for themselves.
Lauren Goldstein, Managing Editor

Announcing: Iraqimemorial.org

Iraqimemorial.org is an online exhibition and call for participation to artists, designers, architects or other interested creative individuals to propose concepts for the creation of memorials to the many thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in the War in Iraq. The project is an open call for and a repository of memorial concepts dedicated to the memory of the estimated 80,000 to over 655,000 deaths in Iraq of non-combatants as a consequence of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.

Artists from all over the world are invited to participate in this project. The Iraqimemorial.org website is available in both English and Arabic language versions. The Iraqimemorial.org project site features a growing online exhibition of artist’s proposals featuring media ranging from traditional sculptural monuments and installations to experimental works utilizing performance, digital technologies and sound.

As a user generated content site, the project will continue to be realized dependant upon the participation of artists. New memorial proposals will be uploaded as they are received. The public is invited to view and rate the proposals on the site.

The submitted proposals may never be realized - the intent is to facilitate a process that allows for the expression of concepts as a collective, networked, creative act of remembrance that takes place in the present tense.

Participating artists include:
Tony Allard-USA, Carla Drago-Australia, Al Fadhil-Germany, Song He, China, James Hutchinson-UK, Bakh Ismail, UK, James Johnson-Perkins-UK, Sabine Kacunko-Germany, Suzanne Kanatsiz-USA, Lynn Marie Kirby-USA, Erik Krikortz-Sweden, Patrick Lichty-USA, Maria Paschalidou-Greece, John Quinn-UK, Kate Sicchio, UK, Jack Toolin-USA.

Jurors include:
Dr. Nadje Al-Ali, University of London, UK, Yaelle Amir, Curator and Writer, New York City, USA, Dr Bernadette Buckley, Goldsmiths University of London, UK, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta, The Raqs Media Collective, Delhi, India, Dr. David Simpson, University of California Davis, USA, John David Spiak, Curator, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, USA, Dr. Marjorie Vecchio, Director/Curator, Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

Support Rhizome!!

Please give some money to one of the best resources for digital art on the web. From Rhizome,org, of which I have been a member since 2004:

Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Our programs, many of which happen online, serve and spotlight an incredibly dynamic community of artists and innovators year-round. At the end of each year, we turn back to you, our readers, participating artists, critics and entrepreneurs, and ask that you support us by becoming a member during our annual Community Campaign, which ends midnight December 31st, 2007. This year, our goal is $30,000--an amount required to produce our online programs in 2008 and develop them in the directions that our community has asked for. Greater online participation, expanded editorial coverage, larger commission grants--we can only fulfill these important requests with your support. Please become a member today for $25--or make a higher-level donation and receive an exciting limited edition artwork as a thank-you gift. Besides these perks, becoming a member will provide vital support to our efforts and our mission in 2008. Help us ring in the new year on solid ground! Give today. We need you. -- Rhizome

http://www.rhizome.org/support/

SVEN: Surveillance Video Entertainment Network

SVEN CV - the computer vision software used for SVEN (Surveillance Video
Entertainment Network) - is now available to the public. The features and interface were designed specifically for the SVEN project, so the interface isn't what you might expect from user-friendly, general purpose software. However, we hope it can be useful for other public space projects, as it is specifically designed to track people in uncontrolled settings, as opposed to a gallery or stage where lighting, background, clothing, etc., can be controlled.

SVEN is a piece of tactical software art. Tactical software art comes out of traditions of tactical media and software art. It’s a logical mix: tactical media is a response to the way mainstream media influences culture; software art is a response to the ways mainstream software influences culture.

Tactical media often involves a combination of digital actions and “meatspace” – or street - actions. In SVEN, these are one and the same - digital actions that take place on the street (just off the curb in this case).

Surveillance is already scary.

Sure, surveillance is scary - but you’ve probably heard that before. We’re being watched all the time, and we don’t know by whom, or what they’re doing with the images and other data they’re gathering. Scared? You bet - there’s a bogeyman under the bed, so we’d better not look. But remember, we’re supposed to be scared – people are trying to scare us. Foucault pointed out that not knowing when the bogeyman is watching you can scare you into changing your behavior. But not knowing how the bogeyman is watching you can scare you too. SVEN’s purpose is not to point out that surveillance is scary. People are scared enough as it is.

Software shouldn’t be scary.

From the SVEN CV website.

Net Arts

JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art is starting its 2nd phase by releasing an open call focussing on the question whether blogs and/or blogging can be tools for creating a new type of net based art.

The launch of this new project is planned to be in October 2007 also the occasion for re-launching JavaMuseum after a phase of re-structuring since 2005.
The new show "a + b = ba ? [art + blog = blogart?]" will be presented in sequence on divers festivals.
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JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art, founded in 2000, realized during the 1st phase (2001-2005) 18 show cases focussing on Internet based art in a global context, including more than 350 artists from 40 countries.

For "a + b = ba ? [art + blog = blogart?]" JavaMuseum is inviting artists to submit such an art project in form of a blog. The entry details, regulations and entry form can be found on http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=7

Related to JavaMusuem quest and questions is the now online paper by Karin Wagner; Internet Art and the Archive at HumanIT:

Abstract: Internet art is ephemeral by nature and several initiatives have been taken to preserve it for the future. Apart from formal archives holding art of this kind, there are also artworks which exist outside these web based institutions. In what way can they be regarded as archived? In the article, criteria are suggested which can be used to judge whether an artwork is active or archived and these criteria are applied in the analysis of twelve different artworks. Different kinds of dating are important for how the status of a work is perceived by the visitor. The concepts of explicit and implicit archiving are used to characterize archiving of Internet art, where works can be "dead" and "alive" at the same time.

The Latency of the Moving Image in New Media

Curated by Eduardo Navas

ARTISTS
Jorge Castro (Cordoba, AR)
Arcangel Constantini (Mexico City, MX)
Timo Daum, (Berlin, DE)
Corey Eiseman (Miami, Florida, US)
Yann Le Guennec (Lorient, FR)
Guillermo López, (Madrid, ES)
Antonio Mendoza (Los Angeles, Ca, US)
Brian Mackern (Montevideo, UY)
Julia Masvernat (Buenos Aires, AR)
Raúl Marco Padilla (Madrid, ES)
Gustavo Romano (Buenos Aires, AR)
Katherine Sweetman (Los Angeles, Ca, US)

Online Exhibition

The Latency of the Moving Image in New Media

By Eduardo Navas

New Media Art (book) Wiki

New Media Art, a book written by Mark Tribe and ReenaJana (published by Taschen in 2006) is now available online as an open-source wikibook. This version of the book is not meant to be a substitute or replacement for theprint version, but rather an expandable and revisable online educational resource.