Robert Atkins on Sat, 7 Jul 2001 17:10:02 +0200 (CEST)


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[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> | The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCEWORLD WAR I and YOUR appropriate place in this history |


This is pathetic when books about art from a major press are written by
writers who know little about part of their subject *and* can't bother to
spend the time doing real research. This is absurdly far from a solicitation
for information and shockingly close to what we would consider plagiarism in
our students' work.

> From: JODI <7061@jodi.org>
> Reply-To: JODI <7061@jodi.org>
> Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 14:06:36 +0200
> To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
> Subject: <nettime> | The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD
> WAR I and YOUR appropriate place in this history |
> 
> 
> 
> 
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> | The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I and  |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                YOUR                                |
> |                                                                    |
> |                 appropriate place in this history                  |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |           This message is confidential and for you only.           |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |    Frank Popper has been contracted by M.I.T. Press to write a     |
> |                             history of                             |
> | technologically-assisted art beginning with World War 1 and I have |
> |                                been                                |
> |  asked by Frank to help him do so. My silent contribution to the   |
> |                                book                                |
> |   concerns my helping choose contemporary colleagues which will    |
> |                             represent                              |
> |  digitally-assisted art at the end of the 20th C and the start of  |
> |                              the new                               |
> |            millennium. I have placed you on this list.             |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |  As you are a living being, we want to give you the privilege of   |
> |                             supplying                              |
> |   the information on yourself and your work which you think most   |
> |                            relevant. In                            |
> |   other words, you can practically write your own entry in this    |
> |                             important                              |
> | history book or at least assemble it from what others have written |
> |                               about                                |
> |  you. What I am requesting from you are around 1500 words written  |
> |                             in the 3rd                             |
> | person describing your evolution and current work. You may stress  |
> |                                one                                 |
> | particular work which we will try to include as an illustration of |
> |                             the text.                              |
> | Please understand that Frank will reserve the right to change your |
> |                             text, but                              |
> |                 that he will consider it primary.                  |
> |                                                                    |
> |       The current working title of the book is "A HISTORY of       |
> |          TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I"           |
> |                                                                    |
> |                  Prior books by Frank Popper are:                  |
> |  Popper, F. 1968. Origins and Development of Kinetic Art. London:  |
> |                               Studio                               |
> |                               Vista                                |
> |   Popper, F. 1975. Art - Action and Participation. New York: New   |
> |                                York                                |
> |                             University                             |
> |   Popper, F. 1993. Art of the Electronic Age. London: Thames and   |
> |                               Hudson                               |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> | Please see below the entry Frank himself has written on me and my  |
> |                              work and                              |
> |                please try to adhere to this format.                |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |  Also please place your work into one of the 4 categories here (I  |
> |                              know you                              |
> |    may have to chose one aspect of your work over the others):     |
> |                   1) ENDURING DIGITAL-BASED WORK                   |
> |                   2) MULTIMEDIA - OFF LINE WORK                    |
> |                    3) MULTIM.DIA - ON LINE WORK                    |
> |             4) INTERACTIVE and/or VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS             |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> | Does this opportunity appeal to you and can we count on you supply |
> |                              us with                               |
> | this English text soon? If so the text should be emailed to me at: |
> |  joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com. If you send it as an attached word  |
> |                              file be                               |
> |  aware that I am on MAC format n but in general paste it into an   |
> |                             email. OK?                             |
> |                                                                    |
> |                 Yours in increasing bifurcations,                  |
> |                        Dr. Joseph Nechvatal                        |
> |                           Paris/New York                           |
> |                                                                    |
> |                email: joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com                 |
> |                                                                    |
> |                home page: http://www.nechvatal.net                 |
> |                                                                    |
> | home: 143 Ludlow Street (14) New York, NY 10002 USA & 114, Rue de  |
> |                             Vaugirard                              |
> |                         75006 Paris FRANCE                         |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |        *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*         |
> |                                                                    |
> |       PS: Here is the outline of the book as it now stands:        |
> |                                                                    |
> |                            INTRODUCTION                            |
> |                                                                    |
> |           CHAPTER I. Historical antecedents (1920-1960)            |
> |                                                                    |
> |        CHAPTER II. Technological Art and Artsts (1960-1990)        |
> |                                                                    |
> |         CHAPTER III. Digital-assisted Art and Artists Now          |
> |                                                                    |
> |            CHAPTER IV. Multimedia Off Line Artists Now             |
> |                                                                    |
> |             CHAPTER  V. Multimedia On Line Artists Now             |
> |                                                                    |
> |  CHAPTER VI. INTERACTIVE and/or VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Artists Now   |
> |                                                                    |
> |              CHAPTER VII. Theoretical considerations               |
> |                                                                    |
> |  CONCLUSION. A resum  of the key developments, aesthetic currents  |
> |                                and                                 |
> | paradigm shifts in the 20th century art that underpin contemporary |
> | digital-assisted art with some basic human issues addressed here.  |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |        *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*         |
> |                                                                    |
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |                Please try to adhere to this format:                |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> | Joseph Nechvatal, originally a painter and performance artist, has |
> |                               worked                               |
> |  with ubiquitous electronic information and computer-robots since  |
> |                             1986. His                              |
> |  computer-robotic assisted paintings and computer animations have  |
> |                              led to a                              |
> |   particularly original research commitment, the Computer Virus    |
> |                            Project, an                             |
> |     experiment with computer viruses as a creative stratagem.      |
> |                                                                    |
> |   One way of looking at Nechvatalis development since his first    |
> |                            shows in New                            |
> |  York Cityis alternative spaces in the 1970s would be in terms of  |
> |                            the various                             |
> |   media with which he had chosen to work, making major shifts in   |
> |                            presentation                            |
> |    without markedly altering his artis complex structure based     |
> |                            primarily on                            |
> | telecommunications and its technology. However, the succession of  |
> |                               pencil                               |
> | drawing, photocopying, photography, sculpture and computer-robotic |
> |                              assisted                              |
> |    painting only tells part of the story.  In fact, in order to    |
> |                             understand                             |
> |  fully Nechvatalis most recent  artistic options one has to make   |
> |                            allusion to                             |
> | Nechvatalis progressive attitude towards technology in general and |
> |                                his                                 |
> |                      existential commitments.                      |
> |                                                                    |
> | In 1983, Nechvatal wrote: "Images of mass annihilation wrought by  |
> |                             technology                             |
> |   now provide the major context for our art and our lives. With    |
> |                             profoundly                             |
> | disturbed psyches, modern people encounter their existential fear  |
> |                               in the                               |
> | atom, for when technology relieved much of manis fear of nature it |
> |                              replaced                              |
> |    that fear with one of technology itself". Three years later,    |
> |                               Joseph                               |
> |  Nechvatal accomplished the first decisive step in his career by   |
> |                              adopting                              |
> |   frankly the latest infomatic technology into his works before    |
> |                            introducing                             |
> | from 1993 onwards the biological/medical/aesthetic concept of the  |
> |                              computer                              |
> |             virus as a leading idea into his art work.             |
> |                                                                    |
> |     Before analyzing in more detail this option let me make an     |
> |                            allusion to                             |
> | another aspect of Nechvatalis aesthetic commitment. He himself has |
> |                               stated                               |
> |    that the focus of his painting is the interface between the     |
> |                          virtual and the                           |
> |  actual, what he terms the "viractual". The basic premise of his   |
> |     computer-assisted robotic paintings is the exploration of      |
> |                          "omnijectivity",                          |
> |  the metaphysical concept stemming from the discovery of quantum   |
> |                              physics                               |
> |  which teaches that mind and matter are inextricably linked under  |
> |                                the                                 |
> |   influence of todayis high-frequency, electronic, computerized    |
> |                            environment.                            |
> |                                                                    |
> |     For Nechvatal, art is then a matter of inventing aesthetic     |
> |                         sensations linked                          |
> |  to concepts of technology, a mental prosthetic. And the function  |
> |                              of this                               |
> |        prosthetic art is to create by extenuation different        |
> |                      technological-aesthetic                       |
> | percepts. Thus his art is about a personal investigation into the  |
> |                             conditions                             |
> |    of virtuality - conditions which are not quite historically     |
> |                          assessable yet.                           |
> |                                                                    |
> | Nechvatalis highly original computer virus project first exhibited |
> |                               at the                               |
> |   Saline Royale in Arc et Senans, France in Nov  ember 1993, is    |
> |                           closely linked                           |
> |  to the spread of biological viruses, notably HIV. The artist has  |
> |                             digitized                              |
> |  his pictorial work, adjusting the images on the computer screen   |
> |                               before                               |
> | introducing a computer virus unto the iconographical database. The |
> |                               images                               |
> |                  are then subject to alteration.                   |
> |                                                                    |
> |   At the end of the year 2000 Nechvatal took a further important   |
> |                           step. At that                            |
> | moment he finished the first phase of the reworked Computer Virus  |
> |                              Project                               |
> |   and brought it into the realm of artificial life, i.e. into a    |
> |                             synthetic                              |
> |  system that exhibits behaviors characteristic of natural living   |
> |                            systems - in                            |
> |   this case viruses. The new  project actively propagates viral    |
> |                             attacks on                             |
> |  Nechvatalis image-files from the "ec-satyricon 2000 (enhanced) +  |
> |                             bodies in                              |
> | the bit-stream (compliant)" series in real time and so, one might  |
> |                                say,                                |
> |  address some fundamental questions about the nature of life and   |
> |                              death by                              |
> |  simulating life/death-like phenomena on the computer. Here viral  |
> |                             algorithms                             |
> |      - based on a viral biological model - are used to define      |
> |                            evolutionary                            |
> |      processes which are then applied to the image-files from      |
> |                            Nechvatalis                             |
> |      "ec-satyricon 2000 (enhanced) + bodies in the bit-stream      |
> |                         (compliant)" show                          |
> | which were exhibited in New York, at Universal Concepts Unlimited, |
> |                              in 2000.                              |
> |                                                                    |
> |    In Nechvatalis virus project, essentially a grid composed of    |
> |                           colored cells,                           |
> |  each virus is localized on a cell and can perceive the color of   |
> |                             the cells                              |
> |   close to it. Each virus has an energy level and at each turn a   |
> |                            small amount                            |
> |  of energy is lost. If the energy of a virus is too low then the   |
> |                            virus dies.                             |
> |   A virus has its own program that defines its behavior and each   |
> |                             program is                             |
> | initially randomly generated, employing a user-defined instruction |
> |                              set and                               |
> |   these instructions govern the chromatic, luminous and resonant   |
> |                            behavior of                             |
> |                             the virus.                             |
> |                                                                    |
> |     Like his earlier computer robot-assisted paintings of the      |
> |                             mid-1980s,                             |
> |     Nechvatalis current work creates immersive saturated space     |
> |                            dominated by                            |
> |   pattern. Fragments of soft human form are more clearly visible   |
> |                           now, emerging                            |
> | from patterns of text overlay. Here the lines provide a sharp and  |
> |                              vigorous                              |
> | opposition to the deterioration of the virtual body through viral  |
> |                             infection.                             |
> | Such recent paintings as Viral attack: transmissioN, Viral attack: |
> |                                the                                 |
> | cOnquest Of the hOrrible, Viral attack: regretS   or Viral attack: |
> |                                piTy                                |
> |   express fully Nechvatalis existential as well as his artistic    |
> |                            commitment.                             |
> |                                                                    |
> |  The gene  general Fin-de-Si cle ornamental excess of Nechvatalis  |
> |                             work gives                             |
> |    to us a metaphor for the current computational conditions of    |
> |                            seeing - and                            |
> |  perhaps for our expansive conditions of technological-aesthetic   |
> |                             being. In                              |
> |    the rising and collapsing of alternative visualizations and     |
> |                             unordered                              |
> | revelations encountered in his work, the circuits of the mind find |
> |                                 an                                 |
> |    occupation exactly congruent with todayis techno-informatic     |
> |                           structures. In                           |
> |   fact, if Nechvatalis preoccupation with fears, mental anguish,   |
> |                            illness and                             |
> |    death has never entirely disappeared from his projects their    |
> |                            artistically                            |
> |    prospective realization within  an up-to-date technological     |
> |                          framework allows                          |
> |      him to come to terms with present-day lifeis complexity.      |
> |                                                                    |
> |                     Frank Popper, 2001, Paris                      |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> |        *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*         |
> |                                                                    |
> |                                                                    |
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> |                                                                    |
> |            Return-Path: <joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com>             |
> |                                                                    |
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> |                                                                    |
> |   Received: from hotmail.com (f6.law14.hotmail.com [64.4.21.6])    |
> |                                                                    |
> |  Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft  |
> |                              SMTPSVC;                              |
> | Received: from 195.68.93.230 by lw14fd.law14.hotmail.msn.com with  |
> |                               HTTP;                                |
> |                 X-Originating-IP: [195.68.93.230]                  |
> |      From: "Joseph Nechvatal" <joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com>       |
> |                  To: 404@jodi.org, jodi@jodi.org                   |
> |  Subject: The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD  |
> |                      WAR I and YOUR appropria                      |
> |               Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 20:33:02 -0000                |
> |                         Mime-Version: 1.0                          |
> |              Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed               |
> |       Message-ID: <F6xMoMpXc21NgqJfhUb0001e15d@hotmail.com>        |
> |       X-OriginalArrivalTime: 18 Jun 2001 20:33:02.0989 (UTC)       |
> |                    FILETIME=[DF4FFBD0:01C0F835]                    |
> |                             Status:  O                             |
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
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