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             beestal@pacbell.net : Switch v5n3 - Database - now online   | 1 3 |
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Australian Network for Art and Technology <anat@anat.org.au> : Alchemy   | 1 4 |
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     abroeck@v2.nl : Wiretap 5.13 - Story-boards for Interactive Media   | 1 5 |
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Switch - the new media art journal of the CADRE Institute, San Jose
State University.

http://switch.sjsu.edu

[Apologies for cross posting]

Featured Writers: Steve Cisler, Frank Dietrich, Steve Dietz, Alex
Galloway, Eugene Thacker, Joel Slayton, Geri Wittig, Sheila Malone, and
Don Tanner.

Interviews with: etoy, Lev Manovich, Mark Tribe, Rachel Baker, Eugene
Thacker, Olia Lialina, RTmark, Usman Haque, and Heath Bunting.

Intro to Switch v5n3, Database:

One of the most important developments of the 20th century was the
proliferation of the database into every fiber of Western cultural
fabric, (which of course has had profound global impact). The rise of
companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Sun Microsystems, Wal-Mart, AOL,
and Oracle Corporation are among the notorious manifestations (including
the Internet itself), that have in one way or another reaped the
benefits of database. From "just-in-time" delivery and picking systems
to inventory, process, and financial management, database enables
significant and culturally transforming productivity gains that are
manifested ultimately in the distribution of atoms and the actual. No
doubt, the roots of this revolution can be traced through figures such
as George Boole, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Kurt Gödel, Claude
Shannon, Alan Turing and E.F. Codd, but the changes wrought by this
revolution have been most intense in the very recent past.

In general, artists had tended near the end of the 20th century to
underestimate the degree to which database and network mediate the
distribution of the real, often confusing the Baudrillardian concept of
hyperreal with terms like unreal or imaginary. This led to a lot of
storytelling and legend building, but only rarely to work in which
agency was developed or expressed in collaboration with data itself.
Data is at least real, if not more so. In this issue of Switch, we set
out to explore the issues of data and database, in terms of both
ontological questions, and how they impinge upon various worlds of art.
But you don't need to speak Structured Query Language to rapidly access
Switch v5n3, because these editorial notes provide a reasonable guide.

CONTENTS:

One example of an art world which is being impacted by database is
treated in Arts, Crafts, and Globalization, wherein Steve Cisler, data
traveler, activist and former member of the Advanced Technology Group at
Apple Computer, takes the reader on a journey that exposes how trade
networks impinge upon the world of crafts, collectables, and tourist
trinkets.

Artist and former Silicon Graphics marketing manager for European
operations, Frank Dietrich, expands upon his seminal 1986 essay "Digital
Media: Bridges between data particles and artifacts". In reading the
1986 article, I was reminded (once again), that many of the interesting
and provocative problems inherent in digital media are not "new"
discoveries of the current "net.art" generation, but rather that there
is a tradition of mature thought in technology art that has been largely
ignored in the present euphoria over networks. In Data Particles - Meta
Data - Data Space, Dietrich expands his previous analysis of the
properties of data particles to include speculation about meta data,
navigation, and tranformation rules, as the directions in which further
investigation should proceed.

In Memory_Archive_Database, Steve Dietz, the new media-curator for the
Walker Art Center, gives his perspective on database as art form. This
is done from his unique position inside one of America's most renowned
and progressive art institutions.

Eugene Thacker parses recent developments in bio-engineering in his
Database/Body: Bioinformatics, Biopolitics, and Totally Connected Media
Systems. In the process, he adds a great deal of connective tissue
between these events and the work of theorists such as Manovich and
Kittler on new media. Ultimately he uses this to develop a Foucaultian
analysis of contemporary genetic databases as surveillance systems. This
is an important piece of work (imho), especially given the increasing
numbers of artists who are moving into various bio-technologies as fine
art media.

In Ontology of Organization as System, Joel Slayton and Geri Wittig give
a detailed theoretical account of datum as autopoietic agency. This
essay represents something of an inversion of the tact taken by Thacker
and even Dietz: instead of looking at the effects (social and
ontological) that database has on life or art, Slayton and Wittig seek
to map out the social and ontological qualities of the datum itself.
Alongside Dietrich's notion of the data particle, we get a glimpse into
the secret life of data.

In the The New Performer: Data as Performer and Performance, Sheila A.
Malone looks specifically at how database has entered into contemporary
performance art. In VisiCalc to Cybernetic Babylon, Don Tanner looks at
the history of VisiCalc, reminding us that a spreadsheet program was the
first killer application of the personal computer revolution.

In previous editorial notes for Switch (those that fell near the yearly
turn of the calendar), I had felt it necessary to give something of a
recap of the year's events in the network art world. But this year I
give special thanks to Rhizome's Alex Galloway for giving me the century
off. In net.art Year in Review: State of net.art 99, Galloway provides
his honest view on that world from his position near the eye of the
storm. The only eulogy I desire to add to his would be one for the
romantic notion of the artist-genius, or the meme of the artist as voice
in the wilderness, whose sensitive individuality is opposed to the
artistic constraints of "the academy." I see no reason to carry these
19th century problems for the arts into the 21st. They no longer apply
in a multi-nodal world where collaboration is simply more interesting,
and Starbucks has usurped the Salon in any case. Many argue that 2001 is
the real end of the millenium, so I hold out hope for this particular
eulogy under next year's tree.

Speaking of toys, Switch continues to bring our readers interviews with
the most important artists and thinkers who are presently puzzling over
the problems of new media in the arts. Perhaps one of the watershed
events for the heroic imaginary of the art world, (also rapidly becoming
a cautionary fable in the business world), is the domain name battle
between the Swiss art ensemble etoy.com and the California toy retailer
eToys.com. Geri Wittig spoke with the etoy.PRESS-SPEAKER in the midst of
this battle.

Also, Inna Razumova interviews new media theorist and scholar Lev
Manovich, whose writing on database has become extremely influential in
the network art world. And finally, Paula Poole presents a collection of
interviews taken from participants in the openX symposium at Ars
Electronica 1999, including, among others, Mark Tribe, Rachel Baker,
Olia Lialina, and RTMark.

Happy 2K


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    The Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT)

                      announce

                  **   Alchemy   **

International Masterclass for New Media Artists and Curators

Brisbane, Queensland
May/June, 2000

Applications due: 18 February, 2000
Please contact ANAT for guidelines and application forms or visit
http://www.anat.org.au/projects/alchemy

ANAT will hold an International Masterclass for New Media Artists and
Curators for six weeks in May/ June 2000, in association with the new
Powerhouse Live Arts Complex in Brisbane <http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org>.

Artists, curators and theorists will come together to germinate and
hothouse their ideas, test their hypotheses, develop new processes and
create new works, within the context of an intensive learning environment.
The intention is to provide an opportunity for artists and arts
practitioners from across Australia and around the world to network,
develop new work, devise new forms of collaboration.

Participants will be provided with 24 hour access to a lab., exhibition/
installation, performance space and workrooms in the exciting new
Powerhouse Live Arts Complex, which also opens in May. Highly experienced
curators and artists will provide training and lead workshops for
participants, within the context of a critical production site.  The makeup
and composition of the Masterclass will constantly evolve, as tutors and
participants undertake different aspects of the project.

The Masterclass will engage with a diverse range of topics: from science
discourses to indigenous issues to curatorial practice.  Of particular note
will be the component of the masterclass dedicated to performance and
hybrid practices being developed in collaboration with the New Media Arts
Fund of the Australia Council.  As the project is intended as a dynamic
one, there will be continual opportunities for exchange of ideas.

Alchemy will be divided into thematic areas.  These themes will not happen
in isolation. There will be overlap and confluences between the different
areas.  Participants will be asked to identify two to three themes which
may be of particular relevance to their practice in order to participate in
those components of the Masterclass.  Themes which will be addressed are:

*  Art and Science Collaborations
*  Indigenous artists needs
*  A Digital Region?: collaboration and exchange in Asia and the Pacific
   regions.
*  Curatorial Issues for New Media practices
*  Performance and Hybrid Art Practices
*  Artistic practice and the Internet

To culturally contextualise the project,  satellite events - combiinge fora
with open days - will be held, giving the public and media an opportunity
to view the work-in-progress produced by participants.

Throughout the Masterclass there will be a focus on skills development and
skills sharing. The framework for the masterclass will  also address issues
of access to local and overseas works and theoretical issues in order to
contextualise new media work, particularly within an international
framework. In order to take into account the needs of participants, the
program for the project will not be finalised until the participants have
been identified.

ANAT has pioneered intensive skilling programs for artists through its
coordination of annual National Summer Schools in computer media since
1989.  The schools have provided the catalyst for profound conceptual
shifts and directions in practice for participating artists. In 1999 ANAT,
for the first time, ran three National Schools: two National Schools for
artists (one for Indigenous Australian artists and one with a science / art
focus), and one for curators and other artsworkers.

Based on ANAT's experience managing these diverse projects and an ever
increasing number of enquiries internationally about the possibility of
participating in our programs, for 2000 the scope of this concept has been
broadened to develop a more interactive and collaborative approach to the
Masterclass learning environment and, with the support of the Daniel
Langlois Foundation, opened up to international participation.

The intention for this project is for it to be very much a people event. We
are interested in developing an environment which will encourage the
formation of ongoing international collaborations.


Please contact ANAT for guidelines and application forms.
or visit http://www.anat.org.au/projects/alchemy


The masterclass has been generously supported by the Daniel Langlois
Foundation, the Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts funding
and advisory body and Arts Queensland with additional support from the
Government of South Australia through Arts SA, Arts Tasmania and the NSW
Ministry for the Arts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM THE DESK OF THE AUSTRALIAN NETWORK FOR ART AND TECHNOLOGY
anat@anat.org.au
postal address: PO Box 8029 Hindley Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
web address: http://www.anat.org.au/
ph:  +61 (0)8-8231-9037
fax:   +61 (0)8-8211-7323

Director:  Amanda McDonald Crowley (mobile: 0419 829 313)
Manager: Amber Carvan
Information Officer: Charity Bramwell
Web and Technical Officer:  Martin Thompson

Memberships: $A12 (unwaged), $A25 (waged), $A50 (institutions)

ANAT receives support from The Australia Council, http://www.ozco.gov.au
the Federal Government's arts funding and advisory body
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


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V2_Organisation and Exploding Cinema present:


Wiretap 5.13 - Story-boards for Interactive Media


Location: V2_Organisation, Eendrachtsstr.10, Rotterdam
Date: Sunday, 30 January 2000, 14.00-17.30 hrs
Entrance: Hfl. 7,50


With: Ron Kuivila (US), David Blair (US/F), Martin Berghammer (D)
Moderator: Tanja den Broeder (NL)


Wiretap 5.13 - Story-boards for Interactive Media, deals with the
construction of narrative and interactivity in media art projects.
Interactive films, electronic music or computer games no longer have a
fixed, linear narrative, but they offer the user the possibility to
constructing their own stories, their own works from the digital material.

Notation determines the outcome of a performance in the more traditional
art forms, like in classical music composition or the story-board in
film-making. Here, notation provides a rather strict rule for the
realisation of the art work. In non-linear media, notation has to strike
the right balance between the freedom of the user to choose a path through
the material, and the need, or the desire of the artist, to convey a
certain story, or to construct an exciting narrative.

The question arises, how much narrative should be scripted into an
interactive environment, and how much freedom the user of such environments
has to perform? How can a fruitful instability be introduced into such
programmes? The Wiretap programme looks at the role that direction, chance,
subjective decisions and social relations play in digital performance
spaces. It explores new forms of notation and interactional scores which
guide and motivate action and interaction in multi-medial environments.


Guests:

Ron Kuivila (US) is a sound artist and musician who studied with, amongst
others, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Alvin Lucier. Kuivila teaches at the
Music department of Wesleyan University. Ron Kuivila composes music and
designs sound installations that revolve around the unusual home-made and
home-modified hardware and software instruments he designs. He pioneered
the use of ultrasound and sound sampling in live performance. More recent
work has explored the possibilities of mutant speech forms, compositional
algorithms, and high voltage phenomena. In 1999-2000, Kuivila is a guest of
the Berlin artists programme of the DAAD.

Martin Berghammer (D) is a visual artist, web-designer and programmer who
lives in Berlin. He is the director an co-curator of Shift e.V., an art
organisation and gallery in Berlin. For Shift, Berghammer recently curated
the exhibition 'RELOAD' in which four artists teams designed special
levels for the online multi-user game Quake. Berghammer has done extensive
research about online games, focusing on the social and creative aspects of
online interaction.

David Blair (US/F) is a film maker and media artist who has recently
launched the first complete Web-version of 'Waxweb', a "hypermedia" version
of the theatrically-distributed electronic feature "WAX or the discovery
among the bees" (1991). Waxweb is available on CD-Rom and on the Web, in
English, French, or Japanese versions, and is based on 1600 film shots and
a 25-section matrix unique to each shot. It is one of the most extensive
and complex artistic attempts to date at reconciling film narrative with a
non-linear, hypermedia structure.

Tanja den Broeder (NL) works in the area of new media and design direction
after a career in theatre and television.
"The Greeks employed drama and theatre as tools for thoughts in much the
same way in which we hope to employ our computers today. Greek drama was the
way that Greek culture publicly thought and felt about the most important
issues of humanity, including ethics, morality, government, and religion.
The tragic universe placed in the digital domain can be a forum, a context,
for the postmodern soul to experience motions of heroic splendour within."


Bookmarks

Martin Berghammer / Shift - http://www.shift-ev.de
David Blair: Waxweb - http://www.waxweb.org
David Blair: The Telepathic Motion Picture of "THE LOST TRIBES" -
http://www.telepathic-movie.org
Calin Dan: Happy Doomsday! - http://www.n2.nl/projects/hd/
Exploding Cinema - http://www.iffrotterdam.nl


Wiretap 5.13 is a co-operation of V2_Oganisation and Exploding Cinema. The
Wiretap series is supported by the Rotterdam Art Foundation and the Dutch
Ministry of Culture. V2_Organisation is supported by the City of Rotterdam,
by the Dutch Ministry of Culture and Luna Internet.


Exhibition

Calin Dan: Happy Doomsday!

During the IFFR and as part of the Exploding Cinema programma, V2_ presents
the Dutch premier exhibition of the interactive multi-user installation
Happy Doomsday! by Calin Dan (RO/NL). Happy Doomsday! is a reflexion about
history and action, modelled on a computer game in which two users go into
battle. Two fitness machines function as interfaces and navigation tools in
the virtual battlegrounds and dungeons of European culture. A prototype
version of the installation was presented during the DEAF98 festival, and
the completed piece was recently shown at the ZKM in Karlsruhe/Germany.
Location: V2_, Eendrachtstr. 10, Rotterdam
Duration:  26 January - 6 February 2000


Context Wiretap 5.13

Notation is a way of representing, or: writing down, movements and
modulations in time. A well-known form of notation is the musical score of
classical Western music where the score provides the possibility for an
accurate, reproduction of a musical piece which the performer may never
have heard before. Graphic signs are used to represent modulations of sound
through the manipulation of musical instruments (pitch, rhythm,
coordination and dis/harmony of different players).

Notation is a specific code of description which can also be applied to
other systems and types of performances. Dance, for instance, can also be
notated, as can be the performance of audiovisual electronic material. In
film-making, the story-board is a form of notation which is playing an
increasingly important role when, in interactive movies and games, the
linearity of the traditional narrative is replaced by open, non-linear
narrative environments of sound, image and text.

This field for performative applications within electronic arts is rapidly
expanding. The role a notation plays need not be to specify a work so much
as create a set of conditions that enable creative action.  Such notations
are found in the work of John Cage, the 'prose scores' of Fluxus, and
ongoing practices in improvised music. Interactive systems, digitally
supported music and dance performances, databases  of audiovisual material,
etc., extend this, further confusing the social roles of  'maker', 'performer',
'user', and 'consumer'. The more indeterminate the notation, the greater
the freedom of the performer and the more blurred the distinction between
the composer and the performer, between programmer and user. In interactive
systems, every user becomes a performer and a co-composer. The challenge
for the designers of such tools and notations is to find the right balance
between constraint and openness, between fixing and destabilising narrative
and expressive elements.


---------------------------------------------
V2_Organisation
Eendrachtsstraat 10 - 3012 XL Rotterdam
tel: 31.(0)10.206.7272
fax: 31.(0)10.206.7271
mail: v2@v2.nl
URL: http://www.v2.nl/wiretap
---------------------------------------------



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