Christina McPhee
Since the beginning
Works in United States of America

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BIO
Christina McPhee http://christinamcphee.net
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DISCUSSION

Re: Rhizome needs to drop its membership fee and free its content


Rachel,
Thanks for the very informative and exciting response. Could you put this
up on rare and digest too? It would be great if you and Francis could take
time to post often regarding goals and strategies like the ones you describe
here, like giving away memberships , and public programs for artbase...etc.
Maybe a once a month post on the state of rhizome?

christina
On 5/19/04 11:04 AM, "Rachel Greene" <rachel@rhizome.org> wrote:

> Hi all:
>
>
> I have read every post in this thread and will continue to do so. Thank
> you Tim for initiating this discussion and for your constructive
> critcism. I really appreciate all of the contributions (even the Free
> Rhizome ones) and think many of the suggestions are good and
> potentially viable.
>
> I stand behind our foray into membership, but want to reassure everyone
> that we are 1. Aware of the impact of Google, RSS and Blogs on how
> people search, read, and interact online (and consequently, the
> perception of Rhizome), and 2. We are working on projects that will
> relieve the burden on individuals and make our content more accessible.
> For example, through the Organizational Subscriptions program (
> http://rhizome.org/info/org.php ) this year we will give away scores
> and scores of Rhizome memberships to people who come to us via centers
> or schools in poor and excluded communities (such as in Sub-Saharan
> Africa and South Asia). I am developing more public programs that will
> bring ArtBase works and Rhizome more generally into art spaces (not
> just online).
>
> To answer people who inquired about Free Fridays and all that... I
> don't have Friday statistics available (and Francis is out of town),
> but we are finding that membership and web traffic are on the increase
> while subscriptions to email lists (except for the free, highly
> editorial list Net Art News which has an explosive growth rate) grow
> much more slowly. This suggests to me that more and more people are
> using our web site and (obviously) signing up for membership. It may be
> that the Raw, Rare, and Digest lists feel closed and small, but that in
> fact people are reading Rhizome content a lot via the web site instead
> of interacting over email. We found some general statistics that across
> the Internet, email lists are withering because of spam and the
> popularity of blogs. So one could argue that our spam-proof,
> members-only lists are reasonable for our times.
>
> I also wanted to mention that we do not receive any financial support
> from the New Museum, though they do give us office space. Rhizome
> raises its own monies, as always. It also seems relevant to note that
> we received twice as much money this year from our dear Rhizome members
> than from American Government Agencies. But back to the New Museum --
> we do receive other kinds of important support from them -- they
> believe in Rhizome's mission and staff. Their entire staff is really
> supportive and interested in Rhizome, and we will be collaborating in
> the future.
>
> I hope this can be an ongoing conversation. I am in the difficult
> position of representing an institution so I can't always move that
> quickly, but I know more than anyone that the voices on RAW are
> important and crucial to what I do and what Rhizome is.
>
>
> Thanks, Rachel
>
> p.s. I will be following this thread closely, but I wanted to add that
> if anyone wants to chat in real time, on Thursday afternoons EST,
> Rhizome staff is going to hold informal office hours on AIM or ICHAT.
> Feel free to ping me at RachelFayeGreene or Francis at francisrhizome.
>
> +
> -> post: list@rhizome.org
> -> questions: info@rhizome.org
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php

--
Slipstream transmedias : soundart performance cinema installation
architectures network theory

<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.naxsmash.net/inscapes>

Lecturer, Department of Architecture, c/o Hargrave Studio, California
Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, California

DISCUSSION

Re: Rhizome needs to drop its membership fee and free its content


Patrick, right on.
> I realize that $5 is miniscule, but something has had a significant
> impact on the community.
>

> However, in this light, several other communities have come to fill the
> void.
>
> Therefore, I offer some ideas:
> Maybe Rhizome's function has changed, and should not consider itself as
> 'grass-roots' any longer (i.e. more institutional), if even up a notch.

Yes, this is a de facto situation. Its affiliation with the museum makes it
institutional---how could it be grass roots??

Rhizome leadership might decide that it is a necessity to sustain the
institution of "Rhizome" as a "grass roots" brand name media services non
profit company. Stay solvent through a multivalent funding strategy
including memberships, volunteer work, private, corporate and grant
donations. Rhizome recognizes itself as "Rhizome

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: re: Rhizome needs to drop its membership fee and free its content


Content should be free, yes. And also, perhaps not to have utopian
expectations of Rhizome...it does quite well what it does do..keeping up to
date on announcements mainly, and engaging interesting, live topics as they
emerge, like the "molotov cocktail" theme that came out of Joy Garnett's
confrontation with the copyright mavens.

A both/and situation: surely Rhizome has to function somehow within a
country that has virtually zero arts funding.

I like mac's thoughts about a modulated solution...members exclusives blah
blah.

Rachel et al at Rhizome, what are the advantages of the new museum
affiliation in your view(s)?

Christina

On 5/18/04 3:23 PM, "Mac McKean" <mac@heaventree.com> wrote:

> I agree. Very few content sites survive for long by charging for their
> content and those sites are all financial sites like WSJ and TheStreet.com,
> not art sites. Rhizome could keep the membership fee--only members can upload
> artworks and view Opportunities. And it could ask for donations, via PayPal,
> etc.
>
> However, all content should be free. And linked, blogged, RSS-fed, spread far
> and wide. This will probably result in an increase in members, I suspect, not
> a decrease, as the site goes from being a club of faithful to a public
> resource.
>
> Perhaps there could be a Rhizome store if more money is needed. Sell netart
> trinkets, t-shirts, whatever. But the content = free...
>
>
>
> t.whid wrote:
>
>> oops,
>>
>> forgot to provide a link:
>>
>> http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/free_rhiz.html
>>
>>
>>
>> ===
>> <twhid>http://www.mteww.com</twhid>
>> ===
>>
> +
> -> post: list@rhizome.org
> -> questions: info@rhizome.org
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php

--
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.inscapes.com>

DISCUSSION

May on -empyre-: more than 'push play' : the playful cybernetics of criticalartware and experimental video pioneers


May on -empyre- soft skinned space....

More than 'Push Play': the Playful Cybernetics of Criticalartware

<http:/www.subtle.net/empyre>

-empyre- welcomes criticalartware (US), an artists group with a radical
take on 'art as software/software as art'. Inspired to build a live,
reflexive trace of early video practice of the seventies, criticalartware
has created "liken" -- a cybernetic platform for both discussion and
development of techno-social theory and practice. This May, please join
Criticalartware and friends, including some of the pioneers of experimental
video practice, including Sherry Miller Hocking, Dan Sandin and Kate
Horsfield.

How is the live memory trace of early experimental video practice
important? Might the cybernetic 'play' of "liken" a feedback revival of
seventies visions of art as a transforming social practice?

Please join criticalartware on -empyre- with

blithe riley
bensyverson
jonsatrom
JonCates

<http://www.criticalartware.net>

// criticalartware coreDevelopers

----------------------------->blithe riley's art uses media spectacle to
blur distinctions between real/imagined, past/present, and live/recorded.
She curates video for Transmissions, Ladyfest, and Press Play Video, and
is a founding member of Pink Bloque, a radical feminist dance troop in
Chicago.
<http://www.pressplayvideo.org/>
<http://www.pinkbloque.org/>

---------------------------->bensyverson outputs mediaTypes such as
[movies/videos], web applications, software and more. His output files
include the satromizer plugin (2001), the criticalartware statementmaker
(2002), liken (2004) + the criticalartware operating system (in progress).
<http://www.bensyverson.com/>

------------------------------>jonsatrom's output consists of live video
glitching, custom built hardware, colorful glitchware + artware. jonsatrom
works as a web-designer + systems
analyst. <http://selectall.org>

------------------------------>jonCates is an artist w/a systems approach to
new media. jonCates currently teaches in the Film, Video and New Media dept
@ School of the Art Institute of Chicago. as a curator + organizer, jonCates
is a co-organizer of the Version>04: invisibleNetworks convergence, as
well as past Version festivals + curates Game-Video, a screening of
videos influenced [+/or] informed by video games.
<http://www.whoisjoncates.com>

--and friends, among them video pioneers

---------------------------->Sherry Miller Hocking (Assistant Director of
the Experimental Television Center, Project Director of the Video History
Project, educator, curator + organizer of media arts events {for over 30
years})

---------------------------->Kate Horsfield (Executive Director of the Video
Data Bank + producer + distributor of media art works, events, festivals,
compilations anthologies + collections {for over 30 years})

------------------------------>Dan Sandin (founder of Electronic
Visualization Lab @ University of Illinois Chicago, creator of the Sandin
Image Processor, the CAVE virtual reality system, educator, researcher +
artist {for over 30 years})

Subscribe at <http://www.subtle.net/empyre>

------ End of Forwarded Message

DISCUSSION

Multimedia in LA Sat night


<http://la.flavorpill.net/mailer/issue60/index.html#sat>

Abakus 2.0: Creation Counts
when: Sat 4.24 (7pm-4am)
where: Laser Images (6911 Havynhurst Ave, Van Nuys, 818.997.6611)
price: $10