curt cloninger
Since the beginning
Works in Canton, North Carolina United States of America

ARTBASE (7)
BIO
Curt Cloninger is an artist, writer, and Associate Professor of New Media at the University of North Carolina Asheville. His art undermines language as a system of meaning in order to reveal it as an embodied force in the world. His art work has been featured in the New York Times and at festivals and galleries from Korea to Brazil. Exhibition venues include Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Granoff Center for The Creative Arts (Brown University), Digital Art Museum [DAM] (Berlin), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and the internet. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including commissions for the creation of new artwork from the National Endowment for the Arts (via Turbulence.org) and Austin Peay State University's Terminal Award.

Cloninger has written on a wide range of topics, including new media and internet art, installation and performance art, experimental graphic design, popular music, network culture, and continental philosophy. His articles have appeared in Intelligent Agent, Mute, Paste, Tekka, Rhizome Digest, A List Apart, and on ABC World News. He is also the author of eight books, most recently One Per Year (Link Editions). He maintains lab404.com, playdamage.org , and deepyoung.org in hopes of facilitating a more lively remote dialogue with the Sundry Contagions of Wonder.
Discussions (1122) Opportunities (4) Events (17) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

teaching opportunity: UNCG


http://www.uncg.edu/art/current/interim.htm

Art Department - University of North Carolina at Greensboro
New Positions Announcement
Application Deadline: May 30, 2003
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Fine Artist One Year Interim Appointment

Appointment Description: Dynamic program is seeking an exceptional
artist to contribute to the Fine Arts Design concentration.
Individual should have a strong commitment to teaching, curriculum,
and studio development. Specialization in on-screen exhibition,
interactive presentation, web based publication, and multi-media.
Experience with Macintosh platform and a broad range of graphics
software applications a must. Skills and understanding of physical
media and traditional studio practice preferred.

Responsibilities: Teach all levels of Fine Arts Design with an
average course load of 16 contact hours per week. Integrate
specialization and new evolving technologies into teaching and
curriculum. Assist in the design and development of Digital Imaging
Studio, currently 30 G3's and a broad range of peripherals.
Continued professional and creative research is expected of all
faculty appointments.

Qualifications: MFA or equivalent, and an exhibition record.
Knowledge of ongoing theoretical and critical issues in the visual
arts. Knowledge of Macintosh hardware and software applications
including proficiency with most Adobe and Macromedia products.
Salary commensurate with experience.

Description of UNCG: The Department of Art at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro currently offers MFA, BFA degrees in studio
art, art education, and BA degrees in museum studies and art
history. The art department faculty consists of 17 full time members
and the University has 700 faculty and 13,000 students. UNCG is
centrally located in a rapidly growing metropolitan area in close
proximity to the mountains, ocean and rural areas. The art
department fosters a close relationship with the Weatherspoon Art
Gallery, has a prestigious visiting artist program, a vital artist in
residency program, and a state of the art digital imaging studio.

For application details visit:
http://www.uncg.edu/art/current/interim.htm

DISCUSSION

we ride tonight


These were the swift to harry;
These the keen scented;
These were the souls of blood.
Slow on the leash,
pallid the leash-men!

http://www.deepyoung.org/current/radiohead/

_
_

DISCUSSION

a posteriori


Hi Dyske,

Here's a project I did a while back:
http://www.lab404.com/data/
And some recent accidental results that arose:
http://www.lab404.com/misc/obits/

Here's another project that has evolved beyond anything I expected:
http://www.playdamage.org/quilt/
and another series of accidental results:
http://www.playdamage.org/getty/

People do projects like this all the time without funding or
recognition. The solution is not to convince institutional artists
to start working this way. The solution may be to stop looking
solely to institutional artists.

best,
curt

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

dyske wrote:

It seems apparent to me that the institutions and the communities of art
now need to foster this type of art--the activities and the products
that are not art until they turn into art in the process of interaction
and evolution--a posteriori art, if you will, so that certain projects
that possess the possibility of becoming a posteriori art can be funded
or supported. All too often certain projects are shot down,
self-censored, or criticized, because they do not possess any meaning in
advance. Rather than rationalizing the legitimacy of art in advance by
using cultural, political, or metaphysical theories, which breeds
conservatism, we could do better by judging the potential by our gut
instincts.


DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Re: [thingist] Jodi and Mouchette


I too think T. is right about the importance of the visuals in Jodi's work. All art is conceptual in some capacity, even Raphael. In 1994, any "art" you did online was conceptual by default in that it was automatically "virtual, remote, infinitely reproducible, etc." Scanning your cat and posting it as a gif was conceptual. Obviously Jodi was more intentionally conceptual than that. But I agree with T. that their primary impetus was experimentation and play, rather than "statement making." I suppose an emphasis on play and tweaking can be called process art (if one must obligatorily trace every piece of artwork back to something in "the record").

But Jodi's work has always had an intentional aesthetic (or anti/punk aesthetic, or whatever) that is not merely incidental, but central to what they are doing. They don't just break it, they break it right, so to speak. I can read their stuff like Klee and still get a lot out of it.

Which is why they are the only early net artists I ever really liked. And which is why they've worn a lot better over the years than someone like Heath Bunting. Their work isn't good just because they were historically the first to do something than anybody else could have done. They are still doing cool stuff that's tuff codewise and aesthetically.

This recent piece by Brent Gustafson (dhtml coder, web designer, bmx bicyclist) is in their vein:
http://ax.assembler.org/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

T. wrote:

> Hi Brett,
>
> You've convinced me. The distinctions you draw btw Jodi and other
> purely visual artists of the net makes the point compellingly that
> Jodi has a conceptual basis to their work.
>
> But that doesn't make them conceptualists (as I think you would
> agree). The point being that they would never create a system for
> system's sake. If their systems don't result in interesting visuals I
> don't think the public sees them. This is opposed to artists like..
> well, like MTAA in some work, where the system is paramount--damn the
> visuals if they don't result.