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.
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.
bottomland
You must fast, the stranger said; otherwise we see you but you do not
see us. Our land is not altogether like yours. Here is constant
fighting, sickness, foes wherever you turn. And soon a stronger
enemy than you have yet faced will come and take your contry away
from you and leave you exiles. But there we have peace. And though
we die as all men do and must struggle for our food, we need not
think of danger. Our minds are not filled with fear. We do not
endlessly contend with each other. I come to invite you to live with
us. Your place is ready. There is room for all of you. But if you
are to come, everyone must first go into the town house and fast
seven days and never leave during that time and never raise the war
cry. When that is done, climb to the Shining Rocks and they will
open as a door and you may enter our country and live with us.
On the morning of the seventh day the people began climbing Cold
Mountain toward the Shining Rocks. They arrived just at sunset. The
rocks were white as snowdrift, and when the people stood before them,
a cave opened like a door, and it ran to the heart of the mountain.
But inside was light rather than dark. In the distance, inside the
mountain, they could see an open country. A river. Rich bottomland.
Broad fields of corn. A valley town, the houses in long rows, a town
house atop a pyramidal mount, people in the square ground dancing.
The faint sound of drums.
- charles frazier
was a five band bill
two dollar show
saw the van out in front
from idaho
and the girl passed out
in the backseat trash
and there was no way they'd make
even a half a tank of gas
they looked sick and stoned
and strangely dressed
and no one showed
from the local press
but i watched them walk
through the bottomland
and i wished i played
in a rock & roll band
- gillian welch
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z&n915258&e30794&size=m
http://lab404.com/dreams/memory/julie/shining.jpg
http://lab404.com/misc/black_balsam_knob.html
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see us. Our land is not altogether like yours. Here is constant
fighting, sickness, foes wherever you turn. And soon a stronger
enemy than you have yet faced will come and take your contry away
from you and leave you exiles. But there we have peace. And though
we die as all men do and must struggle for our food, we need not
think of danger. Our minds are not filled with fear. We do not
endlessly contend with each other. I come to invite you to live with
us. Your place is ready. There is room for all of you. But if you
are to come, everyone must first go into the town house and fast
seven days and never leave during that time and never raise the war
cry. When that is done, climb to the Shining Rocks and they will
open as a door and you may enter our country and live with us.
On the morning of the seventh day the people began climbing Cold
Mountain toward the Shining Rocks. They arrived just at sunset. The
rocks were white as snowdrift, and when the people stood before them,
a cave opened like a door, and it ran to the heart of the mountain.
But inside was light rather than dark. In the distance, inside the
mountain, they could see an open country. A river. Rich bottomland.
Broad fields of corn. A valley town, the houses in long rows, a town
house atop a pyramidal mount, people in the square ground dancing.
The faint sound of drums.
- charles frazier
was a five band bill
two dollar show
saw the van out in front
from idaho
and the girl passed out
in the backseat trash
and there was no way they'd make
even a half a tank of gas
they looked sick and stoned
and strangely dressed
and no one showed
from the local press
but i watched them walk
through the bottomland
and i wished i played
in a rock & roll band
- gillian welch
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z&n915258&e30794&size=m
http://lab404.com/dreams/memory/julie/shining.jpg
http://lab404.com/misc/black_balsam_knob.html
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Re: War
eryk wrote:
The desire to rush out and control the things I don't like is overpowering sometimes. I don't know what the right thing to do about it is.
++++++++++++++
Some things I do when feeling impotent against evil:
1. search my heart and see if there's anyone i've offended or wronged. contact them and ask their forgiveness.
2. ask God (I believe in God, sorry) to show me anybody whom I should pray for or call. Pray for them or call them and ask them how they are doing.
3. figure out a way to prefer my wife over myself (washing dishes, watching a chick flick with her, taking care of the kids so she can nap, giving her a back massage).
4. do right by the students I teach. prepare for class properly, take plenty of time to evaluate their projects and give them individual feedback, figure out what they want to achieve and come up with creative ways to inspire them
5. feed hungry people. prepare food and go with my family and church to downtown Asheville on Saturdays and feed lunch to whoever shows up. Talk to them and pray with them. Get to know them.
6. do right by my kids. leave what i'm doing (if it's not too pressing) when they come into my office, take time to listen to them, play with them, take them hiking or out to eat. Spend one on one time with them.
you get the idea. Before I was married, I taught English at a boys and girls ranch for orphans and I was a live-in houseparent at another orphanage for a while. Both those jobs were pretty intense, but fruitful. Sometimes I'm on task loving others, sometimes I'm selfish.
Personally, I'm down on a lot of slacktivism (signing a petition to boycott starbucks, wearing a t-shirt that says "end racism."). Rather than being harmless ("every little bit counts"), stuff like that acts like a placebo. It makes me think i've done something when i haven't, and i stop at that. It can't simply be about making people aware. All that leads to is a bunch of well aware people, ever making others yet more aware. It's about loving people in my immediate sphere of influence.
That's just my take on it. Local mileage may vary.
peace,
curt
The desire to rush out and control the things I don't like is overpowering sometimes. I don't know what the right thing to do about it is.
++++++++++++++
Some things I do when feeling impotent against evil:
1. search my heart and see if there's anyone i've offended or wronged. contact them and ask their forgiveness.
2. ask God (I believe in God, sorry) to show me anybody whom I should pray for or call. Pray for them or call them and ask them how they are doing.
3. figure out a way to prefer my wife over myself (washing dishes, watching a chick flick with her, taking care of the kids so she can nap, giving her a back massage).
4. do right by the students I teach. prepare for class properly, take plenty of time to evaluate their projects and give them individual feedback, figure out what they want to achieve and come up with creative ways to inspire them
5. feed hungry people. prepare food and go with my family and church to downtown Asheville on Saturdays and feed lunch to whoever shows up. Talk to them and pray with them. Get to know them.
6. do right by my kids. leave what i'm doing (if it's not too pressing) when they come into my office, take time to listen to them, play with them, take them hiking or out to eat. Spend one on one time with them.
you get the idea. Before I was married, I taught English at a boys and girls ranch for orphans and I was a live-in houseparent at another orphanage for a while. Both those jobs were pretty intense, but fruitful. Sometimes I'm on task loving others, sometimes I'm selfish.
Personally, I'm down on a lot of slacktivism (signing a petition to boycott starbucks, wearing a t-shirt that says "end racism."). Rather than being harmless ("every little bit counts"), stuff like that acts like a placebo. It makes me think i've done something when i haven't, and i stop at that. It can't simply be about making people aware. All that leads to is a bunch of well aware people, ever making others yet more aware. It's about loving people in my immediate sphere of influence.
That's just my take on it. Local mileage may vary.
peace,
curt
degree absolute [clouds_in_my_coffee remix]
you been telling me you're a genius
since you were seventeen
in all the time i've known you
i still don't know what you mean
the weekend at the college
didn't turn out like you planned
the things that pass for knowledge
i can't understand
- s.d. (1972)
http://www.lab404.com/ss/
http://www.lab404.com/bksplash/
http://lab404.com/dik/
http://www.playdamage.org/agn/
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since you were seventeen
in all the time i've known you
i still don't know what you mean
the weekend at the college
didn't turn out like you planned
the things that pass for knowledge
i can't understand
- s.d. (1972)
http://www.lab404.com/ss/
http://www.lab404.com/bksplash/
http://lab404.com/dik/
http://www.playdamage.org/agn/
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Re: hypertext work
> rachel asks:
what are people's favorite hypertext projects, or should I say writers? and why?
++++++++++++++++++
it all depends on how much of a stickler you are about the "text" part. Here are some of my favorite "web narratives" (a less limiting term than "hypertext literature"), listed from most text-centric to least text-centric:
1. http://media.k10k.net/issues/issue006/index.htm [plain old illustrators and graphic designers can do it]
2. http://www.teleportacia.org/war/war.html [yes, hypertext narrative has been among us from the start]
3. http://www.tank20.com/MARSHA/ [even though i know how it was done, it still creeps me out]
4. http://www.marrowmonkey.com/lair/index.htm [shockwave yes, but mostly text-based, just like its sequel chroma ( http://www.marrowmonkey.com/ ) is shockwave, but mostly "spoken text" based]
5. http://www.worldofawe.net/ [the cremaster cycle of net art]
also, I call these pieces fugal narrative:
6-11. http://www.deepyoung.org/permanent/fugue/
[their underlying structures are fundamentally non-linear, regardless of the amount of "words" involved.]
_
_
_
what are people's favorite hypertext projects, or should I say writers? and why?
++++++++++++++++++
it all depends on how much of a stickler you are about the "text" part. Here are some of my favorite "web narratives" (a less limiting term than "hypertext literature"), listed from most text-centric to least text-centric:
1. http://media.k10k.net/issues/issue006/index.htm [plain old illustrators and graphic designers can do it]
2. http://www.teleportacia.org/war/war.html [yes, hypertext narrative has been among us from the start]
3. http://www.tank20.com/MARSHA/ [even though i know how it was done, it still creeps me out]
4. http://www.marrowmonkey.com/lair/index.htm [shockwave yes, but mostly text-based, just like its sequel chroma ( http://www.marrowmonkey.com/ ) is shockwave, but mostly "spoken text" based]
5. http://www.worldofawe.net/ [the cremaster cycle of net art]
also, I call these pieces fugal narrative:
6-11. http://www.deepyoung.org/permanent/fugue/
[their underlying structures are fundamentally non-linear, regardless of the amount of "words" involved.]
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_
_
Re: re: after rhizome?
Dear Sunshine Daydream, Wellspring of Eternal Cheer,
let me be the first to welcome your new email address to my trash bin.
you
http://www.strindbergandhelium.com/iron.html
me
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail20.html
preferring our poison in a less predictably petulant package,
the apple dumpling gang
-IID42 Kandinskij @27+ wrote:
>It's *hilarious* what's going on isn't it. Hi-larious.
>Can't wait for the round of beer.
let me be the first to welcome your new email address to my trash bin.
you
http://www.strindbergandhelium.com/iron.html
me
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail20.html
preferring our poison in a less predictably petulant package,
the apple dumpling gang
-IID42 Kandinskij @27+ wrote:
>It's *hilarious* what's going on isn't it. Hi-larious.
>Can't wait for the round of beer.