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

blent color feast / let sand go


//outer ring underlay
String wordsa1[] = {
"goat",
"bless",
"louse",
"swirl",
"feign",
"sai d",
"g o d",
"a n d",
};

//outer ring overlay
String wordsm1[] = {
"sound",
"cloud",
"faust",
"death",
"l and",
"e gad",
" get ",
" g o ",
};

//inner ring underlay
String wordsb1[] = {
"thigh",
"fight",
"l end",
"b ase",
"we an",
"fo od",
"l e t",
" b e ",
};

//inner ring overlay
String wordsn1[] = {
"squid",
"guest",
"beast",
"san d",
"ben t",
"co at",
"w a s",
"b e e",
};

//center underlay
String wordsc1[] = {
"light",
"least",
"agent",
"solid",
"wo od",
"be et",
"g lee",
"v oid",
};

//center overlay
String wordsp1[] = {
"there",
"lease",
"legal",
"ba nd",
"he re",
"fa st",
"gol d",
"glu e",
};

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: fragments of preliminary research, poetically arrayed


The Boss Metal Zone is actually my favorite distortion pedal. I like running an acoustic guitar (and vocals) through it. For instance:
http://www.lab404.com/plotfracture/scott/only_shallow.mp3

The final chapters of Ecclesiastes seem a fitting accompaniment.

++++++++++

max herman wrote:

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/quality,85/brand,zzounds/MT2-12d6c432ac175c3dfbf146d005285201.jpg

[snip]

http://bible.cc/ecclesiastes/9-11.htm



DISCUSSION

Re: Fw: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Where is the Rhizome?


Hi Lauren,

No offense, but you and Marisa have to be on the short list of hip young people working in your particular area code (and that's saying something). There is another short list of total freaks freaking in your area code, and, no offense, but y'all probably aren't on that list. I think of Daniel Johnston's infamous visit to NYC where Sonic Youth ultimately winds up pooling all their resources just to get him back out of town. They were hip and he was a freak. There have been some world-class freaks on RAW.

Mr. Tribe, schooled by Mr. Kaprow and Mr. Beuys, saw RAW as social sculpture. I dare say RAW was THE main Rhizome project. The network was new enough then to think that the phenomenon of communication on a world-wide mailing list in and of itself was worthy of curatorial stewardship (water and sunlight -- to continue the botanical metaphor). For years, weekly, digest contained at least one circuitous, ridiculous, vitriolic, polemical thread from RAW. And of course, the only content on the front page was -- 1. announcements from RAW of work, and 2. links to long argumentative threads from RAW (often the latter outnumbering the former). And I'm guessing Mark reveled in this anarchy for a season. He could've had a button made -- "Rhizome, the only list that hasn't moderated NN."

When was the last time an argumentative thread from RAW was included in Digest or linked from the front page? I merely pose the question. These are editorial decisions. Indubitably they *reflect* the changing nature of the medium, art world, technology, etc. But they aren't directly caused by those changes. Y'all are making conscious editorial/curatorial decisions to fashion Rhizome as an organization in ways that no longer give as much exposure [sunlight] to the dialogue that happens on RAW. And you're probably absolutely correct in chosing to do so (since you can only give exposure to so many things). Of course, there are all sorts of other factors involved in why dialogue on RAW has flagged (existence is complicated).

Having said that, I'm always amazed at the professional tact of the Rhizome staff. If I were y'all, I would eventually lose it and tell everybody to shut the f**k up and stop whining like a bunch of babies. "If you want to dialogue, start dialoguing. If not, whatever. You're not paying us enough to spread the infectious disease that is your collective, rankling mind."

--------

Conceptual Art Instruction:
Make and distribute two sets of buttons:

1.
Black text on Green background. Text reads: "Rhizome 1999: The Only List That Hasn't Moderated NN."

2.
White text on Red background. Text reads: "Rhizome 2007: You're Not Paying Us Enough to Spread the Infectious Disease That Is Your Collective, Rankling Mind."

--------

I now owe you a Guiness and a cigar.

Curt

++++++++++

Lauren wrote:

Hello Rhizome Raw,

First off, I'd like to counter Curt's claim that the Rhizome staff are like
hip, young record executives instead of cigar-smoking old guys. How do you
know we don't smoke cigars in the office? All our interns get free cigars
upon arrival. And the median age in the office is 30, which many consider to
be old! :)

Secondly, I'd like to differentiate Rhizome Raw from Rhizome. They are not
the same thing and yet, in this thread, they have been collapsed. Rhizome is
an organization with programs, distributed on and offline, a website, an
archive, newsletters, etc. Rhizome as an organization, while New York-based,
endeavors to make our editorial scope and programs international and diverse
to reflect the sprawling and diverse new media art communities around the
world. Rhizome Raw is one of our email lists. Raw has a particular
significance because Rhizome (the organization) started as Raw, which was
then and still is an open, uncensored email list, meant to encourage
non-hierarchical, free-form exchange. It was the practical translation of
the Rhizome metaphor.

This distinction is important because Rhizome (the organization) is
thriving: attention to our website and participation in our programs have
increased over the past few years. And, as it is our mission to promote an
art form that is still marginal within the larger field of contemporary art,
I see broader exposure for new media art and artists to be positive.

Discussion on Rhizome Raw, on the other hand, has waned. This is a fact, one
that has been expressed on and off this list previously and one that Rhizome
staff has been addressing, whilst cigar-smoking, in recent months. The
reasons for this decline are numerous and its been interesting to read
different explanations in this thread. I would agree largely with Patrick
and Dyske: it has to do with a change in the overall structure of the web
and the shifting nature of the new media community. It also has to do with
the fact that Raw has become a very good list for opportunities and
announcements, which have simultaneously over-run discussion.

Rhizome staff has been working on several key projects to enhance
discussion, in the face of Raw's lack of growth. These entail upgrading Raw,
keeping its core principles and migrating it to a new form.

1) Adding online discussion forums that are blog-like in structure and allow
for multiple, smaller conversations instead of one large, central
discussion. We will pre-announce this in more detail soon, but a goal here
is to allow a diversity of voices to emerge around multiple topics. We
would split discussion and announcements into two separate sections, and
people could participate in either or both.
2) Re-designing our website, so that it is easier to use and emphasizes art
of Rhizome participants and our programs. Currently, the front page
over-emphasizes our reblog, and under-emphasizes everything else we do,
especially the art work we work so hard to support. The new design will seek
to correct this.
3) Publishing more original editorial content on our front page and allowing
for comments, therefore opening up another area of discussion.

Another fact is that Rhizome has become a hybrid organization: one that is
curated, edited and managed by staff and also aims to be open, experimental
and community-generated. These two components are equally important to who
we are, and create a productive and dynamic tension across the organization.

Lastly, I'd like to note that, while conversation on Raw has not been as
active lately, Rhizome as an organization has been home to a community of
artists on the edge of a new art form for eleven years. This is no small
feat. Websites come and go, comments turn on and off, but building and
sustaining a heated, active, thoughtful community for over a decade is an
accomplishment that everyone