Jess Loseby
Since the beginning
Works in United States of America

ARTBASE (3)
BIO
Jess Loseby is a digital artist from the UK whose main medium is the internet. Her work ranges from small and intimate online installationsto large scale digital projections and video. In a relatively brief time, her work has become known internationally such as the ‘cyber-kitchen’ (lead artist and co-curator) and ‘the Digital Pocket’ (lead artist and co-curator), which is currently listed in the Whitney Artport. In August 2003, she became the first virtual artist in residence at Furtherfield.org (FurtherStudio) one of the first virtual artists residencies of its kind. She has exhibited in digital festivals such as the Split Film Festival, Pixxelpoint 2003, FILE 2003 and the Stuttgart Filmwinter. In 2003 she created interactive digital sets for the production of ‘The Dadaists’ at The Met Theater in Hollywood. Also in 2003 she was also awarded a grant from the Daniel Langlois Foundation, with the resulting work 'views from the ground floor...' being currently exhibited internationally.

Thematically, her projects continue her fascination with borderlands and ‘beautiful seams’ between the ubiquitous worlds of computing and the ‘real’ (domestic). A staunch opponent of new media's absorption with VR, her on and offline installations create flows and streams in the relational space of art and technology. Loseby’s unashamedly low-tech approach to new media build comparisons of the network and digitally (in its frustrations, attention to triviality and repetition) as absurdly compatible to the female domestic routine.

Jess Loseby has 3 children, 2 wheels, 1 husband and 0 days off.

Discussions (201) Opportunities (2) Events (1) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

Re: Re: let's repeat:


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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">hi t.whid</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">gosh, I haven't had such a courteous
contrary opinion is a long time - how civisilised!
Cheers...!</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">My email has been down almost all
the weekend now (I'm hoping it will be working when
I actually come to send this) which has of course left me running around with work
undone and flapping like a chicken. I'll try and answer&#160; your specific questions as best I
can but my time is limited - I'll try and back up my 'rant ' (although rant is what it was) in
the time and cover all the points you raised. I am more than happy to admit that my
'rants' tend to be rather overly emotional and tinged with flippancy but I do think this one
has a reasoned foundation;-)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Firstly, I need to say that 'cartel'
was not my word (ryans, I think originally) but yes,
'stifling' I think is reasonable.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Secondly, I think Patrick's mail was
rather eloquent in many of the difficulties with LoNM
and I agree with much of his email.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The texts (particularly LoNM) in themselves
I don't have a huge problem with as works
in their own right. I think I used words such as 'accessible' and 'understandable' with
reference to them and I do think they are. Manovich was/is brave and praiseworthy in
his attempt to build a New media language and a critical framework from which to
examine it. My problems begin with the fact that this language is limited in its
transferable nature yet it is transferred - more and more by manovich himself. He
actually indicates in the LoNM that it shouldn't be taken as a guide to aesthetics&#160; etc but
proceeded to apply them (particularly within the last couple of years).&#160; Written very
much as a language for one section of net.art (ie VR, Games) it is taken (as the title
suggests it should be) for a language for the whole of new media.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> Its difficult for me to justify this
in any way than anacdoteally. As rather a late-comer to
net.art I have looked to 'catch-up' &amp; contextualise my own and other artists work around
me within a critical writing framework, and it is my observation is that the critical writing
framework (particularly in the form on online journals) that exits is underpinned by
manovich's theories.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> I've just had a quick look back over
a recent discussion on the CRUMB list where I
knew manovich's language had come up to 'back up' this impression. Nobody used
language stronger than 'problematic' and the debate was left hanging with the original
suggestion that a new language was needed. The general response could be
summarized as&#160; &quot;its not great but its all we have&quot;* (So far, Lev's book is pretty much
the
only one that explicitly addresses 'The Language of New Media'&#148; - Christiane Paul)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I'm neither a writer, critic or theorist
and I have (which is perhaps the crux of the matter)
no language with which to counter his texts but in a nutshell here is what have lead to
my rant...</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I have a huge problem with his view
of the authority of database (as so called 'new
media') over narrative( as so called 'old media'). He promotes this view as his own
artistic preference but uses it to negate other works. Database may neither be my field
of practice or great interest (although&#160; I have an almost awe of database driven artwork)
but the view that database/ datadriven work encompasses either all net.art should be or
is the 'best' or 'true' form there is breathtakingly arrogant. However he does it in such a
way that the undermining is subtle. Take his comments on the switch interview (also on
nettime i think)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">&quot;If we are to adequately
reflect our own times we have to take the next step, generating works larger in size, more
complex, more multi-layered, more dense. A Web site consisting of a few pages can't be an adequate reflection
of a modern society.&quot;</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">or how about ...</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">&quot;To expect diffirent
countries to create their own national schools of Net</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">art is the same as to expect
them to create their own customized brands of Coca-Cola. The sole meaning of
Coca-Cola, its sole function is that it is the same everywhere.&quot;</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">His aim may well be for a coca-cola
art (as he seems to be under the impression that
net.artists want fervently to divorce themselves from their localities as the russian artists
rejected his research (snigger) But Its this kind of comment that I find so provocative.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> I like chat-logs as they are so fresh
and this is another from a log Active Worlds chat
session (Sat Mar 25, 2000 1:19 PM) which was another that embedded my anti-
manovich tendencies</span></font></div>
<p><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: In fact Godard is completely anti-computer</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: Meaning that he is about montage</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">ommm: interesting...explain</span></font></p>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: and there is no montage
in new media</span></font></div>
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</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">ok, so that might have got to me because
of my devotion to montage but then in the
same log..</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: Why shall we bring our
tired boring commercial and prosaic reality even into cyberspace </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">(added whilst using VR&#160; and questioning
why there are &#145;paintings&#146; on the virtual walls)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">sometimes is the side comments that
say it all - and again in the same text...</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/></div>
<p><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: Shall we desire &quot;depth,&quot;
complexity,&quot;</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: &quot;poetry&quot; and all the other
traditional. things from new media?</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: Or shall we welcome it as it -- pure
interface</span></font></p>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><span style="font-size:8pt">LevM: pure technology with
humans stuck to it</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">t.whid - surely that comment alone
enough to send&#160; any artist with a yearning for
emotion and poetry into a rant ???</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">So, as for&#160; his influence on
institutions &amp; curating....</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Have you ever found a text that does
disagree with his premises?? He gave 45
international lectures in 2002 and was invited to 97. why? Are there no other new media
speakers, artists or writers out there?? It is my experience that lists, journals etc usually
tend (if anything) towards the adversarial in nature - particularly when given a fixed set
of criteria to get their teeth into. Why has manovich remained untouched?&#160; My cynical
soul can't help feeling it is partly (partly!!) to do with an unwilling to bite the hand that
feeds you.... He speaks alongside the most established curators at (seemly) every
worldwide net conference. Its intimidation by proliferation.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">You asked about who and what are being
affected but I think you know my feelings
enough about previous curatial decisions at the Walker (see previous rants for details)
without me going on another here. I don't think it difficult to see the influence of
manovich on Dietz, Christiane Paul's or Honor Hargers texts and curatorial choices. I
fear (as much as it looks a stonking good conference) that manovich's residency and the
BALTIC conference&#160; will do nothing but solidify his influence on UK curators (already
given a healthy manovich dose at user_mode earlier this year). </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Outside of these particulars (walker,
tate, baltic, ars) you need to remember the lens we
are looking at these through. Ironically, with the equalizing influence of the net I do need
to suggest that it is geography that may make the difference in perception of manovich.
My lens is only the net. Even london&#160; is a rarity and my experience is often a static gaze
(and more often than not a retrospective one) My source of information are primarily
artworks themselves and then the writing that supports them without the 'context' of the
surrounding dialogues of the conferences themselves. This is where my 'impression' has
been formed and I stand by my accusation. </span></font></div>
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</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">All the best,</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">jess.</span></font></div>
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</div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">*(Going back to the CRUMB discussion
I mentioned before it was Kate Southworth who
gave the only real viable alternative and her mail is well worth a read - she is so much
more reasoned than I!)</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">-------</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; with all due respect to Jess
(who, IMO, is most worthy of a voluminous </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; amount of respect), I prompt
her to expand upon her somewhat vague </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; critique of Manovich. Her caveat
of 'rant' notwithstanding I think she </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; could be more precise. My specific
questions below interspersed thru </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; her last post.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> o</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">/^ rssgallery.com</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> ][</span></font></div>
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DISCUSSION

Re: Re: let's repeat:


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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">this was supposed to be sent early
yesterday evening but my email went down for
42hrs, so a delayed rant:-)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">-------------------------</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Hi ryan,</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">friday evening rant (sorry, you really
shouldn't encourage me:-)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt;.... isn't it
sort of the job of criticism to be &quot;critical&quot; as much as celebratory?</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">depends what you means as critical
- if you mean that you expound as if you have some
gnostic enlightenment as to form then the criticism become self-serving and valueless.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I'm quite serious about the religious
analogy...</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> &gt;....i understand
the complaints with Manovich - being prescriptive, etc... but so what?</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I think the problems for many artists,
curators&#160; &amp; new media writers as they search for a
viable language for new media criticism is that manovich's texts were accepted so
readily..</span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"><i>so enthusiastically </i>by
the institutions that it made it incredibly hard for any real
discussion of whether the prescription as to 'what net art should be' was viable.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> So what? Well, It means that artists
working outside of manovich's parameters are
institutionaly critiqued by a flawed yet dominant set of criteria. Limiting what is shown
institutionaly and creating a hostile environment to any discourses as whether the work
that fits so snugly into manovich's transfer model mediums actually has validity and/or
quality as an 'artwork'. Its a BIG 'what'.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> &gt;....if his work
is creating a cartel of new media practice, that's something to be
concerned about -</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> but it wouldn't be
just his work that's doing that - other people (in positions of some kind
of institutional power)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> would have to support
it for reasons other than liking Manovich i think</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Manovich's writing applied an accepted
and already partially understood set of
parameters that was was understandable, controllable and&#160; limitable. Institutionally this
was incredibly good news. The box was set and anything outside of these parameters
could be written off as 'not net'. I don't know if 'they' like manovich or not but his
aesthetics of interactivity must have seemed like net on plate - dressed and ready to
eat. I read this quote a while back from an old article written in 1993 which really gives
adequate warning:</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10pt"><b>&quot;Once the system
is working and robust, then there will be time to deal with aesthetic
issues&quot; is a common rationalisation. Yet in some cases, that time never comes. It is easy to
know if the technology isn't working. It's harder to know if the aesthetics aren't working.&#148;&#160; </b></span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt;.... we could
be asking: why is Manovich (as a text) useful for someone/thing?</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">There are certain areas of manovich's
writings which I appreciate are good food for
thought - however that is what they should have remained. I really think you
underestimate how influential he is in terms of critical writing and establishing and
institutional agenda. I followed (in retrospect) the american institutions absorbing his
lead and I now watch dismally institutions (such as the Tate) here repeating the same
pattern. The huge dilemma is that no-one has been able to come up with a&#160; viable
alternative critical language/voice for net.art/new media writing that is as accessible,
understandable and well supported as manovich's texts. I have no answers for this.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">&gt; ...and i think
t.whid makes a good point that if there is a Manovich cartel it's not all that dominant (not that that's
a bad thing).</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">[cough sputter]</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">with respect to t.whid who I don't
think was asking for an anti-manovich rant;-)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">If you mean that he is not setting
the agenda for net.artists -&#160; absolutely.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">If you mean that there are a huge
amount of artists who don't give a crap if they fit into
manovich's parameter - completely</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">If you mean that manovich's writing
is not having an effect on some fantastic non-
manovich friendly works being created - I agree...</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">BUT</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">dominant - dominant as in stifling
institutional support, making net.art so damn
unattractive to viewers in galleries, promoting works that wouldn't have a chance of
standing up on their own two legs as artworks under any other set of parameters other
than manovich's - then wondering why the public doesn't 'get' net.art', creating an
agenda of op-art-esque self-indulgency in a clique of institutionaly supported artists
repeating manovich's writings to validate their work rather than the other way round</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">yes - I think he's a tad dominant.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">[deep breath] end of evening rant</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br/>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">jess</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><br/>
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<div align="left"><br/></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> o</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">/^ rssgallery.com</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> ][</span></font></div>
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DISCUSSION

Re: let's repeat:


t.whid" <twhid@mteww.com>

> I wasn't posting that as a dig at Manovich.

well - can I then...? [friday morning rant]

j'accuse manovich of limiting and constraining net.art.
A global speaker, his ideas and writing have proved the fundamental critical texts in
curating net art - open any catalogue and you'll find a quote, attend any conference and
he's one of the delegates - I swear the guy has mastered teleportation to be present on
such an international scale.
art criticism in the malaise of twenty first century art - one is no longer allowed to think
and feel one must interpret and critique. Squeezing new genres into half-sister
theoretics.
Manovich's aesthetics of interactivety are the most widely accepted and least
empowering texts imposed upon net.artists. Creativity formed from textual roots
destroyed by texts. ironic. Manovich's texts have created a high-profile (institutionaly
supported) cliche of artists in a symbiotic (parasitic?) relationship with their own critical
texts.

As far as I am concerned, Manovich will always be 'the bad guy'....

[takes a breath] rant over

jess. o
/^ rssgallery.com
][

DISCUSSION

Re: let's repeat:


t.whid" <twhid@mteww.com>

> I wasn't posting that as a dig at Manovich.

well - can I then...? [friday morning rant]

j'accuse manovich of limiting and constraining net.art.
A global speaker, his ideas and writing have proved the fundamental critical texts in
curating net art - open any catalogue and you'll find a quote, attend any conference and
he's one of the delegates - I swear the guy has mastered teleportation to be present on
such an international scale.
art criticism in the malaise of twenty first century art - one is no longer allowed to think
and feel one must interpret and critique. Squeezing new genres into half-sister
theoretics.
Manovich's aesthetics of interactivety are the most widely accepted and least
empowering texts imposed upon net.artists. Creativity formed from textual roots
destroyed by texts. ironic. Manovich's texts have created a high-profile (institutionaly
supported) cliche of artists in a symbiotic (parasitic?) relationship with their own critical
texts.

As far as I am concerned, Manovich will always be 'the bad guy'....

[takes a breath] rant over

jess. o
/^ rssgallery.com
][

DISCUSSION

looking for bob...


hi,

As some of you know, I am currently the [virtual] artist-in residence at
FutherStudio (furtherfield.org) which is now beta-testing. During this
residency I am sending artwork as attachments to 'bob' whose webmail
account is at http://www.no-where.tv
I've never met bob but he's always on my mind. The faceless other who
sits on the opposite side of my screen wanting, laughing or disparaging
my attempts to communicate with him.

bob's webmail account is at no-where.tv where he can check his mail
and send text-based message to me. bob can also send me
attachments to me under pseudonyms to jess@rssgallery.com. I will
use these attachments in writing back to him. They can be texts, html
pages, flas or swf files or static images. All artwork that bob sends to
me will appear in bobs sent box on his webmail account but will be
credited 'bob'.

Bob doesn't just have to send messages to me. His webmail uses mail
forwarding so as long as he remembers to write the address in the first
line of his mail his emails can be sent to anywhere from his webmail
account

if you talk to bob will you ask him to write?

I am online at FurtherStudio at 1pm (BST) today (Friday) if you have
any questions...

cheers,
jess

http://www.furtherfield.org/furtherstudio/online/
http://www.no-where.tv
http://www.rssgallery.com

o
/^ rssgallery.com
][