ARTBASE (2)
BIO
Jim Andrews does http://vispo.com . He is a poet-programmer and audio guy. His work explores the new media possibilities of poetry, and seeks to synthesize the poetical with other arts and media.
Re: Charlie puts NMA's down...
> another quote:
> "The web, Charlie says, has the alarming potential of realising
> the idea of
> the artist Joseph Beuys, that everyone is an artist. This could spell the
> end of art as we know it, when everyone becomes a producer and we
> all drown
> in a sea of mediocrity made up of billions of minutely-niched
> microchannels."
>
> i think this is great, so will better write:
>
> "when everyone becomes a producer and we all grow in a great sea of
> experimentations made up of billions of creative microchannels."
>
> why being so alarmed by JB (& others) idea , Charlie ?
Both of these have already happened, haven't they? It's like the wave and particle theories of light. They are at odds with each other but both shed some light on um light.
Not "billions" of channels--and more channels of dreck than creative microchannels--but enough of both that it almost might as well be "billions". Also, one person's creative microchannel is another's dreck.
What art is is continually under revision in a wacky wiki with no file protection and thousands of copies of what once was only a few hundred copies.
I recall McLuhan and Ong emphasizing that in some cultures, there is no concept of art, although there are/were many artifacts that are now interpreted as art. And in some of these cultures, they say 'no, we don't make art; we just try to make everything we make with care and attention."
Art is continually torn apart, rent asunder, dying, dead, dismembered--and continually subject to remembering, transformation, regeneration, transmigration, resurrection. It's like Orpheus on a very bad hair day where there's one limb here, one limb there, death and destruction of he himself all around yet different versions of himself in various stages of life--not even recognizable as being he himself--maybe not even he himself, by now. And now we see even very little use in linking them all to Orpheus, since the process by now involves so many hybrids, many of which quite clearly do not involve Orpheus so much as non-Orphic figures that we think it might not be like this at all.
ja
http://vispo.com
> "The web, Charlie says, has the alarming potential of realising
> the idea of
> the artist Joseph Beuys, that everyone is an artist. This could spell the
> end of art as we know it, when everyone becomes a producer and we
> all drown
> in a sea of mediocrity made up of billions of minutely-niched
> microchannels."
>
> i think this is great, so will better write:
>
> "when everyone becomes a producer and we all grow in a great sea of
> experimentations made up of billions of creative microchannels."
>
> why being so alarmed by JB (& others) idea , Charlie ?
Both of these have already happened, haven't they? It's like the wave and particle theories of light. They are at odds with each other but both shed some light on um light.
Not "billions" of channels--and more channels of dreck than creative microchannels--but enough of both that it almost might as well be "billions". Also, one person's creative microchannel is another's dreck.
What art is is continually under revision in a wacky wiki with no file protection and thousands of copies of what once was only a few hundred copies.
I recall McLuhan and Ong emphasizing that in some cultures, there is no concept of art, although there are/were many artifacts that are now interpreted as art. And in some of these cultures, they say 'no, we don't make art; we just try to make everything we make with care and attention."
Art is continually torn apart, rent asunder, dying, dead, dismembered--and continually subject to remembering, transformation, regeneration, transmigration, resurrection. It's like Orpheus on a very bad hair day where there's one limb here, one limb there, death and destruction of he himself all around yet different versions of himself in various stages of life--not even recognizable as being he himself--maybe not even he himself, by now. And now we see even very little use in linking them all to Orpheus, since the process by now involves so many hybrids, many of which quite clearly do not involve Orpheus so much as non-Orphic figures that we think it might not be like this at all.
ja
http://vispo.com
Re: Charlie puts NMA's down...
new technology, in itself, is not interesting art. we can see that from
http://www.playdojam.com . there we have new technology used in an
entertaining way, but not interesting as art. the virtual basketball game
just doesn't interest as art, however entertaining it is. perhaps with a few
modifications you could significantly change the meaning of the activity and
turn it into art. for instance, consider the famous 'computer game' where
you try to shoot all the terrorists, but in doing so, you spawn more
terrorists. The technology is very similar to game technology but it is
altered so that the meaning of the activity is significantly different from
the usual computer game.
google earth is exceptional in that the new technology is used in a richly
meaningful way. but, usually, when new technology comes around, the uses to
which it's put, initially, are, at best, entertaining. artists excel in
discovering/creating deeper human meaning in the processes technology
supports. new language, in itself, is not poetry. it takes some time to
tease the poetry from new language, to be able to feel with the new
language, to turn the new extension of the body or mind from an inarticulate
claw into something capable of summoning poetry.
but artists should not be afraid of learning how to use technology. how to
program. how to use mathematics, physics, etc, because there lies the key,
often, to more subtle and meaningful articulation of the technology.
ja
http://vispo.com
http://www.playdojam.com . there we have new technology used in an
entertaining way, but not interesting as art. the virtual basketball game
just doesn't interest as art, however entertaining it is. perhaps with a few
modifications you could significantly change the meaning of the activity and
turn it into art. for instance, consider the famous 'computer game' where
you try to shoot all the terrorists, but in doing so, you spawn more
terrorists. The technology is very similar to game technology but it is
altered so that the meaning of the activity is significantly different from
the usual computer game.
google earth is exceptional in that the new technology is used in a richly
meaningful way. but, usually, when new technology comes around, the uses to
which it's put, initially, are, at best, entertaining. artists excel in
discovering/creating deeper human meaning in the processes technology
supports. new language, in itself, is not poetry. it takes some time to
tease the poetry from new language, to be able to feel with the new
language, to turn the new extension of the body or mind from an inarticulate
claw into something capable of summoning poetry.
but artists should not be afraid of learning how to use technology. how to
program. how to use mathematics, physics, etc, because there lies the key,
often, to more subtle and meaningful articulation of the technology.
ja
http://vispo.com
Re: two veterans of the Iraq war
I should have checked the Internet more widely for verification of the Jesse
MacBeth video. There is information on the site of the Iraq Veterans Against
the War ( http://www.ivaw.net/index.php?id!9 ) indicating that Jesse
MacBeth is not a veteran of the Iraq war and his claims are false.
Apologies for spreading disinformation!
From the ivaw.net site:
"The timing of the widespread circulation of the MacBeth video interestingly
coincides with the ongoing military investigation of the recent Marine
massacre of two dozen civilians (including women and children) in Haditha,
MacBeth video. There is information on the site of the Iraq Veterans Against
the War ( http://www.ivaw.net/index.php?id!9 ) indicating that Jesse
MacBeth is not a veteran of the Iraq war and his claims are false.
Apologies for spreading disinformation!
From the ivaw.net site:
"The timing of the widespread circulation of the MacBeth video interestingly
coincides with the ongoing military investigation of the recent Marine
massacre of two dozen civilians (including women and children) in Haditha,
two veterans of the Iraq war
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id#18457&page=1
Joe Darby, the "whistle blower" at Abu Ghraib, speaks out. He acted bravely
in sending those photos to the Army Criminal Investigation Division. He was
still at Abu Ghraib when Donald Rumsfeld announced his name on television.
Surely Rumsfeld must have known that he was still at Abu Ghraib.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docidb32757351172260101&q=war
And here is Jessie MacBeth, another veteran of the Iraq war. Jessie
estimates he killed 200 people when he was there, many of them women and
children, many of them with a bullet to the head at close range. Jessie is
ashamed of himself and ashamed of his country and is speaking out against
what the USA is doing in Iraq.
Jessie MacBeth is probably in more danger for speaking out about what he did
than he is for what he did in Iraq. He was following orders (though that
didn't help Eichmann). And, to judge from the fact that Joe Darby is in
protective custody to this day, Joe Darby is in more danger for what he did
than MacBeth is for what he did.
Yet for all the unspeakable evil that Jessie MacBeth perpetrated in
following orders in Iraq and Charles Graner did at Abu Ghraib, it is as
nothing compared with what Bush and Rumsfeld and others did in leading the
USA to war against Iraq on the basis of false intelligence. And a litany of
subsequent perversions/subversions of justice that led to situations where
Jessie MacBeth could simply be following orders and Charles Graner could
feel he was doing his job acceptably.
But the USA has a hero in Joe Darby. A real one. Because he had the guts to
do the right thing.
I see it is 111 degrees fahrenheit in Baghdad today.
ja
http://vispo.com
Joe Darby, the "whistle blower" at Abu Ghraib, speaks out. He acted bravely
in sending those photos to the Army Criminal Investigation Division. He was
still at Abu Ghraib when Donald Rumsfeld announced his name on television.
Surely Rumsfeld must have known that he was still at Abu Ghraib.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docidb32757351172260101&q=war
And here is Jessie MacBeth, another veteran of the Iraq war. Jessie
estimates he killed 200 people when he was there, many of them women and
children, many of them with a bullet to the head at close range. Jessie is
ashamed of himself and ashamed of his country and is speaking out against
what the USA is doing in Iraq.
Jessie MacBeth is probably in more danger for speaking out about what he did
than he is for what he did in Iraq. He was following orders (though that
didn't help Eichmann). And, to judge from the fact that Joe Darby is in
protective custody to this day, Joe Darby is in more danger for what he did
than MacBeth is for what he did.
Yet for all the unspeakable evil that Jessie MacBeth perpetrated in
following orders in Iraq and Charles Graner did at Abu Ghraib, it is as
nothing compared with what Bush and Rumsfeld and others did in leading the
USA to war against Iraq on the basis of false intelligence. And a litany of
subsequent perversions/subversions of justice that led to situations where
Jessie MacBeth could simply be following orders and Charles Graner could
feel he was doing his job acceptably.
But the USA has a hero in Joe Darby. A real one. Because he had the guts to
do the right thing.
I see it is 111 degrees fahrenheit in Baghdad today.
ja
http://vispo.com
Re: New media art shouldn't suck
> Aside from the obvious problem of value appreciation/depreciation
> (art object vs. software), could it also be an issue of High Art's
> historic problem with the kitsch factor of popular media and language
> (i.e. commercially vulgar rather than transcendent)? just a thought,
> maybe not on target.
> ryan
I suspect that actually is on target.
Also, just because an art pro couldn't care less about the Internet as an
art medium, it doesn't mean he or she doesn't have some ideas about what is
to be found on the Internet. Very likely he or she just has not found much
net art on it but is somewhat familiar with any number of other dimensions
of the Internet. Such as the pop net for teenagers (if he or she has kids)
which consists mainly of IM, youtube-like videos, viral games, and other
assorted yuks. And shopping sites. Etc.
To make an analogy with TV, it's as though there are interesting TV stations
that are in unusual channel locations that aren't covered in the usual TV
guides.
ja
http://vispo.com
> (art object vs. software), could it also be an issue of High Art's
> historic problem with the kitsch factor of popular media and language
> (i.e. commercially vulgar rather than transcendent)? just a thought,
> maybe not on target.
> ryan
I suspect that actually is on target.
Also, just because an art pro couldn't care less about the Internet as an
art medium, it doesn't mean he or she doesn't have some ideas about what is
to be found on the Internet. Very likely he or she just has not found much
net art on it but is somewhat familiar with any number of other dimensions
of the Internet. Such as the pop net for teenagers (if he or she has kids)
which consists mainly of IM, youtube-like videos, viral games, and other
assorted yuks. And shopping sites. Etc.
To make an analogy with TV, it's as though there are interesting TV stations
that are in unusual channel locations that aren't covered in the usual TV
guides.
ja
http://vispo.com