Jim Andrews
Since the beginning
Works in Victoria Canada

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.
Discussions (847) Opportunities (2) Events (14) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

Re: ms REALLY sucks


> well not really.
>
> not sure if they suck, or the bastards who sued 'em suck; but it
> looks like it's on the way.
>
> fun, oh, fun.
>
> (first time i've ever found myself siding with MS on an issue.)
>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate/

Here's a page for those who have created pages using Macromedia
Flash/Shockwave affected by this thing:

http://macromedia.com/devnet/activecontent/

ja

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Re: Fwd: <nettime> ars lecture on software / art /


> I'm saying that there is no such duty -- it was primarily in reaction to
> the comment that Software Art "has to address the specifics of software"
> -- I find that to be a very limiting, modernist, formalist approach to
> creating art in any medium. As far as thematic "shoulds" I don't think
> there is any such thing for any medium. I am more interested in seeing
> software art engage with the world outside of software to see what it
> can bring to bear in that sphere.
>
> best,
> kanarinka

I feel you're making an important point. The 'shoulds' are for the arts
journalists and critics. If you want your work written about by most arts
journalists, you 'should' hook it into the news. If you want your work
written about by critics that write from a particular angle, then you
'should' reference that angle in the work. If you want your work to last
longer than the current news, then you might try a different approach, like
your own.

"Poetry is news that stays news."
Ezra Pound

ja
http://vispo.com

DISCUSSION

strange news and thanks


A couple of months ago I saw a post to Rhizome about a job programming
interactive audio. This in itself is unusual, but it is in my home town
about 4000 miles from New York. And the job is to do Director programming,
among other things, which I do a lot of anyway. And and and. So I applied.

That'd be my job now. I start Oct 1 on this four-year contract. I'm really
pumped about it. I'll be working with some very talented musicians/visual
artists/programmers on projects that I have wanted to be working on for some
time.

I quit my comfy job as a tech writer in seattle in 2000 to pursue
interactive audio. so my chops are down, my bank account is empty, and i'm
weady to wock and woll.

Many thanks to Mark Tribe and Don Ritter for posting the job. That $20
membership is looking pretty good.

Strange routers that bring it home.

ja!
http://vispo.com

ps: http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread

DISCUSSION

Re: Net Baroque


> There should be music fragments in interactive crashes, that are
> stimulated
> by the users exploration but at least on my server the sound isnt coming
> across. Does it work on yours? I sincerely apologize if the sound isnt
> working as it is crucial to the sense of space in the work.

No problem with the sound, once I got the plugin.

Interesting music. What is the music, Christina? Is it baroque? Is it run
backwards? What did you do to make the sound?

It's a very attractive concept, what you've done with the writing linking
out to pieces related to the writing. A compelling mix of the 'essay' and
art, which I am always on the lookout for.

You make an interesting case for the influence of the baroque era in the
digital soup, also.

The internet is complex and recursive, isn't it, like Liza points out. yeah
it's pretty friggin baroque. a couple of friends of mine who have a passing
connection to it are beginning to complain angrily about its dangers and
complexities. it's getting hard for the non-hardcore to approach it casually
without virus protection, firewalls, and a critical eye on scam spam viri
and whatnot. Like it's no place for the innocent with its multi-levelled
gotchas, come ons, and the software's 'fatal errors' exacerbated by
commercial and prank hooks. Part of me likes that, though, the difficulty of
it, the dark mysterious willfulness of it, like a piece of net.art; part of
me is annoyed like my friends, or annoyed for them and those like them,
annoyed for what it might mean for it as a mass medium, ie, retreat from the
net--or is that just not possible, in the long run?

You make me want to read more about the baroque era and its art, Christina,
thank you. Also, I will spend more time with your post and its links. Are
you going to put the writing up as a url with the links in it?

ja

DISCUSSION

Re: Fwd: <nettime> ars lecture on software / art /


The gist of my argument today is that the cultural topology of this
software 'environment' is articulated by art projects. I'm not saying that
all art with digital media has to address the specifics of software, but I
think that Software Art should."

There isn't much software art that can begin to compare with Napster in
articulating the cultural topology of the software environment. Napster went
beyond articulating it to shaping it. This is a possibility for software art
that is rarely considered: that software art can not solely articulate but
shape culture and its software.

The most original programmers in the world define software art by their
creations.

Part of the excitement of software art is that a lot of it happens outside
the art world; software art cannot easily be contained therein, precisely
because it is a practice relevant much more widely than to matters of art.
The art of programming comprehends Knuth's approach but also involves the
engineering of experience. And, as you say, awareness of the social context.

You say

"I believe that we need a strong notion of what constitutes art, and we must
argue about that, but it would help immensely if we could agree on drawing a
bottom line which excludes some attempts. For me, and again I put this up
for discussion, art is about the transgression of boundaries, about making
familiar experiences strange, about dramatising what pretends to be
innocent, and about exploring the virtualities, the potentialities of
technologies and human relationships."

The stronger the notion of what constitutes art, the more it will miss. It
is, I suppose, the job of critics to define it and artists to confound their
definitions via works that escape categorization and open into fresh
experience/perception/realization of what art can be.

ja
http://vispo.com