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: No Web Art in the Whitney Biennial?


I come mainly from a background in writing. And radio. Consider the
situation concerning publishers/net.art in relation to curators/net.art.

There are very few publishers of literary or literary-related texts with any
significant involvement in net.art. In Canada, where I live, there's Coach
House Books ( http://www.chbooks.com ) out of Toronto. They do quite a bit
of production for the Web. Yet they are pretty hypertext-oriented, ie, not
much image or javascript or sound etc used in ways that don't 'go by the
book'. Which is fine and dandy but there aren't too many writers who use
hypertext to any effect. An exception being Kate Armstrong (Vancouver) whom
I don't think has anything out from Coach House.

In the States, there's Alt-x. Again, they're pretty pdf or
hypertext-oriented, but there's a sense that they could be more net-art
oriented in the future, given that Mark Amerika seems to run that show.

MIT press seems to be the most interesting publisher of new-media related
books.

The beauty of the situation is that writers can, themselves, publish their
own hybrid work on their own sites and give the publishers the bird. I
publish my own work on my own site, have since 95, and do a better job of it
than I could reasonably expect of any publisher. My work would be costly for
a publisher to do in print because of the visual aspect of it. Not to
mention the links and the audio, DHTML, Java, Shockwave, etc, which is not
simply difficult to do in print, but impossible. Mind you, if I were to put
a book for print together, at this point, it would be a hybrid book/CD/site
rather than simply material from the site; I don't like shovelware, whether
it's shoveling print onto the Web or shoveling Web work into print.

I do publish stuff in print occassionally, and publish my Web work on other
sites. But mostly I publish digitally, on the Web. I don't need print
publishers. And after many years of being a writer before the Web, I'll tell
you, I'm happy about that.

If it happens that I come across a publisher with whom I hit it off and
share interests, like re-writing poetry and not sticking to a print-minded
approach, then great, I'll work with them. But neither I nor others who are
Web savvy have to 'submit' to publishers, and that is very good news for
writers wanting to do something different. I get about 400-500 visitors a
day to my site. It ain't CNN, but for a writer, it's pretty encouraging.
Publishing books is quite a discouraging thing in Canada. Like maybe 500
copies and no international distribution. The Web is widely international in
the blink of an eye. And my own sense is that poetry and 'literature' are
about as tired as some visual net.artists tell me they feel about painting.

Some publishers might like to see the net go away, but it won't happen. Far
from being over, digital writing is still in the early phases. Not exactly
the beginning, but print is still the dominant mode of writing in society.
That will eventually change. *Is* changing, but slowly. Changing slowly like
the role of computers in our lives is changing slowly. Literacy therein is
synthetic of the app, programming, and the many ways of 'reading' we are
more familiar with regarding various arts and media.

Print is quite the thing though. God wrote some books, I gather. Maybe we'll
have to wait until God writes some Web stuff, gives it the big nod.

God didn't do any paintings or visual art that I'm aware of. Maybe
Heshewemeyouthey did some though, like bloody the odd painting or sculpture
or whatever. So maybe visual arts aren't quite so blessedly burdened by
dogma as is the word.

Still, though, I heard a big curator in Canada say 'an artist is nothing
without a gallery'. Publishers and curators sometimes have this sort of
hubris about what they do. And they really do need to be given the bird
strongly in this case. The net is mass media already. Artists can use it in
ways that publishers and curators can't. And it needs the attention of
artists trying to create art on a broad international level. Also, the folks
out there on the net need to see work that's taking the media/um seriously
and taking the arts in new directions better suited to electrified
communications.

ja

DISCUSSION

Sarawut Chutiwongpeti


http://www.chutiwongpeti.info is the Web site of Sarawut Chutiwongpeti from
Bangkok, Thailand. There are links to work in installation, video art,
digital art, photography, web.art, drawing, painting, and graphic art.

Sarawut's is, I think, the first site I have seen from Thailand.

I feel that a big part of the value of the Web is in its international
dimensions. I was thrilled to receive email from Sarawut about
chutiwongpeti.info and am happy to pass the site on to rhizomers.

ja

DISCUSSION

Re: Understanding the Medium of Video Game


Not that it necessarily has strong relation to the issues you raise, Dyske,
but you didn't mention if the games you discuss are 'skins' applied to
commercial game engines (i guess another name is 'mods') or whether they are
more original than that.

By the way, I was curious to see the front page picture in the National Post
(Toronto) today (Friday oct 24/2003). It was a screenshot from a video game,
and the accompanying headline was "Sony deletes video scenes in which Quebec
separatists shoot up Toronto".

Below the picture it said "Confronted with the outrage of politicians from
across Central Canada, Sony Entertainment America promised yesterday that
the final version of Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain will remove those parts
in which Quebec separatist terrorists take over a subway tunnel in Toronto.
The scenes appear in a prototype version of the game; the objective for
players is to kill as many of the terrorists as possible."

The accompanying A4 story says the overall goal of the game, involving
various 'terrorist' groups and scenarios, is to determine which 'terrorist'
group has unleased a killer virus.

ja

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Cremaster web site


o yes let's do come to the rescue of capitalism and the american way, by all
means, including art.

ja

> I agree that whining about Matthew Barney getting money is really
> pathetic and childish. Do you really this he is taking money from
> other artists? Maybe if you had something compelling and were
> able to present it properly you could find a benefactor of some sort?
> Or should we just give you money because you want it really bad?
>
> I wish artists weren't so jaded and poisoned by thier Marxists
> teachers in college.

DISCUSSION

Re: Cremaster web site


Well said. I hope I am able to see it one of these days, and visit New York.
It's evident from the support it gets on the list that the experience is
crucial. As one would expect. Information is not experience.

As for money and art, they are somewhat independent of one another, aren't
they. Pound said 'It's true there's no money in poetry. But then there's no
poetry in money, either." Hard to buy love and hard to create art by dint of
money. Yet it is hard without it, also. It's just plain hard, however you
look at it.

What makes art possible in a particular place is usually in strong relation
to what makes it so improbable there, also.

ja

> I've been hesitant to respond to this thread, but I'd
> like to add a few thoughts.
>
> I worked on the C3 set at the Guggenheim as well as
> installed Barny's show at the Guggenheim. As a person,
> I found him to be smart, polite, and funny. He's a bit
> punk in a positive sense. In production, he and his
> crew work hard...harder than most I've seen. They
> sweat the details. The studio, as his lead fabricator
> Ryle points out, often disappoints visitors for being
> a workshop not the fashion studio they expect.
>
> I say this to point out that what one perceives an
> artist to be is often distorted. He is successful, I
> believe, because he makes interesting work. He is
> successful because he works his ass off (so to speak).
>
> As for the work, regardless of how one likes to rate
> him as an artist, the Cremaster Cycle is an undeniably
> massive work full of innovation and depth. It may well
> stand as a major artwork in our time. Intentional
> hubris.
>
> The website, on the other hand, is a document. It only
> points to the artwork. To look at it in relation to
> net art/ net design shorts both. Apples and oranges.
>
> Why it was placed in the NAN I'm not sure. I do think
> is that it is useful to look at a range of artworks
> and approaches to content on the net. It may help
> clarify what we make.