Olson has served as Editor & Curator at Rhizome, the inaugural curator at Zero1, and Associate Director at SF Camerawork. She's contributed to many major journals & books and this year Cocom Press published Arte Postinternet, a Spanish translation of her texts on Postinternet Art, a movement she framed in 2006. In 2015 LINK Editions will publish a retrospective anthology of over a decade of her writings on contemporary art which have helped establish a vocabulary for the criticism of new media. Meanwhile, she has also curated programs at the Guggenheim, New Museum, SFMOMA, White Columns, Artists Space, and Bitforms Gallery. She has served on Advisory Boards for Ars Electronica, Transmediale, ISEA, the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, Creative Capital, the Getty Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kennedy Center, and the Tribeca Film Festival.
Olson studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, and Rhetoric & Film Studies at UC Berkeley. She has recently been a visiting artist at Yale, SAIC, Oberlin, and VCU; a Visiting Critic at Brown; and Visiting Faculty at Bard College's Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and Ox-Bow. She previously taught at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' new media graduate program (ITP) and was Assistant Professor of New Media at SUNY-Purchase's School of Film & Media Studies. She was recently an Artist-in-Residence at Eyebeam & is currently Visiting Critic at RISD.
Six Muses of Randomness
Six white mice reside among books on logic subjects inside a laboratory cabinet, nibbling on the pages.
As they wander around the AbA Logic installation, they trigger a databank of words connected to electronic boards. The boards make up two sentences of three words each (called AbA-logic statements). Each time a mouse triggers a sensor, a new statement appears. The words (adjectives, adverbs and nouns) are common in logic terminology. The statement that appear are obviously less common.
The statements they are printed as they appear. On AbA's desk piles of sketches and notes from the process accumulates.
In addition, the mice -through their nibbling- are creating sculptural rephrasing of the books, and produce new combinations of the texts and illustrations from the pages of the books.
A work by Kalle Grude and Jan Lochstoer at AbA / Art by Accident. Coding by Hakon Lindback.
Image by Jana Winderen. More pictures: Leonardo Solaas'flickr and Interface and Society.
Related: Gail Wight's Rodentia Chamber Music.
The small ensemble of five transparent chamber instruments is inhabited by mice, who "play" them by triggering electronic whisker switches positioned within the instruments.
Subtle Technologies 2007 Call for Submissions
"
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Subtle Technologies 2007
in situ
art • body • medicine
May 24th – May 27th 2007
University of Toronto, Toronto Canada
Submission Deadline January 3, 2007.
Subtle Technologies is a four-day multidisciplinary Festival exploring complex and subtle relationships between art and science. The annual international event combines symposia, exhibitions, workshops and performances that juxtapose cutting-edge artistic projects and
scientific exploration.
For the 10th Annual Festival, Subtle Technologies invites practitioners of arts, sciences and medicines, and those who study their context, historians, ethicists, and other critical thinkers to contemplate how these disciplines can work together and reshape perspectives on the body.
As scientific and technological breakthroughs prominently occupy our culture, we ask where the boundaries are. We are interested in investigating how we relate bodies in situ: as parts, as a whole, as systems; how we identify, map, modify, protect, violate, and heal.
We invite a wide interpretation of bodies including the molecular, physical, cultural, economic, legal, political, energetic, electrical and spiritual.
A range of approaches are welcome, including interdisciplinary work, specialized presentation proposals that focus on a single topic in depth, and general discussions that draw upon multiple topics. We welcome a diversity of presentation formats, including those practitioners who may not emphasize the use of science and technology.
Proposals for the following will be considered: workshops, performances, poster sessions, and symposium presentations.
How to Apply:
Details are available on the online submissions form:
http://www.subtletechnologies.com/2007/
Examples of possible topics include:
Racial and Personalized Medicine
Tele-Medicine
Pharmaceuticalized Body
Organ Trafficking
Inter- Species Communications
History of Medicine
Reproductive Technologies
Addictions and Obsessions
Sexual / Gendered Body
Body Machine Interfaces and Sensors
Violated Body
Embryoid Bodies and Stem Cells
Infectious Agents and Diseases
Local or Traditional Healing Practices
New Therapeutic Paradigms
Population Dynamics and the Environment
Spiritual Body
Extropian and ...
Assistant Professor | DXARTS | University of Washington | Mechatronics, Robotics, and Telematics
DIGITAL ARTS and EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA (DXARTS) University of Washington - Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media
Multidisciplinary Arts Faculty Position in Mechatronics, Robotics, and Telematic art forms at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media at the University of Washington in Seattle. Established in 2001, DXARTS is a pioneering Arts unit on campus with exciting undergraduate and doctoral degree programs. DXARTS brings together current and new faculty from Art, Music, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Dance and Design in a pioneering research environment dedicated to the invention and exploration of new forms of digital and experimental art.
The position is a full-time, tenure-track position to begin in September 2007, at the rank of Assistant Professor. Applicants must be practicing artists with an Minimum of a Masters Degree in one or more allied arts and sciences fields, should demonstrate the ability to teach at the university level, and must have the potential to supervise doctoral students.
We seek an individual who is an accomplished artist who makes innovative cross-disciplinary use of digital technologies in their works, as well as someone with a strong background in advanced computing based research areas such as mechatronics, robotics, sensing and control systems, systems based art forms, AI, programming for interactive and distributed environments, physical computing, rapid prototyping, and CNC machining, etc. Applicants should also demonstrate an ability to assimilate art history, theory and practice through their research and teaching. Previous experience in teaching and resourcing such research areas is highly desirable. The position includes responsibilities for research and teaching undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary arts courses in one or more of these areas.
Application must include: CV, artist statement, statement on pedagogy, and a cohesive portfolio of professional creative work. Support materials must include three references with phone numbers, mail and e-mail address ...
visual new media art survey
an online collection of documented & categorized new media artworks as a result of an ongoing survey. a visual taxonomy was developed that forms the basis of the survey, while 20 different icons (.e.g virtual reality/physical objects, audio/projected content, group/personal experience, projection/screen, etc.) define the characteristics of a new media art work in order to evaluate the audience experience & formal qualities of the piece.
[link: creativityandcognition.com]
Rhizome Today: A critic, with opinions about postinternet art
My own effort in talking about Postinternet, at least in those early instances, as on the panel, was to (a) expand Rhizome's mission--I was then Editor & Curator--to cover and support a wider variety of practices; and (b) just to describe my own work and how a project like my Monitor Tracings (totally "offline" drawings) could be contextualized as internet art, or art 'after' the internet (i.e. In the style of & made after I log-off.) I think Michael puts it *perfectly* when he says, "we should understand all our gestures, 'online' and 'offline,' as actions in a network that is mediated and administered by computers." Perhaps this is obvious, but I'd say this applies to all of waking life, not just art production+reception.
I've personally moved from discussing Postinternet Art as "art after the internet" toward discussing Postinternet as "the symptoms of network culture." I am less interested in discussing PI Art specifically/exclusively, now that people have brow-beaten and/or branded the term into something far different than what I originally meant, and much more interested in discussing the social affects around the production of postinternet conditions and their manifestations. And, meanwhile, I have said (particularly in the Ullens catalogue & also in an interview in the Art and the Internet book put out by Black Dog) that, to me, Postinternet is just a 'placeholder' term around which to convene in having conversations around the latter symptoms. (I've started working on spelling these out more explicitly in recent & forthcoming writing-- including the keynote lecture I just gave at Pratt's UPLOAD conference, entitled "Postinternet is Dead. Long Live Postinternet.")
Likes/Dislikes around the word, aside, I hope this very long-running conversation around art and the internet can continue to incorporate careful consideration of the affects of network culture, as networks themselves evolve.
Breaking the Ice
Like most of the folks above, I too am a "forever member," from the days of the Rhizome Communications ascii RAW listserv and, later, fancy Dreamweaver/Flash "Splash Pages," to the present. Reena Jana and I were the first two paid writers (poached from Wired!), when Alex Galloway was running "content," which at that time meant programming and editorial--though Rhizome was declaratively non-editorial, so they just commissioned book & exhibition reviews, and some interviews from us that were fed into the RAW stream and included in the Digest as Features. Oy vey, I can still remember the cross-eyed weekly ritual of trying to untangle parallel conversations to reassemble them into a coherent thread for the Digest, when I was editing it--and the race to get it out by noon one day each week!!
I've seen Rhizome go through so many changes, and I've been a part of the back channel conversations on years of them, including huge ones that we decided not to go through with. I have to say that it's always hard to serve a membership-based organization, which is what Rhizome has always thought of itself as. But I can say that every change in content or form has been discussed critically, at length, and typically not without a degree of passion.
I am also biting my tongue because I *really* do not want to put words in any staff member's mouth (past or present), but I can say that I believe everyone who's ever worked there has taken their position as a labor of love, with users/reader/members/community (everyone has their favorite self-identification; semantics trolls please don't hate today!) in mind, and everyone has collaborated with the staff to bring a unique take on how best to serve you in the current creative and technological climate. For instance, I remember that my big objective coming in the door was wanting to change the mission statement to reflect not only net art and not only highly technological art, but also art that "reflects" on technology in a meaningful way. In fact, I think contemplating this change was very much a part of my conceptualizing Postinternet.
There is so much to say here, but I think I'd best sign off. This is not my soap box, and in some way, it feels weird to comment so much. I used to be a Superusing Megaposter, but as soon as I became Editor & Curator, I stepped back to focus on trying to facilitate and amplify other voices, which I do believe every Rhizome Editor has done in their own way.
I'll end with this, then. I'd be surprised if every reader, writer, or editor loved everything that ever appeared (structurally or content-wise) in their newspaper of choice. I'd be surprised if every curator or museumgoer loved every artwork shown (or every exhibition design decision) in their favorite museum. But it's the day we stop reading, stop going to look at art that disappoints me. It's the day Rhizome stops experimenting that scares me. And I wish them well on this new experiment.
Conference Report: NET.ART (SECOND EPOCH)
Thank you for these points of clarification. I actually tried to convey (and forgive me if I failed) that your presentation was unique in identifying multiple generations of networked artists, and I particularly liked the way you talked about artists working before the internet in ways that anticipated network culture.
You also made that great point (via Hal Foster) about the ways in which critics' work is influenced by what is/ was happening at the moment they entered the art world. I admire how you helped pioneer new media criticism and yet have continued to stay on the pulse of new work. This is what I had in mind when recalling your point about your relationship to a previous generation of net-dot-artists, versus the artists of the era Inclusiva was calling the "second epoch." I just really liked the way you fleshed out more than two epochs and I wanted to highlight your catalyzing role in the net-dot-art scene, in particular.
In my own presentation, my intent absolutely was not to dismiss any previous artists, movements, practices, etc. It was simply to flesh-out one niche of new media art practice. In fact, I really liked the pointed questions that the audience asked afterwards, because it helped us have a really meaningful discussion about the problematic relationship of pro surfer work to art historical discourse, and my calls to action revolved around getting those artists to participate in learning about their own pre-histories and writing historiographies that situate their own trajectories on their own terms.
So I don't think we're in disagreement. But I appreciate your call to fine-tune my articulation of these scenarios.
Go Ahead, Touch Her
Go Ahead, Touch Her
I'm sorry that you found my article objectionable. I didn't intend to make the implications you suggest, but I believe your response cuts to the most interesting aspect of Laric's piece, which is the effect of remixing.
For those who care to review the lyrics to this song, they are here:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mariahcarey/touchmybody.html
They include the refrain:
Touch my body
Put me on the floor
Wrestle me around
Play with me some more
Touch my body
Throw me on the bed
So, in fact, I do think that Carey's lyrics (and video) invite sexual fantasy, but my article doesn't say that she is asking to be violated, it says that she's asking to be remixed. Of course, the slippage between the two that you identify is what's so interesting.
In an interview with Laric, he told me that he noticed that the video takes-on an increased sexual tone when all but Carey is masked out. He was interested in how this first-person invitation to "touch my body" could be construed as an invitation to remix the visage of her body (and/or the voice emitted from it), particularly given (a) the implicit link to digital culture embodied by both the lyrics and video, and (b) the fact that the remix is now such an important part of the media ecology of pop culture.
In the last 25+ years of pop music, lining-up celebrity remixes and making singles remix-ready has been an important part of the production cycle, often preceding the release of the original recording. Almost all historical accounts of Madonna's rise to fame cite her relationship with DJs and openness to remixing as a key factor in her success. So while you may see the remix as a violent act, clearly those participating in this industry see it as an imperative.
Discussions of why a remix is or isn't violent are interesting, as they get to questions of the status of the digital reproduction. Are we remixing a person or "just" her image, and what's the difference when thinking about how a person's identity--particularly a famous person's identity--hinges upon their image? Carey's image was already manipulated before it came to us. In the interview with Laric, he pointed to a segment in the original video in which the shape of a cup becomes distorted as a result of distorting the footage to make the singer standing behind the cup appear slimmer. So this is already not her. If you listen closely, I believe there is also a question as to whether all of the voiced parts of the song are her, so the audio issue adds another layer to the phenomenological question of the brute force of the remix.
These issues of the import of the remix, the relationship to broader pop culture (rather than an insular art world), collective authorship, and the nature of Carey's invitation are what I hoped to address in this article.