Rachel Greene
Since the beginning
Works in New York, Nebraska United States of America

BIO
Rhizome is friends and family for Rachel, who has been involved with the org. in one capacity or another since 1997 when it was rhizome.com!!
Rachel wrote a book on internet art for thames & hudson's well-known WORLD OF ART series: it was published in June 2004. She was a consultant and catalogue author for the 2004 Whitney Biennial. She has also written for publications including frieze, artforum, timeout and bomb.
Discussions (824) Opportunities (20) Events (0) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

From Matt Locke's blog - An Interview with Tim Etchells


From Matt Locke's blog - www.test.org.uk -

Tim Etchells - Surrender Control

A few years ago, in a previous job, I commissioned a number of projects
with artists using SMS as a medium. One of them was Tim Etchells, a
writer and co-founder of Forced Entertainment
(http://www.forced.co.uk/), a performance group who have produced some
of the most innovative and exciting theatre I've seen over the last 10
years. I was really eager to get Tim to consider SMS as a medium, as
his writing is very epigrammatic, and his subject matter devoted to the
random poetry of urban life. The project he came up with was 'surrender
control', a series of instructions sent as text messages to subscribers
over a number of weeks that cleverly traced narratives of desire, trust
and intimacy.

As part of an essay I've recently written on the project, I asked Tim
some questions about 'surrender control'. I really wished I'd found
some way of sparking a debate about this project at the time, as it
touches on so many issues about narrative, privacy, intimacy and
technology that have become even more important as 'social software'
like friendster have gained popularity. Surrender Control explored the
darker shadows of communication technologies, illustrating the
umheimlich twin of the shiny, happy world of ubiquitous connectivity
that we are always being promised (look at those smiles on the
Friendster homepage! Everyone's having such a rad time!). So, rather
belatedly, I'm putting this Q&A session with Tim up here, and hope that
it sparks some comments. Also, read Jill Walker's blog for an excellent
description of what it felt like to participate in the project.

TIM ETCHELLS ON SURRENDER CONTROL:

"Surrender Control is somewhere between a game and a set of dares. The
instructions that people will receive vary enormously - some are orders
to think about particualr topics, others are invitations to look at the
world in a particular way, other instructions are for actions, demands
that people behave in particular ways or that they carry out particular
tasks.

What interests me about SMS is the intimacy inherent in the form -
messages go direct to the phone of an individual, direct to a 'place'
which is normally occupied by that person's friends, family or lovers.
To create an art work for this context is an invitation, one could say,
to whisper in the ears of strangers as they go about their daily
business. Surrender Control tries to explore and push the boundaries of
what is possible or even permissible in this context."

Matt Locke:How did you find writing for SMS as a delivery medium?

Tim Etchells: I liked it in the sense that I really enjoy working to
limits - the technical limits (text only, a certain number of
characters) as well as the limits of the context - one's expectations
of the place and time that people would be receiving the messages. Once
I know what the edges of a form are (be it SMS or theatre or video)
then I'm happy to play with and disrupt those edges!

ML: What kind of responses were you expecting from participants in the
project?
What role did they play in the narrative?

TE: I didn't have a definite idea of what people would do.. I thought
that some would obstinately do nothing! And that some would obediently
do everything.. and a lot of middle ground.

There are certainly many instructions where the participants need to
make their own decisions about how far they're willing to go. To me
that's a part of the project. The instructions are proposals,
invitations - but there's undoubtedly an element of flirtatiousness and
temptation in what I propose - people have to make their choices about
what they'll do and what they won't do.

In fact it's not even that important to me that people follow the
instructions. Perhaps what's just as interesting is to sit in a bar
with friends, or ride the bus home or sit with familly in front of the
TV and just consider for a moment what it might mean to follow a
certain instruction. I think a powerful sense of what the world is, and
what our boundaries for acting in it are could emerge from that...

ML: Surrender Control was designed as a one-way project - how did the
lack of feedback effect your experience on the project?

TE: I can't really imagine it working with feedback - it was so solidly
built on the fact of none. Feedback would only be interesting to me if
it was an interactive piece for ONE phone user at a time (now that
would be something to pursue!)

DISCUSSION

Fwd: oppurtunity for artists--please post


Begin forwarded message:

> From: claire barliant <cbarliant@yahoo.com>
> Date: Wed Jul 23, 2003 3:48:30 PM US/Eastern
> To: cbarliant@yahoo.com
> Subject: oppurtunity for artists--please post
>
> Hello:
>
>

DISCUSSION

Fwd: AsoloArtFilmFestival Press Release


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "A.I.A.F. - Direzione Generale"
> <direzionegenerale@asolofilmfestival.it>
> Date: Thu Jul 17, 2003 4:05:06 AM US/Eastern
> To: <A.Agiza@senv.shell.com>
> Subject: AsoloArtFilmFestival Press Release
> Reply-To: <direzionegenerale@asolofilmfestival.it>
>
> Press Release
>
> Please circulate
>
> AsoloArtFilmFestival
>
> Asolo

DISCUSSION

From Matt Locke's blog - www.test.org.uk -- An interview with artist Lucy Kimbell


From Matt Locke's blog - www.test.org.uk -- An interview with artist
Lucy Kimbell about Audit (http://www.lucykimbell.com/audit/index.htm)

+ + +

Lucy Kimbell - Audit

This is the second in the series of three interviews I did for a recent
essay . In this one, Lucy Kimbell talks about her project Audit:

"Audit is the result of conducting a personal poll in which Lucy
Kimbell asks - "What am I worth?" Combining techniques from business
analysis and other disciplines, this book uses material gathered from a
specially constructed questionnaire to measure a broad range of values
about the artist."
[from the publisher Bookworks website ]

Matt Locke: Are there any questions about yourself you refrained from
including in Audit? If so, what were they, and why?

Lucy Kimbell: Yes, loads, things that I wanted to keep inside my
public-private boundary mostly for reasons of fear - not wanting to
expose myself.

DISCUSSION

[Fwd: TCDC 2003: Announcing the birth of Twin(s)]


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: TCDC 2003: Announcing the birth of Twin(s)
From: "Design Institute" <design@umn.edu>
Date: Wed, July 16, 2003 11:10 am
To: DESIGN-LIST@LISTS.UMN.EDU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Minneapolis, July 16, 2003

Ever heard of a typeface that changes with the wind? or the
temperature? or the traffic?

We've just delivered it!
http://design.umn.edu/go/project/TCDC03.1.TTC

After many months of labor, the DI is proud to announce the birth of
"Twin" - a new typeface specially commissioned as part of the Twin Cities
Design Celebration 2003, which is supported by a generous gift from Target
Corporation.
http://design.umn.edu/go/to/TCDC

In Summer 2002, we launched the "Typeface: Twin Cities" project by
inviting six up-and-coming typographers to answer the following
question:
Can a typeface effectively communicate the character of a city?
by proposing a new typeface expressly for the Twin Cities of
Minneapolis and St Paul.

This Saturday morning, July 19th, at a special session of TypeCon
2003 at the Radisson Plaza hotel in Minneapolis, the conceptual
proposals will be presented by typographers

* Peter Bil'ak (Peter Bil'ak Design and Typography, The Hague,
Netherlands) * Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum (LettError, The
Hague,
Haarlem, Netherlands)
* Gilles Gavillet and David Rust (Optimo, Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland) *
Sybille Hagmann (Kontour, Houston, TX)
* Conor Mangat (Inflection, Kentfield, CA) and
* Eric Olson (Process Type Foundry, St. Paul, MN)

And the commissioned DI Fellows, Erik van Blokland and Just van
Rossum of LettError, will discuss the development of the chosen font, the
infinitely-mutable "Twin."

Not just a single typeface, "Twin" has spawned a multiple birth: ten print
fonts and an online version, capable of taking in data from the Twin
Cities via the Web, and changing shape on-the-fly in response to dynamic
urban conditions.

The Design Institute is proud to partner with the Society of
Typographic Afficianados (SOTA) on TypeCon2003. Our special
'mini-SOTA' session starts at 10.30 am and will be introduced by DI
director Janet Abrams and Typeface: Twin Cities project manager
Deborah Littlejohn.

http://www.typecon2003.com/umditypefacetc.cfm
http://www.typecon2003.com/programsched.cfm

* READ THIS BOOK!
Metro Letters - a 160-page book documenting the Typeface: Twin Cities
project, edited and designed by Deborah Littlejohn, published by the DI,
price $29.95. Featuring all six proposals, interviews with the invited
typographers, full development of "Twin," jury comments, and essays by
design educators Michael Worthington and Gail Swanlund.

* EAT THIS FONT!
ChocoLetters - take a bite out of our limited edition chocolate
alphabets of "Twin" with two boxed sets to choose from: one spells "TCDC
2003", the other is a composite alphabet made up of letters
from all 10 variations of "Twin." Manufactured expressly for the
Design Institute by Minneapolis bespoke confectioner B.T. McElrath.

Both are available for sale from July 19th. Orders accepted by email to
design@umn.edu with Metro Letters and/or ChocoLetters in the
Subject.

The Design Institute gratefully acknowledges additional support for this
special TypeCon conference session, and towards the publication of "Metro
Letters," from the Consulate General of the Netherlands, New York, and the
Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam.

And don't forget:
* MATTHEW CARTER GIVES TYPECON/WALKER LECTURE TOMORROW
Thursday July 17 at 7pm, free
In conjunction with TypeCon2003, Matthew Carter, maestro of
typography and creator of the Walker Art Center's custom typeface in 1995,
joins Andrew Blauvelt, WAC Design Director and curator of its current
exhibition, "Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life" (through
September 7, 2003), in conversation at 7pm.
Walker Art Center, Vineland Place, Minneapolis.
Info: http://www.walkerart.org 612 375 7622

Design Institute
http://design.umn.edu / 612 625 3373 / design@umn.edu
If this is one email list too many for you, simply reply with 'enough
already' in the subject line, and we'll remove you from the list.


CURATED EXHIBITIONS (1)