ryan griffis
Since 2002
Works in United States of America

ARTBASE (3)
PORTFOLIO (1)
BIO
Ryan Griffis currently teaches new media art at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He often works under the name Temporary Travel Office and collaborates with many other writers, artists, activists and interesting people in the Midwest Radical Culture Corridor.
The Temporary Travel Office produces a variety of services relating to tourism and technology aimed at exploring the non-rational connections existing between public and private spaces. The Travel Office has operated in a variety of locations, including Missouri, Chicago, Southern California and Norway.

Is MySpace a Place?


Networked Performance pointed me toward an interview (download in PDF)with Networked Publics speaker Henry Jenkins and Networked Publics friend danah boyd about Myspace. The site, popular with teenagers, has become increasingly controversial as parents and the press raise concerns about the openness of information on the site and the vulnerability this supposedly poses to predators (Henry points out that only .1% of abductions are by strangers) and the behavior of teens towards each other (certainly nothing new, only now in persistent form). In another essay on Identity Production in Networked Culture, danah suggests that Myspace is popular not only because the technology makes new forms of interaction possible, but because older hang-outs such as the mall and the convenience store are prohibiting teens from congregating and roller rinks and burger joints are disappearing.

This begs the question, is Myspace media or is it space? Architecture theorists have long had this thorn in their side. "This will kill that," wrote Victor Hugo with respect to the book and the building. In the early 1990s, concern about a dwindling public culture and the character of late twentieth century urban space led us to investigate Jürgen Habermas's idea of the public sphere. But the public sphere, for Habermas is a forum, something that, for the most part, emerges in media and in the institutions of the state:

The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The medium of this political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precedent: people's ...

READ ON »


SWITCH: Issue 22



Carlos Castellanos:

HI everyone. Just wanted to announce the new issue of SWITCH:

SWITCH : The online New Media Art Journal of the CADRE Laboratory for
New Media at San Jose State University

http://switch.sjsu.edu switch@cadre.sjsu.edu

SWITCH Journal is proud to announce the launch of Issue 22: A Special
Preview Edition to ISEA 2006/ ZeroOne San Jose.

As San Jose State University and the CADRE Laboratory are serving as
the academic host for the ZeroOne San Jose /ISEA 2006 Symposium,
SWITCH has dedicated itself to serving as an official media
correspondent of the Festival and Symposium. SWITCH has focused the
past three issues of publication prior to ZeroOne San Jose/ISEA2006
on publishing content reflecting on the themes of the symposium. Our
editorial staff has interviewed and reported on artists, theorists,
and practitioners interested in the intersections of Art & Technology
as related to the themes of ZeroOne San Jose/ ISEA 2006. While some
of those featured in SWITCH are part of the festival and symposium,
others provide a complimentary perspective.

Issue 22 focuses on the intersections of CADRE and ZeroOne San Jose/
ISEA 2006. Over the past year, students at the CADRE Laboratory for
New Media have been working intensely with artists on two different
residency projects for the festival – “Social Networking” with Antoni
Muntadas and the City as Interface Residency, “Karaoke Ice” with
Nancy Nowacek, Marina Zurkow & Katie Salen. Carlos Castellanos,
James Morgan, Aaron Siegel, all give us a sneak preview of their
projects which will be featured at the ISEA 2006 exhibition. Alumni
Sheila Malone introduces ex_XX:: post position, an exhibition
celebrating the 20th anniversary of the CADRE Institute that will run
as a parallel exhibition to ZeroOne San Jose/ ISEA 2006. LeE
Montgomery provides a preview of NPR (Neighborhood Public Radio)
presence at ...

READ ON »


Art & Mapping



The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) has released a special issue of their journal, Cartographic Perspectives:
Art and Mapping Issue 53, Winter 2006 Edited by Denis Wood and and John Krygier Price: $25
The issue includes articles by kanarinka, Denis Wood, Dalia Varanka and John Krygier, and an extensive catalogue of map artists compiled by Denis Wood.

READ ON »


[-empyre-] Liquid Narrative for June 2006


Christina McPhee:

hi all, I am not sure we got this message out to Rhizome!

Please join our guests this month, Dene Grigar (US), Jim Barrett
(AU/SE), Lucio Santaella (BR), and Sergio Basbaum (BR) , with
moderator Marcus Bastos (BR), for a spirited discussion of "Liquid
Narratives" ----- digital media story telling with a dash, perhaps,
of 'aura' .

Here's the intro from Marcus:

The topic of June at the - empyre - mailing list will be Liquid Narratives. The concept of 'liquid narrative' is interesting in that it allows to think about the unfoldings of contemporary languages beyond tech achievements, by relating user controlled applications with formats such as the essay (as described by Adorno in "Der Essay als Form", The essay as a form) and procedures related to the figure of the narrator (as described by Benjamin in his writings about Nikolai Leskov). Both authors are accute critics of modern culture, but a lot of his ideas can be expanded towards contemporary culture. As a matter of fact, one of the main concerns in Benjamin's essay is a description of how the rise of modernism happens on account of an increasing nprivilege of information over knowledge, which is even more intense nowadays. To understand this proposal, it is important to remember how Benjamin distinguishes between an oral oriented knowledge, that results from 'an experience that goes from person to person' and is sometimes anonymous, from the information and authoritative oriented print culture. One of the aspects of this discussion is how contemporary networked culture rescues this 'person to person' dimension, given the distributed and non-authoritative procedures that technologies such as the GPS, mobile phones and others stimulate.

READ ON »


state of the planet infographics


stateoftheplanet.jpg
a small collection of beautiful information graphics documenting the current state of the planet.
see also gapminder & 3d data globe.
[seedmagazine.com]

READ ON »



Discussions (909) Opportunities (8) Events (16) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

the bicycle beats the internet


Bicycle chosen as best invention
The humble bicycle has won a UK national survey of people's favourite
inventions.
Listeners to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme were invited to vote
in an online poll looking at the most significant innovations since
1800.

It was an easy victory for the bicycle which won more than half of the
vote.

The transistor came second with 8% of the vote, and the
electro-magnetic induction ring - the means to harness electricity -
came third.

Interplanetary travel

Despite their ubiquity, computers gained just 6% of the vote and the
internet trailed behind with only 4% of all votes cast. There were more
than 4,500 votes cast in total.

People chose the bicycle for its simplicity of design, universal use,
and because it is an ecologically sound means of transport.

TOP 10 INVENTIONS
Bicycle - 59%
Transistor - 8%
Electro-magnetic induction ring - 8%
Computer - 6%
Germ theory of infection - 5%
Radio - 5%
Internet - 4%
Internal combustion engine - 3%
Nuclear power - 1%
Communications satellite - 1%
The survey also asked participants which innovation they would most
like to disinvent.
GM foods came top of this poll with 26% of the vote, followed by
nuclear power with 19%.

By contrast, the technology most would like to see invented was an Aids
vaccine.

Alas, plans to ship long-suffering commuters to distant planets may
need to be put on hold with only 15% voting for an interplanetary
commuting transport system.

Half voted water treatment and supply systems as the technology to
bring most benefit to society.

Another 23% thought that vaccinations deserved the honour.

Each of the technologies were nominated by a different expert,
including writer Sir Arthur C Clarke, cloning expert Professor Ian
Wilmut, and Professor Heinz Wolff.

Prof Wolff's praise of the bicycle held the most sway with voters which
will come as a disappointment to Lord Alec Broers, this year's Reith
lecturer.

His series of lectures - Triumph of Technology - prompted the vote.

In the first of his talks, he expressed surprise at the results of a
similar survey.

It too ranked the bicycle above scientific breakthroughs such as
electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the
invention of vaccinations.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/4513929.stm

DISCUSSION

Fwd: LTTR in Residence at Printed Matter Summer 2005


Begin forwarded message:

http://printedmatter.org/news/news.cfm?article_id0

> Printed Matter, Inc. is thrilled to announce that the creators of the
> annual queer feminist art journal LTTR will be in residence at Printed
> Matter this summer working on the next issue of the journal. A series
> of events, lectures, performances and other LTTR activities at Printed
> Matter will revolve around and result in the production of LTTR #4:
> "Do You Wish to Direct Me?". Stay tuned for announcements about
> programs and events at Printed Matter in the months of July and
> August. Printed Matter is located at 535 West 22nd St between 10th and
> 11th Avenues.
>
> LTTR was formed by artists K8Hardy, Emily Roysdon, and Ginger Brooks
> Takahashi in New York in 2001. In 2005, Lanka Tattersall and Ulrike
> Muller joined as editors. The title of the first issue was an acronym
> for Lesbians To The Rescue. In subsequent issues - each treating a
> different theme - queer and feminist artists, writers, and cultural
> producers play with and re-invent the meanings of the title. In
> addition to publishing the journal, LTTR initiates events, organizes
> exhibitions, and supports and documents the work of a community of
> critical thinkers who reject absolute self-definition and
> identification. Printed Matter welcomes the energy and inventiveness
> of this community into our midst for what we know will be a productive
> and fun summer of collaborative activity.
>
> For the fourth issue of LTTR, the editors are putting creative
> control in the hands of the contributors. The issue's subtitle, "Do
> You Wish to Direct Me?" was pirated from the 1973 Lynda Benglis video
> "Now" In which she replays the image of herself on a monitor behind an
> image of herself on a monitor behind an image of herself ... asking
> and declaring "Now?" "Start the camera!" Self-commanding,
> self-manipulating, and touching a self which is not herself at all,
> this video challenges notions of agency, temporality and polymorphous
> eroticism.
>
> LTTR invites you to participate in "Do You Wish to Direct Me?" with a
> response, proposal or completed project. Printed Matter will be an
> available work / play / performance space for all LTTR activities
> throughout the summer. In troubled times of vapid vocabularies LTTR
> seeks your agency: Be a bossy bottom! Call back with bravado!
> Elegantly propose your terms of engagement to LTTR by May 15 and then
> keep your ears and eyes open for announcements about Printed Matter's
> summer LTTR programs.
>
> Send entries to LTTR 402 Graham Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11211 or
> info@lttr.org
>
> Earlier issues of LTTR are available from Printed Matter's website:
> www.printedmatter.org
>
> For additional information, please contact Rachel Bers, Programming
> and Website Coordinator at (212) 925-0325 or rbers@printedmatter.org

DISCUSSION

Fwd: Make News No. #12


Begin forwarded message:

> MAKE NEWS
> ----------------------------------------
> The Latest from http://makezine.com/
> ----------------------------------------
>
> Make News No. #12 -- MAKE subscriptions now available!
> https://www.pubservice.com/MK/Subnew.aspx?PC=MK&PK=M5ZMNSA2
> May 6, 2005
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Sponsored by Oracle:
>
> The company that brings developers cutting-edge technologies like BPEL
> and ADF will soon bring one lucky developer to the edge of space. Enter
> now for the Oracle Space Sweepstakes for a chance to win a Space
> Adventures suborbital space flight, along with other prizes including
> Mac
> PowerBook G4s, 20GB Apple iPods, and Star Wars Trilogy DVD sets.
>
> http://www.oreilly.com/go/orc_make5605
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There's a chance, hopefully a tiny one, that a bill might be passed
> prohibiting the National Weather Service from "competing" with
> commercial
> services like AccuWeather. What does this mean? The free weather data
> we
> all get on the web might go away. Many of us use the National Weather
> Service on the web, on our phones, and in our applications. What can we
> do? We can call Senator Santorum's phone number (202-224-6324) and
> suggest
> that we have free access to the data we have already paid for, of
> course,
> but there's something else we can do. We can make our own.
>
> In true Maker spirit, we're trying out a Davis Instruments weather
> station
> for an upcoming review in MAKE, and we've installed it on the roof at
> the
> O'Reilly campus in Sebastopol, CA. It was pretty easy to assemble and
> we're getting some cool reports from it.
>
> We're using the Vantage Pro 2 wireless model, with WeatherLink software
> that downloads data from the console and uploads it to the web.
>
> There's a Flickr set of photos showing some of the assembly and
> installation.
>
> For now, we're posting charts of current conditions and data reports.
> The
> reporting templates are customizable, and we've replaced the default
> Java
> ticker at the top with a static view of readings for the current month.
> It's been pretty easy to customize those templates.
>
> We're also posting data to NOAA as part of their citizen weather
> observer
> program -- here's our station report:
> http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?cw3724. If you can't beat them
> ... make your own?
>
> MAKE: Weather --
> http://makezine.com/weatherlink/
> More about our Weather Experiment --
> http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/04/davis_vantage_p.html
>
> MAKE: Audio
> This week's MAKE: Audio is a special one for all you gamers out there!
> We
> interviewed Jerry Holkins, also known as Tycho, from Penny-Arcade at
> the
> February 2005 Emerald City ComicCon in Seattle, WA. If you're a fan of
> Penny-Arcade or just want to know how they make all those amazing
> comics,
> be sure to tune in to this show!
> http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/
>
> =Ell Us==
> Call in to our MAKE voicemail and ask a question; anything is fine. How
> about something like, "I have an old PC, what can I do with it?" We'll
> try
> and answer these on our audio program or on the MAKE: Blog. It's not a
> toll-free call, so keep that in mind.
> 206-888-6253 (MAKE)
>
> You can also send us an email with a sound file attached. Send it to:
> pt@makezine.com.
>
>
> MAKE: Blog
> This week on the MAKE: Blog, we hit the pavement hard and serve up a
> lot
> of automotive hacks. Our heads are currently working day and night on
> the
> third volume of MAKE, which has a lot of cool car and transportation
> hacks
> amongst our usual tinkering and projects.
>
> If you have an MP3 player you want to hook directly into the AUX of a
> car,
> this how-to might help -- DIY Pioneer AUX Input (MP3 to Car). Maybe
> you'd
> rather build a bike that doubles as a shopping cart. Or perhaps we
> could
> interest you in some Pakistani truck art with a side of DIY panniers
> for
> motorbikes.
> http://www.makezine.com/blog/
>
> MAKE: Mobile
> If you want to view the MAKE site via your mobile phone, point it at:
> http://winksite.com/html/ms_bl_ext_l.cfm?susid

DISCUSSION

Re: Boxer Match


On May 6, 2005, at 11:00 AM, curt cloninger wrote:

> There are far more medoicre and (dare i say) bad artists claiming
> that their anti-aesthetics and convoluted/scatalogical cultural
> critiques are great because no one understands them, than there are
> "good" artists misunderstood because their work is too challenging.
>
> she just doesn't dig it (and has a dramatic penchant for
> overgeneralization).

;)

> We can use our art history texts, cyberpunk novels, and Perl technical
> manuals as amulets against the "misunderstanding" of "lesser" minds,
> or we can chew on what's valid in their critiques and leave the rest.

we can also do the same for art (or cultural critiques) that we don't
like, no? why the willingness to give the critic in this case the
benefit of the doubt and not the artists, curt?
what artists are complaining that no one understands their "cultural
critiques"? most artists i know that are interested in "critiques" of
that kind are very engaged in didactics and learning effective
communication techniques. they may not understand why someone doesn't
agree with what they say, but who doesn't have those thoughts
frequently.

DISCUSSION

anyone from the future?


http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler/

The Time Traveler Convention

May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)

(events start at 8:00pm)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT

3 Ames St. Cambridge, MA 02142
42:21:36.025