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 ...

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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.

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[-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.

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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

Nothing sinister


http://www.indystar.com/articles/7/228242-2897-047.html

Nonlethal weapons testing has own perils

By Benjamin Harvey
Columbia News Service
March 11, 2005

NEW YORK -- When scientists at the Kirtland Air Force Research
Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., were ready to test their newest
weapon, they put a spokesman in a doorway and shot him in the back.

They were testing the next big thing in nonlethal weapons technology.
After 11 years of research and $51 million -- $9 million of it for
human-effects testing -- the Active Denial System could be fitted to
military Humvees by the end of the year.

The energy beam from the Active Denial System -- like a weaponized
microwave -- instantly heats water beneath a target's skin to 130
degrees Fahrenheit. That's 26 degrees hotter than the maximum
temperature recommended for hot tubs by the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission.

Test subjects say being actively denied feels like having your entire
body wrapped around a light bulb; no one has been able to stand it
for more than three seconds. "I was one of the dummies who
volunteered," said Richard Garcia, a spokesman for the Directed
Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Revolutionary idea

Nonlethal weapons could soon revolutionize the way battles are fought
and law enforcement operates. But first, researchers must clear the
high hurdle of human testing phases and win the confidence of a
skeptical public.

After more than 70 deaths following the use of Tasers, the
electroshock guns used by police departments across the country, that
could be difficult. Human rights group Amnesty International wants to
suspend Taser sales, which reached $67.7 million last year.

Nevertheless, volunteers for nonlethal weapons -- almost all of them
personally involved in the projects -- sign up to be fried by
superhot beams, stunned by lasers, pounded with blunt impact
munitions, assaulted by piercing noises, momentarily blinded by light
flashes and stink-bombed.

The technology behind many nonlethal weapons is so novel, however,
that guidelines for human testing have only recently been
established, said Glenn Schwaery, director of the University of New
Hampshire's Department of Defense-funded Non-Lethal Technology
Innovation Center. That means that testers are carefully inventing
rules as they go -- and then testing new weapons on themselves and
their colleagues.

Much of the testing goes on in secret at private labs or is
classified, and critics complain the government has taken a "trust
us" attitude to nonlethal weapons research. Numerous new government-
initiated oversight boards have been set up, but there's not a lot of
third-party access.

"Obviously, there are programs that we work on that are in the black
world," said Lawrence Fallow, director of public affairs for the
Human Systems Wing at Brooks City Base in San Antonio, Texas, where
weapons studies are being carried out. "But that's true of (emerging
technologies in) universities as well," he said.

This secrecy has left advocacy groups, including the Sunshine
Project, an anti-biological and chemical weapons group based in
Austin, Texas; Amnesty International; and Human Rights Watch,
clamoring for the right to see and independently analyze the data.

"We just want an understanding of how the tests are done and how they
affect people," said Mark Garlasco, a former intelligence officer at
the Pentagon and now a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch.

Animal-rights groups also are interested. Goats were used to test the
Active Denial System, though military spokespeople say none was
harmed, and pigs have been used for other tests, including ongoing
studies on Tasers.

PETA against testing

Christopher Ford, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, said PETA used the Freedom of Information Act to request
data. "This is something we're definitely looking into," he said,
"and PETA is going to take a much more active role in getting these
kinds of studies stopped."

But military and law enforcement personnel insist the studies are
essential. Most nonlethal weapons centers were established after U.S.
soldiers came home from a humanitarian mission to hand out food in
Somalia in 1995. The mission turned into a bloody battle, and many
who came back, including former Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central
Command Anthony Zinni, demanded options other than guns to make such
situations less deadly.

Marine Capt. Daniel McSweeney, spokesman for the military's Joint
Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, said the Active Denial System is
ideal for deterring enemies without needlessly killing civilians --
especially in situations like Iraq, where the two aren't easy to tell
apart.

Human-rights groups offer qualified support for this goal. "We're
very happy the military has developed weapons not meant to kill
people," Garlasco said. "The bottom line is that we want the testing
declassified."

"Nothing sinister"

But Dr. Nicholas Nicholas, lead scientist at the Institute for
Non-Lethal Defense Technologies, a government-affiliated research
center at Penn State University, said testing is classified primarily
to prevent potential adversaries from exploiting it. "There's nothing
ominous or sinister about it," he said.

But if the testing process is something of a mystery, it's clear that
many scientists working on these weapons test them on themselves
before anyone else.

"It would be hard for me to ask someone to do something and explain
what they're going to feel if I didn't do it myself," said Dr.
Theodore Chan of the University of California-San Diego, who had
himself shot in the face with pepper spray before shooting it at
others for a study sponsored by the Department of Justice.

DISCUSSION

Fwd: [CTHEORY] CTheory Live: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom


> CTHEORY LIVE:
> Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom
>
> ===============================================================
>
>
> CTheory,
> The Indigenous Governance Programs, and
> The Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture
>
> Present
>
> ***********************************************
> * Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom *
> * *
> * with Taiaiake Alfred *
> * *
> ***********************************************
>
> Live Streamed Seminar Series
>
> <www.pactac.net/stream.html>
>
> March 7-18, 2005
> 9:00 am - 12:00 pm PST
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> This seminar will consist in a detailed reading and discussion of
> Taiaiake Alfred's new book, _Wasase: indigenous pathways of action and
> freedom_, which focuses on the restoration of the warrior ethic as
> the basis for regenerating indigenous identities and struggles to
> free ourselves from colonialism.
>
> The first chapter of _Wasase_, "First Words," can be read
> online at ctheory.net (Article #150).
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> Taiaiake Alfred is a Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk) philosopher, writer and
> teacher and has emerged as an influential figure in the new
> generation of Indigenous leaders. He is the author of two books,
> _Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors: on Native nationalism_, and
> _Peace, Power, Righteousness: an essay on Indigenous ethics_. He is
> a prominent voice in scholarly circles and an award-winning
> journalist know for his passionate and incisive commentary on
> politics and culture. Taiaiake holds a Canada Research Chair and is
> a Professor in the Indigenous Governance Programs and the Department
> of Political Science at the University of Victoria.
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> *
> * CTHEORY is an international journal of theory, technology and
> * culture. Articles, interviews, and key book reviews in
> * contemporary discourse are published weekly as well as
> * theorisations of major "event-scenes" in the mediascape.
> *
> * Editors: Arthur and Marilouise Kroker
> *
> * Editorial Board: Jean Baudrillard (Paris), Paul Virilio (Paris),
> * Bruce Sterling (Austin), R.U. Sirius (San Francisco), Siegfried
> * Zielinski (Koeln), Stelarc (Melbourne), Richard Kadrey (San
> * Francisco), DJ Spooky [Paul D. Miller] (NYC), Timothy Murray
> * (Ithaca/Cornell), Lynn Hershman Leeson (San Francisco), Stephen
> * Pfohl (Boston), Andrew Ross (NYC), David Cook (Toronto), Ralph
> * Melcher (Sante Fe), Shannon Bell (Toronto), Gad Horowitz
> * (Toronto), Andrew Wernick (Peterborough).
> *
> * In Memory: Kathy Acker
> *
> * Editorial Correspondents: Ken Hollings (UK),
> * Maurice Charland (Canada) Steve Gibson (Canada/Sweden).
> *
> * Editorial Assistant: Ted Hiebert
> * WWW Design & Technical Advisor: Spencer Saunders (CTHEORY.NET)
> * WWW Engineer Emeritus: Carl Steadman
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> To view CTHEORY online please visit:
> http://www.ctheory.net/
>
> To view CTHEORY MULTIMEDIA online please visit:
> http://ctheorymultimedia.cornell.edu/
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> * CTHEORY includes:
> *
> * 1. Electronic reviews of key books in contemporary theory.
> *
> * 2. Electronic articles on theory, technology and culture.
> *
> * 3. Event-scenes in politics, culture and the mediascape.
> *
> * 4. Interviews with significant theorists, artists, and writers.
> *
> * 5. Multimedia theme issues and projects.
> *
> *
> * The Editors would like the thank the University of Victoria for
> * financial and intellectual support of CTheory. In particular, the
> * Editors would like to thank the Dean of Social Sciences, Dr. John
> * Schofield, the Dean of Engineering, Dr. D. Michael Miller and Dr.
> * Jon Muzio, Department of Computer Science.
> *
> * No use of CTHEORY articles without permission. Works from the
> * CTHEORY archive may only be reprinted with permission of the
> * Editors. Email ctheory@uvic.ca for more information.
> *
> * Mailing address: CTHEORY, University of Victoria, PO Box 3050,
> * Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 3P5.
> *
> * Full text and microform versions are available from UMI, Ann Arbor,
> * Michigan; and Canadian Periodical Index/Gale Canada, Toronto.
> *
> * Indexed in: International Political Science Abstracts/
> * Documentation politique international; Sociological Abstract
> * Inc.; Advance Bibliography of Contents: Political Science and
> * Government; Canadian Periodical Index; Film and Literature Index.
> *
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> _______________________________________________
> ctheory mailing list
> ctheory@lists.uvic.ca
> http://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ctheory
>

DISCUSSION

Internet viruses help ecologists control invasive species


http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2005/03/03/
internet_viruses_help_ecologists_control_invasive_species.html
Studying how computer viruses spread through the internet is helping
ecologists to prevent invasions of non-native species. New research
published today in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied
Ecology, describes the use of network theory to predict how the spiny
water flea - a native of Russia - will spread through the Canadian lake
system.

DISCUSSION

Fwd: Lucy Lippard Presents "Art & Place: Traveling to Here"


> Hello Friends of Orlo:
>
> Lucy Lippard will be in Portland next Wednesday as part of Ilahee's
> lecture
> series. Since Orlo is helping to sponsor this event, we thought you'd
> be
> interested in the particulars. See details below.
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
>
> Lucy Lippard, author, art critic and feministic presents a special
> lecture:
>

DISCUSSION

Re: Pod Pals


Ricardo Miranda Zuniga's "virtual landscape" is another, much less
techno-utopian (yet more theatrical), exploration of the long-distance
relationship caused by the required mobility of the culture industry.
http://www.ambriente.com/net/mount/mount.html
Of course, the techno-utopianism of IN Network is part of its subject
matter, the perceived lack of options requiring complete subservience
to the IT order. it's "you've got mail" hyper updated to account for
the dream/nightmare of 24hr connectedness/separation. it allows them to
be "together" only by forcing them to be apart. the family-plan gives
the illusion that distance is really closeness.
Or as AT&T predicted/ordered, "You will."
http://ad-rag.com/114815.php
if only shulgin's fuck-you-fuck-me device had been made commercial...
http://www.fu-fme.com/