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 ...

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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]

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

YOUgenics News upDate


>> US Contracts for Biometric Border:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39156421,00.htm
>> Splicing Human Genes in Crops:
http://www.irishnews.com/access/breakingnews/story.asp?
j1230585&p=yyyz3y3z4&n1231346&x=
>> Pharma & Food Crops Report:
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200406021.html
>> Monsanto v Schmeiser update, Monsanto wins rights to genetic
pollution:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_idH1739
>> Wanted: Drugs to Fight Bioterror:
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,63655,00.html
>> Scientists Try to Trump Politics:
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,63677,00.html
>> US to Tell More About GM Crops:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/business/02crop.html?
ex01595200&en&6369e4ab9e5e37&eiP07&partner=USERLAND

YOUgenics will also be hosted by the Betty Rymer Gallery at the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago from December 2004- February 2005. More
details to follow.

YOUgenics: art interrogating genetic technologies
http://www.yougenics.net

DISCUSSION

FWD: more on CAE defense


Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 21:28:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: CAE Legal Defense Fund <caedefense@caedefensefund.org>
Subject: <nettime> ARTISTS SUBPOENAED IN USA PATRIOT ACT CASE

June 2, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Beatriz da Costa, mailto:media@caedefensefund.org

ARTISTS SUBPOENAED IN USA PATRIOT ACT CASE
Feds STILL unable to distinguish art from bioterrorism
Grand jury to convene June 15

HELP URGENTLY NEEDED - SEE BELOW

Three artists have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal
grand jury that will consider bioterrorism charges against a
university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology
equipment.

The subpoenas are the latest installment in a bizarre investigation
in which members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force have mistaken an
art project for a biological weapons laboratory (see end for
background). While most observers have assumed that the Task Force
would realize the absurd error of its initial investigation of Steve
Kurtz, the subpoenas indicate that the feds have instead chosen to
press their "case" against the baffled professor.

Two of the subpoenaed artists--Beatriz da Costa and Steve Barnes--are,
like Kurtz, members of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art
Ensemble (CAE), an artists' collective that produces artwork to
educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. They were
served the subpoenas by federal agents who tailed them to an art show
at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The third artist,
Paul Vanouse, is, like Kurtz, an art professor at the University at
Buffalo. He has worked with CAE in the past.

The artists involved are at a loss to explain the increasingly bizarre
case. "I have no idea why they're continuing (to investigate)," said
Beatriz da Costa, one of those subpoenaed. "It was shocking that this
investigation was ever launched. That it is continuing is positively
frightening, and shows how vulnerable the PATRIOT Act has made freedom
of speech in this country." Da Costa is an art professor at the
University of California at Irvine.

According to the subpoenas, the FBI is seeking charges under Section
175 of the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which has
been expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act. As expanded, this law prohibits
the possession of "any biological agent, toxin, or delivery system"
without the justification of "prophylactic, protective, bona fide
research, or other peaceful purpose." (See
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/175.html for the 1989 law and
http://www.ehrs.upenn.edu/protocols/patriot/sec817.html for its USA
PATRIOT Act expansion.)

Even under the expanded powers of the USA PATRIOT Act, it is difficult
to understand how anyone could view CAE's art as anything other than a
"peaceful purpose." The equipment seized by the FBI consisted mainly of
CAE's most recent project, a mobile DNA extraction laboratory to test
store-bought food for possible contamination by genetically modified
grains and organisms; such equipment can be found in any university's
basic biology lab and even in many high schools (see "Lab Tour" at
http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/free/ for more details).

The grand jury in the case is scheduled to convene June 15 in Buffalo,
New York. Here, the jury will decide whether or not to indict Steve
Kurtz on the charges brought by the FBI. A protest is being planned at
9 a.m. on June 15 outside the courthouse at 138 Delaware Ave. in
Buffalo.

HELP NEEDED

Financial donations:
The CAE Defense Fund has so far received over 200 donations in amounts
ranging from $5 to $400. This is a wonderful outpouring of sympathy,
but a drop in the bucket compared to the potential costs of the case.
To make a donation, please visit http://www.caedefensefund.org/

Letters of support:
Letters and petitions of support from biologists, artists, and others,
especially those in positions of responsibility at prominent
institutions or companies, could be very useful. See
http://www.caedefensefund.org/ for a sample letter of support.

Legal offers and letters of support:
If you are a lawyer, offers of pro bono support or offers to write
amicus briefs would be very helpful.

DISCUSSION

latest on CAE support


Sorry for those already reading the CRUMB list, but for those who
aren't, this is from Eric Kluitenberg, a NL based artist and organizer.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I think Amanda McDonald Crowley is working on a first draft tonight
for consideration en petit committee and then as quickly as possible
out to lists to gather signatories.

I would urge for a letter that is first of all professional, coming
from curators, writers, critics, academics and colleague artists. The
letter should express the concern about the personal situation of
Steve Kurtz and other members of CAE indighted, and secondly should
sound worries about a general poltical climate in which artsitic
freedom (one of the cater-pillars of the liberal democracies) is
under pressure.

It seems important to me that this should not come off as a radical
polticial action group, seizing upon this event to make a fringe
poltical case. probably it would be helpfull if people also indicate
the organisation they are affiliated with. Yesterday I discussed this
story in the editorial board meeting of De Balie and the board and
director expressed support for this campaign. I really think it is
good to go *institutional* on this one, whilst elsewhere the general,
fringe, political, activist and other ralleys can happen.

I'll see what the situation is tomorrow morning - if there's no draft
yet I will write it - succint, concerned, professional.

best,
eric

Others have suggested that members of CAA (college art assoc) write a
letter asking them to institutionally defend CAE and Steve to:
Susan Ball
Executive Director
The College Art Association
275 Seventh Avenue
New York, New York 10001

here's a PDF file that can be used to alert those that may be missing
the online discussion but would be supportive:
http://www.yougenics.net/cae_def.pdf

DISCUSSION

Buffalo FBI info


Although it sounds like a more formal letter of support for Steve is in
the works... if anyone feels compelled to draft their own letter and/or
email or phone the FBI in Buffalo (who have been annoyingly coy with
the press about what they're after) here's the address info from their
web site:

The FBI's Buffalo Field Office:
One FBI Plaza
Buffalo, New York, 14202
telephone number 716-856-7800
email address Buffalo@fbi.gov

DISCUSSION

"The FBI's Art Attack," new in Washington Post


The FBI's Art Attack
Offbeat Materials at Professor's Home Set Off Bioterror Alarm

By Lynne Duke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 2, 2004; Page C01

NEW YORK -- "A forensic investigation of FBI trash." On the telephone,
Beatriz da Costa says it wryly. Her humor sounds bitter. She's talking
about the detritus of a terror probe at the Buffalo home of her good
friends, the Kurtzes.

She's talking about the pizza boxes, Gatorade jugs, the gloves, the
gas mask filters, the biohazard suits: the stuff left by police, FBI,
hazmat and health investigators after they descended on the Kurtz home
and quarantined the place.

The garbage tells a story of personal tragedy, a death in the Kurtz
household, that sparked suspicions (later proved unfounded) of a
biohazard in the neighborhood. And it tells a story of the times in
which we live, with almost daily warnings about terror, and with law
enforcement primed to pounce.

Steve Kurtz, a Buffalo art professor, discovered on the morning of May
11 that his wife of 20 years, Hope Kurtz, had stopped breathing. He
called 911. Police and emergency personnel responded, and what they saw
in the Kurtz home has triggered a full-blown probe -- into the vials
and bacterial cultures and strange contraptions and laboratory
equipment.

The FBI is investigating. A federal grand jury has been impaneled.
Witnesses have been subpoenaed, including da Costa.

Kurtz and his late wife were founders of the Critical Art Ensemble, an
internationally renowned collective of "tactical media" protest and
performance artists. Steve Kurtz, 48, has focused on the problems of
the emergence of biotechnology, such as genetically modified food. He
and the art ensemble, which also includes da Costa, have authored
several books including "Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical
Media" and "Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas,"
both published by Autonomedia/Semiotext(e).

The day of his wife's death, Kurtz told the authorities who he is and
what he does.

"He explained to them that he uses [the equipment] in connection with
his art, and the next thing you know they call the FBI and a full
hazmat team is deposited there from Quantico -- that's what they told
me," says Paul Cambria, the lawyer who is representing Kurtz. "And they
all showed up in their suits and they're hosing each other down and
closing the street off, and all the news cameras were there and the
head of the [Buffalo] FBI is granting interviews. It was a complete
circus."

Cambria, the bicoastal Buffalo and Los Angeles lawyer best known for
representing pornographer Larry Flynt, calls the Kurtz episode a
"colossal overreaction."

FBI agents put Kurtz in a hotel, where they continued to question him.
Cambria says Kurtz felt like a detainee over the two days he was at the
hotel. Paul Moskal, spokesman for the Buffalo office of the FBI, says
the bureau put Kurtz in a hotel because his home had been declared off
limits. The probe, Moskal says, was a by-the-books affair from the very
beginning.

"Post-9/11 protocol is such that first-responders have all been given
training about unusual things and unusual situations," Moskal says.

And obviously, says Lt. Jake Ulewski, spokesman for the Buffalo police,
what the cops eyeballed raised some alarms. "He's making cultures?
That's a little off the wall."

Erie County health officials declared the Kurtz home a potential health
risk and sealed it for two days while a state lab examined the
bacterial cultures found inside. Officials won't divulge what precisely
was examined, but it turned out not to be a danger to public health.
And the house was reopened for use.

Still, federal authorities think something in that house might have
been illegal, Cambria surmises. But Cambria denies there was anything
illegal in the house. William Hochul Jr., chief of the anti-terrorism
unit for the U.S. attorney's office in the Western District of New
York, would not comment on the investigation.

Kurtz, on Cambria's advice, isn't speaking to the press either.

Da Costa, a professor at the University of California at Irvine who
has flown to Buffalo to help out, says Kurtz is "depressed" and dealing
with the loss of his wife, who died of a heart attack. Today the
Buffalo arts community will memorialize her.

Adele Henderson, chair of the art department of the State University of
New York at Buffalo, where Kurtz has tenure, is among the people who've
been questioned by the FBI.

On May 21, she says, the FBI asked her about Kurtz's art, his writings,
his books; why his organization (the art ensemble) is listed as a
collective rather than by its individual members; how it is funded.

"They asked me if I'd be surprised if I found out he was found to be
involved in bioterrorism," she says.

Her response? "I am absolutely certain that Steve would not be
involved."

They also asked about "his personal life," Henderson says, but she
would not describe the questions or her responses.

The investigation, she says, will have no bearing on Kurtz's standing
at the university, where he is an associate professor. (Prior to
Buffalo, he taught at Carnegie Mellon University.)

"This is a free speech issue, and some people at the university
remember a time during the McCarthy period when some university
professors were harassed quite badly," she says.

Nonetheless, considering the kind of art Kurtz practices and the kind
of supplies he uses, "I could see how they would think it was really
strange."

For instance: the mobile DNA extracting machine used for testing food
products for genetic contamination. Such a machine was in Kurtz's home.
His focus, in recent years, has been on projects that highlight the
trouble with genetically modified seeds.

In November 2002, in an installation called "Molecular Invasion,"
Kurtz grew genetically modified seeds in small pots beneath growth
lamps at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, then engineered them in reverse
with herbicide, meaning he killed them.

"We thought it was very important to have Critical Art Ensemble here
because we try to have our visiting artist's program present work that
takes our curriculum to the next step," says Denise Mullen, vice dean
of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, whose Hemicycle Gallery
hosted Kurtz's molecular exhibit.

Beyond the cutting edge of art, she says, "we want work that is really
bleeding edge."

In Buffalo, in the aftermath of the bioterror probe that has found no
terror, activist artists have scooped up the refuse from the Kurtz
front yard and taken it away, perhaps, says da Costa, to create an art
installation.