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

Fwd: Tactical Magic Update!


Please forward far & wide! Apologies for cross-postings.
-------------------------------------------------------

The Center for Tactical Magic is excited to announce the Tactical Ice
Cream Unit will begin the first segment of our upcoming West Coast Tour
of Prophecy and Potential! What kinds of mirth, mischief & magic can
you expect from a SWAT van loaded with ice cream, propaganda, and
surveillance equipment?!? Find out....
http://tacticalmagic.org/CTM/project%20pages/TICU.htm

Calendar of Events:

April 1&2 - Riverside, CA - (Opening Reception: April 1, 2006, 6-9pm)
U.C. Riverside's Sweeney Art Gallery presents:
"People for a Better Tomorrow" (April 1 - May 7)
Curated by Meg Cranston, the exhibition will feature the cultural
collusion of: Everlovely Lightningheart, Finishing School,Shana
Lutker, Amy Maloof, Ben Shaffer, Efrat Shalem, Mario Ybarr & the Center
for Tactical Magic
http://sweeney.ucr.edu

April 3 & 4 - Otis College of Art & Design - Pop Ops, presentations &
other mischief!

April 10 - UCLA - Frosty treats & food-for-thought along with an
on-campus talk.

Mid-April - Passing out paletas in Tijuana at Lui Velazquez, and
kickin' about in TJ's SoCal suburb, San Diego with a stop or two
planned for UCSD. (dates TBA)
http://www.luivelazquez.org

April 29 - Back in LA for a mix or mysticism, magic, and mechinations
at Machine Project - gallery, laboratory, and lair of 'lectro wizardry.
http://www.machineproject.com

May 5-7 - Chilling out with some high desert hijinks in Joshua Tree at
High Desert Test Sites 5. HDTS is a series of experimental art sites
located along a stretch of desert communities including Pioneer town,
Yucca Valley, Joshua tree, 29 Palms and Wonder Valley. These sites
provide alternative space for experimental works by both emerging and
established artists.
http://www.highdeserttestsites.com

May 9 - The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will be lurking around Cal Arts &
gearing up for the parade!

May 14 - Parade! The TICU will be joining Fritz Haeg, students from
Cal Arts, celebratory citizens, elated environmentalist, and numerous
artists (incl. katie bachler & aubrey white & dance troupe, tim butler,
marc herbst, simon leung, my barbarian and others) for a parade in
Valencia along the Santa Clara River, one of the United States' 10 most
endangered rivers.
http://www.ourparade.org

To schedule a visit from the Tactical Ice Cream Unit, or to get
involved with the West Coast Tour of Prophecy & Potential, simply email
us at goodluck@tacticalmagic.org

To find out more about the Center for Tactical Magic, check us out at:
http://www.tacticalmagic.org

Thanks & Good Luck!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DISCUSSION

RFID tags - helping hands


more on the RFID discussion...
a good post from a couple of months ago on Anne Galloway's blog
http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/2006/02/helping-hands.php
that points to an article on art and RFID from Wired

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: sometimes people give me things they made


Angie Waller's got something close...
http://www.couchprojects.com/clipfm.html

On Apr 4, 2006, at 7:55 PM, Curt Cloninger wrote:

> Someone should do a net art project where they make up abstract
> emoticons for extremely specific moods like "full of chinese food,"
> "girlfriend just dumped me," "three days on a mescalin bender," etc.

DISCUSSION

critics ruin chevy ad stunt


remember that Bush campaign poster maker?
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?pV3
i guess some Chevy PR hacks thought people would be more kind with
video...
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/3/29/122054/644?sourceUily
luckily someone youtubed some of them before they were taken down
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gzSfUBoRJWc&search=chevy%20chevytahoe%20suvs

DISCUSSION

Re: Workshop RFID & Internet of Things


these points, and the response about what makes RFID so especially
significant are interesting, and something that i think is being/has
been discussed in terms of locative media especially. i don't think
RFID should be especially singled out, as any art using any ICT (or
biotech, or nanotech, or any tech) is in some way complicit, even if
critical. but there are other questions that can the judgments of such
work more invested and relevant.
Jackie Stevens (who's work Natalie Bookchin's AgoraXchange
http://www.agoraxchange.net/ is based on) wrote an interesting and, i
think, applicable critique of such a political economy:
http://www.rtmark.com/legacy/rockwell.html
of course, i don't think Stevens is arguing for some kind of luddite
position, but rather for a systemic analysis of how such art works
function within the larger superstructures of culture and economics.
i think lots of people are starting to do some very interesting and
critical work with/about RFID tech (Beatriz daCosta & Brooke Singer
come to mind) that doesn't assume the "internet of things" as
inevitable and apolitical. the deliberate amateurization of the tech is
at least an interesting foil to the hierarchal control mechanisms built
into the distribution of the technology itself.
"surveillance" is such an abstract and ungrounded concept that really
doesn't allow for much engagement of anything substantial... kind of
like "ethics" and "sustainability."
just my quick thoughts on this...
best,
ryan

On Apr 4, 2006, at 7:03 AM, marc wrote:

> Hi Rob & all,
>
> You bring up an important question - we are going to be showing some
> RFID work at the HTTP space (http://www.http.uk.net/) soon, which is a
> Furtherfield exhibiting environment. And similar concerns have been
> going through my mind...
>
> And we will be supplying various bits of research and information
> about RFID, at the space and online so that people can have alook for
> themselves the less cute aspects of RFID, and how it is already
> effecting our lives, and how it will also change things in the future
> - Big Brother style.
>
> I think that one of the issues that we are all dealing with here - is
> that, there those who feel that, jumping into this area of exploration
> is actually working in some way towards highlighting such issues
> around surveillance, in respect of RFID's and the intigration of it as
> an inevitable force, moving towards dominating everyday use in
> society; restructuring the way that we behave as humans once we are
> caught under the ever scrutinizing gaze of the watchers...
>
> An equally large concern of mine, is that so many decisions are forced
> to concede and conform to such corporate and draconian like
> implimentations, which of course does alter they way we live our
> lives. It is an extremely fundemental problem, that us citizens
> (worhtless fodder) have no real offical discourse or say on how and if
> it is appropriated. We have no control and are continiously being
> pusehd aside by our governments who are making decisions for us, not
> on our terms generally.