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: Call for Participation: Version>06


Begin forwarded message:

> hi everyone.. please send this out as far as wide...
>
> Call for Participation // Projects // Presentations // Provocations
> Version>06 :: Parallel Cities
> April 20- May 6, 2006 Chicago U$A
>
> DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: FEB 28, 2005
>
> Version is a hybrid festival focused on emerging discourses and
> practices evolving between art, technology and social and political
> activism. Version examines the activities of local configurations and
> external networks that use visual and conceptual art strategies,
> innovative social practices, creative uses of new technologies,
> organizing strategies, emerging activist/artist initiatives,
> campaigns, public interventions and DIY projects.
>
> During this annual convergence we engage in a dialogue about the
> possible futures ahead that may interdict or provide alternatives to
> current social, cultural and political trajectories. Version>06 is our
> fifth convergence and is dedicated to the theme of Parallel Cities. We
> will investigate and share local strategies and models to inspire
> action within local and global counter cartographies.
>
> We will convene in Chicago for a seventeen day open laboratory to
> explore a diversity of tactics and strategies to activate our
> communities and amplify our ideas and practices. Alternative spaces
> will be open for staging actions. Public spaces and corporate places
> will be terrains of intervention.
>
> Version presents a very diverse program of activities featuring an
> experimental art exposition, artistic disturbances, exhibitions,
> networked urban events, screenings, interactive applications,
> performances, street art, presentations, talks, workshops, art
> rendez-vous, parties, and action.
>
> By bringing together a convergence of allied cultural and social
> forces and practices we hope that Version can help establish new
> methodologies and networks of cooperation. Representatives from other
> cities are invited to present their local counter cartographies as we
> reveal our own. We want to share your everyday micro actions as well
> as conceptual and practical projects and activities that can help us
> to transform personal and shared environments. We want to examine and
> showcase projects that can be duplicated in our urban environments. We
> want to hear stories of victories, large and small in making a
> difference in the various communities that we inhabit. We want to wage
> the culture war with fresh tactics and renewed energy.
>
> Please visit www.versionfest.org for more information or go to
> adoptanamerican.com/version06 to use the online submission form.
>
> Alternatively you may mail your proposals to:
> Version>06
> 960 W 31st St
> Chicago Il 60608
> USA
>
> contact ed(at)lumpen.com for help.

DISCUSSION

Fwd: CALL FOR PAPERS: Ethical Surveillance Infrastructures


Begin forwarded message:

> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
>
>
> OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
>
> Workshop on Generating Collaborative Research in the
>
> Ethical Design of Surveillance Infrastructures
>
> June 8-11, 2006; Austin, Texas
>
>
> Surveillance may be understood as a set of processes of
> identification, tracking, analysis and response which organize social
> knowledge, social relations, and social power. Surveillance mediates
> everyday life. For example, internet "cookies," shopping loyalty
> cards, and mobile phone numbers all individuate and identify us.
> These identifiers are used to index databases recording our web
> surfing activities, our purchases, and our movements. The databases
> are subjected to statistical analysis in order to produce knowledge of
> demographic categories, typical patterns, or suspect behavior. This
> knowledge is then applied back to individuals in the population in
> order to assign each to a particular niche market or risk group, and
> to act toward them accordingly. Thus, through surveillance, knowledge
> is created, categories and types are produced, individuals are
> assigned social identities, and actions are taken that articulate
> those identities within a larger social order.
>
> These surveillance practices are themselves shaped by overlapping and
> intertwined technical systems, laws, institutional configurations, and
> cultural understandings. This "infrastructure" of surveillance
> supports patterns of access to the resources of knowledge production,
> social visibility, and social position.
>
> In June 2006 a three-day workshop will be held in Austin, Texas. The
> purpose of the meeting is to generate collaborative research projects
> exploring further
> * the social implications of surveillance practice,
> * the technological, legal, economic, and cultural infrastructures
> that shape surveillance practice, and
> * possible technological, legal, economic, or cultural
> interventions to reshape those infrastructures to desired ends.
>
> The workshop will address this issue in the context of the following
> themes:
> * If surveillance mediates the production of categories and types
> of people, how can surveillance infrastructures be shaped to permit
> individuals, and groups of individuals, to coalesce around a
> particular identity?
> * How can surveillance infrastructures mediate the ability of
> groups and individuals to "perform" certain identities within certain
> contexts?
> * How can surveillance infrastructures mediate the ability of
> subcultures to generate and sustain knowledge of and for themselves?
> * How can surveillance resources be appropriately allocated to
> ensure that groups of many scales (the family, the subculture, the
> nation) are able to defend, protect, and nurture their own (perhaps
> conflicting) interests?
>
> We seek participants whose interests and expertise complement and
> expand upon each other's work in social theory, information system
> design, business, and public policy, and who will be able to address
> issues such as:
> * the application of legal paradigms other than privacy to
> practices of information collection. We are particularly interested
> explorations of legal theories of cultural rights and information
> commons.
> * the application of novel information processing techniques,
> including, but not limited to, pseudonymity, digital rights
> management, and cluster analysis.
> * the application of social theories of identity, including queer
> theory and performance studies.
> * the intersection of market interests with ethical surveillance
> practice.
>
> The workshop is intended to provide the initial venue for the
> production of fundable, collaborative, cross-disciplinary research
> proposals. Participants will be expected to prepare a position paper
> for distribution one month prior to the meeting. At the workshop
> itself, we will identify synergistic interactions of expertise,
> fruitful research directions, and possible sources of funding. After
> the workshop, participants will be eligible to apply for seed money
> grants to complete collaborative grant proposals to pursue those
> projects. Participants will also be invited to contribute to an
> edited volume.
>
> The project will provide meals and accommodation for workshop
> participants, and will reimburse reasonable travel costs. Please
> include a quote of lowest available airfare in your application.
> Participants from outside the U.S. are especially encouraged to apply.
>
> Potential participants should submit (to djp@mail.utexas.edu)
> proposals consisting of two parts:
>
> (1) a 750-1000 word abstract, describing your area of research, its
> relevance to the conference topic, and a proposed presentation. The
> abstract should directly address a collaborative element

DISCUSSION

Re: AJAX for artists


>>
>> You don't see the utility of CSS?
>
> nope. just the opposite. think it does more harm than good. because
> it forces people to think of "web pages" as pages, not simply
> collections of data (in some order, but not a layout)

just a simple (i think) point here. CSS doesn't "force" anyone to think
of web documents is any way. You don't have to use CSS to create
layouts, you can still use the simple xml/xhtml/html (whatever you
think you're typing anymore) and just let the pieces fall in their
default L-R/vertical order.
but the arg that twid's making is important - with css (or some
parallel system if there's a better one) the data can be created in one
document and formated by various devices (or if you're a populist, by
the user/reader/audience). i don't know about you, but i don't know of
any print publication technologies that do that on demand. this is
great for ideas like accessibility, preservation, transference and
flexibility. i don't get how any of this makes web docs any more of a
page than tablular layouts did.

DISCUSSION

SIU position announcements: digital culture and intermedia arts


Begin forwarded message:

> DIGITAL CULTURE AND INTERMEDIA ARTS POSITIONS: The Department of
> Cinema and Photography, College of Mass Communication and Media Arts,
> Southern Illinois University Carbondale is seeking applications for
> two tenure-track positions.