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 ...
SWITCH: Issue 22
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 ...
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.
[-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.state of the planet infographics
a small collection of beautiful information graphics documenting the current state of the planet.
see also gapminder & 3d data globe.
[seedmagazine.com]
Re: how to talk like a situationist
but to play the devil's advocate, it seems that this line of
argumentation dismisses form altogether from language. what are "plain"
words? they're all learned - we aren't born with a "simple" vocabulary.
and some may say that using "dense" writing, one could pack in more
meaning with fewer words (hence the term dense) - thus making the
letter shorter. that would be the point of more complex words, wouldn't
it?
if the attack is on a deliberate use of language to oppress or
subjugate, i'm with you. and if someone wants to accuse others of
laziness because they don't understand academic language, well that's
not very, well, academic.
anyway, just some thoughts.
On Sep 8, 2004, at 9:33 AM, Francis Hwang wrote:
> The attack is not on vocabulary; it's on those who have mindlessly
> accepted the academic party line that you need to use a massive
> vocabulary to be intelligent. Most truths can be said with plain
> words. If somebody out there refuses to be moved by your booksmarts,
> you may be tempted to ascribe it to their laziness or ignorance--but
> it could just be that they value their own time more than you do.
>
> "I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time
> to make it shorter." -- Blaise Pascal
Re: how to talk like a situationist
> What makes
>> monosyllabic communication more valuable and direct?
>
> curt:
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/lab404/28606.html
really? the response is "simple"? i don't get the equation of small
with simple. this is a bit 1 to 1 and universalist, no? the minimalists
were into simple too. yet find an aesthetics celebrated more for its
ability to be esoteric.
>
> ryan:
> The current
>> administration seems pretty adept at using small words to mislead.
>
> curt:
> and Hitler was adept at using microphones and posters to mislead.
> Your logic here is faulty.
my logic? how does using Hitler as a response actually respond to my
comment? though, i'll give you the analogies rhetorical power. Hitler's
speeches and posters used "common" language as well. what's the point?
my point was simply a question of the inherent value given to "small"
words in your first post re situationists. i still don't get the desire
to assign political agency to vocabulary itself rather than its users.
do all polysyllabic words have a monosyllabic other that's being
repressed?
Re: how to talk like a situationist
the word "degeneration."
When i hear the words "metaphysical subtly" i reach for my ACDC shirt,
NASCAR hat, six pack of PBR and an essay by Craig Owens.
Sorry, i'm just not getting the attack on vocabulary? What makes
monosyllabic communication more valuable and direct? The current
administration seems pretty adept at using small words to mislead.
As Stan Greenly wrote in "The Spook Who Sat By The Door," "There's a
difference between elite and elitism."
(if you haven't read the book or seen the movie which came out in late
60s/early 70s respectively, i totally recommend either.)
On Sep 7, 2004, at 2:21 PM, Curt Cloninger wrote:
> http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/274
>
> this excerpt seems particularly applicable for RAW regulars:
> Keep your group very small and exclusive -- but take it for granted
> that every man, woman, and child in the Western Hemisphere is
> intimately familiar with your work, even if no more than ten people
> actually are.
>
> regarding tip #2, cf:
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/lab404/14178.html
NewGenics
BioWar: A biodefense lab for Montana?
The Montana lawsuit is one skirmish in an expanding battle over the
location and safety of a new network of labs being built to study the
world's deadliest germs and viruses. More than a dozen such labs are
planned across the country and organizations in communities from Boston
to Davis, Calif., have sprung up to oppose them.
http://www.infobeat.com/index.cfm?action=article&idc3571
Fear follows plan to build more deadly-disease labs
U.S. Department of Health officials say the planned National Emerging
Infectious Diseases Laboratories at Boston University is critical to
America's war on terror.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/22/
%20MNGEV8CDPT1.DTL
US Non-lethal Bioweapons Documents Censored by Marine Corps
The records that were removed date from 1994 and describe US Army
"non-lethal" chemical weapons programs. They propose research and
development activities. They are titled Antipersonnel Chemical
Immobilizers: Synthetic Opiods, Antipersonnel Calmative Agents, and
Demonstration of Chemical Immobilizers.
http://www.sunshine-project.org/incapacitants/usmccensor.html
Thai cabinet overturns GMO approval
Thailand's cabinet decided on Tuesday to keep a three-year ban on
planting crops using genetically modified organisms (GMO), overturning
a decision by a panel chaired by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Re: Just added to the Rhizome ArtBase: fuorange by Kate Southworth
orange netting use by the NYPD during the RNC...
On Sep 3, 2004, at 8:47 AM, Rhizome.org wrote:
>
> + fuorange +
> + Kate Southworth +
>
> fuorange is a collaboration between Kate Southworth, Patrick Simons
> and Christina McPhee. fuorange comes from 'fuckyou orange' -
> construction workers' lingo for the orange mesh around forbidden
> zones, like manholes and tresspass lines. fuorange is a short circuit
> past the fuck you, don_t go there, into a matrixial spacewalk via
> sound curves and cascades of text. fuorange records the derive of a
> real world walk, captured and meshed within the artifice of the net.
>