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: why so little discussion?
> it there at the base of the pillar every morning. It was good karma
> for them to do so. "Growth, production, distribution" are all
> anachronistic Marxist ways of thinking about it. They pulled the
> carrots and taters from the ground, walked to the base of the pillar,
> and placed the carrots and taters in the basket for hoisting. They
> ate the maggots that fell from the flesh of the ascetics.
>
> I think the comparison is telling. There was a "performance" that
> consumed the life of the
> "artist," and not just for a year. But it wasn't a stunt or a clever
> conceptual angle; it was an act of worship. Furthermomre, it totally
> captured the imagination of the entire community, so much so that they
> financially supported its perpetuation of their own free will.
Yeah, lots of things capture the imagination of an entire community.
genocidal acts take lots of willing participants, for example. So did
the civil rights movements. What doesn't? Just because lots of people
are compelled to support someone/something doesn't make it great or
heroic, anymore than it makes it "groupthink" or fascist. And anyway,
my point was that the ascetics couldn't afford it - their community
could. big difference. i didn't realize that economics was
anachronistic. someone should tell all those people losing their
welfare checks to cheer up and find a pillar.
>
> To me, a lot of performance art pales as contrivance compared to
> actual devotional living. Which may be why Beuys described his
> teaching career as his best piece.
whatever - performance art isn't "devotional living." whatever that
means. it's art - a contrived activity designed to be seen as art. i
don't understand the comparison. a "performance artist" could make bad
art and live a devotional life.
>
> I'm reminded of a Lydia Lunch quote which goes something like, "What
> would be better than to die for your art? To die for my art. Yeah,
> that'd be great."
How heroic. Too bad all those non-artists just have to die for someone
else's art.
ryan
Re: why so little discussion?
Let me hear it again! You know what i like!
thanks,
ryan
On Nov 20, 2004, at 3:30 PM, manik wrote:
> I'm very interested in what you say .I think you are right.
Re: why so little discussion?
>> "who could afford to
>> stay in a cell for a year anyway?"
>
> Pillar Saints or Stylites. A class of ascetics, chiefly of Syria, who
> took
> up their abode on the top of a pillar, from which they never
> descended. (See
> Stylites .)
> St.Danilo spend 50 years on pillar,St.Alimpye about
> 30.St.Simeon....etc.
Sure, if you call that "affording it." But it demands someone else to
grow, produce and distribute food to the ascetic - they didn't live 30+
years on birdshit. Someone else is affording it for him.
Perhaps an analysis of the subsidization of ascetics is a useful
comparison for artists.
>
> Ryan question is paradigmatic for contemporary state of mind.
> People believe that they can compress experience.Virtual!?!
> This "Project" with cell is fanny and sad.And hopeless...
Maybe my question if paradigmatic, i don't know. But i think your
critique assumes my use of the word "virtual" means "compressed." i'm
certainly not speaking to any notion of experiential compression...
maybe an expansion. It's just another form of experience to deal with
critically, not a paradigmatic shift for me.
An elaboration of the "fanniness," "sadness" and "hopelessness" might
help me understand what you're reacting against, if that's of any
concern to you.
ryan
Re: why so little discussion?
virtual twhid + mriver out of those cells?
Free MTAA!
But really, another interesting question would be, "who could afford to
stay in a cell for a year anyway?" The transference of privilege into
the "freedom" to be visually "unproductive" for the span of a year is
an interesting, problematic proposition. Imagine if there was a
paypal-like system that forced people to "deposit" 25 cents in order to
see a segment of the video...
My other reactions to this work (both the 1YPV and the 5 short videos)
was to see it as a continuation of Dan Graham's (who i think must have
been a Laurel & Hardy fan) examination of media devices via
performance, updated to interface/database design (as Curt pointed
out). Not that a particular history should be prioritized, but hey,
that history is part of my vocabulary like it or not. And the austere
"elegance" is riffing on Apple/GAP seamless PR to me, as well as white
cubes.
just dumb thoughts on smart work.
ryan
> t.whid:
> We received the same criticism from Kevin McCoy (discussions with
> Kevin during the building of the piece were invaluable). The crit
> being that by making it simply an
Fwd: The final 2 noon hour talks at SAIC "Artist as urban planner" 9-23 and "YOUgenics" 12-7
> Border/Hacking/Mapping/Culture
> SAIC Tuesday 12-1pm Lunchbox Series
> 112 S. Michigan Room 707
> Bring your lunch!
>
> November 23
> "Artist as Urban Planner"
> With presentations by Emily Forman (SAIC Alumni) and Eric
> Triantafillou (SAIC MFA)
>
> About the presenters:
>
> Emily Forman has worked collaboratively and across disciplines as an
> artist, garbologist, and curator on initiatives ranging from the
> Department of Space and
> Land Reclamation to the StreetRec collective and the Autonomous
> Territories of Chicago. She is a corresponding editor for the LA-based
> Journal of Aesthetics and Protest and is busy constructing a DIY
> television studio for the ends of feminist trespass. More information
> about these projects can be found at
> www.counterproductiveindustries.com and www.pilotchicago.org
>
> In 1999 Eric Triantafillou formed the San Francisco Print Collective,
> a group of artsists that address things like gentrification,
> displacement and homelessness with street postering, billboard
> reclamation and stenciling campaigns. These actions have led to the
> creation of several ideologically autonomous public spaces around the
> city. The SFPC works closely with several local advocacy organizations
> towards the development of a community-based planning process in the
> Mission District of SF. Since then Eric has initiated similar
> initiatives in Romania and Cincinnati, Ohio. He is currently a
> graduate student at the Art Institute of Chicago. See www.mindbomb.ro
>
> \\\\\And finally, with a change in location////////
>
> December 7
> *At the Betty Rhymer Gallery, 280 s Columbus Drive
> YOUgenics: Mapping the Politics of the Genome
> With Faith Wilding and Ryan Griffis
>
> About the Presenters:
> Ryan Griffis is an artist and educator currently residing in Los
> Angeles. He has also produced writing on culture, media and politics
> for (the late) New Art Examiner, Rhizome and Furtherfield. Current
> projects include The Temporary Travel Office, an ongoing exploration
> of the politics of technology through the language of tourism, and
> YOUgenics, a series of art exhibitions and events dealing with the
> politics of genetic technologies. The third exhibition of
> YOUgenics will open at the Betty Rymer Gallery in December 2004.
> See http://www.yougenics.net/ for more information
>
>
> Faith Wilding is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and educator who
> collaborates with groups and individuals both nationally and
> internationally. Currently she is a member of subRosa, a reproducible
> cyberfeminist cell of cultural researchers committed to combining
> tactical media, activism, and politics to explore and critique the
> intersections of the new information and biotechnologies in women's
> bodies, lives, and work. subRosa produces artworks, performances,
> workshops, contestational campaigns and projects, publications, media
> interventions, and public forums. Recent Wilding/subRosa
> performances/exhibitions: "The Interventionists", MASSMoCA;
> "BioDifference" Biennial of Electronic Arts, Perth, Au.; YOUGenics,
> Betty Rymer Gallery, SAIC; "International Markets of Flesh,"
> Performance International, Mexico City; "ExpoEmmaGenics,"Intermediale,
> Mainz; "Cloning Cultures,"National University, Singapore; Welcome to
> the Revolution, Zurich; Art of Maintenance, Kunstakademie, Vienna.
> Publications:Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices. Autonomedia, 2003
> (co-editor, writer). Numerous essays including in The Power of
> Feminist Art. Abrams, 1995. Grants: NEA, NEH, NYSCA, PCA, Creative
> Capital.
> Faith Wilding URL > www.art.cfa.cmu.edu/wilding/<
> subRosa: >www.cyberfeminism.net<
>
>
>
>
> About the Lunchbox Series:
> More and more artists have been responding to issues such as uneven
> development, gentrification, and the increasing privatization of
> public,
> intellectual and creative space. Using acts of mapping, these
> contemporary
> forms of intervention challenge the spatial and political norms of
> organization and representation. For this semester's VAP lecture
> series, a
> collection of SAIC affiliated artists (staff, faculty, students,
> alumni), have
> been asked to present their work and the work of others in a Tuesday
> noon time
> discussion series. This format has been created help foster inner-
> institutional dialogue that will compliment the VAP lecture format.
> Contact organizer Daniel Tucker for more information dtucke@artic.edu
>
> Lead Corporate Sponsor: Sara Lee Foundation
> This Program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts
> Council
> See http://www.artic.edu/saic/art/vap/
>