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]
The Social Construction of Blogspace
The Social Construction of Blogspace
"In these high tech times, the question isn't why publish, rather it's =
why not?"
Interestingly, the statement above was made by zine publisher Edward
Dean in 1989 in response to the question of why zine producers publish, =
but the axiomatic belief that technology practically demands, rather
than enables, people to publish bears a striking resemblance to the
stated motivations of many bloggers.1 Similar to this understanding of =
zines, blogs are also generally identified by their technology and
form. As historians and theorists of both zines and blogs point out,
any attempt at defining them according to content proves futile. Zines =
are often described to be non-commercial, cheaply produced periodicals =
on any number of topics, from popular to subcultural, which are created =
and distributed by individuals. A commonly accepted definition for
blogs, short for weblogs, is frequently updated websites consisting of =
chronologically ordered and archived posts published by individuals or =
small groups using an informal and personal writing style.2
"Blogs have made the creation and publication of content as simple as
browsing the Web. Blogging tools have removed virtually all the
technical barriers that previously prohibited publication by the
masses."3
The utopian ideals of participatory democracy found in the discourse
surrounding both blogs and zines seem rooted in notions of access to
communication technologies. Alternative forms of communication and
distribution, allowed by increased contact with inexpensive and
relatively easy to use technologies, are believed to "reactivate the
memory of everyday life and reconstitute the narrative of daily
practices and anonymous itineraries hidden in the thick folds of the
social fabric."4 At the moment, blogs, unseating the deflated hype of
the Internet in general, are often cited as the communicative form that =
best brings what de Certeau calls the "memory of everyday life" into
the mediated space we call "public". It is this rhetorical function,
and potential, of the "everyday" that seems to be implicit in how
blogging is framed by its proponents as progressive.
What seems to come through in the rhetoric and aesthetic of blogs is
the power given to the local, the specific, the individual. In this
sense, one could say that de Certeau's notions of a public sphere, one =
infused with informal networks of narrative and "how to" knowledge,
meets the rational ideals of a Habermasian public based on consensus
building through logical dialogue. But, I would argue, when one looks
at the conversations both within and about blogs, the pragmatics of
consensus break down into "mere opinions" as fast as ever.
The publicness exhibited in blogs is one constructed of individuated
spaces, where the movement of personalities can be identified and
tracked. While there may be a strong communal ethic, blogs are sites of =
contact for externalized egos, and are definitely to be distinguished
from other forms of communicative networks currently being organized,
like Wikis, where the content and structure of a website are modified
by members of a community in the process of communicating. Linguistic
researchers have noted that "I" is the most common form of
identification used, and the overwhelming number of active (not to say =
the most widely read) blogs are sites of personal storytelling, ranting =
and journaling.5 As one prominent blogger puts it, "a weblog used
technology to bring the psychological you outside."6
The situation of mediated contact, or interface, between the individual =
and the "public," places the blogger in a position of an intermediary
or mediator. For de Certeau, the transmission of communication through =
a network involves three levels: intermediaries, original sources, and =
the practices of circulation and transmission. Bloggers map quite well =
onto de Certeau's loose schema as mediators - those "who decode and
recode fragments of knowledge, link them, transform them by
generalization." These individuals are further defined as "linking
agents" and "amateur mediators" who "distinguish themselves by the very =
particular interest and razor sharp attention that they bring to the
slightest issues of life." Bloggers are valued, not for their
objectivity and disinterestedness, but for their overt perspective and =
personality in how they filter through the haystack of media to find
the needle that pricks interest.
One of the strongest ideological imperatives within zine culture
remains its steadfast opposition to commercial culture. This
reactionary aspect, while often part of the literary content of the
medium, became a very deliberate aesthetic practice. In the 1980s,
producers of punk zines made sincere claims that such publications
were:
"authentic, and get to the heart of the matter. They exist outside of =
commodification; they are real. They come straight from the source."7
This sense of expressionist immediacy is most certainly found in
discussions about blogging. Descriptions of blogs as the "pirate radio =
stations of the Web" that are 'first on the scene
the politics of technology...
'We will not tolerate deceitful tactics as engaged in by Diebold and we
must send a clear and compelling message to the rest of the industry:
Don't try to pull a fast one on the voters of California because there
will be consequences if you do," he said.'
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
How is corporate biotechnology shaping the spaces we live in?
http://www.versionfest.org ) to distribute the audio tour of the
Chicago Technology Park and also facilitated a walking tour of the
Park. The tour is a self-guided audio experience that places the city's
current investment in the "new economy" within the historical, and
ongoing, practices of social engineering through urban planning. A
story of spatial eugenics emerges out of the juxtaposition of texts and
statements from disparate sources that include Official state and city
press releases, corporate documents and activist archives.
More info at: http://www.yougenics.net/traveloffice/current.html
A temporary web explorer and communication device has been created for
web tourists. From here, one can create real and virtual postcards to
send to the biotechnology and real estate industries in Chicago, as
well as searching for technology parks in your area.
http://www.yougenics.net/traveloffice/chicago/index.html
(warning: Flash Player, audio, email app and printer connection needed)
Neither the Travel Office nor this tour represent the Chicago
Technology Park, the Illinois Medical District Commission, or any
affiliated government or private entities.
CLUI event, LA
Angeles:
Friday, April 30, 7PM
MOISTURE MODIFICATION & EXPERIMENTAL IRRIGATION
Claude Willey, Deena Capparelli, and Bernard Perroud, participants in
an ongoing program based out of the Centers Desert Research Station,
will discuss the research and development associated with the
long-range site project MOISTURE, which is currently being undertaken
on property near Harper Dry Lake, in the northwest region of the Mojave
Desert. The project involves several researchers engaged in
water-diversion, experimental irrigation techniques, native vegetation
reintegration, and remote-sensing technology.
The public is invited. This event is free - seating is limited, so
arrive early.
For directions, visit: www.clui.org/clui_4_1/contact/contact.html
More information about MOISTURE is available at:
http://moisture.greenmuseum.org/blog/
MOISTURE is supported by:
The LEF Foundation, The Beall Center for Art and Technology, Rain Bird,
DriWater, Greenmuseum.org
-----------------
The CLUI Los Angeles Exhibit Hall is open noon to five PM,
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, or by appointment. Admission is free.
Ah Yes, Earth Day
can be controlled, because their negative effects are
mostly felt by the working classes and poor. Let's
worry about rouge asteroids and comets instead, since
they'll wipe-out masions as well as the ghettos. And
we can even make a few bucks in the process!
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040422/6136011s.htm
"Yet, even if arresting environmental harm through
individual effort alone were possible, it would be a
mistake to focus merely on human-caused problems.
Better that we also focus on developing more
sophisticated technology, which will give scientists
the ability through research and exploration to learn
more about the solar system and, in turn, how to
counteract the dangers to Earth, including natural
threats.