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

Smokey the Log promotes the Bush/Cheney agenda


September 16, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: mailto:agenda@cheneybush.com

OREGON WILDERNESS PLAN EXEMPLIFIES BEST OF BUSH POLICY
Senator's bravery in the face of public opinion earns him award; new
Forest Service mascot unveiled

The Bush campaign is awarding its first annual "Healthy Forestry"
award to Senator Gordon Smith, R-OR, for finding a way to convert
19,000 acres of prized wilderness into a highly valuable tree farm.

Converting the partially burnt Siskiyou "roadless areas" to tree
farming, despite 70% public opposition to "old growth" logging, will
mean not only the creation of several dozen temporary jobs, but also
will guarantee that the area will never again be subject to "old
growth" and "roadless" restrictions, and will remain forever open to
logging regardless of public opinion.

Sen. Smith has announced that to make this happen, he will attach a
"rider" to a disaster relief or other "must pass" Senate bill,
requiring that the Siskiyou area be logged immediately and replanted
with thousands of timber trees, bypassing Nature's slow,
inefficient, and unprofitable process of recovery. The rider will
also stipulate that it "shall not be subject to judicial review by
any court of the United States"--preventing ecoterrorists from using
the courts to interfere with the health of the forestry industry.

Even some ecoterrorists acknowledge that burnt old-growth trees can
be hazardous to wildlife, as their rotting limbs can easily fall on
innocent elk or deer. But the agreement ends there. By stubbornly
refusing to let burnt old-growth forests build jobs, ecoterrorists
have made it increasingly difficult for the forestry industry to turn
a profit from America's last few bits of nonproductive landscape.

Sen. Smith was inspired in devising his rider by the earlier, 1995
"salvage rider," which for one year allowed virtually unregulated
logging to occur on wilderness lands throughout the Pacific Northwest.

By again moving the issue from the recalcitrant local level to the
Republican-controlled Senate, Sen. Smith's rider suggests a way to
bypass such opposition in a more permanent way. Following his
example, we must devise a "rider" that will open not just one region,
but the entire federally-controlled National Parks System, for
selective logging use.

The amount of useful acreage in Yellowstone and Yosemite alone, for
example, would more than equal the contested areas of the Siskiyou.
Such forests aren't quite as valuable to either the timber industry
or to ecologists as those in the Siskiyou, but logging our National
Parks would mean replacing many smaller, time-consuming local battles
with one bigger one more likely to be won.

To popularize this idea, the Bush campaign has unveiled a new mascot
for the USDA Forest Service: Smokey the Log. Smokey the Log is a
replacement for Smokey the Bear, as bears have no use and are
therefore not appropriate in the modern forest-use context. On a
recent canvassing tour, Smokey the Log collected numerous signatures
in favor of logging our National Parks
(http://www.CheneyBush.com/smokey/petition/), and received
endorsements from Congressional Candidate Jim Feldkamp
(http://www.CheneyBush.com/smokey/feldkamp/) and former Oregon
governor Victor G. Atiyeh (http://www.CheneyBush.com/smokey/atiyeh/).

DISCUSSION

DISCUSSION

speaking of the situationists...


fulfill your craving for situationist drama, at last, with new
translations!
http://www.notbored.org/orientation-debate.html

DISCUSSION

NewGenics


Sunday, September 12, 2004

Italian minister in trouble
Politicians and scientists in Italy are calling for the resignation of
health minister Girolamo Sirchia this week, over a contentious law on
assisted reproduction. The law, strongly supported by Sirchia, was
approved by the Italian legislature last December. It has been branded
"medieval" by female parliamentarians and gained worldwide condemnation
by scientists.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040909/04

Should we give the biotechies money to burn?
"UK biotechnology companies are unfairly hampered," she says.
"Companies in the US enjoy greater flexibility in raising new equity
capital. Bioscience is a global business and, therefore, we believe
that it is important that there is a level playing field financially
for bioscience companies."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/09/%2011/
ccbio11.xml&sSheet=/money/2004/09/11/ixcoms.html

GM fish produce cheap blood-clotting agent
A human blood-clotting factor used to treat some people with
haemophilia and accident victims suffering serious bleeding has been
produced using genetically modified fish.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996367

Sowing GM crops in Egypt
Anticipating the important role the burgeoning science of genetics
would eventually come to play in agriculture, the Ministry of
Agriculture partnered with USAID to establish the center. Now, nearly
15 years later, it may be on the verge of launching the country's first
commercially grown genetically modified crop, a strain of cotton that
could save the industry millions of pounds every year by boosting
output and virtually eliminating chemical crop spraying.
http://www.seedquest.com/News/releases/2004/august/9692.htm

Europe urged to embrace GM foods
A major conference on genetically-modified crops has opened in Germany
with calls for Europe to embrace GM food more enthusiastically.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3650430.stm

Genetic Determinist Digest
Genetic studies hint at origins of 'Celtic' nations
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/000917.html
Jeans feeling a little too tight?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/
%202002033492_fatresistant12.html
It could be all in your genes It's probably the Clinton genes, not the
diet
http://www.iht.com/articles/538327.html

Divergence, Monsanto collaborate to develop nematode-resistant soybeans
As part of the collaboration, Monsanto will gain exclusive rights to
Divergence's existing technology in this area and will provide funding
for ongoing research performed by Divergence. Divergence will also
receive milestone payments based on research and development success,
and royalties once products reach the marketplace.
http://www.seedquest.com/News/releases/2004/september/9843.htm

US diplomat urges Qatar to back resolution banning human cloning
A senior US diplomat on Thursday called for Qatar to support the
resolution banning the cloning of humans while encouraging the country
to join the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryIdb892

DNA fingerprinting, technique that revolutionized policing, turns 20
One Monday morning 20 years ago, Alec Jeffreys stumbled upon DNA
fingerprinting, identifying the patterns of genetic material that are
unique to almost every individual. The discovery revolutionized
everything from criminal investigations to family law.
http://www.cp.org/english/online/full/science/040908/%20g090810A.html

Creative Biotech: A User's Manual
The Biotech Hobbyist collective includes a multi-disciplinary group of
[media] artists, scientists, engineers, activists, and cultural
theorists that is dedicated to working with biotechnology in a creative
and critical way. Exploring the idea of 'garage biotechnology' - a
hybrid based upon the 'garage computing' movements of the 1970s, the
Biotech Hobbyist project aims to encourage an ethical engagement with
biotechnology in the non-specialist public. (by artists Natalie
Jeremijenko & Eugene Thacker)
http://www.locusplus.org.uk/index2.html

YOUgenics: art interrogating genetic technologies
http://www.yougenics.net

DISCUSSION

FWD: The Yes Men Movie


This is just a quick note about a couple of things--and to ask you
for a big, big favor.

First, we're on the road, at the moment in Oregon, doing our strange
variety of campaigning. We plan to keep going, mostly through swing
states, up till November 2; watch here for updates:
http://www.theyesmen.org/blog/

Also, in just two weeks, on September 24, the movie about our *last*
strange round of campaigning--a three-year stint posing as WTO
representatives--will be released by United Artists in New York and
Los Angeles.

In "The Yes Men," a lot of powerful folks, including our current
"president," find their ideas and actions exposed and skewered in
crazy, funny, and horrible ways. Many of those who have seen the
movie in festivals have said they left the theater enraged, engaged,
and full of the urge to act; even press screenings, usually dour
events, have people rolling in the aisles, then writing us heartfelt
messages.

A number of viewers have even told us they think "The Yes Men" could
make a difference in the thinking of "middle America." Just in case
they're right, we have to do everything in our power to make sure it
gets to that audience.

This is where the favor comes in. If our movie doesn't have a big
opening week in New York and Los Angeles, it won't go anywhere
else--that's the way it works with small films these days. For folks
in smaller cities to see it, "The Yes Men" has to be seen by many
thousands of people in New York and Los Angeles the week of September
24. Can you help make that happen?

This movie (like our new book, http://www.theyesmen.org/book/) has
already been ringingly endorsed by George W. Bush ("There ought to be
limits to freedom") and the ex-director of the World Trade
Organization ("Deplorable"). But believe it or not, even such glowing
reviews won't get it into theaters in Toledo and St. Paul.

So please: on September 24 or in the week thereafter, if you live in
or near New York or Los Angeles, PLEASE go see "The Yes Men." Take
your friends. Take your enemies. Take people you've never met. And
forward this message widely.

That way, other people you've never met, who live in swing states,
will get yet another dose of political education in movie form--this
one coated in a thick, sugary layer of laughs.

Your friends,
The Yes Men