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[email protected] : MediaArt Files UP/DOWNLOAD at verybusy.org | 0 1 |
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[email protected] : "Bigger Picture" Home Page Discussion List | 0 2 |
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NOMADS <[email protected]> : AUDIOPHFILE v.3.0 | 0 3 |
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xandy <[email protected]> : archive | 0 4 |
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coca rivas <[email protected]> : UNXposed opening | 0 5 |
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francis <[email protected]> : [lounge] Gdansk | 0 6 |
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Phil Graham <[email protected]> : A, T and O of C C | 0 7 |
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Jennifer Ley <[email protected]> : Women and Technology | 0 8 |
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kaucyila brooke <[email protected]> : Photography Positions | 0 9 |
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Gregor Muir <[email protected]> : Lux Gallery Update | 1 0 |
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Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> : Lost Project and the Projects | 1 1 |
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delivered each weekend into your inbox |
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mailto:[email protected] |
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NEWS at:
www.verybusy.org
::: center 4 hardwired arts :::: : : . .
........Media Art executable files at <FILES> DOWN-/UPLOAD
Center...................
....english
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::: : : . .
The mediaart server www.verybusy.org provide it's new <FILES> menu where an
upload and download of small executable files concerning mediaartistic
works was enabled. The upload of new files can simply done directly from
the provided webinterface in just 4 Steps. Aswell as the download within 1
Step.. We starting up the page with works from Jodi, Webstalker (I/O/D), V2
Labs Netherlands and Marciej Wisniewski's Netomat and hope you'll let the
center grow fast.
Please take care of the following rules:
- AS EXECUTABLE FILES COULD CONTAIN BUGS, VIRUSES - AND IN WORST CASE MAY
HAVE NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON YOUR COMPUTER, WWW.VERYBUSY.ORG TAKES NO
RESPONSABILITY FOR ANYTHING YOU DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD.
- WE ACCEPT UPLOADS OF ANY FORMAT, IN BEST CASE PACKED ARCHIVES AND ANY
PLATTFORMS.
- UPLOAD LIMIT IS 2MB, TO ENSURE SMALL BUT NEAT PROGRAMMS
- THE RIGHTS OF DOWNLOADABLE FILES MAINTAIN BY THE ARTISTS.
____________________________
Sincerely,
spiv.
busy admin staff.
> >>> you're artist and your work can't be found on hundreds of common
searchengines ?
submit your work to verybusy.org the hardwired arts finder :
http://www.verybusy.org/add.htm
__________________________________________ ___ __ _ _
www.verybusy.org ::::::::: the :::: center:::4::hardwired::::arts
::::::::::::::::::::: :::: ... . .
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Welcome to the Bigger Picture 'proto-home page' discussion list. The =
Bigger Picture is considering the launch of a
web site. However, it currently lacks the finances, expertise and =
acknowledged community support to get one under
construction. So this 'listbot' e-mail is being circulated to gather =
the community support, expertise and finances to
get an internet home page web site underway. You are being asked to =
subscribe to this free list to indicate your
agreement to the project, and to offer help. Thanks for the wavy =
Aboriginal flag are due to=20
www.aboriginalgenocide.com.au, for the Ngarrindjeri flag to =
www.chariot.net.au/~raymur, and for the other=20
Aboriginal flags to www.vicnet.net.au/vicnet/koorie. Please subscribe =
to the list to indicate your agreement to
constructing a Bigger Picture web site home page, and to give your input =
now.=20
=20
There are five (5)".htm" files from Listbot attached for you to study =
before making a commitment. Your voluntary
agreement to participate in a Listbot list is needed now before the list =
can be listed, apparently. Anyway, if you have
some better idea please e-mail [email protected] with your suggestion. =
The list needs to be A/c free. If you wish
to begin the list yourself as the Bigger Picture list owner and include =
[email protected] as a member just make
sure there are no costs to the members.
=20
The basic questions about a Bigger Picture web site and home page =
revolve as much around interest in the project as
they do in its cost, location, development or control. The support you =
can show or extend to the Bigger Picture=20
Campaign office will directly increase the capacity of the Ngarrindjeri =
Justice Fighting Fund to access donations.
=20
*************************************************************************=
*************************************************************************=
***************************************************** =
=20
Donations to the NGARRINDJERI JUSTICE FIGHTING FUND may be made to: BANK =
SA - BSB 105-165 A/c No. 015569840 - any $ funding greatly appreciated =
! The Bigger Picture Campaign Office Contacts: TEL (08) 85751 744 =
{ansafone}/ FAX: (08) 85751 766
*************************************************************************=
*************************************************************************=
*****************************************************=20
BIGGER {DRAFT#1} PICTURE
TEL:(08) 85751 744FAX:(08) 85751 766
HOME =
PAGE =20
e-mail:c/- [email protected] =
Post:c/- PO BOX 126 MENINGIE SA 5624
=20
=
=20
=20
*************************************************************************=
*************************************************************************=
*****************************************************=20
=20
Donations will be spent to address the present unfair balance in the =
scales of justice when it comes to social
recognition, respect and understanding for Indigenous rights. Someone =
please e-mail a public domain icon of
"justice scales" you have accessed so we can place it on our website =
home page. LINKS:http://www.faira.org.au;
FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation - publisher of "Land Rights Queensland" =
news;and the Kumarangk News from Ray=20
Murphy at http://www.chariot.net.au/~raymur/KNEWS.html. =20
=20
To establish your support for the Bigger Picture Campaign immediately, =
please distribute all Bigger Picture=20
attachments you have access to, including this new one, or may have =
kept, to all your e-mail and internet contacts,
and please distribute this free list update to them locally, nation wide =
and internationally ASAP and ask them to=20
circulate THE BIGGER PICTURE vision/update to their networks if they =
agree with the Bigger Picture's vision of=20
justice, peace and a 'fair go' treaty for Indigenous people! With the =
establishment of a web site and home page the=20
Bigger Picture Campaign can gather the people power to win the fight for =
justice - The Bigger Picture Campaign.=20
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AUDIOPHFILE v.3.0
http://www.nomadnet.org
AUDIOPHFILE v.3.0, a bimonthly sonic art exhibition
organized by NOMADS, is now on-line at <http://www.nomadnet.org>
v.3.0 features work by Forbidden Reproduction (Washington, DC), Sabot
(Tabor, The Czech Republic) and The Trance and The Arcade (Washington, DC).
AUDIOPHFILE requires the Flash 4.0 player and a java-enabled browser. As
always, we recommend the use of headphones or speakers for the best
listening experience.
AUDIOPHFILE is funded, in part, by the DC Commission on the Arts and
Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
--
Laura McGough
Co-Director, NOMADS
www.nomadnet.org
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ATTACK
Vukovarska 237 c /2
100 00 Zagreb
Croatia
Zagreb, 19. February 2000
ATTACK
Autonomous culture factory, Attack, is a project which has started on
september 1997 as an initiative whose goal was to open an independent
social and cultural space which will promote alternative culture and
culture of civil society in Zagreb.
Attack has dealt with many issues such as anti racism, human rights,
environment etc.. Our main goal is to open and maintain a space wich is
open for alternative culture. This space will be an old factory building
that has been empty for a long time. We got this building from the city and
will move in in january. We want to use the building as an independent
cultural center including an alternativ library/archive.
ARCHIVE
ATTACK has got some books, magazines etc. and wants to set up an archive.
We are updating what we�ve got now and would be happy to fill our archive
with more medias. Our archive is supposed to be a multi media archive and
we can use every kind of prints, videos, tapes, cds and cd-roms,
subscriptions etc.. There is no place in Croatia yet where people have
access to political, cultural, ecological, feminist etc. medias for free in
an alternativ space.
We don�t have a lot of money for this project. We wonder if you could
contribute with any material or money, anything is welcome: any subject,
language or media, but we're focused on alternative things. Please contact
us to tell what you can spare, or to get more information about attack. We
publish a newsletter in serbocroatian language every month that we can send
you.
Thank you, yours Alex Korb
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We would like that you join the UNXposed mailing list (London Edition). If
you�re not a video artist, please try to hide it.
http://www.azar.ms/unxposed
UNXposed is a web tool for video artists. We focus on resources in London but
most of the information is also useful for video artists elsewhere.
The main objective is to provide a fast information service for brand new
videowork: submissions to festivals (ordered by deadline); distribution
companies that handle video; galleries and showcases; websites with online video
streaming looking for shorts. We aim to select those sites that most closely
engage with the specific issues relating to video art as opposed to mainstream
narrative video and film. The festival section rates entries according to how
geared they are towards video art (in relation to film or less experimental
work), how user-friendly they are for submitters (format, fees, administration),
and includes comments and feedback from users of the UNXposed list and and
direct from the UNXposed team.!!!
*************************************
Coca Rivas
11, Beck Rd. E8 4RE London
00 44 (0) 181 533 6534
UNXposed team.
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Dear Friends
On Thursday 24th we establish our LOUNGE for 4 days at the
Wyspa-Galerie/Gdansk. Would be fine to meet You there or You may have a
look to the website that will give short reports daily.
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/lounge
best greetings
francis
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/* Artists, Technology, and Ownership of Creative Content */
By way of the New Media Research list
>Greetings all,
>
>Mark Latonero here-- doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for
>Communication, University of Southern California. I'm part of a
>organizing committee for a February 2001 conference-- "Artists,
>Technology, and Ownership of Creative Content." An interdisciplinary
>collaboration of academics along with industry folk, we are exploring the
>tensions that arise as cultural (media) products enter into the age of
>digital reproduction and Internet culture. We are focusing on three
>areas: film, music, and visual art. The format is for one person to
>present an original case study, and panelists to discuss. I admit that
>the focus is more on the American case (in terms of Law and industry) this
>time around, yet we intend to expand discussion for international-global
>concerns for a later conference with a similar topic.
>
>If you are interested or can suggest the top scholars, researchers, or
>practitioners doing work in these specific areas please forward names to
>me at <[email protected]>.
>
>BTW in case u missed Phil's intro of me-- I'm investigating Internet
>music's development and its impact on the socio-cultural
>structures/practices that constitute the music economy. I'm also a
>researcher at the Normal Lear Center: "Exploring implications of the
>convergence of entertainment, commerce, and society"
><http://entertainment.usc.edu>
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Apologies for cross-posting
The new issue of Riding the Meridian: Women and Technology is online at:
http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/
the Literature:
Miriam Axel-Lute, Michelle Cameron, Wendy Taylor Carlisle,
Ruth Daigon, Claire Dinsmore, Johanna Drucker, Claudia Grinnell,
Diane Gromala, Christine Kennedy, Adriene Jenik, Tina LaPorta,
Mez, Jessy Randall, Neca Stoller, Sue Thomas and Teresa White
the Dialogue:
A roundtable discussion with professors and theorists
N. Katherine Hayles and Marjorie Perloff, Eastgate aquisitions
editor Diane Greco and hypertext writers Shelley Jackson
and Linda Carroli
CK Tower interviews Daniela Gioseffi
the Theory:
A Progressive Dinner Party showcasing the work of 39 women
who produce hypertext web work, created by contributing editors
Carolyn Guertin and Marjorie Luesebrink, with commentary by
N. Katherine Hayles and Talan Memmott
Guertin examines the underpinings of the upcoming
Eastgate release, _Califia_, by M.D. Coverley
the Means:
An interview with Judy Malloy
Tabetha Dunn, geniwate and Deena Larsen
share their experiences working with technology
***
questions? contact Jennifer Ley, Editor: [email protected]
****
Conspire, edited by CK Tower, will feature a concurrent issue
dedicated to women who write at: http://www.conspire.org
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Visiting Artist Positions
California Institute for the Arts
Program in Photography
Artist/Theorist/Historian/ emphasis in Photography, Media, and/or
related Theory.
Two positions available: One year long position starting from
September 2000 to May 2001 and a second position for one semester
only.
Responsibilities include two courses per semester, supervision of
independent study projects, participation in student reviews, and
student advising at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Significant record of exhibition or production, ability to address
range of media and all levels of practice. Include letter of
application, CV, slides of work, publications, video, CD ROM &/ or
url, three references, SASE.
A/D April 15, 2000 but application review will begin March 15, 2000. EOE, WMA
Kaucyila Brooke
Director, Program in Photography
Cal Arts
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355
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KUTLUG ATAMAN's SHOW OPENS THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 3 - 7 pm.
WOMEN WHO WEAR WIGS
Kutlug Ataman
The Lux Gallery announces the first UK presentation of Women Who Wear Wigs
(WWWW) � a four screen video installation by internationally acclaimed artist
and filmmaker Kutlug Ataman.
An endless stream of subjectivity, WWWW weaves together accounts from the lives
of four ordinary, and not so ordinary, Turkish citizens. The surprise is their
complex and unique relationship with wigs. As the film progresses, each
confession reveals an undertow of raw emotion, while at the same time reflecting
a society coming to terms with shifting sexual politics and social upheaval.
Consumed by the sound of chit-chat, and focusing on bizarre anecdotes and
recollections of personal traumas, the work exudes a profound intimacy with it
subjects. Subtitles flash up across the four screens as we are increasingly
compelled to surf the text for its compelling layers of gossip.
�Fundamentally, Ataman�s work remains mythic in our imagination yet domestic in
its presentation. The home-movie format creates intimacy, while the work blurs
the boundaries between fictional film and documentary, experimental cinema and
television.� Katya Garcia-Anton
Women Who Wear Wigs was acclaimed at its first showing at the 1999 Venice
Biennale, selected by Harald Szeeman. In 1996, Ataman was awarded Best Turkish
Film and Best Turkish Screenplay by the Turkish Film Critics� Association for
The Serpent�s Tale. In early 1999, Ataman presented the video semina b unplugged
- a seven hour, forty two minute interview with Turkish diva Semina Berksoy. He
also wrote and directed the feature film Lola and Bilidikid, about a Turkish
boy�s encounter with a transvestite singer in the clubs of Berlin, which has a
national release and opens at the Lux Cinema on 10 March.
Private View: Sunday 20 February � 3.00 - 7.00
Exhibition open: 23 February - 26 March, Wednesday - Sunday � 12.00 - 7.00.
Supported by Visiting Arts.
Gregor Muir
Lux Gallery Curator
2 - 4 Hoxton Square
London N1 6NU
t + 44 (0) 20 7684 2785
f + 44 (0) 20 7684 1111
[email protected]
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THE LOST PROJECT at trAce
The Lost Project is up and running at:
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/lost/index.htm Please go to the site and add your
name, email address, and a name and / or description of something you have
lost, irretrievably.
---------------------------------------
Consideration of the trAce Projects
The trAce online writing community, directed by Sue Thomas, originates
from Nottingham Trent University, England; the URL is
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk . I was the second virtual writer-in-residence at
trAce (following Christy Sanford Sheffield); I used the six months to
write a diary; work on my own texts; participate heavily in the Webboard
(BBS) discussion (this also included initiating a number of conferences);
and developing four projects, all of which are concerned with writing,
semantics, organization, and deconstruction. Three of these projects -
LoveandWar, The Yours, and The Traceroute (or trAceroute) Project - are at
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm; the Lost Project is at
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/lost/index.htm . The following is a brief descrip-
tion of the individual projects, and some of the issues involved in them.
a. LoveandWar: Five pages or backbones - anyone can add text to any of
these. The content/direction was a "novel" based on several characters I
have used in my own work, including Jennifer, Julu, and Nikuko. Parti-
cipants added other characters (Cybele for example) and texts, which may
or may not have contributed to the narrative. Threads tended to wind
around each other, disappearing from one backbone, only to appear on an-
other. As with The Yours, below, each backbone developed its own char-
acteristics, its own mood. During the course of the project (about two
months), one or another backbone would be busy - at most, two at a time.
The second and last were popular, but all of them eventually became fairly
lengthy. The total project time was based on a felt optimum - after a
while, the pages seemed to have peaked - and it was announced (on the
Webboard and elsewhere) that the project would soon shut down. This gave
participants a chance to add final sections. There was also an accompany-
ing Webboard conference; this was eventually closed and archived as well.
b. Out of LoveandWar came The Yours, which contained four pages or back-
bones; this time, there was no overall direction indicated. The project
quickly self-organized around various themes, which flowed in and out of
each other. It was fascinating to see this in operation. In particular,
narratives appeared, only to disappear - the same was true of poetic or
prose forms. One could consider the project a form of linear seeding.
Both this and LoveandWar can be read "anywhere," but there is more of a
sense of overt structure or articulation in the latter; The Yours almost
seems to spread out forwards and backwards in time.
c. The Traceroute or trAceroute Project centered around the Y2k problem
and the 1999-2000 New Year's celebration. In this case, there was only one
page; I asked participants to use the traceroute or tracert application in
Unix/Linux or Win95/98 to trace Internet connectivity at that time; some
Webpages with traceroute applications built-in were also employed. The
result is a record of the (very healthy) state of the Internet - connec-
tions were faster than usual. In addition, participants were asked to
comment on local Y2k problems, other items of interest. I didn't want any
sort of graphic interface - they're all too common on the Net, and many
aren't that useful - but wanted instead a narrative of the world-membrane,
during the period of supposedly peak computer difficulties (which didn't
materialize). The final result is a textual mapping of the telecom world
around the millennial moment. Participants, by the way, not only were able
to enter traceroutes from their local nodes, but, through the Webpages,
were also able to connect various sites with each other - for example,
Moscow with Perth. The resulting topology was more of an overall skein
than a multiple-star topology.
d. The Lost Project: One page or backbone; users are asked to give name,
email address, and description of lost object or person. The three entries
are presented in three different files; the project page itself is created
(by Simon Mills and myself) as broken html and linking. The form on the
page shakes; the background image peels off around it. But the html isn't
broken, and the error message (after submitting the information, an Error
400 appears) is false; clicking on it leads to the entries so far. In this
project, the lost object is disassociated with the name and email address
- to date, many of these are falsified or playful in any case. Things tend
to disappear into one or another file, just as nodes, objects, people,
languages, protocols, and media disappear in the real world; I have 8"
floppies, for example, that are now completely unusable, the information
lost forever. The Lost Project is also a Project that is Lost - that has
disappeared, to the extent it appears submerged in error, removed from
perhaps a previously pristine or pure existence, when everything existed
in the world, and everything worked.
1 Inscription-machines
The Yours, LoveandWar, and Lost projects are inscription-machines: spaces
for writing/inscribing within a specific form (name/email address/text)
based in a specific server, organized through particular protocols. The
operation is the same for everyone; the content is configured/articulated
within a space regulated by invisible background programming. In the Lost
Project, the regulation itself is suspect; the background is foregrounded
to the extent that it is a false background, unworkable, unworking - which
is not the case at all.
2 Linearities
All four projects have the potential for links placed by participants, but
their structure is linear or comb-spaced. LoveandWar has five tines or
backbones; The Yours has four; the other two (Traceroute and Lost) have
one each. At times, I would place cross-referencing links within the first
two (i.e. one backbone connecting to another), but the overall tenor of
the pieces are linear. There is, in other words, a tension between collab-
orations/texts which extend and differentiate, and linearity, which tends
to unify, concatenate.
(However, the linearity of Lost is slightly broken, since there are three
sheets - the name, email address, and lost object sheets - which are only
roughly correlated. These may be considered three tines, added to simul-
taneously, to the extent that name, email address, and object text are
entered at all.)
3 Peripheral Phenomenologies - what shows up at the margins (grey page,
white page, flash page, image page - on Yours - start page, end page,
intermediary pages - on LoveandWar - traceroute residue page on the
Traceroute Project - triple pages (two as residue) on the Lost Project -
The four projects organized their inscriptive spaces (tines or singular
writing-page) variously. LoveandWar is based on a narrative involving
Jennifer and other characters/avatars I have written through; two of the
tines are based on opening and closing strategies, and three others em-
phasize narrative moments. These bases are, at best, initiations into the
tines, which quickly organized into other characters, narratives, break-
downs, and flows.
The Yours has four bases, one for each backbone. The first is an three-
dimensional "organic" image I produced in Blender; the second, a flashwork
by Miekal And; the third, a light grey background; and the fourth, a white
background. There was nothing else provided; texts self-organized within a
much more open space than LoveandWar.
Traceroute, based on tracing interconnectivity during the 12/31/99-1/1/00
turnover, had a basic purpose which more or less controlled the content -
a monitoring first of Internet routes, and second of local (i.e. the
user's) environments. And Lost, whose purpose is the recording of lost
belongings, or a longing for be-longing, has to date produced more noise
than anything - as if the broken portal were a catalyst for broken or
hacked purpose.
It's odd that, besides this, the projects have remained almost entirely
free from spam, and there has been only one case in which a writer asked
to have her contributions removed after the fact (which took some doing on
the part of the administrators).
4 Bottom-up governance - scratch sheets, "level playing field," anyone
participating
Within the projects, each participant was equal; anyone could bend the
text or imagery in any direction within the overall configuration. To this
extent, the projects were scratch sheets. One constraint, however, was
that the latest text would be entered only at the bottom - i.e., unlike a
webboard, there was no way to place comments or material interstitially.
Of course, and we take this for granted - the pages were open for writing
and reading twenty-four hours a day; they were vulnerable, unguarded
spaces, without monitoring. Only the Lost Project has minimal monitoring -
email sent to [email protected] whenever an entry is made.
5 Literatures plural, "modalities" of writing
The modes of writing included flash, html and dhtml pages linked to the
backbones, inserted images, texts in various fonts, sizes, colors, and
effects, etc. The styles are also extremely varied, ranging from tradi-
tional forms to animations to graffiti.
There is not one literature, but literatures; there is not one writing,
but writings. The projects are multivalent, heterological, contradictory;
they also possess "aura" to the extent that there are additional elements
- not only the programming itself, but also back-channel, back-project
private email correspondence; talk about them on the Webboard; advertising
for them across the Internet (on various email lists and Webpages); dis-
cussion in chat on trAce and elsewhere; lectures and seminars describing
them at universities, real-life conferences, etc.; and so forth.
6 Writing and "wryting"
In some of my theoretical work, I've made distinctions between "writing"
and "wryting" - the latter referencing an almost hysteric embodiment, in
which writing becomes symptomatic of physical absence - as if it were a
residue or skin itself. It's the extreme positioning of text to re-present
the body online. The image of the "tine" or "backbone" is an image of a
body inserted online, a body of text and textual body. I see these pro-
jects as inhabited, inhabiting, online spaces, as if avatars and avatar
ghosts were present. The writing styles often reflect this, pushing the
language to the limit of re-presentation. The projects are simply in terms
of design, animation, and programming content; they're rough, open to the
semantics of reading, linking, seeing, hearing. Whatever is "clever" about
them is invisible.
7 Non-dhtml/web aesthetic orientation
The Internet has changed radically in the past few years; the two major
changes have been (following the abandonment of the NSF backbone, etc.)
the emerging of a dominant corporate Net culture, and the development of
the World Wide Web as all-encompassing. Accompanying both of these has
been a slew of proprietary protocols as companies vie for online dollars
and demographics. Almost all Net art is Web-oriented, animated, etc. I
wanted to have an anti-aesthetic - pages that would be readable in a text-
based environment, such as a linux shell account. I also wanted the empha-
sis to be on written content - almost as if the pages or backbones were
spoken, instead of written - almost as if there were a body embedded with-
in them. And I wanted a sense of poverty, of bleakness, as if these pages
were the last place or inhabitation of writing, as if these were all there
was. I wanted them to load with minimal bandwidth, as if there were an
ideal universal accessibility, as if the rest of the world could see them,
without or without modems or Internet. And I wanted a certain hunger to
prevail...
8 Writing and rewriting on the Webboard - other URLs, openings
Beyond these projects, I wanted to contribute as much as possible to the
Webboard, which tends to archive everything. There is a tension because of
this - on one hand, an informal dialog framework, and on the other, larger
and larger files, and increasing difficulty of navigation. It's as if the
past creates its own articulation, formalization - interesting from a
philosophical-epistemological point of view. I have been surprised that
there are not more rewritings, reshapings - which owners of posts can do -
and which would create detours, ruptures, in a flow already broken by
multiple responses. I used the Webboard as a home-space, opening it, at
least for myself, by posting numerous other URLs that represented the kind
of work that most interested me.
I did find the board increasingly conservative as time went on, and I have
spent more of my own energy in the 7-11, nettime, webartery, and other
lists, which are valuable resources for anyone interested in experimental
work or the deconstruction, so to speak, of the desktop and its protocols
and interconnectivities. The board operates somewhat as a teaching envi-
ronment, somewhat as chat, somewhat as resource center; it is also an on-
going body of work or working body - I tend to think of an inscribed body,
not sexualized or psychoanalytical, but on the order of a limited tele-
phone exchange, flooded with messages. The board is everyone's and no
one's project, and that has been part of the fascination - while, at least
for me, there has always been an overall tenor to it, the tenor changes
constantly.
Finally, there has also been the diary for me - which breaks down into
diary.txt, diary2.txt, and diary3.txt, also at the projects URL. I have
written about the function of the diary elsewhere; it is the first time
I've kept one, and, like the backbone pages themselves, it has tended to
extend linearly. At first an exercise, it became more and more a public
portrait from my viewpoint - something anyone would look at, in order at
least to begin to understand me and my work. It was also an occasion for
venting and thinking about depression, obsession, exhilaration, despair,
poverty, intensity. It rapidly developed into a work itself.
9 Rupture, hacking, spam
There has been very little rupture, hacking, or spam across the projects
or board, and that continues to interest me. There have been very few
pieces that have worked "across" the webboard, for example, breaking de-
liberately through the conference categories (one of them was an early
version of the Lost Project, in which I went looking in various confer-
ences for the missing). I'm surprised at this acceptance of boundary - it
would have been easy for someone, for example, to link The Yours to
LoveandWar and confuse texts. There was a form placed in one of the
backbones that imitated the entry form at the portal - but this was an
isolated instance.
10 Conclusion of Writing
The object of the Lost Project, the unattainable object, part-object, flow
or flood, objet petit a, masquerade, lure, seduction, transitional object,
memory, drive, instinct - always a hunger or teleology, always a tendency-
towards - this drives the epistemology of the projects, which portend new
ontologies as the millennium progresses. Philosophically, the results and
the processes are fascinating, fetishizations of language and space, the
leaving of feathered traces across an infinitesimal corner of the Net.
And all of these spaces or projects are ergodic texts, in the sense of
Aarseth; they are also therapeutics, requiring different modalities of
writing and reading. They foreground writing in a space of infinite
choice, a literally chaotic space; and as such, they also foreground the
reception of a writing which tenaciously holds its own.
Alan Sondheim - http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt 2//00
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