Reynolds 11-11-10

Website: http://jackiereynolds.com/NetArt.html

~The Progressive Morphing of Net Art~

A relevant topic in the History and Theory of Digital art is the discourse regarding what net art actually is. Over the short but rapidly evolving history of Digital Art, the boundaries of the definition of net art has blurred to include work that is contradictory to the actual conceptual definition of net art. Net art is not to be confused with net.art or art on the net. To complicate the situation even more, sometimes all these terms are used interchangeably. Net.art refers to a specific group of artists who worked in the medium of the Internet from 1992-97. Art on line can be any type of art viewed on the Internet. Initially, the definition of net art in the most exclusive sense referred to art that used the Internet as an artistic medium, and was experienced only on the Internet. "Art that uses the internet as its medium and that cannot be experienced in any other way."(MTAA , 1997) Net art was a very contained and interactive environment, an intimate Internet space, shared between the viewer and artist. As time has progressed, technologies have advanced, and the conceptual ideas of net art have changed, thus the earlier definition of net art has morphed. Presently, the term net art has begun to include combinations of other digital processes. At the Summary of the Mobile Studio, The Challenges of Curating Net Art Web Conference, May 26, 2006, Lauren Cornell, Executive Director of Rhizome and Adjunct Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art stated, “It is a different work now that the Internet has extended into space, onto bodies, and onto devices and off just only the Web a terrain of hybrid works has opened up.”

The theme of this curatorial project is to show the evolution of net art progressing from the original definition, art made on the Internet and experienced on the Internet, to the present expanded boundaries of the term net art, which involves the internet as a medium but can be explored in public space. The following five art work examples presented chronologically from 1996-2010, are indicators of the continuous morphing and progression of terminology, method, and of the creativity and innovation of net art. It appears that the older term net art is still being used by some but now there seems to be a transformation of this term to new media or new media artist.

In 1996, Russian artist Olia Lialina created If you want me to clean your screen, her early browser work is considered to be an important contribution to net.art history, and her work is also considered net art. If you want me to clean your screen was part of an exhibit called Miniatures of the Heroic Period, thought to be a very progressive exhibition for its time. To quote Lialina, “It was the first exhibition ever that explicitly offered net.art (technically web pages) for sale.” The piece may seem rudimentary compared to todays standards, but it’s really an intelligent work of art. A scanned image of Lialina’s hand, open and pressed flat against a screen is in contrast to a dark background. A stamp with the picture of a woman is in the palm of the hand facing the viewer. Text instructs the visitor, “if you want me to clean your screen, scroll up and down.” By placing an arrow on the hand, the viewer can move it up and down or left and right, stamp and all. It appears as if the hand is wiping the screen from the inside. However, as the viewer moves the image of the hand, the viewer becomes part of the gesture of wiping the screen. Interactivity is an integral part of net art. It’s funny, but there is social commentary, it’s possible she was referring to the women’s labor role in Russian society. In 2010, Lialini presently works at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Germany as professor at the department of New Media She also writes on digital culture, net art and web vernacular. Link to 2010, Lialini

http://nimk.nl/eng/calendar/digital-folklore-book-presentation-by-olia-lialina

In 2004, Joan Heenskerk and Dirk Paesmans created Max Payne Cheats Only. These two artists work under the name of Jodi, or jodi.org (Jodi=The first two letters of her name, and the first two letters of his name). Jodi is part of the original “net.art” group and their work is considered net art. Their art is conceptually intellectual, the content difficult to decipher unless one understands the artist’s intent. In Max Payne Cheats Only, Jodi deconstructs the ultra violent and hugely popular vigilante computer game called Max Payne. By using absurd perspectives and effects to manipulate the game, the “mission” gets disassembled. For example in this link, the characters endlessly repeat meaningless actions, such as running in the same direction, no way out. In Jodi’s version, the game can no longer be perceived as an “alternative reality” or adventure because the “gamer” too is stuck with nowhere to go. In 2010, Jodi exhibited their on-line piece called http://mydesktop.jodi.org/ at the Network Noise not Noise Exhibition held at Western Front Gallery, British Columbia, Canada. Link it to 2010, Jodi

http://front.nfshost.com/noisenotnoise/?p=44

In 2006, Michael Takeo Magruder created Monolith. He is an American artist who lives and works in the UK. This piece is net art and an example of net art becoming more complex in content and design. Monolith juxtaposes England’s famous circle of stones known as Stonehenge and the British Broadcasting Company. Magruder provides the viewer with an approachable and virtual 3D world in which to view Stonehenge. He references the time of day, the viewers location on the Earth, and the position of the Earth around the sun. The earth’s colors alternate from bright green, red, and shades of black as the sky changes from sunrise to sunset. Magruder appropriates faces and random text from daily BBC Internet news items and overlays them on the stones, and doing so recombines the notions of art and media. “It’s his intention to analyze the interconnections which have been forged between the individual and the pervasive media network. ” Presently, the real Stonehenge can only be viewed from a distance and the original purpose of the circle of stones is unknown. Perhaps Magruder feels that way about the BBC, or news in general. In 2010, Michael Takeo Magruder exhibited Changing Room, A mixed reality installation, at Eastside Project's second gallery in the UK.

Link to 2010 Magruder

http://www.takeo.org/nspace/sl004/

In 2009, Natalie Bookchin began her art work Testament. Bookchin is a well known name in the world of digital arts and she has been producing socially relevant net art since the early nineties. She is an artist, lecturer, and teacher and holds a master’s degree in photography. Bookchin has created many online projects which can be accessed through her website. For example her early work includes Bookchin and Alexei Shulgan’s An Introduction to net.art (1994-1999) http://www.easylife.org/netart/, a “manifesto” about making art in an “online universe.” Her current work Testament really shows the broadening of the term net art. This interactive piece is produced by video and experienced on the Internet, but still comes under the heading of net art. Testament, is an ongoing series of multi-channel video installations made up of fragments of anonymous people simultaneously and intimately talking about their lives. In this link, they are talking about when they were laid off from work. The participant can’t see the viewer, but the viewer can see the participant. The viewer can also empathize, but can’t interact.

In 2009, Australian multimedia artist Kit Webster created Morphology. His work includes a combination of installation, mapping, digital, video, technology, and animation. Some of his work has been referred to as digital sculpture. One of his installation pieces is Morphology which combines sculpture, sound, and digital projection. He designed a geometric sculpture from stacked cubes and projected a series of motion graphics onto it with a digital projector. Along with rhythmic and synchronized sounds he designed an awesome kaleidoscope effect, a sequence of changing patterns. Although his incredible installations are shown in galleries, his art work translates very well on Internet sites such as Vimeo and his own website, and considered net art when viewed on the net. Regarding the future of digital art, Webster stated, “Complete digital control has taken over the environment... I really feel that there could be an infinite number of experiences that we are not yet equipped to discover. We are really on a threshold of technological discovery."

reynolds 11-2-10

It is well known to most people in the United States that we are suing people. So, of course the remix culture presents issues that are in conflict with pre-existing laws and rules.

The following are the definitions necessary to understand the areas of disagreement:

Open Source: “Describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end products source materials.”

Open Content: “Describes any kind of creative work or content, published under a license that explicitly allows copying and modifying of its information by anyone- it facilitates the democratization of knowledge.”

Copyright: “It is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt work.”

Copyleft: (play on words) “Describes the practice of using copy right law. It is a general method for making a program or other work free- and all extended versions are free as well”

Intellectual Property: “It is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which property rights are recognized- and the corresponding fields of law. Under IP law, owners are granted exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary and artistic works, discoveries and inventions: and words phrases, symbols and designs. This includes, copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets.

I think Lawrence Lessig’s article addresses many of the questions regarding open source, open content, copyright and copyleft. I agree with his ideas that digital technology has made it easy to remix and reconstruct existing art and that it is itself, a creative endeavor. Like Lessig I believe that amateur remix free from regulation encourages inventiveness and innovation. Some of the rigid copy right laws need to be modified and changed in this new technological society. Intellectual property becomes somewhat blurred as well, and again in need of amendment and revision. However, it seems if an amateur remixed an original copy and started making money on this art work that the original creator should be monetarily compensated because the amateur is no longer an amateur. In the big picture,there also has to be a balance between protecting ones “original” creative output versus the “collective” freely accessible use of original work.

Recently, in my Contemporary Art class, I presented the works of a really gifted an amazing photographer, Florian Maier-Aiken. This artist photographed a nighttime view of Robert Smithson’s famous Utah earthwork, Spiral Jetty. He altered and remixed the original work of art by using black and white film, and directed the lighting of the full moon and flash bulbs. The work was clearly that of Smithson but by the reconfiguring and recontextualizing of Maier-Aiken, his picture became a unique work of art. While I was doing this project much of what we had talked about in this class came to mind. In the words of Paul Miller, AKA Spooky that Subliminal Kid, “Who owns memory?” I remember the anecdote referring to St. Columba and Finnian, where the King said, “the calf belonged to the cow, so the copy belongs to the original.” Personally, I think that photography is a little more difficult to use as an example than a digital art remix, but it philosophically is still in the same arena. Should Florian Maier-Aiken give some of his proceeds to Smithson? He is not an amateur and he is making money on Smithson’s work of art. In this case, I think One Day at the Spiral Jetty by Maier-Aiken is unique and stands on it’s own merit. Nevertheless, this type of situation makes us question a variety of ethical issues associated with the remix culture.

Reynolds 10-26-10

Initially I was drawn to the actual design of the book, Rhythm Science, because it is a unique work of art on it’s own; a hole for a spindle piercing the CD shaped pages, alternating paper textures, text, quotes, designs and a music CD enclosed. Then I read Paul Miller’s heady and very perceptive text. He is obviously very bright and his educational background in Philosophy and French Literature is evident in his intellectual ruminating in this book; many varied recognizable and some unfamiliar people from history and the present, are quoted, and their thoughts and/or music explored (remixed). He is an artist, writer, producer, and a DJ. As a DJ he goes by Spooky that Subliminal Kid, a name that refers to the combination of “eerie sounds of hip-hop, technology, ambient and other music,” that he recontextualizes. He not only DJs but he uses the concept of DJing in Rhythm Science as a vehicle to present his cultural ideas and issues regarding art in the digital age.

Miller talks about how the artist uses technology to rearrange many of the ideas, art, music, and beliefs to create and convey infinite new and expressive art. Software becomes the tool and the almost limitless information on the web can be altered or added too at the artist discretion. He said that thanks to technology the entire history of music can be remixed, his CD is a true form of sampling and multiplicity. This is accurate for all art as well.

Some of the themes that he purposely expressed disjointedly are: “Who speaks through you?” Miller’s African American heritage sometimes speaks through him. I feel he was connected to his deceased father and DeBois both activists in their own right. “Who owns memory?” Memory is in our cells and genetic makeup. Memory is in the ethers, open for anyone to assimilate. We all own our own memory but maybe we are multiplex selves. “How does property intervene in the flow of information between the material and the ethereal?” Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. “In an information economy it’s all about how information creates identity as a scarce resource.” “The method becomes actionary rather than reactionary.” I don’t think he believes there is much originality but that all ideas are recombined and re-”paired”. To me the remixing or recontextualizing of material is really a composite of ownership that loops around back to a point where you don’t really know who owns it, but does that really make a difference anyway?

Who is the controller of your universe?

The question really is “who speaks through you”

Influencing every moment of your existence

I am impacted with every cell of my body by my mother

Her voice resonates with every passing thought

She gave me life and imbedded the seeds of who I am

Speaking

Captivating

Ever guiding me through my journey in this lifetime

My intuition and experiences are the hand that guides me

I own my memory

My looking glass changes with every breath

My memory changes

Drifts

Morphs

And sometimes dissipates with the tick of a clock

Paces into the deeps recesses of my mind

Or it is hiding waiting to be evoked from within

But there are memories that will stand the test of time

Playing and Replying

Forever

Reynolds -Jody Zellen

The artist that I chose to discuss is Jody Zellen and her work Ghost City on the website net_condition. She is a contemporary American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She has a BA from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT and a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. In this net art project, she explores the urban environment through different types of media such as photography, poetry, music, newspapers, public art, and books. “The images are from print media sources, texts from books on urban theory or other written words, generally poetic.”

In my blog I’ve linked four websites that reference her work:

http://www.ghostcity.com/

http://aminima.net/wp/?p=492&language=en

http://contactzones.cit.cornell.edu/artists/zellen.html

http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/TIRW/TIRW_Archive/tirweb/feature/zellen/index.html#

The site Ghost City started in 1997 and completed in 2005. It started as a hyperlink and continued as a work in progress, as technology evolved so did her web site. In Zellen’s own words, “Ghost City serves as an archive for all my web based work as well as a place for experimentation.”

Jody Zellen designed ‘Ghost City’ which is a website that presents a maze of multiple changing scenes of an imaginary city. “...A city of fragments, a memory, a ghost of reality, a ghost city.” She calls this net art “an interactive urban environment” and she thinks of her web space as a sculptural space. Viewers participate by interacting with the animated graphics allowing them to “sculpt” different views of city life. Each animated image is a link to a different part of the city. The opening web picture is a square divided into twenty-five individual squares against a black border. The nine center squares each contain a letter against a solid colored background that spells out Ghost City, and the center square has one letter that continually alternates, and also spells Ghost City, one letter at a time. The sixteen colorful border squares each flash and shift pictures of city scenes. To enter the city, you can click on any square and suddenly you are in a complex network of visual, textual, and sometimes auditory stimulus, a city environment. “The viewer is a wanderer through the city either moving forward or backward, discovering new spaces in the city.”

Zellen’s theme is a narrative about being immersed in a city environment; the memories, feelings, smells, sights, tastes, sounds, both past and present. When entering her imaginary city one is immediately sensory bombarded and in constant movement. These are some of the stylistic and consistent feelings Ghost City evoked in me while navigating: congestion, colorful, intriguing, creative, noisy, claustrophobic, frustration, alienated by the energy, frenetic, overwhelming, smelly, smoky, bus fumes, conversation, honking, bodies, pushing, opportunities, laughter, crying, joy, sadness, ringing cell phones, and blinking lights. This is a very in depth net art piece, it envelopes you as you click deeper, you dig deeper into the heart and fragmented history of Ghost City; windows of images of old buildings, signage, cars, and clothes pop up and disappear. Simultaneously, pictures and text of the present contrast pictures and text of the past.

It really stimulates your memory of what one feels like in the midst of a city. I like Ghost City a lot, but I don’t like big cities in general so I have somewhat of a negative reaction to this digital immersion. On the other hand, there are many people who can’t live without the chaos and tempo of an urban environment and they would be right at home in Ghost City. It’s also stylistically consistent because you are always in the confines of an urban environment. Cities are all about growth and expansion and Ghost city as a good example of this process.

Zellen’s work is valuable because it is an example of the changeability and evolution seen in a specific art piece over an extended period of time, which is a distinctive element of digital art. Ghost City is technologically innovative, as digital art advanced, so did her work. In a contemporary arts context, it is important that this work appear on the internet because it’s a very creative forum that one can utilize to interact with “a city” via the web. The digital medium is actually unique and a very artistic way to experience and explore an art piece. Obviously, you can’t interact with a painting or sculpture of a city in the same way you can on- line.

Reynolds 10-5-10

The Yes Men are said to have a “hactivist approach to art.” I looked up the definitions of hacker + activist. Activists: “the actions of those who try and bring about political or social change. Hackers: those who gain unauthorized access to computer data or some system, and/or innovative users of digital media.” When you combine the definitions they describe some of the methods used by performance artist’s in the film The Yes Men. According to Wikipedia ‘The Yes Men’ do culture jamming which “is a tactic used by many consumer social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions.” http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=cultural+jamming

The way their website was formatted mirrored that of the WTO, “an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade.” The website was extremely believable, people would contact ‘The Yes Men’ group thinking that they actually were the WTO. Then the Yes Men would set up interviews or meetings with media sources with these organizations.

As hacktivists, they assumed aliases and impersonated representatives of the WTO at several conferences and media interviews. During interviews and presentations they appeared to be believable representatives, but they made radical, and avant-garde statements said in a subversive and satirical way. People often don’t question authority figures or those who are supposedly highly respected in their field. Their message not only made fun of the WTO, but through parody they delivered ridiculous strategies on how to fix the global economy.

I looked up the definition of “tactical media art” in Wikipedia and found the following website that uses activism through humor and politics in an attempt to create public awareness about specific issues. It’s not exactly like The Yes Men group and there are similarities, but they are social activists.

http://www.appliedautonomy.com/mission.html

http://www.appliedautonomy.com/lb.html

The conventional thought of a studio artist is someone who creates art in a studio like painting, sculpture, photography, etc. within a studio. The Yes Men used their website, and also their satirical fake personas as performance artists as their medium to express themselves artistically. I think art mixed with constantly changing technology has changed the “artist as genius” model. Borat is a performance artist who is somewhat of a hactivist who also uses exaggeration and imitation in films.

The Yes men are performance artists and hactivists who use parody to make social commentaries. The other two artists used websites and parody also to make social commentaries.

Example: net art’s “manifesto” and etched tablets, and Fluidity.... used a lot of humor about the future of net art.

I have ambivalent feelings in regards to whether or not The Yes Men’ are ‘artists.’ This hesitance to call their work ‘art’ or the group ‘artists’ has to do with my own internal struggle as to what defines ‘art’ and who is an ‘artist.’ On one hand, I feel that their work is mainly hactivism and not art because their main goal is essentially political. On the other hand, I think they have a very unique style and approach which I can see as performance art. After trying to decipher my own interpretations of the Yes Men and film, I came to the conclusion that I really do consider them ‘artists,’ because the ability to take on pseudonymous personas and act or perform the part is a form of art.

Reynolds 9-28-10

I looked at Hyper-X Blog art exhibition, an on-line gallery founded in 1995. I entered Blog Art and clicked on Triptych. TV. http://triptych.tv/

It’s a very frenetic collage of flashing images and graphics, bits and pieces of Andy Wharhol, TV icons such as Mr. T, Telletubbies, and lots of skulls and assorted voices. The blaring sounds paired with the pictures reminded me of a mixture of very obnoxious video game noises. I thought about the name Triptych.TV. I knew the word triptych meant three and this net art included all of the following: “A set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together.” I thought the art was very hypnotic and chaotic. After downloading, I had to keep reminding myself to breathe.

http://www.altx.com/hyperx/paths.htm In comparison, Randon Paths by Jody Zellen was on the opposite end of the spectrum of Triptych.TV. It was quite simplicity and I liked how she arranged the photographs and text of her “Roman Holiday.” It’s interactive, you click on the text and the art changes. Or, when you drag the mouse over her sheet of photographs the pictures switch.

http://www.loshadka.org/wp/Loshadka’s Blog had an interesting video dated August 2010. Set to game show type music, I watched a pony chasing and playing with a ball. No words were needed. He had a lot of movement in his net art.

http://www.screenfull.net/stadium/ I opened Screenful to find a black screen and small question mark in the center. It was as crazy and repetitious as Triptych.TV. It screamed of chaos, mayhem, and turmoil. Scrolling down you find a skeleton face against rippling vertical colors, frantic music, and someone yelling obscenities in the background. Behind the skeleton it looked like a Mickey Mouse mosaic. I clicked #screen press and noticed that people could blog their responses.

http://404.jodi.org/ I recognized the net art on Blogroll as it was tied to the JODI website, where the artist’s used the computer as a tool to create art as well as the medium to show it within the network. Click on “sign out” and it pulls up 405 against a yellow background, click on 405 and rows of numbers pop up.

ThruYou takes clips of musicians the “author” relates to and reintroduces them as a mix of “unrelated YouTube video clips.” ThruYou is a collage of both video and music. I have always been attracted to remixes of people talking and or music combined to create a new piece of ‘art.’ As you let this site play it becomes even more eclectic and mesmerizing. I especially like ‘02. This is What It Became’ because of its’ Reggie feel.

Liz Filardi’s project called ‘Facetbook’ caught my eye immediately because of the similarity to the word ‘Facebook.’ I thought that it was intriguing that Professor Amerika would ask us to visit this already familiar site. I was taken back and even more eager to find out what Facetbook was about. Her quote “I’m Not Stalking You; I’m Socializing” was a very interesting stance to take on the current issues of Facebook ‘stalking.’ In general, I have a dual thoughts about Facebook, but regardless of my own viewpoints on ‘stalking,’ I liked that she had a viewpoint I have never heard of or come across.

Reynolds 9-21-10

Anne-Marie Schleiner intentionally wrote an unconventional article, Fluidity's and Oppositions Among Curators. . . it caught me a bit off guard. First, like Digital Art in most cases, the format itself was different, the placement of text and side conversations were free style and unlike most academic articles. Initially, her message was somewhat of a challenge to decode, an example are her descriptions of X, Y, and Z artists, because I didn’t realize she was being a bit humorous with her definitions. Sifting through her paper I found that her main ideas were about how we need to redefine net artists, net curators, and net audiences. She feels that every, “ website owner is a curator and cultural critic, artist, creating chains of meaning through associations, comparisons, and juxtapositions, parts or whole can in turn serve as fodder for another website gallery.” The Internet is contextual and users or website owners are involved with an ongoing process of creating and recontextualizing or changing of the digital material. Schleiner states, “I am what I link to.” The link or linking changes the contexts. I thought her oppositions of past artists and future artists, and past curators and future filter feeders were comical but also true.

Websites:

Turbulence is an active website that has been promoting, commissioning, exhibiting, and archiving "networked art forms" since 1996 to the present. It also offers a research blog called Networked Performance which concentrates on net-art and it's future. In addition, it includes networked, an interactive site where people share ideas and dialogue in a "networked environment" with book authors.

Net_Condition is an archived exhibition at the Center of Art and Media Technology (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. The exhibition was referred to as a multi-local networked event because it took place simultaneously in Karlsruhe, Germany, Graz, Austria, Tokyo, Japan and Barcelona, Spain. Webcams were used in the “net lounge.” Net_condition is "about the artist's look at the way society and technology interact with each other, are each other's "condition.

I selected and viewed two of the following net-artists, John Hudak and Jodi Zellen.

http://www.turbulence.org/Works/Hudak/index.html

On turbulence, I found Artifact, by John Hudak ('97). He used actual "artifactual sounds and images collected from the web." To open, you click on an alternating red, yellow and green rectangle with artifact scribbled in black. It opens to entirely black background with a small rectangle in the center. Within the rectangle, 12 small squares flashed and alternate from black and white to the beat of a pulsating Internet sound. When you click on each tiny square it pulls up a different picture and the sound changes. Some of the pictures were in color, for example one brown eye that looks right and left. The sounds seemed too match the movement of the pictures. I thought the sounds and images he chose were clever and interesting.

http://www.ghostcity.com

In Net_Condition, I clicked on Ghost City, by Jody Zellen ('97).

This piece also has a black background and a large square in the center. Within the square are 20 smaller squares, grid like, each flashing with changing urban images (street signs, wires, cars, sidewalks). Viewers must navigate either by clicking on random squares (links), or by following the linear narrative on each page. Each space is made up of images and texts “clipped” from different media sources. It’s a cityscape in a moving collage. The “Random chaos of the city” is beautifully captured in her complicated network of images.

Both of these net-art pieces were from 1997. Hudak’s work Artifact was fun, playful and more simplistic than Zellen’s Ghost City. Ghost city was quite a complex and in depth project. She was making a social statement about chaotic city life. It was a “representation of the city by the mass media...fragments, a memory, a ghost of reality.” Both sites allowed the viewer to interact with the graphics.