This project is inspired, in part, by the increasing level of scholarship and activity in the field of Microhistory, paired with an increasing level of established journalistic bias and partisan scholarship embedded in modern media. While there is no acceptable or inclusive definition, Microhistory can be understood as a relatively new branch in the study of history, common since 1970, that focuses on narrow magnified examinations of specific places, decades, or ethnic groups as opposed to larger, broader studies over time. My strategy utilizes anthropological and archaeological methodology, appropriates common research modalities and presents visual archives to selectively insert particular and eccentric information into a dialogue based on the discrepancies between truth and myth concerning the past and recent present. The Samuel Gray Society project consists of the creation of an educational foundation whose mission is to preserve the people and culture of 18th century colonial America through the life and legacy of Samuel Gray, the first man killed in the Boston Massacre. Currently, I am the founder, president and sole member of this organization. This project involves two significant undertakings. The first is the creation of the Sam Gray Society website, (www.samgraysociety.org) which is currently underway. The second is the creation of artifacts housed in the SGS visual archives. The archives, which are the most significant educational contribution of the SGS, are comprised of four fields of research: 1. Material culture of the 18th century 2. Technology of the 18th century 3. The SGS Scrimshaw collection 4. The SGS paper collection The process I employ produces objects that have very specific references to the past by incorporating traditional techniques, but remain visibly awkward or identifable as imposters, causing the attentive viewer to question their juxtaposition. These objects are then broken, disfigured or buried to facilitate an aging process. Subsequently, I reclaim them in situ, conserve and archive them, ultimately presenting fictitious antiquities that examine authenticity under the umbrella of scholarship. They are presented in a respectful, encyclopedic manner that supports thoughtful questions regarding contemporary cultural or historical analysis. Almost nothing is known about the life of Samuel Gray, and like a poet or playwright, I intend to insert my narrative where none currently exists. In this way, history is what I make of it--a ripe mixture of historical fact and tenuous hypothesis.

Thin, clear domes form the boundaries of an iconic starscape, silently inviting the user to manipulate a containing and categorizing structure within an endless cosmic flow.

Heard is an interactive artwork exploring cultural and social views through sophisticated tracking technology in virtual as well as physical space. This work explores ideas around online social networking environments and how the proliferation of these spaces effect the way by which people relate and interact with one another. The artwork invites audiences to wear a wireless digital headpiece and ‘become’ one of the characters they see on screen. They then physically explore the installation space as well as a virtual environment, which is projected onto the wall in front of them. As they walk around the space, they listen to the musings of the character they have chosen to ‘become’: a little girl, an elderly lady or a young doctor. These characters (through a pre-recorded script created by writers each assuming one of the characters) reflect upon their ideals, values, hopes and dreams. The whimsical exchange between characters is based on everyday moments and activities. When there is more than one person in the space, a conversation between characters is triggered when people approach one another. This conversation can be heard through the headpieces as well as seen in text that appears on the projected screen. Brood Box 8 Rankins Lane Melbourne / off lt Bourke Street between Queen + Elizabeth Street Mobile 0412 495 899 / info@broodbox.com.au Open / Monday to Saturday 7am-5pm / Closed Sundays all other times by appointment only Fri 12/02/2010 - Opening Night from 6pm Sat 13/02/2010 - Gallery Open Sun 14/02/2010 - Gallery Closed Mon 15/02/2010 - Gallery Open Tue 16/02/2010 - Gallery Open www.broodbox.com.au

ThingPit \’th`ing\ p`1t\ Noun An entity, an idea, or a quality perceived, known, or thought to have its own existence. a. The real or concrete substance of an entity. b. A natural or artificial hole or cavity in the ground. c. A natural hollow or depression in the body or an organ. d. The single central kernel or stone of certain fruits Verb (often foll. by against)to match in opposition, esp. as antagonists: a. a concealed danger or difficulty b. guerilla projection made in opposition to a static view of our surroundings c. a re-presentation of a coming together / an envirotron of differentiation d. the commonly overlooked exultation in between ORIGIN Old English (also in the senses “meeting” and “matter, concern”)

under Heaven 02 A "fata morgana" under a viaduct in Amsterdam. complete with palmtrees, bananatrees and a waterfall. The viaduct under the A10 highway between Bos & Lommer and Geuzenveld houses a space of more than 2500 square meters. A strong fence is placed around the whole area. For the next 5 years artist Leonard van Munster [1972] will use this abandoned space as his exhibition area and will make the passer-by part of a dynamic public artwork.

Jean Delouvroy and Hans Verhaegen started there collaboration with the audiovisual installation ‘Deus Digitalis’ (2009). Deus Digitalis' was integrated in the characteristic context of the Orpheus Institute's concert hall (Gent, Belgium). The basic elements consist of computer-steered animation of the recognizable distinctive human pattern by Hans Verhaegen and the inventive composed sound layers by Jean Delouvroy.

Ballentine the bird is a digital drawing about 20,000 pixels tall and 30,000 pixels wide (roughly 20x30 feet @72ppi). She was drawn using one-pixel wide scribble lines colored red, yellow, blue, white, and black. Because she is so big, I've used the OpenLayers mapping API (similar to Google Maps) to allow zoom and scrolling features. The concept behind the drawing is based on the idea that digital images can be infinite in size. Drawing her entirely of one-pixel wide lines (labor-intensive) is an attempt on my part to undermine the idea that drawing on the computer is merely a shortcut. She was drawn in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.

The Marfa Ring project is an experiment in colonizing the virtual geography of the small town of Marfa, Texas by creating a "Web Ring" of sites about it. Due to the Ring's interlinking, Google search results are skewed in favor of our sites (which vary in levels of veracity and intent) as opposed to Marfa's legitimate web presence. Because of the extensive work "remodeling" Marfa's online, visitors' interactions with Marfa are ostensibly colored by their web-based preconceptions, as engineered by us. The project is a digital homage to Donald Judd.

Produce your own customized Artistic License in a matter of minutes using your web browser. Instead of biometrics and radio frequency ID chips, Artistic License embraces freedom, collaboration, sharing, and imagination as keys to a more appealing modernity. Your Artistic License doesn't require you to look like yourself, and it does not impose factual restrictions. Nonetheless it has the truthiness coveted by authority. /// Artistic License was conceived primarily as a form of net.art that is experienced by people around the world through their browsers. During some exhibition events, however, it is possible to produce laminated licenses directly in the gallery space, as occurred in September 2009 in Hartford, Connecticut. /// Although in many respects it's fun, Artistic License encourages card-holders to swipe across the borders of technology and identity. The greater socio-political context for this work includes privacy and personal liberty issues. Emerging identification technologies like biometrics, RFID transmitters, facial recognition software, GPS devices, microvideo, and nanotechnology have already disrupted basic life ways. The continuing changes have affected freedom of behavior and identity, constraining the imagination in the name of a security that is never truly achieved. Artistic License entertains the possibility that imagination, rather than restriction and control, is the key to avoiding the dystopian misadventures that are coming into focus. /// While interactive art has been online for decades, basic assumptions about the division of labor between the artist and the spectator haven't changed substantially. Artistic License targets this issue ironically, using the co-creation of ID cards - artistic licenses - as the engine for an open-ended series. The results are somewhat unpredictable. The various contributions are performative, rebellious, naive, sophisticated, vulgar, etc. What distinguishes one license from the next is a matter of personal choice. So spectators, take advantage of your new empowerment: apply artistic license by "departing from convention or from factual accuracy ... to achieve a desired effect." Choose from among these rationales for participation or invent your own: * Leverage artifice to offset erosion of freedoms. // * Recoup time honored forms of play. // * Engage the joy of distortion, omission and irony. // * Gain free admission to arts friendly establishments. // * Incite the envy and respect of some peers. // * Contribute to expansion of the creative commons. // * Exploit offer for a free product.

Conceived and produced by Michael Smith and Joshua White in 1998-1999. All videotapes and artworks in the exhibition were created specifically for this site-specific installation piece.

Help the Chiller make his way through the confusion of cyberspace safely - play Space Chillers on any website you wish! The postmodernist universe is the universe of naive trust in the screen which makes the very quest for 'what lies behind it' irrelevant. 'To take things at their interface value' involves a phenomenological attitude, an attitude of 'trusting the phenomena'. More and more, we perceive only color and outline, no longer depth and volume. without a blind spot in the field of vision, without this elusive point from which the object returns the gaze, we no longer 'see something'; the field of vision is reduced to a flat surface, and 'reality' itself is perceived as a visual hallucination. Ted: [clears his throat, to Socrates] "All we are is dust in the wind," dude. [Socrates gives them a blank stare] Bill: [scoops up a pile of dust from the basin before them and lets it run out of his hand] Dust. [he blows the remainder away] Bill: Wind. Ted: [points at Socrates] Dude. [Socrates gasps]

The ghost of Vannevar Bush hacked my server. He appears randomly, rendered as HTML text.

why can we only "like" something on facebook? do you dis.like something? simply copy and paste the URL "http://dis-like.com" into a facebook comment window and post.

BUY & SELL TIME (from Silicon Valley) Hamilton Ave , San Jose, CA. September 2009. Service of buying and selling time offered by eBay. Time Notes presents its time credit line. If you had one minute, one hour, one extra year in your life: what would you do with it? Place your bid for the time that you need and tell us how would you spend it. The Time Notes Bank will take receipt of those desires that you could not concrete due to a lack of time or because you wasted it in things that you did not wanted. Then, if you win, we will send you a time note of the corresponding value in time with your relegated desire printed on it. For examples of how will use the time other users see the Given Time Data Base: http://www.timenoteshouse.org/index-ENG.html

http://thankyouandywarhol.com, 2007

Man With a Movie Camera: The Global Remake is a participatory video shot by people around the world who are invited to record images interpreting the original script of Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera, upload them to http://dziga.perrybard.net where software developed specifically for this project archives, sequences and streams the submissions as a film. As people can upload the same shot more than once infinite versions of the film are possible. The work explores the capabilities of the internet to achieve global collaboration by encouraging culturally diverse participation and by developing software which accepts input from many sources (e.g. mobile phone, digital still camera, video, screen-grab) allowing for the greatest range of participation. To ensure that uploads would not be from the usual places 12 foreign correspondents were commissioned (Brazil, Lebanon, Israel, Columbia, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Japan, China, Korea, Mexico,Thailand) whose role is to spread the word through their mailing lists and to organize the upload of scenes or shots that add up to a minimum of one minute in length. Man With A Movie Camera was selected because of Vertov’s intentions as a filmmaker to document daily activities. The film itself is a database of shots. Although it is structured around a day from sunrise to sunset that day is synthesized using footage from three different cities and interrupted by a second narrative which is the diary in the life of a cameraman (a worker). It is edited in anything but a linear fashion using techniques as sophisticated as today’s video editing softwares. There are no shots longer than 22 seconds making it very contemporary in rhythm. The intention of the project is to orchestrate a fluid work that invites participation, that continues to grow after it is launched, and that results in a database of personal perspectives where evidence of politics and history is filtered through the lens of individual rather than state philosophies– in Vertov’s terms “the decoding of life as it is”. It is intended for the web, for screening in public space, theatres, film festivals, museums, galleries. In creating the database version Vertov’s experiment enters the 21st century. Its original form and content pose interesting questions about the nature of documentary that are still relevant almost a century later. Project History One of my persistent concerns is the question of access, the digital divide, who is included, who is left out. I am particularly interested in public space as a venue. In 2000 I set up a screen in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal Building in New York to present The Terminal Salon, a portrait of the community done in collaboration with local residents who shot all the video. I considered that a local channel. When we were testing the projection passersby asked how they could be on the screen and I had no way to do that. While I was working on The Terminal Salon I was invited to participate in VideoArchaeology in Sofia. I decided to reshoot four minutes of Man With A Movie Camera in collaboration with a Bulgarian artist, Boyan Dobrev, who wanted to learn about video. Sofia in 1999 was in a transition and I thought the parallel could be interesting.The footage we shot as very much a copy of the original leading me to question the possibilities of the remake. Putting those two experiences together led to my current project Man With a Movie Camera:The Global Remake.

"Tweeting Colors" is webpage comprised of vertical color bars created by special tweets from Twitter users. Anyone can view the piece, but a Twitter user in the public timeline can add bars by following the simple directions linked to from the bottom of the page. The newest bars appear from the left. The page auto-refreshes a few times a minute, so sit back and enjoy the Color Feed. Thanks to Donovan Buck for the provided scripting. Created as part of a virtual residency with Glasstire.com.

The Image Mill is a public sculpture that uses the force and beauty of falling water as the energy to create a moving picture. The artwork merges an optical illusion that led to the invention of movies with one of the first power sources. By referencing the histories of cinema and industrialization, The Image Mill explores a possible future of environmentally responsible media—looking forward by looking back. One of the first movies created was a galloping horse and this piece also uses it as a metaphor for the region’s auto industry. The ‘horsepower’ that drove the Michigan industrial age is at a transition to a new age of alternative energy…the pony stumbles, but continues on. This theme was also revealed in the fabrication. Made by Michigan metal workers, the artwork proves that the skills of industrial-era tradesmen can be tapped as a valuable resource as the region considers new sustainable directions.

This is from a series of videogames simulating religious verbs.

Analog Environments by Mitch Trale is a web project that is part of the ongoing on-line exhibition Serial Chillers in Paradise curated by jstchillin (Caitlin Denny & Parker Ito). The following text is a responsive essay to and part of Analog Environments... i. Already Alongside. You are presented with an object of strength and you are suddenly falling amongst others. Your solitude has been disrupted and structure is no longer 'yours.' But you've always been falling you realize, only now you can feel the wind. A bush rustles; it's your coping. Practical activity stays so, it is absorbed by the object until you reflect on it. ii. Losing Oneself. I can no longer tell myself apart from others. My eventual techno-transcendence is all that keeps me going. Idle, detached, just looking into the void as it not only stares back at me but beyond me. My familiarity with the object, cyber-spatiality, is a familiarity with a world I become lost in. iii. Nothing. The one catches up with the several and chills - a pure beholding, a nihilistic pleasure. The hallucinatory search through the scraps and opacities results in a distance from themselves. An approximation had been made, but 'near' and 'far' have been defeated by 'here.' Reality hackers stumble over their own tangled wires. The spectacle of the many, this web, is spontaneously experienced as 'here' while the spectacles on my face remain nothing more than nearby. -Caitlin Denny