We are living in an age of excess and indifference, of prosthetic augmentation and extended operational systems. The dead, the near dead, the undead and the yet to be born are existing simultaneously. This is the age of the cadaver, the comatose and the chimera. The cadaver can now be preserved indefinitely with plastination. The comatose body can be sustained on a life-support system. Cryogenically suspended bodies await possible reanimation. Chimera is the body that performs with mixed realities. A biological body, augmented with technology and telematically performing with virtual systems. The chimera is an alternate embodiment.

the RHIZOME discussion list has had threads recently and in the past about "Epic Net Art" & whether there has been any net art that is EPIC.

I followed a few links and thought they were interesting projects - epic or not I can't comment.

Bruce Sterling's workshop - Designing Processes Rather Than Art on designing processes for generative art, which can be replicated by other people to produce the generative art work

generative nature - text by Marco Mancuso (in Italian)

Transcription of Lecture by David Ross, San Jose State University, March 2, 1999 - including Ross's 21 Distinctive Qualities of Net.Art

Announcing Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology Discussion Group on the Leonardo Education Forum (LEF)

Following the Synaesthesia Discussion on YASMIN Discussions List, during the month of February 2009, we wish to inform you that this discussion will continue on the Leonardo Education Forum on the topic of Synaesthesia, Art, Science & Technology.

To join the discussion, please register at: http://forum.lefnet.org/node/26

This Discussion Group invites comments on Synaesthesia, Art / Science topics as well as announcements on art projects, research and relevant events.

The LEF Synaesthesia Discussion Group is part of the Leonardo Synesthesia and Intersenses Special Project launched in 1999 by Jack Ox and Jacques Mandelbrojt (www.leonardo.info/isast/spec.projects/synesthesia/synesthesia.html) and is currently moderated by Veroniki Korakidou, PhD Candidate - Research Associate at the University of Athens NT Lab, Communication and Media Department.

continuing on from magic squares - video project? blog post - my summary of urls & excerpts to follow from the YASMIN Cybernetics Serendipity Redux discussion in 2008

:::

Nicolas Schoffer - one of the first artist to talk in public about Cybernetics and art. Nicolas Schoffer wikipedia page (english) -- via jnm - jean noel montagne

:::

from the work of Vladimir Bonacic, shown in Zagreb in 1968 "Vladimir Bonacic - the early works, Zagreb 1968-197" by darko fritz :

SCANZ 2009: Raranga tangata
The Weaving Together of People

Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) is the interCreate Research Centre's major project, a two week residency for artists, producers, writers, theorists and curators will be held in New Plymouth New Zealand from January 26th to February 8th 2009. Project partners are the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Puke Ariki integrated library and museum.

Raranga tangata refers to the weaving together of people, a phrase used to describe the internet and adopted by Sally Jane Norman and Sylvia Nagl in their work. The aim for SCANZ 2009 is to weave an enduring fabric of people and technology, located in this place: Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, Pacific Ocean.

Residency
January 26th–February 8th

Symposium
February 7th–8th

looking for digital arts, new media & urban research projects or exhibitions in mumbai - I'm only here for 2 weekends so might not make it to any festivals. here's some I found so far - some are past projects & some are not strictly mumbai based but I came across them whilst following links for mumbai related items

:::

Comet Media & COSMOS
a non profit group working in educational communication & new media. they have festivals, projects & publications
http://www.cometmedia.org
http://groups.google.com/group/cosmos_mumbai
upcoming events
aliak.com Comet & Cosmos page

:::

Digital artists - THE WEBMUSEUM CYBERCULTURE RESEARCH LIBRARY page
http://www.lastplace.com/page177.htm

:::

CRIT
http://crit.org.in

C a l l f o r A r t i s t s - Exploring Your Invisible Paradise! 30-10 till 02-11-2008

DEADLINE EXTENDED - Submit your work until 9th of June 2008

Take this opportunity to participate in the 2nd edition of Image Radio – a young festival for new ideas in digital culture, taking place in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

The festival is also an experiment, critical reflection, and preview of how new media in public space impact our cultural, social and physical surroundings. The increase of display devices, data clouds, sensor networks, particularly in urban centers, provides a new medium. Public space becomes a playground in which dynamic and manipulative data influence our perception. Potential applications are shown in experimental installations. Theory, discussion and exchange on these topics are facilitated in the seminar program and symposium.

On October 10-11 2008, Bilkent University Department of Communication and Design, in cooperation with the Institute of Network Cultures, will organise the 3rd Video Vortex event in Ankara, Turkey. Video Vortex 3 Ankara Edition will feature a two-day international conference, evening program, live performances and new media art exhibition.

Open Humanities Press is an international open access publishing collective in critical and cultural theory.

Open Humanities Press journals are fully peer reviewed, scholarly publications that have been chosen by OHP's editorial advisory board for their outstanding contribution to contemporary theory.

OHP's journals are independent, published under open access licences and free of charge to readers and authors alike.

A grassroots response to the crisis in scholarly publishing in the humanities, Open Humanities Press is an international open access publishing collective whose mission is to make leading works of contemporary critical thought freely available worldwide.

visit http://openhumanitiespress.org for more details and to see their included publications

LIVE FEEDING is a one-night occurrence of audio-visual performance and installation under the stars. The Old Melbourne Gaol exercise yard will become a site of convergence for local AV practitioners and merry makers. To kick the evening off, we would like to invite you to play with our overhead projectors, get acquainted over drinks and enjoy a BBQ until the sun sets, when the performance and installation programs will come to life! Artists: Philip Samartzis + Marcia Jane; Rosalind Hall + Marco Cher-Gibard; Helmet Head (Anthony Magen + Rod Cooper); Xenosine AV; Marden; Christina Tester; Melody Henderson; Idora Alhabshi, Lisa Shingles. Proceedings begin: Wednesday 5 March 2008 at 7pm

I can't stop buying books. I really need to but just haven't been able to manage it. I forgot to bring my library card to Auckland and Parsons Books was having a sale so I couldn't resist. last time I bought a book there it cost $150 - this time I bought 4 books for less than $150 so, at least I'm getting better value for money now. I'll probably be hit with excess baggage costs though...

Nam June Paik: Global Groove 2004
- this is a great collection of Nam June Paik's works and writings and includes some letters to John Cage.

did I mention that Brisbane's new GOMA - Gallery of Modern Art, has one of his video pieces "TV Cello" on display.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/namjunepaik/

---

Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud

- I haven't started this one properly yet, but it looks like it'll be an interesting essay. it's based on a collection of editorial entries from "Documents sur l'Art" magazine that were first published in 1992.

amazon.com book page

---

"How to look at a painting" by Justin Paton

- Justin Paton is speaking at the upcoming Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, and he's a NZ author so I thought I'd give it a try. I haven't started it yet though.

amazon.com page

---

Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture (Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice) by Geert Lovink
- I've read many of Geert Lovink's writings on various maillists and website publications such as Sarai Reader so I thought I'd take a read of his book on Internet Culture.

amazon.com book page

---

The Bone People by Keri Hume
- this wasn't from Parsons but I bought it last time I left Auckland and read most on the plane back to Sydney then finished it whilst I was there. amazing characters - they haunt you for a while afterwards. I still think of them now and then. a really simple story, about the lives of a couple of families in NZ. Keri Hume won the Booker Prize for this book in the early 90s and since I tend to enjoy reading Booker Prize winning books I thought I'd try an earlier one as I've mostly only read more recent winning titles. well worth the read!

amazon.com book page (though my copy has a different cover image so is probably a different edition)

---

this one's a magazine, but it was priced like a book and has been capturing my attention as much as a book, so..

Archis VOLUME magazine - Issue 2006 # 4
- it's an architecture magazine but includes articles about projects & urban issues from around the world as well as upcoming conferences and calls for works / request for comments about certain global issues.

http://www.archis.org/

http://www.c-lab.columbia.edu/

amazon page

Workshop @ Sarai: FLOSS Fellowships Final Presentations

Translocations 1: New media practices in the urban context

17th and 24th November 2006,Seminar Room, Sarai-CSDS

Facilitated by Tapio Makela, researcher and artist in residence at Sarai

This workshop looks at new media practices in urban contexts.

The introductory session will take place at SARAI/CSDS seminar room on Friday, November 17th 11.00-13.00/14.00-16.00.

Second session on November 24th, same time.

http://www.sarai.net

Workshop @ Sarai: FLOSS Fellowships Final Presentations

Translocations 1: New media practices in the urban context

17th and 24th November 2006,Seminar Room, Sarai-CSDS

Facilitated by Tapio Makela, researcher and artist in residence at Sarai

This workshop looks at new media practices in urban contexts.

The introductory session will take place at SARAI/CSDS seminar room on Friday, November 17th 11.00-13.00/14.00-16.00.

Second session on November 24th, same time.

http://www.sarai.net

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

slideshow video of photos taken during the 2003 This is Not Art and Electrofringe festivals in Newcastle, Australia 01-06 October 2003

http://www.thisisnotart.org has info about this year's festival

http://www.massarcade.com/electrofringe has the 2003 electrofringe website - you can find the program on this site

http://flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/tina2003/ has photos of the event

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

music is Indian Summer by Big Bud

I went along to the Sarai Independent Fellows 2006 workshops last weekend (26-27/08) @ Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi. I missed the first two days sessions, but here is a slideshow video of some of the saturday & sunday sessions. it was really interesting - both the presentations and the discussions afterwards. some sessions were in Hindi so I couldn't follow as easily. there were a wide range of projects though - art, music, urban issues. hopefully they'll link to some of the full papers on the sarai.net website. it was a great way to get another insight into life and goings on in India and related places.

photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/saraiifellows2006

http://ifellows2006.wordpress.com

http://www.sarai.net

PixelPress' intent is to encourage documentary photographers, writers, filmmakers, artists, human rights workers and students to explore the world in ways that take advantage of the new possibilities provided by digital media. They seek a new paradigm of journalism, one that encourages an active dialogue between the author and reader and, also, the subject.

CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) is a group of architects, scholars, technicians and artists who have worked together over the past seven years in Mumbai. Their collective was established in early 2003 with the aim of undertaking research, pedagogy and intervention on urban spaces and contemporary cultural practices in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. CRIT regards this vast urban realm as its laboratory and terrain for articulating a critical urbanism. Our understanding of urbanism is based on the recognition that everyday exchange between disciplines and across sectors is the basic condition of metropolitan environments, and that collective research is essential to transforming urban spaces and civic life.

originally posted on Stealth board - New Zealand thread @ http://www.stealthmag.com/board/viewthread.php?tid=3418

ok, these links aren't all strictly hip hop, but some of the galleries do show some graf, and if you're visiting NZ/Auckland, it's worth checking them out.

in the galleries, there's usually an "Artwalk K Road" brochure created by the K Road Business Association - this is where all these links & descriptions come from. (typos & errors below are mine)

K Road = Karangahape Road, I'll use the abbreviation to save more typos

Nigah was created in 2003 when a group of Delhi-based people got together to articulate diverse understandings of politics and social activism, and of issues around gender and sexuality. It has since evolved into an attempt to use different forms of media to initiate discussions around issues of gender and sexuality, replacing the silence around these issues with progressive and inclusive debate.

turbulance has been commissioning net art projects since 1996. the website contains documentation and information about upcoming and past projects. visit http://turbulence.org/ for more details

CeC & CaC is The Carnival of e-Creativity & Change-agents Conclave - the first in a series of public events deploying an exploratory and widely-inclusive canvas of participation & content from India and the world. The forum aims to address the Creative Empowerment of Individuals by the burgeoning spread of Technology across multiple streams of Creative Human Endeavour. visit http://www.theaea.org/cec_cac for more details

Finding my old bookmark files has made me nostalgic for the early computing days when everything was new and exciting and full of possibilities. One of my favourite magazines back in the early 90s was Mondo 2000. It was hard to get - only a few places in Brisbane stocked it, actually only two that I recall and even then it was occasional. By the time I got round to subscribing to the magazine it had finished being published and I lost my subscription renewal to the cause so to speak. At the time, it was cutting edge and the full gloss images and interviews with leading thinkers made it a great read. R.U. Sirius who was the editor of the mag has a podcast these days and can be found around mondoglobo.net. Here's a collection of links to mondo 2000 stuff:

mondo articles from the well (link updated : original link broken 25/09/2008 : http://www.well.com:70/1/Publications/MONDO )

click on the image to goto the video player page

I've been spending the Christmas break learning more about interactive quicktime, max/msp and isadora for creating music and video and publishing them on the net. Below is the first piece I've created. I went a bit overboard on the effects in Isadora but it's an original piece and I learnt from it so I'm happy with it overall from a learning experience point of view.

How I created it:
- first I took videos with my dvd camera
- then I used DVDx to convert the .vob files to mpeg2 files which quicktime could open. when I installed winamp a couple of weeks ago, I noticed it can display video now also, though strangely, sometimes the winamp videos were upside down whilst they played correctly orientated in quicktime. (perhaps I used strange setting whilst encoding?)
- then I imported the video into isadora, and patched up a storm whilst trying out some of the effects
- I can only save 5sec clips from isadora as I'm using the trial version whilst I work out if I'll use it regularly in future. I'm hoping to learn how to do similar tasks in jitter (max component) as I'll have more control of what I'm doing, even though it's very quick and easy to get things done in isadora without having to know the code. still yet to decide on this.
- once I had the processed video clips, I opened them in quicktime again and joined them together - hence the rough edits
- then I made a couple of text tracks in quicktime and added these in. I tried out the eZediaQTI app whilst learning about the text tracks but decided on doing them manually in quicktime and editing the controls with notepad.
- next, I opened the gps data music patch I made in max/msp and ran it with the soundwalk recordings I made the other week whilst at Mission Beach in Auckland. unfortunately, the mic was picking up a lot of noise from the wind blowing past the mic pickup so there's a lot of distortion. I filtered some of this out in audacity and flattened the audio into one track.
- then I added the audio track to the video with text quicktime movie
- then uploaded the finished piece to archive.org using ourmedia and viewed source on the movie's ourmedia page & copied the quicktime player code here

well, I'm sure there's a quicker way of doing it! which requires less processing and time, but this was an exercise in creating an original piece from start to finish. as you can tell, I'm not a designer or very good programmer either, but I'm happy to finish number one. here's hoping the subsequent efforts will improve and be done more efficiently. I could have used the original unprocessed videos but they seemed a little plain. need to find the right balance I guess..

here's a screen shot of the isadora patch:

In September / October 2005, the Banff Centre hosted the recent REFRESH! conference, The First International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology. "Refresh! discussed questions of historiography, methodology and the role of institutions of media art. The conference contained key debates about the function of inventions, artistic practice in collaborative networks, the prominent role of sound during the last decades, and emphasized the importance of intercultural and pop culture themes in the Histories of Media Art. Readings of new media art histories vary richly depending on cultural contexts. This event called upon scholarship from a strongly international perspective. Refresh! represented and addressed the wide array of disciplines involved in the emerging field of Media Art. Beside Art History these included the Histories of Sciences and Technologies, Film-, Sound-, Media-, Visual-, and Theatre Studies, Architecture, and Visual Psychology, just to name a few." If you missed the face-to-face conference, visit the website to listen to the recorded sessions. http://www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/programs/archives/2005/refresh/lisiten.asp

I've started reading the Interactive Convergence : Critical Issues in Multimedia e-book and so far it's providing some more useful names of other books/reports to chase up. The first chapter is about the different new media university courses in the UK. pasting snippets here as I come across things to follow up or ideas to think about.

Chapter 1
Locating Interactive Media Production

(page 2)

This paragraph has an interesting point.. there's not many books or published educational materials for teaching 'new media' - I suppose the plethora of academic papers are not used for this purpose??

(page 9-10)