Curated by Eric Dymond
Opened on Feb 08, 2007

in the new theatre of DIY slanderous offers hope for the oppressed, a way out for the circumscribed, a knowlede base for the downtrodden.

Slanderous dot org
By Eric Dymond
What can we say, it's all about truth in New Media.

About the curator

Eric Dymond is an artist who works with many tools and programming languages.

Curated by Luc Delannoy
Opened on Feb 06, 2007

From sounds to neurons, and back

The Party at the Center of the Universe
By Pall Thayer

Soda Lake Drawings
By Christina McPhee

Mote: Artificial Life
By Joseph Bowers

Performances with electroacoustic Clothes
By Benoit Maubrey

About the curator

Philosopher researching mirror neurons, their relation with virtual music, the post-human (a-)condition and consciousness - among other things.
www.concienciamusical.blogspot.com

Curated by Jeremy Turner
Opened on Nov 14, 2006

Welcome to Roland Quagmire III's cyberspace curatorial and blog.

Roland Quagmire III Presents
By Jeremy Turner
Roland Quagmire III is an avatar aristocrat in Cyberspace. He currently has an avatar artist-in-residence named Irwin ZiiZ ZW. Quagmire curates artists from around the globe and works within the Moove/Roomancer avatar community.

About the curator

Jeremy Owen Turner [b. 1974, Victoria, B.C. - Canada] has been a Rhizome member on and off since 2002 (a paying member since 2004). He works as a Digital Archivist, Art-Historian, Avatar Performance Artist and Net Researcher. His degree from the University of Victoria was in Art-History and Music Composition.

As "Wirxli FlimFlam", Turner has just co-formed a new avatar performance art group in Second Life called Second Front - http://www.slfront.blogspot.com

He has completed a contract about Telecommunications Art-History (the Slow-Scan TV Video-conferencing art-scene) on behalf of the Open Space Arts Society in Victoria, Canada.
http://www.openspace.ca/outerspace

He is also an interdisciplinary artist, writer , composer and curator. He is a Co-Founder of the 536 Media Collective in Vancouver. On behalf of 536, Turner worked with the iKatun Collective (Boston) and Jessica Loseby (U.K.) to form the Digital Pocket Gallery.
http://www.ikatun.com/digitalpocketgallery/

In addition, he is a Co-Producer of the very first Machinima Documentary, "AVATARA". The other Producers are Donato Mancini and Flick Harrison.
http://members.shaw.ca/flickharrison/avatara/


To date, he has conducted interviews , posted blogs and written articles about innovations in New Media for: C-Theory, Shift, Intelligent Agent, Nanodot.org (Foresight Institute), Eyebeam.org, Eventcasters (AOL Canada), Extropy, Rhizome, Offbeat and Front Magazine.

He is on the Board of Editors for the Digital Salvage Online Journal hosted by Trace Reddel at the University of Denver, Colorado.

He occasionally lectures about Digital Aesthetics and Net-Art strategies at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

His current interests include Avatars, Bots, and Nanotechnology.

Jeremy lives and works in Vancouver.
Please click the resume link to view his outdated CV.

Also, if you like cutting-edge Avatar bands, check out The Gates and The Hotmails http://www.techworlds.org/thegates.htm
http://www.thehotmails.com

His main art blogs are:
http://www.wirxliflimflam.blogspot.com

http://www.ontodistro.blogspot.com

http://www.rolandquagmire.blogspot.com

http://www.voiceoffire.blogspot.com

http://www.fafftopia.blogspot.com

http://www.irwinziizzw.blogspot.com

Also, he has an additional profile and video on the Saatchi Gallery website: http://video.saatchigallery.com/artist/profile/11301/Jeremy+O+Turner/JeremyOTurner.html

E-mail: jerturner536@yahoo.ca - ideatron@gmail.com

Curated by bob sweeny
Opened on Nov 13, 2006

what are current (actual and potential) new media pedagogies? if 'new,' aren't new forms of critique and creative methodologies required? where are these pedagogies being practiced? the atelier? the Department of Computer Generated Imagery? the Sprint store? do these varied practices fall under Peter Lunenfeld's notion of a 'hyperaesthetics'? should they even be considered aesthetic, with all of the modernist baggage attached to the term? this 'exhibit' is loosely defined by networked artworks that point to intriguing pedagogical possibilities. each work will be studied in a course that i am currently teaching -- ARED 281: Art Education and Visual Culture -- at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. responses to these works will come in the form of new works created by students, which they will add to the network. new networks (newtworks?) this is *rhizome*, for pete's sake.

To Be Listened To...
By MTAA
podcasts, kids! you know, your favorite disembodied voice available at your convenience. ADAM CURRY! RUSH LIMBAUGH! JANET CARDIFF! (well...) just look at that bitchin' ed ruscha print. how about recording your gasps and sputters for the listening pleasure of your students? doesn't that bring the art experience home?

SwarmSketch
By
the doodles left behind on classroom desk/chair units are sometimes the most fascinating remnants of the educational process. is this the global version of 'kilroy was here?' is it even global? (hint:nope)wonderful pie charts documenting the percentage of participation worldwide... come on myanmar!

Avatar Body Collision
By Helen Varley Jamieson
... easy as 1.2.3? don't know. the pieces sound wonderfully complicated. i love the idea of being able to participate in the practice sessions ( 'palace' link...) adding to the complexity... AND, a link for 'teaching'. hm.

GPS Drawing
By jeremy wood
get out there and walk around people... socrates didn't need to hide behind a damn podium (though a 'smart' podium might have forced him to pause for a bit... at least until the projector bulb warmed up).

Everything I Do is Art, But Nothing I Do Makes Any Difference
By chris reilly
ok... not networked, interactive, etc., but pretty clever. the relationship between collaboration and competition should be looked at more closely as a pedagogical strategy for networked artistic practices. please do so. now.

The Intruder
By Natalie Bookchin
a classic. ... built from classics. a metaclassic!a 'game' that problematizes the relationship between narrative and gameplay (ludic theory, anyone...) and the boss for level seven is frightening! i would love to hear bookchin discuss her theories on pedagogy and new media, as she is co-director of photography and new media at cal arts.

Data Diaries
By Cory Arcangel
something about duchamp should probably be said at this juncture... but can't you always namedrop certain folks?? sit back, turn up the volume, and experience seizures like back when pokemon was keepin' it street.

Curated by Jim Nightshade
Opened on Nov 06, 2006

Location is an integral problem (or inspiration) to all art. An installation piece, for example, is often very dependant upon its location to establish its effect. A piece of artwork hanging in a museum is contextualized by that setting, given, in this case, such things as credibility. The experience of viewing art is also changed by the location of other things relative to it—in the museum example, the other artworks hanging next to the piece. Furthermore, an artistic experience is greatly changed by our own location relative to it: we view a painting from several angles, we walk around a sculpture to take in its three-dimensional quality, we navigate through an interactive new media piece my changing the location of our mouse on the screen. Location is fundamentally about space, but when applied to the New Media art works of this exhibit, that spatial quality can mean many things. Some artworks concern themselves with specific locations or landscapes, others do not. In some artworks, the location of the art is irrelevant or nonexistent, and the theme of location is instead physically manifest within the piece: location of elements of the piece on the screen itself, location of the elements in relation in one another or in relation to you, the world, or something else. Pieces about location raise questions like, where am I? How do I find my way? The works of this exhibit, though diverse in their interpretation of the location theme, are connected by these ideas of spatial relevance. Furthermore, by placing them together within the location of this exhibit, I have created a new context and space by which they can be viewed, and thus created a new experience of the works themselves.

about: Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin
By Markus Kleine-Vehn

Nebula001
By Russell Richards

Aerial Auto-Surveillance
By Daniel Goodwin

]and_scape[
By Wilfried Agricola de Cologne

AMPHORA / NUDE STUDY
By Tamas Waliczky

Sur-terre.net
By Gregory Chatonsky

the interactive corn
By Martin Bonadeo

The MARS PATENT
By MARS PATENT

The Journey
By EBnefsi

Talking About the Weather
By maria miranda

Weather Gauge
By Jon Thomson

Curated by Harrison
Opened on Oct 30, 2006

Historically, surveillance has been used as a tool to control large amounts of people. The more information one can gather about their subject the larger their advantage is. Even the Greeks and Romans used on-foot military scouts to learn more about the number of the enemy’s troops or the weapons they would be using; they worked to secretly gather this information or risk death. Besides military intelligence, government institutions like prisons and hospitals used surveillance to control their subjects. The design of the Panopticon in 1791 by Jeremy Bentham was a major step in surveillance because it created the feeling amongst the subjects of a constant gaze or that they are always being watched. This constant sense of being watched has gone from specific institutions to general society since video and film cameras have become so practical and widely used. Since Trafalgar Square in 1960, when two temporary cameras were used to monitor crowds during the arrival of the Thai royal family, governments and large private companies have used video cameras to monitor crowds and places prone to criminal abuse. As time passed, people began to recognize the effectiveness and usefulness of video surveillance and cameras became cheaper and more practical. These two factors combined and large amounts of home-surveillance equipment and self-defensive technologies have ended up in the hands of middle-class and lower-class America. This has created a panoptic version of society. Not only does the average citizen have to worry about being taped in government buildings or large businesses, but also people have been recorded by cameras found in private homes, small shops, cars and even people’s phones. In America and all over the world, people and government officials roam the streets with the knowledge that any person could photograph them at any time without them knowing it. So what does the future hold? The government has been using surveillance for years to prosecute criminals; Hasan Elahi has been using self-surveillance to ensure that he is never falsely accused again. Will other people follow this trend of self-surveillance? Will we live in a society where being recorded is not only something that happens occasionally, rather something that we ensure is happening constantly? Only time will tell. All of the exhibits in this collection are examples of technology enabling people to use surveillance for their own purpose.

Cricket Activated Defense System
By Tactical Magic
The Cricket Activated Defense System (or CADS) is a system implemented by the Center for Tactical Magic. It uses the natural reaction of the local cricket population to protect the forest environment in which they live. This forest in Northern California is in constant danger from illegal logging and the citizens decided to implement a self-defense surveillance system in the last place people would think to find one.

Police Surveillance
By David Jackson
This work, by David Jackson, does not implement any technologies advanced beyond the camera, however it does focus on the importance of reflexivity in today's concept of surveillance. His photography of the police station and the local police activity yielded the basic activity that one would expect from the police and nothing shocking, however the important thing is that it could have. Since the 1991 beating of Rodney King was caught on tape, there have been large movements in urban areas to try and uncover corrupt or racist police officers and government officials. This is another example that shows nobody is safe from surveillance in our postmodern culture.

Traces of Fire
By ed lear
Traces of Fire is an experiment by Ed Lear and Volkmar Klien for Urban Habitat Research where they would spend a few days in various cities tracing the paths of complete strangers. They did this by going out at night and drinking and socializing at different bars or nightclubs and leaving a lighter or two behind when they left. These lighters were equipped with mini transmitters and each one with its own ID. The next day they spend hours tracking these lighters and summerizing the places they went to each day. This experment further emphasizes the fact that anybody's actions can be monitored at any time. Although Klien and Lear used their experiment for research, technology like this can be used for countless other surveillance projects.

open-loop.org
By Tiffany Holmes
Open-loop.org is a website that documents the public and private surveillance tools found in Chicago's downtown area. The viewer can access different types of cameras which are listed as different letters and the locations of the cameras placed on a grid meant to represent the city. The user can also see examples of the views that these cameras have. This website questions the authority of these security devices and emphasizes the point that since surveillance is everywhere, there is no reason to keep it a secret.

iSee
By John Henry
iSee in an application created by the Institute of Applied Autonomy that allows users to access locations of security cameras in New York City over their wireless phones or PDFs. This uses the same basic concept as open-loop.org but it takes it to the next technological level. While driving, a person with iSee installed on their wireless device can see exact locations of security cameras around the city as well as add new locations to the interactive map.

Curated by Michael Dupuis
Opened on Oct 29, 2006

With the advent of PACs (Political Action Committees), 527 groups, and other political advocacy organizations in American politics in the mid-1970s, the concept of “political action” has changed significantly. What was once a term stereotypically associated with naive public protestors on hunger strikes or rogue Greenpeace operatives scaling skyscrapers has become something conservative and institutionalized into the very corporate politics it once addressed.

Discussions within the right and within the left have been “resolved” and refined, then disseminated through the most widely consumed media: newsprint, radio, and television. The brevity of their positions on the issues and the black and white nature with which they characterize either themselves or their opponents may be attributed to the cost of articulation (30 seconds of air time, 1 page of newsprint), or the attention deficient constituent. Either way, the voter is not allowed to reason, as the argument for each side is not thoughtfully presented.

The works in this exhibit do not better represent the positions of contention. They do, however, reconsider political action in the context of a new medium. New media artists have used the less restrictive space of the Internet to return to an older definition of political action. Whereas movies, music, television, and other forms of mainstream communication require huge capital investments to make one’s voice heard, access on the worldwide web demands substantially less funding. The web is also a more neutral medium; a webpage creator is not limited by the political affiliation of his hosting server as a chief editor at a newspaper may be by the paper’s owner.

So long as the contemporary powers of “political action” cannot infiltrate the largely decentralized structure of the worldwide web, new media holds immense potential for the advancement of the public discourse and art of a political nature. In this way, one can think of the mainstream media as the primary vehicle for contemporary “political action” (PACs, 527s, etc.) and new media as a voice for an old style of political activism. This exhibit hopes to present and comment on such new media works in the scope of political action. The following works either embody the notion of political action/activism themselves, or address political action from an outsider’s perspective.

GLOBAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
By Kenneth Hung
The website Global Presidential Election, by Kenneth Hung and Tim Blue, addresses the effects of globalization and the formation of a single, exploitive World Market. It does so using satirical images and writing that lead the viewer to reconsider the integrity of the primary tool of political action in American democracy—the vote. “In America, individual choice is a supreme value;” the site’s homepage states, “this is why we bring to you some of the most extreme individual candidates for a global empire.” By selecting the Candidates link in the top menu, the viewer can peruse the potential candidates for the Global Presidential position. George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (the leading vote-getter at this time) are among the thirteen eligible candidates, or one may submit a “write-in candidate” if none of those listed satisfies. Additionally, sections of the website such as Voter Bill of Rights, Global Citizenship, and Your Government enforce the notion that a single market is emerging, that it affects individuals around the world in detrimental ways, and that it is being marketed as something noble and laudable representing progress. In the section Register to Vote, the visitor finds that those who will be allowed to vote for the world leader must meet financial and social requirements. This portion of the work serves as a comment on the anti-democratic aspects of American government by making the connection between capital and government more explicit. Finally, the images used on the website serve to legitimate the written portions, as the site has a layout and design which is as aesthetically appealing as many .gov websites. This characteristic of the work serves the corporate rhetoric of the site especially well, as the absurdity of many claims feel validated by the integrity of the framework—the website. Global Presidential Election seeks to undermine the classic American form of political action—voting—by expressing the corporate and capital-driven interests contemporary, elected governments serve.

Demo
By Davis & Davis
The political act of voting comes up in numerous works of this exhibition. In their work Demo, Davis and Davis address the contentious issue of voter fraud, making specific references to the relationship between Diebold (the primary producer of electronic voting machines in the 2004 presidential election) and the Republican Party (embodied in political strategist Karl Rove). The professionalism of the work increases its believability; an email from walden@diebold.com to karl.rove@whitehouse.gov appears just as it might in the reading pane of Microsoft Outlook with “to,” “subject,” “from,” “date,” and “priority” fields, and outdated, pixilated graphics that one might expect to find in a government publication from the 1980s. Overly complex voting instructions on the website mock the convoluted voting process in the US and hearken back to the disputed presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Rather than simulating the experience of voting, the work strives to recreate the frustration that a voter from Ohio may have felt as a result of using the electronic voting machines in 2004. The emotion of the failed political action, rather than the action itself, is what matters in Demo.

Experimental Party
By Randall Packer
The work Experimental Party, by Randall Packer centers on the website of what is claimed to be a nationally recognized political party, experimentalparty.org. The Party of Experimentation proclaims to be the party of the artist: “We believe the artist is indispensable in the shaping and analysis and understanding of the life of forms and structures brought about by digital means in our increasingly technological culture.” Much of the information on the website deals with the 2004 Presidential election (the last update in the On the Move section is for November 2nd) including a sidebar ad: “Abe Golam / President ’04.” The lower section of the main content area has blog-like entries focusing on “National Insecurity,” “Corporate Control of Media,” and “The Future of Democracy.” Each article opens in a new page and contains roughly 275 words on the respective subject. Because the artist has not made a concerted effort to make the work appear like a traditional political party website, the site itself is emblematic of the party’s politics. Concern for the professionalism of the website has been disregarded and the work strives for an appearance that is, like the party, grassroots-oriented. Content on the website itself is sparse, with much of the political rhetoric repeating throughout, numerous grammar and spelling errors, and many links connecting to a few other websites affiliated with Packer, such as http://usdat.us (US Department of Art and Technology). While the work claims to be “a place where people gather to explore shifting paradigms,” the activity available to the viewer is not particularly interactive; joining the Experimental Party itself appears to be the extent of proactive exploration offered by the work, and in this way, Experimental Party, may be thought of more as an element of political activity for the artist or creator of the website, rather than for the viewer.

the "Over My Dead Body" project
By Joseph Rabie
“The objective is to create a massive virtual constituency. Those people who participate in the virtual demonstration will, via their presence, become aware of their status as associates within the course of events,” states the Over My Dead Body Project’s manifesto. Thumbnail-size images of the project’s members scroll across the screen with a map of the world as the background. This piece both addresses political action and provides the viewer with an opportunity to “participate” in political action. The work itself offers a new conception of political action as well as social networking: just how cohesive are the bonds we form online? Are they strong enough only to make us check our friends’ online profiles out of curiosity each day? Or are they strong enough to invoke coherent unity off-line? An individual can test the strength of his or her affiliations by joining the website and having their face, name, and location added to the sea of others. The work does not serve as a tool for organization of political action, but as the end result itself—a union of individuals with a cause. Yet, the cause for the Over My Dead Body Project is so broadly defined and so little effort goes into “joining” the website that the value of such a union comes into question. “Tomorrow is ours to claim” the work boldly professes in staunch, red lettering at the top of the homepage; but without any call to action or direction, the viewer learns nothing and has nowhere to proceed. This reduces the work to empty words hidden by lofty rhetoric—the modern rant of a politician.

[V]ote-auction
By HANS BERNHARD
With roughly half of all eligible voters in the United States choosing not to vote each presidential election, one should not be surprised that a group of individuals (Ubermorgen and J. Baumgartner) have devised a method for taking such a large inefficiency and exploiting it for profit. In [V]ote Auction, individuals from each state sell their vote to whomever will pay the most for it: “The winning bidder for each state will be able to choose who the group will vote for en masse. The free market will determine the value of the votes in each state.” The work claims that it is the perfect synthesis of the American ideals of democracy and capitalism, and goes so far as to cite a Supreme Court ruling equating the spending of money with the unalienable right to free speech (Buckley v. Valeo, 1976)—suggesting that the work is Constitutional. The site not only exploits the shortcomings of modern electoral methods, but it asserts that there is an inherent rift between democracy and capitalism, as the latter undermines the former. However, its greatest feat might be found in its indirect movement of money from contributors to political organizations to the more direct method of transferring money from contributors to voters. In this way, removing funding from the established controllers of politics (PACs, political parties, 527 groups) undermines the current hierarchy of political power, while retaining the democratic infrastructure.

Curated by CAITLIN.
Opened on Oct 29, 2006

Identity is divided into two categories: 1. Individual identity and 2. the concept of identity. We search for both. In order to unravel either most people assume the only way to so is to deconstruct what they know about themselves and place it in front of them. It's an extremely analytical way of finding an intangible 'truth'. But what has happened is that identity is now only defined by the search, rather than the entity itself. Thus, many times when an artist attempts to represent identity in any sort of philosophical way, they can only fragment it further and hope to touch upon some fundamental truth that might not even exist. So what are we looking for? This is a collection of five artists who have deconstructed their own identity and/or the concept of it. Some of this work was intentionally fragmented, but a lot of it was not, displaying the fact that humans are trapped in their own notions of themselves. Although these works are all well-executed, and some are extremely telling, it is debatable whether they have actually discovered or represented anything real or not. Can identity be represented? If so, is this the best way to do it? Or does it serve to superficialize and externalize something that should be immaterial and internal?

Interpreted, Obscured and Sought
By Bill Hendricks
Interpreted, Obscured and Sought is a set of "thirty short clips strung together in looping projections on opposite walls of the gallery." Now, however, they are simply played next to one another on the webpage. The two videos, one of a male and one of a female, are both set against a flat black backdrop. The male begins by throwing a 3D white Jewish star to the woman. She catches a Jesus fish of similar qualities and throws it back. This does not change. The video continues in the same manner with the exchange of the following "symbols": a book, a piece of toast, a plus sign, a house, pac man, a hand, a swastika, glasses, a shoe, an eagle, and a star. Sometimes the symbols that one receives is the same as what was thrown, but often not. The concept is distinctly different when the clips are viewed next to each other, not looping, but the effect is similar. The symbols/signs can be interpreted and emphasized in a number of ways. This, says Bill Hendricks, allows us "to create and define the norm and who we are as individuals and as a group." Thus, this artwork symbolically fragments the identity, by dividing up the concept-- and these two individual identities-- into visual representations of the way one thinks. These symbols represent things that exist inside of them, things that are important to them. It does not represent identity as a whole, because identity is not composed entirely of symbols. In his interpretation of identity he has stripped it down to what he considers the 'essentials'. Although he leaves out some major components of the concept, he does this intentionally, and it is an effective and fresh way of dealing with identity because it highlights what is probably the most important and most overlooked part of the self. Any anthropologist can tell you that one of the major elements that distinguishes humans from animals is in their interpretation and translation of concepts and words into symbols. This allows us to think about the world in more expansive terms. Hendricks has presented this with elegance and minimalism.

NanoDramas :: Identity Pills
By Rodrigo De Toledo
Whereas most other artists deconstruct their own identity, or at least someone's identity, Rodrigo De Toledo fragments the concept of identity itself, and the concept alone. His work of art consists of a webpage with seven 'pills'. Each pill has a different name and is accompanied by a block of text (story or poem) and exterior package design. Next to the package lies the option "Acquire Designed Memories". This link takes you to a page of eight photographs that have some relation to the title of the pill. De Toledo has designed this website in a catchy and commercialized manner, as if it is a real business selling a real product. This is clearly a comment on the media and its influence on the conception of self. The concept of identity has become a common subject of pop culture exploration, in books, movies, and music. "I want to find myself" is thrown around often and many times without true meaning or comprehension. This work displays not only that concept but also "the idea of constructing one’s identity based on the acquisition of images and pre-formulated models of being, resulting on an increased lack of self-understanding." This is ironic and somewhat sarcastic, because one truly gains little from reading the nonsensical stories and viewing the photographs without real content. He has fragmented the concept of identity into two distinct elements: the acquisition of images (photos) and the acquisition of pre-formulated models of being (text). The comment in itself is effective because it makes the viewer highly aware of the commercialized nature of identity, and how the viewer has probably 'bought into' the media definition of identity, which consists of these two elements. However, this website might have been more effective if the concept behind each pill was easier to digest by a mainstream audience. Although NanoDramas is supposed to be marketing a product, it does so in a distinctly artistic manner. Thus, it can never be mistaken for what it claims to be. Perhaps this is intentional-- the artist wants to make sure the art aspect of the work remains obvious-- but it undercuts the point. If he either designed the website with stories that read like real memories and photographs that are concrete and recognizable (i.e. Facebook style), or actually marketed this product and sold it over the web, the art would have been more effective. He has gone part of the way but has stopped where he could have made a true statement. He has let art aestheticism get in the way of the message.

Aural Masturbation
By Marientina Gotsis
This artist has done something unintentional and fascinating. Marientina Gotsis is the one of two artists in this exhibit that did not claim to do a work that is related to identity. And yet, it clearly is. It is not only about her own identity but the identity of the Web and the Internet. The website opens with a long monologue explaining the concept behind the artwork in a vague manner. It begins with this: "I think and I see and I hear. I sometimes watch and listen. I surf. Therefore I am. The Internet is the greatest source of pollution humankind has ever known. Every Joe Schmoe has their own web site. My name is Jane Schmoe. This is my website. Welcome to my collection of sound garbage. Together they form the most beautiful music you have ever heard." She introduces herself as Jane Schmoe, implying that her true identity does not matter because everyone is on the web and most of those people don't operate using their real identities anyway. There is a link at the bottom of the opening page that reads "AURAL MASTURBATION. Don't deny that you enjoy it. Don't deny that you do it. Just enjoy it!" The last 'it' is a link and when one clicks on it, it takes the viewer to a page with a bright solid color background and a number of little sound clips dispersed throughout the page in a random and chaotic manner. The unaesthetic design of the website reflects the chaos in the sound itself (sounds from the Internet playing on top of each other in a loop). She has deliberately represented the internet by aurally fragmenting its identity, because the only representation of the internet is in the .wav files she has provided. But in displaying the identity of the internet aurally, she has also in turn commented on the identity of Internet users. These .wav files are from websites created by individuals. In combination, she says they create beautiful music, but it is clear that they create a harsh collection of noise. Thus, the identity and purpose of the individual on the web gets lost in this overwhelming amount of noise and information. The website has eight different interfaces displaying the same sound garbage concept, but in different visual and aural arrangements. I can not judge whether this was an effective way of displaying identity because it was unintentional. However, it is included because it is the only work of art to study identity through the study of something else (the Internet). It does this well because the identity of the individuals is garbled up in a big mass, effectively displaying what has become of identity in the modern age of information technology. It is important to realize that she is not necessarily presenting this in a negative manner, however. Although she could easily be sending an ironic message, she seems to think that the outcome of the individual hoards of sound is positive and beautiful.

Shop Mandiberg
By Michael Mandiberg
Shop Mandiberg is a website that (at one time) sold all of Michael Mandiberg's personal material possessions. It only actually operated for a year and has been closed for close to five now, but his items are still available for browsing. He has divided his possessions into five categories: consumer products, clothes, personal effects, home furnishings, and consumables. Within each category there are subcategories, the most interesting being under Personal Effects (letters and journals, financial, identification, intimate, art, and miscellaneous). The website is easy to browse through and the meaning is relatively self-explanatory. He is representing, and also deconstructing, his identity by putting his entire collection of personal possessions up for sale on the internet. Thus, his material goods represent himself. In the description of the work it reads: "This collection of objects forms our 'unique' visual identity. By selling these objects Michael Mandiberg aims to disintegrate himself." This concept of disintegration is a theme in many works of fragmented identity because it is a common outcome of the fragmentation (see below). His identity has been divided into categories, subcategories, and ultimately into each item itself. These items have been purchased and sent all over the globe, thus 'disintegrating' Mandiberg. However, we have no idea whether he truly put all of this personal possessions up on internet although it is probably safe to assume he did. And it is important to recognize that Mandiberg did not destroy all of his possessions but rather allowed them to become dispersed. If they truly represent his identity, as he claims, then they will still be a part of him even if someone else owns the physical item. One can relate this to a garage sale, although garage sales do not sell financial information and personal letters, they still sell items that were (once) a meaningful part of the person's life. If each material item purchased automatically becomes part of an individual identity, even without use, than any simple garage sale would serve a very similar purpose. Thus, although the idea is amusing, as well as his descriptions and the pricing, the actual concept is not necessarily unique. Rather than inventing a new method of identity fragmentation, display, and disintegration, he has created a reflection on a common and overlooked event.

Selbst-los / Self-less
By Wolf Kahlen
This is the most concrete and visual example of the concept of deconstructed identity, although the artist does not claim it to be related to identity at all. Wolf Kahlen has reinterpreted his self-portrait photograph from 1969 into a new media artwork. The website begins with two pages of text. This text includes directions and explanation as to how to use the website and what significance it holds. It begins: "You may open three pages now. Only you are able to see, what you are going to see, nobody else gets to see the same view." After the second page of text which gives more directions, an inverted black-and-white photograph appears, with a number of pixels removed. It is signed at the bottom. Kahlen explains that once this page is viewed, one of the pixels of the photograph has been automatically removed (thus another piece of himself is lost). The page automatically directs itself to a page that displays one pixel of the photograph, "your pixel", the pixel that you have taken away from the inverted photograph. This is the part that he claims is entirely unique. The page then directs itself to what we assume to be all of the stolen (owned by site viewers) pixels recreated into a fragmented version of the original photograph. Kahlen has visually and intentionally deconstructed the image of himself (that he created) and therefore his (at least public) identity. This photograph is how he is recognized. His intention is not to disintegrate himself entirely like Michael Mandiberg wanted to, but rather to disintegrate and then moments later reconstruct. If one views this website over and over, however, they will realize that the one removed pixel never changes and, thus, neither do either photograph. Hence, Kahlen will never be entirely deconstructed or entirely reconstructed. This piece would be much more impactful if the activity of viewers really did affect the outcome of his photograph, and therefore his identity. Kahlen would place himself in the hands of his participators. If enough people participated, the photograph would be entirely reconstructed and that would be the end. He would be whole again. However, it doesn't matter how many people take a pixel and put it back into place. Kahlen will never be whole. He has permenantly fragmented himself for the sake of art, but what has come out of it? A stagnant website with an imaginary purpose.

Curated by Schuyler Maclay
Opened on Oct 29, 2006

The internet is offering more than simply a new medium for artists to manipulate; it also provides artist with an infinite source of material and content. This material is practically limitless, and at the same time it is fully searchable, a detailed catalogue of the lives of millions of people. Cyberspace is literally filled with the fodder of our daily lives. Many new media artists have looked at how to exploit this limitless source of new material within their art. These pioneering artists are exploring the worlds of Flickr, and Blogspot, using search technology like Google and tagged information to grab content from all over the Web to use as content. The works in this exhibit share a notable quality – they all appropriate the raw material of the work from the endless masses of cyberspace. But beyond simply appropriating the material, which artists have been doing since the Dadaist photomontages, these works represent the results of real-time trolling of cyberspace, and thereby the artist is not choosing what image to display, or what sound to play; he is simply developing a protocol and a structure within which to frame, manipulate or in some way contextualize and present, real-time raw data that is being harvested by searching the internet. While the methods of presentation that we see below vary greatly, each work shares the fact that the artist is not regulating the raw materials, and that these materials are gathered in real time. This have a very tangible affect on the meaning of each work. These works, especially when viewed collectively, give a visualized glimpse into the content of the web, giving the viewer insight into just what is out there, the varied dynamics of what we as a culture are uploading. Another important facet of these works is a result of the appropriation the artists initiate. We are viewing bits of the millions of pieces of data that people are self-publishing, but as the viewer, we cannot help but wonder if the people who post their snapshots on flickr or any other medium of self-publication, knew that they would be broadcast out to the world as art.

On Everything
By Pall Thayer
On Everything trolls the self-publish information masses of Flickr and Blogger. It is essentially a piece of software that takes in information, either as image or text and manipulates it according to a preset, unchanging software to produce works of abstract art. The images become abstract collections of color shapes and the text is synthesized into sound, which plays as the imaging software “re-paints” the image which it has pulled from Flickr. The artist here has removed himself from the act of choosing the content, and thus the final composition of his work. By instead designing software that manipulates data he has sacrificed his artistic control in favor of a real-time work, with absolutely endless possibilities. The work explores the meaning, and ultimately the huge scale, of the self-published web.

photoclock
By Ian Kirk
Photoclock is a grid of pictures, which are filled in one by one each minute of the day. Each block within the grid therefore represents one minute, and that block is filled with pictures, which have been gather by an instantaneous Yahoo! Image search, that were taken at the exact time that that block represents. When the hour has passed, and the grid is full, a new grid loads. This work drops the viewer into a very specific time in some anonymous subjects day by displaying a piece of appropriated imagery. It seems to explore how our daily routines overlap. It also examines how our real lives can be recreated in virtual reality, by creating a digital day based on images from our real lives. The work carries a very soothing and unifying aesthetic and meaning.

Googlehouse
By dermineur marika
Googlehouse is an online process which constructs connected sets of rooms using images as walls. As the viewer watches the software searches for a specific tag on Google Images and adds the results one by one to create rooms. These tags can be things like living room and kitchen, or they can be user input tags. Multiple tags and processes can be run at once. The result is a network of images, which the view can move around and zoom in on, that relate to the tags which are chosen. The work is interactive, and even more importantly, instantaneously updated. As the viewer we are granted the opportunity to see how the domestic environment (or any other query if the viewer so wishes) is portrayed visually on the web. It is therefore something of an exploration into how our linguistic association between images and there filenames or tags can affect search relevance and cultural perception.

Islands Of Consciousness
By Mario Klingemann
Islands of Consciousness is “a stream of consciousness movie.” The program starts with a newly added photo from flickr and then follows the images’ tags to pull up more images. These images are then manipulated, panned, and display totally at random, and accompanied by a soundtrack which interacts with the images and the various editing process. The combined affect is remarkably effective and powerful, as images take on heightened significance and interact with the soundtrack. With its stark, movie like soundtrack, Islands of Consciousness has a strange emotional effect that can be at time creepy, especially because the images seem relatively tame , being the usual collection of flickr photos (vacations, parties, family pictures…). By making art for a random collection of things that average people across the world are taking photos of, this work gives our daily lives, and our global routines heighten significance.

onewordmovie
By Philippe
Onewordmovie is a flickering film that is created by splicing together all of the search results from a user input keyword. The images flash rapidly across the screen, so fast that often the viewer can only fully realize the image after several flashes. The resulting feeling of overstimulation and rapid change permeate the work, giving off a jarring effect. The work asks us to question the intersections between language and imagery in our web based society. It examines the power that our associations, between language and image, hold and how this plays out in a digital culture. The work drops the viewer into a world were descriptions define hits, which in turn designate importance, and ultimately, relevance.

Curated by Zack McCune
Opened on Oct 28, 2006

Since its inception, the video game has been preoccupied with presenting the world how players would like the world. From the arcade games of the 1980’s to the societal metaphors of contemporary gaming, video games have remained an agent of fantasy and imagination. Often video games allow users to play along as characters they could never actually be (Indiana Jones or Harry Potter) or to interact within digital landscapes that are of this world (Hogwarts or Star Wars' Planet Hoth). Many video games feel intrinsically hedonistic. The mock situations, characters, storylines or actions that a user might want to participate with but cannot. These games fulfil and satisfy. They substitute contrived cyber experiences for the ‘real thing’. This exhibit titled Interfaces of Imagination examines artwork on the Rhizome.org artbase that explore the way in the video game can be used as an artistic medium to manifest fantasy. Throughout the works, artists try to reconcile what human imagination wants and desires with virtual interactions that satisfy these cravings. Some see the video game as an agent of revisionist history, a way of interacting with an imagined reality that is somehow preferred to the way ‘true’ history played out. Other artists see the video game hs a way of narrating their own life and growth alongside the development of gaming technology. For the artists featured exhibit reality can be totally re-informed by the virtual world of the video game. Whether this is intended or intrinsic to the works is almost inconsequential– all of the artists consciously or subconsciously pay homage to the video game as an interface of imagination. Instead of seeing the constraints of gameplay, setting, player characterization, and gaming narrative, these new media artists understand the video game to be a medium of manifesting fantasy. Their works, by extension, re-define the conventions of video gaming.

Everything I Do is Art, But Nothing I Do Makes Any Difference
By chris reilly
Chris Reilly’s “Everything I do is art, but nothing makes any difference” could be considered a digital remix. Pat Rios, a close friend and colleague of the artist, commissioned the work to serve as a closing performance at a gallery installation of Rios’ work in Chicago. The gallery had been filled with objects and furniture that suggested Rios’ artistic mantra that ‘everything he does is art.’ Chris Reilly’s vision was to replicate the gallery space in a three-dimensional, first person shooter environment. He did this by manipulating the architecture of Half Life 2 to recreate the gallery and its art in a digital landscape. But Reilly’s artwork is not the digital reproduction alone. Instead, the work is primarily a performance, wherein Reilly manipulates the first person character to “interact” with the space. This interaction takes on an almost juvenile disregard for Pat Rios’ artwork. Shooting up the room, blowing up the installation, and even writing “CHRIS” on the wall with a machine gun, seems to spawn directly from the behavior of male adolescents within gaming environments. But Reilly is not only paying homage to these impulses, but also reacting to Rios’ artwork and artistic vision. Rios claims in his artwork that everything he does is art. Reilly’s reaction to this suggests that nothing he does is art. As Reilly has said about the artwork, “After all, if everything you do is art, that's kind of like saying nothing you do is art; everything's on the same level.” At the end of the performance, having graffitied his name into the wall with machinegun fire, Reilly detonates on grenade on himself and dies. The suggestion is clear, in the digital environment of video gaming, death is merely symbolic. There is no other way out of Reilly’s Half Life landscape– having destroyed the virtual artwork of the gallery, the virtual artist must too be destroyed.

The persistence of hyperbole
By Erik Loyer
“The Persistence of Hyperbole” is a work that examines the fabric of the human narrative as compared to the progression of video games. In particular, “Persistence” parallels the growth and development of the artist alongside the development of the Wolfenstein video game franchise. Interaction with the work allows a user to click though a chronological documentation of Wolfenstein’s development and the artist’s own growth. Text from the artist is placed below or alongside stills, advertisements, or reviews of Wolfenstein. The work is placed in chronological order by the artist’s age. Time therefore becomes agent of the artist. By placing his own narrative alongside that Wolfenstein, Loyer suggests that the game itself is almost human in its growth. There is a clear progression of technology that follows the progression of time. But Loyer also seems preoccupied with what role Wolfenstein has had on his own life. It takes a role within Loyer’s narrative that makes it almost a best friend. Wolfenstein also becomes a way of understanding Loyer and his art. By selecting the video game as a benchmark for human life, Loyer presents the idea that the sophistication of fantasy follows human development. At least in Loyer’s documented experience, Wolfenstein develops at a rate to continually fulfill his increasing need of imagination.

RUNNERS: Wolfenstein
By Eddo Stern
Revisionist history lies at the heart of Eddo Stern's RUNNERS: Wolfenstein. Manipulating the classic video game Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Stern creates an alternate reality wherein Israeli soldiers directly attack Nazi Germans. The work becomes an interface of vengeance of alternate reality. The creation of RUNNERS: Wolfenstein suggests a reality and a course of history that did not take place. It is the realm of fantasy. And yet, Stern’s choice to portray this revisionist history suggests that it is something he and other Israelis would like to interact with. The work becomes a manifestation of inborn fantasies and desires. It is a creation of the artist for the entertainment of the artist. Like a concept from a Sci-Fi novel, the works leaves players and game watchers with the knowledge that it is possible to create alternate realities for one’s life or cultural heritage. In the digital age, through the medium of the video game, everything can be re-narrated.

TEKKEN TORTURE TOURNAMENT
By Eddo Stern
“Tekken Torture Tournament” is a work that tries to further blur the line between virtual gaming and real life. By shocking players via armbands when their characters receive damage, “Tekken Torture Tournament” tries to ‘make real’ the pain of the game’s avatars. Players, therefore, are more likely to identify with their virtual characters. Blurring the line between reality and virtual reality has always been an area of great interest for new media artists. Stern in particular seems almost obsessed with how video games can re-inform our understanding of history, human emotions, and with “Tekken Torture Tournament,” human pain. Fighting games like Tekken have always challenged how human civilization understands itself. Even as technology develops, human blood-lust and the desire to fight remains un-impacted. In many ways, “Tekken Torture Tournament” is a critique of mankind’s foul appreciation for violence and carnage. By connecting the pain that is inflicted on virtual agents, Stern criticizes the use of technology for satisfying intrinsic violent energies. In documentation of the tournament, a single human player is shown playing frequently without his shirt and relishing the pain. This is exactly what Stern is criticizing. As technology develops new ways of releasing human emotion, why can’t humans stop being barbaric?

Lumberjacked
By Dan Young
Dan Young’s “Lumberjacked!” is a tongue in cheek critique of the entire video gaming culture. Its tagline is simple: using an advanced tree controller designed exclusively for the game, users can play against trees in a virtual environment. The idea that a user would play against a tree is a satirical notion. Video gaming conventions maintain that users must play against enemies who fight back or at least challenge the player. A tree, even one plugged into the gaming landscape, will never fight back. As an agent of fantasy “Lumberjacked!” suggests a world where all sorts of objects can be modeled and controlled. No longer is the video game reserved simply for human users and artificially intelligent ‘bots’. Instead, in Young’s suggestion, even trees can be brought into the gaming world and given control over tree avatars. Young’s work is not really a functional video game. Instead, it operates a conceptual piece, suggesting the artist’s vision with mocked gameplay stills (of Atari-like pixilation) and extensive textual explanations. Most satirically, Young creates a tree controller for the piece with features fake ivy (the suggested tree sensors), a flower pot for housing the controller’s electronics, and a I/O port for hooking the controller up to a computer or gaming console. This interface creates the tree’s way of interacting with the virtual world. Like Stern’s “Tekken Torture Tournament” or Reilly’s “Everything I do is art but nothing makes any difference”, “Lumberjacked!” blurs the line between reality and fantasy.