From sondheim at panix.com  Tue May 13 04:00:59 2008
From: sondheim at panix.com (Alan Sondheim)
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 23:00:59 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [NetBehaviour] [stuff-it] FW: A Last Chance for Civilization (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805122300530.23140@panix3.panix.com>




---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 19:44:22 -0700
From: Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
Reply-To: stuff-it at vancouvercommunity.net
To: stuff-it at vancouvercommunity.net, Ottawadissenters-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [stuff-it] FW: A Last Chance for Civilization


-----Original Message-----
From: moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG [mailto:moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG]
Sent: May 12, 2008 7:07 PM
To: PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: A Last Chance for Civilization


The World at 350 A Last Chance for Civilization
By Bill McKibben
posted May 11, 2008

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174930

Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that
there will always be a second act, and a third, and a
do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and
forgiveness and a Brand New Start -- even for us, the world looks a little
Terminal right now.

It's not just the economy. We've gone through swoons
before. It's that gas at $4 a gallon means we're
running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society.
It's that when we try to turn corn into gas, it sends the price of a loaf of
bread shooting upwards and starts food riots on three continents. It's that
everything is so inextricably tied together. It's that, all of a sudden,
those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on
about the "limits to growth" suddenly seem... how best to put it, right.

All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk
on planet Earth.

There's a number -- a new number -- that makes this
point most powerfully. It may now be the most important
number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA's Jim
Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with
several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued
-- and I have never read stronger language in a
scientific paper -- "if humanity wishes to preserve a
planet similar to that on which civilization developed
and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate
evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2
will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at
most 350 ppm." Hansen cites six irreversible tipping
points -- massive sea level rise and huge changes in
rainfall patterns, among them -- that we'll pass if we
don't get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them,
judging by last summer's insane melt of Arctic ice, may
already be behind us.

So it's a tough diagnosis. It's like the doctor telling
you that your cholesterol is way too high and, if you
don't bring it down right away, you're going to have a
stroke. So you take the pill, you swear off the cheese,
and, if you're lucky, you get back into the safety zone
before the coronary. It's like watching the tachometer
edge into the red zone and knowing that you need to
take your foot off the gas before you hear that clunk
up front.

In this case, though, it's worse than that because
we're not taking the pill and we are stomping on the
gas -- hard. Instead of slowing down, we're pouring on
the coal, quite literally. Two weeks ago came the news
that atmospheric carbon dioxide had jumped 2.4 parts
per million last year -- two decades ago, it was going
up barely half that fast.

And suddenly, the news arrives that the amount of
methane, another potent greenhouse gas, accumulating in
the atmosphere, has unexpectedly begun to soar as well. Apparently, we've
managed to warm the far north enough to start melting huge patches of
permafrost and massive quantities of methane trapped beneath it have begun
to bubble forth.

And don't forget: China is building more power plants;
India is pioneering the $2,500 car, and Americans are converting to TVs the
size of windshields which suck juice ever faster.

Here's the thing. Hansen didn't just say that, if we
didn't act, there was trouble coming; or, if we didn't
yet know what was best for us, we'd certainly be better
off below 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
His phrase was: "...if we wish to preserve a planet
similar to that on which civilization developed." A
planet with billions of people living near those oh-so-floodable coastlines.
A planet with ever more vulnerable forests. (A beetle, encouraged by warmer
temperatures, has already managed to kill 10 times more trees than in any
previous infestation across the northern reaches of Canada this year. This
means far more carbon heading for the atmosphere and apparently dooms
Canada's efforts to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, already in doubt because
of its decision to start producing oil for the U.S. from Alberta's tar
sands.)

We're the ones who kicked the warming off; now, the
planet is starting to take over the job. Melt all that
Arctic ice, for instance, and suddenly the nice white
shield that reflected 80% of incoming solar radiation
back into space has turned to blue water that absorbs
80% of the sun's heat. Such feedbacks are beyond
history, though not in the sense that Francis Fukuyama
had in mind.

And we have, at best, a few years to short-circuit them
-- to reverse course. Here's the Indian scientist and
economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel
Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change last year (and, by the way, got his job
when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon
Mobil, forced out his predecessor): "If there's no
action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the
next two to three years will determine our future. This
is the defining moment."

In the next two or three years, the nations of the
world are supposed to be negotiating a successor treaty
to the Kyoto Accord. When December 2009 rolls around,
heads of state are supposed to converge on Copenhagen
to sign a treaty -- a treaty that would go into effect
at the last plausible moment to heed the most basic and
crucial of limits on atmospheric CO2.

If we did everything right, says Hansen, we could see
carbon emissions start to fall fairly rapidly and the
oceans begin to pull some of that CO2 out of the
atmosphere. Before the century was out we might even be
on track back to 350. We might stop just short of some
of those tipping points, like the Road Runner
screeching to a halt at the very edge of the cliff.

More likely, though, we're the Coyote -- because "doing everything right"
means that political systems around the world would have to take enormous
and painful steps right away. It means no more new coal-fired power plants
anywhere, and plans to quickly close the ones already in operation.
(Coal-fired power plants operating the way they're supposed to are, in
global warming terms, as dangerous as nuclear plants melting
down.) It means making car factories turn out efficient
hybrids next year, just the way we made them turn out
tanks in six months at the start of World War II. It
means making trains an absolute priority and planes a
taboo.

It means making every decision wisely because we have
so little time and so little money, at least relative
to the task at hand. And hardest of all, it means the
rich countries of the world sharing resources and
technology freely with the poorest ones, so that they
can develop dignified lives without burning their cheap
coal.

That's possible -- we launched a Marshall Plan once,
and we could do it again, this time in relation to
carbon. But in a month when the President has, once
more, urged us to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, that seems unlikely. In a month when the
alluring phrase "gas tax holiday" has danced into our vocabulary, it's hard
to see (though it was encouraging to see that Clinton's gambit didn't sway
many voters). And if it's hard to imagine sacrifice here, imagine China,
where people produce a quarter as much carbon apiece as we do.

Still, as long as it's not impossible, we've got a duty
to try. In fact, it's about the most obvious duty
humans have ever faced.

A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org.
Its only goal is to spread this number around the world
in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses
of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those
post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.

After all, those talks are our last chance; you just
can't do this one light bulb at a time. And if this
350.org campaign is a Hail Mary pass, well, sometimes
those passes get caught.

We do have one thing going for us: This new tool, the
Web which, at least, allows you to imagine something
like a grassroots global effort. If the Internet was
built for anything, it was built for sharing this
number, for making people understand that "350" stands
for a kind of safety, a kind of possibility, a kind of
future.

Hansen's words were well-chosen: "a planet similar to
that on which civilization developed." People will
doubtless survive on a non-350 planet, but those who do
will be so preoccupied, coping with the endless
unintended consequences of an overheated planet, that civilization may not.

Civilization is what grows up in the margins of leisure
and security provided by a workable relationship with
the natural world. That margin won't exist, at least
not for long, this side of 350. That's the limit we
face.

Bill McKibben is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury
College and co-founder of 350.org. His most recent book
is The Bill McKibben Reader.

_____________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.

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!DSPAM:2676,4828fb05227562932616294!



From sondheim at panix.com  Tue May 13 04:03:18 2008
From: sondheim at panix.com (Alan Sondheim)
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 23:03:18 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [NetBehaviour] A Long and Wonderful Play of Plays
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805122303120.23140@panix3.panix.com>




A Long and Wonderful Play of Plays


JULU: Excellent. And this is what I want you to do, Alan -
VYSHINSKY: Tell us the nature of your wrecking activities.
ZUBAREV: When I was working in the seed cultivation department --
Alan: This is excellent, and I will do my very best.
VYSHINSKY: What was the nature of your criminal activities?
ZUBAREV: Here my criminal activities consisted first of all in wrong.
Jennifer: I am learning so very hard here.
All three together: This is wonderful!
VYSHINSKY: How matters stood with butter, this is of interest to me.
ZELENSKY: We don't sell butter in the rural districts.
VYSHINSKY: I am not asking you what you sell. You were above all.
Alan: I see how this goes. This is amazing. They have been found out!
LEVIN: ...Gorky loved fire, flames, and we made use of this.
Julu: Oh oh, that is so awful! This is such an awful thing!
THE PRESIDENT: As regards wrecking work, it was necessary.
RYKOV: Even more than that!
Jennifer: Oh! Oh! Oh! Attacks from every side!
Nikuko: Oh! Woe! Attacks from within and without!
KRESTINSKY: ...Further Trotsky developed the idea of necessity!
Julu: Oh dearest us! How awful is Trotsky! Something must be done and now!
KAKAZOV: ... I stand before you, as the murderer!
Alan: Oh curses on Kakazov for his perfidious crime!
All: Oh we are saved from the wrecking and saboteurs of our country!
Nikuko: This is a wonderful play, Ladies and Gentlemen.
KIM IL SUNG: Hello, I am a member of the audience and I am very happy.
Jennifer: But oh Great Leader, what is to be done?
KIM IL SUNG: Hello, Our Party will fight against Right and 'Left'!
Julu: Oh that is so good, we will drag down the renegades!
PRESIDENT AND KIM IL SUNG: Yes, ABSOLUTEly!

JENNIFER: I beg pardon for the horrible crimes I have committed!
JULU: I am of course alive, Jennifer, what ever are you talking about?
JENNIFER: Julu's corpse is here before us: Poor, poor Julu, my misery!
JULU: Jennifer, will you stop that? This is silly!
JENNIFER: My guilt is aggravated...
JULU: Please, Jennifer, come with me! This is getting ridiculous!
JENNIFER: Disgraced, thrown in the dust, leaving life...
JULU: You have gone mad! You have been reading too many novels!
JENNIFER: Years weigh heavily on me with the nightmare of the crimes...
THE COURT: Jennifer, in the name of the commission duly entrusted --
JULU: JENNIFER!! JENNIFER!!
PRESIDENT: You're going to die!
JENNIFER: I'll kill you!

ALAN: Look I'm fucking myself.
JULU: I'll fuck anyone I want to.
NIKUKO: I won't be fucked by anyone.
PRESIDENT: I've killed Jennifer!
ALAN: Look, I'm fucking myself.
JULU: I'll kill both of you.
NIKUKO: I'll kill all three.
PRESIDENT: You're going to die.
JENNIFER: I'll kill you.
ALAN: Look I'm fucking myself.
JULU: I'll fuck anyone I want to.
NIKUKO: I won't be fucked by anyone.
PRESIDENT: This is what I mean.
JENNIFER: I'll kill you.
ALAN: I'll fuck anyone I want to.
NIKUKO: Look I'm fucking myself.
JULU: I'll kill all of you.
JULU: Where is everyone?

THE PRESIDENT: I am in charge of agriculture. Please forgive me.
THE PRESIDENT: Who have you betrayed. This is of utmost importance!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jennifer. You and I know I am responsible.
Jennifer: You are responsible for what I see!
THE PRESIDENT: Exactly, thank you, Jennifer.
THE PRESIDENT: The graves of the hateful traitors will grow over!

Jennifer stands: I wish to introduce THE PRESIDENT.
Nikuko stands: I wish to introduce Jennifer.
Jennifer: Thank you, Nikuko.
Nikuko sits: You have been my guide for so many years, Jennifer.
Jennifer: Community is the foundation of all life, Nikuko.
Nikuko: Thank you, Jennifer.
Julu stands: It is wonderful that we live in such a time...
Jennifer: Thank you, Julu.
Alan stands: I wish to thank everyone who has participated in this play.
Nikuko: We want to thank you as well, Alan, for the opportunity.
Jennifer: Thank you as well, Alan.
Julu: Thank you.

Jennifer: We are sitting in a circle. We are waiting turns
Julu: We say we are the players.
Julu: We say we are the players. We say we are broken into scenes.

THE THEATER: Here we are in empty space. There is no audience. T
THE CATWALKS: We favor company and comfort.
THE CATWALKS: We are your bones. Without us you live dull and steady.
THE THEATER: We favor night and its seepages. We devour night.
THE THEATER AND CATWALKS: We favor bright light and sunshine!

THE PRESIDENT: I think I've been forgotten. The play continues.
THE THEATER: Roar roar roar. You're inside me just like an avatar.
Jennifer: These are announcements we're making, we're not quite ready...
THE PRESIDENT: I take care of your eyes.
Jennifer: I see quite well, thanks to you.
THE THEATER: Roar roar roar.
THE PRESIDENT: Please be quiet. No one wants to hear you.
Jennifer: THE PRESIDENT is part of the audience. THE PRESIDENT listens.
THE THEATER: Roar roar roar.
THE PRESIDENT: I am responsible for language.
Jennifer: THE PRESIDENT says the order doesn't matter.
THE PRESIDENT: I am perfectly powerful; my power is broken.
Jennifer: You are a duly elected official.
THE PRESIDENT: The term is decided only by the term. I am THE PRESIDENT!
THE THEATER: Roar roar roar.

THE PRESIDENT: I am your tongue. Your tongue takes care of your eyes.
THE THEATER: I'm going home.

Jennifer: He makes me speak Nicely but I can't write Interesting.
Jennifer: I can't see or hear. I can't sleep; I navar sleep.

Doctor Leopold Konninger: Nikuko, we understand each other.
Nikuko says: But you must do one thing for me doctor.
Nikuko says: You must remove your clothing.
Nikuko says:: I will wear my tutu.

Nikuko pirouettes with three cameras and there are sfx and a text
Nude Nikuko sitting on nude Doctor Leopold Konninger with sfx.
Quickcam segments with Nikuko's voice describing her sex.
Nikuko pirouettes in a transparent skirt for the Dovctor.
Nikuko and Doctor Leopold Konninger, both fully dressed, dance.
Nikuko in open kimono mouthing AAAAH like a shinto guardian.
The Male Ballet Dancer moves neurotically through the space.
Three still dance shots bring this dance to a halt.
Nikuko in tutu and the Male Ballet Dancer perform a Musical Number.

A woman's face appears superimposed on a train.
A Doodah song accompanying a half-naked Nikuko and fully naked Doctor.
Nikuko dances strangely by herself on the right-hand side.
Nikuko lies exhausted on a blanket wearing a pink tutu.

Jennifer says: Julu is in 400,000 pieces.
Piece 381,924 says: I am piece 381,924, you are addressing me.
Jennifer says: Julu piece 381,924 is addressing me.
Piece 381,924 says: Hello Julu, come in Julu.
Jennifer says: You are Julu-Julu; you have come in.
Piece 381,924 says: Maybe what I have to say is one thing.
Jennifer says: It is one thing, piece 381,924.
Piece 381,924 says: This is one thing Julu.
Jennifer says: This is Jennifer, Julu piece 381,924.
Piece 381,924 says: Forgive me ...



when they get loose
http://www.alansondheim.org/odal1.jpg (old odalisks)
http://www.alansondheim.org/odal2.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/odal3.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/odal3.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/woven.gif (wonderful animation)




From marc.garrett at furtherfield.org  Tue May 13 10:55:50 2008
From: marc.garrett at furtherfield.org (marc garrett)
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 10:55:50 +0100
Subject: [NetBehaviour] OPEN STREAMING ACTIVATION A10Medialab - London / UK
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805122300530.23140@panix3.panix.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805122300530.23140@panix3.panix.com>
Message-ID: <482965A6.9000808@furtherfield.org>

A10Medialab & Fibrr Records presents :

Session#3 - 15th of May 2008, 7pm (GMT) @ A10Medialab - London / UK

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

OPEN STREAMING ACTIVATION

A10:medialab is pleased to introduces Fibrr Records - An experimental
label supporting innovative artistic practices through a net label and
CD distribution.


Fibrr Records will activate a new series of experimentation in
mixed-media (audio, video, text, performance?etc) at A10:medialab,
where people can present there own research projects and/or crossovers
with other people?s work in an open session that holds no bounds in
terms of form or content.

The principle of Open Streaming Activation is that everything will be
broadcast the web - in this way it is possible for those at distance
can also participate from where ever they are located. Open Streaming
Activation encourages its participants to think about and use the
principle of the streaming as a creative medium in itself.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

listen & watch the stream from here (use VLC player):

http://stream.r23.cc:2323/a10lab_video.ogg (audio/video)

http://stream.r23.cc:2323/a10lab_audio.ogg (audio)

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Live guests:

The Scie Protocol (uk)

Kaffe Mattews (uk)

Cheap Machines (uk)

Aloardi (peru)

& much more!!!

################################################################

chat with us : http://www.apo33.org/chat


Visit Fibrr Net Label ? http://fibrr.apo33.org



#################################################################

Area10Medialab: http://www.area10medialab.co.uk

area10medialab at crealab.info


From marc.garrett at furtherfield.org  Tue May 13 11:01:56 2008
From: marc.garrett at furtherfield.org (marc garrett)
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 11:01:56 +0100
Subject: [NetBehaviour] Generative Art Wiki
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805111908280.26663@panix3.panix.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805111908280.26663@panix3.panix.com>
Message-ID: <48296714.9070701@furtherfield.org>

Generative Art Wiki

This wiki is dedicated to gathering and presenting information about 
generative art. What is generative art?

Generative art refers to any art practice where the artist uses a system 
that operates with some degree of autonomy, and contributes to or 
results in a completed work of art. Systems may include natural language 
instructions, biological or chemical processes, computer programs, 
machines, self-organizing materials, mathematical operations, and other 
procedural inventions.

Edited by Philip Galanter

http://philipgalanter.com/generative_art/wiki/index.php5?title=Main_Page

From marc.garrett at furtherfield.org  Tue May 13 16:07:01 2008
From: marc.garrett at furtherfield.org (marc garrett)
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 16:07:01 +0100
Subject: [NetBehaviour] Transmission Asia-Pacific (TX-AP): open source camp
	in asia pacific
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805111908280.26663@panix3.panix.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805111908280.26663@panix3.panix.com>
Message-ID: <4829AE95.3010707@furtherfield.org>

Transmission Asia-Pacific (TX-AP):
Media Activists from the Asia Pacific gather in Indonesia.

Video makers, media activists, software developers and artists from 15 
countries across the Asia-Pacific will be gathering in Sukabumi, West 
Java from May 19-25 for an online video skills camp. The goal of the 
camp is to bring together open source software programmers, video makers 
and media activists to develop the strategic use of online video 
distribution for social justice and media democracy.

TX-AP is a joint initiative between media activists in Australia and 
Indonesia. It is organised collaboratively by EngageMedia (Australia), a 
video sharing website and free software development, training and 
networking project and Ruangrupa (Indonesia) a non-profit artist 
initiative supporting the development of art in the cultural context 
through events, exhibitions, research and documentation. 50 specially 
invited media activists and artists will be coming to Indonesia to 
attend the workshop and share their skills and ideas.

The camp will provide a unique opportunity for artists, video makers, 
software developers and activists to collaborate and share skills in a 
global context where on-line video communication skills have become an 
increasingly important strategy for activists.

Andrew Lowenthal of EngageMedia explained ?Transmission Asia-Pacific 
will be a unique face to face meeting between video makers and open 
source software developers to shape open source online video sharing 
applications and their strategic use for social aims?. He went on to 
explain ?free and open source makes sense for organisations with limited 
means, both from a strictly economic point of view and also as part of 
their overall strategic aims, as the system of open collaboration and 
sharing that free software is based on has a natural philosophical fit 
with organisations working on environmental or social justice issues?.

Participants will attend from around the region, for example 
participants from from Hong Kong making videos about communities 
resisting gentrification and over development of urban areas in Hong 
Kong and China. This group puts video cameras into the hands of those 
most affected by these policies and then helps them edit and share their 
work on-line. Projects such as these increase the communication rights 
of marginalized and displaced peoples allowing them to articulate their 
concerns to a wider public.

Another media activist from India has been using on-line media 
distribution to raise awareness of censorship of diverse sexualities in 
mainstream Indian media outlets. They have produced a satirical and 
humorous look at queer moments from Bollywood films to draw attention to 
the marginalisation of these voices within Indian society.

Transmission Asia-Pacific is the 4th in a series of events bringing 
together video activists and web developers. Previous events have 
occurred in Rome, London and Amsterdam.

For media access to the camp, stories of individual participants and 
topics of discussion at the event please contact:

Andrew Lowenthal (EngageMedia): +61 439 093 779 (Australia) 
+6281319339823 (Indonesia) http://engagemedia.org
Mirwan Andan (Ruangrupa): +62 813 1924 2965 http://ruangrupa.org

For more information on the workshop: http://transmission.cc/txap.

Transmission Asia-Pacific is supported by Hivos and the Open Society 
Institute.

From cont3xt at cont3xt.net  Tue May 13 18:18:04 2008
From: cont3xt at cont3xt.net (CONT3XT.NET)
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 19:18:04 +0200
Subject: [NetBehaviour] PHYSICAL EXHIBITION AND CALL FOR ONLINE
	PARTICIPATION | CONT3XT.NET.NEWS #04.08
Message-ID: <d045a7290805131018q418f3354hd37cc6f409c4e468@mail.gmail.com>

PHYSICAL EXHIBITION AND CALL FOR ONLINE PARTICIPATION
CONT3XT.NET.NEWS #04.08

----- ----- -----

YOU OWN ME NOW UNTIL YOU FORGET ABOUT ME.

----- ----- -----

OPENING RECEPTION: 15 May 2008, 8 pm
EXHIBITION DURATION: 16 May - 22 June 2008
HOSTING INSTITUTION: Mala galerija - Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern
Art, Ljubljana
LOCATION: Slovenska cesta 35, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
WEBSITE: http://www.youownmenow.net
CURATORS: Birgit Rinagl, Franz Thalmair / CONT3XT.NET

WITH WORKS BY:

Mary-Anne Breeze (mez)
Codemanipulator(R)
Christina Goestl, clitoressa.net
Karl Heinz Jeron, Valie Djordjevic
carlos katastrofsky
Joerg Piringer
Marek Walczak, Martin Wattenberg

----- ----- -----

ONLINE PARTICIPATION:

Besides general information and documentation about YOU OWN ME NOW UNTIL YOU
FORGET ABOUT ME. the website of the exhibition includes the possibility to
extend the concept as well as the list of selected works of art. Just go to
http://www.youownmenow.net, enter a link of your own choice plus short
link-description and submit your preferred work of art. Thank you for your
participation!

----- ----- -----

EXHIBITION CONCEPT:

Speech and the faculty of meta-reflection about one's language are inherent
characteristics of human beings. All projects shown in the exhibition YOU
OWN ME NOW UNTIL YOU FORGET ABOUT ME. are originally Internet-based
artworks. The main common ground is their starting point in the exploration
of our language with its arbitrary systems and rules, its corresponding
functions within society, as well as with its absurdities and restrictions
for the individual. Rather than to focus on the isolated -
literary/literally - artwork, the exhibition highlights general artistic
tendencies leading to a discursive process, which originates from the
Internet and finds its way back to the "virtualities of our real life".

According to Ferdinand de Saussure's theses, human language can be divided
into three fundamental aspects: the biological preconditions for speaking
(langage), the fixed system of rules and signs (langue) and the act of
speaking itself (parole). The supposition that the language system - thought
as a collective institution of norms - and the speech act - thought as an
individual, coherent and meaningful utterance - are linked reciprocally and
that there is no backflow into the system without speaking, it becomes clear
that human language withdraws itself from an immediate observation. Language
can only be examined in the course of the reconstruction of the process of
its appearance, that is, its articulation. Considering this point of view of
our communication system, the question arises if, accordingly, language is
an exclusively virtual product, the existence of which begins and ends with
its realisation.

In parallel, digital artworks are predetermined by the binary (linguistic)
code, but do not become "real" (commonly comprehensible) until the code is
transformed into text, image, and/or sound (by opening the data file and
executing the commands). Both language and digital artworks are based on
processes, transformations, and a continuous fluidity. The creation of
digital artworks is built upon the active participation of the user just
like the existence of language is built upon a speaking person. Hence, word
and image are no longer integer parts of the artwork, or langue and langage
(as thought by Saussure) are no longer part of parole. The individual
elements of both are entangled in a performative act making interpretation
obsolete. The open work manifests itself by intermediation and is created
individually through every new reception. But what happens if the user
closes the data file, or if the speaking person stops talking?

"In the end there is nothing of an object here, just a process, a set of
rules that leads you to the point of questioning unicity, ownership, and the
object-like nature of digital art works and what you can own is nothing more
than the memory of it."

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From james at jwm-art.net  Tue May 13 19:26:14 2008
From: james at jwm-art.net (james jwm-art net)
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 18:26:14 +0000
Subject: [NetBehaviour] AxxAxxAxxAxx 2 things
Message-ID: <UAEnbjvH.1210703174.8626960.james@jwm-art.net>

Here's an image I created from a screenshot of HSBC's internet banking
login page which in Opera seems to glitch quite frequently.

The process involved converting the image format from 24bit RGB to an 8
colour indexed colourmap, and adding some pla...

| more > http://www.jwm-art.net/o7.php?p=j20080513-1913

internet banking mash glitch heatsink audio image screenshot construction
journal 2008