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Dec 31, 2006

more 06 cya

posted at 14:57 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

When I was thinking about what to add to this list 06, I sent an email off to artist Rick Silva and collector, curator, photographer and art blogger extraordinaire Barry Hoggard asking what they liked in art in 06. Both sent lists of work I loved as well as shows that I wish I had seen. Enjoy.

One of my favorite works in 06 was Rick’s Recap. Here is a list of some of Rick’s favorites for the year.

cassini - saturn’s rings
spike lee - when the levees broke - a requiem in 4 parts
matmos - the rose has teeth in the mouth of the beast
pleix -birds
john kilduff - let’s paint tv
media archeology: software cinema festival - houston, texas
cai guo qiang at site santa fe
james turrell’s ‘meeting’ at ps1 at around 10 degrees farenheit right before they close for the night
john hodgeman - areas of my expertise
drawing restraint 1-9 at sfmoma
gazira babeli - secondlife code performer
radar at denver art museum

In Dangling Between the Real Thing and the Sign in The Window, James and Barry curated a group of artists who I felt held the mirror to 06. It was funny, dystopic and experimental. I hope, in 07, they will do it again. Here are some of Barry’s highlights for the year.

Susan Dessel’s bodies from our show
videos of Robert Boyd
Jeremy Eilers sculptures
Klara Liden Bodies of Society 2006
New Charles Goldman sculpture
This 9/11 show
Heather Rowe’s sculpture
Jacques Louis Vidal’s videos

Barry adds at the end of his list “I saw a lot of painting I liked too.” permanent link to this post

Dec 30, 2006

06 cya

posted at 22:27 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Nerdz Rising 06
Cory Archangel at Team
Jessica Ciocci at Foxy Production
Michael Bell-Smith at Foxy Production
Paul Slocum at Vertex List
Tom Moody at Artmoving Projects
Jennifer & Kevin McCoy at Postmasters

Straight up Net Art
UNIVERSAL ACID
punk rock 101
Toni Burlap
With Elements of Web 2.0
Weather Gauge
Tracking Transience
Oil Standard, Greasemonkey conversion of US Dollars to Barrels of Oil
DVblogH4ck
www.pulp.href
<$BlogPageTitle$>
Lambs In Ascension
Tracking Transience
deptofnetworkperformance
Midnight
My Digital Pog Page

Some Other Good Stuff (Lots of MOMA for some reason)
Dada at MOMA
“…But I was Cool”, Jerry Gant, Robert Pruitt and Dread Scott at Aljira
Lee Walton at Conflux
Noah Lyon at 33 Bond Street
Herzog & de Meuron at MOMA
Douglas Gordon at MOMA
8 Bit at MOMA
On and Off at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
Nicole Eisenman at Leo Koenig Inc.
The Downtown Show at The Grey Art Gallery

Update: (aka oh, yeah)
Strange Powers at Creative Time
permanent link to this post

Dec 29, 2006

another leftover 06 AIOTD

posted at 15:58 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The Long Campaign

A computer driven, dual channel, video of a MTAA rock, scissor, paper game. Software selects chance game play and keeps the accumulated score forever. permanent link to this post

Dec 28, 2006

AIOTD 06 Leftovers

posted at 15:48 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

…a late Merry Christmas or an early Happy New Year to all.

And now, by popular demand (of one MTAA fan), here are a few leftover AIOTD’s from 06 for you to snack on.

Power of Love and Hate - a dual portrait of MTAA listing (off the cuff) all the things they love and hate using overlapping dialogue.

Believing (In the Morning) - a dual portrait of MTAA enthusiastically using morning beauty products.

Clocking In - a computer driven video in which MTAA chimes the hours by beating an alarm clock with bats.

I think we have some more 06 AIOTDs sitting around. We’ll post them if they show up permanent link to this post

Dec 24, 2006

House music making a comeback?

posted at 14:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cory Arcangel is probably the hippest person I know. If he’s linking to Brooklyn Bounce videos from his del.icio.us feed, perhaps BIG house music is ready for a comeback? I have to admit, listening to Get Ready To Bounce really made me want to dance; more than current dance music.

Maybe jungle will come back with it? ;-)

Or maybe I’m just a nostalgic old geezer.

Merry Christmas! permanent link to this post

Dec 23, 2006

Copy-paste (net.)art

posted at 23:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It seems particularly apt that I simply copy and paste this post from We Make Money Not Art…

Last May, i blogged about Plagiarismo, an exhibition that tried to demonstrate that the appropriation and re-formulation of other artists’ ideas is an essential component of culture.

Vuk Cosic - who’s having a solo exhibition at the Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana- wrote me then that he was putting together a show called CTRL-C on a similar subject. The show has just opened at the galerija Simulaker in Slovenia. Here’s the gist:

From Duchamp and Benjamin to Beuys the art of the previous century has asked the question of copying and multiplying as a legitimate artistic practice. The advent of the internet has dramatically placed the digital original and digital copy in the very center of artistic but also economic frictions.

Mere simplicity of making copies is socially not perceived as a liberating tool for artistic creation but is turning out to be the main point of conflict between economic interests and those of societies at large. Traditionalists fighting for Intellectual Property are trying to pull the giants from under our feet.

The CTRL-C show is presenting projects exclusively focused on the artistic relevance of the digital copy. Exhibited works are using the language of the non-original to express a very concrete critique of the circumstances in the world of art and in the society. All works in the show have provided their authors with a measure of scandal and a bigger measure of fame:

In September 1997, Vuk Ćosić made an almost perfect copy of the website of Documenta X before it was taken down by the organisers of the famous contemporary art show. The artist saw his act as an “expression of a rebellion against the art system and the return of art from a gallery into reality.”

Epilogue: The copy found its way into relevant “kunst.historisch” literature and is still accessible on the author’s internet server. Being a legitimate and conceptual work it has been exhibited many times, also at the Venice Bienale in 2001.

In 1997, 0100101110101101.ORG made a series of clones of well-known net.art projects (hell.com, art teleportacia, Jodi) as a digital monument to the principles upon which the Internet runs. “The belief that information must be free,” explained at the time Renato, 0100101110101101.ORG spokesman, “is a tribute to the way in which a very good computer or a valid program works: binary numbers move in accordance with the most logic, direct and necessary way to do their complex function. What is a computer if not something that benefits by the free flow of information? Copyright is boring.”

Epilogue: The three copies are still accessible on the authors’ server. Nowadays they are known for their numerous net.art projects, acknowledged by the public and the media.

In 1999, Rtmark – The Yes Men altered the website of the World Trade Organization and made it very similar to the original. They received invitations to symposia (no one’s going to forget their talk and little demo at the Textiles of the Future conference in Tampere), where they presented the identity of GATT as they understood it.

Yes Men stunts in Salzburg and Tampere

Epilogue: The authors belong to the group of the most recognizable names of the New Media scene. A documentary has been made about their work (also available on google video btw.)

During the exhibition of Fluxus in 2005, Gordan Karabogdan and Nikica Klobučar snatched a few of Beuys’ videos, copied them at their home and returned the “originals” without anyone noticing it. They even produced free copies and the media comprehended this deed as a criminal act.

Epilogue: The work, called Enigma of an object, ended with an act of handing over the copied films and entire documentation to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka.

Thanks Vuk for the information and translations! permanent link to this post

Dec 22, 2006

Please address me thusly

posted at 18:03 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
His Excellency T.Whid the Loquacious of Molton St Anywhere

Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title… permanent link to this post

Dec 17, 2006

Automate QuickTime video on OS X

posted at 20:21 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

This post may be helpful for artists and other creatives that need to automate the launching of digital video files using QuickTime on the Mac OS.

MTAA is in a group show in January and we’re showing a simple digital video loop. The goal was to automate the launching of the video full screen and looping when the computer starts up. The strategy was to use an AppleScript as a login item to achieve this.

The straightforward way to do this is to create a script that tells QuickTime to open the file, play it full screen and loop by pointing to the explicit path of the file on disk, e.g bootdisk:path:to:foo.mov. The problem with this is that if the file is moved QuickTime can’t open it. To make it more error-proof I wanted to make one application package with the video inside it. This allows there to be one file that can be moved to any Mac and double-clicked to start the video playing with all the properties I need.

After a bit of research and trial-and-error I think I came up with a decent solution.

I should note here that you can set QuickTime movies to play full screen on launch in the Movie Properties/Presentation panel of QuickTime Pro, but I couldn’t find a way to tell it to always loop so I took the approach below. If there is a way to tell a QuickTime movie to loop on launch then I wasted a bunch of time ;-) On the other hand, for a video that QuickTime can play but isn’t wrapped in the QuickTime container (like a straight-up MPEG4) this is probably the only way to do it.

Regardless, this is what I did:

First, in Script Editor (/Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor), I created a new script and saved it as an ‘application bundle’ (making sure to uncheck ‘Startup Screen’). This created an application package — basically, a special folder — almost every OS X application is this format. By control-clicking this application in the Finder, I selected ‘Show Package Contents’ in the contextual menu. This opened a new Finder window with a folder called ‘Contents.’ Inside Contents was a folder called ‘Resources’ (and some other files). I copied my video file into the Resources folder.

Back to Script Editor, I typed a script very similar to this:

--set path to video file
set _f to ((path to me) as string) ¬
	& "Contents:Resources:foo.mov"

-- open and play it
tell application "QuickTime Player"
	launch
	activate
	stop every movie
	close every movie saving no
	try
		my play_movie(_f)
	on error
		(* in case the file has been 
		moved or deleted for some reason *)
		choose file with prompt ¬
			"File not found! Please locate it:"
		set _f to result
		my play_movie(_f)
	end try
end tell

on play_movie(_file)
	tell application "QuickTime Player"
		open _file
		tell movie 1
			(*
			you can put any properties you
			need in here
			*)
			set looping to true
			present scale screen
		end tell
	end tell
end play_movie

Note: this script doesn’t work when run from Script Editor. It needs to be saved and launched by double-clicking the application bundle.

In the end, I have a little app that contains my video, is easily copied from computer to computer and can be set as a login item so it launches automatically when the computer starts. For a bonus, it’s easy to replace the icon by replacing the file applet.icns in the Resources folder in the application bundle. I used CocoThumbX to create a new icns file.

Another tip: if you need to edit the script a bit, you should go into the bundle and open the main.scpt file in the [app bundle]:Contents:Resources:Scripts folder instead of editing the actual app bundle file. If your video file is large, it takes a long time to save the script when you’re editing the bundle as opposed to the script on it’s own. permanent link to this post

Dec 14, 2006

iPhil can be yours

posted at 13:57 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

$250 to the Rhizome benefit gets you a MTAA print of iPhil
Yup. That’s right. For supporting a new media not for profit, you can own an MTAA work that does not need to be plugged in. Wild. permanent link to this post

Dec 11, 2006

We meet Rick Silva in person

posted at 02:23 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The other night M.River and I attended Dorkbot with presentations by (among others) Rick Silva and Marisa Olson.

M.River snapped this pic of me, Marisa, Tom Moody and Rick Silva:

Special bonus, more studio tests:

permanent link to this post

Dec 05, 2006

land of the ice and snow..

posted at 14:49 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Saw fellow camp Creative Capital 06 alum Jane Marsching last night. Her project is up. Check it.

Climate Commons - a networked conversation about climate change, sustainability, and the Arctic developed by Jane D. Marsching with Matthew Shanley from November 27 2006 - February 28, 2007.

climate-commons.net

Also, if you’re in Boston, Jane’s show “Arctic Listening Post” is at the ICA from December 10, 2006 - March 11, 2007.

Update: Here is Holland Cotter’s NTY review of the shows up at the ICA with a mention of Jane’s project. permanent link to this post

Dec 04, 2006

MTAA in Miami

posted at 15:29 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Not!

For some reason or another we never find our way to Miami Beach for the December art fairs. This is probably a good thing for those that might otherwise catch a startlingly bright glimpse of our NTSC-illegal-white bodies burning like phosphorous on the beach.

Hoping everyone has fun. permanent link to this post

Nov 30, 2006

Detroit Rock City

posted at 13:26 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

NYT on the new MOCAD permanent link to this post

Nov 28, 2006

CC v Zune

posted at 14:52 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Wired.com’s Listening Post blog touches on the back-asswards Zune player and its non-compatibility with Creative Commons licenses. The crux of the issue is that the Zune will apply DRM to any song that is shared (or, um, ‘squirted’) between Zunes via the wifi feature regardless of what license is applied to the song. Creative Commons is adding language to their licenses that will explicitly make it a violation of the license to do this.

Read the story (with comments) here.

It will be interesting to see if any lawsuits result because of this. Have there been any CC-related lawsuits yet? permanent link to this post

Whitney at the High Line

posted at 01:28 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m sure everyone that reads this web site probably already knew…

[via NYT]

A month after the Dia Art Foundation scrapped its plans to open a museum at the entrance to the High Line, the abandoned elevated railway line that the city is transforming into a public park, the Whitney Museum of American Art has signed on to take its place and build a satellite institution of its own downtown.

The Whitney recently reached a conditional agreement on Wednesday night with the city’s Economic Development Corporation to buy the city-owned site, at Washington and West Streets in the meatpacking district, officials at the museum said yesterday. Plans call for the new museum to be at least twice the size of the Whitney’s home on Madison Avenue at 75th Street, they said, and to be finished within the next five years.

permanent link to this post

Nov 26, 2006

MTAA art at home in NJ

posted at 14:20 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

When it came time to remove our installation 3’ High and Rising, Newark from the E7 show at Aljira, we received an email asking if MTAA would be interested in donating the work. We, of course, said “Yes. It’s for you.” So, like Cats on Broadway, MTAA is “now and forever” raising the desk at Aljira in Newark, NJ by 3 feet. permanent link to this post

Nov 22, 2006

Parachute fails

posted at 17:11 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Canadian contemporary art magazine PARACHUTE ceases publication. This sucks.

From the press release (available in PDF: english | french):

Montreal, 20 November 2006 — The contemporary art magazine PARACHUTE, founded in 1974, has taken the difficult decision to suspend its activities. Despite the success of its new format, introduced in 2000, and its international recognition, funding levels no longer make it possible to ensure a reasonable level of quality and stability.

Despite its determination and efforts to maintain the journal’s presence on the contemporary art scene and to continue operations, PARACHUTE’s board of directors was obliged to take this last-resort decision after examining all the economic and social factors which would have enabled the journal to extract itself from the impasse facing it. The journal had recently succeeded in increasing its sales by more than 200% while at the same time cutting expenses and trimming budgets. Major fundraising efforts over the last years have produced significant but insufficient results. As well, the repeated demands on government agencies have been unproductive. An overall drop in subsidies, in tandem with the current funding structure of the journal and the media environment today make the task that much more complex. Despite PARACHUTE’s exceptional longevity in a highly competitive milieu — a longevity owing to the enthusiasm of its contributors and readers and to the unflagging determination of its director — its suspension of activities at this time highlights the precariousness of cultural organizations in Quebec and the rest of Canada.

permanent link to this post

Baste every 10 minutes

posted at 14:16 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

For my brother Doug and all who will attempt to roast a turkey for the first time this year:

McSweeney’s
BUTTERBALL HELP-LINE HELP-LINE

twhid adds…
…my humble turkey related links. permanent link to this post

Nov 21, 2006

MartinLutherKing[dot]org run by racists

posted at 15:35 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MartinLutherKing[dot]org is run by racists. If you go to the site (don’t go there) there is a link at the bottom of the page that says it’s hosted by Stormfront, a racist group. A quick Google search for “Martin Luther King” provides a link to martinlutherking[dot]org in the first slot.

Here are some better links, that should really make up the first page of results on Google:

Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King

[via] | [digg it] permanent link to this post

Nov 17, 2006

BuzzFeed

posted at 22:47 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Jonah Peretti’s new venture, BuzzFeed is live. Sure, there are other people involved (John Johnson and Kenneth Lerer of The Huffington Post) but this thing has Peretti’s fingerprints all over it.

I don’t want to be a buzz kill, but I’m unsure how this is going to be different from Technorati or Digg. They’ve added editorial oversight and commentary it seems, but is that a just throwback to pre-crowdsourcing techniques?

They’re in the early stages of this thing and I’m sure Jonah and the gang have a lot up their sleeves.

Congrats!

update
Looking over BuzzFeed a tad more I’d like to amend my first response. BuzzFeed is doing something different than Technorati and Digg. Where Technorati will tell you there are n number of links to story x, BuzzFeed is focused on larger trends. It gives you relevant links to the larger meme. Also, the archives are great.

I’d like to know more about it though. ~~Are they only analyzing the sites under ‘sites making buzz’?~~ Oops, I guess I should have read the about page, it says they track 50,000 sites. That doesn’t answer what the ‘sites making buzz’ list is however. permanent link to this post

Nov 16, 2006

Last minute reminder: 3x3 was last night!

posted at 17:31 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Just in case you don’t look at dates and just do what the MTAA-RR tells you, the show was last night.

Blind following of the MTAA-RR is fine, in most cases, but we would not want you showing up at EFI, find a locked door and then wonder why we would go the empty gallery as art route again.

Oh, yeah. The 3x3 show was fun. permanent link to this post

Nov 15, 2006

Last minute reminder: 3x3 tonight!

posted at 22:47 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The world premier of The Un-scary Movie! A very, very short video by MTAA at:

3 Minutes : 3 Hours
Wednesday November 15 – 7pm
EFA Gallery | EFA Studio Center
323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor, NYC

More info here.

Be there or be a rhombus. permanent link to this post

Artist billboards of gay Poles banned

posted at 16:14 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Billboards of portraits of gay Poles by Polish artist Karolina Bregula were censored by Lamar Outdoor Advertising.

Edward Winkleman has the lowdown (along with a call to action). There’s info on Newsgrist as well.

Institutionalized bigotry against gays, lesbians and transgender people really needs to end. Now. How long can we continue to treat a good portion of our population like second-class citizens? permanent link to this post

Nov 14, 2006

Wiley Wiggins comments on Cory

posted at 18:23 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Wiley Wiggins, star of Dazed and Confused has commented on Cory Arcangel’s Untitled Translation Exercise (scroll down). Read Wiggins’ blog post.

Note: “Untitled Translation Exercise” is Cory’s video that re-dubs Dazed and Confused using Indian outsourcing workers.

Also, Cory would, presumably, be publicly executed under the Realtime Art Manifesto. permanent link to this post

Realtime Art Manifesto

posted at 18:08 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s safe to say that I disagree with ~~the majority~~ a whole bunch of this (including the idea of writing a manifesto at all…).

An interesting read none-the-less.

+++

Realtime Art Manifesto by Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn

1. Realtime 3D is a medium for artistic expression.
2. Be an author.
3. Create a total experience.
4. Embed the user in the environment.
5. Reject dehumanisation: tell stories.
6. Interactivity wants to be free.
7. Don’t make modern art.
8. Reject conceptualism.
9. Embrace technology.
10. Develop a punk economy.

[via]

m.river adds:
“including the idea of writing a manifesto at all…”

We did write one.

[Artainment]

twhid responds:
Yeah, but ours was ironic.

Irony, under the Realtime Art Manifesto, is punished by having kneecaps shattered. permanent link to this post

Nov 13, 2006

computerfinearts.com @ [DAM] Berlin

posted at 18:07 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is a tad late, but the show runs through December 5th.

COMPUTER FINE ARTS COLLECTION OF DORON GOLAN

Internet Art / Software Art

www.computerfinearts.com

Exhibition 06:
10th November 2006 – 5th December 2006

Doron Golan collects artwork, which have been developed for the internet. He concentrated on an aspect of contemporary art, which was consindered as not marketable. The different pieces, which were developed specifically for the Web are free available for everybody. In many cases the internet, with its specific possibilities, is an integral part of the artwork. By aquiring these pieces he enables the persistence of these artworks online. The collection is internationally and you´ll find some important artists, which were already known for internet-art in the 1990s. We present his collection as a projection in the gallery.

[DAM] Berlin
Digital Art Museum
Tucholskystr. 37
D-10117 Berlin

Tue- Fri 12-6 pm | Sat 12-4 pm

There’s a lot of great stuff in Doron’s collection. It’s a very valuable resource, so check it out! permanent link to this post

Nov 08, 2006

Rumsfeld: force quit

posted at 20:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Too funny not to republish! (via boingboing)

permanent link to this post

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 9]

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Part 9 is ready for download. (MP3, 10.2MB, 16’00)

In which M.River and T.Whid blather on about inane stuff as they count down to the end of this torturous exercise. Lauren Cornell pops in at the end to provide some much needed relief.

This is the final installment in this series. permanent link to this post

FUCKING FINALLY!

posted at 04:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Dems win House!!!

CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and even FOX news call the house for the Dems.

The beginning of the end of the nightmare called the Bush Administration is at hand.

update
It’s the morning of the 8th now and it looks like a great win! As I’m writing this the Democrats have picked up at least 27 seats in the House (as reported by the NYT and the WaPo) and it’s looking good for the Senate too. Webb (D) is up by only .3% (7847 votes)! and the Democrat Tester in Montana is up by .4% (1735 votes)! If the dems can hold on there (and that’s a big ‘if’ because we all know how good the repubs are at cheating and lying) then the members of the reality-based community get a win (almost) beyond our wildest dreams :-)

I’m from Ohio and the map below (from NYT) illustrates just how far the Democrats have come in just two years. Look at all that blue :-)

For more maps like this go here, select ‘state by state’ then select a state on the left.

update 2
Holy shit! Rumsfeld is out! Almost better news than the Congressional revolution. permanent link to this post

Nov 07, 2006

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 8]

posted at 02:49 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Part 8 is ready for download. (MP3, 11.2MB, 16’36)

In which T.Whid chats with Marisa Olson.

And in case you’re wondering, there’s only one more after this. I suppose that’s either good news or bad news depending on your point-of-view. permanent link to this post

Nov 06, 2006

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 7]

posted at 01:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Part 7 is ready for download. (MP3, 10.1MB, 15’28)

In which M.River talks to some guy that seems to really hate art, artists and anything to do with art and artists except for the free drinks at openings (which he can’t drink because he’s training for a marathon). Helen chimes in now and then with wisecracks. permanent link to this post

Nov 04, 2006

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 6]

posted at 18:50 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Part 6 is ready for download. (MP3, 5.5MB, 8’07)

In which T.Whid talks to Tinydiva (AKA Margaret Jameson). Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, a good portion of the interview was lost :(

Make sure to listen to Tinydiva’s submission (entitled Running — direct link; MP3, 35MB, 15’16) to To Be Listened To… permanent link to this post

The world premier of The Unscary Movie - Nov 15

posted at 16:33 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The world premier of The Unscary Movie - a very, very short video by MTAA

In the spring Marina Zurkow asked us if we could make a 3 minute film in 3 hours. We said, “Yup. ”

In the early summer, we filmed Coney Island’s Dante’s Inferno ride. It took a bit more than 3 minutes but not much more. In the early fall, we edited the film. It took a bit more than 3 hours but not much more.

The Unscary Movie is, for the most part, black video. It is, for the most part, loud. It is, for the most part, 3 minutes of sitting in the dark while someone screams and groans. Sometimes a monster pops up. Sometimes you see daylight. It’s not very scary. It’s not action packed. If you come to see it, you should just pass the 3 minutes thinking of the summer past. Feel free to scream along.

3 Minutes : 3 Hours
Wednesday November 15 – 7pm
EFA Gallery | EFA Studio Center
323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor, NYC

premiering 3 x 3 works by artists:

Chris Doyle, Margarida Garcia, Josh Greene, Oliver Kellhammer, Erin Lee, Zachary Mortensen, MTAA, Ruth Ozeki, Michael Portnoy, Robert Ransick, Marcia Scott, Abigail Simon, Elaine Tin Nyo, Lance Wakeling, Josh Weinstein, Marina Zurkow,(+ organized by Marina Zurkow) permanent link to this post

Pickle passion

posted at 15:09 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

If you love, or even like, pickles. Then run, don’t walk, ah… somewhere to pick up some of Rick’s Picks. Be warned though, they ain’t cheap (11 bucks a jar on the web site).

The newly (re-)opened Cobblestone Foods in my neighborhood in Brooklyn started carrying them and I picked up a jar of the Spears of Influence last night. It was a really fucking good pickle. It was, perhaps, even better than Guss’ Pickles. But I think I should treat my wife and myself to a taste test to decide.

Mmmmmmmm, test taste… I mean mmmmmmm taste test… permanent link to this post

Nov 03, 2006

just another cool show alert…

posted at 18:57 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

One of the best parts of our residency at Aljira and our retreat with Creative Capital was the chance to meet and be mentored by the artist Dread Scott. Dread has been making politically strong and conceptually sharp work for years. I believe his advice and encouragement has helped focus our studio practice over the last few months. When you make work that does not always mesh well with what you believe the art world is, it’s good to hear from an artist who has navigated his work within the artworld while maintaining his work’s heart.

Dread will be showing at Aljira this fall with Jerry Gant, and Robert Pruitt. Sounds like it will be a great show. So, check it out.

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
Aljira: a Center for Contemporary Art
³…But I was Cool²
November 9, 2006-January 27, 2007
Opening reception Nov. 9, 2006 5:30 PM 7:30 PM

Exhibition with Jerry Gant, Robert Pruitt and Dread Scott
Panel Discussion with the artists Sunday Nov 12, Noon
Artists Talk Nov. 12, 2006 12 noon 2:00 PM

permanent link to this post

Nov 02, 2006

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 5]

posted at 16:50 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Part 5 is ready for download. (MP3, 5.3MB, 8’26)

In which M.River talks with the one and only Mark Napier as T.Whid goes AWOL in order to smoke. permanent link to this post

Nov 01, 2006

Olia Lialina in NYC

posted at 15:59 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A Conversation with Olia Lialina
Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
601 W 26th Street, Suite 1240
New York, NY 10001
212-243-8830

November 2, 2006 6:30PM

In conjunction with the exhibition On and Off at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, celebrated artist and net.art pioneer Olia Lialina will discuss her work with curator Caitlin Jones. Using her iconic work “My Boyfriend Came Back from the War” as a springboard, Lialina will address issues such as the changing aesthetic and thematic landscape of the web, new models of authorship and participation; and the outward expansion of network based ideas and practice into off-line spaces and contexts.

Lialina is one of the original net.artists. All the true heads will be in attendance I’m sure ;-) And note, this is also in conjunction with Rhizome’s Tenth Anniversay Festival. permanent link to this post

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 4]

posted at 14:28 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Part 4 is ready for download. (MP3, 11.6MB, 17’23)

This one features MTAA babbling about the opening and a short interview with Patrick May, artist and Rhizome’s Director of Technology.

Also, some files were uploaded to 2bl2 that we think are in arabic (and look to have been uploaded from an ISP in the United Arab Emirates). The uploader neglected to add them to a feed so I added them to the ‘…in a park in Europe as you wait for the sun to rise and the snow to stop’ feed. If anyone knows arabic, please enlighten us as to the content. We’re curious. permanent link to this post

Oct 30, 2006

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 3]

posted at 21:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Go there now! Get your iTunes on.

Part 3 is ready for download. (MP3, 4.4MB, 06’52)

This one features GH busting some Dan Graham moves.

We have a few more parts to go. So settle in… permanent link to this post

NEW MEDIA ART

posted at 21:06 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

THE LAST AVANT-GARDE

Rough version of an interview with Mark Tribe & Reena Jana, authors of NEW MEDIA ART (Taschen, 2006). A shorter version has been published in Flash Art Italia, Issue 260, October - November 2006, p. 73.

Domenico Quaranta: Even from an editorial point of view, your book describes new media art as a movement (such as Surrealism or Conceptualism) rather than a mere possibility of the medium. This is a very interesting point. Do you believe in it or is this a marketing strategy? Is new media art the last avant-garde, and why?

Mark Tribe: Before we discuss New Media art as a movement, we describe it more generically in terms of “projects that make use of emerging media technologies and are concerned with the cultural, political, and aesthetic possibilities of these tools.” I think this is more-or-less what you mean by “a possibility of the medium.” […]

keep reading… NEW MEDIA ART permanent link to this post

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 2]

posted at 01:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Get up on it!

Part 2 is ready for download. (MP3, 15MB, 13’11)

Go to To Be Listened To… and upload your own stuff for crying out loud! permanent link to this post

Oct 28, 2006

MTAA At The Art Opening [part 1]

posted at 16:26 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The title of a series of audio files we’re releasing has been sort of up-in-the-air so I decided (unilaterally btw (sorry M)) that I’m going to call it “MTAA At The Art Opening.” It’s a series of audio recordings that we’ll be releasing via our podcast website “To Be Listened To…”. (See this for more info.)

You can download part 1 of “MTAA At The Art Opening” now! (MP3, 14.4MB, 12’39)

Please stare at this image of MTAA as you listen to part 1. Also, subscribe to the podcast feed in iTunes (iTunes link) or other podcast client (RSS link) to get future parts as they’re released.

Note: alternately, we’ve been calling this piece “2BL2 Rhizome Reception” and “A Live Demonstration of MTAA Art Practice At Rhizome’s Reception For The 2005 - 2006 Net Art Commissions” and having no title at all. It’s all very confusing. permanent link to this post

Oct 25, 2006

Dangling Between The Real Thing And The Sign In The Window

posted at 21:21 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Barry Hoggard and James Wagner have released a very thorough and extensive web site documenting their curatorial effort, “Dangling Between The Real Thing And The Sign In The Window” at Dam, Stuhltrager in Brooklyn.

It’s a shame that most art exhibitions don’t have such a great resource accompanying them. permanent link to this post

MTAA @ NuMu last night

posted at 13:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

More at: M.River’s Tinjail/tintype photoblog. Start here and work your way back.

See this and this for more info. permanent link to this post

Oct 24, 2006

McCoy lite™ ?

posted at 19:18 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Friday the 13th: In 7 Minutes is a video on YouTube that…

[…] features every on-screen death in the film series FRIDAY THE 13th, displayed back to back and in chronological order.

See Jennifer and Kevin McCoy’s Every Anvil for context. permanent link to this post

Oct 23, 2006

2BL2 live demo

posted at 15:51 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cutting-edge cute!

Making fun… for everyone!

Back from decrepitude!

YES! The long-awaited live demonstration of “To Be Listened To…”!!!

>>> Listen to the exciting announcement in MP3 format <<<

When? Tomorrow Oct 24, 2006, 6:30PM - 8:30PM
Where? New Museum bookstore (google map)
Why? ask Rhizome
How: 1 mic, 1 MTAA, 1 laptop, 1 crowd of new media swells and their hangers-on

>>> Listen to the exciting announcement in MP3 format <<<

As part of the reception for the 2005-2006 Rhizome Commissions.

Be there or be a parallelogram! permanent link to this post

Oct 21, 2006

boo

posted at 13:57 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

2 Halloween links I found this morning that you might enjoy…

a haunted house made out of balloons
ghost in the Tate permanent link to this post

Oct 20, 2006

to give back

posted at 18:20 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Infinitive Phil
Digital Print by MTAA
11 x 17 edition of 20
$250

Made exclusively for Rhizome, this print captures the still frames from the artists’ video contribution to Cory Arcangel’s legendary ‘Infinite Fill’ exhibition, in which Phil Hartman plays Phil Donahue

Rhizome Community Campaign

DC 911 - The Evildoers’ Remix
DVD with unique cover collage
1 hour 10 minutes.
$100

DC 911 is a guerilla edit of the pro-Bush propaganda film DC 9/11 - A Time of Crisis. First shown during the 2004 RNC at Postmasters Galley in New York. The video is a collaboration between new media art duo MTAA, video artist bodyatomic and musician/DJ tinydiva

Turbulence Fundraiser
permanent link to this post

Oct 19, 2006

2bl2 live in store.

posted at 02:19 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A live demonstration of MTAA art practice in which a recording will be made of the event celebrating the artwork made. In other words, at the opening celebrating the public release of the MTAA’s artwork 2bl2, commissioned by the good folks of rhizome.org, MTAA will create a new 2bl2 sound artwork using the sound of the opening. I’m thinking about it as a big information loop. Get it?…No? Ummmm…Ok - I understand. T.Whid’s not sure about this one as well. How about: please come to the opening and see MTAA do some stuff that we like to call art? It might be interesting. Ok, Please. How’s that? Please. Please. I’ve gone to so many openings and events this past month that my eyes are tearing shut. I keep having that same sad conversations at openings that I kick myself about later. “Oh No, yeah. We’re working on stuff in the studio. Yeah. You should stop in. That would be cool.”. I never really know what to say. I end up all panicked. This time will be different. I’ll have you by my side while I go through it. Just come over and sit down. Say “Hello.” Help me stay calm and focused. Please. Thanks.

RHIZOME COMMISSIONS 2005-2006
New Museum Store
556 West 22nd Street
NYC
October 24, 2006 6:30pm

Participants: Hans Bernhard and Alessandro Ludovico, Peter Horvath, Jason Corace and Vicky Fang, Andy Deck, Jason Freeman, Sean Kerr, Ethan Ham and Tony Muilenberg, MTAA, Thomas Laureyssens, Adriaan Stellingwerff

Admission: FREE

“The Rhizome Commissions Program makes financial support available to artists for the creation of original works of Internet-based art. In 2005, Rhizome awarded eleven grants to an international group of artists. All the works took the Internet as their primary vehicle for exhibition; several also extended off the web as sculpture, video or installation. This evening will celebrate the works with a one-night installation and presentations by several of the commissioned artists. Cocktails will be served.”

update: note to self - never blog with a fever permanent link to this post

Oct 18, 2006

another tinjail shot.

posted at 13:33 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

rhizome at 1071

Yeah, I know it’s kinda hard to tell what’s going on but it might sum up the energy of the night. permanent link to this post

Oct 16, 2006

P-UNIT

posted at 17:59 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

This week from 11am to 11pm, Noah Lyon (aka retardroit) presents “The Living Installation: Part Deuxxx Tracying Eminem” at the soon to open 33 Bond Gallery. Stop on in and check out the work in progress. Closing party Sat Oct 21.

Tinjail pic from the first night.
permanent link to this post

last one out, hit the lights.

posted at 12:28 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

We are about to loose one of the great music and art venues in New York City. No, not CBGB’s. They shut down last night. I’m talking about Monkeytown. Looks like the doors shut in early November. Go see what you’ll wish you had while it’s still here.

Hmmm…Monkeytown Las Vegas anyone? permanent link to this post

Oct 13, 2006

MTAA’s studio on a top block in NYC?

posted at 14:48 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

According to TimeOut NY, MTAA’s studio (at 60 N.6th St. btw Wythe & Kent) is on the 40th best block in NYC. It’s true, they said that (scroll down)!

What they said:

40. North 6th Street between Kent and Wythe Avenues, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Near the waterfront, this block affords unobstructed views of Manhattan in a quintessential Williamsburg setting, near cutting-edge restaurants, cooler-than-thou bars and trendy boutiques.

Are they insane? (OK, yes, this is N.6th between Berry & Wythe, but you get the idea.)

We do have some Bansky on our building… perhaps that makes it a top block?

And, of course, the inevitable question: does this mean our rent is going up? permanent link to this post

Oct 10, 2006

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

posted at 16:49 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

General note: It’s Friday, October the 13th this week.

More info on Paraskevidekatriaphobia

twhid adds:
the inevitable Wikipedia link… permanent link to this post

Oct 09, 2006

McCoys in WaPo

posted at 15:50 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Our favorites, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, are profiled in the Washington Post today.

The article bounces back and forth from bio piece:

Kevin, who is 39, is in torn jeans, a plain black T-shirt and scuffed black running shoes. He has long, unruly locks and a mustache that crawls, sluglike, down the sides of his chin. He could pass for a stoner selling used guitars.

His wife, 38, is notably more tidy. She sits near him wearing fresh khakis, a flowery green vest over a clean white shirt (untucked, because she’s pregnant with their second child ) and sparkly little flats. Her straight hair is cut at girlish shoulder length.

To discussions of the art:

[Their recent show in LA] is typical McCoy. It’s built around the cultural theories they were both schooled in in France — structuralism and its descendant, deconstruction — which emphasize the constructedness of all experience. The theories insist, that is, that culture, including silly children’s books, conditions everything we think we know about our world, such as what counts as “special” and “scary,” and maybe also how girls and boys will “naturally” think. (The installations, say the McCoys, were partly inspired by watching Ginger, their 2-year-old daughter.)

But instead of mouthing off about such things, the McCoys’ art tries to flesh them out and test them: If our mental and cultural world is supposed to be constructed, then they’ll craft building blocks of sense and a machine that lets us watch them being put together into an edifice of meaning.

There’s a video accompanying the article that shows snippets of their work. It was a bit strange having to watch an ad for AT&T before seeing a clip of “Horror Chase,” but that’s what comes with main stream press I guess ;-)

Congrats guys!

Artists Who Dissect ‘Starsky & Hutch’ in the Washington Post. permanent link to this post

Oct 07, 2006

The MAMP is phat

posted at 20:30 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

If you need a quick and not-so-dirty way to set-up a MySQL, Apache and PHP system on your Mac, then MAMP (Macintosh, Apache, MySQL and PHP) can’t be beat for speed of set-up and ease-of-use.

There’s universal, powerpc and intel disk images available. The current (1.3.1) version installs MySQL 5.0.19 (with phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-pl2), PHP 4.4.2 and 5.1.4 (you can choose which to use in a simple preference panel) and Apache 2.0.55. It installs itself on non-standard ports so you can use OSX’s default web config alongside it if you like or, you can set Apache and MySQL to use their default ports (80 & 3306 respectively) and leave the OS X version of Apache off.

The developers recommend their product for local development only. You don’t want to use it as a production web server (especially with the out-of-the-box settings).

It looks like this nice piece of software has been around for about 2 years (Oct 2004 was their initial release). Not sure why I hadn’t caught wind of it until now. Rock on MAMP! permanent link to this post

Oct 05, 2006

Join the foie gras rebellion!

posted at 17:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

More on the haters trying to tell you what to eat in Salon today (must click through the ad to read the article).

The money quote:

[…] these ducks aren’t doing anything that a porn star doesn’t do on a regular basis.

And making my point:

Billions of chickens, hogs and beef are being harmed — that’s carnage on a far vaster scale — but big agribusiness is a difficult and powerful target. They don’t get much bang for their buck, from a political standpoint. It’s much easier to go for the small artisanal farmer with little resources and no lobbying group in D.C.

As I’ve said before, regardless of what you think of ‘gavage,’ do you really want politicians and the government enforcing prohibitions on food? permanent link to this post

Google’s not punk

posted at 13:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cory Arcangel’s “punk rock 101” (recently talked up here) has been shut down by Google. I don’t know the details, just received this brief email from Cory:

google shut off the cobain thing :(

If you visit now, instead of real ads you see the public service stuff. If I learn more I’ll post it here. permanent link to this post

And of course

posted at 13:34 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The show that we’re not in is opening tonight :-) permanent link to this post

Oct 04, 2006

GH reports from Split

posted at 14:04 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

check it out… Split Festival Quick Report

G.H. Hovagimyan reports on the Split Festival of New Film in which MTAA’s “1 year performance video” was shown. There’s a text review as well as an MP3 interview (direct link) with Branko Karabatic, the head of the festival. permanent link to this post

1ypv reviewed (hebrew)

posted at 13:49 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

If you know hebrew you can read an article about our “1 year performance video” written by Avi Rosen.

Here’s the link. According to Avi this is a “a major Israeli computer & culture site”.

Avi was the first person to view 1ypv for an entire year. Thanks for the ink dude! permanent link to this post

Oct 03, 2006

AFC reviews 8 BIT

posted at 21:59 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(Following Moody’s lead…)

check it out: Art Fag City: Video Game Culture Thrives in New Documentary

The film premiers this Saturday at MoMA.

If you’re planning on going note that MoMA has a really inconvenient admissions policy for their films. You have to buy the tickets in person; there are no phone orders nor online orders. You also need to get them the day of, except “[a] limited number of advance tickets are available, no more than one week in advance of a film” and you pay a buck fifty for the privilege. permanent link to this post

Sep 29, 2006

Cory makes Digg front page

posted at 15:13 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(Yes, this is Cory Arcangel week on the blog (as it always is when Cory has a show opening).)

Just in time for Cory Arcangel’s opening at Team Gallery tonight his net art piece “punk rock 101” made it to Digg’s front page (~~931 diggs at the time of this posting~~ 959 diggs at the time of updating this post).

Check out the Digg post… (with the lame commentary and all)

This net art work is brilliant. Cory has, with one simple gesture, created a work of art that brings into stark relief both mass media’s lurid fascination with celebrity downfall and the commercialization (monteziation in the parlance) of private lives via web sites and services like MySpace and Gmail. We’re both repelled and fascinated by it.

update:
I fixed the title of the piece, originally I had it as “Kurt Cobain’s suicide letter vs. Google AdSense.”

According to Cory, he made 92USD from the page yesterday (when it first hit Digg) and has made 230USD since he launched it. permanent link to this post

Sep 26, 2006

Cory @ Team this Friday

posted at 15:49 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Swiped straight from Cory’s blog…

So, Ive been pretty quiet for about the last 4 - 5 months,…no new projects posted to the web, … even my delicious linking fell off … well that cause I have been working on an art show I have opening this Friday :-) the show is called “subtractions, modifications, addenda, and other recent contributions to participatory culture”. I am happy to be opening Team’s NEW SOHO GALLERY!! There are some new videos, a few computer hacks, and even a 12inch vinyl record. Source code for the projects will appear here eventually, but for now there is just a real world version. So please come and check it out. Here are the details:

Team Gallery
83 Grand Street, between Wooster and Greene
Friday, September 29, 6:00PM - 8:00PM

and here is the press release.

via: Team Gallery Soho Opening! Sept 2006 permanent link to this post

fall travel, part 2

posted at 15:38 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

1ypv at the Split Film Festival, Split, Croatia. permanent link to this post

Sep 25, 2006

fall travel

posted at 13:20 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Eteam’s new project, INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT MONTELLO in Artforum Diary

permanent link to this post

Sep 22, 2006

Rough Want

posted at 15:57 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Our first rough steps into turning Want into the world-conquering video installation that we envision…

permanent link to this post

Sep 21, 2006

you will not need to wrap it.

posted at 17:44 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In case you are still wondering what to pick up for my birthday on Friday, here is a link for the limited edition 75th Anniversary 19’Bambi Airstream Thanks. Love ya. permanent link to this post

Warhol documentary part 1

posted at 13:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, it definitely seemed like a documentary about an artist. I always find it weird when art historians give great weight in dating things really, really specifically (“he started using silk-screen in april of ‘62”). Of course you want to know when things happened, but to use the fact to prop up the fallacy of a progressive linear continuum in art isn’t good history.

Still, I enjoyed the documentary very much.

One thought I had while watching is that what Warhol did for the mechanical image in art still hasn’t been done for the digital image. permanent link to this post

Sep 20, 2006

Burns’ Warhol tonight

posted at 13:51 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Ric Burns’ (no not his brother Ken Burns. I was confused too…) Warhol documentary is airing tonight and tomorrow night on PBS stations (NYT).

Go here to find the schedule on your local station. permanent link to this post

Sep 19, 2006

photo documentation of…

posted at 01:21 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

M. River and the ghost of James Lee Byars permanent link to this post

Sep 16, 2006

In the future everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes

posted at 14:14 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Look. There are lots of photos of Bansky’s opening in LA (scroll down past the celeb photos for the actual art work).

My fave? the bobbies grappling with wildstyle graffiti.

And, of course, the update of Warhol’s prediction. permanent link to this post

Sep 15, 2006

Walton leaves Union Square…

posted at 18:17 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…never to return.

(open image in new browser window for full-size)

Background info here.

Photo provided by Marisa.

addendum:
I’ve decided that it is now my life’s mission to trick Lee Walton into entering Union Square again. permanent link to this post

E7 rolls on.

posted at 12:49 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Earlier this summer, the E7 (Aljira Emerge 7) show was reviewed in the NYT with a nice mention of MTAA’s 3’ High and Rising, Newark. The show gets another good review in the paper toady. This time Holland Cotter gives it his thumbs up. No mention of MTAA (Rats, Holland Cotter is one of my favs) this time but it’s great that the Emerge artist, the show, Aljira and the city of Newark is getting some love and support. Rise Newark Rise.

E7 is slated to come down Sept 30, so check it out. permanent link to this post

Sep 14, 2006

vlog preformance

posted at 16:21 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“the birth of a new art form” ???

Wikipedia tries to sort out the unfolding story of Lonelygirl15 permanent link to this post

Sep 13, 2006

more from conflux 06

posted at 16:18 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

From our art pal Lee Walton, a sad day of self exile from Union Sqaure. No tears Lee, no tears.

On Friday, September 15th effective precisely at Noon- Lee Walton will leave Union Square Park never to return again.

Following a self-imposed life restriction, Walton’s world will get a little bit smaller. In the morning, Walton will be spending his final hours in the park before his departure. Exactly at noon, he will descend the steps of the park and begin walking south in search of a cold valedictory beer.

Any additional company and support on this difficult day would be welcomed and appreciated.

Hint: The 4th floor windows at the DSW shoe store on 14th street yield an excellent view of Walton’s final descent down the steps of Union Square Park. permanent link to this post

Sep 12, 2006

Port Huron Project

posted at 15:30 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Also, as a part of the Conflux Festival, Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun Is Silent Saturday, September 16, 5 PM, Central Park West. permanent link to this post

10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli
2005, web page, $100 worth of deli goods, digital video, wood
Artists' Space, We are all Together: Media(ted) Performance

“10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances” was a list of performance-based artworks that had been rejected by curators at various venues worldwide. An on-line vote via the MTAA website determined which performance was created. Documentation of the performance and voting process was shown as the final piece.

permanent link to this post

Sep 12, 2006

Conflux Festival this week

posted at 13:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Conflux is the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets. Currently in its third year, Conflux will take place September 14 - 17th in Brooklyn. Over 80 artists from across the US and countries including Canada, UK, Spain, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Australia will come to Williamsburg to present projects including experimental walking, biking, boat and public-transport tours; street games and tech workshops; mobile broadcasts, performances and temporary installations.

Get all the info at the web site of course. permanent link to this post

Sep 11, 2006

Sept. 11, 2001

posted at 14:48 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Fuck you George Bush and fuck you to your criminal administration.

Fuck you Dick Cheney.

Fuck you Karl Rove.

Fuck you Donald Rumsfeld.

Fuck all the motherfuckers that took this heinous crime and used it for their own pathetic political powerplays. Their cheap and disgusting tactics have done more harm to the US and the world than 1000 Osama’s could ever hope to do.

Congratulations motherfuckers! Happy September 11!

update 9/12:
A less hysterical take: Olbermann . permanent link to this post

Sep 10, 2006

Cory Arcangel using AppleScript?

posted at 15:16 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s right here in his del.icio.us osx category.

He says:

dont tell anyone, but i might be using applescript for a project……

So… ya know… um, keep it cool. permanent link to this post

Sep 09, 2006

art festival

posted at 14:50 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

back from vacation
permanent link to this post

Sep 06, 2006

Have you no sense of decency, sir?

posted at 14:10 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Keith Olbermann on Bush’s disgusting speech of yesterday:

It is to our deep national shame—and ultimately it will be to the President’s deep personal regret—that he has followed his Secretary of Defense down the path of trying to tie those loyal Americans who disagree with his policies—or even question their effectiveness or execution—to the Nazis of the past, and the al Qaeda of the present.

Today, in the same subtle terms in which Mr. Bush and his colleagues muddied the clear line separating Iraq and 9/11 — without ever actually saying so—the President quoted a purported Osama Bin Laden letter that spoke of launching, “a media campaign to create a wedge between the American people and their government.”

Make no mistake here—the intent of that is to get us to confuse the psychotic scheming of an international terrorist, with that familiar bogeyman of the right, the “media.”

The President and the Vice President and others have often attacked freedom of speech, and freedom of dissent, and freedom of the press.

Now, Mr. Bush has signaled that his unparalleled and unprincipled attack on reporting has a new and venomous side angle:

The attempt to link, by the simple expediency of one word—“media”—the honest, patriotic, and indeed vital questions and questioning from American reporters, with the evil of Al-Qaeda propaganda.

That linkage is more than just indefensible. It is un-American.

full transcript on MSNBC

video on Crooks & Liars permanent link to this post

Sep 05, 2006

More moolah for artists

posted at 13:33 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

United States Artists is going to start dropping $50k on individual american artists as reported by the NYT. Nice. permanent link to this post

Sep 04, 2006

McCoys first solo show in LA

posted at 14:40 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

If you’re in LA this coming Friday brings the opening of the McCoys first solo show in your city! It’s at Fringe Exhibitions:

For their first solo Los Angeles exhibition, the McCoys present two new works. Both pieces are inspired by the language and themes of childhood. In the upstairs gallery, their project Special Things explores a super-charged utopian childhood of cavorting lambs, romping youths, and chiffon rainbows. All of this is rendered sculpturally in fragments across sixteen small hanging sculptures. Each sculpture consists of a miniature scene, a small video camera, and a mirrored word layered across the front of the sculpture. On a nearby screen, images of the sixteen scenes and their words are rapidly intercut, creating new sentences and shifting meaning: “The children feel special today” or “You can smell the flowers”.

In the downstairs gallery, the McCoys present Scary Things whose images come from simple elements of nature that can be frightening to children. This sculpture uses a similar technique of tiny cameras, sculptural miniatures, and acrylic text, but here the terrain is one integrated platform. Although the sculpture contains only ten words, hundreds of sentences are created, forming a reduced poetry of fear: “Dogs are fighting scary things” or “Lost birds are scary “.

permanent link to this post

Sep 02, 2006

Sol LeWitt on new materials

posted at 15:07 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Robbin Murphy reminds us of LeWitt’s warning…

New materials are one of the great afflictions of contemporary art. Some artists confuse new materials with new ideas. There is nothing worse than seeing art that wallows in gaudy baubles. By and large most artists who are attracted to these materials are the ones who lack the stringency of mind that would enable them to use the materials well. It takes a good artist to use new materials and make them into a work of art. The danger is, I think, in making the physicality of the materials so important that it becomes the idea of the work (another kind of expressionism).
Sol LeWitt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art”

I remember taking a photography class in college (I was a painter at the time). I liked it quite a bit and considered changing my focus. But I realized that I was infatuated with the tech, I knew that I would simply follow the tech down a hole. It was the non-tech of painting, I thought, that would help me focus on the ‘art.’

So it’s ironic to me that I ended up working as a new media artist for so long… perhaps this is why we feel part of the ‘new media ghetto.’ It’s a good thing that MTAA has M.River, who, on many levels, doesn’t give a shit about the tech.

M.River adds: Wow. I just found out interweb is not about “trucks”. It’s about “tubes”. Why doesn’t anyone tell me these things? Luckily the government is on top of all of this. permanent link to this post

Aug 31, 2006

Knox Rocks

posted at 12:57 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

1. Cool Karaoke art show in Knoxville with Abe ! and MO ! (and other “a list” art stars.)

2. Check out The Art Gallery of Knoxville’s website. It’s total “jimpuckolinaish”. Right on Knoxville. permanent link to this post

Aug 30, 2006

Schlock artist actually a con artist

posted at 01:26 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The LA Times writes..

The FBI is investigating allegations that self-styled “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade and some of his top executives fraudulently induced investors to open galleries and then ruined them financially, former dealers contacted by federal agents said.

[…]

“It was a program of lies and deception, predicated on Christian values that weren’t there,” said Joseph Ejbeh, the Michigan attorney who tried the arbitration case.

via Boing Boing

addednum:
My wife points out what the The Mercury News wrote about this affair:

Critics - including highbrow art aficionados, satirical bloggers and starving artists annoyed by Kinkade’s marketing success - snicker at his work.

And then asks…

My question is, which category are you in, honey? All three I suspect…. :-)

To which I reply, yes, except for the starving part of course! permanent link to this post

Aug 28, 2006

The Stuckists?

posted at 22:05 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Edward Winkleman blogged about Stuckism today.

I think I missed the joke. Reading the later comments on the post, it looks like it was a ‘movement’ started by Tracy Emin’s pissed-off ex-bf, Billy Childish.

It seems that perhaps it became a real ‘movement’ of not-so-talented painters and that’s when the one of the co-founders (Childish) left. This comment claims to be from the the other co-founder of the group, Charles Thomson.

Regardless of the sincerity of its inception, the painting examples linked from Ed’s blog post are all entirely horrible. Perhaps on purpose? (Who cares?)

You can go to the Stuckism web site (which has a marquee! Is it an ironic marquee? (Who cares?)), or read about it on Wikipedia. permanent link to this post

Aug 24, 2006

gif.art

posted at 12:31 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Some old (way back in 01 folks) tinjail.com gif.art in the new This is (Not) a magazine Issue 18:

“Click to go forward, never go back”

This is (not) a Magazine proffers the new 2-bit-good-for-nothing Issue compiled entirely from animated GIFs made or found by artists working in and around the internet today. permanent link to this post

Aug 23, 2006

Foie gras rebellion

posted at 14:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I love foie gras unapologetically. My wife and I dined on it almost every evening while in Paris on our honeymoon so it will always hold a special place in my heart.

It’s now officially illegal in Chicago to sell it. How stupid. The NYT reports on the foie gras rebellion taking place in the city!

In one of the more unlikely (and opulent) demonstrations of civil disobedience, a handful of restaurants here that never carry foie gras, the fattened livers of ducks and geese, featured it on the very day that Chicago became the first city in the nation to outlaw sale of the delicacy.

Defying Law, a Foie Gras Feast in Chicago

m.river (the non-meat eating part of mtaa) adds: Get over it Tim and Chicago. It’s not good for you, animals and farming in general.

To which T.Whid retorts:
I didn’t say it was good for me, but it’s not like I eat pounds of it a day. It’s a delicacy that I eat, at most, 3-4 times a year. No one’s arguing it’s good for the ducks or geese. But eating an animals liver is never good for an animal. Factory farming is worse for the environment. Regardless, I’m against prohibitions on drugs, alcohol, cigarettes etc. Why would I be pro foie gras prohibitions?

More on foie gras at wikipiedia, including the controversy surrounding it. permanent link to this post

3’ High & Rising, Newark
2006, wooden platform, gallery reception desk
Aljira Emerge 7

Another in our series (1, 2) of gallery reception desk mods/interventions, “3’ High & Rising, Newark” took Aljira’s reception desk and placed it 3 feet above the gallery floor.

permanent link to this post

Aug 23, 2006

Net Art Catch and Release Program 2006 (NA CARP 06)

posted at 00:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

If you find it
If you like it
If it was made in 06

then tag it “net_art_06”

del.icio.us/m.river
permanent link to this post

Aug 19, 2006

Gnarls Biggie

posted at 21:22 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Gnarls Biggie

by Sound Advice

…Gnarls Barkely mashed-up with Biggie Smalls

phat permanent link to this post

Aug 18, 2006

AIOTD - Reception Record

posted at 00:11 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

AIOTD - Reception Record / Self Portrait as an Open Mic.

On October 24, the New Museum bookstore will hold a reception for the Rhizome 06 commissions. The event will include MTAA’s net based audio art work / community ”2bl2”

At the Reception, MTAA will be create a new sound artwork called “Reception Record”. This work is a recording of the reception held for the artwork being produced. In other words, an artwork will be created from the material generated by the celebration of the artwork being created. It’s kind of a horse / cart thing.

Yes, you can say that the New Museum/ Rhizome reception is really for the “2bl2” project NOT the “Reception Record” project (which will be hosted within the “2bl2”) Let’s consider this detail only a small conceptual glitch akin to a hic-up.

So, if you find yourself in New York at the New Museum bookstore on the evening of the 24th of October and you see a microphone standing by itself in some corner, please go say “Hello”. Wish the microphone congratulations. Tell it a story or a joke. Get a few free reception drinks from the bar and chat it up. Have one of those awkward art opening conversations that just drift off and end. “Hey! How’s it going? What have you doing lately? Yeah? Cool…Excuse me, I’m going to go get anpther drink and say “Hi” to someone. Let’s hang out sometime soon” permanent link to this post

Aug 16, 2006

New York Mag does Creative Capital

posted at 20:19 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…with an article full of tired cliches.

Or perhaps they’re just trying to be funny?

Whatev.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

The Times UK does new media

posted at 18:21 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s sort of a weird article that seems to mostly diss new media. Check it out…

I’m proud to say that this…

So are artists at the cutting edge of new-media technology? No, says Charlie. One of the problems is that other stuff on the net is so much more mind-blowing. A site such as Google Earth is so much more awesome and thought-provoking than something an arty hacktivist can knock up on her PC.

…is something I’ve been saying for years. Except the ‘thought-provoking’ part. That’s bullshit.

Artists don’t need to be at the cutting edge of technology to be relevant. They need to be at the cutting edge of expression. Being steeped in digital culture gives new media artists access to new modes or angles of thinking and feeling. permanent link to this post

Aug 15, 2006

Eye Calls

posted at 15:44 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The Residents + MOMA + You + YouTube = New Media Public Art (NMPA)
permanent link to this post

Aug 14, 2006

New media art shouldn’t suck

posted at 21:41 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

AFC has a good post today about the realities of new media artists crossing-over into the larger art world. Here’s the bit that should be common sense to new media artists (but often isn’t):

Unlike many professions, there are a great number of people within the art world who could give a shit about the Internet. […] This sort of thing can create problems for artists who are making work in the medium because the people who understand it best are often the sixteen year nerds [sic] who spend 18 hours a day in front of a computer, as opposed to art world professionals who are responsible for the evaluation of art.

There are some new media artists who cross-over and make it look easy. Cory Arcangel and the McCoys come to mind. Arcangel succeeds by acting a bit like a ethnographer who travels into hacker culture and exports the bits that make sense to the art world. The McCoys succeed by addressing the older tradition of film and not letting themselves geek-out when addressing the art world.

MTAA recently had our worst fears realized when speaking to some traditional art world types about a new piece we’re developing with RSG. We were told bluntly that phrases like ‘peer-to-peer’ and ‘file-sharing’ are jargon and the art world doesn’t give a shit about them anyway. At first, I was defiant. These file-sharing networks are part of the subject of the piece, I told the art world pro. It’s like saying you don’t like apples so you don’t like paintings of apples. It’s just not your subject.

But then we realized, with some help from the art world pro (who’s remaining nameless but was very sharp and helpful), that we were failing to communicate what is interesting about our subject. (At least our 7 minute presentation about the project didn’t communicate it.) What we find interesting and exciting culturally about this technology needs to be expressed to folks in the present that may be ignorant of it or fail to understand it. We also need to communicate to people in the future that may have no idea what happened in the late 90s / early 00s.

MTAA has been wanting to move into the gallery for quite some time now. In order to do so, we’ll need to start thinking that our audience is completely ignorant of digital culture. We can’t expect them to be geeks that are excited about a good hack. We’ll need to communicate our emotion, interest and excitement. We can’t expect them to share it until we communicate every bit of it.

I can’t believe it took me so long to realize this… permanent link to this post

Aug 11, 2006

tin or aluminum anniversary

posted at 12:47 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Congrats to Rhizome for 10 great years.

MTAA will be joining the year long Rhizome party on October 24 at the New Museum bookstore with the rest of the 06 Commissions. (Hans Bernhard and Alessandro Ludovico, Peter Horvath, Jason Corace and Vicky Fang, Andy Deck, Jason Freeman, Sean Kerr, Ethan Ham and Tony Muilenberg, Thomas Laureyssens, and Adriaan Stellingwerff.)

It’s a one night stand and we’ll be doing something with 2bl2
permanent link to this post

Aug 07, 2006

3’ High And Rising, Newark -

posted at 14:45 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

We’re just back from the Creative Capital “Art Boot Camp” to find a review in the NY Tiimes of Aljira Emerge

Tristate Talent Search Hits a High Note

“Mr. Sarff and Mr. Whidden have done their best to be noticed, reinstalling the gallery front-of-house reception desk on a three-foot-high wooden podium. It seems a slightly hostile gesture, for visitors are confronted by someone looking down on them as they enter the gallery. It will be interesting to see what Mr. Sarff and Mr. Whidden have to say about their work during the artists’ talks that accompany the exhibition.” permanent link to this post

Jul 31, 2006

out of the office automated reply…

posted at 23:52 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Dear Internet, MTAA will be away at “art boot camp” for a week starting Tuesday. Please try to be good while we are away. Thanks. permanent link to this post

MTAA’s Limited Edition Business Card #1

posted at 13:59 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA needs to get professional. To that end, we made some business cards. These just aren’t any business cards however. They’re a limited edition print — signed and numbered on the back.

How can you get a free limited edition business card print from MTAA? You must meet us in person and give us some reason to think that you can help us professionally.

This is the first in a series. permanent link to this post

Jul 30, 2006

The dot.com burst and the net art fizzle

posted at 14:17 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

There’s been discussion on Rhizome about whether or not Rhizome is covering net art well enough. This discussion led into a debate on the robustness of net art. Amongst this discussion, there has been several assertions made that the dot.com bust poured cold water on the movement but I wanted to look at it a little more closely.

As some of you know, M.River and I were very much involved with the net art movement from 97 onward. I was also working within the dot.com bubble at the time and was very attuned to its movements.

I remember knowing there was trouble with the bubble in mid-‘00. Then, by late 00/early 01, it was obvious to everyone that the burst had happened. (See this graph of the nasdaq.)

I was out of work in early/mid 00 and it was super-easy to get a dot.com gig at the time due to the fact that the forward momentum of companies isn’t as easily stopped as the rise of their stock price.

Remembering the crash, I was thinking at the time that it would throw cold water on the net art movement and thinking that it didn’t seem to be happening.

Probably due to the fact that museums and art institutions are even slower-moving than businesses, it took a good year or two after the dot.com burst for the net art fad to fizzle in the art institutions. Not to say that the dot.com collapse didn’t help cause it, but it took a while for it to be felt.

m.river adds:

I’ve always thought that the linking of the dot.com boom/bust and the art world’s early interest and then abandonment of net art is a red herring. I feel something else was in play. A clue may be found in the recent championing of art works and artist that use the net as a reference or source but do not use the net as the primary site of the work. permanent link to this post

Jul 26, 2006

The Warriors free screening

posted at 22:09 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

OK, I know this is total corporate PR bullshit…

But! The Warriors! AT CONEY ISLAND!

Wish I was in town :-(

All details here (Netflix promo FYI). permanent link to this post

Artkrush does digital art

posted at 18:27 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

There’s a bunch of new media stuff in the current issue of Artkrush (issue 37):

An interview with Lauren Cornell, Executive Director or Rhizome.org (in which your humble net artists MTAA are mentioned)

A profile of Cory Arcangel

A review of Jon Ippolito and Joline Blais’ book “At the Edge of Art”

And more! Check it out… permanent link to this post

Jul 19, 2006

Some cools things recently found

posted at 15:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

i use this
A Digg-like site similar to MacUpdate or VersionTracker; find the software you need.

freenigma
A Firefox extension to easily and freely encrypt email sent via popular web mail services like Gmail. It’s in beta so you need to wait for an invite once you sign up, I’m still waiting…

American King
A cool new videoblog documentary

Goatse Polo
I want one!

plus

A great Rocketboom today
An interview with David Cronenberg on the opening of his curatorial effort, “Andy Warhol/Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-1964” at the Art Gallery of Ontario. permanent link to this post

Jul 16, 2006

A short interview with RSG about LCL

posted at 19:05 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(via IM)

MTAA: why is it ‘liberated’?
RSG: politically liberated
MTAA: how so?
MTAA: (this is an interview for the blog now)
RSG: lol RSG doesn’t do interviews :-)
MTAA: too late
(a few minutes pass)
MTAA: ok.. i guess i’ll have to print that…
RSG: haha

Check out Notes for a Liberated Computer Language… permanent link to this post

Notes for a Liberated Computer Language

posted at 19:05 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

New from RSG: Notes for a Liberated Computer Language

From the Control Structures section:

Historic
Executes a code block by evaluating an entity according to its current value as well as all previous values.

Exceptional
Designates an abnormal flow of program execution and guarantees that it will never be handled as an error.

Flee
A branching construct that moves flow control from the current instruction to a stray position in the program.

Maybe
Allows for possible, but not guaranteed, execution of code blocks.

Never
Guarantees that a block of code will never be executed. This is similar to block quotes in other languages, except that “never” blocks are not removed during compilation.

Potential
Evaluates an entity only according to as yet unrealized possibility.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

Jul 11, 2006

Designers diss Bush

posted at 15:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Rock on!

Because the Awards program was originally conceived as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the First Lady serves as the honorary chair of the gala at which the winners are celebrated. She also traditionally hosts a breakfast at the White House to which all the nominees and winners are invited. That breakfast was today.

This year, however, five Communication Design honorees decided to decline the invitation. They wrote a letter to Laura Bush explaining why.

permanent link to this post

Jul 10, 2006

MTAA’s gallery reception desk intervention series

posted at 23:50 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, that’s not the actual title of the actual series… or perhaps there is no series? It seems to be more of a pattern. Eh.. what am I babbling about? Oh yeah! Our new piece (that M.River conceived, and today, built at Aljira in Newark as our submission for E7: Aljira Emerge 7 Exhibition (more here)) is pictured below.

3’ High and Rising, Newark
Wood platform, gallery reception desk
2006, MTAA

(Note: this is just a quick pic that M.River took after completing the installation, better documentary photos coming later this month…)

We’ve done this sort of thing in the past when invited into galleries. (Silly gallerists, don’t you know you shouldn’t invite filthy net artists into your pristine white walls?).

Prior gallery reception desk interventions include:

In Preparation For The Over-Running Of White Columns By Hordes of Bloodthirsty Barbarians (AKA Bunker Flood) (In which, we walled in the reception desk of White Columns with cinder blocks and sandbags.)

~and~

In Preparation For An Attack By Mobs Of Hideously Deformed Radioctive Mutants On 31 Grand (AKA Cage Match) (In which, we caged in the reception desk of 31 Grand with chain link.)

The opening for “E7: Aljira Emerge 7 Exhibition” is Thursday July 20 from 5:30 - 8:30 PM at Aljira’s space in Newark. permanent link to this post

Jul 09, 2006

AIOTD - Pirated Movie 2

posted at 13:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

On a slightly lower moral high horse than my last bootleg movie post - It’s that time again. Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest (thumbs up - no matter what the press sez) just came out. This means I’m hunting the subways of NYC for the Bootleg. Once I have the bootleg in hand, it will be time to make the “Pirated Movie 2”

For the Pirated Movie, MTAA took the bootleg and projected it in black and white without sound at Postmasters. We had a group of artist perform a live soundtrack for the film. This one time only performance was recorded and mixed with sections of the bootleg to create a final DVD.

This year, I’d like to mess with the recipe a bit. I’m still thinking about projecting the bootleg silent in black and white but I’d like to try it outdoors without the bands. Just set up some chairs on a sidewalk or in a park and press play. The final DVD will document the results.

hmmmm…at the beach?

twhid adds: let’s just shoot it out your window onto Franklin St. and use the sound! permanent link to this post

bootleg 911

posted at 12:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

James Wagner’s post on Chris Moukarbel took me back to the thought that fueled dc911. If you take our pain for propaganda (and/or profit), we will take your film for art.
permanent link to this post

Jul 08, 2006

Some MTAA exhibition news

posted at 18:12 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We have a few things coming up exhibition-wise…

July 20th, 2006 - September 30th, 2006
E7: Aljira Emerge 7 Exhibition
opening reception: Thursday, July 20, 5:30-8:30PM at Aljira in Newark, NJ.

This is a big group show of a bunch of artists (see link above for a full list of artists) that have taken part in Aljira’s Emerge professional development program.

+++

Split Film Festival
It looks like we’re also be included in the Split Film Festival in Split, Croatia. Unfortunately they don’t have a travel budget so it looks like we won’t be able to attend :-( We’ll be showing 1 Year Performance Video. permanent link to this post

Jun 30, 2006

2006 - 2007 Rhizome net art commissions announced

posted at 20:52 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The new Rhizome net art commissions for 2006 - 2007 were announced today.

Rhizome is pleased to announce that eleven international artists/groups have been awarded commissions to assist them in creating original works of Internet-based art. Each commission will range from $2500 — $1000. The selected artists are Annie Abrahams and Igor Stromajer, Nadia Anderson and Fritz Donnelly, Adam Brown and Andrew Fagg, Corey Jackson and Aaron Meyers, Zach Lieberman, Michael Mandiberg, the Institute for Applied Autonomy and Trevor Paglen, Evan Roth and Ben Engebre, SLOWLab (Carolyn Strauss and Julian Bleecker), Marek Walczak and Martin Wattenberg and YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES.

Go to Rhizome to check out the project descriptions and artist bios.

Congrats to everybody!

As an aside, MTAA’s To Be Listened To… was a 2005 - 2006 Rhizome net art commission. permanent link to this post

Jun 29, 2006

Jill Greenberg’s End Times series

posted at 01:12 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

image © Jill Greenberg
See more at Paul Kopeikin Gallery web site…

There is a bit of controversy on-line regarding the End Times series of photographs by Jill Greenberg. The photographs depict a series of children in differing stages of frustration and rage. It’s basically a bunch of toddlers screaming and crying. Thomas Hawk has gone so far as to call for her arrest on child abuse charges.

The use of a child in any media endeavor (film, tv, theater, art installations, child beauty pageants, etc) is exploitative. Obviously, a young child can’t make an informed decision as to their participation in a particular enterprise so they are all being ‘used’ to some degree.

The question of whether or not the children in Jill Greenberg’s photos are being exploited is simple. Yes they are. But why does Thomas Hawk see this as any worse than the thousands children being exploited everyday in our media? Why does he perceive child abuse in these photographs?

My answer is that the power of the photos overwhelms him; he’s a naive viewer. He sees compelling photos of distressed children and can’t separate the fiction of the photo from the reality of its making.

Hawk is simply a fool. He has no idea what went on in Greenberg’s studio, but that doesn’t stop him from screeching “child abuse” as loud as he’s able. He has no facts, he only has the photos — a fiction — but he recklessly calls for the artist’s arrest. It’s inexcusable. In fact, according to Greenberg’s husband (Hawk posted a comment from him at the bottom of this post), the children were made to cry by having lollipops taken away from them. If that’s child abuse we’ll need to lock up 99% of the parents in this country. Greenberg’s husband goes on to say that this is the industry standard method of getting kids to cry on camera. I have no idea, having no experience and the source of this info is obviously tainted.

This is the part of the post where I’m a dick. I’m trying to figure out why Hawk went ballistic regarding Greenberg, when this sort of thing goes on daily in the media industry. My guess is that he’s jealous. He’s an amateur and not very talented photographer whereas Greenberg is a very successful and enormously talented commercial and fine art photographer. Her End Times photos are incredibly well crafted, beautiful and powerful, whereas his answering photo is trite and cliche.

Note: In the time it took me to start and finish this post (a span of a few days), Jill Greenberg and her husband have done a few not-so-nice things to try to shut Thomas Hawk up. They should have kept the moral high-ground, but they decided to try some bully tactics. Their actions are inexcusable. But Hawk’s a self-rightous fool so I guess it evens out. permanent link to this post

Jun 28, 2006

AIOTD - We Never Get the Chance to

posted at 22:46 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

This AIOTD is a performance/ collaboration between MTAA and another artist in a public space or gallery. At 5pm on Saturdays, members of MTAA bring a coffee or a beer (depending on the collaborating artist choice) to the performance location. MTAA and the collaborating artist have a beer or coffee and talk about what happened last week. When one and only one coffee or beer is done, everyone shakes hands, says goodbye, and walks away. The performance occurs for one month.

update - oh, btw, if you are an artist or a gallery in nyc that would like to do this AIOTD with us this fall, just give me an email. (mriver@mteww.com) thanks. permanent link to this post

Will MTAA ever post again?

posted at 13:57 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

That is the burning question… will MTAA ever post to this blog ever again?

The answer: probably.

In the meantime, read this: Raising the Reblog Bar (AFC).

I’m writing a slightly longer post regarding this controversy, but haven’t finished it yet. permanent link to this post

Jun 18, 2006

I want video angels

posted at 13:55 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

permanent link to this post

Back to Ubuntu

posted at 13:49 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Long, long ago (unsure when; the dates got messed up on this blog) I tried to get into Linux with the Ubuntu flavor. It seemed to work OK for a while, but it eventually failed to boot and I got sick of re-installing it, so I finally gave up on it.

Yesterday, I installed Parallels on my Macbook Pro. Parallels allows you to run different OSs simultaneously. I didn’t have a copy of Windows, so I downloaded Ubuntu and installed it as a ‘guest os.’

Ubuntu has come a long way (I installed 6.06). The installer is easy and user-friendly. It’s basically a liveCD that, once booted, has a one-click installer on the desktop.

According to Parallels, Ubuntu isn’t officially supported, but it works wonderfully. There are some complaints on the forum that folks can’t get it to use the airport card, but it automatically bridged my airport connection and I was on-line with no configuration. There’s also issues with running it at a higher resolution than 1024x768. That’s the default resolution I’m getting, but I haven’t looked into that issue yet.

What am I going to do with it? I’m not sure. I’m also not sure I want to shell out the 50USD for Parallels. Installing Windows on Parallels would be more practical for me (obviously) and may make it worth the 50 bones. Plus, how cool would it be to be a triple-threat: OS X, Linux and Windows all on the same hardware, at the same time! I think I’ll attempt a Vista install, stay tuned. permanent link to this post

Jun 16, 2006

The Fair Use Network

posted at 19:06 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A new on-line resource from the Free Expression Policy Project at the Brennen Center of Justice at NYU School of Law, The Fair Use Network introduces itself thusly:

How much can you borrow, quote or copy from someone else’s work? What happens if you get a “cease and desist” letter from a copyright owner? These and many other questions make “intellectual property,” or “IP,” law, a mass of confusion for artists, scholars, journalists, bloggers, and everyone else who contributes to culture and political debate.

The Fair Use Network was created because of the many questions that artists, writers, and others have about “IP” issues. Whether you are trying to understand your own copyright or trademark rights, or are a “user” of materials created by others, the information here will help you understand the system — and especially its free-expression safeguards.

If you have received a “cease and desist” letter from a copyright or trademark owner, or a notice from your Internet service provider about a “takedown” letter, you’ll also find useful information on this site.

The site contains what it terms “basic legal guides” on copyright, fair use of copyrighted works, trademark and more. I’m assuming this all pertains to US law, but I haven’t looked the site over extensively.

The Fair Use Network, check it out… permanent link to this post

Jun 14, 2006

Let’s get to Home Depot — quick!

posted at 21:15 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Last week, a contractor bought a bathroom vanity at a Massachusetts Home Depot and discovered two 50-pound “bricks” of grass inside. Elsewhere in the state, a plumber purchased a similar product at an unnamed “hardware store” and opened it to find 40 pounds of weed plus 3 kilograms of cocaine. Police and DEA officials have swept a dozen Home Depots in the state and found other loaded vanities.

via Boing Boing… permanent link to this post

Jun 13, 2006

more on culture war 2.0

posted at 15:20 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

President Bush’s brand new chief domestic policy adviser, Karl Zinsmeister, has a few thoughts on contemporary art.

When Art Becomes Inhuman

twhid adds:
This author is one sick fuck. A sample:

Novel writers and film and theater producers have started selling voyeurism, drugs, homosexuality, and pedophilia to middle-Americans at the mall, instead of leaving these things to patrons of peep shows and trendy art galleries. One of the most heavily Oscar-awarded movies of recent years — American Beauty — combined all four of those degradations in one package.

Equating pedophilia and homosexuality — nice guy. permanent link to this post

Jun 12, 2006

Vote for Bill

posted at 19:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s friend Bill Hallinan directed a music video for the musician Maggie Kim. It’s in competition to launch on MTV’s new Korean-American channel: MTV-K. Follow the instructions below to help his video be released on MTV. Watch the video too; it’s really good.

Please go to www.mtvk.com and vote for Maggie Kim’s video for “Obvious (Want You)”.

Don’t vote for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, because they get ALL the candy. They don’t need any more candy. Let someone else have some candy for a change. Let that someone be Maggie Kim.

So, please vote, and help re-distribute the candy.

permanent link to this post

AFC: Geeks in the Gallery

posted at 16:08 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

“Geeks in the Gallery” is a three part discussion with artists Michael Bell-Smith and Tom Moody, which will run on Art Fag City from Monday June 12 – Wednesday, June 14, 2006. A recurring theme of the talk is how technology informs artistic production, as both artists have individually exhibited work usually described as New Media, yet also seem somewhat skeptical of “tech art.”

Check it out…

Discussion at Moody’s blog… permanent link to this post

Want shoot pix on tintype

posted at 14:15 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Some of you may know that MTAA is collaborating with RSG on a networked video installation with the working title “Want.”

This weekend we did the video shoot at a studio in Williamsburg and M.River has posted some pix on his Tintype photo blog.

Check it out…

Big thanks to Bill Hallinan, Margaret Jameson and Sarah Hendrick, our professional and talented crew :-) permanent link to this post

Jun 08, 2006

I want…

posted at 16:06 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

i want forever
i want the full version
i want company
i want michelle marsh
i want amateurs
i want jennifer lopez
i want bibcams
i want taylor hicks
i want robbie williams
i want old school
i want people
i want a special edition
i want perfection
i want 640x480
i want love
i want the original
i want the french
i want donkey kong country
i want robert kiyosaki
i want greatest hits
i want christmas

(a random sample from the shared script) permanent link to this post

Jun 07, 2006

A GLOBAL CREATIVE MOVEMENT

posted at 13:01 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

And speaking of the devil, let’s take a look in Ye Ol’ MTAA mail box…

Here is note from the youth marketing group “Look-Look.”

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO KICK-0FF A GLOBAL CREATIVE MOVEMENT?

from t.whid: Golly, that sounds fun!

Coca-Cola has asked us, Look-Look, to find the most creative thinkers and doers from all over the world to contribute original work to a new website. This collection of videos, animations, songs, photos, paintings, drawings, (and anything else you can dream up) will set the tone — and the benchmark — for a new generation of global creators. That’s why you’ve been handpicked for this invitation.

And it goes on to tell us we have a chance to win an iPod or something if we submit some music or art.

MTAA has always been interested in “setting the benchmark for a new generation of global creators.” I remember that just the other day, T.Whid and I sat around in some dim bar in Brooklyn yakin’ about how could we, as net-based performance and conceptual artists, voice the tone of our generation — even though, now in our mid 30s, we have probably passed the golden moment when each generation gets to self-define as a point of rebellion. At this point, a big dog (one of those pitbull mixes that I like and Tim thinks are ugly) walked into the bar and we lost our train of thought.

Anyhoo.

Although we are a bit busy right now and will not be able to make some new work for Coca-Cola (as loyal sons of Warhol, lord knows we would if given truck loads of cash), we can give you not a drawing or some music but an idea. It is an idea T.Whid and I have been kicking around. It might be the idea that “sets the tone for a new generation of global creators.” Here it is…

“Info-materialism” permanent link to this post

Jun 06, 2006

6-6-6

posted at 15:57 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

6/6/6

Satan’s tuesday MUTHAF*CKERS!

(Sorry to knock M’s post down, but I had to do it.) permanent link to this post

The club is open.

posted at 11:57 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

By the power of the web 2.0, MTAA’s AIOTD - Walton becomes true.

The Aspiring Lee Walton Meme (thanks AFC)

Update: as soon as we get 100 members, we’re going to have a party for Lee. permanent link to this post

Jun 04, 2006

Interview with Paul Johnson

posted at 12:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Paul Johnson interviewed by Jonah Brucker-Cohen. One of my favorite artists interviewed by one of my other favorite artists.

In the generic “plastic brick” design world of game console hardware, the passive player is usually subjected to standardized devices that they may choose to augment with their own “case mods”. Although extremely creative, most of these modifications are embellishments that have no connection to the games themselves. Exploring this contextual rift between mass-produced consoles and their software counterparts is Brooklyn, NY based artist, Paul Johnson. Johnson creates work that challenges traditional console forms by integrating the goals and virtual landscapes of games into the physical realization of the hardware. His projects examine the inherent conflicts between constructed systems and their emotional proclivity. Gizmodo spoke to Johnson about the future of gaming, interactivity, and why the physical design of consoles should be closer tied to the games that they support.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

Jun 03, 2006

Brokeback Mountain & the same-sex marriage ban

posted at 14:53 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

My wife and I watched Brokeback Mountain last night and it was a really great flick. We were both kicking ourselves that we didn’t see it in the theater. The beautiful shots of the western landscape would have been so much more impressive on the big screen, but then we realized that we probably wouldn’t want to by sobbing in public at the end of the movie.

Brokeback doesn’t go for cheap sobs however (you can imagine what lesser filmmakers could have done with it). It goes for the real heartbreak; the “I’ve wasted my life because of fear and bigotry and now there’s nothing I can do about it” kind of despair and tragedy.

Which brings me to the recent news that Bush “is beginning a major push for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage” (NYT). Some discount it as just a cynical political ploy that won’t be passed and it is. But just the talk of it leads to the stigmatization of homosexuals.

Most of the christian right in the USA wraps their homophobia in “hate the sin, not the sinner” claptrap. I’m sure the backers of the same-sex marriage ban will bend over backwards to pretend that they don’t wish to persecute gays, just defend marriage. Even many on the center left (like Kerry) don’t want to use the marriage word, but will endorse civil unions which carry all the rights and responsibilities of marriage except for the crucial semantics. This is all complete and utter bullshit.

Unless you endorse complete freedom for gays and lesbians to marry you add to the persecution of a minority. Even when you endorse civil unions, what you’re saying is “You’re different. You need to be treated differently. You’re not a complete and equal member of this society.” And that, to put it simply, is bigotry, institutionalized bigotry, the sort of bigotry that can lead to an empty and broken life as depicted in Brokeback Mountain.

Signing off (as M.River likes to say) as just another straight white man for gay marriage. permanent link to this post

Jun 01, 2006

AIOTD - Walton

posted at 17:02 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

We like Lee Walton’s art. We also like Lee Walton, as a human being and artist, in general. We’ve talked with Lee about doing an online performance in which our two homepages kinda blur for a day. As in, you’re looking at Lee’s homepage and MTAA walk onto it, look around and then walk off. We also thought about a space on the net between out home pages. It would be kinda like a lounge, a resting place away from the net.

We’ve never got around to doing a project with Lee. I hope we will. In the meanwhile, here is an AIOTD. MTAA’s Unofficial Lee Walton Artist Fan Club (ULWAFC). Send me (mriver@mteww.com) an email to join. permanent link to this post

Lee Walton in Belgium

posted at 13:34 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

check it out…

From what I can gather, there will be postcards and some low-key, almost invisible, art situations in the true better-look-now-or-you’ll-miss-the-art-or-perhaps-you-
just-need-to-look-very-closely Lee Walton style.

There’s a PDF (6.8MB) that sort of explains things. permanent link to this post

Link-a. Policies of affectivity, aesthetics of biopower

posted at 12:04 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA’s Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing in a net group show: vinculo-a.net permanent link to this post

May 31, 2006

Taschen’s “New Media Art” @ NuMu with Rhiz too

posted at 18:58 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Meet the trailblazers of the online collaborative revolution.

Taschen’s “New Media Art: Art in the Age of Digital Communication” is a history of net art movement written by one of its grand poobahs, Mark Tribe along with Reena Jana, Wired reporter and one of the first witnesses (and reporters) of this digital revolution.

Hosted by: Rhizome.org and the New Museum Store
Location: The New Museum of Contemporary Art
556 W 22nd Street at 11th Ave, NY, NY
When: Friday, June 2, 6:30pm to 8:30pm

via: dailygotham

And, yeah, we is in it :-)

update: M.River took a little pic. permanent link to this post

May 28, 2006

AIOTD 3’1”

posted at 19:44 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA’s “3 Feet High and Rising, Newark”

Artwork titled after De La Soul’s 1989 debut album which was titled after the Johnny Cash song “Five Feet High and Rising” (“How high’s the water, Mama?/It’s three feet high and rising”)

MTAA proposes to raise Aljira Center for Contemporary Art’s reception desk 3’1”

The rising of the desk (and chair) will be accomplished by a platform and steps made of salvaged wood from an unnamed New York art museum combined with material gathered from the streets of downtown Newark, New Jersey. permanent link to this post

3’1”

posted at 19:17 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The drawing for MTAA’s “3 Feet High and Rising, Newark”

Context: MTAA is getting ready to make the 3rd in a series of what we like to call “Reception Desk Mods”. We have walled in White Columns’ desk and caged 31 Grand’s. This July, we will raise Aljira Center For Contemporary Art in Newark’s desk by 3 feet 1 inch. More info to come soon. permanent link to this post

May 27, 2006

AIOTD: abandonedcomputers

posted at 12:59 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(If you’re new to the MTAA-RR, AIOTD = Art Idea Of The Day.)

The other day I saw a great still life of an abandoned computer, desk and monitor. The entire set-up was sitting on the sidewalk in the west village. I suppose it was a beige box at one point, but all the plastic (and even the formica desk) had become a sickly yellow color with light tan blotches. It’s hard to describe, but it was amazing and I was kicking myself for not having a camera.

Then, a day or two later, I saw another little set-up on the sidewalk in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. This one was different, a later model that was still a nice chalky light grey. The cheap box had a little blue accent on the front which perfectly matched the little blue VGA connector on the monitor. Again, no camera.

So I thought, “Hey! wouldn’t it be cool if someone created a series of photos of abandoned computers?”

Then I thought, “Hey! Fuck that. This is a networked culture! Wouldn’t it be cool if someone created a web site where anyone could post photos of abandoned computers?” Maybe I, being a net artist, could do that?

But then I thought, “Damn, that would be a lot of work to build a web site for people to upload photos when there’s already Flickr! All we need to do is get the idea out there that people should post photos of abandoned computers on Flickr and tag them: abandonedcomputers.

So. Go do that. Presently there is nothing there.

update
From Marisa: something similar… permanent link to this post

May 25, 2006

Two on NYFA

posted at 14:01 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Discourse Is a Weapon: a Legacy Continues by Paddy Johnson (Art Fag City).

The history of most artistic disciplines is full of figures that fulfilled several roles at once, often out of necessity. When mediums or concepts are new and inaccessible to the writers, curators, and producers who can help solidify and critically frame a discipline, it’s often left to the artist to explain the new thing. Here, Paddy Johnson surveys various New Media artists who, faced with chronic lack of institutional recognition, have proactively shaped the discourse around their medium through writing and curatorial work.

and Hey! GH has some Rants & Raves:

G.H. Hovagimyan is a New York-based artist, one of the first to begin experimenting with digital and online work in the early ’90s. He has curated and participated in shows since the early ’70s and his practice has encompassed poetic manifestoes, “faux conceptual art,” and a notorious 1994 public billboard commissioned by Creative Time titled Hey Bozo, Use Mass Transit, among many other projects. The co-creator (with Peter Sinclair) of the “techno-driven word jam” Rant/Rant Back/Back Rant, it seemed clear that Hovagimyan would be a natural ranter and raver.

permanent link to this post

May 24, 2006

And even more random bits

posted at 14:33 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

del.icio.us network
I just discovered the network feature in del.icio.us. Add me to your del.icio.us network if you want lots of links to js news and tutorials, php news and tutorials, web video, net art and other crap.

If you maintain del.icio.us bookmarks, let me know and I’ll add you to my network :-)

Michael Bell-Smith
MBS has a show up at Foxy Production (~~ends May 27~~ extended through June 3 (thx Barry)) and he’s had a review of it in the NYT. Congrats! Read Tom Moody’s take on it.

The GIF Show
A very belated link. oops.

The GIF Show, an exhibition opening May 3rd, at San Francisco’s Rx Gallery, takes the pulse of what some net surfers call ‘GIF Luv,’ a recent frenzy of file-sharing and creative muscle-flexing associated with GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format files).

permanent link to this post

May 23, 2006

Lee Walton in China (almost)

posted at 22:23 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“Instructed by email from Brooklyn, New York and locally executed by the co-artist and curator in Shanghai, China, Western Shift consists of moving objects towards the West.”

The resulting video Western Shift can be viewed by visiting the following site then clicking on WESTERN SHIFT permanent link to this post

May 17, 2006

Cork’d

posted at 22:02 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Sweet (or dry, depending on your taste): Cork’d!

According to their propaganda:

The simple way to review and share wine.

Cork’d is making life easier for wine aficionados. And it’s completely free. Become a member today and …

* Catalog, rate, and review wines in your Wine Journal.
* Find out what your buddies are tasting.
* Discover and keep track of new wines you’d like to buy and try.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

Free screen capture utility

posted at 00:20 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

A good and FREE (while it lasts) alternative to Snapz Pro:

iShowU by shinywhitebox

check it out… (1.2MB DMG; software is Mac OS X 10.4 only) permanent link to this post

May 15, 2006

Marc Garrett interview on Art Dirt Redux

posted at 20:40 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

G.H. Hovagimyan interviews Marc Garrett of Furtherfield fame via an ultra-cool (and cheap) Skypecast.

Check it out…

direct link to the MP3… (30 min; 22MB)

update
Part 2 of the interview posted (MP3 link, 24.1MB) permanent link to this post

May 13, 2006

Americans = 41% sheep

posted at 22:22 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

This poll is really sad. Technically, a ‘majority’ do indeed disapprove, but I guess I have a higher standard for the American people. Of course, it doesn’t matter if 99% approve of this illegal program, it’s still a criminal infringement of people’s privacy — or so says the US Constitution.

Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans, following this week’s revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone records of U.S. citizens since the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the latest NEWSWEEK poll, 53 percent of Americans think the NSA’s surveillance program “goes too far in invading people’s privacy,” while 41 percent see it as a necessary tool to combat terrorism.

permanent link to this post

May 10, 2006

More Infinite Phil World Tour

posted at 19:45 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey, If you happen to find yourself in Viborg Denmark, This is Not A Magazine is showing MTAA’s Infinite Phil at Senko Studio.

Yeah, yeah…I know I could have put a bunch of links all over this post but I did not. Also, I think Phil now holds the MTAA record for most widely exhibited artwork. S.N.A.D comes in a close 2nd. permanent link to this post

Brooklyn College bullshit

posted at 01:51 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Most of the folks that read this blog are probably already familiar with the Brooklyn College fine art MFA exhibition being closed by the NYC Parks Dept. You can read all about it at the student’s web site, Plan C(ensored) (warning: the trolls are a real piece of work).

I just need to go on the record: what is happening is completely outrageous, disrespectful and disgusting. Argh! James Wagner says it better than me: Brooklyn College: the assault of the philistines continues. permanent link to this post

What new on the 2bl2?

posted at 00:14 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Check out “Thrush Exile” It’s a 10 min. field recording from a creek in West Virginia. Perfect listening for late night emails. permanent link to this post

May 09, 2006

Practical Performances In The Wilderness Part II

posted at 13:58 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

More of Cary Peppermint and Christine Nadir’s series of performance-art videos begun in 2002 are now on DVblog.

Check it out… (direct link to DVblog post) permanent link to this post

May 08, 2006

NYTimes on art fabricators and etc

posted at 00:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The NYTimes is running a story today on the “army of technicians, studio assistants, artisans and engineers” who do the actual work of putting together large-scale (and some small-scale) art works.

I find this article very interesting as we’re working on a fairly large-scale video shoot right now that is requiring lots of folks to help and I was wondering how to credit them. I’m thinking that a large wall label will be sufficient… permanent link to this post

May 06, 2006

Gina and Ronda and myspace

posted at 11:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA knows this very nice pop culture/art/music writer down in Florida named Gina Vivinetto. She also runs a gallery/ music space called Bombshell. Gina makes us laugh.

Also down in Florida is a women named Ronda Storms. She’s the Hillsborough County Commissioner. She successfully banned the county government from acknowledging gay pride “in any way, shape, or form.” She also got gay pamphlets out of the public Library. Ronda make us shake our heads and wonder how bigots get government jobs

Anyways, here is the sad story of how Gina got canned from her job for posting a snarky comment on myspace about Ronda.

TAMPA - A tbt* pop music critic resigned Thursday after acknowledging she had posted negative comments on a Myspace.com profile that parodied Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms.

The messages posted by Gina Vivinetto, a columnist for the free tabloid daily, which is published by the St. Petersburg Times, were “inappropriate,” Neil Brown, the Times’ executive editor and vice president, said late Thursday.

The comments, which Brown declined to describe in detail, were “mocking Ronda Storms in a somewhat sexual nature,” he said.

more from the st. pete times

Note you can go to Bombshell’s myspace site for Gina’s take on the story. Seems “mocking Ronda Storms in a somewhat sexual nature” is not as depraved as it sounds. I think she said posting something about Ronda leaving underwear in Bombshell’s bathroom. Yeah, it’s juvenile but not that depraved. permanent link to this post

May 05, 2006

Is LOST a repeat?

posted at 02:24 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

http://www.islostarepeat.com

One of the reasons the web was invented… permanent link to this post

May 03, 2006

they still show art in Brooklyn (part 2)

posted at 14:15 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Tom Moody at Art Moving Projects. Opens this Friday. permanent link to this post

May 02, 2006

New Media Art by Tribe and Jana

posted at 01:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Mark Tribe and Reena Jana’s book “New Media Art” published by Taschen is coming out soon. I’m unsure of when it’s being released in the USA, but I received a letter a few days ago that MTAA would be receiving our comp copies soon since we’re included.

Here’s a complete list of the artists in the book:
Cory Arcangel, Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Vuk Cosic, Mary Flanagan, Ken Goldberg, Paul Kaiser and Shelly Eshkar, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Mouchette, MTAA, Keith and Mendi Obadike, Radical Software Group, Raqs Media Collective, RTMark, and John F. Simon Jr.

There are lot of duos and collectives. I guess it’s the nature of new media. Congrats everybody! permanent link to this post

May 01, 2006

Cary Peppermint & Christine Nadir, Practical Performances

posted at 15:10 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Chapters from the DVD “A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness - Summer 2005” will be posted (three at a time) on DV Blog starting May 1st.

“A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness, Summer 2005” is a video performance work made in the woods and on rural back-lots. Performative chapters on the DVD include, Move This Rock, Waiting On Bob, DoAble, Home Economics, Sticks Like Snakes, Digging for Chicory, and Springwater Finale. This video is the first in a series of forthcoming performance-art videos by Peppermint & Nadir which engage issues, ideas, and mythologies of the American concepts of wilderness, space, the frontier, and humans’ ethical relation to animals, forestlands, and nature. permanent link to this post

Apr 30, 2006

Bway April 29, 2006

posted at 13:20 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cross-posted from tinjail.

permanent link to this post

Apr 29, 2006

March Today

posted at 12:04 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

It’s a wonderful spring day in NYC. Please join MTAA at today’s anti-war march. info here permanent link to this post

Apr 27, 2006

AIOTD Newark

posted at 15:42 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA will be making a new site and /or performance based artwork for a group show in downtown Newark New Jersey this July.

Newark? Yes, Newark.

Yes, we could use some help on this. If anyone has any bright ideas, feel free to email them in. Our self imposed production budget is around 100 bucks. So, think small. If you do send in an idea and we go for it, let’s call it collaboration. Here are some of my random thoughts on Newark so far. train ride. monorail, airport, swamp, throwing rocks at Manhattan, warehouse, museum, park, parking lot, kids, sea containers, goggle maps, helicopters, port, planetarium, perfume factories, abandon car,

Oh… and here is MTAA’s late “happy birthday” to the Port Newark born Containerized Shipping. CS turned the big five-0 yesterday. Congrats permanent link to this post

Apr 22, 2006

Godamnit Apple! stop being a dick

posted at 14:24 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

This from a company that’s says “Think Different”:

A California court in San Jose on Thursday is scheduled to hear a case brought by Apple Computer that eventually could answer an unsettled legal question: Should online journalists receive the same rights as traditional reporters?

Apple claims they should not. Its lawyers say in court documents that Web scribes are not “legitimate members of the press” when they reveal details about forthcoming products that the company would prefer to keep confidential.

via c|net…

So let me get this straight. For their own purely selfish motives, they are willing to get a court to decide that press freedoms don’t apply to the internet.

That’s fucked. And they’re fuckers for doing it.

If there was a reasonable alternative to my beloved iPod and OS X… (grumbling in an impotent sort of way) permanent link to this post

Apr 21, 2006

Miro estate axes Google logo

posted at 13:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yesterday, Google was using a logo inspired by the work of Juan Miro, but Miro’s estate complained and Google removed it.

What a bunch of dopes — the Miro estate I mean. According to the estate, the logo uses elements of Miro’s paintings, ie, it wasn’t simply ‘inspired.’ I call them dopes because not only is it an ad for Miro with the sort of reach that his estate could probably never hope to attain but it was selfish of them as well. They harm all artists with this censorious action. The visual arts are so marginalized in contemporary culture that a high profile homage to a great artist helps all artists.

The bright side is that it will probably get more attention because of this little spat.

More here… and here (digg comments). permanent link to this post

Apr 20, 2006

N. H. 5 D.!

posted at 18:19 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I’m beginning to think, that T.Whid thinks, that some of my posts (like the one yesterday) are a bit…vague. He might be right but here it is. MTAA High Five, T.Whid.

Brooklynvegan notes that it’s NATIONAL HIGH FIVE DAY

Also of note: Nintendo RBI Baseball video reenactment of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series permanent link to this post

Apr 19, 2006

Triple Candie

posted at 13:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Cady Noland Approximately: Sculpture & Editions, 1984-1999

Cady Noland from a Google Images search

twhid update:
Tom Moody has more… permanent link to this post

Apr 18, 2006

rantapod

posted at 19:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

GH Hovagimyan’s rantapod, now on iTunes.

Check it out…
(you must have iTunes installed for the link to work)

Here’s a direct link to the XML. permanent link to this post

Apr 15, 2006

To Be Listened To…

posted at 14:30 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We have a new(-ish) web project on-line called “To Be Listened To…” (aka 2BL2) and we need you to help it grow.

2BL2 is a collection of podcast feeds that anyone may add to. It’s very simple to add new audio files to the feed and you can even upload MP3s (10MB limit) to the site and add them to a feed.

Upload your audio, add it to a feed, tell your friends!

Check it out… permanent link to this post

Apr 14, 2006

Go to tintype

posted at 20:21 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I haven’t been posting much, but M.River has been posting up a storm over at his tintype photoblog. Check it out…

Why are all those people on Franklin Street? permanent link to this post

Apr 13, 2006

What’s new on the net?

posted at 15:18 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is a small gem from the MTAA-RR email bag.

Emo + vLoging + Ohio + a dog = the state of the net

MTAA Notes: It’s all in the Tags folks. permanent link to this post

Apr 12, 2006

Final 4

posted at 17:25 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I’ve been to blue to post about this but here it is.

“When the final buzzer sounded, the dejected-looking [MTAA] trotted off the floor, their magical ride at an ugly end.”

sniff.

Congrats to Instant Coffee permanent link to this post

WMD

posted at 15:38 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

or “the biggest sand toilets in the world.” ?

permanent link to this post

Apr 09, 2006

what’s playing on 2bl2?

posted at 13:20 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In my dream, ECC speaks to me of Bjorkeley permanent link to this post

Apr 07, 2006

Weil takes over Artists Space

posted at 17:14 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

According to Artnet.com’s ArtNet News for April 04, 2006, Benjamin Weil has been named director of Artists Space.

Benjamin Weil, the founder of the pioneering digital art website ada web in the mid-1990s and adjunct curator of media arts at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, has been named director of Artists Space in SoHo. He succeeds Barbara Hunt McLanahan, who was recently appointed director of the Judd Foundation.

Hmm, no mention of his tenure at Eyebeam.

Congrats to Benjamin! Wonder if we’ll see more of an emphasis on new media at Artists Space?

Via Rob on Thingist. permanent link to this post

Apr 06, 2006

This guy is my hero

posted at 21:32 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Check it out…

He told Bush to his face:

Okay, I don’t have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate…And I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself…

Of course the chimp acted like the arrogant frat boy he is. A real class act. permanent link to this post

“Among the Trees”

posted at 12:56 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Lee Walton’s new work “Trees” opens this Friday at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey Visual Arts Center of New Jersey permanent link to this post

Apr 05, 2006

Boot Camp — holy shit!

posted at 13:23 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

On Apple’s site: Boot Camp Public Beta, boot Windows XP on your Intel-based Mac! Holy Shit again!

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.

permanent link to this post

Apr 04, 2006

Back from Ohio

posted at 21:19 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Just got back from Ohio where I gave a short talk on MTAA’s art work at MTAA’s alma mater (both M. and I attended CCAD and received bachelors degrees).

We had a great time and (I hope) fun was had by all. The faculty and staff were also very gracious and welcoming and the school seems like it has come a long way since I attended.

We also had (surprisingly, for Ohio) good food. (Yes, I let a tad of the NY snob creep into that last sentence.)

There was also a video tape made of my presentation. If there are any tasty bits perhaps they’ll be posted on this site in the future. permanent link to this post

they still show art in Brooklyn…

posted at 13:07 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

If you find yourself in Brooklyn this weekend, check out the Momenta benefit. I have a small painting named “Locker” in the show. Last year, ”Softsoft” was pick up by James and Barry. So, you know that if you get “Locker” for your collection, you will be in high class company.

Also in Brooklyn this weekend, the answer to the age old question - “Can appropriation, at the core, be a subset fan art?”

The Matthew Barney Show curated by Eric Doeringer permanent link to this post

RU READY TO ROCK? I said…RU READY?

posted at 00:10 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

OK…(actually, this post will NOT rock, but here it anyways…

To Be Listened To…(2bl2) is now open for you to enjoy and activate. Big thanks to the artist who supplied 2bl2 with “seed” work to get things going. Please feel free to jump in and add some sound.

To Be Listened To… (2bl2 for short) is an open relay for sound art, audio blogs, mashups, re-mixes, dance mixes or any other sort of experimental audio. 2bl2 is comprised of 10 thematic podcast feeds with 8 open feeds to which anyone may post an audio file. Each feed’s name, along with the original ‘seed’ post, sets its tone.

1. …as you sit in front of your computer around midnight (prologue). By MTAA

2. …in a bar in Brooklyn on a spring Sunday afternoon, sipping a Bloody Mary, waiting for your love to appear. - with seed project “Troy’s (Non)Mixtape of Love” by Marisa Olson

3. …with eyes closed in a theater before a movie starring Brando begins. - with seed project “Cushing’s Disease” by Helen and Ben

4. …as you commute to the job you are thinking of leaving once again. - with seed project “DJ Hump” by Frankie Martin

5. …before calling 911 while waiting for something outside to stop fucking screaming. - with seed project “coma loveship” by : Pee In My Face With Surgery

6. …while sitting on your kitchen floor holding a photograph of your father. - with seed project “What Kind of Information? “by Cary Peppermint

7. …in a park in Europe as you wait for the sun to rise and the snow to stop. - with seed project “Did It Again “ by G.H. Hovagimyan

8. …in a hotel near the Everglades while having sex in the afternoon. - with seed project “Everglade” by Messages [Taketo Shimada + Tres Warren (Psychic Ills)]

9. …while running, but not running as in jogging, running as in blindly racing though the streets without direction or goal. - with seed project “Running” by tinydiva (Margaret Jameson Composer, Performer and Producer. Add’l Guitars by Thomas Jameson)

10. …as you fall asleep in the bed in the place that you call home (epilogue). by MTAA

So, have fun. Sit in bed with your headphones on. Make some noise. Interact. Thanks. permanent link to this post

Apr 03, 2006

found art on the MTAA-RR?

posted at 14:16 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I was just looking at the MTAA-RR Archive and noticed something strange. It seems as though we have been either 1. hacked or 2. we’ve unknowingly created some weird results when we moved the blog a few months back. Tim’s away till Monday, so we’ll have to wait on the answer for the time being.

Until then, check the new found MTAA-RR archive for the year 1970. Note: what sucks about this is that we do not have a working archive for the site at this point. permanent link to this post

Apr 01, 2006

tintype

posted at 13:15 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

dvd still project 06

One jpeg from each dvd I rent and watch by myself in 2006. Jpeg is shot without pausing the dvd. permanent link to this post

Mar 31, 2006

It’s my birthday

posted at 17:23 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

On this day in 1969, I was born.

So far I’ve gotten an Airport Express, a DeWalt cordless drill and 3 nice shirts. Plus, nice cards and well-wishes.

Off to Columbus, OH tomorrow to speak about net art and MTAA at my alma mater. I’ll let you know how it goes. permanent link to this post

Mar 29, 2006

Baghdad: peaceful, calm

posted at 17:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

I’m not sure many of my loyal readers know that I’ve just returned from an extended trip to Iraq. What I found was surprising. The right-wing is right, there is no civil war in Iraq and what violence there is, is being greatly exaggerated by the media. Below is proof!

enlarge image

Look how calm, orderly and peaceful this downtown intersection in Baghdad is!

(If you don’t get the joke, see this, this, this and this.) permanent link to this post

Mar 28, 2006

Paddy interviews Cory

posted at 14:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City has an interview with everyone’s favorite computer-geek/artist Cory Arcangel on a web site called Fanzine.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

MTAA at the big dance…

posted at 12:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Update on Collaborative March Madness

Concept Trucking / Leisurearts just wrote to say -

“MTAA has made the final four as a number 11 seed! Your success was modeled/is hitched on George Mason University’s in the NCAA tourney. I will be posting an updated bracket soon! Guess you better start rooting for the Patriots to win it all.”

twhid adds:
I have had zero (or, more likely, negative) interest in this so-called March madness… until now! Go George Mason!

(more update)
The chart is updated. Check it out… permanent link to this post

Mar 25, 2006

graphpaper.com: no graph paper for sale

posted at 15:15 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Chris Fahey: artist, information architect and all-around über-geek has transformed his graphpaper.com into a well-written and insightful blog on just about everything to do with web tech and design.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

Mar 23, 2006

busy, busy, busy, busy, busy

posted at 22:47 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Been busy.

Robbery
They might have caught the guy that stole our stuff. Not sure if/when we’ll get the stuff back.

I scored a new Mac mini g4 to replace one of the one’s that got stolen; these things are getting harder to find now that the intel version is out.

Birthday
My birthday is the 31st of this month, feel free to send me money via paypal.

I’ll be 37 and that’s getting pretty old.

For the last two years we’ve done the Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship on my birthday but we’re not doing it this year. If anyone wants to steal the idea you have our blessing. permanent link to this post

Mar 20, 2006

first round

posted at 01:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

just got an email that MTAA is in some sort of March Madness permanent link to this post

Mar 19, 2006

The fucking USA is nuts

posted at 15:51 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

When a citizen can have more faith in their slot machine than their voting machine, you know you’ve got a problem. permanent link to this post

Bloggy has a ton photos from the fairs

posted at 15:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check out Bloggy’s Flickr set of the recent New York art fairs. He’s got a ton of great shots, it’s almost like you didn’t even need to go yourself… permanent link to this post

Mar 16, 2006

Paddy’s day is the 18th

posted at 20:26 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Not *St.* Paddy’s day, I’m talking about Paddy Johnson. The Art Fag City blogger wants to stay in the States (with the Bush admin ruling it’s unclear why) and you can help her out!

To find out how, go here for the more details… (direct link to the invite)

(I was thinking about posting this but once I read AFC’s interview with ARTList, in which she mentions MTAA as one of the most influential artists working today, I just had to didn’t I? Thanks Paddy :-)) permanent link to this post

McCoys interviewed on Artinfo

posted at 02:13 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Their latest exhibition, “Directed Dreaming,” opened at Postmasters Gallery in New York on March 4.

It comprises a series of complex, kinetic sculptures that are covered with tiny tableaux that they call “fragmentary, miniature film sets.” An array of tiny cameras are trained on these tableaux, and, as part of each installation, a sequence of greatly enlarged images are projected on to a wall of the gallery. The works are at once funny, bizarre and somewhat worrying. Immediately after the opening at Postmasters, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy spoke to ArtInfo about their work.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

Mar 15, 2006

Oil Standard

posted at 18:27 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Michael Mandiberg’s new net art project: Oil Standard. Check it out!

This is a wonderful piece of net/conceptual/political art. Good job Michael! permanent link to this post

net art prints…

posted at 13:45 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

SNAD Read me
CNAD Remix
SNAD and CNAD together at last. permanent link to this post

Mar 14, 2006

IOTD - Website Visitations

posted at 13:47 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

While packing up the Rhizome show at Scope, Lee Walton told me his cool idea for a MTAA / Walton net art project. The idea is to somehow blur the lines between the websites for a day. Not linking the sites but blending them a bit. He described it as akin to the 5 Small Videos “On/Off” project but on other artist homepages. I liked the idea of avatars for MTAA and an avatar Walton wondering around each others pages or just walking off together to get a beer. permanent link to this post

Mar 13, 2006

MTAA in the studio

posted at 15:16 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check out this interview with us: MTAA in the studio on “Hello?” a video blog by Mica Scalin.

We talk mostly about “10 Pre-rejected, Pre-approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli.”

~~This video will eventually be posted to DVBlog, we’ll update when it happens.~~ It’s up on DVBlog, check it out… permanent link to this post

Mar 10, 2006

MTAA has bad luck

posted at 15:08 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Installing at Rhizome’s All System’s Go at the ~scope New York art fair yesterday, could more have gone wrong?

Things seemed to go fine until the entire building was evacuated by the FDNY. That wasn’t horrible, except that it pre-empted the press preview.

The bad part was after we got back. Our piece, 1YPV, had been shut down by someone and rebooting the computer wouldn’t work. I’ve never had this happen on a Mac before. On boot, I kept getting an error message telling me I needed to reboot the computer. Disk utilities supposedly fixed problems, but the computer wouldn’t read the hard disk as the boot disk or even recognize the hard disk as a drive capable of installing an OS. It seems the hard drive died :-(

Luckily, Jason Van Anden was there and offered to loan us a Mac mini for the duration of the fair. I’m heading over there soon to set it up. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks for all the help Jason! permanent link to this post

Mar 05, 2006

Two openings last night

posted at 18:14 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Saw some good, good work in Chelsea last night. My beautiful wife and I attended 2 openings, both of friends of ours.

The first was Inka Essenhigh at 303 Gallery. Inka’s a long-time friend (I’ve known her since college) and her current show is really fantastic.

“In Bed,” 2005 (link to larger image)

I’m unclear as to when Inka moved from painting with household paint to oil (the paintings at 303 aren’t the first, but I think the earlier ones were shown in Europe). Inka’s use of line has always been phenomenal and now with the oils, she has added brilliantly executed volumetric forms and space. For me, this creates a richness to the picture, a greater depth and complexity.

It also allows her to add more detail to the faces, fingers, toes etc. Which is interesting, since they seem to be more and more resembling her figurative work from college. (The more things change…) Her work in undergrad was very figurative and I’m proud to say that one of the only portraits in existence by Inka is of yours truly. I’m continually conniving a way to gain possession of it but it belongs to her parents! :-(

+++

The next stop was Jennifer and Kevin McCoy at Postmasters for their exhibition entitled “Directed Dreaming” (press release).

The show consisted of two major new pieces: “Double Fantasy II (sex)” and “Dream Sequence.” Both pieces follow the formal and technical achievement of their seminal work “Soft Rains.” They are mini-sculptural tableau’s with bunches of tiny video cameras driven by software algorithms to cut together never-ending cinematic narratives.

image of “Double Fantasy II (sex)” photo courtesy of Tintype

The McCoys’ work is great, in my opinion, for their formal technical achievements. Their work effortlessly marries sculpture (sometimes kinetic, bonus!), video, film and new media. There is a lot of complex technology going on, but it never interferes with the work. The way their work externalizes the usually hidden processes of film-making I find endlessly fascinating. The twisted metal tubes that hold the cameras and lights reminds one of those robots from “The Matrix” and work as a metaphor for the hungry beast of the entertainment-industrial complex, greedily and endlessly slurping up images.

image of “Dream Sequence” photo courtesy of Tintype permanent link to this post

Mar 04, 2006

SNAD readme for March 2006

posted at 14:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In March you will be able to go the Scope Art Fair in NYC and buy a 16” x 20” framed print of MTAA’s Simple Net Art Diagram (SNAD) for 625 USD. The weird part is that you could, at this very moment, download the SNAD digital graphic file from this site, blow it up into a 16” x 20” graphics file using any number of popular graphics editing programs, take it to a printer and then to a frame shop and have the exact same thing that we’re selling. This process will cost you less than 625 USD (it would run you under $250, depending on your choice of frame of course, we suggest something heavily and deeply carved with lots of gold leaf).

Actually, that’s exactly how we created the print we’re selling. M.River downloaded the Illustrator version from the web, imported it into a 16” x 20” Photoshop document, scaled it to fit comfortably in the frame of reference and then sent it off to a digital output joint.

So. What’s the deal?

First, the SNAD is free. Yes, thanks to a generous Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license, you can do with it as you will. Which naturally leads to this question: If it’s free, what are you buying for 625 bucks?

The answer: Production.

Yes, that’s right. You will be paying for the cost, time, and expertise of having MTAA make the work for you. As the production was done by a member of MTAA, the work may be thought of as an “Official Production SNAD” or, more obtusely, an “OP-SNAD.” However, it’s completely legal and even encouraged for others to print their own SNADs and sell them. If you buy a SNAD print from someone other than a member of MTAA you will have an “Entrepreneurial Production SNAD (AKA EP-SNAD). If you print it yourself, you will have a “DIY Production SNAD (AKA DIY-P-SNAD)”. For us, EP-SNADs or DIY-P-SNADs are both nice choices for your home, office, gallery or museum. Although, if you’re short on time, have the money and can actually find one, an OP-SNAD is the way to go.

If you happen to buy a 16” x 20” OP-SNAD, what will keep MTAA from making more? The short answer is “nothing,” but there are some reasons that we probably won’t:

1. We’re lazy.
2. We tend not to repeat ourselves. Sure, someday we might make a 48” x 60” on canvas OP-SNAD or maybe a 32” x 40” light box OP-SNAD, but chances are you will be the only one in the world with a 16” x 20” OP-SNAD from 2006.

Get it? Got it? Good.

(Note, this is a rare post that was written by both members of MTAA. The first draft, by M.River, was edited by T.Whid for this final version. It should probably go in the Texts part of this web site, but it seems too time-relative to belong there.) permanent link to this post

MTAA @ Upgrade! Joburg

posted at 14:22 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check it out: a wrap-up of Nathaniel Stern’s presentation of our work at Upgrade! Johannesburg.

Thanks again Nathaniel, wish we could have been there. permanent link to this post

Mar 02, 2006

Some early Whitney Biennial posts from blogs

posted at 18:18 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

There’s bloggy’s post (includes a pic):

My first impression is that there are a lot more artists with whom I was unfamiliar, unlike the previous one. I’m pleased to see that, because I don’t want the Biennial to show a lot of work that regular New York-based gallery-goers have already seen.

And there’s also an Art Dirt Redux podcast:

2006 Whitney Biennial. Actual artists statements mixed with Rob & my comments. The first mash-up of its kind. The statements are as inane as the exhibition. Oops, am I being insensitive? The political stuff was OK. Deep Dish TV was great. The big deal was the remake of Di Suvero’s Freedom Tower from the 1960’s protest days. It’s a simulation of an actual protest piece.

Don’t miss one of the curator’s blogs (wink wink, nudge nudge).

update:
Artnet’s review by Jerry Saltz

There’s some Flickring going on over there too. permanent link to this post

Mar 01, 2006

Near perfect commute

posted at 14:41 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Every once in a while an NYC commuter falls into a little eddy of calm in the maelstrom of rush hour. You can’t plan it — don’t even try — just enjoy when it happens.

Today I had that pleasure. First, the train arrives just as I’m walking onto the subway platform (2/3 Borough Hall station in Brooklyn). It’s timed perfectly: I don’t need to rush; I don’t need to wait. Entering the train, a prime end seat in the sparsely populated car presents itself. Before sitting down, it’s offered to an older woman; she declines. What luck! a perfect guilt-free seat.

After that, nothing happens — that’s the point. I sit quietly listening to my iPod (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and reading my book (“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” — yeah, I might be going thru a 90s revival…). Arriving at the 34th and Penn station, it’s also quiet and easily navigated, practically ushering me with white gloves to my comfortable office where I sit typing this. permanent link to this post

Feb 28, 2006

MTAA in South Africa

posted at 16:17 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, we won’t actually be there in person, but we’ll be there via the mediation of Nathaniel Stern. He’ll be presenting our work at the Upgrade! Joburg.

Check out the cool poster:

permanent link to this post

Feb 26, 2006

McCoy’s @ Postmasters 2006

posted at 15:23 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I don’t try to hide that the McCoys are one of my faves. Opening soon:

March 4 - April 8, 2006
JENNIFER and KEVIN McCOY
“Directed Dreaming”

Postmasters Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Directed Dreaming, the third New York solo exhibition of Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. The show will open on March 4 and will be on view until April 8, 2006. The reception is planned for Saturday, March 4, between 6 and 8pm.

In Directed Dreaming, the McCoys present four new sculptures that use movement to explore anxiety. The title of the exhibit refers to practice of willing oneself to dream about specific situations in order to resolve conflicts in one’s waking life. The works in Directed Dreaming fuse cinematic, personal, and historical images to become visual records of those conflicts, with the question of resolution left open to the viewer.

The two major sculptures in this show expand on the McCoys’ 2004 installation Our Second Date by further exploring the artists personal history, fantasies, and memories. Second Date incorporated miniature models of Jennifer and Kevin intercut with views of a meticulously crafted miniature scene from Godard’s Weekend. The works in Directed Dreaming splinter the couple’s shared autobiography.

In Double Fantasy II (sex), the McCoys represent themselves as nine year olds, drawing on a child’s scant sexual understanding to generate fantasies of their adult selves. With this technique they each reach back to a time when their ideas about love and sex were created from an amalgam of observations from television, popular culture and playground gossip that was hopelessly far from reality. In that these sources provide only the broadest of gestures, Double Fantasy II is an autobiographical take on the importance of genre. Formally, the work is a two-sided sculpture containing miniature film sets that fragment and isolate bodies at once fetishized and romanticized. The images captured by the tiny cameras cut together quickly to form a stream of consciousness meditation on the elusive subject of nascent sexuality and childhood imagination.

In Dream Sequence, the McCoys examine how sleep becomes a filter through which objective reality becomes fantasy . The work consists of a two-sided, 3 feet in diameter revolving circle, each side corresponding to the dream world of one of the artists. Using an obsolete trick of early cinema, a partially reflective mirror superimposes the sleeping artists against mutating landscapes. The resulting double projection physicalizes the dream worlds of each artist’s psyche. Kevin sees a helicopter unloading soldiers in a bleak landscape. Jennifer dreams of floods that segue into suburban resort swimming pools. The artists abandon the cinematic idea of editing with its jarring ruptures and discontinuities and instead set in motion a fluid self-sustaining world in front of the camera and in front of the viewer.

Included in the show are two wall mounted sculptures from the Clouds series that explore the vocabulary of a unending one shot film. In Clouds 9 and Clouds 10, cameras are trained on moving cloud formations to create suggestions of unknowable and yet moving and possibly ominous events.

permanent link to this post

Feb 23, 2006

Eathon G. Hall, Jr. 1965 - 2006

posted at 22:15 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Horrible, horrible news!

Eathon Hall 1965 - 2006

Received from Aljira where Eathon was the Program Director:

It is with deep sorrow that we must inform you of the passing of Eathon G. Hall, Jr., who died in a tragic accident on Friday, February 17, while on vacation in Brasil. Eathon returned to Newark last year as Program Director of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art (from March 1996 through January 1999, he was Assistant Director of Education at the Newark Museum) following his tenure at the Bronx Museum of Art where he served as Curator of Education for five years.

On Thursday night, February 16, at a V.I.P. reception on the occasion of Aljira’s most recent installations—Sudan: The Land and The People; Children of Darfur: Gen Genocide; and Khalid Kodi—Eathon was publicly recognized by Aljira’s Board Chair Charles Russell and Executive Director Victor L. Davson for his innovation and for the engaging experiences in visual culture that were under his development at Aljira. Future collaborations he intitiated include Mexican Vogue with the Newark Museum, Planet Hip Hop with New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Do You Think I’m Disco?/B-Side with Longwood Arts Project.

His passing is a great loss to Aljira and to the larger cultural community, and we will all miss his spirit, commitment and leadership.

A memorial service for Eathon Hall will be held on Monday, February 27, 11 a.m. at the Macedonia Baptist Church in Harlem. It is located at 452 W. 147 St. between Convent and Amsterdam. Phone: 212 283-7973. Further information about the interrment and reception will be available at the church.

We got to know Eathon during the Aljira Emerge program. He was very dedicated, smart and organized and there was always a sense of joy about him.

This is just terrible. My deepest sympathies to his family, friends and to the staff at Aljira.

m.river adds -Very sad news. Eathon was a sweet man who was into helping artist live a better lives. Sympathies to all as well. permanent link to this post

new media, the low points

posted at 20:33 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

hahahhahahh… remember flash mobs? haaaaa ahaha. permanent link to this post

Feb 22, 2006

One of those why-I’m-not-posting posts

posted at 14:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m not posting here, I’m not posting there or there either.

There’s just to many places to post these days. And I’m busy.

Gotta get the thing done for Rhizome, gotta revise the budget for that grant, gotta cash that check, gotta buy a new studio computer (2 actually and a monitor), gotta call that place and get that information so I can revise that budget, gotta do something for my Mom’s birthday (already got most of that done Mom don’t worry), gotta call that other place, gotta print that thing, gotta figure out how we’re gonna show that piece at that fair, gotta get ready for the Ohio thing, gotta do my taxes, gotta book summer air fare, gotta gotta watch LOST and I’m probably forgetting stuff… permanent link to this post

Feb 18, 2006

Fuck the fucking fuckers

posted at 23:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s studio was burglarized the other night. We lost about $1600 worth of equipment: 2 computers, a monitor and a small PA speaker.

It really sucks.

I’ve been fearful of this happening, and now it has. Luckily our projector wasn’t there and nothing that was stolen isn’t replaceable; but laying out dough to replace it is going to be painful.

m.river adds -if you find on-line or on the street, someone trying to sell a mac mini with the case sprayed silver or one with KDM 100 software installed. Send us a line. Yeah, 1 to 1,000,000 chance but it could happen. Thanks permanent link to this post

Feb 17, 2006

ma.gnolia.com

posted at 20:01 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Does ma.gnolia.com want to lay a bouquet on del.icio.us’ grave?

Similar name (the dot thing), similar service (social bookmarking), schmancier design (by zeldman’s Happy Cog) and you can import from del.icio.us. Hmmmmmm.

I leave it to the you to decide… permanent link to this post

Feb 16, 2006

Found Art

posted at 13:29 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

R. Mutt’s Blog

twhid responds: so. fucking. funny! permanent link to this post

Feb 15, 2006

Found on Eyebeam’s reBlog today

posted at 14:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

sledgehammer-operated keyboard, 2005
silicone, wood, computer, projector

It actually looks more like a rubber-mallet operated keyboard, but why split hairs?

It also reminds me of Perry Hoberman’s Cathartic User Interface which was fun, fun, fun! permanent link to this post

Feb 14, 2006

If you’re reading this…

posted at 01:49 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…then you’ve successfully found your way to the new home of the MTAA Reference Resource. Congratulations.

Be sure to update your bookmarks! The new URL is: http://www.mtaa.net/mtaaRR

We had some issues with our other server where MTEWW.COM resolves. I didn’t really want to move everything (including the domain) over to this server, so I just moved the blog and fowarded it from the old domain to this domain.

Is this a big deal for MTAA? Not really. It’s just a pain in the ass.

If you see any problems, please let me know. permanent link to this post

Synopsis of MTAA’s Upgrade Presentation
2000, please see The Upgrade! documentation

Please visit The Upgrade! web site in order to read a fictionalized account of MTAA’s presentation to The Upgrade! group in June of 2000.

MTAA report on etoy.com’s TOYWAR and interview agent.NASDAQ
2000, originally published on artbreak.net

1. Background Story (as all good computer games need)

Once upon a time, 1994 to be exact, there was a European net art group called etoy.com. etoy spent its young years practicing cultural mischief. They modeled themselves as a hybrid of social art and corporate structure.

Beat Up by Grade School Girls in Drag, M.River’s Report on SissyFight 2000
2001, a shorter version of this text was originally published in Sandbox #9, Gender Play

A general confession: I wasted WAY to much time last summer hanging out on the playground of PS 666 dressed up in a catholic school girl’s uniform with my new punk rock hair style. I tried to get with the "cool crowd" by destroying the reps of little girls. I taunted and scratched them to no avail. In the end, I failed. I was deemed a bully and in general, "totally uncool". I am, in what passes as reality these days, a 33 year old male who spent to much time last summer enjoying the gender/social twisting online game SissyFight 2000.

Non-Spectator Performance Art
2001, from Limited TIME!® Only

This genre of performance art isn’t solely Internet-based but was born on the Internet; initially identified by T.Whid in late 1997 or early 1998 after attending a chat-based performance in which the chat had been projected for the audience to follow along.

Interview With Yael Kanarek
2000, originally published in Sandbox #8, BANG

Yael Kanarek’s World of Awe is the documentation of a fictional traveler exploring a magical landscape in search of a lost treasure. We encounter the traveler through an interface which is both magical and mundane. It looks suspiciously like a Mac or Windows desktop—there are icons on the desktop and pull-down menus at the top of the screen. But click an icon or choose a pull-down option and you’ll be instantly transported to the world of the traveler, The World of Awe.

Yael Kanarek builds World of Awe through images of desert landscape, descriptions of the traveler’s tools, pages from the traveler’s journal, and love letters that the traveler sends to a lover left behind. All these elements are seamlessly integrated through the interface, which is a wonderful technical use of dynamic HTML, much of it written by programmer Luis Perez.

Defunct in Ohio
2003, by M.River, orginally published in the SMAC! zine

Prologue
SMAC! co-founder/editor-in-chief Marisa S. Olson emails me from the warm future-perfect paradise that is California. She asks me to write an essay on obsolescence, the defunct, and, in general, the Technology of What Was. A thousand words by New Year’s.

Of course… umm… sure. I know all about the obsolete.

In a few days I will travel, as I do each year, from New York City to Ohio, for Christmas with my family. In Ohio, in Christmas, I will find the What Once Was.

Conceptual Art in Relation to MTAA’s Net Art (formatted for chat)
2001, performed live via streaming video and chat during the "Warhol Hijack"

Lucy Lippard (noted art critic) describes conceptual art as "[artwork] in which the idea is paramount and the material form is secondary, lightweight, ephemeral, cheap, unpretentious and/or ‘dematerialized’".

Net art may be loosely defined as art which uses the internet as one of it’s primary components.

This art history lesson will begin with Marcel Duchamp, inventor of the ready made.

Website Unseen
one hundred titles for art web sites that MTAA will build for $US 100.00 per web site

1999-2002, web sites, variable

We sometimes think that this piece is the best example of MTAA’s net art practice. It’s best to see the original offer then follow the links on the titles list. But we’ve included individual links to the projects below.

Website Unseen
This list is roughly in chronological order (earliest to latest).

link to work | permanent link to this post

vieweratstar67@yahoo.com
(the 3mb annexation)

2000, web site, Yahoo!

Best explained by the original proposal:

MTAA propose to extend the exhibition space of star67 gallery, brooklyn, by the amount of 3 megabytes of disk space on the servers of yahoo.com.

vieweratstar67@yahoo.com was great fun while it lasted, but sadly the piece was lost when someone changed the password. link to work | permanent link to this post

Visual—Text Art Venue (V-TAV)

1999, web site

What was this? Good question. It’s sort of exactly what it says it is. OK, it was an on-line gallery which had 3 or 4 shows. We suggest you go and check it out and find out for yourself. link to work | permanent link to this post

TIME!®

1997-2002, web sites, prints

This project is the very first net art work that MTAA ever made.

We actually created four versions of this work all linked below:

Buying Time: The Nostalgia-Free History Sale(1997)
Shudder. Did we really think that this was a web site?

TIME!® The Clearance Sale(1997)
Seems to be getting a little better…

TIME!®(1998)
This is the classic example archived at Rhizome’s ArtBase. It is also where The Simple Net Art Diagram made it’s first appearance.

Limited TIME!® Only(2002)
We did this version right after 9/11. It was nice simply having (basically) a design project which didn’t take much creativity. This version was included in the show Multiple Personalities at Haine’s Gallery in San Francisco curated by Amy Davilla. link to work | permanent link to this post

Updates Series

2001-2004, web sites

We sometimes ‘update’ seminal process art from the 60s and 70s. We have three in the series thus far.

onKawaraUpdate
Created with Alex Galloway as a splash page for Rhizome.org.
vitoAcconciUpdate
Commissioned by The Whitney for a gate page on their Artport web site.
1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate)
A 2004 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.

link to work | permanent link to this post

The School of Conceptual Clay

1999, web site

The SOCC’s mission statement says it all:

The goal of the School of Conceptual Clay is to promote the study and practice of conceptual clay.

Conceptual Clay was invented by M.River & T.Whid as a metaphorical activity and an open-ended collaborative performance commenting on the digitization of former analog practices and techniques.

We’re not really running the school any longer. link to work | permanent link to this post

99 Steps To Contemporary Art In Your Bedroom

1999, web site & commercially printed poster

Not strictly a net art project, this piece was originally created for a curated print publication called “9/9 Revue d’Art Pratique,” but M.River built a web version.

It’s a text-heavy piece to say the least. English with french translation by Stéphane Argillet. link to work | permanent link to this post

Signature Series Canceled

1999, web site

MTAA described the Signature Series this way:

The MTAA Signature Series is an attempt to maximize mindshare in the online art market while maintaining the economics of scarcity on which the traditional art market depends.

Yes, but what is the Signature Series Canceled? link to work | permanent link to this post

Manual Zoom Mirage (CC licensed image)

2003, bitmap and vector images

Technically not on-line art, this piece was created for a solo show at Rome Arts in Brooklyn, NY. The piece took the form of postcards and a large framed print installed in a custom standing frame.

We’ve placed creative commons-licensed images online in a variety of formats including Adobe Illustrator vector art (zip archive). link to work | permanent link to this post

Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing

2003, web site; Flash, HTML, Javascript

Five Small Videos About Interruption And Disappearing are inspired by early video-based performance art work. MTAA were intrigued by the repetitive gestures and everyday actions in early video art performances. These Five Small Videos are MTAA’s update of the forms and themes of this earlier video work.

Commissioned by The Alternative Museum, Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing has proven to be very popular and has been included in the Seoul Net & Film Festival 2003 (in the Interactive/Web Art section); exhibited at <Pause> (an on-line group exhibition presented by mobilegaze.org); was featured in a net art article in Parachute #113; and is included in the net art section of VideoZone2 — The 2nd International Video Art Biennial in Israel (opening 11/17/04). link to work | permanent link to this post

Direct To Your Home Art Projects

1997-1998, web site, e-mail, artifacts

DYHAP is really just documentation of a net art work which MTAA conducted via email and postal mail from November 1997 to November 1998 (13 months).

This piece worked like this: Each month a Direct to Your Home Art Project was sent out by email to listservs (Rhizome, Fluxlist and American Express) as well as to the DYHAP mailing list. Each email contained instructions on how to fabricate and install artwork in ones own living space. In exchange for documentation of the installed artwork each collector of a DYHAP received an official signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity. link to work | permanent link to this post

1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate)

2004, web site with Flash

link to higher resolution image

1 year performance video continues MTAA’s series of Updates. Our Updates resound seminal performance art from the 60s and 70s in part by replacing human processes with computer processes.

1 year performance video updates Sam Hsieh’s One Year Performance 1978-1979 (aka Cage Piece).

When a viewer enters the piece she is presented with side-by-side videos of the artists trapped in identical cell-like rooms. The artists go about the mundane activities possible within a cell: in the morning they wake and breakfast; at around 1PM and 7PM they eat; sometimes they exercise; sometimes they surf the net; sometimes they sit and stare at the wall; they piss; at around midnight, they go to bed.

The viewer is meant to watch this activity for one year.

But, in the work we only mimic endurance; the videos are pre-taped clips edited at runtime via a computer program so that each viewer sees a different sequence. The audience can just close the browser and walk away. No one needs to suffer on this one; failure is built-in at the front end.

1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate) is a 2004 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. link to work | permanent link to this post

veiweratstar67@yahoo.com Gallery Interface
2000, large format inkjet print, computer, Yahoo!
Bi-Virtue, star67, Brooklyn, NY

Original Proposal:
MTAA proposes to extend the exhibition space of star67 gallery, brooklyn, by the amount of 3 megabytes of disk space on the servers of yahoo.com.

permanent link to this post

Win Our Friendship
2000, C-print, index cards, pen, wooden box
Me & My Friends, 57Hope, Brooklyn, NY, USA;
friendly fire, project, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;
(718): A Bridge To Brooklyn, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, US

A framed photograph announcing the opportunity to win the artists’ friendship for one month.

permanent link to this post

Happy Fun Summer Rebellion
2000, performance installation: wooden signs, customized police barricades, food, beer, certificates
A Day At The Beach, PS1 Art Center, Queens, NY

MTAA barricaded themselves into an area of the PS1 courtyard on a misty summer day.

permanent link to this post

Pirated Movie - A Pirated Screening of The Pirates of The Caribbean
2003, DVD-Video documentation of a live performance
Postmasters, New York, NY

Pirated Movie was a screening of a pirated version of Disney’s Pirates of The Caribbean, The Curse of The Black Pearl. The pirated video was screened in black and white and silently while five of NYC’s most interesting artists, DJs, and musicians provided a completely new soundtrack live during the screening.

permanent link to this post

IN PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER AIR IN BROOKLYN TO RISE FROM THE CONCRETE IN A MANNER WHICH DISTORTS ONE’S ABILITY TO JUDGE DISTANCE AND MEANING (AKA MANUAL ZOOM MIRAGE)
2003, postcards, digital C-prints, custom plywood frame, digital images
Rome Arts, Brooklyn, NY

MTAA created a single, digital image for a solo show at Rome Arts.

permanent link to this post

Contemporary Gargoyle—Black (Soap) Box
2002, plywood, telephones, C-print, recorded messages
The Omega Manual, Smack Mellon Studios, Brooklyn, NY

permanent link to this post

Lo-Fi Message Board
2001, chalk board paint, chalk
Creative Time's Cell Lounge at The Meat Market Art Fair, New York, NY

Lo-Fi MB was a temporary site specific installation.

permanent link to this post

In Preparation For The Reversal of Gravity (AKA Flying Buttress)
1995-2001, industrial springs, cement block, C-prints
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY; Tipping Point, White Columns, New York, NY

Originally a site specific installation by M.River (AKA Mike Sarff) at Socrates Sculpture Park,

permanent link to this post

Direct To Your Home Art Projects Museum Model
1999, custom table, architectural model, doll house furniture, ephemera
Our New Stealth Model of Careerism, Walden Gallery, NYC, NY; Studio-Visit.com - the show, 31 Grand, Brooklyn, NY

This sculpture is documentation of MTAA’s famous Direct To Your Home Art Projects (DYHAP) which were conducted online and via the US mail from November 1997 through November 1998.

permanent link to this post

Endnode (AKA Printer Tree)
2002, plywood, inkjet printers, 8 1/2" x 11" office paper, cables, computer, email discussion lists
Beta Launch: Eyebeam Artists in Residence '02, Eyebeam Atelier, New York, NY

Endnode is a networked sculpture that literally and figuratively represents the branching of the Internet. Printers nested within the plywood branches of a large “tree” produce hard copies of emails that fall to the ground like leaves or apples, becoming “endnodes” in the worldwide information flow. The general aesthetic of the piece is home-made “Franken-tree.” The emails come from a list created for the project that is centered on art, technology, and communication. Online avatars M. River and T. Whid guide the project.

Visit www.endnode.com for details, images, mailing list archive, and other information. permanent link to this post

Dig: A Search For Captain Paine’s Ill-Gotten Loot
1997, tourist brochure/map, record album, certificates
Convergence International Arts Festival, Providence, RI

A treasure hunt through downtown Providence, RI. MTAA distributed brochures throughout the city in hopes of luring the citizens into a mass treasure hunt.

permanent link to this post

DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix
2004, digital video
RNC NODE, Postmasters, New York, NY; The Thing, New York, NY

A guerilla edit of the pro-Bush propaganda film DC 9/11 - A Time of Crisis. The video is a collaboration between new media art duo MTAA, video artist bodyatomic and musician/DJ tinydiva.

permanent link to this post

Restless Crowd Control
2001, video installation, barricades, slide projections
Good Bad Art Collective, Brooklyn, NY

Restless Crowd Control was an environment created for a performance night.

permanent link to this post

In Preparation For An Attack By Mobs Of Hideously Deformed Radioctive Mutants On 31 Grand (AKA Cage Match)
2003, chainlink fence, blue tarp, 2x4, flourescent light, digital C-print
Dealer's Choice, 31 Grand, Brooklyn, NY

Cage Match was a site specific installation at 31 Grand, a gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

permanent link to this post

Art Film Slide Advertisements
1997-1999, 35mm slides
4 Walls Slide & Film Club, 4 Walls, Brooklyn, NY; miscellaneous other venues

The Art Film Slide Advertisements are shown before screenings of art films, lectures, panel discussions, or performances.

permanent link to this post

In Preparation For The Over-Running Of White Columns By Hordes of Bloodthirsty Barbarians (AKA Bunker Flood)
2001, cinder blocks, sand bags, C-print
Tipping Point, White Columns, New York, NY

Bunker Flood was a site specific installation at White Columns in NYC.

permanent link to this post

1 Year Performance Video (installation version)
2005, plywood, Homasote®, felt, stage, domestic goods, digital video and custom software
not yet exhibited publicly

[click for a larger image]

The “1 Year Performance Video (installation version)” recasts the set of 1 Year Performance Video as a sculptural tableau with the 1YPV vidoes projected on the rear wall.

Custom-built software runs two video channels independent of one another. Once the software is started it’s programmed to run for one year. The number of days the software has been running is displayed above the video.

The entire stage is rebuilt and encloses the piece. permanent link to this post

Feb 12, 2006

You, Motherfucker

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We realized today that this is probably our best piece EVER!

“The You, Motherfucker Flag”

See the online version, The Webpage For Planned Self-Obsolescence (AKA Even In The Line To The NYC DMV, One May Think Of Art).

Update
The flag was sold to someone in Canada. If it was you, please contact us. If you know who has it, please contact us. Thanks. permanent link to this post

Yet more MTAA hype

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yes, this is MTAA’s blog and we’ll hype ourselves if we want to.

The other night at a small reception for Rhizome ArtBase 101 at the New Museum I got some very good news.

First, I learned that Rhizome had considered making 1YPV its first ever limited edition art work. For some reason it couldn’t work out. Sucks that it didn’t happen (yet), but it’s nice to know people are thinking about ya.

Second, Mark Tribe told me that he thought 1YPV was one of the best New Media artworks ever. No offense to Mark, but you just can’t tell an artist something like that. Our egos are big enough already :-)

Third (and the really, really good news), Mark said that he’s including MTAA in a book on New Media art that he’s writing with Reena Jana for Taschen. That rocks. permanent link to this post

Yet even more Artstar.tv

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

On the RHIZOME_RAW list, Marisa Olson asks this question (re: this post),

I feel compelled to ask (of him or anyone here who cares) what comprises this “fine line” between the two extremes of “good Pop Art and a sickening psychophantical [sic] homage to the dominant media culture”..? And must all art that appropriates the form and/or content of popular media fall into one or the other of these extreme categories?

(As soon as I saw my words quoted back at me I thought, “Psychophantical? That’s not how you spell sycophantical.”)

Marisa goes on to say,

Where does parody fit in, because to me, for something to be truly successful, on a parodic level, it has to be highly imitative—and, hence, to some degree, reverent, even if only in the sense of (let’s say) what Jameson calls “nostalgia films,” which are not necessarily acting in praise… To me, it is this act of shadowing (miming, resulting directly from, yet in contrast and however shape-shifted) that best affords the opportunity for critique. Admittedly, it is sort of an act of relinquishing some of the sense of “value” implied in models of authority (read: authorship), in order to sort of free one’s speech, ie to protest.

What comprises the fine line? I don’t know, but I know it when I see it. Parody, it seems to me, is neither Pop Art or ‘sickening’ sycophancy. Good Pop Art doesn’t seem like straight-up parody to me as it’s critique isn’t as implicit. You’re not quite sure if Warhol is critiquing popular culture or celebrating it. His best pieces (and his life) seem to have a conceptual shimmer. One is unsure of his intentions. Nonetheless there always seems to be a critical text in there somewhere… it’s just hard to pin down sometimes.

I don’t think Artstar.tv is intended to be a parody. Perhaps I’m wrong. It also doesn’t seem to be intended as Pop art. It just seems to be a regular ole reality TV show (which btw will air on the Zoom hi-definition satellite network) using reality TV conventions and grafting them onto the art world. This is only speculation, but there doesn’t seem to be a critical text or sub-text in sight.

But anyway. I also wonder how TWhid (& MRiver) would situate their 1 year performance project re: reality tv—and if they see similarities, then have they given us “good Pop Art [or] a sickening psychophantical homage to the dominant media culture”? ;)

1YPV doesn’t have anything to do with reality TV or Pop art IMO. Since reality TV is so heavily edited there isn’t really any formal connection. The closest thing it comes to is the 24/7 web-cams that Big Brother used to have online.

Thanks for the discussion Marisa :) permanent link to this post

Yes, this Williamsburg

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Talk about hopelessly clueless. Check it out: Williamsburg, Brooklyn is full of hipsters! Quite the scoop.

We bought a couple of Zywiec beers and some pirogi, then headed for the gilt-framed stage. Packed onto the honey-colored wood floor (polished by the polka?), hundreds of jeans-clad fans waited for the headlining act, Spoon. Touted as the next big thing for years, the Austin-based art rockers took the stage, all sharp drums and crisp guitar riffs, sounding like they’d finally arrived. This corner of Brooklyn felt like it had, too.

BTW, Cary Peppermint and I were the the forefront of the hipster Zyweic (pronounced something like jev-yitz) beer craze.

via No, Not That Williamsburg - Washington Post permanent link to this post

Yahoo! APIs

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yahoo! has released their Developer Network. The Developer Network provides documentation and an SDK to help folks get started using the new APIs they’ve released to access Yahoo! web services. The APIs allow anyone to get results for an image search, video search, web search and more. All query results are delivered in an open XML format:

The results returned by the service are in XML which varies per service.

There has been lots of net art which uses search queries or results as the basis of the project (Cory Arcangel’s Dooogle and Thompson & Craighead’s Beacon being two recent examples). And now Yahoo! is making it super easy to use dynamic, live results in any sort of web-based art work. They provide examples in the SDK in a number of languages including Javascript, PHP, Python and Perl.

One caveat however, you must have an application ID to identify your application to the system and they limit the frequency by which you can query the system.

These rate limits are imposed independently for each service and are typically in the thousands-per-day per user range. See each service’s documentation for the individual limits.

This might be a problem for web-based software. The rate is limited by IP#, so a web site would look like one user to the system. The Image Search is limited to 5000 queries per 24 hour period. That doesn’t seem to be a great deal of queries for a popular web site. permanent link to this post

The Yes Men’s hi-jinks

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Yes Men bill themselves as “honest people [impersonating] big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them.”

Their latest prank was infiltrating a Heritage Foundation conference in Chicago and making fools of the fools. From the Yes Men web site:

At the Heritage Foundation’s annual Resource Bank meeting in Chicago last Friday, protesters masquerading as a right-wing think tank took the stage and announced that in light of Bush’s shortcomings, they were nominating former Reagan Attorney-General Ed Meese for president.

The audience applauded for nearly ten seconds.

Read all about it and see pix and video at the Yes Men’s web site. permanent link to this post

What a bunch of losers!

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Wrapping crappy XP in an aqua-like look don’t make it a Mac.

Try the real thing why dontchya? Truly pathetic. permanent link to this post

It Felt Sooooooo Good

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I called the evil XO this morning and canceled my account.

Baby. It felt soooooooo good.

Our loyal followers will remember that XO is the POS hosting company that has been robbing us (well, me) blind with their service fees. You can read all about it here.

This morning I finally —finally— escaped their grasp, this is how the call went:

them: Good morning, how can we help you this morning.

us: I want to cancel my account

[bunch of gibberish that isn’t interesting]

them: May we ask why you are canceling your account today?

us: Because you provide horrible service [pause] and it costs too much.

[bunch more gibberish of no interest]

I know, I know, he was just some schlub answering the phones, but it still felt soooooo good. They’ve cost me at least a few hundred dollars in overpayment over the years (compared to other hosting companies) and it felt nice to finally get away from them. permanent link to this post

XML translation of Dan Graham’s “Schema”

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Found An XML translation of Dan Graham’s “Schema” via the netoworked_performance blog.

Hardcore conceptual art of the 60s meets hardcore information geek technologies of the 00s.

Ya gotta love it!

See the original Schema at ubuweb. permanent link to this post

www.pulp.href - +(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f) - #########0|\|E

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

http://www.jimpunk.com/www.pulp.href/

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jimpunk rulez permanent link to this post

Work sample video

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Download the video here (03’28, 27.4MB, .MOV).

MTAA is applying to a ‘professional development’ program. They accept all sorts of artists, but they take only slides or video for documentation in the application.

d’oh!

So we whipped up a video showing samples of eight pieces of ours: The Simple Net Art Diagram, Endnode, 1 year performance video, The Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship, Pirated Movie, DC 9/11 EDR, Infinite Phil, and Five Small Videos.

Download the video here (03’28, 27.4MB, .MOV). permanent link to this post

Williamsburg + space elevator = bad

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Join the fight!

(Unashamedly reblogged from reBlog who reblogged it from BoingBoing who got it from somewhere else.) permanent link to this post

Wordpress and DreamHost

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

M.River’s site, tinjail.com, was moved over to a new hosting service recently. It’s now being served by DreamHost.

DreamHost really rocks, I recommend them (tell them twhid referred you please). One of the many niceties they offer is one-click Wordpress installation.

I hadn’t played around with Wordpress before, but it is really nice. Makes me wonder if I should move this blog over to it. Right now we’re running on Blosxom, which I like very much, but it’s written in Perl, and I don’t know Perl very well. Wordpress, on the other hand, is written in PHP. I know PHP much better and could possibly hack it more easily than Blosxom.

Hmmmmmmm. permanent link to this post

Wild speculation

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Is Eyebeam behind Arianna Huffington’s soon-to-be-released HuffingtonReport.com?

According to paidcontent.org (via a Business 2.0 article), HuffingtonReport.com will be,

[…]in the mold of Slate and Salon, with, get this, guest bloggers ranging from Sen. Jon Corzine, Larry David, Barry Diller, Tom Freston, David Geffen, Vernon Jordan, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Harry Evans and his wife, Tina Brown.

Her business partner is Ken Lerer, the head of AOL-TW’s corporate communications in the Bob Pittman era.

Along with the celebrity cred, these super-busy bloggers may not actually blog, but e-mail or phone in their posts: “We’re setting up a system wherein you’ll be able to e-mail or phone in your latest take, which our editorial team will fact-check and turn into a blog post.”

The site’s soft launch is apparently set for April.

Also, according to paidcontent.org, HuffingtonReport.com is registered to none other than our favorite contagious media geek and Eyebeam R&D Director: Jonah Peretti! (confirmed through whois.)

This is probably a side project for Jonah and not an official Eyebeam deal. Jonah is a genius at getting things noticed online, perhaps the publisher of the site decided she needed some of the ‘ole contagious media mojo that he can provide? We shall see… permanent link to this post

Wide-angle will work? Yes it will.

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This post is for mriver, it won’t be very meaningful to anyone else.

I did some tests with the wide-angle lens I borrowed from Bill with good results. I posted a JPG that you can check out, follow this link. This is simply cropped from a still I took from the video camera. I didn’t capture any video and test it yet. The frame of reference in the still may be different than the video. But the wide-angle lens looks like the way to go. We can get a lot closer. There is a bit of fish-eye effect, but I don’t think it’s horrible.

update: I examined a still I grabbed from the video as well. It looks good as far as cropping it the way we want it (didn’t post this image, sorry). I’m going to experiment with the actual video next using the tools we’ll use for the final output. It’s looking pretty good. I’ll put a flash video version of it online when I’m done.

Let me know what you think. If you go to the studio, don’t move the tripod (or mark it before you do). permanent link to this post

Wichita State backs down

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Wichita State University has announced that the Emily Jacir exhibition scheduled to run January 20 - March 6, 2005, at the Ulrich Museum of Art will do so without any conditions.

Elizabeth King, Vice President for University Advancement, released the following statement late this afternoon:

“Wichita State University is aware of the discussion generated by the scheduled exhibition of work by artist Emily Jacir at the Ulrich Museum of Art. The University is committed to going forward with the exhibition without conditions or limitations that could be considered to compromise the integrity of Ms. Jacir’s work as an artist. The University appreciates the widespread interest in the artist and the exhibition.”

via: From the Floor: Emily Jacir Exhibition to Proceed without Conditions

It’s good to see that all involved came to their senses. permanent link to this post

Why show in a gallery?

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

In the comments of this post, an anonymous reader writes:

I’d be interested to know why you made the decision to try and show in galleries. Do you feel you are having to find ways to “shoehorn” your stuff into a format that fits.

Good question.

MTAA have always created physical work in conjunction with our on-line work. Our first net art work, TIME!®, used the web as a component of what was really a sort of relational art work. This piece was eventually shown in a physical permutation at a show we did in 2000 at Walden Gallery. Actually we made physical versions of a bunch of our stuff for that show, including the V-TAV and the DYHAP Museum Model. So it’s not really something new for us.

You can see a bunch of our off-line art work on this web site too. So, it’s nothing new for us really.

The difference is now, we’re really pushing to make some headway into the gallery world. This means a lot of things.

On the production side, it means conceptualizing projects in such a way that they work as net art and sculptural or physical objects too (like our printer tree). It means coming up with ideas that hold our interest in digital materials, but also make sense in a gallery context (ie, it can hang on a wall, sometimes without electricity). And it means producing art-like artifacts that are documents of networked or digital activities or collaborations.

As for why now? I’m copping-out today. It’s late on a Friday evening, I need to chill. permanent link to this post

White people are mutants

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is pretty old, but I thought it was interesting and I haven’t posted much this week…

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology’s most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity’s greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person’s offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world’s races.

via washingtonpost.com - Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin permanent link to this post

What is Karaoke Deathmatch 100?

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Artist collaborators MTAA (M.River and T.Whid) went head-to-head in a karaoke deathmatch over the weekend as they both performed 50 songs in a row while drinking heavily and gargling Chloraseptic®.

M.River’s drink of choice was a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. T.Whid swilled sake from a champagne flute (he doesn’t recall the brand).

The video footage taken of the event will be assembled into an installation video as well as an online artwork.

Think of this as the trailer to the video: KDM100 - behind the scenes (quicktime 7 required (sorry Windows users), 37 seconds, 9.8MB) permanent link to this post

Which NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist Are You?

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Take the test here.

I’m embarrassed to say that I’m Maureen Dowd. I knew choosing the lottery numbers for the fortune cookie question and ‘The appalling machismo of the Bush administration’ for the last question would push me into Dowd-ism. I wanted to be Krugman of course.

Fun, but easy to game if you read the NYT Op-Ed page often. permanent link to this post

Welcome to t whid’s Homepage

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is NOT t.whid’s home page.

Strange. permanent link to this post

Welcome to the police state

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Just heard on Air America that there will be random searches on the NYC subways.

Link to the NYTimes article

From the NYTimes article:

[MTA spokesman] Mr. Kelly acknowledged that the random searches were without precedent, but added that he hoped riders would not consider the actions an inconvenience.

No, not inconvenient; just flouting basic american liberties, no inconvenience at all, really. Would you like to look down my undies too? Grab that flashlight and those latex gloves, I want you to check my anal cavity too please.

I may have more ranting later, but this is COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT. We can only hope the ACLU is preparing some sort of legal action.

Guess I’ll have to start riding my bike to work. permanent link to this post

Welcome 2 my Artshow!!!!!!!!!

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cory Arcangel at Team.

Opens January 13th, 2005. From the press release:

This exhibition, entitled Welcome to my ~~Homepage~~ Artshow, is the first solo show in New York by Arcangel, a founding member of the Beige Programming Ensemble. The show includes a number of new hacked Nintendo game cartridges - the work that Arcangel has become known for - and a number of new works in the medium of video. In the former group are a fully interactive Ipod® programmed for the Nintendo® system and an absurdly slowed down version of Tetris®. In the latter group are Sans Simon, a video of Simon and Garfunkel in which the artist uses his hand to hide Simon’s presence, and Geto Boys/Beach Boys in which videos by the two eponymous bands are played side by side creating an oddly harmonic synchronicity.

[…]

The show at Team […] marks the launch of dooogle.com, a search engine which only yields results about Doogie Howser, M.D. Also available is a new piece of software called T.A.C. (Total Asshole Compression), a program which increases the size of any file passed through it.

More at Team Gallery permanent link to this post

Weird NYT arts article

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A group of established artists have been gathering for invitation-only figure drawing sessions, an exercise that had fallen out of fashion.

[…]

Only a few years ago, the idea of artists gathering to paint from a model would have seemed impossibly old-fashioned and hokey - and if the model was female and nude, sexist to boot. Yet for nearly three years now, a number of artists - not students putting charcoal to paper for the first time, but successful artists with established styles and audiences of their own - have flocked to Mr. Cotton’s weekly invitation-only sessions

via: Trendy Artists Pick Up an Old-Fashioned Habit

I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I find this article sort of strange. First though, congrats to everyone mentioned. It’s always good to get a mention in the NYTimes.

I was trying to figure out if the writer really believes that it’s unusual for painters to gather and sharpen their drawing skills or if this was just some sort of not-so-subtle PR plant. I’m leaning toward PR plant.

I just can’t believe anyone would think that this is some sort of new trend. If artists are interested in figuration — or drawing at all — one of the best ways to keep your skills at a high level is to draw the figure.

Don’t believe the hype, artists have for years gathered to share the expense of a figure model. It’s nothing new. permanent link to this post

Weather Data for the Masses

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week began providing weather data in an open-access XML format, alleviating concerns that commercial providers would continue to play a dominant role in how weather data gets to the public.

via: Wired News: Weather Data for the Masses

Get your weather data here. It’s in a format called NDFD XML (National Digital Forecast Database XML)

This could portend some weather-oriented web/net projects.

And some better weather RSS feeds too :-) I currently use rssweather.com, but the current condition reports are always hours and hours old — not very current IMO. permanent link to this post

We’ve HAVE been making net art, but s.l.o.w.l.y

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

In September we’ll be releasing a new net art work (probably our only one of the year). We’ve been working on it on and off since early in 2004 and we finally got to do some test shooting today (it’s a video project; it will be flash video as the final).

M.River has been building the set and I’ve been lazing around waiting for him to finish. But now we’re almost there. Today we bought a Panasonic GS120 and did some test shooting.

I’m not going to describe the piece right now but I wanted to post this still as I’m excited with how it’s coming along. permanent link to this post

wappening #2! Get Rob an orange — QUICK!

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Lee Walton:

At this very moment, Rob Bohn is holding a red jacket in his hand and standing on the corner of 23rd and Broadway near the Flatiron Building.

He is excruciatingly cold for he cannot wear his jacket unless he is given an orange.

Simply find a way to get an orange to him and he will thankfully put on his red jacket.

He will be standing on the corner until the sun sets - wearing or not wearing his red jacket.

He is depending on you.

M.River adds - Yikes! It’s cold in nyc today. Lee, how could you?!

M.River Update - T.Whid to the rescue! I just got a call at work from T. He has left his office near Madison Square Garden, picked up an orange and is headed down to save that kid Lee has standing out in the cold. He said he’ll call when he gets there.

M.River Update #2 - T.Whid just called. He gave the kid the orange and he put his coat on. T.Whid reports that the kid seemed very happy to see him. The kid said he started standing at 12:15. Behold the power of the net and a slow Friday afternoon at work.

twhid update (also cross-posted to Rhizome_RAW):
I had a strange sort of elation when I exited the subway and saw him still standing there freezing and knowing that I had his salvation bulging in my coat pocket.

Lee’s pieces along this line are a weird sort of flash anti-mob where only a few ‘in-the-know’ even know there’s art happening. A sly statement on the ‘special’ knowledge some contend one needs to appreciate some forms of contemporary art?

Also we need to coin a phrase for this type of work (MTAA has also made work along these lines). “net.flux” anybody?

M. River adds - He told me once they are called “micro performances”. I forget who coined it. permanent link to this post

Villette Numerique

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Jonah Brucker-Cohen on coin-operated:

The Villette Numerique media arts festival opens tonite in Paris! Featured in this huge show includes “Listening Post” by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen, “Bondage” by Atau Tanaka, an installation that turns still imagery into soundscapes, and “Unprepared Piano” by Thomson and Craighead - which presents a Yamaha MIDI grand piano connected to found mp3 files from across the web. Also, this show features the first ever install of “Carnivore” (by RSG) that includes all 16 clients installed in the same venue!

Jonah’s Carnivore client, “Police State,” is included as well as MTAA’s own client “The Gordon Matta-Clark Encryption Method.”

The art section of Villette Numerique was curated by Benjamin Weil the well-known new media curator. permanent link to this post

American Art Is Adrift for Biennale in Venice

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

American Art Is Adrift for Biennale in Venice
American representation at the prestigious arts festival is in turmoil as the State Department looks to find someone to run and help pay for the exhibit. [NYT: Arts]

Desperate to find a quick solution, late last month officials from the State Department approached the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which owns the pavilion, about organizing the American exhibition at the 2005 Biennale

…

The State Department’s decision to ask a museum to organize the pavilion rather than let a committee decide is viewed by many in the art world as undemocratic and scandalous.

…

“If the Guggenheim does it,” [Robert Gober] said, “it will become an arm of the museum.”

Hmmm, not all bad, maybe M.River will get a free trip to Venice… permanent link to this post

“The ‘Velvet-Strike’ underground,” article on Salon

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Why does so much writing on new media art wind up being written by tech writers whose knowledge of contemporary art is so sourly lacking?

This article in Salon (reg rqu) isn’t horrible (it does give a decent account of contemporary hacktivist-like uses of the game genre) but lacks any reference to other political or protest art.

I’ll go on the record. I don’t want a tech writer covering my work. I’m an artist first, a programmer second; MTAA’s work should be included in the discourse of contemporary art. We need new writers and critics who know BOTH digital culture and contemporary art instead of one or the other. permanent link to this post

Unmerry Prankster in NYTimes

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is a strange story of a prank gone bad at a gallery opening in Williamsburg a few years ago. It involves 31Grand and it’s co-director Heather Stephens, an old friend of mine.

EVEN now, four years later, people who know Simon Curtis still can’t believe the odd series of events that led him to spend the last year in jail. And although Mr. Curtis readily admits that he was living recklessly, drinking too much, taking drugs and spraying graffiti on the Lower East Side, he didn’t exactly see a state prison in his future when he went to an art opening on the night of July 14, 2001.

[…]

A good-size crowd had turned out, and a loose, partylike atmosphere prevailed. As the evening wound down, Mr. Curtis, then 31, found himself nearly alone inside the gallery and eyeing his favorite photo, a self-portrait of Ms. Cortez that showed her topless and wearing ripped stockings. He was feeling contented and mischievous and also a little drunk. It suddenly occurred to him that it would be funny to show up with the photo at Max Fish, a Lower East Side bar where Ms. Cortez had gone with friends. As a group of people stood outside smoking cigarettes in the sticky air, he reached up, plucked the photo from the wall and shuffled out.

(via)

My fiance (girlfriend at the time) and I, along with our friends Bill and Dawn, were at the opening earlier that evening. We were just leaving dinner at Relish in Williamsburg when we saw a scuffle at the corner of Wythe and Metropolitan. I noticed that our friend Heather was involved in the fight so we went over to see what was going on.

We witnessed the entire fight. I eventually testified in front of the grand jury that indicted Sam Salganik. permanent link to this post

Ubuntu: a Linux noob’s story

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

What the hell is ‘Ubuntu’ you ask? According to Ubuntu Linux’s web site,

“Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”. Ubuntu also means “I am what I am because of who we all are”.

Very cool word.

I’ve decided to make Ubuntu Linux my gateway into the Linux world. It’s freshly installed on an old Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop of mine and I’m playing around with it. It’s been a medium-difficult (but fun) experience.

Background:
I decided to look into Linux for use in art installations. I figured build-your-own systems paired with Linux would be the cheapest way to go (this was before the introduction of the Mac mini). Plus, there is no way in hell I’m going to run my art work on top of Windows.

I’m coming from a Mac OS background.

Step 1: Distro delirium
The Linux live CDs are the easiest way to dip your toes into Linux and try different distros. The first one I successfully tested was Knoppix. Knoppix taught me that KDE is ugly as hell. I’ve since learned that you can make KDE look pretty cool. But the damage was done; I went in search of a live CD with Gnome as the default desktop environment which lead me to, what else? Gnoppix of course.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Gnoppix, their live CD happens to be Ubuntu Linux! After trying it out I was sold: it’s clean, simple, worked well with my hardware, and used ‘sudo’ to do system level commands very similar to Mac OS X. (I forgot to mention that I attempted SUSE in the meantime, but it wouldn’t install on my low RAM system.)

Step 2: Install the damn thing
This should be simple enough. I downloaded the installer from a Ubuntu download site, did a MD5 checksum, burned a disk (using Mac OS X’s disk utility), popped it in my PC and booted from the installer disk. From there it was a simple install process.

Let me back up a second. My install process was probably a tad easier then other users’ experience. What I mean is, is that because I simply reformatted the entire disk and installed fresh, I didn’t need to worry about partitioning my disk for dual-booting. If you are partitioning your disk to dual boot Linux and Windows then this might be a tougher job.

Step 3: Boot up your new system!
This is the easy part, just hit the continue button at the end of the install process.

Step 4: Remove hair violently
As soon as I booted up the problem was obvious. The entire screen was being drawn very weirdly: fuzziness, noise, a weird mirroring affect — not good. I’ll skip the details, but I tried and tried to fix it to no avail. I decided to install Mandrake Linux instead.

Step 5: Install the damn thing (2)
Again with the whole download-ISO-check-MD5-burn-CD bit (but with three CDs this time). But now comes the interesting part. Mandrake’s installer is much more user-friendly and mature than Ubuntu’s, so when I got to the part where one chooses their monitor resolution and color depth, the installer had a fancy little utility to TEST one’s video settings.

The installer chose default settings for my laptop monitor (based on the video card I assume) and I clicked the test button.

SAME PROBLEM AS UBUNTU!

Blurriness, weird mirroring affect, everything! After fiddling around with it a bit I finally realized that it was the color depth setting causing the problem; everything worked fine at 16-bit, but not at 24. This left me with a decision to make: stick with Mandrake or go back to Ubuntu. I was sure the problem with Ubuntu’s screen drawing was the same issue.

Step 6: Go to Step 2
After looking over the Mandrake and Ubuntu support and community sites I decided I liked Ubuntu. My impression was that the community is very helpful and friendly (reminds me of the Mac community), there are lots of Linux noobs like me (more experienced users are patient with them) and it just has a good vibe. Back to installing Ubuntu.

Step 7: Enjoy
So now I have a bare bones Ubuntu system running on my laptop (I did have to edit the X11 config file by hand to get the system to default to 16-bit color, but it wasn’t a problem).

I’m excited to start playing around with it and see what Linux can do in the studio. My plan is to create some dynamic run-time videos (similar to MTAA’s own 1YPV or Manovich’s Soft Cinema), use it in conjunction with touch-screens for more viscerally interactive pieces (gallery version of Five Small Videos…), and whatever else we’ll need cheap PCs for in the future.

Of course I’m a bit worried by this color depth issue, but it can probably be overcome. permanent link to this post

U2 vs. Negativland vs. Apple

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Here goes nothing: The Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special Edition, removed from eBay last December due to Apple’s objections, is now available for auction here on my own site. Bidding is open until March 14, 2005. This auction period is quite a bit more than what would be offered on eBay, because bid handling will be much less automated. Get your bids in now!

Via: U2 vs. Negativland vs. Apple vs. eBay vs. me, take 2

permanent link to this post

Reblogging this week

posted at 16:46 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Might be a little short on the posts to the MTAA-RR this week as I’ll be spending my blogging minutes over on Eyebeam’s Reblog.

I spent some time planning some mischief, but decided to play it straight. I was going to try to post more often during the day but the process sort of precludes that as one needs to rebuild the MT-powered Reblog every time one wishes to update the site. We probably would like to keep those rebuilds to a minimum; and it takes a while. permanent link to this post

Turbulence call for entries

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

In my in-box today:

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Turbulence Juried International Net Art Competition

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. is pleased to announce that with the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 5 net art projects will be commissioned for the Turbulence web site in a juried international (open to everyone) competition. Each commission will be $5,000 (US).

DEADLINE: March 31, 2005

GUIDELINES: http://turbulence.org/comp_05/guidelines.htm

JURORS: Wayne Ashley (US), Arcangel Constantini (Mexico), Sara Diamond (Canada), Melinda Rackham (Australia), and Helen Thorington (US).

permanent link to this post

Tweedy and Lessig to Speak at NYPL

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Stolen from Newsgrist…

On April 7, the New York Public Library and Wired Magazine will present musician, songwriter and author Jeff Tweedy and Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig in a discussion moderated by Wired Magazine contributing editor Steven Johnson. The engagement Who Owns Culture? will explore the artistic, commercial and legal issues that surround the Internet-enabled freeing of culture. It is part of the new series Live From the NYPL.

Read the entire release: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig to Speak at New York Public Library on April 7.

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! I’m going to be out of town that day. I saw Lessig speak at Eyebeam a while back and he gives good lecture, highly recommended. permanent link to this post

Turbulence and MTAA Need Your Help

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Please reBlog…
From Jo-Anne Green at Turbulence.org:

Despite the expansion of our projects and the acceleration of our support for net artists over the past two-and-a-half years, Turbulence has not seen a parallel increase in its operating support. The situation has become critical during the past month because two recently launched projects—ASCII BUSH and 1 Year Performance Video—have made greater demands on our server than ever before. Both projects have exceeded the limits of our monthly bandwidth; ASCII BUSH will re-launch soon after having been taken down for three weeks. [The piece had received close to 20,000 visits.] 1 Year Performance Video, by MTAA, is also a huge success. However, if we don’t find immediate support—either in the form of server co-hosts or financial contributions—this piece, too, will have to be taken down.

Please consider helping Turbulence keep 1 Year Performance Video alive! Send the artists an email (twhid@mteww.com) if you can co-host the project, or go to http://turbulence.org and click on the PayPal button.

permanent link to this post

Turbulence 2005 Fundraiser

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The great web site the commissioned MTAA’s own 1 Year Performance Video needs your support!

December 1, 2005 New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc./Turbulence Fundraiser http://turbulence.org/fundraiser_05/index.html

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) will be 25 years old in 2006; Turbulence will be 10 years old. Despite the expansion of our projects, the acceleration of our support for net artists, and the valuable resources we provide in our networked_performance blog and New American Radio archive, NRPA has seen a decline in its operating support. As a result, much of our hard work forgoes compensation. Of equal concern is the dual role our server is forced to perform: archiving work produced since 1996 and supporting new commissions that require cutting edge technologies and later versions of its current software. It s time for a new server.

We need your support. Please help us preserve our archives and support emerging artists and technologies. Numerous Turbulence artists have generously donated DVDs, CDs, archival prints, T-Shirts and more. Choose from this impressive array or simply make a donation today. http://turbulence.org/fundraiser_05/index.html

Art work donated by Cory Arcangel, Kate Armstrong, Andy Deck, Jason Freeman, Mariam Ghani, Peter Horvath, Yael Kanarek, Michael Takeo Magruder, Michael Mandiberg, MTAA, Yoshi Sodeoka, Helen Thorington and Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga

We’ve donated DVD-Video loops of our piece ‘Infinite Smile.’ permanent link to this post

Tsunami relief efforts

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Inspired by many other web sites I thought I’d do my small part in spreading the relief message.

Some links for giving:
USAID
American Red Cross
Unicef
ReliefWeb
AmeriCares
Oxfam
Sarvodaya permanent link to this post

Tom Moody does 1YPV

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Tom Moody (we’ll be on Rhizome’s Blogging and the Arts panel together this Tuesday; be there or be square) posted a few comments on MTAA’s 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE VIDEO.

I’ll quote bits, then comment (read the entire post here, I can’t figure out if it’s positive or negative, but it’s thoughtful and honest so you can’t ask for more than that).

Tom Moody:
Pieces that refer so specifically to known, past artworks, satirically or otherwise, are problematic—more on this below—but there’s much to think about here. Unlike the Globe and Mail, I’d discuss the work in terms of voyeurism, and artist recuperation of the part-guileless, part-sleazy home webcam phenomenon. In real (Internet) life, the only reason a surfer would stay with a site like this for hours was in the hope that the subjects might do something kinky. I know there are people watching this for art, but why? Perhaps the presence of white plastic buckets in the rooms creates some morbid curiosity about how the artists handle basic elimination needs, but frankly I didn’t stick around to find out.

t.whid:
Buckets: one’s dirty, one’s clean; they both get used at some point.

Seriously, we have people who have been running the piece for (as of today) 36 days. Obviously they haven’t been watching the piece the entire time, they simply let it run on an unused computer in their lab or studio. But on the other hand, one can’t prove they haven’t been watching it either ;-)

When we created the piece we understood that not many people would view it for more than a few minutes. But that’s OK. One doesn’t need to view it for more than a few minutes. Once one gets the idea and also understands how digital media and computer networks function then it’s enough to know that it is there, ready to be viewed for an indefinite period of time, anytime you wish. To me it becomes sublime at that point.

Like Penn and Teller explaining a magic trick, the artists reveal—on a related web page—quite a bit about the scripting and webserving mechanics behind their simulation. This geeks-only backstory actually makes for fairly fascinating reading. [snip]

He’s referring to this page. It was important to include that material for three reasons: (1) We back open source software initiatives especially in relation to technical arts and artworks (the The Open Art Network is doing great work and we hope to add what we can from 1YPV to it soon), (2) we didn’t want anyone to mistake the webcam for something real; it’s important to the piece that the viewer knows they’re watching canned clips and (3) I had a secret private hope (that I’m first sharing now) that someone would re-mix/re-purpose/re-use the video clips.

For sure the technology changes the Hsieh piece quite a bit, which did allow observers, but only at specified times, like a prison visit. Ultimately the MTAA work’s relationship to current tech-shaped behavior patterns and pop culture tropes feels more compelling than its parody of the Hsieh performance, which is almost by definition an art world in-joke, with a singular interpretation: that when computer-age art revisits the physically demanding, emotionally wrenching work of yesteryear, an insincere, fast-food facsimile inevitably results. Sorry to leach the humor out of it, but there it is.

We received the same criticism from Kevin McCoy (discussions with Kevin during the building of the piece were invaluable). The crit being that by making it simply an ‘update’ (or parody or satire) of Hsieh didn’t do justice to the piece. That it ‘stands on its own’, why quote Hsieh at all?

It’s great that it seems many people are looking beyond the initial hook and finding other cultural resonances in the piece like Tom describes. But I would argue with Tom’s ‘singular interpretation.’ I don’t think the update has a singular interpretation, Tom’s is one interpretation, but there can be others. First, it’s not insincere, we are paying tribute to Hsieh. Second, it’s not a facsimile; it’s an *update*. We’ve taken parts of the original which work and used them unmodified (a cell, a year), we’ve take other parts and modified them (who’s commitment?), and we’ve added totally new parts (top 5, top 10 lists). So it becomes a new thing, not a facsimile. It’s new but it’s in dialogue with the original.

My own interpretation is that when we take a Hsieh’s piece, automate it and at the same time transfer the onus of the commitment from the artist to the viewer, the viewer invariably will reject the commitment *or* automate the commitment themselves. This rejection/automation is interesting.

Hsieh challenged himself, we challenge the viewer. That is the crux of the update. permanent link to this post

Big news for Mac OS X users today

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Apple released a sneak preview of Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (what a lame name) today at their World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

I have mixed feelings about some of the features, not because I don’t think they aren’t cool, but because it looks to put small 3rd-party Mac developers out of business.

Safari will contain a built-in RSS reader which looks to widen the RSS audience but at the same time force NetNewsWire and PulpFiction out of the market.

Dashboard looks cool; did Apple buy Konfabulator? Dashboard is a complete and utter rip-off of Konfabulator.

The changes to iChat AV look very exciting. It sports a new, very cool 3d interface for group video conferences. To bad there isn’t a way to use the power of the video conferencing abilities of this app as a 3rd-party developer. Imagine the possibilities for real-time streaming performances and etc which would be open to net artists…

There was a bunch of other stuff too, check it out.

update:
WHOOPS. I missed some fairly big news. The server edition of 10.4 comes with a Weblog server “based on the popular open source project ‘Blojsom.’” Blojsom is written in Java but is based on Perl-powered Blosxom which this web site is built with.

update deux:
Looks like Apple didn’t buy Konfabulator, it’s developer calls Apple’s Dashboard ‘insulting’ (link to C-Net, which is notoriously anti-Apple). permanent link to this post

tehchingHsiehUpdate update

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Worked my ASS off over the weekend getting the Flash bit of our current project, tehchingHsiehUpdate, working correctly.

And I gotta say, Flash’s video format has got a looong way to go. My problem was that I needed to load a video right after one completed playing. But in my Flash videos (FLV) encoded using Macromedia’s FLV encoder 1.2 the videos would never officially ‘end’ so the media wrapper holding the video would never send the ‘complete’ event. In other words, the FLV encoder is broken and I had to figure out a workaround. I finally settled on using duration (accessed via onMetaData) and comparing it to the time the video has been playing to decide that the video has ended and load a new video.

Then I tackled loading the video playlist via an external XML file. That whole process is well-documented and the XML file is simple so that was pretty easy. Except that if the XML file had any breaks in it Flash would see those as extra nodes. The problem is easily fixed by making the XML one long line of text with no breaks.

Now we have a SWF that loads an external XML file, builds a playlist, and plays all the videos in it one after the other. When it reaches the end of the list, it reloads the XML file. This XML file will be dynamically generated so in the end we’ll have a year-long movie built from about 12 hours of video. permanent link to this post

This week sucked

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I was supposed to be at the University of Maine today and through the weekend for the Conference on the Intellectual Commons. But instead I’m here in New York still recovering from a nasty cold or flu that had me down the entire week.

The conference sounded great and I was really looking forward to it. I was supposed to be on a panel tomorrow with Jon Ippolito (artist, curator, educator), Neeru Paharia (Assistant Director, Creative Commons) and other luminaries. We’re doing an iChat video conference so all is not lost I suppose.

We’re planning on re-scheduling my visit. I should be up there either in the next few weeks or after the first of the year.

Damn flu! Very disappointing. permanent link to this post

This art is the bomb

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Via Gawker, It’s Art So Long As You Don’t Detonate It via NY Observer, The Transom

Continuing with our insistence that FEAR IS BACK, today’s Transom has a downright disturbing item about Brooklyn artist Chris Hackett […], who is constructing a fully-functional suitcase bomb. The piece is courtesy of the Madagascar Institute, a radical art organization which is organizing an exhibition to be shown at either Cooper Union or South Street Seaport the week of September 11. Here’s to the power of perfect timing:
[Hackett] said the strength of the bomb would be equivalent to “about four pounds of TNT. It doesn’t sound like much,” he allowed, “but it’s enough to kill everyone in the gallery.”

I cry BS or “conceptual hoax” as the Observer writer puts it. But at the same time I’m morbidly fascinated. Plus, it seems the artist has a bit of a violent streak. According to the Observer article:

Mr. Hackett was the victim of one of his own art works early last year. The graphic description in a New York Post story on Jan. 25, 2004, was that Mr. Hackett “blew up part of his face” while rigging a propane tank to fire a confetti cannon. Mr. Hackett’s jaw was broken in the explosion.

So, who knows? If it’s a real bomb, Mr. Hackett will find himself in prison. He’s currently out on bail from weapons charges stemming from the explosion in 2004. If the cops read the NY Observer I have a feeling he may not be able to finish his bomb.

For what it’s worth, I find Gregory Green’s nuclear devices and package bombs more interesting. permanent link to this post

Thingist discussion on Napier’s new stuff

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

There’s some good discussion happening on Thingist around Napier’s new body of work now showing at Bitforms.

A note from Rob about finding the discussion:

[…] people have to login as guest then go to “threads” to find it.

See and hear Napier talk about his stuff this Thursday at the Upgrade! (NYC and area). permanent link to this post

The Year In The Internet 2005

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Michael Bell-Smith and Cory Arcangel compiled a list of what some folks thought was best about the Internet in 2005.

I’m proud to say that MTAA made Marisa Olson’s top 10:

MTAA’s 1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate) One of the smartest, most interesting, art historically important works of internet art ever. Honestly.

Thanks for the mad props Marisa. permanent link to this post

The Yes Men movie

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Yes Men movie opened yesterday in New York and Los Angeles.

It’s going to be opening in a bunch of other theaters around the country on October 1st too. Check out the dates and locations here.

Who are The Yes Men? According to their site:

Identity Theft:
Small-time criminals impersonate honest people in order to steal their money. Targets are ordinary folks whose ID numbers fell into the wrong hands.

Identity Correction:
Honest people impersonate big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.

The Yes Men:
The Yes Men have impersonated some of the world’s most powerful criminals at conferences, on the web, and on television, in order to correct their identities. They currently have hundreds of thousands of job openings.

permanent link to this post

The Shock of the New Entry Fee

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MoMA will raise the basic price of admission an eye-opening 67 percent, to $20, making the Modern the most expensive major art museum in the United States.

[ From: The Shock of the New Entry Fee :: The New York Times > Arts ]

Damn. That’s harsh. I haven’t even been to MoMA for a while to my embarrassment. (When is the construction supposed to be done anyway?) It’s best to go with M.River who can get in 4 people free as he works at another major NYC art museum.

Of course the Met is always good too: pay what you wish. And if you’re to embarrassed to wish to pay whatever change you may have in your pocket, it’s easy to find one of those buttons laying around on the steps outside. permanent link to this post

“The Scream” stolen

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Edvard Munch’s paintings “The Scream” and “Madonna” were stolen from an art museum Sunday while armed men threatened the staff at gunpoint.

[LINK to full story in NYTimes]

Holy shit! permanent link to this post

the Pool Featured on Wired

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The University of Maine’s Joline Blais and John Ippolito have created a project called the Pool which is, according to the article: a collaborative online environment for creating and sharing images, music, videos, programming code and texts I saw John Ippolito, Joline Blais and Lawrence Lessig speak at Eyebeam a few weeks back about their respective projects. Lessig is, of course, behind Creative Commons; Blais presented the Pool; and Ippolito presented his own project for encouraging artists to go one step farther and open source their project’s source or “mother” files.

I like Ippolito’s ideas about sharing these more valuable “working” files as I call them. It would mean making your .FLA, Final Cut source files, .PSDs, .AIs and so on available freely to the public. There is a problem however when it comes to bandwidth and storage for what could be massive working files (especially for any project which uses video).

So, one piece of the puzzle is to have *free* storage space on public servers for artists to store their working files along with a searchable database of all the stuff and where it is. I’ve been toying with the idea of taking up the cause… permanent link to this post

The Plaza protest

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

There was an intervention on the side of The Plaza Hotel this morning. I haven’t seen this anywhere else in the media.

See the pix here.

From an eyewitness:

[…] two men hanging off the side of the building on ropes, with tons of police cars below. So I go into my building (which is directly across the street, the FAO Schwartz building) and up to the 10th floor where I work and tell everyone what is going on. We all run to the window and watch as these two men are dangling outside the Plaza trying to hang an anti-Bush sign. The cops were reaching out the window after them, it was quite a scene!

Thanks Marcia ;) permanent link to this post

The oh-so-lame-i-gotta-post-on-the-blog-cuz-i-got-a-blog blog post

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, it’s not that lame, we do have some news: we were invited to apply for a grant where we could score $35k.

Who the hell would even consider giving us $35k you ask?

This org. permanent link to this post

The most blogged artist EVER!

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I follow a few art feeds and in the past week the amount of Cory Arcangel postings has been overwhelming. He’s definitely the art-blog superstar.

First, MTAA has posted at least five posts ourselves (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

James Wagner busted out a couple over the weekend: Cory Arcangel travels with sound and light and Paper Rad and Cory Arcangel.

Bloggy chimed in with Cory Arcangel at Team Gallery.

And Tom Moody has been all over it with 3 posts, Detail of Super Mario Movie Poster, Super Mario Movie, Super Heads of State and Notes on Arcangel Show.

So what do you all think? Is Cory the most blogged artist to date?

Oops, just found another at a blog called cheesedip: cory arcangel week

I should not have done the google search… one more, Cory Arcangel @ Team Gallery, NYC.

Feel free to send me more links if you like. permanent link to this post

The Infectious Nature of Holiday Cheer

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Just in time for Xmas 2004! Starring yours truly in a big budget holiday extravaganza!

The Infectious Nature of Holiday Cheer

Download medium version (.mov, 320x240)
10.9MB
Quicktime required - get it here

Download large version (Divx, 640x480)
84.6MB
Quicktime required - get it here
Divx codec required - Mac | PC
Download the entire file to your hard drive and play in QuickTime player on a Mac or Divx Player on a PC. To Download, Mac: control-click the link and choose to save link or file; PC: right-click and choose to save the link, target or file.

Credits
A B&D Handmade production
Written & Directed by Bill Hallinan

The Players
T.Whid as John Q. Public
André Sala as Mr. Gift Boxes
Dawn Winchester as Fay Wray
Bill Hallinan as Pointer

The Crew
Photography by George Su
Prop Master, André Sala
Prop Support, Elece Blumberg permanent link to this post

The Huffington Post | Raw Feed!

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

After a day and a half of subscribing to the Huffington Post | Raw Feed (xml link), I’m sort of drowning in information. But I’m a sucker for punishment. I’ve been a subscriber to Rhizome_RAW for years and that list could generate 30-40 emails a day!

Most of the Huffington Post posts are very good. But I have to admit, it’s the first time I scan the author in my aggregator (as well as headline) to decide if I would like to read a post.

I wonder if they’ll keep up the amount of and rate of posting or if it’s just that it’s a shiny new thing and everyone is excited by it. It is a group blog, so if it seems like they’re not getting the volume they’d like they can always just add more people.

Overall, a very good job with one small exception: why use Flash™ on the little animated logo? That could have easily been done with an animated GIF. permanent link to this post

The Contagious Festival

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Hosted on Huffpost, check out the new Contagious Festival.

From the site:

Do you enjoy Rumors on the Internets, Mr. Pibb + Red Vines, and brilliant political strategy? Do you have what it takes to create the next JibJab, Numa Numa Dance, Detroit Project or Black People Love Us?

The Huffington Post Contagious Festival is a unique opportunity for talented designers, political activists of any persuasion, filmmakers and comics to reach millions of people with creative, viral online work. The contestants that create the best projects get Internet fame and the chance to meet with friends of Huffington Post from the worlds of entertainment and politics to discuss future projects and opportunities.

ENTER THE FESTIVAL NOW

The first round of entries will go live starting February 1, but you should Enter Now to reserve a spot on the official Contagious Festival server. You simply create an account, build your project on the server and launch your site. Then you can watch the live rankings to see if your entry is being forwarded, linked, and IMed around the Internet. At the end of the month, we award two prizes:

The People’s Choice Award for the contestant that creates the entry that gets the most total traffic during the month. The winner dines with Arianna Huffington and receives $2,500.

The Jury Prize for the favorite entry of our jury is a meeting with the judge most interested in their work and receives $2,500. Judges will vote based on creativity, originality and social commentary.

permanent link to this post

The 2nd Annual DRINKIN’ & DRAWIN’ CHAMPIONSHIP

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

note: m.river posted this already but I’m including the entire announcement for ease of linkage.

++++

MTAA and Bar Matchless present:

The 2nd Annual DRINKIN’ & DRAWIN’ CHAMPIONSHIP

http://www.tinjail.com/drinkAndDraw

GRAND PRIZE: $100 bar tab

++++

What?
A one-night only contest to crown the 2005 Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Champion!

When?
Thursday, March 31, 2005 8PM - 11PM.

No pre-registration necessary; free drawing materials provided.

Where?
Bar Matchless, corner of Driggs and Manhattan Aves.,
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC (directions at the bottom)

Who?
Open to all professional and amateur artists, designers, architects, curators, craft-persons and barflies. No entry fee, all comers welcome.

Celebrity Judges?

Inka Essenhigh
The internationally exhibited painter and draftsperson (learn more at inka-essenhigh.com), is preparing for her upcoming show at Victoria Miro Gallery, but will take time out to judge your drinkin’ and drawin’ skills.

Steve Mumford
He put the graphic arts back on the media map with his Baghdad Journal, which will be published as a book in fall 2005 by Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal. He’s drawn under fire, let’s see what you can do!

DJ?
tinydiva

Why?
It might be interesting if an art idea conceived in a bar could use a bar as a site and context for said art idea plus, it’s been a long hard winter.

More?
Contestants are provided with sheets of 8.5x11 paper and a #2 pencil. Or BYOM (bring your own media, must be paper)

Pass this URL around: http://www.tinjail.com/drinkAndDraw

Contact mriver@mteww.com for more info.

For more info on the promoters, MTAA: http://www.mteww.com

For more info on the venue: http://www.BARMATCHLESS.COM

Directions to Bar Matchless:

From Manhattan:
Take the L train to Bedford Ave. North on Driggs Ave. (past McCarren Park) to Manhattan Ave.

From Brooklyn or Queens:
Take G train to Nassau. Walk one block east on Manhattan Ave. to Driggs Ave.

map:
mapquest

Who will be the 2005 Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Champion? permanent link to this post

The anti-Laguna Beach

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Watched Country Boys tonight on Frontline.

It would be interesting to watch 1/2 segments interspersed with Laguna Beach episodes. permanent link to this post

Th W bp g F r Pl nn d S lf- bs l sc nc

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A fun remix of MTAA’s Webpage For Planned Self-Obsolescence (AKA Even In The Line To The NYC DMV, One May Think Of Art) by the master of net remixing: jimpunk!

Th W bp g F r Pl nn d S lf- bs l sc nc ( v n n Th L n T Th N C DMV, n M Th nk () permanent link to this post

Tell us what to do

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s “10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances” is a project that allows you, the dirty mob of the unwashed Internet public, to decide what performance we do for an upcoming show!

Break down the clean, white walls of the rarified New York gallery world by telling us, MTAA, the elitist NYC net art snobs, what to do (via a simple on-line form)!

It’s fun! Go there now and vote!

It’s easy! Go there now and vote!

It’s anti-establishment! Go there now and vote!

You get to pick from a selection of 10 titles and descriptions. Your choice is the performance we’ll complete! The curator of the show and gallery directors have already agreed! (Suckers.) The best part? All these ideas have already been rejected by other curators! Haha — suckers²!

MTAA’s “10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances” will be exhibited at Artists Space in a show entitled We Are All Together: Media(ted) Performance curated by Marisa Olson, which is in turn part of Empty Space With Exciting Events which is itself presented in partnership with Performa ‘05 The Performance Biennial. (Damn the NYC gallery world is complicated — it’s like a mystery wrapped in an enigma then slathered with special confusion sauce.)

+++++

update
Looks like Null And Void is barely holding onto the lead! Go vote. permanent link to this post

What we’re working on

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Here’s some more info on what MTAA is working on:

tehchingHsiehUpdate

I’m going to remain coy and not explain the entire project.

[Related info here, here and here] permanent link to this post

Tax the rich!

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Jason Van Anden’s submission to the Huffington Post’s Contagious Festival:

>> Tax The Rich! <<

Tax the Rich is an online political campaign hosted by the The Huffington Post. It stars the adorable, animated “Baby Liberty”, an innocent talking head who dreams of a better future. Baby Liberty wants “Tax the Rich” to become part of our common vernacular, believing in her heart of hearts that this will positively change the world for rich and poor alike.

(Try to ignore the obnoxious AOL adverts.)

M. River adds:

Wow. No, I can not ignore those adverts. Props to Jason and all the Contagious Media site builders but - those fucking ads on the sites. Lame. Political net art 2.0, now with pop-ups. permanent link to this post

TAC Compression (Total A##hole Compression)

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

http://www.TACcompression.com
(serial no. RSG-TAC-1)

From Beige and RSG:

Why make files smaller, when you can TAC them?™

TAC* is the best compression format available for the web today! By using revolutionary scientific methods, research teams at RSG and the Beige Programming ensemble were able to a compose a complex software tool that expels many of the myths that surround modern file compression techniques. The secret of TAC compression is not that it makes files smaller, but that it makes files bigger, much bigger.** This provides the end user with a compression tool to meet almost any need in today’s bandwidth and gig overloaded computing world.

Download the BETA for OsX permanent link to this post

Support Rhizome

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Rhizome has launched their membership drive (as of September 19th — would have posted about it sooner but I was busy marrying my love and kicking back in Europe with her).

They’ve got some great Thank You gifts, one of which is being donated by MTAA. For just 500 bucks (Rhizome calls it the Root level) you get to support this great new media org and you also get a copy of 1 Year Performance Video Art Data (read more about what 1YPV Art Data is). The only other way to get the 1YPV Art Data is to watch 1YPV for one year (or buy one of the gallery versions).

So, let’s do the math. For 500 USD, you get 1YPV Art Data OR you can watch it for a year and get it for “free.” Unless your time is worth less than 6 US cents an hour, this is a really, really good deal.

Go! Go now and give Rhizome some dough and get to be a collector of a piece of one-of-a-kind MTAA Art Data! permanent link to this post

Superbowl

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

So… like…

Was that Janet Jackson’s breast? Did Justin Timberlake just rip her top off? permanent link to this post

Super Mario Movie

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Alex Galloway published the text below to the Rhizome list and I stole it to publish here.

The text will accompany the release of the source code for “Super Mario Movie.”

“The Mario Movie,” Deitch Projects, New York City, January 2005

Cory Arcangel (Beige) and Paper Rad

This is a group effort, so let me first introduce the principle actors. Paper Rad: Benjamin Jones, Jacob Ciocci, and Jessica Ciocci. Beige: Cory Arcangel, Paul B. Davis, Joe Bonn, and Joe Beuckman. They work in collectives for the same reason that punks play in bands: it’s funner that way, and it’s easier to make more noise. There is the Lennon/McCartney question of who is responsible for what, and I can’t make head nor tails of it. But from what I know Ben and the Paper Rad kids have a shameless affection for dirt-style, fan fiction comics about Garfield and Howard the Duck. And then there’s Paul who I am told once entered the DMC turntable competition under the DJ name “Spin Laden.” (He advanced through the opening heats, a challenge in itself, before being thrown off for scratching in the Notorious B.I.G. lyric “Time to get paid / blow up like the World Trade.”) The clothes that the Paper Rad kids wear they sew themselves. Cory wears them too, I think, when he’s not wearing pizza-shaped animal pullovers knit at home with his other chums. And on more than one occasion, I’ve been present when, sauntering past a stray guitar, in a Kmart aisle or friend’s house party it doesn’t matter which, Cory has spontaneously tapped out the full arpeggios of Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption” with ten fingers at full frills. Then there was the music performance in Brooklyn when the Paper Rad three sat cross-legged on the floor performing a pretend recital on some Sony “My First Laptops,” while the music was droning on prerecorded throughout. I thought electronic music was the one thing you didn’t have to lip-sync? Oh well. Here’s how I understand it: I’ve done way more ecstasy than Beige and Paper Rad put together, but they’ve done way more acid. And that makes all the difference. As Ben scribbled in a comic once, “Can one be tanned at night by stars?”

But it gets weirder: “The Mario Movie,” Deitch Projects, New York City, January 2005. There is not much a rational person can say about a psychedelic rave fantasy, with messed up graphics, with castles floating on rainbow colored clouds, with dance parties and raves in underwater dungeons, all starring Mario the plumber who does little more than weep through the tumult. And the whole thing plays live off a hand-soldered video game cartridge. Gosh. But if I may observe one thing it would be merely the following: this is the real deal. Which is to say that it’s not the real deal. This is computer code. But what you see is not what you get. To watch the code itself would bore to distraction. Instead this code runs on a video game console that converts it into sound and image. The game console is the Nintendo Entertainment System, known affectionately as “the NES” to every youngster lucky enough to receive one for Christmas in 1985. (Raised by hippies in Oregon, we were not so fortunate.) The NES is a magical device, for given the proper code it can synthesize any sort of video signal from scratch. This is not the sort of video made with a camera and edited on a computer, mind you. How do we know? First, the compiled Mario Movie is 32 kilobytes in size, or about twice as long as the few paragraphs you are reading now. Even compressed, a ten minute video is roughly a thousand times larger. Second, the movie runs directly off the customized game cartridge pushed into the socket of the NES console—without, Cory is keen to observe, altering the factory-soldered graphics chip shipped on the original ’80s cartridges. “Yo sound the bells / school is in sucker,” MC Hammer would come to say a few years later. “U can’t touch this.” This is the real deal.

Because of this, computer art is more like sculpture than like painting or video. In making the work computer artists actually fabricate the substrate of the medium, they don’t apply things to surfaces or use prefab tools to move images on a screen. The code is the medium. So in writing code, and running it, the computer artist builds the work from the ground up. It’s all math and electricity. To engineer the soundtrack, Cory pokes the audio registers on the NES’s chip in specific frequencies. When he does they chirp. To get the video, he writes hundreds of lines of code, code like “lda $2002” (translation: load the value from memory position 2002 into the “a” register in the processor), or like “jsr vwait” (translation: jump ahead to the subroutine called “vwait” to stall for a few milliseconds while the television’s electron beam repositions itself). What appears on the screen is the image of pure data. It is, in a manner of speaking, what numbers look like (if they could). Translation: this is not video art. Maybe call it math art, geek art, whatever. The Mario Movie makes tedium profound, and the other way around.

They say everything becomes interesting in the long run. Super Mario Bros might be nostalgia to you. But it’s not to them. All media is dead media, that’s what Paper Rad and Cory understand. It’s all garbage from the beginning—so don’t yearn for a time when it was otherwise. When you understand media as trash then there is no nostalgia. If there is any shred of longing that remains in the work, it’s not for our childhood friend Mario. It’s for an acid high, for a simulated hiatus in a far off land that no one has ever been to. It’s for watching a cartoon schmuck trip rather than you. It’s nostalgia for raves sucked from the fevered brains of raver-haters. Everything is as new as it is old. Everything is as sucky as it is good. This is the movie.

— Alex Galloway, January 12, 2005 3:08:50 PM EST

permanent link to this post

Suggestions for Rhizome

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

First a disclaimer: I’ve been a Rhizome member for years (since ‘97), have personal friendships with all the main people who manage it (both past and present), and have recently done paid work for them. These suggestions are in the spirit of dialogue and openness and are not intended to demean or diminish the challenges the directors face in keeping Rhizome afloat and relevant.

Rhizome should adopt a shareware model as opposed to a publication model. With their new policy, Rhizome has adopted what we’ll call the NYTimes model: new content is free, older content is behind a fee firewall. This is a reasonable model for a publication that commissions original writing and art. For the most part, Rhizome doesn’t commission writing (except Net Art News). So the NYTimes model isn’t a reasonable model for Rhizome, below I’ll outline more of a shareware model that I think would make the constituency happy as well as bring some revenue into Rhizome.

This idea centers on giving people more and easier ways to access Rhizome content while always leaving a base level of free content outside of any firewall. We add value by applying filters and enhancements for a fee.

First, we need to define a reasonable free service. Access to all text and artbase entries should be free forever. I think the membership would agree with this as a base service. This would include access to the Rhizome_RAW email list, the RARE feed with excerpts, the art + text sections of the web site and newer Net Art News items. It would be free to submit text and art.

After a member becomes a paying member they receive a few enhancements and services:
1. Access to Rhizome_RARE mailing list.
2. A full RARE RSS Feed, this would allow one to read all of RARE without visiting Rhizome.org.
3. Advanced search capabilities: search by year, artist, region. Search only the artbase or search only text, etc.
4. Members are allowed to curate online exhibitions.
5. Enhanced text handling on the site. Currently there are some really funky text handling (since most text comes in via email), making this smarter for paying users would be a great enhancement.
6. Provide bare-bone discussion spaces (blogs).
7. Access to Net Art News archives.

This isn’t supposed to be an exhaustive list, it’s sort of off-the-top-of-my-head. But if the policy were “all content is free, but you pay to get the content in more convenient ways,” then I think it would serve the community better. permanent link to this post

Subway images

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I came across this piece on the NYTime’s website this morning (reg requ). It’s an interview and slide show (flash) with the photographer Bruce Davidson regarding his late 70s/early 80s photographs of and in the NYC subway system.

It reminded me of David Crawford’s ‘Stop Motion Studies’ series.

As some may know, MTAA is interested in ‘updates’ of older art work and it’s interesting to read Crawford’s work as an update of Davidson (though I’m certain that Crawford didn’t intend it to be).

If you compare Davidson’s photos to Crawford’s animations both formally (still photo as opposed to sorta-still) and you compare how the subject has changed over the intervening years, you will see a greater narrative develop which neither of the two projects could achieve on their own.

Don’t misunderstand, both projects are brilliantly executed on their own, but the comparison creates a historical arc that adds another fascinating layer. permanent link to this post

Stuff I found while ego-surfing

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Recently, while I was rooting through the 1YPV database, I noticed lots of login email addresses with .cz at the end — near the bottom of the list of users.

“Hmmmmm,” I thought, “This must mean there was recently an article on a Czech language web site.”

So this morning I fired up Google and started searching the Czech language web for any mention of “1 year performance video.”

Sadly, I found jack. But I did find some other fun stuff and I’ve listed it below.

1. Nathaniel Stern’s blog
Nathaniel Stern is a South African artist, poet, and educator who has been around the net art scene for quiet some time. His blog is a good read. Plus he loves MTAA so I figure I needed to give some of the love back :)

2. The GalleryDriver art blog page
I remember a while back being asked if the MTAA-RR could be included on this page and evidently I said yes.

According to their site GalleryDriver is “Headquartered in Albany, New York, GalleryDriver markets and provides a web presence for Art Galleries and Artists.”

And they seem pretty smart about it by providing this round-up of art-related RSS feeds all on one page. It includes many of the art blogs I read (NEWSgrist, James Wagner, Bloggy and Greg.org) and some other interesting blogs I didn’t know about, like Megan and Murray McMillan.

3. Something about 1YPV in italian
Hmmmm.

4. Newish blog on new-ish media: See Art, Make Art
It’s a group blog that looks to be only four months old. It’s culling together a bunch of different sources of online new media art info in a pleasing design. Pros: A post about MTAA; Cons: They didn’t put that post in the ‘supercool’ category.

5. Something about 1YPV in french
Hmmmm.

6. Something about 1YPV in japanese
Double Hmmmm. And filed under “Strange” too!

OK kids, that’s it: Stuff I found while ego-surfing “1 year performance video.” Off to clean the bathroom. permanent link to this post

Studio update

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

First…

Happy Mother’s Day!

Now to the post…

In this post’s comments, Kevin asks “Where are you at with the idea of an off-line, gallery version of [1YPV]?”

(I’m not sure who this Kevin is. I believe it’s Kevin McC of “Jennifer and” but it could be Kevin McG of Rhizome.)

Anyway, where are we? We’re done ;-) We have two versions of the gallery version: the software and the entire installation (set, props, software). The software is a Mac OS X application (written by Alex Galloway) that displays two channels of MPEG4 video on one display.

We need a place to show it. We’ve been invited to show at FILE 2005 so we’re hoping that the software version will be shown there. But we’ve yet to find a place to show the installation version, but we’re working on it.

It’s currently installed in our studio and we show it to people who come over. We still have a few loose ends to clean up. We need to shoot the “last” shot (what folks see when they reach a year’s worth of viewing). We need to do this soon because we’re going to need to uninstall it to shoot a new piece at the end of this month. More on that later.

We’re also working on some other stuff. M.River has been working on some drawings having to do with Drinkin’ & Drawin’. I’m supposed to work on that too. And I’m attempting to make something out of this idea we’ve had for while now called AbEx Auto-Trace.

The idea behind AbEx Auto-Trace is to complete the promise of automatic drawing. What goes beyond automatic drawing? Automatic tracing of course! We use a computer program to automatically trace abstract expressionist paintings.

The plan was to display a print (sized as the original) of this auto-traced painting or drawing alongside a print (same size) of computer code that describes the image (we chose SVG since it describes vector art and is human-readable). But I’m working on the first one (taken from Pollack’s Full Fathom Five) and have run into a problem. This painting is about 51 inches high by 30 inches wide. The SVG code requires 27 sheets of paper at that size to display it all (typeset in 6pt Monaco, 8 columns per page)! In BBEdit the code is 19,049 lines long (one tag per line) and takes up 6.4MB of disk space. We need to rethink this idea a bit… permanent link to this post

Artists’ Seek Studio

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

You’re beloved MTAA (for those not in-the-know: the people who run this website) are looking for a STUDIO.

YES!

If you know of a space in Brooklyn or (dare I say it?) Manhattan please let us know the vital info including: price, square footage, location (incl subway stop if you can), and contact.

We have two scenarios we’re looking into:

1) MTAA sharing with our friend Alex Kim. We could afford $800 total and the space would need to be a minimum of 600 sq ft.

2)MTAA by themselves. We could afford $400 ($450 max) and the space would need to be a minimum of 300 sq ft.

We would need broadband availability, privacy, security, and un-stinkiness.

Please let us know, we would like to take a space by Feb 1st. permanent link to this post

Sounds like a good party

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pulled the permit on an art exhibit at Kennedy Airport after an opening-night party left a landmark terminal strewn with cigarette butts, broken glass and empty liquor bottles.

The exhibit in the 42-year-old former TWA terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen, featured the work of 20 contemporary artists, including Kendell Geers, Jenny Holzer and Tom Sachs.

Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said guests at Friday’s opening-night party had been illegally smoking inside the terminal, and that liquor had been sold without a permit. He said a door had been broken, walls were covered with graffiti and vomit was found on the floor.

[ link: Newsday.com - AP Regional ]

Kidding aside… this doesn’t help the reputation of contemporary arts in NYC, especially since it’s being exploited by the tabloids.

The organizers really should be ashamed of the themselves but the Port Authority sounds like they simply freaked. Obviously the exhibition could have gone on. A really unfortunate incident. permanent link to this post

Open-source artwork

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

With the release of Paperrad’s Tux Dog, I was inspired to post a reminder that MTAA’s historic Simple Net Art Diagram is free (as in speech), not as open-source, but under a very liberal Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license. Easily editable vector art available for download :-)

update:
After thinking this over briefly, I’ve decided to change the Simple Net Art Diagram license to the CC Attribution 2.0 license. This provides the most liberal use of the image. The change is reflected above. permanent link to this post

Sleep late, avoid bombs

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Starting back to work after my week-long vacation, as I was waiting for my subway to arrive, the London bombing came to mind. “Hey,” I thought, “I could get blown up this morning.” The NYC subway system is an obvious terrorist target, so the thought crossed my mind, then I dismissed it and went back to my book (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoapuffs — it’s great).

That evening on my way home, another thought crossed my mind “Hey,” I thought, “I don’t have to worry about getting blown up today — they always bomb in the morning.” Which led me to wonder, if one was to do a study of terrorist attacks in Europe and the USA, what time did most of the victims get up that morning?

I bet they all got up before 9AM.

If you use mass transit to commute in a major metropolitan area, I suggest you start getting to work no earlier than 10 or 10:30AM. Sleeping in should ensure your safety more than any bomb-sniffing dogs or automatic rifle-packing para-military will. permanent link to this post

Settling In

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

From my little corner of the internet MTEWW.com is now being pointed to it’s new server. And if you’re reading this, then you too are seeing the new server.

If you are an avid reader of the MTAA-RR (MTAA Reference Resource) news section there are a few things that you might like to know:

First, the URL has now settled down. If you would like to bookmark the homepage do not be afraid to bookmark it now:

http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/

The RSS feed’s URL has changed, this is it:

http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/index.rss permanent link to this post

Senate Bill Lets Artists Claim Price for Gifts

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Finally, the gov’t seems to be doing something good for the arts. Schumer is one of the senators that introduced the bill.

Living writers, musicians, artists and scholars who donate their work to a museum or other charitable cause would earn a tax deduction based on full fair market value under a bill just passed by the Senate.

via: Senate Bill Lets Artists Claim Price for Gifts - New York Times

permanent link to this post

Senate Bill: Artists Can Claim Full Deduction for Gifts

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This important message is to make you aware of an opportunity you have to influence the way your art is treated in the tax code. There is a bill just passed in the Senate that would expand the deductible amount of donated artwork to its full value. Currently the only allowed deduction is cost of materials. However, THIS BILL HAS NOT PASSED THE HOUSE. That’s where you come in. The bill will be hashed out in a House/Senate committee that begins to meet soon. Here’s how you can help:

Go to NEWSgrist - where spin is art: Senate Bill: Artists Can Claim Full Deduction for Gifts to find out what you can do. permanent link to this post

Schedule conflict

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Damn. Two things happening this Thursday and I want to go to both!

There is the Upgrade! with Michael Mandiberg at Eyebeam (organized by Yael Kanarek) and there is also the Low Level All Stars at Dietch (organized by Cory Arcangel and Alex Galloway).

Man! What is a new media/net art scenester to do? We really need to coordinate this stuff :) permanent link to this post

Searches in NYC subway

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I have yet to be approached by the police and asked to be searched. But, I have to say, I’m now much more stressed when I commute. I wonder what I’ll do if they ask to search my bag? Will I stand on principle, refuse, and maybe have a walk to work? Will I refuse and walk to the next station and try there? (According to the NYCLU, if you refuse a search and try to enter anyway you can be arrested.) Or do I knuckle under for convenience and act cowardly?

It’s stressful. Much more stressful than worrying about random bombings…

Know Your Rights: Stops and Searches On The MTA (from the New York Civil Liberties Union) permanent link to this post

Rudy’s Cakewalk

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Not sure if this is new, but 8-Bit Construction Set has a track included as part of a new net art show called “Why rock?”

The track is titled Rudy’s Cakewalk (MP3, 4.8MB) and it’s pretty snazzy (better than Beck’s 8-bit effort that’s for sure). permanent link to this post

Robot train to ferry hipsters

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Automated trains will run this month on a 22-mile line that intersects Manhattan and Brooklyn. L-line trains with no conductors will move at preordained speeds and stop at preset stations, but some worry about safety.

via: NYC Subway Gets Computer Facelift

The L is the line that goes to Williamsburg, Brooklyn — also known as hipster ground zero. It must be hip, it’s where MTAA has our studio :)

PS
Don’t you love my headline? permanent link to this post

RNC protest march

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

And a good time was had by all, except those fucking republicans.

I took some photos, but they mostly suck.

Good luck to Joshua Kinberg, hope he gets his bike back. permanent link to this post

RNC NODE at postmasters

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Postmasters gallery
459 W. 19th St. (at 10th Ave.)
New York, NY 10011

postmasters gallery will serve as a physical node of an ad-hock public broadcasting system of online, real time protest performances, alternative news actions, a transatlatic, multimedia protest jam during the Republican National Convention, from August 29 to September 2

the gallery will be coordinate and disseminate a program of online events for re-presenting in public spaces

BE A PART OF THE NETWORK! go to: www.postmastersart.com/RNC_NY.html for instructions.

the gallery will be open to the public, visitors will see the many channels and can interact with various groups and initiate their own channels

PARTICIPATE! bring your laptop, phone, camera phone, camera, be part of the dialog

the gallery will host performances,screenings, presentation

SHOW UP! August 29 - September 2 4-11pm

some of the programs (look for updates on the site):

“DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix” by MTAA, bodyatomic & tinydiva
Screening of the video with live audio accompaniment.
Duration: 1’10”
Remixed by: MTAA, bodyatomic, tinydiva
Audio by: tinydiva (Margaret Jameson)
Description: Fight propaganda with propaganda.
Download: http://www.mteww.com/dc911/
August 30 8pm

Post-performance Talk, Anne-Marie Schleiner with Collaborators
The Upgrade hosted by Eyebeam,
Postmasters Gallery
http://treasurecrumbs.com/theupgrade
Sept 2, 2004, 7:30

one of the programs for broadcasting:
us- uk dialog every day 4pm-11pm

DissensionConvention- Programme
===================>
Sunday 29th August
4-7pm NY (9-12pm BST)   Maya Kalogera & Marc Garrett
7-10pm NY (12-3am BST)   Moport & Glowlab

Monday 30th August
4-7pm NY (9-12pm BST)      Chris Webb & Sim (Soy.de)
7-10pm NY (12-3am BST)       Patrick Lichty (tbc) & Lewis Lacook

Tuesday 31st August
4-7pm NY (9-12pm BST)      Helen Varley & other Avatar Body Colliders
7-10pm NY (12-3am BST)    Joseph and Donna McElroy

Wednesday 1st September
4-7pm NY (9-12pm BST)      Neil Jenkins & Roger Mills
7-10pm NY (12-3am BST)    Digitofagia vs. Autolabs

Thursday 2nd September
4-7pm NY (9-12pm BST)    Michael Szpakowski & Ruth Catlow
7-10pm NY (12-3am BST)      Ryan Griffis & Mark Cooley permanent link to this post

Right-wing nut may be on to something

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This winger, for instance, wants the US to expell the Blue States:

Yet, there are 38 states today that may be inclined to adopt, let us call it, a “Declaration of Expulsion,” that is, a specific constitutional amendment to kick out the systemically troublesome states and those trending rapidly toward anti-American, if not outright subversive, behavior. The 12 states that must go: California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware. Only the remaining 38 states would retain the name, “United States of America.” The 12 expelled mobs could call themselves the “Dirty Dozen,” or individually keep their identity and go their separate ways, probably straight to Hell

[ via: DailyKos: Wingnut wants to secede ]

HaHa, what a fool! I say let’s go and we’ll take all our money, culture, and brains with us.

(Sorry Mom, Ohio doesn’t make the cut, you’ll have to move ot NYC) permanent link to this post

Rhizome redesign

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Rhizome’s got a fresh, new look just in time for the holidays.

There’s a couple of changes and new features too. Rhizome’s Director Lauren Cornell outlined them:

First, we changed the title of ‘Superusers’ (those who filter messages from RAW onto the front page and to the mailing list RARE) to ‘Site Editors.’ This decision came out of a conversation with (those formerly known as) the Superusers in which we decided that the title Site Editor more accurately and clearly described the work they do.

We also changed the ‘Community Directory’ to the ‘Member Directory’. Under the new membership policy, Rhizome’s community — defined here as people who participate in email discussions and our various programs — is now made up of Members and non-Members. So, again, we thought Member Directory was more accurate.

We also introduced the idea of RhizPaper which refers to the background image on the site. We’d like to turn this image over periodically with a new image by a different artist. The starting image is a rendition of root by our designer, Sarah. I should credit Marisa here: She came up with this idea as a way to have artists participate in the design..

Also, we didn’t switch over the title for Net Art News as we are still mulling over feedback and there are a couple of related technical issues we need to address that that got laid to the wayside as we headed towards the launch. So, stay tuned for that.

Go check it out permanent link to this post

Rhizome reBlogs

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yesterday, Rhizome changed the way their front-page is built. The site now uses “a heavily-modified version of Eyebeam’s ReBlog software” to publish content to the front page of the site. It’s unclear whether or not the published content goes into their Rhizome RARE email list.

Director of Technology, Francis Hwang, wrote this about the change:

The goal is for the front page to become a quick, easy filter for the entire field of new media arts online—both for our current Rhizome users and Members, and for anybody else who might be interested in the field but not know where to start looking.

Site readers won’t see much of a change, except that the thumbnails that accompanied each post are no longer present.

My reaction is mixed. It’s nice that Rhizome is extending itself into the networks of RSS and blogs out there. But now that it’s gone, I sort of miss Rhizome’s own quirky way of publishing. Rhizome had it’s own way of doing things by getting all it’s content from user-submitted email. With the change, it just seems like another blog — which isn’t necessarily bad. Blog-like publishing is becoming more and more standardized and the change will enable Rhizome to aggregate important content faster, but it partially loses it’s individuality in the process. permanent link to this post

Rhizome net art commissions CFP

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Rhizome announced the call for proposals for their 2005 net art commissions.

Read more about it.

The deadline is March 23rd, 2005 and there is no required theme this year (good).

Prizes range from $1500 - $3500 (hint: just put all that booze under “bandwidth” in your budget) and they will commission 8 - 10 new pieces.

There is (sort of) a fee to apply; you must be a Rhizome member which costs all of 5 bucks.

The jury is Rachel Greene and Francis Hwang of Rhizome; Eduardo Kac, Art Institute of Chicago; Melinda Rackham, Sydney-based writer and curator; and Jemima Rellie, curator at Tate Online. Plus, the Rhizome community will play a part in the decision process. permanent link to this post

Rhizome looking for tech director

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Looks like Francis is leaving Rhizome; I received this in my in-box today:

Rhizome.org, a non-profit organization focused on new media art, is currently seeking a Director of Technology.

One of Rhizome’s goals is to connect the worlds of contemporary art and online discourse. The Director of Technology plays a major role in meeting this goal, by taking part in the organization’s strategic decision-making and implementing the technology behind new initiatives. The position also involves helping manage partnerships with other arts and technical organizations, and may include curatorial, critical, and artistic opportunities.

The ideal candidate will be a self-motivated, highly organized individual with strong technical, analytical, and communication skills. Familiarity with both social software trends and the field of new media arts is vital.

This salaried position with benefits is approximately 30 hours/week.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
* Set strategy for overall technology development
* Support current web site features and services, which are written using Ruby, PHP, and Perl on MySQL, Apache, and Linux.
* Develop new web site features and services.
* Manage technical interns, vendors, and software consultants.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
* Experience in software engineering, particularly with object-oriented design, agile methodologies, and dynamic languages.
* Demonstrated interest in new media art.
* Experience with Linux system administration.

START DATE:
February 1, 2006

LOCATION:
Chelsea, New York City

COMPENSATION:
Commensurate with experience

TO APPLY:
Please email a detailed cover letter and resume to Lauren Cornell, Executive Director, at laurencornell@rhizome.org. The deadline for application is January 1, 2006.

ABOUT RHIZOME:
Established in 1996, Rhizome.org is an online platform for the global new media arts community. We support this community through a number of programs, including: online discussions, publications, an events calendar, opportunity listings, archiving of new media art, commissioning of new artwork, and offline and online exhibits. Since 2003, we have been affiliated with the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

permanent link to this post

Rhizome drops membership fee — sort of

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s not perfect, but it’s an improvement. Rhizome.org is down right now as they update the site to take into account the new membership policy. But the new director, Lauren Cornell, posted the plan for the new policy to the email list this morning. Here’s the summary:

Under our new policy, anyone, regardless of whether they have donated to Rhizome or not, will be able to post or access Rhizome content from the last year simply by signing up. It’s completely free to sign up - all you have to do is register an email address and password.

Artworks and texts that are *more than one year old* will reside in the Rhizome Archives. Only Rhizome Members will be able to access the Archives. Members will also be able to maintain a Member Page in the Community Directory, create Member-Curated Exhibits, and use special features such as Advanced Search. In the coming months, we will roll out innovative features to keep our membership program dynamic and worthwhile.

All current Members will retain their membership status under the new policy. When your membership expires, you will still be able to subscribe to Rhizome lists and browse the site. But, in order to retain member benefits, you will be asked to renew your membership at an annual level of $25. I hope you will consider continuing your membership at this level. Rhizome is just as reliant on our base of Members for financial support now as ever before.

It’s not clear if things fall into the archive automatically after they are a year old or if everything added before May 23, 2004 goes into the archive and everything after is out. I assume the former. So there will be a moving archive deadline I’m assuming.

I was pro-fee when it was proposed, but later changed my mind and became anti-fee. At first I felt that if Rhizome needed the money, then a Rhizome behind a fee firewall is better than no Rhizome at all. But then I realized that the firewall was slowly strangling Rhizome and urged them to ditch it. Which they’ve now done. Good!

A small bit of criticism: I don’t like the archive idea. It’s my opinion that the text and art archives should be open forever. Rhizome needs to figure out other services/features that people will pay a membership fee for, but they shouldn’t restrict access to the artbase or text archives.

Putting my criticism aside, I’ll say congrats to all the Rhizome staff for getting the new policy in place. I’m sure it was a lot of work. And now that we’ve got a fairly substantial hole in the firewall, perhaps we can tear it down entirely someday :-) permanent link to this post

Rhizome commissions 05-06 voting

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The voting for the Rhizome ‘05-‘06 Net Art Commissions is underway.

You can look at all the proposals here. You have to be a Rhizome member to vote on the proposals.

There’s already been a bit of discussion on Rhizome_Raw regarding the proposals. From Jess Loseby:

just gone through the submissions for this years commissions. I would be interested to know what proportion of the submissions people approve….??

I must have approved about 6

does that make me discerning or arch-bitch - (rhetorical - I know:).

I tried to look at as much and be as fair as possible but I admit after the first 15 anything with the word “mapping” or whose abstract looked like it had been written by curt’s “market-o-matic” went into auto-no. *yawn*

Backed up by Annie Abrahams:

I ‘saw’ them all too and had the same kind of reaction

finally said ‘yes’ to 6 propositions , same as you.

I must admit to be underwhelmed by the proposals as well. This doesn’t mean that many of the projects couldn’t or wouldn’t be good. It’s just that for one reason or another the proposal isn’t interesting. Maybe the author simply doesn’t know how to talk about their work? Maybe the proposal just doesn’t transfer well into a description?

Whatever the reason, I’m curious to hear from any artists, curators, or critics who have sat on juries. Is the signal to noise ratio any different in these Rhizome proposals then you normally see?

For the record, here is MTAA’s proposal. permanent link to this post

Rhizome ArtBase 101 opening 6/22

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The opening of Rhizome ArtBase 101 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art will be next Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005 starting at 6:30PM.

MTAA is included in the show with our piece entitled 1 Year Performance Video.

Be there or be a rhombus. permanent link to this post

Rhizome ArtBase 101

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Received the official press release for the Rhizome ArtBase 101 show that will be opening at the New Museum on the 22nd of June and which MTAA is included.

It’s long, so I’m linking to a PDF, but I’m posting the facts and some tasty bits below.

Rhizome_ArtBase_Release.pdf (108KB, this was updated on 6/6/05)

Here’s a list of all the artists, ARTBASE_ARTISTS.pdf

Rhizome ArtBase 101

Forty Selections From Rhizome ArtBase Demonstrate Scope of a Decade of New Media

June 23 - September 10, 2005

[…]

The Rhizome ArtBase is a respected online archive of new media art containing some 1,500 works. Founded in 1999, the ArtBase is unique because of the wide variety of new media art forms that it includes, such as software art, games and moving image, and also for its international scope. The 40 works selected for the New Museum exhibition are outstanding examples culled from the ArtBase and grouped by ten unifying themes: Dirt Style, Net Cinema, Games, E-Commerce, Data Visualization and Databases, Online Celebrity, Public Space, Software Art, Cyberfeminism and Early Net.Art. Rhizome ArtBase 101 includes seminal pieces by early practitioners such as Alexei Shulgin’s Desktop Is (1997) and Heath Bunting’s _readme (1998), as well as projects by more of the most pioneering emerging talents working in the field today, such as Marisa Olson, Cory Arcangel and Paper Rad.

[…]

Data Visualization and Databases create unexpected relationships between informational entities. Mark Dagget’s Carnivore Is Sorry (2001), for example, uses RSG’s network surveillance program Carnivore (2001-2003) to track individual users as they navigate the web. The resulting web data is compressed into a jpeg resembling an abstract artwork, and then e-mailed to the user to offer them an alternative look at the information that recently passed along their browser. One Year Performance Video (akasamhsiehupdate) (2004) sources prerecorded clips of Brooklyn-based collaborative MTAA into a streaming video diptych that simulates a fictional narrative of the artists living in adjacent, identical white cells for the duration of a year.

Download the PDF to read more! permanent link to this post

Rhizome ArtBase 101 NY1 video

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m back from Ohio just in time to do some own-horn-tootin’ for MTAA.

I’ve posted a quicktime version of the NY1 report on the Rhizome Artbase 101 exhibition at The New Museum.

Download it here (quicktime, 02’33, 8.2MB)

And my name isn’t Tom! permanent link to this post

Rhizome 2005 commissions announced

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Download the PDF to read the entire release:

Rhiz_Commissions_05.pdf (56KB)

I’m happy to report that MTAA received one for “To Be Listened To…”

Here’s the first graf of the release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday June 6, 2005

CONTACT
Lauren Cornell, Rhizome.org
Phone: 212.219.1288 X208
Email: laurencornell@rhizome.org

NEW YORK, NY - Rhizome.org is pleased to announce that eleven artists/groups have been awarded commissions to assist them in creating original works of net art. Each will receive awards ranging from $2000 - $900. The selected artists for the 2005-2006 commissioning cycle are Hans Bernhard, Annie Brissenden, Dave Burns, Jason Corace, Andy Deck, Victoria Fang, Jason Freeman, Ethan Ham, Peter Horvath, Sean Kerr, Thomas Laureyssens, Alessandro Ludovico, MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates), Tony Muilenburg, Adriaan Stellingwerff, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young.

permanent link to this post

Rhizome.org Announces Winners of 2004 Net Art Commissioning Program

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(The following has been edited from a Rhizome.org press release).

NEW YORK, NY—Rhizome.org is pleased to announce that seven artists/groups have been awarded commissions to assist them in creating original works of net art through its Commissioning Program. Paul Catanese, Warren Sack, Jason van Anden, Luis Hernandez Galvan and Carlo Zanni will receive awards of $2,500-2,900 each. Commissions of $1,750 will be awarded to Kabir Carter and C-Level.

A panel of jurors—independent curator Yukiko Shikata, Francis Hwang of Rhizome.org, Natalie Bookchin of The Art Center, and Rachel Greene of Rhizome.org—selected six winners and one Honorable Mention from a pool of about fifty proposals that were received by the March 7, 2004 deadline. Members of the Rhizome.org community participated in the evaluation process through secure web-based ballots, selecting a proposal by artist Carlo Zanni to win a commission.

The chosen projects will be publicly exhibited on the Rhizome.org web site at http://rhizome.org starting in November 2004. They will also be preserved in the Rhizome ArtBase archive, and presented at a public event in New York City.

+ + +

Rhizome.org is an online platform for the global new media art community. Our programs support the creation, presentation, discussion and preservation of contemporary art that engages new technologies in significant ways. We foster innovation and inclusiveness in everything we do. Rhizome.org is a not-for-profit organization.

+ + +

$2900 Awards:

MISPLACED RELIQUARY
by Paul Catanese (San Francisco/CA/US)

OVERSATURATION
by Luis Hernandez Galvan with support from Gabriel Acevedo (Mexico City/MX)

FARKLEMPT
by Jason van Anden(New York/NY/US)

AVERAGE SHOVELER
by Carlo Zanni (New York/US and Milano/Italy)

$2,500 Awards:

AGONISTICS: A LANGUAGE GAME
by Warren Sack

$1,750 Awards:

ENDGAMES
by C-level (Los Angeles/CA and New York/NY/US)

LISTENING (Working Title)
by Kabir Carter (New York/NY/US)

Honorable Mention:

Linkhunters.net
by Kerstin Guenther permanent link to this post

Review of Internet Art by Rachel Greene

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Eduardo Navas has posted a review of Rachel Greene’s “Internet Art” on his net_art_review web site.

[…] the book does have a specific position worth deconstructing. To begin, it imposes a post-conceptual narrative on many of the works discussed, as Greene states, “I relate the ways in which internet art is indebted to conceptual art through its emphasis on audience interaction, transfer of information and use of networks, simultaneously by passing the autonomous status traditionally ascribed to art objects.” (10) This can mean one of two things, either that all the artists who make internet art have an implicit relation to conceptual art or that only those artists who have such connection are included in the book. The problem behind this statement goes further if we consider the possibility that some of the artists included in the book may not actually have any relation to conceptual art; this would mean that an ideological imposition is at work.

More at netartreview.net… permanent link to this post

Review of “Five Small Videos…”

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Recently UK artist Michael Szpakowski posted a review of MTAA’s “Five Small Videos…” to the Rhizome RAW list. He has graciously allowed it to be republished here.

I meant to post awhile back to say how much I’d liked the MTAA “Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing.”

Like them very much I do; but they also intrigue me. The blurb says they are inspired by early performance videos - a genre and a period which I enjoy a lot. There was a marvellous exhibition at the ICA here about a year ago of single channel video works - lots of Acconci, Baldessari and also early Nauman -wonderful stuff.

One thing that occurs to me about the MTAA response is firstly how *elegant* it is - & this is a quality of all their work - elegance and thoroughness, or perhaps elegance due to thoroughness - one could never accuse them of a lack of craft. This is in stark contrast to the sheer edginess and sense of ( often literal!) danger in much of that early video work. Doing my sums I can’t put this down to the newness of video as a medium - actually I suspect that the technologies used by MTAA are newer relative to them.

There’s a temptation to see this piece ( and others such as the one year performance piece) as a sort of conceptual post modernist whimsy, beautifully made but essentially a clever formal exercise.

I think this would be wrong - actually there seems to me to be a feel of “classicism” about this work - the elegance seems not a symptom or a bolt on but a very much integral part of the work.

I see this happening quite a lot -its as if in the shadow of high modernism it wasn’t quite respectable to use the methods and the language of the past without being *ironic* or having a high concept. Now all those barriers have long been broken we can simply move on to using a good move no matter when or where we saw it.

SO specifically here it’s as if the artists of the seventies having blazed a trail, created edgy stuff in a kind of white heat, MTAA are examining the language and the practice with the benefit of a couple of decades of hindsight and appropriating *what fits*, *what works* into their own practice.

And the resultant work for me isn’t simply clever or knowing but actually quite touching - I’m quite moved by these two characters in the videos ( and there are longer backward shadows cast here - Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, the *comic film duo* , spring to mind).

Certainly the piece feels to me to have many resonances that go beyond the intellectual, the clever, the knowing and enter the world of the affective.

Read the rest of the RAW thread here (1st page free, members-only after that). permanent link to this post

Review of 1YPV

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Eduardo Navasse has posted a review of MTAA’s 1 year performance video on his excellent site, netartreview.net.

Here’s a bit:

[…] the strain of the performance is on the viewer now, not the artist; but this strain is a virtual one, one that is no longer concerned with the body but with the dematerialization of such into a new type of action—a meta-action— in art making, and art viewing. In a way, this not only updates the passive demand that a work of art has always had on the viewer: that it be completed by the viewer’s gaze, but it also makes obvious the interactive demand of any art object since minimal art emerged.

Read the entire article here. permanent link to this post

Reverend Billy featured in NYTime’s Magazine today

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Reverend Billy is a street performer/guerilla theater actor whose anti-consumerist message is delivered in the style of a street preacher.

NYTimes article | Visit Rev. Billy’s website

If you’re in the art scene in NYC you’ve run into Rev. Billy at least a few times over the last few years.

My favorite memory of Rev. Billy — and it may be the first time I encountered him— was at the Brooklyn Museum rally in support of the ‘Sensation’ exhibition.

You’ll remember that then-mayor Giuliani had whipped up some controversy by complaining that a certain painting in the show was anti-catholic and was threatening the museum with funding cuts &c. At the rally there was a small space cordoned off by the cops for a counter demonstration by catholics. Rev. Billy jumped on their side of the barricade (there were perhaps 10 people in the counter-demonstration) and entertained the pro-art crowd for a few minutes until the cops figured out he was on the wrong side and asked him to leave. permanent link to this post

Respect Kimmelman

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Fairly scathing article by Michael Kimmelman in today’s NYTimes basically saying that the Chanel show at the Met is below a review. He just rips into the whole ‘sponsored’ exhibition thing that major NYC museum’s have been doing for a while.

Now comes the Met with its current Chanel-sponsored Chanel show, a fawning trifle that resembles a fancy showroom. Sparsely outfitted with white cube display boxes and a bare minimum of meaningful text, this absurdly uncritical exhibition puts Coco’s designs alongside work by the current monarch of the House of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld.

via: Art, Money and Power

I found this interesting:

The Chanel show avoids mentioning her activities during the war, when she maintained a life in Paris as the lover of an SS officer and, according to her biographer, Janet Wallach, tried to exploit Nazi laws to wrest control of her perfume business from her Jewish partners.

I have to admit having an apologist steak for museum’s that need to do this. It’s usually obvious when an exhibition’s been bought and paid for. When it’s a pay-off, you don’t expect to see art, you expect to see an ad. Hopefully they only need to this once every few years. The rest of the time they hang shows with integrity.

This balance needs to tip heavily in the direction of art and curatorial integrity however. If the ratio btw integrity and whorishness is 6:1, we’re OK. If it tips more to 3:1 or 1:1, then museums are in serious trouble. permanent link to this post

MTAA-RR redesign

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Hell Yeah!

Look! It’s all redesigned! If you’re reading this from a news reader, go here to check it out. And speaking of feeds, this one still works but that is just for the news and comment section. There is also a BRAND NEW FEED that covers the entire MTAA-RR. Which means, if you subscribe to this new feed, you’ll also get up-dated when we add new documentation to the off-line art and on-line art sections as well as other sections.

So, please, visit the web site and poke around a bit and let us know if there is anything acting funky or not looking right because, ya know, we do it all for you. (Wasn’t that a McDonald’s slogan?) permanent link to this post

Re: Gunplay, as art

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

re: this situation

Q: How many performance artists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: I don’t know — I left before it was over! permanent link to this post

Get more from your MTAA-RR

posted at 16:45 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

If you append “?recent=n” (where n is a whole positvie number) to the base URL of this site (mteww.com/mtaaRR/) you can see entries with comments from the last n days. Try it here for the last five days. If you want to do this sort of thing a lot, just bookmark that link. permanent link to this post

re: artstar.tv

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m reversing my earlier ambivalence regarding the idea of Artstar.tv. I hate it.

How low can the art world stoop? Artstar.tv answers that question by aping reality television. That is pretty fucking low. I’m actually a fan of reality TV, so, nothing against reality TV. I just think of art as being different from entertainment (perhaps naively).

There is a fine line between good Pop Art and a sickening psychophantical homage to the dominant media culture. Perhaps Artstar.tv will stay on the the right side of that line. Perhaps it will be a brilliant critique of the reality TV phenomenon. Perhaps it will subtly explore the nuances of the life of a working artist in NYC or the nuances of different artists’ creative processes.

I doubt it.

It will be just a bunch of desperate artists doing their best to suck-up to the art world honchos as they watch their dignity being stabbed out like a stale cigarette. permanent link to this post

Random Links

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Douglas Rushkoff (yes, the writer, Douglas Rushkoff) is a member of Psychic TV (now called PTV3).

Anyone who attended art school anywhere in the late 80s/early 90s will know who Psychic TV is/was. Genesis P-Orridge was somewhat unique in those days in realizing the value of networks and set-up a little club around PTV called.. what was it called? All my roommates in college were members.. Psychic Friends Network? No. OH YEAH! The Temple of Psychic Youth or as Google points out, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. But maybe I or my college roommates are/were confused and there is no connection between PTV and TOPY.

Whatever.

—————-

ArtLeaf.net is a new web site on art and the art world. Looks to be pretty well put together with forums dedicated to big museum shows in NYC and Boston (not much action yet), a couple of articles and a section about artists in their studios.

—————-

Scott Rosenberg has an interesting article in Salon regarding RSS (free registration required if not a subscriber).

He compares RSS in 2003 to HTML in 1994 suggesting that it is just as important. It seems to me that a tech writer would have jumped on RSS longer ago. Though it’s an article for newbies (as he points out in his blog) he makes some interesting points.

His blog is good and I recommend it. permanent link to this post

Public appearance by t.whid

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

If you’ve ever wanted to throw rotten vegetables at me, this is your chance!

I’ll be making a rare public appearance at the New Museum for Rhizome’s “Blogging and the Arts” panel. Official Rhizome press release below:

Public Program:
Blogging and the Arts
Tuesday, November 23, 6:30PM - 8:00PM

Location:
New Museum of Contemporary Art / Chelsea
556 West 22nd Street

Rhizome.org Director of Technology Francis Hwang will lead a panel discussion entitled Blogging and the Arts. The panel includes artist Kabir Carter, photoblogger and journalist David Gallagher, artist and critic Tom Moody, and artist T.Whid. The discussion will address questions such as whether blogs will change the nature of discourse in the fine arts field, and ways that artists and critics are integrating this new form of communications into their own work.

About Rhizome.org
Founded in 1996, Rhizome.org is an internet-based platform for the global new media arts community. Through programs such as publications, online discussion, art commissions, and archiving, it supports the creation, presentation, discussion, and preservation of contemporary art using new technologies. Since 2003, Rhizome.org has been affiliated with the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Blogging and the Arts is presented with the sponsorship of PubSub Concepts Inc., a free, real-time search subscription service spanning weblogs, newsgroups, wire services, and other information sources.

Can someone leave some ideas about what to say in the comments of this post please? I’m clueless. permanent link to this post

Queer for Cory

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cory Arcangel and T.Whid at Team for the opening of “Welcome 2 My ~~Homepage~~ Artshow!!!!!!!!!” permanent link to this post

NYTimes does “public.exe”

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Nice overview of the exhibition “public.exe: Public Execution” on the NYTimes.com today (unfortunately as of 5PM the exhibition is mistakenly referred to as “public.ex” … guess the reviewer doesn’t use Windows) in an article entitled “Politics That Makes Peace With the Beauty of Objects.”

Here’s the pertinent section:

Speaking of extremes, “public.ex: Public Execution” at Exit Art represents one of them, at least in terms of format. The show is all but invisible in the gallery, where another, long-running exhibition takes up most of the space.

In fact, “public.ex” has just two works on the premises. One, by Siebren Veersteeg, is a screen with a live feed of Associated Press news scrolling across a Coca-Cola logo to demonstrate the pervasiveness of American monoculture. The other, titled “What an Art Gallery Should Actually Look Like (Large Glass),” by the Turkish artist Serkan Ozkaya, is made up of thousands of slides of artworks submitted in response to an open call on the Internet. Deliberately abnegating curatorial control, Mr. Ozkaya displays all the submissions edge to edge, in random order, across several of Exit Art’s windows.

There’s also art in the form of handouts. The collective called Paper Rad contributes a funky cartoon newspaper with a cool, righteous election-year editorial. And Kelley Walker, one of the more promising young artists around, offers a CD of a poster he has designed. For $10 you can have the disk and as many copies of the poster as you care to print. So much for the sanctity of the art object.

The rest of the show is made up of Web sites (for the collective xurban.net, for example); screenings of videos (by the hacker activist collectives BEIGE and Radical Software Group); and live events. Will Kwan is organizing flash mobs to protest the city’s plans to build a stadium near Hell’s Kitchen. Brendan and Patrick FitzGerald, brothers, will lead walking tours of misused public and private urban space. Ricardo Miranda Zuniga will push a shopping cart equipped with radio broadcast hardware through the streets, inviting passers-by to program their own on-air shows.

All of this will be archived on Exit Art’s Web site, further dematerializing an exhibition composed of ephemera, gestures and pixels. And such a disembodied show is precisely what the curators — Anne Ellegood and Michele Thursz, with Defne Ayas — are after: one that as far as possible sidesteps the authority of the art institution, with its conventions of display and critical categories. Instead “public.ex” is dispersed into the everyday world, where art and life, silly and serious, seem to interact on the random, nonlinear model of the Internet, that most potent and exasperating of cultural resources.

permanent link to this post

Proof: I’m not a hipster

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I got 0, that’s ZERO, on this quiz.

Finally! Hard proof that I’m no hipster. permanent link to this post

PS1’s website redesign sucks

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

How does PS1’s web site bite? Let me count the ways… rudely.

1. Splash page (need I say more?)

2. Cheese ball flash animation announcing GNY2005

3. Evil pop-up from cheese ball flash animation announcing GNY2005

4. The artist list in the stupid pop-up from the cheese ball flash animation doesn’t do anything! Yes you can rollover an artist’s name and it lights up, but a click does… nothing!

5. The exhibition section just has the stinking press release? How about some friendly copy (and larger text). PLUS, the navigation of stinking press release is too small and too confusing (the page you’re on should be highlighted not the page you’re not on, duh!).

6. Why is there a ‘press’ section when the exhibition section already has the press release? Oh, I see, so you could put a really big dumb graphic that says ‘Press, Greater New York 2005’, which clicks off to MOMA’s site.

7. At least make the friggin’ top-left logo clickable back to the homepage for chrissakes! This has been web-site navigation convention from before the turn of the century!

8. It don’t validate. (snigger, snigger) And it’s so f’d up, it would be hard to figure out where to start.

9. Change your meta-tags now! NOW! NOW! NOW! (It’s a shame to see the free and open-source Mambo put to such wicked uses.)

Ahhhh. That felt good.

See PS1, I AM smarter than you! Hahahahaha.

(Even though you didn’t put me in GNY2005 damnit!)

ps
Though my criticisms of PS1’s website are valid, the rude tone is meant as a bit of a joke or parody. See, I’m left out of the show, so my only recourse is this nerdy and nasty little crit of their website. It’s as much a put-down of myself as it is of PS1’s website. permanent link to this post

Programming and digital art

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Recently Tom Moody wrote (in part):

Does one have to write code to make art or music with digital tools? Two proponents of code are designer/MIT Media Lab professor John Maeda (on the hi-fi end of the digital spectrum) and the BEIGE crew […snip]

The beef about using consumer software is that an engineer makes aesthetic choices for you.[…snip]

[…] An analogy I’ve used is the purist artist who thinks you have to grind your own pigment to paint, either because store bought colors aren’t good enough or out of some strict truth-to-materials dictate. I think that applies to John Maeda—his “if you aren’t programming you aren’t using the computer” rap has a whiff of the purist ascetic about it.[…snip]

(See posts here and here for the entire quote.)

I find myself on both sides of this issue.

On one hand, I don’t think it’s necessary to be able to program a computer to make digital art*. Especially as the tools to create digital art get better and better. And besides, what is the difference between Windows APIs and the the interface of Photoshop? They both present you with tools to make things happen on a computer.

On the other, I think having programming knowledge is very important (but not necessary) for one to be a digital artist. I would argue that instead of Tom’s analogy of a painter grinding his own paint, a better analogy is that a painter must understand how color and 2d form work. For those are the building blocks of a painting really, not the paint. It’s a mistake to confuse a computer for a canvas, to think of it simply as a means to a visual end. A computer does much more than display images on it’s display. With much new media art the how of image creation is just as important as the images themselves.

+++++++++++++++
*Of course you get into a whole other argument if you do agree: is writing in a scripting language programming? How low-level is the code you program? Is programming in C++ somehow ‘better’ than programming in Java? etc, etc. permanent link to this post

proclame.com

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Got this email today:


From:

info@proclame.com





subject: 

proclame.com loves you





body:
 
both

I almost wrote if off as spam but noticed that is was sent to only M.River and I. So I went to proclame.com and what I found was good.

Of course I’m partial to art duos making net art ;-) permanent link to this post

Prix Ars competition

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The jury is about to deliberate over the submissions to this year’s Prix Ars Electronica and M.River is pessimistic about 1YPV’s chances. We submitted 1YPV in the Net Vision category.

I’m also pessimistic, but with over 7600 logins and super-users who have logged over 170 days running the piece I think it’s clear that we’ve defined a novel (if not new) way for people to interact with an online artwork. We deserve serious consideration.

(Jonah, if you’re reading this, my friend *Mr. Franklin* would like to help you deliberate (j/k of course).)

Something like del.icio.us will probably win the grand prize. Or maybe they’ll give it to Neal Stephenson or Linus Torvalds again. permanent link to this post

Prix Ars Electronica 2005

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The results

no mtaa :-( permanent link to this post

Pompous gallerist makes NYT

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This story was first broken by art blogger James Wagner 6 days ago and linked to from this humble web site 5 days ago. It’s fun to scoop the Times so decisively :-)

Eric Doeringer […] has been selling his copies of works by contemporary artists for four years on West 24th Street in Manhattan. Last Saturday, the police asked him to stop.

via: Little Artist Versus Big Dealer in Sidewalk Showdown

permanent link to this post

Worst case scenario…

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

…don’t think we’ll need it, but its always wise to have a contingency plan.

Canada offers protection to people in Canada who are afraid of returning to their home country. A claim for protection can be made at a port of entry or at a Canada Immigration Centre (CIC) office in Canada. Once a CIC officer decides that a refugee protection claimant is eligible to be referred, the claim is sent to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) for a decision on the risk on return.

More info here: CIC Canada | Refugee Protection in Canada permanent link to this post

What the fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck?

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Am I overreacting? No, I don’t think I am. With this administration’s track record of lies, abuses of power, power grabs, belligerent war mongering and trashing of civil liberties I don’t think it’s overreacting to cry out, “WHAT THE FUCKITY-FUCK-FUCK-FUCK!?”

Officials discuss how to delay Election Day

Kerry needs to come out hard and NOW denouncing any talk of this whatsoever! (So should Bush but we all know the chimp won’t.) permanent link to this post

Wonkette

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

I’ve been following this thread on Wonkette. And I must say, it’s hilarious!

bush is evil

As the Wonkette explains in this post regarding Bush’s Sloganator:

The brilliant strategists at Bush-Cheney HQ allow you to customize a campaign poster with a slogan of your choosing. And, yes, we tried the obvious ones but someone thought to block those. You can’t make a poster that says “Penis,” or “Poo-Poo,” or “Prince of Darkness.”

Some choice slogans:

These Guys Be Fellatin’ Goats
Christians for purification of the Mid East
WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.
Because SATAN is coming to eat your kid

update: Looks like all our fun with the Bush Slogan-maker has had an affect, the sloganator is dead. permanent link to this post

Weapons Rules Eased At Dulles and National

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

People soon will be able to carry guns and other dangerous weapons onto the grounds and parking lots of Reagan National and Dulles International airports, after officials yesterday eased what they said were overly restrictive rules.

Without debate, the board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority unanimously agreed to permit passengers and other airport visitors to carry guns, knives and other weapons as long as they keep them out of terminals and other buildings that access airfields. Passengers who are taking guns with them on flights still will be allowed to carry them into the terminal but are supposed to make arrangements with airlines in advance, officials said.

The action comes after pressure from an increasingly high-profile Virginia gun rights group whose members have taken to wearing firearms on their hips in public places to make their case.

[ link: Weapons Rules Eased At Dulles and National (washingtonpost.com) ]

It’s becoming harder and harder for me to believe that I haven’t been somehow transported into a satirical novel about America instead of living in the real thing. permanent link to this post

What do Goya and Zell Miller have in common?

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

It’s nice to see my two passions — art and politics — come together.

Atrios compares the now infamous still of Zell Miller from last night’s RNC to Goya’s ‘Saturn.’

Fun, fun, fun.

update:
From the comments: Abe Linkoln’s Zell vs. Goya:

Click to enlarge image permanent link to this post

VOTE KERRY

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Ahhhhhhhh, it felt so good.

It’s a shame (I mean that: a real shame) that every locality isn’t as easy to vote in as NYC. The poll workers were very cheerful and knowledgeable and I had no line to wait in at all (though there were long lines for other districts, I guess I got lucky).

(note: I’m going to use this post to add my thoughts throughout the day.)

It brings a tear to my eye knowing that even the drug dealers are voting in my homestate. From Clevelend, via Salon:

“Most people here from what I’m hearing have never voted before in their lives,” says Michael Bonner, a 34-year-old police officer who was waiting for a friend in the hallway of Harry David Jr. High School, a polling place in a predominantly black section of the city full of boarded-up buildings and vacant lots.

“Even the drug dealers came out and voted today!” says Dan Lawson, a hulking 27-year-old electrician. An older man standing nearby nodded in agreement, saying, “That’s right. Even the drug men.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Lawson says, “and I may never see anything like this again.”

permanent link to this post

UK politician rips US Senator a new hole

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

But why? Why does it take a UK politician to come here in order for the truth to be spoken in the US Senate? Why!?

Our press is weak and under attack and our politicians are cowards.

Download the MP3 (1.1MB) of UK Parliament member Galloway telling the truth.

update
While you’re at it, you may want to download this speech by Bill Moyers (MP3, 27MB) too.

In his first public address since leaving PBS six months ago, journalist Bill Moyers responds to charges by Kenneth Tomlinson - the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - of liberal bias and revelations that Tomlinson hired a consultant to monitor the political content of Moyers’ PBS show “Now.”

permanent link to this post

I Hate George Bush

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

And this post on Talkingpointsmemo.com is hilarious.

You might want to read Reuter’s piece in the NYTimes for some context (it’s linked from the TPM article above too).

These people in the White House know no shame and it seems like the general public just doesn’t seem to care either.

If Dean wins the presidency I’ve decided that not only am I literally going to dance in the street but I’m going to dance in Dean St. in Brooklyn. See you there! permanent link to this post

Joe Trippi’s new blog

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

The former campaign manager of Howard Dean, Joe Trippi, has started his own blog called Change For America.com.

For those of you under a rock, Trippi was the poster child for the ‘new’ political campaign defined as using the Internet for a campaign’s centerpiece in fund-raising and grassroots organizing.

And it seemed to work marvelously until the polls actually opened. It’s a shame that Dean is dropping but his and Trippi’s cutting-edge use of the web for political organizing will be remembered for being very influential IMO. permanent link to this post

The Well Armed Voter

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Shaula Evans, over at Tsure Dzure Gusa has a horde of links and information to help make sure you get your vote out. Intimidation stands no chance against the well armed voter.
Know your rights. If you’re an eligible voter, you have the following rights:

If your name is not on the official voter list but you believe you are eligible to vote in that precinct, even if an election official challenges your vote, you have the right to cast a “provisional ballot.”

If you’re in line when the polls close, you should stay in line because you’re entitled to vote.

In many states, your employer must allow you time to vote at some point during the day. You can’t be fired for being late due to long polling lines.

You have the right to vote without being intimidated by anyone.
MoveOn.org (opens .pdf) has a cut out wallet card as well.

[ via: culturekitchen.com, The Well Armed Voter ]

You should also bring photo ID and proof of residence (utility bill, etc). These items are not necessary, but if you are challenged at the polls it will help to establish who you are and where you live. To repeat, it’s good to have these items, but not required; all you need is your signature. DON’T BE INTIMIDATED! permanent link to this post

Tanks at LA anti-war protest

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Why did two tanks show up at an anti-war protest in LA?

Were they just passing by? Are tanks often on this strip in LA? They circled the block twice according to this article.

Very curious.

You can see video at LA.indymedia.org. permanent link to this post

Terror threat: real or partisan tool?

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Goddamn-it, I’m ANGRY!

Why am I so angry? Because of our lying President. You can’t trust anything that comes from the government! And we need to trust the government now more than ever.

From the AP via the Yahoo! News:

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a U.S. official called the threat “serious” and “credible” and said it involves threats to financial institutions in New York and elsewhere.

…

New intelligence that the al-Qaida terrorist network plans to attack financial or international institutions in New York has led police to urge extra security precautions at various city buildings.

So, (1) is this threat for real? Or (2) is it just a way for Bush to suppress turn-out at RNC protests by scaring people and create an excuse for even higher security around the RNC which will further neutralize the protesters’ voices?

It’s sad and frightening that option 2 is even in the realm of possibility. But that’s what happens when you have a lying executive who has politicized the entire response to 9/11 and the threat of international terrorism. permanent link to this post

thegreatamericanshoutout.org

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

fuggedaboudit!

As George W. Bush moves to the podium in New York City, we will send him a message about his bid for reelection: we will yell, “fuggedaboudit!”

Go here for all the details. permanent link to this post

Scary shit

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

The radical right’s cynical pitch to the Jews: “My friends, there is no Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is only the global war on terrorism.” Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Aug. 30, 2004, New York City.

[ via Talking Points Memo ] permanent link to this post

Rumsfeld: Iraq Just Like US

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Rumsfeld yesterday:

We had something like 200 or 300 or 400 people killed in many of the major cities of America last year. Is it perfectly peaceful? No. What’s the difference? We just didn’t see each homicide in every major city in the United States on television every night. It happens here in this city, in every major city in the world. Across Europe, across the Middle East, people are being killed. People do bad things to each other.

What a fucking asshole. permanent link to this post

Partisan tool it is!

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Looks like our skepticism was well-founded:

NYTimes: Reports That Led to Terror Alert Were Years Old, Officials Say:

Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terror plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way.

permanent link to this post

Open Source Media™ isn’t

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

The right-wing bloggers behind Open Source Media™ (love how it’s trademarked — assholes) really don’t seem to understand open source. It really pisses me off that these dickweeds are abusing the term.

Read why I’m griping here.

Daily Kos has a post too. permanent link to this post

mypollingplace.com

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Don’t know where to vote?

MoveOn PAC is suggesting using a web site called mypollingplace.com to find out where your polling place is. All you need is your address and zip code to find your polling place.

Spread this URL around!

mypollingplace.com
mypollingplace.com
mypollingplace.com permanent link to this post

NYC: 80% for Kerry

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

I’m proud to say that NYC voted 80% for Kerry. Red America (especially one’s that voted Bush out of terrorism concerns) should think about why the city that suffered the most from 9/11 voted overwhelmingly for Kerry.

The NYTimes on how NYCers feel:
A Blue City (Disconsolate, Even) Bewildered by a Red America

M. River adds:

Although the really sad thing is that most people did not rate "terrorism" or "the economy" very high in why they voted for Bush. They voted on "family values".

So, in order to try to understand, I went to the American Family Association’s web site.

http://www.afa.net/

Yup, just as I suspected. It looks like "family values" is a euphemism for fundamentalist bigotry. Thanks Heartland.

Oh, sorry. Is "euphemism" an example of East cost liberal intellectual big words? Okay, how about I just use a Fox news favorite formula? "Some people might say that voting based on "Family Values" shows that you’re just another racist, homophomic, women hating, asshole.” permanent link to this post

Mmmmm, poodle burgers

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

This has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard…

An animal rights group has called on one of the largest aquariums in the United States to stop serving fish to its visitors, likening the practice to grilling up “poodle burgers at a dog show.”

“It’s easy to think of fish as swimming vegetables but of all the places in the country where fish should get a fair shake it’s an aquarium,” said Karin Robertson, manager of the Fish Empathy Project for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

via: Activists Say Aquarium Sends Bad Message By Cooking Fish For Lunch…

I’ve always been a bit bewildered by the whole “off-limit meats” mores in societies. Fry me up some dog or cat, I’ll eat it :-) permanent link to this post

Juan Cole tells it

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Guantanamo Prison should be closed because it was conceived as the beginning of the end of the American Republic.

via: Quran Splashed with Urine at Guantanamo

permanent link to this post

What has gone wrong with our country that allows this president to get away with such things?

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

That’s what Krugman asks as the end of his column today after detailing the disastourous lack of accountability in Bush’s administration.

Krugman list three examples of how grave mistakes are made by Bush administration officials but no one is held accountable. This is the most disgusting one in my opinion: …an important story that has largely evaded public attention: the effort to prevent oversight of Iraq spending. Government agencies normally have independent, strictly nonpartisan inspectors general, with broad powers to investigate questionable spending. But the new inspector general’s office in Iraq operates under unique rules that greatly limit both its powers and its independence. I agree with Krugman’s assessment: These people politicize everything, from military planning to scientific assessments. If you’re with them, you pay no penalty for being wrong. If you don’t tell them what they want to hear, you’re an enemy Is Kerry the one to save us from this monstrosous administration? permanent link to this post

It’s madness to put up with King George

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

It’s time. I was never on the impeach Bush bandwagon, but I’ve just climbed aboard.

It seemed like a very bad idea to impeach two presidents in a row, but this one deserves it more than any other; more than Nixon and certainly more than Clinton.

Admitting that he believes he’s above the law, Bush should have signed his own impeachment papers (impeachment papers… are there impeachment papers?), but the spineless republicans currently in control of congress will most likely just continue to vigorously lick his boot heels. Or maybe not.

+++

Some editorials (cribbed from HuffPost):

NY Times Editorial: Bush “Secretly And Recklessly Expanded The Govt.’s Powers In Dangerous And Unnecessary Ways”…

Wash. Post Editorial: “The Tools Of Foreign Intelligence Are Not Consistent With A Democratic Society”…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette : “Unacceptable Actions Of A Police State”…

Kansas City Star: “The Struggle With Foreign Enemies Does Not Simply Give Him A Blank Check”…

Denver Post Editorial: “Adm. Has Lost Its Sense Of Balance Between Essential Anti-Terrorism Tools And Encroachment On Liberties”…

St. Petersburg Times Editorial: “So Dangerously Ill-Conceived And Contrary To This Nation’s Guiding Principles”…

LA Times Editorial: “Stunning,” “One Of The More Egregious Cases Of Governmental Overreach”…

+++

And, from Senator Russ Feingold’s response:

The President’s shocking admission that he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens, without going to a court and in violation of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress, further demonstrates the urgent need for these protections. The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king.” (emphasis mine)

permanent link to this post

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

John Stewart once again proves why he deserves to be my hero.

TUCKER CARLSON: OK, up next, Jon Stewart goes one on one with his fans…

[CROSSTALK]

STEWART: You know what’s interesting, though? You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.

[LAUGHTER]

CARLSON: Now, you’re getting into it. I like that

via: Media Matters for America

Read the entire thing, it’s great. There are vids to download too :-)

After watching the video I was really struck by the fact that the so-called ‘debaters’ on Crossfire lost so miserably to Stewart. These so-called debaters just couldn’t answer his accusation that they aren’t fulfilling their obligations as journalists. permanent link to this post

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Juan Cole does a serious slap-down of Bush’s BS “optimism.”

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq’s current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

[…]

What if the Air Force routinely (I mean daily or weekly) bombed Billings, Montana, Flint, Michigan, Watts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Anacostia in Washington, DC, and other urban areas, attempting to target “safe houses” of “criminal gangs”, but inevitably killing a lot of children and little old ladies?

What if, from time to time, the US Army besieged Virginia Beach, killing hundreds of armed members of the Christian Soldiers? What if entire platoons of the Christian Soldiers militia holed up in Arlington National Cemetery, and were bombarded by US Air Force warplanes daily, destroying thousands of graves and pulverizing the Vietnam Memorial? What if the National Council of Churches had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to converge on the National Cathedral to stop the US Army from demolishing it to get at a rogue band of the Timothy McVeigh Memorial Brigades?

[…]

Read the entire post at Informed Comment. permanent link to this post

It’s fun to shoot some people

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

According to an audio recording, [Lt. Gen. James Mattis] had said, “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. … It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right upfront with you, I like brawling.”

He added, “You go into Afghanistan (news - web sites), you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”

via: Yahoo! News - Marine General Counseled Over Comments

Spreading freedom and democracy…

And while I’m at it… Perhaps with the Republicans celebrating the Iraqi elections they’ll realize that they should allow free elections here in the States too. permanent link to this post

I heart Krugman

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

But worst of all from the right’s point of view, Al Qaqaa has disrupted the campaign’s media strategy. Karl Rove clearly planned to turn the final days of the campaign into a series of “global test” moments - taking something Mr. Kerry said and distorting its meaning, then generating pseudo-controversies that dominate the airwaves. Instead, the news media have spent the last few days discussing substance. And that’s very bad news for Mr. Bush.

[ via: The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: It’s Not Just Al Qaqaa ] permanent link to this post

I ♥ Dean

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

I know this is everywhere else, but ya gotta love Howard Dean for saying it:

My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don’t comment on FOX News […]

In response to Cheney calling Howard Dean “over the top” on Fox News on Sunday. permanent link to this post

Haven’t posted on politics in a while…

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

So yeah. I haven’t posted on politics in a while, but then this question came to mind:

If the pope and Terri Schiavo both die on Easter, is it the beginning of Armageddon?

I’m pretty sure it is. permanent link to this post

Go Kerry!

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

This is the response we need!

The Vice President called me unfit for office last night. Well, I’ll leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.

Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without healthcare makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi Royal Family control our energy costs makes you unfit. Handing out billions of government contracts to Halliburton while you’re still on their payroll makes you unfit. That’s the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And that only scratches the surface.

— John Kerry, Springfield, OH, 09/02/04

Full text permanent link to this post

Get ready to rumble

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Karl Rove said today that the president views a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage as essential to a “decent” society.

via: NYTimes

Bush & Rove know ‘decency?’ What a fucking joke.

Let’s hope that ACT, MoveOn, Downtown for Democracy, Democracy for America, &c are ready to fight these bastards tooth & nail.

The Dems need to go on the offensive, but I’m not an expert… does this stand a chance in hell of going anywhere? permanent link to this post

Fucking liars

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Haven’t posted on politics in a while…

INTELLIGENCE AND FACTS WERE BEING FIXED AROUND THE POLICY

I saw this a few days ago, but the lack of press coverage here in the U.S. has made it my obligation to do my little part to spread the facts. I think I read it originally via Political Animal by Kevin Drum. Here’s the link to the Drum post (which he got via the Times of London printing of a secret British government memo); here’s the important part (emphasis added):

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

“C” is a spook working for British intelligence.

How does one “fix” facts? This is confirmation that Bush was, at the very least, lying by omission. That is, hiding facts that didn’t support his push for an Iraq invasion. Of course it’s my opinion that his administration was just outright lying in order to exploit public fear to gain popular acceptance for this bullshit Iraq war. permanent link to this post

Fucking hell

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

This sucks. ~~(I know, I know, I guess it’s not officially over, but shit, it’s not looking good.)~~ Kerry has conceded. Shit.

Americans have proven themselves to be nothing but a bunch of scared peasants voting for their idiot king.

You Bush voters, your american citizenship is officially revoked for not identifying and dismissing the creeping authoritarianism that is the GWB administration. If it’s not obvious enough now, over the next four years it will become abundantly clear how big a mistake you have made. We’ll hope our democratic institutions are still in place so that you may fix your horrible error.

If a president this corrupt (Halliburton) and incompetent (Iraq) can’t be beat what sort of country have we become?

Don’t despair folks, just start thinking about what we can do over the next 4 years to make the chimp wish he had lost. permanent link to this post

FEMA isn’t free

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Walking to lunch today, I noticed a truck with a window sticker featuring the American flag and the little platitude “Freedom Isn’t Free,” a lightly veiled code for Iraq war support.

It’s time for a new slogan for the left and others who see the Bush administration for the disaster that it is:

FEMA Isn’t Free

background reading:

FEMA predicts New Orleans disaster

FEMA gutted for Homeland Security

timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration

++++

If you use Amazon, you can 1-click give to the Red Cross, or visit their web site. permanent link to this post

Is it possible…

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

…for me to get any MORE enraged by the Bush Administration?

Yes, it seems like it is: Fahrenheit 9/11 Opens June 25.

trailer here permanent link to this post

To be believed? I doubt it.

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

CNN today:

“Cues from chatter” gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs…

And of course it’s a coincidence that just yesterday (from NYT):

Hitting hard on an issue of deep concern to older voters, Senator John Kerry on Wednesday promised an overhaul of the Medicare prescription drug law, saying President Bush had personally “stood in the way” of importing drugs from Canada…

How fucking stupid do these fucking fuckers think we are? Evidently, mighty fucking stupid. permanent link to this post

TPM: perjury charge for Clarke?

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

JM Marshall writes in this post that the Republicans are considering bringing perjury charges against Dick Clarke (no that Dick Clark, this Dick Clarke).

The first step in this little adventure is to declassify testimony Clarke gave congress in 2002.

It really sounds like they want to totally destroy this guy. Not discredit him, not debate with him, not to object to him; they want to put him in jail. And why? For telling the truth.

It’s doubtful that he’ll ever be charged with perjury because most of his points are corroborated by other people, that is, they’re true. The only people who don’t understand this are Republicans who have been blinded by their partisanship to the deep, deep flaws and lies of Bush. permanent link to this post

Dancing in the Streets: Revolution with a Smile

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

John Perry Barlow suggests spontaneous explosions of dancing in the streets of NYC during the RNC as a form of happy protesting.

Liza Sabater heartily agrees.

And so do I :-) Don’t know if I’m up to organizing, but I could definitely do some participating. permanent link to this post

Carlson calls it for Kerry

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

…haven’t seen this elsewhere so I’d thought I’d mention it.

On The Chris Matthews Show this morning, conservative guest Tucker Carlson called the election for Kerry. He said something like,

We will know who the next president is on election day, and though I’m not happy about it — it’s reality — it will be Kerry by 2 points. It’s not good for the nation that Kerry wins, but it will be good that there is a clear winner.

Again, not verbatim, but something very similar.

~~There is no transcript available yet. When it’s available I’ll post the real quote.~~

UPDATE:
The transcript now available; it’s at the bottom:

Mr. CARLSON: […] I think there’s going to be a definitive win by two points. I have to say I think it’s going to be Kerry. I’m not for that, but I think that’s—I think that’s reality.

permanent link to this post

Calpundit: very good political blog">Calpundit: very good political blog

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Yes, sometimes I post about politics here on our little art blog and this is one of those posts: Calpundit rocks.

This post in particular is ~~very~~ insanely good. It succinctly describes exactly why Bush and his Republican handlers are so damn evil: After 9/11 George Bush had a chance to build a bipartisan consensus about terrorism and how to respond to it. But he didn’t just fail to do that, he deliberately tried to prevent it, and by transparently treating terrorism as little more than a chance to boost the prospects of his own party he has convinced everyone who’s not a Republican that it’s not really a serious threat. After all, if he quite obviously treats it as simply a political opportunity, it’s hardly reasonable to expect anyone else to take it seriously either. The comments section of Calpundit is very good too, lots of lively debate by well-informed posters. permanent link to this post

Bush to World

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Download the video
(1MB QuickTime .MOV)

via Eschaton

More at Daily KOS. permanent link to this post

Bush is insane

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

As simple as that.

According to the BBC via Huffpost:

President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …” And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, “Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” And by God I’m gonna do it.’

permanent link to this post

Sorry, need to post about politics today

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

As always, Talking Points Memo is good:

From the White House’s advocates we hear logic puzzles about appeasement in which the fall-out from the president’s screw ups become the prime argument for continuing to support them.
[…]
[Bush] has no plan. And will without policy just equals death.

Josh Marshall also quotes this line from the Washington Post:

The only unequivocally good policy option before the American people is to dump the president who got us into this mess, who had no trouble sending our young people to Iraq but who cannot steel himself to face the Sept. 11 commission alone.

And that’s it. As Iraq seems to be falling apart before our eyes, what do we get from Bush? More vacant rhetoric and more stonewalling. He is undoubtably the worst President the USA has ever had. permanent link to this post

Bush: “Happy Holidays”

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Another notorious liberal human-secularist trying to destroy Christmas: President George W. Bush.

Listening to Bush’s press conference today on WNYC (I know, I’m a sucker for punishment), Bush closed the conference by wishing the reporters “Happy Holidays.” Faux News carries the transcript here (at the bottom of page).

Why is this a big deal? It’s not, unless you listen and believe right-winger propaganda bullshit. See these posts (here, here, here and here) from the blogosphere for background (and this Tom Tomorrow cartoon).

UPDATE: I missed the beginning, but according to this, Bush also greeted everyone with the dreaded and disgustingly politically-correct phrase “Happy Holidays!”

Plus, Lou Dobbs is a fucking idiot.

From Media Matters for America:

ROMANS: Lou, Macy’s is adamant it’s not trying to offend anyone, just the opposite. It’s doing just what other businesses do, retail and otherwise. It’s trying very hard not to exclude anyone. That’s why “Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays” is better.

DOBBS: Well, they’ve just excluded everyone who is celebrating Christmas, which is, after all, the foundation of the so-called season in which they make most of their profits.

ROMANS: Moving definitely toward not offending anyone.

DOBBS: You know, when you think about it, “Happy Holidays” — what other holidays are we celebrating right now? We’re celebrating Christmas, right?

ROMANS: And they say Hanukkah, Kwanzaa —

DOBBS: Kwanzaa?

ROMANS: — also the end of Ramadan and a host of other holidays between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

DOBBS: But as we celebrate each one of those — and each of us in this very diverse society does celebrate — my Jewish friends say to me “Happy Hanukkah,” I say to them “Merry Christmas,” none of us is offended. I don’t understand the reluctance to use Christmas.

ROMANS: They say “Happy Holidays” covers it all.

DOBBS: They do? Well, they’re wrong. And merry Christmas. Thanks, Christine.

And, hmmm, let’s see, IS there any other holiday that almost everyone is celebrating soon… golly it’s a tough one. Oh yeah! That’s right.

What about NEW YEAR’S DAY you fucking idiots! permanent link to this post

Pokia - Retro phones of the future

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Hi-Larry-Us permanent link to this post

PodART

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’re participating in this show, should be fun!

Official press release follows.

+++

PodART
December 9, 2005 - January 17, 2005
at FINE ART IN SPACE
Opening Reception:
December 9, 2005, 7 to 9pm.

Gallery Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9am. to 5pm.
Fine Art in Space
10-47 48th Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 392-7766

Press contact: Heather Stephens at gallery31grand@earthlink.net

Fine Art in Space is pleased to present in collaboration with 31GRAND, the first group exhibition of video art intended to be viewed and sold solely on the iPod. Apple, the computer of choice by much of the art world is the inspiration for our new exhibition.

This curatorial exploration was inspired by the introduction of the latest iPod, which now plays video. In recent years, Video art has been growing rapidly in popularity. Their ongoing introduction of more technologically advanced products has resulted in the acceptance and accessibility of this media. Apple’s latest achievements with the iPod have garnered this art form even more portability.

Artists featured in PodART will include the work of: Gogol Bordello, Jason Clay Lewis, Nelson Loskamp, MTAA, Marisa Olson, Eugenio Percossi, Jean Pigozzi, Adam Stennett, Lee Walton, and Jeff Wyckoff.

MTAA is an art duo working on and off-line and are known for their conceptual and often humorous art projects. Past exhibitions have been at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, The Getty Research Institute, and Postmasters gallery.

Based in San Francisco, Marisa Olson’s work has been commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and she has most recently performed or exhibited at the New Museum for Contemporary Art, the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, Side Cinema-Newcastle, New Langton Arts, Southern Exposure, Foxy Productions, Debs & Co, Galapagos, Flux Factory, 667 Shotwell, Pond, the international Futuresonic, Electrofringe, Cinemascope-London, Machinista, Scope, and VIPER festivals, and elsewhere. She has held residencies and fellowships at Goldsmiths, the New School, Northwestern University, the Technical University-Dresden, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She participated in an exhibition which Artforum highlighted among their “Best of 2004” and while Wired has called her both funny and humorous,the New York Times has called her work “anything but stupid.”

Jeff Wyckoff is an artist and scientist whose video work includes intravital imaging, cancer research and often music. Mr. Wyckoff has an upcoming lecture at MIT in February and exhibitions in Belgrade, Antwerp, and is currently working with the Art and Genome Center in Amsterdam.

Each video object is a limited edition and is sold in iPod format with the player.

For more information about the artists please contact us at 718.388.2858 or gallery31grand@earthlink.net.

permanent link to this post

Please stop GNY

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Joy Garnett needs to stop posting all this stuff about Greater New York because my heart’s been scraped as clean as the inside of a Ben & Jerry’s pint container and I can’t take it anymore!

nasty sour grapes following:
Someone in-the-know let drop on me that the organization of the show is a complete shambles. Unless I misheard my source, it seems that some artists are being asked to submit their work without it being guaranteed that it will actually be hung in the show! permanent link to this post

Multiple vulnerabilities in ‘pizza_party’

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I can’t decide if this list-serv posting is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or not:

Either would allow for individuals other than the owner of the Dominos Pizza account to order arbitrary pizzas (with random toppings even) via the DominosQuikOrder web server and have them delivered — resulting in chaos, anarchy and confusion.

I also wonder how Cory’s site handled the /.ing?

If you’re not in the know, we’re talking about Cory Arcangel’s Pizza Party, a command-line program which allows one to order pizzas. permanent link to this post

MTAA are non-sexual art partners

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This has been a problem lately so I’m just going to lay it right out on the line:

M.River and T.Whid are not gay lovers, we’re non-sexual art partners.

This is only a problem because we sometimes get invites to parties, openings, and other social events where the invite only comes to one of us. It’s our worry that people think if they invite one they’ve invited the other, but that’s just not true. We both need to be invited.

Recently, I was invited to an opening at the Guggenheim, but M.River received no invite. Conversely, M.River received an invite to a party in honor of a mutual friend, but I received no invite. M.River isn’t going to bring my along like I’m his ‘old lady’ or something. We both lead separate lives! We’re not joined at the hip.

So please, in the future, if you want to invite us to something, just because you e-mail me doesn’t mean I’m going to bring M.River along. He’s not my boyfriend, we don’t go everywhere together. And of course the inverse is true.

and mriver adds:

Yeah, I do love Twhid, but not like that. Ya know? Oh, one more important thing, even though Twhid and I are straight white guys…WE THINK YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO LEGALLY MARRY WHOMEVER YOU FUCKING DAM WELL PLEASE! This is America remember…created equal not separate but equal.

MTAA, non-sexul art partners for gay marriage. (N.S.A.P.F.G.M.). Nuff said. permanent link to this post

Pixies Tour

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

OK, this is sort of old news but, The Pixies are touring. and it’s not some bogus Pixies made up of only two members, it’s THE PIXIES: Frank Black, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, and David Lovering. So far they’ve booked dates for a ‘warm-up’ tour which is mostly in Canada and the Northwest. According to Billboard there will be real tour to follow. I hope they plan on playing about 50 dates in NYC.

I saw The Pixies in — damn — must have been in 1991. They were touring in support of “Trompe Le Monde” which was released that year. It was at The Newport in Columbus, Ohio.

But M.River, who was much cooler than me in college (and still is I guess), saw them at Stache’s much earlier.

Dave Grohl (who has been to Stache’s) has this to say about it in the NYTime’s today:

Face it, the quiet/loud dynamic that’s dominated alternative radio for the last 14 years can be attributed to one and only one band, the Pixies. Undoubtedly one of the most influential groups of the new rock generation, they are back on tour to reclaim their status as the coolest American band since, well, possibly ever. In the 12 years since the band broke up, we’ve been blessed with some incredible solo albums from the singer and guitarist Frank Black; the bassist Kim Deal has graced us with the Breeders and the Amps; the drummer David Lovering has become a magician; and the guitarist Joey Santiago, he’s just bad (as in good). There is a new greatest-hits CD, a two-and-a-half-hour DVD (both on 4AD) and an 11-city tour kicking off next month. Not to be missed, the Pixies are a live band like no other. Be prepared for an over-capacity sing-along, night after night.

permanent link to this post

PIXIES! PIXIES! PIXIES!

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

WOO-HOO! Just scored two tix to the Saturday 18th show at the Hammerstein Ballroom!

Saw the Pixies back in… what year was it? ‘91? ‘92? At The Newport in Columbus, OH on their Trompe Le Monde tour. Which ain’t that cool considering that M.River saw ‘em at Staches a couple years earlier. (Nirvana also played at Staches but I missed that show too.) permanent link to this post

Pirated Movie on iPod

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

For the PodART show we’ll also being showing Pirated Movie. Check it out:

Pirated Movie on iPod

MTAA’s “Pirated Movie” on an iPod permanent link to this post

piss poor? No… Piss pour!

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Czech artist David Cerny’s new sculpture, “Piss,” installed in Prague.

The best part? You can SMS the sculpture and the guys will spell out your message!

send an SMS to +428 724 370 770

more info here, including more photos and flash animations. permanent link to this post

Pirated Movie DVD release

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s Pirated Movie (more info here, here and here) is to be released very soon.

We’ve created an edition of 10 DVD-Videos (with 10 APs). This is a large number of APs but we wanted to give copies to all the people who donated their time and other resources to help make it happen. We’ll have more info on how you can obtain your copy shortly, stay tuned.

Super-special-ultra thanks to Devin Clark for editing and all the participating artists and musicians too! permanent link to this post

One thing about the debate

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

Is it me, or did Bush seem to keep pausing and waiting for applause? Could he be that out of it?

Also, the media says about Bush that his strength is that he can stay relentlessly “on message.” This is a total, big, steaming pile of bullshit. “Stay on message” means repeats himself over and over because all he has are talking points coached into him by his handlers and he’s run out but needs to fill his time. He had to struggle to fill the tiny amount of allotted time half the time! What a pathetic ass.

And from talkingpointsmemo.com:

Every president gets tucked away into a cocoon to some degree. But President Bush does notoriously few press conferences or serious interviews. His townhall meetings are screened so that only supporters show up. And, of course, he hasn’t debated anyone since almost exactly four years ago.

Frankly, I think it showed. It irked him to have to stand there and be criticized and not be able to repeat his talking points without contradiction.

I had the same impression and loved it. permanent link to this post

Photos of 1YPV at NuMu

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

I took some pix of 1 Year Performance Video installed at the New Museum. A little sneak peek for our faithful blog readers :-)

The photos are fairly lame (flash, fish-eyed, yeck), but it gives you an idea of what it looks like installed. You can see the Mac mini mounted to the wall under the 60” screen.

Click the images below for larger images if you are so inclined.

Thanks to everyone at Rhizome and the New Museum, the installation looks great. permanent link to this post

Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship photos

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

We’ve posted some pix of the event, click the thumb below to go to the photo gallery.

Also, an honorable mention goes to Neil Jenkins who sent this drawing all the way from the UK under the influence of large amounts of vodka (click for a larger image):

permanent link to this post

DADC 2005 - CHAMPION!

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

Luke Butler!

You may be able to make out his drawing, it’s to the left of the monkey with a gun drawing next to his head.

See all photos from The Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship 2005. permanent link to this post

DADC 2005 - 2nd Runner Up

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

Justin Waldstein!

Visit Justin’s web site.

He was the honorable mention, but the 2nd runner up had left, so the title went to him. Unfortunately, we had put the other person’s name on the certificate already. Sorry dude!

See all photos from The Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship 2005. permanent link to this post

DADC 2005 - 1st Runner Up

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

Michael Cambre!

He successfully defended his 1st Runner Up title from last year!

See all photos from The Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship 2005. permanent link to this post

Casa de MTAA

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

permanent link to this post

Back from <PAUSE>

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

Yes. Back home. Had a great couple of days in Montreal for the <PAUSE> exhibition.

Thanks again to Valerie Lamontagne and Brad Todd of MobileGaze for inviting us to participate in the exhibition and inviting us to Montreal to present our work.

I’ve posted some photos, mostly of the artist presentations. Follow the link here or click the thumbnail below.

permanent link to this post

Interview on petiteMort

posted at 16:44 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’re very pleased to announce that petiteMort interviews MTAA in their second issue entitled ‘Begins & Ends.’

petiteMort is a new-ish on-line journal published by Antonio Serna and Peggy Tan which covers a wide-range of cultural issues including music, art, writing and science.

While you’re there, don’t miss the interview with Cory Arcangel in issue 01. permanent link to this post

People I’ve called asshole on this site

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

unknown Verizon employee

James Childs (artist)

Donald Rumsfeld

some right-wing commenter (in comments)

John Currin (artist)

Senate Republicans (in comments)

George Pataki & company

Focus on the Family and American Family Association (dumbasses actually; close enough)

Anish Kapoor (posed the question of whether he is a dumbass; later retracted)

the Bush Administration (of course!)

+++

This post was inspired by the asshole commenting on this post. permanent link to this post

Peretti on WNYC

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Jonah Peretti, organizer of The Contagious Media Showdown at Eyebeam, was interviewed on The Brian Lehrer Show today about the showdown

The archive and podcast (RSS link) should be up shortly. Jonah’s bit was the last 20 minutes or so of the first hour.

Unfortunately, I missed the awards ceremony and, boy, am I sorry.

addendum
I should have mentioned that MTAA and collaborators’ submission, artistadl.org, ended up in the 24th position with 7509 hits (officially) and 136 technorati links (we cheated). permanent link to this post

Paris underground cinema — literally

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is too fucking cool; it’s blowing my mind. (full story here.)

After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.

Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, “clearly designed to frighten people off,” the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, “like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs”.

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. “There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous,” the spokesman said.

“The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there.”

Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: “Do not,” it said, “try to find us.”

permanent link to this post

Paper view technology

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens. The firm says the low production costs could see the

via: MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | Paper view technology

This could be huge. I’ve been saying for years that this sort of development will usher in a new era in interactive/digital media — like the web did in ‘95.

I’ll believe it when I see it of course. permanent link to this post

MTAA included in Parachute #113

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The current issue (#113, Digital Screens) of Canadian art magazine Parachute describes some of MTAA’s work in an article by Valérie Lamontagne called The Screen of net.art. Other artists discussed in the article are Peter Horvath, Grégory Chatonsky, Brad Todd, Entropy8Zuper, and jimpunk.

There is also an article devoted to thing.net’s founder and artist Wolfgang Stahle.

This could be construed as a vanity post I suppose (hell, this entire blog could be considered a vanity project), but it’s good to see an international art magazine devoting an entire issue to the impact of digital processes of creation and presentation on contemporary art. Having net art as one of the main themes of the magazine confirms my feeling that the editors are serious about documenting and analyzing contemporary digital art practices. permanent link to this post

Pace digital artist talks

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I missed the debate last night but I did go to a talk at Pace University by two very different digital artists.

José Carlos Casado and Michael Mandiberg couldn’t be more different in their approaches to new media art.

Casado showed and discussed his Pandora’s Box (revisited)*, a two-channel video installation. It’s a lush fantastical tableau evoking themes of love, reproduction, sex, and intimate human relationships. Often lyrical and goofy in an endearing way, the video’s playful quality is very refreshing.

Also playful are Mandiberg’s mostly conceptual pieces. Steeped in Marxist theory, his work criticizes the art object, dot.com e-commerce and identity in a hip and witty way. See aftersherrielevine.com and Shop Mandiberg.

Casado was the weaker speaker. His talk was long-winded and — frankly —boring. Mandiberg, perhaps because his work is based more in the verbal or because he lectures for a living at university, was a much more engaging speaker and explained his work in a much more lucid way. To be fair to Casado, his work doesn’t need much explanation, it’s lyrical, aesthetic work which most people know how to respond too without any context or explanation. He should understand this and not bore us with long-winded histories of the piece and let it speak for itself.

*I would link directly to his on-line documentation, but his Flash interface stops me — just go to his site (linked from his name above) and choose “art works”. permanent link to this post

Our new logo

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

permanent link to this post

ourmedia.org launches

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve been keeping an on this site for a bit…

http://www.ourmedia.org/

The site seems like it’s getting slammed, it’s kinda slow. But that’s OK when you just launch. From their welcome message:

We’ll store your video, podcasts or digital photo collection for free — forever. No catches.

Sounds great! permanent link to this post

MTAA open studio June 18th

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

When: Friday, June 18th, 6-9PM
coinciding with WGA extended gallery hours

Where: 60 N. 6th St. 2nd floor, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(directions: next door to this place)

Yes, MTAA have a studio and it’s going to be open to the public.

Come see the set for our new net art work commissioned by Turbulence. The set will be fully dressed by our set dresser M.River.

Come see the first public screening of Pirated Movie (to be officially released at Postmasters summer show opening June 19th (more here) so, if you do the math, this means that YOU can see it ONE WHOLE DAY early).

Come see paintings! Yes, paintings! by M.River. (Solid pigment is suspended in a liquid vehicle (like linseed oil or an artificial polymer) and smeared on a canvas stretched over a wood frame.)

Come see other things able to be hung on walls.

We’ll also provide guided tours of MTEWW.com. permanent link to this post

Oops 01-29-05

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I thought about pretending that this post (which is on the front page today) is a new feature where we highlight older projects on the front of the MTAA-RR, but it isn’t. I just edited the post this morning, and one of the peculiarities of this site is that it puts the most recently edited posts on the front page.

Regardless, I’m glad it’s here on the front page today and perhaps we will institute a feature where we highlight older projects… seems like a good idea. permanent link to this post

ONVI Archives Project

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA has been asked by the ONVI Archives Project (scroll down for English) in Barcelona, Spain to submit DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix.

According to the ONVI Archives web site:

The works in these archives have been selected around various themes and a single purpose: to encourage a Critique of Contemporary Culture (in the language which best represents it) using different strategies such as video art, independent documentaries, and mass media archaeology, among other…

Does anyone have any more info about ONVI (Observatori de Vídeo No Identificat)? I’ve never heard of them before but they look legit and they said they’d lay some euros on us for including DC 9/11 - EDR. Which is cool as I consider it in the public domain.

Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about regarding DC 9/11 - EDR. Originally I wanted to release it under a creative commons license but since a good majority of the video is footage which isn’t technically mine to give rights too I didn’t know what to do. So I left it without a creative commons license; which is wrong I think. It’s my understanding that under US law, a copyright is slapped on it unless the rights holder specifically rescinds those rights.

So I guess I should slap a creative commons license on it, otherwise people have to assume it’s copyrighted, which it isn’t. permanent link to this post

New Museum of Contemporary Art Presents One Block Radius

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This looks like an interesting project:

www.oneblockradius.org

From the press release:

Since January 2004, artists Christina Ray and Dave Mandl — known collectively as Glowlab — have been examining the block on which the New Museum’s new building will rise (Bowery to Chrystie Streets on the East-West axis and Stanton to Rivington Streets on the North-South axis).

AND, there’s a walking tour too! Fun:

Saturday, May 15, 2004
2-3:45 PM

Where:
Participant, Inc.
95 Rivington Street permanent link to this post

Olson new Editor and Curator at Large for Rhizome

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Rhizome.org Announces Marisa S. Olson as Editor and Curator at Large

via: Rhizome Announces Marisa S. Olson as Editor and Curator at Large

Congrats Marisa! permanent link to this post

On James Wagner & Barry Hoggard

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve been meaning to post about James Wagner and Barry Hoggard for a while and a fun coincidence gives me a good excuse.

James Wagner’s blog, jameswagner.com, along with his boyfriend Barry Hoggard’s blog, bloggy.com, are delightful looks into the lives of two art collectors.

I don’t know much about James or Barry (I’ve met them briefly twice), but they don’t seem like blue-chip collector types. They seem like they’re of moderate means (this is relative to what I imagine is the ‘average’ art collector, that is, they’re not out investing in million-dollar paintings) and are REAL, LIVE art lovers! Almost every weekend they seem to be in Williamsburg or Chelsea checking out galleries and posting quick photos and summaries of exhibitions to their blogs (James seems a bit more prolific).

I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see someone loving contemporary art and artists.

Now to the coincidence. Yesterday, James posted a photo of a strange collage he found on a door in Williamsburg. And funnily enough, the cartoon at the top, partially hidden by the frame, was done by yours truly. I painted it on my front door at the time along with some other decorations to highlight our door and buzzer for a party we were having. It’s lasted on that door for probably about 10 years (it’s been enhanced by folks over the years of course).

I’ve been wanting to make it onto James’ blog — now I have! permanent link to this post

Olia Lialina’s ‘A Vernacular Web’

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

So what was this culture? What do we mean by the web of the mid 90’s and when did it end?

To be blunt it was bright, rich, personal, slow and under construction. It was a web of sudden connections and personal links. Pages were built on the edge of tomorrow, full of hope for a faster connection and a more powerful computer. One could say it was the web of the indigenous…or the barbarians. In any case, it was a web of amateurs soon to be washed away by dot.com ambitions, professional authoring tools and guidelines designed by usability experts.

Read the entire article at art.teleportacia.org. permanent link to this post

Old AIOTD

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Old Art Idea of The Day (oaiotd? OK, OK, the acronyms are starting to get out of hand).

While browsing the archives of ye old MTAA-RR (April 03 to be exact) I found this little gem (from almost exactly 2 years ago):

Liberty, Fraternity, Community
A series of historical paintings in the neo-classical style depicting great moments in Smurf history. These ‘paintings’ could be done in oil or as digital images.

And I still think it’s a good idea! I’ll probably never do it, so I encourage anyone to take the idea and run with it! Please, I’m beggin’ you. permanent link to this post

In Ohio for holiday

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

M.River, the lazy bass-tard, hasn’t updated the blog while I’m out of town and mostly offline so here I am at Borders in Westlake, OH working it from a ye olde iBook.

The Borders has a T-Mobile hotspot ($6/h), so while my gal, my mom and I drink coffee and hot chocolate I’m writing this little blog post.

Maybe M.River will get out of the studio long enough to write a synopsis of the blogging panel at the New Museum earlier in the week?

Back in NYC on Tuesday. permanent link to this post

Out of town and off-line

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

M.River is going to need to carry the load on our little blog here for the next few days as I’m going to be out of town and off-line.

My gal and I will be relaxing with family on the shores of the Great Lake Erie until the 4th of July.

Also planning on taking my mom and grandmother to Fahrenheit 9/11 this Saturday.

cya permanent link to this post

Off to Ohio

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

My soon-to-be wife and I are off to the land of the stolen election, the land of my birth, to sit and stare on the shores of the Great Lake Erie for (almost) a full week. We’re bringing my fiancé’s Mom and Dad with us; both native New Yorkers. We’ll see how they do in the Mid-west.

We’ve been looking forward to this get-away for a long time and I can’t wait to see my nieces and nephews, my mom, my grandmother, my brothers and sister-in-laws. Relaxing with the family will do me good.

I’m bringing no computer — and there is no internet access in the little cottage on the beach my mom has rented anyway — so I won’t be posting here for a few days (yes all 12 of our readers will be quietly disappointed I’m sure).

M.River will hold down the fort and he’s thinking of turning this into a bit of a photoblog. We’ll see what happens. permanent link to this post

Off to Maine

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA is off to the University of Maine for a few days of artist visits and conferencing and paneling and whatnot.

Read all about it here: New Media at the University of Maine (the site is in beta and may be a bit rough around the edges).

Taking this chance to thank the New Media Program at the university for hosting the 1YPV video clips. Thanks! permanent link to this post

NYTimes does videoblogging (again)

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…and goes down with great gusto on videoblogging’s big, fat boner.

Until now, both the television and film industries have been built on a model that requires producers to appeal to millions of people or be considered failures. If Amanda Congdon at one end of the spectrum and Charlene Rule at the other continue to add viewers at the rate they’re going, they and the best of the other vloggers might just provide a viable alternative to that lowest-common-denominator business model.

In other words, the revolution may just be vloggerized.

I actually believe that videoblogging is worth all the hype and that the NYT actually got it right with this article.

via: TV Stardom on $20 a Day - New York Times permanent link to this post

NYTimes does the Pixies

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The NYTimes arts section is a very worthy read today :-)

It was a relief to hear that the Pixies still sounded utterly and gloriously like themselves on Saturday at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

via: Once Upon a Time, There Was This Really Loud Band

permanent link to this post

NYTimes does Steve Mumford

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Steve Mumford is profiled in the NYTime’s today in a story entitled Sketches From the Front: An Artist’s Dispatches, Rendered in Ink and Paint:

A New York painter, Steve Mumford, has been embedded with military units in Iraq on and off since April 2003.

I’ve written about Steve a few times. His Baghdad Journal is on artnet.com. permanent link to this post

NYTimes does podcasts and parody Gates

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve become a fan of podcasts recently. This NYTimes article turned me on to a new one: Grape Radio.

++++

The NYTimes also has an article about a parody of Christo/J.C.’s “The Gates” called “The Somerville Gates.” It’s kinda funny. permanent link to this post

NYTimes does PacMondrian

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

An online game fusing Pac-Man with Mondrian's painting "Broadway Boogie Woogie" has caught the attention of Internet gamers and even some art critics.

via: Chomp if You Like Art

The reporter also mentions Rhizome, Metafilter and Eyebeam in the process. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the article is that it deeplinks to Mondrian’s “Broadway Boogie-Woogie” on the MOMA web site. The simple fact that the article included bunches of pertinent links at the end of the article surprised me. In my surfing, it seems the NYT is always overlooking that essential element of online reportage, but the deeplink — wow! permanent link to this post

NYTimes does Artstar

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Deitch Projects, a gallery in Soho, is bringing reality television to the art world with a show called “Artstar.”

Read it: Reality (on TV) Reaches Art World

With copious quotes from yours truly (I guess people really do read this thing).

BTW, here is an index of most of our Artstar.tv rantings and ravings.

(thx Jason) permanent link to this post

NYT on Greater New York

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

For the show “Greater New York,” museum directors and curators will choose the work of 175 artists who they say best capture the city’s contemporary art scene.

via: Talent Call: Hot New Artists Wanted

I didn’t want to link to this because I’m seething with jealousy that it appears MTAA won’t be in the show. permanent link to this post

NYC = secular Hong Kong

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Perhaps Great Moral Leader will allow some city-states to survive as secular Hong Kongs around the country. I’m thinking New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, (why not?) Cleveland, &c.

Perhaps Great Moral Leader will see the wisdom of allowing small islands of creative thinking, tolerance, sexual freedom, religious freedom, scientific experimentation, free speech, and free assembly to survive around the country.

Perhaps Great Moral Leader will understand that he must do this in order to avoid the coming American Dark Age. permanent link to this post

NYT defends Drawing Center

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

But because the Drawing Center has been chosen to be part of the projected International Freedom Center at ground zero, it has come under some critical scrutiny. The Daily News reported yesterday that the gallery has, since 2001, shown political art critical of the current Bush administration. How much political art? Four pieces, including one on view now, is what The Daily News came up with, out of many dozens, maybe hundreds of works the Drawing Center has exhibited in the last four years.

via New York Times

bob linked to the truly disgusting Daily News editorial that this Times piece references on artistadl.org. permanent link to this post

NY1 does ArtBase 101

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

NY1 (a cable news station in NYC) came by the New Museum last Friday and interviewed Lauren Cornell and me about Rhizome ArtBase 101 as part of their technology coverage. The reporter said the spot, which will be about 2 minutes long, will air on Monday (July 4, 2005) and Tuesday (July 5, 2005).

Evidently it will be available via Real streaming on the NY1 website too. If anyone finds it, please post specific instructions in the comments. permanent link to this post

NYC helicopters…

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…are dropping like flies, two in the last 4 days!

#1 and #2

What gives? permanent link to this post

Note on T.Whid’s email

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

For the past, oh I don’t know, few days — perhaps a week — any mail sent to me at my twhid[@{no spammy}]mteww[dot]com account probably didn’t get read. It didn’t get deleted and I can get to it, but if it’s pressing you might want to send it again. permanent link to this post

NowPublic.com

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

NowPublic.com looks pretty cool. The site allows bloggers to post photo assignments which are searchable so that photogs can take the assignments. The images are then searchable/postable/feedable for anyone.

Cool as is; but also ripe for an artistic intervention ;) permanent link to this post

Not tehchingHsiehUpdate

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m not sure, but we may be changing the name of the project we’ve been calling tehchingHsiehUpdate.

We thinking of changing the name to 1 Year Performance Video.

Kevin McCoy thinks that we shouldn’t tie ourselves too closely to another artist’s work and he makes a good argument. Plus, we always do whatever Kevin tells us to do ;-)

Anyway, does anyone have an opinion?

Otherwise, it’s coming along pretty well. We need to tighten up a few things in the code that creates the video playlist (make it a little smarter), create the login functionality (don’t want to lose your time) and put the window dressing on it (context, short description, etc). But the core of the thing is essentially finished. It will be released September 30th on the Turbulence web site. permanent link to this post

Profit v non-profit in the US

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s interesting to note that the two for-profit new media art-friendly spaces in NYC: The Thing (with Screensavers and their giving hosting support to us too) & Postmasters are both supporting RNC protest art during the upcoming convention.

Other art establishments are forced to sit idly by because their not-for-profit status exempts them from political action (yes, I’m talking about Eyebeam and Rhizome).

Not criticizing… But it should make art orgs think twice before accepting the not-for-profit status.

+++++
update:
Wolfgang Staehle, founder and owner of thing.net and founder of The Thing, Inc., clarifies the many forms of this thing:

thing.net communications LLC is a partnership that runs the hosting and dial up business.

THE THING, Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit arts organization and runs the arts program and the BBS.

Two different entities with different missions.

thing.net sometimes supports THE THING by providing free tech support and inkind donations like paying the rent when TT is broke or donating a used server. This arrangement gives us the flexibility to survive in an increasingly hostile climate. The support provided to MTAA is coming from THE THING and the videos will be hosted on THE THING servers.

Hope this explains the setup.
Greetings,

Wolfgang

permanent link to this post

New York New Media Round-up

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Busy week in New York new media art, this is what’s happening:

December 11, 2003

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Eunjung Hwang and Reynold Reynolds speak at Eyebeam
7PM - 8:30PM as part of the exhibition Beta Launch ‘03: Artists in Residence.

Killer Instinct opening at the New Museum
Reception from 6:30 - 8PM. From the NuMu website, “Games come off the screen and to life in this exhibition including sculpture, video, painting, and, of course, Ataris and computers. Besides experimental hacks of commercial games, Killer Instinct features artists who use game hardware and software for social commentary as well as in the development of musical and filmic projects.”

December 12, 2003

Digital Culture Evening: Killer Instinct
6:30 - 8PM, A panel moderated by Alex Galloway, includes a gaggle of artists from the show.

Mark Napier’s “Sacred Code” opening at Bitforms
Reception 6-8PM. Show runs through January 17th.

Radio Party @ The Thing, The Thing’s end of the year Party. Starts at 9PM, could go later than 11:45PM…

+++++++++++
One would have to spread themselves pretty thin to make all that stuff. Good thing there are two of MTAA ;-) permanent link to this post

New MTAA logo

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We paid a super-famous designer piles and piles of money to come up with a new MTAA logo to help brand our international art product.

The thing I like about it the most is it’s originality. permanent link to this post

New feed URL

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’ve added a new feed format. It’s a feedburner feed. Same stuff, but allows us to view our subscriber stats easily.

Considering switching over to this feed if you feel like it :)

This is the link to the new MTAA Reference Resource feed! permanent link to this post

New digs

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Our astute readers may notice that the MTAA Reference Resource (yes that is the official name of this web log) has a brand new URL on the new-ish twhid.com domain.

Since you are reading this blog I must assume that you are OBSESSED with MTAA almost as much as we ourselves are, so that leads me to assume that you are burning with desire to know WHY?! Why OH! Why did we need to move the MTAA-RR all the way over to this new domain and do all the script re-jiggering required and what not. I’ll tell you why:

BECAUSE XO SUCKS!!!!!

Every couple of months they try to shake us down for more money. It’s ridiculous! I hate them!

I’m moving the entire MTEWW.com domain to this new server soon too, so this blog will eventually return to it’s original URL so..

DON’T LINK TO THIS NEW URL (www.twhid.com/mteww.com/mtaaRR), LINK TO: HTTP://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/ PLEASE! please, please.

So, I’m using these guys in Florida now called Lunarpages (maybe it’s a front for a Satanic cult or something, that would be cool). They are very good and provide lots of bandwidth, disk space and other advanced features (php, mysql, etc) for really cheap. They have been very reliable in up-time and have very good customer service. Sorry Rhizome, your host couldn’t come close to the price of these guys otherwise I would be there. permanent link to this post

New Art Dirt Redux

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Just listened to the new Art Dirt Redux where Robin Murphy and G.H. Hovagimyan tour the all the Chelsea openings last Thursday.

It was great. I really love the way G.H. layers the audio. The technique worked perfectly for this content; it made you feel like you were at the openings.

Check it out permanent link to this post

NetNewsWire 2.0, MarsEdit betas

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Ranchero Software has released a public beta version of NetNewsWire 2.0, a major update to its popular RSS newsreader application… [MacMinute]

WooHoo! permanent link to this post

networked_performance

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Turbulence.org has launched a new blog described as “networked_performance: an open forum to discuss network-enabled performance for an international conference in 2006.”

The site and conference is being supported by New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (Turbulence.org’s parent), Emerson College in Boston and the State University of California Monterey Bay.

Not lots happening on the blog just yet, but I’m sure there is lots more to come. MTAA is releasing a new net art work in September (funded by Turbulence.org) which I think of as a performance piece so I’m hoping it will add something to the discussion. permanent link to this post

NET ART OFFICIALLY DEAD!

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

From Rob Murphy’s blog…

NET ART DEAD!

Mark Tribe has called it in the press release for inSite_05:
Although artists continue to work online in ever greater numbers, net art as a movement is now over. But to say that the net is just another medium along with video, painting, installation, etc. would be misleading. The net is both a medium and a platform, a set of tools for art-making and a distribution channel for reaching people. The net can still enable artists to reach a global audience without the assistance of art world institutions. Equally important, it can enable artists to reach audiences that never set foot in a gallery, museum or performance space.
(via)

permanent link to this post

Need to know more about MTAA?

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Need to know EVEN more about MTAA? Well, it’s your lucky day!

Read an in-depth interview with the art associates on Rhizome’s site:

An Interview with MTAA by Lauren Cornell

+++

update
In the interview I mention that I did comics before joining up with M. This got me thinking about my old comics days.

The image below is from a one-off I did called “Diet Coke.” It was just a 3-page little thing. It ran in a ‘zine I self-published with some friends in December 1996 (this was right before M. and I started doing net/digital stuff). The ‘zine was called “Burger” but we did a small issue on a small budget between “Burger #1” and “Burger #2” (#2 being the last I believe) which we called “BGR: The Abbreviated Burger.”

Download a larger JPG (apx 300KB) permanent link to this post

Nauman videos on-line

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Video Data Bank has lots of previews of experimental artists videos on their web site.

I like the Nauman videos.

What do you get when you combine Bruce Nauman and simple on-line Flash games? MTAA’s ‘Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing’ of course :-) permanent link to this post

Nauman updated

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

video art ? permanent link to this post

Natalie Jeremijenko - MAKE audiozine podcast

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

From Makezine.com blog:

A MAKER profile of Natalie Jeremijenko, building toxic sensing robot dogs from discarded toys, as read by Dale Dougherty, MAKE publisher. This is an enhanced podcast, it will play audio -and- show the actual pages of MAKE Magazine from volume 02 when you click on them. We hope to do more of these, please let us know what you think. iTunes: Click this link and click SUBSCRIBE.

You can also download the vanilla MP3.

update
If you don’t know who Natalie Jeremijenko is, check out Google. According to her bio, she’s a design engineer and technoartist who teaches at Yale. permanent link to this post

Napier and Hovagimyan

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Two shows happening now or soon in NYC involving established NYC digital artists.

First, Mark Napier is having an opening at Bitforms this weekend:

Show dates: october 22 - november 26 2005
Opening reception: saturday october 22, 6-8 pm

Bitforms Gallery
529 W 20th St, NY, NY

Napier will also be presenting at the Upgrade! next week.

Eyebeam
Thursday, October 27, 7:30 PM
540-548 west 21st street (bet 10 & 11 Ave)

Also, received this email from GH Hovagimyan about a show he’s currently in at Sara Tecchia Gallery:

I’m pleased to announce that my latest work in High Definition videos are on display at Sara Tecchia Gallery (529 west 20th street, 2nd floor) in Chelsea. The videos are random select from an HDV database that are played one after another in a seamless playlist. This is a preview for a larger installation of 3 flat screens at Sara Tecchia’s in March. Come by and have a look and let me know what you think.

So get your ass out there and see some digital art damnit! permanent link to this post

Nam Jun Paik dead

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Looking for confirmation, but got an email via RHIZOME_RAW that Nam Jun Paik passed away yesterday evening.

~~Will link to reliable sources when I find them.~~ According to this web site (which says it’s the official Paik web site); it’s true.

Shit. The world has lost a great and influential artist.

There’s an article on MSNBC too.

Below, the entire NYT obit by Roberta Smith.

Nam June Paik, 73, Dies; Pioneer of Video Art Whose Work Broke Cultural Barriers

By ROBERTA SMITH
Published: January 31, 2006

Nam June Paik, an avant-garde composer, performer and artist widely considered the inventor of video art, died Sunday at his winter home in Miami Beach. He was 73 and also lived in Manhattan.

Nam June Paik in 2004 with one of his installations at the Deutsche Guggenheim Museum in Berlin.

Mr. Paik suffered a stroke in 1996 and had been in declining health for some time, said his nephew, Ken Paik Hakuta, who manages his uncle’s studio in New York.

Mr. Paik’s career spanned half a century, three continents and several art mediums, ranging through music, theater and found-object art. He once built his own robot. But his chief means of expression was television, which he approached with a winning combination of visionary wildness, technological savvy and high entertainment values. His work could be kitschy, visually dazzling and profound, sometimes all at once, and was often irresistibly funny and high-spirited.

At his best, Mr. Paik exaggerated and subverted accepted notions about both the culture and the technology of television while immersing viewers in its visual beauty and exposing something deeply irrational at its center. He presciently coined the term “electronic superhighway” in 1974, grasping the essence of global communications and seeing the possibilities of technologies that were barely born. He usually did this while managing to be both palatable and subversive. In recent years, Mr. Paik’s enormous American flags, made from dozens of sleek monitors whose synchronized patterns mixed everything from pinups to apple pie at high, almost subliminal velocity, could be found in museums and corporate lobbies.

Mr. Paik was affiliated in the 1960’s with the anti-art movement Fluxus, and also deserves to be seen as an aesthetic innovator on a par with the choreographer Merce Cunningham and the composer John Cage. Yet in many ways he was simply the most Pop of the Pop artists. His work borrowed directly from the culture at large, reworked its most pervasive medium and gave back something that was both familiar and otherworldly.

He was a shy yet fearless man who combined manic productivity and incessant tinkering with Zen-like equanimity. A lifelong Buddhist, Mr. Paik never smoked or drank and also never drove a car. He always seemed amused by himself and his surroundings, which could be overwhelming: a writer once compared his New York studio to a television repair shop three months behind schedule.

Mr. Paik is survived by his wife, the video artist Shigeko Kubota.

Mr. Paik got to television by way of avant-garde music. He was born in 1932 in Seoul, Korea, into a wealthy manufacturing family. Growing up, he studied classical piano and musical composition and was drawn to 20th-century music; he once said it took him three years to find an Arnold Schoenberg record in Korea. In 1949, with the Korean War threatening, the family fled to Hong Kong, and then settled in Tokyo. Mr. Paik attended the University of Tokyo, earning a degree in aesthetics and the history of music in 1956 with a thesis on Schoenberg’s work.

He then studied music at the University of Munich and the Academy of Music in Freiburg and threw himself into the avant-garde music scene swirling around Cologne. He also met John Cage, whose emphasis on chance and randomness dovetailed with Mr. Paik’s sensibility.

Over the next few years, Mr. Paik arrived at an early version of performance art, combining cryptic musical elements — usually spliced audiotapes of music, screams, radio news and sound effects — with startling events. In an unusually Oedipal act during a 1960 performance in Cologne, Mr. Paik jumped from the stage and cut off Cage’s necktie, an event that prompted George Maciunas, a founder of Fluxus, to invite Mr. Paik to join the movement. At the 1962 Fluxus International Festival for Very New Music in Wiesbaden, Germany, Mr. Paik performed “Zen for Head,” which involved dipping his head, hair and hands in a mixture of ink and tomato juice and dragging them over a scroll-like sheet of paper to create a dark, jagged streak.

In 1963, seeking a visual equivalent for electronic music and inspired by Cage’s performances on prepared pianos, Mr. Paik bought 13 used television sets in Cologne and reworked them until their screens jumped with strong optical patterns. In 1963, he exhibited the first art known to involve television sets at the Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, Germany.

In 1965 he made his New York debut at the New School for Social Research: Charlotte Moorman, a cellist who became his longtime collaborator, played his “Cello Sonata No. 1 for Adults Only,” performing bared to the waist. A similar work performed in 1967 at the Filmmakers Cinematheque in Manhattan resulted in the brief arrest of Ms. Moorman and Mr. Paik. Mr. Paik retaliated with his iconic “TV Bra for Living Sculpture,” two tiny television screens that covered Ms. Moorman’s breasts.

Mr. Paik bought one of the first portable video cameras on the market, in 1965, and the same year he exhibited the first installation involving a video recorder, at the Galeria Bonino in New York. Although he continued to perform, his interests shifted increasingly to the sculptural, technological and environmental possibilities of video.

In 1969, Mr. Paik started showing pieces using multiple monitors. He created bulky wood robotlike figures using old monitors and retrofitted consoles, and constructed archways, spirals and towers, including one 60-feet tall that used 1,003 monitors. By the 1980’s he was working with lasers, mixing colors and forms in space, without the silvery cathode-ray screen.

For his 2000 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, Mr. Paik arranged monitors faceup on the rotunda’s floor, creating a pondlike effect of light and images. Overhead, one of the artist’s most opulent laser pieces cascaded from the dome in lightninglike zigzags — an apt metaphor for a career that never stopped surging forward.

permanent link to this post

My day job: TVTonic

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Last week my company released a new version of our software, called TVTonic.

What is TVTonic? Well, according to me (I wrote the web site copy):

TVTonic allows you to subscribe to most video podcasts on the web.

Download RSS 2.0 video enclosures in the background.

And that’s what it let’s you do. It’s basically a video aggregator that let’s you subscribe, manage and watch video delivered via RSS 2.0 feeds (podcasts). It supports Windows Media and QuickTime formats presently, but we’re planning on adding support for more formats as we work through this public beta.

We’ve focused on creating an interface that supports the ‘10 foot experience,’ meaning that it’s designed to be navigated with a remote control from across the room while you’re chillin’ on your sofa.

Currently, it’s available to Windows XP users and you need Internet Explorer 6 or higher too. It works great within Windows Media Center or within Internet Explorer.

Feel free to check it out and leave any comments, complaints, constructive criticisms, etc on the forums at www.tvtonic.com. permanent link to this post

New music biz model

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Magnatune is a record label with an entirely new and clued-in business model.

They really seem to ‘get’ it: they publish their music in a variety of formats from which you can choose, CD-Quality WAV files to MP3s; they use a shareware model which lets you listen to entire albums before you buy; they use a sliding scale for home purchases ($5-$18 I can’t imagine why one would pay more than the min); the artists get 50% of sales; and they have a unique automatic licensing system for folks who need to license music for commercial use (you can even get the tunes for free for non-commercial uses).

So what’s the downside? They don’t publish any artists you’ve ever heard of.

I’ve been browsing their catalog for the past couple of days and haven’t heard anything I consider buying. Which is unfortunate as I would really like to support them. There is plenty of stuff I would consider licensing for commercial projects (because it’s cheap), but most of it seems to be B or C grade material. permanent link to this post

Murphy’s law in full effect

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Holy shit.

Could more have gone wrong today? Yes (we’ll get back to that in the epilogue). But not much.

Where do we start? Hmmm, let me see. Let’s start on a NJ Transit train to Newark (starts out bad and just gets worse).

M.River and I traveled to Newark on this snowy day to interview for a ‘professional development’ program at an arts organization in Newark called Aljira. The program is called Emerge, and you can read all about it here.

The wind and snow was fierce as we trudged from Newark Penn Station to Aljira (normally probably a short and pleasant walk — not today).

The interview process consisted of 5 artists (MTAA counts as 1) showing and talking about their work in front of a panel of arts professionals (there were reps from Creative Capital, eyewash, The Brooklyn Museum and Aljira).

During preliminary introductions, we ran into our first problem. “Oh! We don’t do collaboratives,” Aljira’s program director said, “There was a question mark there.”

That’s OK, M.River and I figured, we’ll win them over.

We had submitted a DVD-video of work samples. The other artists had all submitted slides and for reasons to do with the format, presented their work before us. Finally, it was our turn.

Bad disk. Let’s try again. Bad disk. Let’s try another disk. Bad disk. Let’s try a computer in the other room. All of the computers only have CD drives. I had brought along a few prints of the installation version of 1YPV and gamely passed them around to the jury panel, but was seething inside.

M.River bravely attempted to describe our work without the help of any visuals of our visual art as I stewed in my own juices and fought back urges to crack that goddamn DVD in half and fling it across the room.

Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. “You know. I feel like an idiot trying to explain the work with no reference images,” I interrupted, “I’m just kind of sitting over here and being angry.” That was pretty much the end of our interview.

What are our chances of being accepted to this program? Considering they don’t take collaboratives and couldn’t really see any of our work, we’re optimistic.

epilogue
It’s around 7:30PM on 7th Avenue in Manhattan and it’s snowing like hell. M.River is wondering if he’ll be able to catch a cab home. I’m thinking, no way in hell, when a cab comes cruising up and stops right in front of him. He gets in and a guy half-way down the block starts screaming and cursing at him. He runs over and makes like he’s going to punch the passenger window but thinks better of it. Evidently, he thinks M.River stole his cab. He keeps calling M.River, “asshole!” and “motherfucker!” He’s stomping his feet and venting his spleen. I casually watch him.

Ahhhhh. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude. permanent link to this post

Museums Sell Out

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

NYTime’s Kimmelman again takes museums to task for selling out to private interests. Another column of his was mentioned by yours truly on this post.

Museums are putting everything up for sale, from their artwork to their authority. And it’s going cheap.

via: What Price Love? Museums Sell Out

A key section:

With faith goes the delicate ecosystem of charitable contributions and tax-free privileges. Why, the public will ask, do institutions like these reap the benefits of nonprofit status if they service private interests who shape the content of what’s on view and/or reap cash rewards?

Indeed. These new trends could fuel right-wing attacks on non-profit art institution’s tax exemption. There have already been a few shots across the bow on the subject (can’t find the info, but I remember some legislator trying to take away the Met Museum’s exemption due to their museum stores having an unfair advantage due to the exemption).

What sucks (hard) is that the right can attack museums and other non-profit orgs that support traditionally liberal constituencies (artists) with practically no political down-side. While a left attack on their tax-exempt support base (churches) would be political suicide for any democrat. We’re not in a good position on this one. permanent link to this post

Mumford’s Baghdad Journal on-line

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

You can read the journal and view some JPEGs of his sketches and watercolors at artnet.com permanent link to this post

New installment of Steve Mumford’s Baghdad Journal on-line

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I received an email from Steve a few days back but didn’t get around to posting this until now.

Read Steve Mumford’s Baghdad Journal.

I’ve posted about Steve’s project from time to time (one, two, three), I have mixed feelings on the entire thing but it’s an interesting read and look regardless. permanent link to this post

Mumford’s new Baghdad Journal online

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Steve Mumford has a new Baghdad Journal online at artnet.com.

Steve is a New York City-based artist who, for the past year or so, has been visiting Iraq and creating watercolor and ink-wash sketches of the people and places he finds.

He sent this note around: Due to a screw-up on my part the last illustrated story posted, “Ramadi”, was actually my notes for the story, not the final essay. I’m sorry for the mix up not least because it was in no way intended for publication. The correct version is now up and I hope you’ll take a look. Basically, if you read an earlier version it looks as if it wasn’t intended for publication.

I’ve been mildly critical of Steve’s work in various forums (thingist). I felt the work was glorifying militarism and empire. But this current crop of sketches has a different tone, especially the portraits of the different soldiers. These sketches seem to capture a weariness and exhaustion that must be creeping into the soldiers. The general tone is less that of macho excitement and more reflective. permanent link to this post

MTAA @ Sala1 Galleria

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’re in a show in Rome called ‘Netizens II (la libertà del post-mediale)’ curated by Yael Kanarek and Sylvie Parent. The exhibiting artists are:

Peter Horvath
David Crawford
MTAA
Evann Siebens & Yael Kanarek
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES
Yan Breuleux

I have to admit, I’m sort of confused about what’s going on with it. The space has a web site, but there is no mention of the show there. Yael sent us a press release, but it’s in italian so I can’t really read it (the google translation is not much help).

I think it’s the same exact group that was in videozone2 video biennial in Israel. Yael sent us a catalogue from that show that featured a nice color reproduction still from “Five Small Videos…,” thanks Yael.

If you’re in Rome, check it out and let us know how it looks:) It’s up through January 28th (I think).

UPDATE
Found the official site explaining everything :-) permanent link to this post

MTAA + RSG

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Finally! some actual news (as opposed to the usual rants), big news in fact. MTAA has received a Creative Capital grant this year. It’s for a project we’re doing in collaboration with RSG.

Here’s a description of the project:

Want – A six-channel video installation using Internet peer-to-peer networks and actors portraying the obsessive desires of six types of common Internet users.

You can read the entire press release on the Creative Capital web site.

Congrats to all the other recipients as well! permanent link to this post

MTAA-RR birthday today

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

As M. noted in the post below, today is the 3rd birthday of the MTAA-RR (the official name of this blog/documentation station is the M.River & T.Whid Art Associates Reference Resource — we have a gift for creating long-winded and hard to remember names).

Go here to read the first post.

After that, I encourage you to peruse the archive. You should be asking yourslef, “what was MTAA doing in x month of n year?” For example: what was MTAA doing in August of ‘03? They were watching TV, camping on the beach, enjoying the SUMMEr oF HTML, preparing to pirate a movie and surviving the blackout. permanent link to this post

MTAA-RR new comment policy

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Some posts on this site, for whatever reason, get spammed over and over. From now on, when a post gets spammed, I’m going to close comments on it. Hopefully it won’t effect the discussion that takes place on this site. permanent link to this post

MTAA naming

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This post is intended to be the definitive guide on how to refer to MTAA and their web sites.

MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates)
The name of the art collaborative is MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates). We prefer the entire name be used in any press releases and other widely circulated documents like announcements as well as in title cards for gallery pieces or in any publications describing MTAA’s art work or creative practice. If your space is restricted in some way using simply MTAA is acceptable.

M.River AKA Mark River
M.River prefers to be referred to by his web alias, M.River, in any publications, announcements, lists, postcards, and etc attending an exhibition of MTAA’s work or in any publication describing MTAA’s work or creative practice. If, for whatever reason, one needs to use his ‘real’ name, it’s Mark River (though that’s not his real name). But he asks that efforts be made to use his web alias: M.River. In person he likes to be called Mike.

T.Whid AKA Tim Whidden
T.Whid prefers to be referred to as T.Whid (his web alias) in any publications, announcements, lists, postcards, and etc attending an exhibition of MTAA’s work or in any publication describing MTAA’s work or creative practice. His real name is Tim Whidden. In person he likes to be called Tim.

MT Enterprises WorldWide
The name of the art duo MTAA’s web site is MT Enterprises WorldWide and the web address is http://www.mteww.com.

MTAA Reference Resource
There is a section of MT Enterprises WorldWide called the MTAA Reference Resource, or MTAA-RR for short. This section of the web site contains background material, biographical info, documentation, texts and a blog. permanent link to this post

MTAA: one of 27 finalists

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s good to see that we made it into the 2nd round of the Rhizome ‘05-‘06 Net Art Commission process.

See all the finalists.

And you should vote (you must be a Rhizome member to vote). Remember: you should vote MTAA #1, the title of our proposed project is “To Be Listened To…” You can read the proposal. It’s a pretty simple project. permanent link to this post

MTAA not in the top 100

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I know, I know! It’s unfair and totally bizarre; I totally agree.

MTAA should definitely be in the top 100. permanent link to this post

MTAA included in Rhizome ArtBase 101

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Actual MTAA news — not just random ranting and ravings! Read on…

Rhizome, along with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, will be presenting a gallery show of selections from Rhizome’s ArtBase called Rhizome ArtBase 101. The show will be hung in one of the New Museum’s galleries at their temporary space in Chelsea.

I’m very happy to report that MTAA will be represented in the show with our piece 1 Year Performance Video. PLUS! We’re going to be showing the gallery version of 1YPV. This will be the first public presentation of the gallery version. The gallery version differs from the online version in numerous ways — most importantly — it uses much higher quality video that is more appropriate for gallery viewing.

I’ll post the entire press release when it’s available.

We also have some other news, but we’ll need to wait a bit to post it here. permanent link to this post

MTAA as academic fodder?

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Received this yesterday from a arts educator/artist/curator/writer friend of ours.

Just wanted to tell you that I showed a few of your works in class, today, and my students loved it. You’re one of the very few artists/ collectives to actually make them laugh, this semester, and I think that’s a high compliment. They especially enjoyed the 5 small videos and we had a very long conversation about 1YPV, in light of the ideas of Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Fredric Jameson, WJT Mitchell, and Roland Barthes.

Oh, and we also talked about “real life.” It was nice!

I can’t wait for all those MTAA PhD dissertations to come out—starting with Avi Rosen, of course… :)

MTAA as academic fodder? What is the world coming to? ;) permanent link to this post

MT gets the beat down on Slashdot

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

dJ phuturecybersonique writes “Netcraft reports that ‘Comment spam attacks on Movable Type weblogs are straining servers at web hosting companies, leading some providers to disable comments on the popular blogging tool. The issues are caused by bugs in MT, forcing publisher Six Apart to recommend configuration changes while it prepares fixes.’ More…”

via: Comment Spams Straining Servers Running MT

Presently, the consensus is that everyone should move to Wordpress.

I recommend Blosxom of course! permanent link to this post

MTEWW.com moving hosts

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m moving the MTEWW.COM domain to another host because XO SUCKS! XO is the current host and they suck so I reallly had no choice.

So, anyway, in the process of writing this post I ran into broken links already as I’ve changed the default directory for this blog from mtaaRR/ to mtaaRR/news/. I guess I gotta try to fix that because all the google links are going to break. ERRRR.

Anyway, this should be it for a while I hope. No more moving stuff around, fixing broken scripts and etc after this weekend I hope.

One cool thing is that I installed a method to post from the web to this blog. That’s cool :-) But you need to know the password to do it so don’t get any bright ideas ;-) permanent link to this post

Correction re: Rhizome

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I was incorrect in stating in an earlier post that one cannot link to articles on Rhizome.

My only complaint now is that they make it very hard to link to articles if you are a member and nearly impossible if you are not. My main point still stands, Rhizome is going to slowly suffocate behind the fee wall as long as they make it hard to freely link and browse their content.

I make similar points in a post to Rhizome from today. permanent link to this post

Morning activities

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I need to make a list of daily activities but am having a hard time motivating myself to do it. Since posting to this blog is categorized in my mind as ‘goof-off’ behavior, it’s easier to make these notes as a blog entry. PLUS, if any of our faithful readers would like to add to the list, please do so in the comments. I also need to make a list of afternoon activities, evening activities and night activities.

Note: these are all activities that would take place in one room, as if one was confined to a cell. Also, these activities don’t need to be exclusive to the morning.

morning activities (in no particular order)
7:30 - 7:40: wake up
get dressed
brush teeth
floss
wash
shave
urinate
breakfast (coffee)
defecate
exercise
read
lay on bed; stare into space
pace the floor
sit on stool; stare into space

M.River adds:

Just so people know what this list is about, we are writing a “script of activities” for an internet artwork that we will film in July (see this, twhid). Please add any action one can do when one is alone. We have the day broken into 4 sections: Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night. Here are some additional acts that one might do in the morning.

make bed, comb hair, get dressed, clip nails, rub eyes, turn on light, lay in bed starring at the ceiling. wash breakfast dishes. clean room. turn off alarm clock permanent link to this post

More NYT Rhizome ArtBase review

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Marisa Olson has a very thoughtful response to the review at Rhizome.

In this quote she responds to Pall Thayer’s remarks.

Now I don’t want to personally attack Sarah Boxer (though she is very much worth taking the time to Google!), but I know that she has a background in psychoanalytic theory and I find it unfortunate that her reading in a science of interpretation has not parlayed into interpretations of art. As is true of her other articles recently discussed here, I think that this was, ultimately, a missive rather than a review. (Again, Palli said it all.) She doesn’t adequately discuss the experience of the pieces, though the intended experiences were, in many senses, constitutive of the works. She says, simply, that she doesn’t have time for them.

It’s a good review of the review and I encourage everyone to read the entire thing. permanent link to this post

More on Cloud Gate copyright issues

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Slashdot geeks are chewing over the copyright issues surrounding Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” (aka “The Bean”). “Cloud Gate” is installed in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

Public Park Designated Copyrighted Space (You get one guess as to where the open-source crowd stands on the issue.)

I don’t have much more to say on it, except…

I wonder if Christo and Jeanne-Claude have security guards keeping professional photographers away from “The Gates”? I would really be interested to know their official stand on the copyright of images of “The Gates,” especially since they make all their money from images of the sculptures as opposed to the sculptures themselves (which many times cost them money). Part of this answer is at the bottom of this page. The artists say that they “have donated all merchandising rights” [emphasis theirs] to a charity and Central Park.

Granted, the two situations are totally different in terms of politics needed to be navigated in order to realize the piece. (Perhaps Christo and Jeanne-Claude had their arms twisted to donate the merchandising rights.) But in terms of copyright issues I don’t see that there would be much of a difference. permanent link to this post

More KDM100 (iPod Edition)…

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

31Grand will be previewing a couple of the videos in the PodART show at scopeMIAMI December 1 - 4th. One of them is MTAA’s own KDM100 (iPod Edition).

If you’re down there, check it out. 31Grand will be in RM203 in the TOWNHOUSE (150 20th St. at Collins Ave., Miami Beach). permanent link to this post

More “Lazy Sunday”

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I finally got around to making an MP3; download it.

And the NYTimes does a story with some interesting details about the production (cheap and fast):

On the evening of Dec. 12, the four wrote a song about “two guys rapping about very lame, sensitive stuff,” as Mr. Samberg described it. They recorded it the following night in the office Mr. Samberg shares with Mr. Schaffer and Mr. Taccone at “SNL,” using a laptop computer that Mr. Taccone bought on Craigslist.

Then, while their colleagues were rehearsing and rewriting that Saturday’s show, the group spent the morning of Dec. 15 shooting their video with a borrowed camera, using the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Chelsea to stand in for a multiplex cinema and Mr. Taccone’s girlfriend’s sister to play a convenience-store clerk. Mr. Schaffer spent the next night - and morning - editing the video and working with technicians to bring it up to broadcast standards. Finally, at about 11 p.m. on Dec. 17, the four learned from Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of “SNL,” that “Lazy Sunday” would be shown on that night’s show.

NYTimes: Nerds in the Hood, Stars on the Web. permanent link to this post

More blast from MTAA’s past

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

While rooting around for the image in this post, I found an old photo of M.River and me in our V-TAV gallery.

permanent link to this post

More from Baghdad

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Steve Mumford responds to the consternation in my last post (near the bottom).

To summarize, Steve recounts how his Iraqi friends see things as getting better and I ask “Better than what?” — things must have been pretty shitty if the current conditions in Iraq are better.

Steve’s response cut and pasted below (with a wee amount of formatting):

Hi Tim,
You ask: things now in Iraq are better than what - all-out war and constant bombings?

It’s a fair question, and highlights the psychological divide between Americans and Iraqis. I think it’s very difficult for us to really understand what life under Saddam was like. The problem is made more difficult because it’s impossible to frame without a political subtext, ie., if you say things were worse under Saddam you can sound like a propagandist for Bush, with his hall-of-mirrors justifications for going to war. When I say that things were indescribably worse under Saddam, I’m not justifying our going to war in Iraq, just explaining how it’s possible for an Iraqi to be more hopeful for their future now than in the last 30 years.

When you get to know Iraqis well and personally you begin to see the scars from Saddam. It’s not enough to catalog the bizarre and horrific crimes, the Caligula-like escapades through Baghdad, the arbitrary arrests and beatings, the sense of complete irrationality and injustice that marked these years. It’s the feeling of residual fear, frustration and hopelessness that I sometimes see in my friends. It’s a country suffering from post-traumatic stress, where ambition and courage are thwarted and even the lives of the living have, in a sense, been lost.

My friend Esam Pasha told me about a conversation he had with Naseer Hasan, the poet, back in the 90s. He was describing his anger at the Baathist regime, his having to live in fear, not being able to talk openly in public about anything related to politics (almost everything, you had to talk in kind of bland code), the abuses of his military service. Naseer is 15 years older. As a communist party member, he spent 5 years on the run, hiding with relatives, after a colleague was captured and he feared that under torture he’d give his name up.

Naseer said, “Look, you can’t think of it like that. You can’t wish for things to get better, because you’ll become obsessed. You must think of the regime as an unwelcome house guest that you can never ask to leave; instead you have to get used to them in your house, and all your daily life things are just done knowing that they are around you.” Esam says this helped him a lot.

Naseer feels he lost the best years of his life to this regime, the years we take for granted in the West, when you’re young, energetic, and the world seems new.

Another artist, one of Baghdad’s bright lights in painting, often suffers from depression. He says his military service still haunts him. And he wasn’t in any wars - just having to serve in an army where cruelty and arbitrariness marked each day. He often stood up to the abusive officers, yet he’s haunted by his failures, and the fear of those days which are often vividly recalled in his dreams.

Perhaps I can’t convince you that this is worse than war - but it is. I’ve seen a little of the war out here, though not much. I’ve found that I’m not greatly affected, on a psychological level, because these events are over relatively quickly and I have a relatively healthy ego. But imagine a trauma which is not as great, but goes on for years, with no end in sight, each hope dashed, each avenue of escape cut off, each slip of the tongue a cause for paranoia. This, your life since birth.

The only analogy that I can come up with for this is Stalinist Russia. In this sense the Bush administration got it wrong: they imagined that they were liberating the French from the Nazis. It’s obviously more complicated when we invade a country with a homegrown tyranny, and we’ve compounded the problem with inadequate resources and bad decisions. But even so, I think that many Iraqis feel they are better off now, and most look to the future as having real potential for positive change.

Steve’s words could be used to bolster the right-wing radical agenda of Bush and Co. but that would be a misuse. We Americans were sold the war on national security fears (many never bought of course). The WMDs do not exist so the Bush administration and its apologists fall back on the excuse of freeing Iraqis from Hussein’s tyranny. Would the majority of Americans have supported this war if it was to be fought only to free Iraqis? Of course not.

And, as the current administration continues to use fear-mongering and lies to bolster their political position, one must ask: are we buying Iraqi ‘freedom’ at the price of our own? permanent link to this post

More artstar.tv

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

In the comments on this post, Christopher Fahey says (quoting me):

It will be just a bunch of desperate artists doing their best to suck-up to the art world honchos as they watch their dignity being stabbed out like a stale cigarette.
And how is that different from the real art world? I mean on the Deitch plane of existence, of course.

Yes. It’s not. But at least for those willing to lose their dignity off-camera they can attempt to keep it a secret. Whoring oneself proudly in front of a camera is much sadder than whoring oneself in private. [Not that I have any experience with either ;-)]

I think the show is brilliant, and I very much look forward to it. It’s obviously not targeted at artists with dignity, so you shouldn’t try to imagine yourself as a contestant on the show. Instead, you should think about the great entertainment that will result from watching all of the art world “types” that you probably hate humiliate themselves on television. Savor it.

Yet another sad aspect of this soon-to-be fiasco: it probably won’t even make it to regular TV! Fashion designers are a billion times more popular (by my estimation) than artists in the mainstream culture, yet, Project Runway is on Bravo — which, seriously, is barely on TV. A show focusing on artists will be lucky if it makes it to cable access. If it’s extremely successful: PBS! Yet they’ll find more more-than-willing artists to exploit and degrade themselves than they know what to do with.

Reality TV is built on the audience savoring others’ misery and humiliation — but this one is just hitting to close to home. permanent link to this post

Mini mine

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Pictured with an iPod and a Kerry/Edwards t-shirt. permanent link to this post

Millenium Park in Chicago

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A good story in the NYTime’s about the opening of Chicago’s Millenium Park which the Times dubs “a sculpture garden on steroids.” To me it looks more like a theme park with a brain.

Don’t miss the slideshow. permanent link to this post

Midnight In The Deli

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli

…we call him Frank.

You can see larger sizes on Flickr (you may need an account). permanent link to this post

Meta-post: 1/17/05

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This web site has gone through some problems the last few days.

First, M.River decided to pull-down a post of his because the discussion in the comments seemed to get a bit — how shall we say it? Well, let’s just say that it probably wasn’t fun for anyone. We hope no one got chased away permanently, no one’s feelings were hurt, and no one felt under attack.

Second, for some currently unknown reason, some of this blog’s posts were re-ordered. I’m not sure why.

Happy Martin Luther King Day (I’m lounging at home). permanent link to this post

Microsoft does blogs

posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

But they’re called Spaces and the design is ugly as hell. Well, as ugly as the rest of MSN anyway.

And the HTML is not even close to being valid of course. At least the RSS feed seems to be valid. That’s weird. Why care about the RSS and not the HTML? Makes no sense. permanent link to this post

Meta-post 01

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is a meta-post, a post about the workings of this site.

You may have noticed that I posted about DC 9/11 - EDR yet again. This is because it was officially added to the ‘off-line art’ section of the web site. Things added to the ‘off-line art’ and ‘on-line art’ sections of the web site also appear on the front page.

Perhaps the process isn’t the best. As new work is created and released, I’ll hype it by posting it to the ‘news’ section of the blog. Then, when I get around to it, I’ll post the official addition to the appropriate sub-section of the art archives. Sometimes this can get repetitive, my apologies. permanent link to this post

meta-post 04-24-05

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I updated the MTAA-RR a bit today.

The front page now shows 20 posts by default instead of 10.

And the search should work better. You can now get up to 999 returns on the search page. It was a bit broke before and you would only get 10 search results no matter how many matches were found.

Some day I’ll fix the comments too :-) permanent link to this post

Merry X-Mas 2005…

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…and Happy Holidays and etc.

The Infectious Nature of Holiday Cheer (2004, .MOV, 10.9MB, 3:31 min.)

Credits
A B&D Handmade production
Written & Directed by Bill Hallinan

The Players
T.Whid as John Q. Public
Andre Sala as Mr. Gift Boxes
Dawn Winchester as Fay Wray
Bill Hallinan as Pointer

The Crew
Photography by George Su
Prop Master, Andre Sala
Prop Support, Elece Blumberg

(Perhaps we’ll get something new next year.) permanent link to this post

McCoys win Wired Rave award

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Brooklyn’s own tech-art wizards, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy win the Wired Rave award for art!

Read all about it here.

Yo Kev, did you two go to the award ceremony? Did you run into Adam Curry?

Congrats! permanent link to this post

McCoys featured in NYTimes review

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The McCoys are featured in Roberta Smith’s review of “CUT/Film as Found Object in Contemporary Video” in the NYTimes today.

The online version of the review features 2 images of the McCoys’ work: “Horror Chase” and “Learning From Las Vegas.” There’s also a slide show. If you want to see lots and lots of the McCoys great work, check out their flickr site.

Artists and work in the show: Soliloquy Trilogy (2002) by Candice Breitz | Video Quartet (2002) and Telephone (1995) by Christian Marclay | Ellipse (1998) by Pierre Huyghe | 24 Hour Psycho (1993) and Black and White (Babylon) (1996) by Douglas Gordon | Horror Chase (2002) and Learning from Las Vegas (2003) by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy | The Long Count (Rumble in the Jungle) (2001); The Long Count (I Shook up the World) (2001); The Long Count (Thrilla in Manila) (2001); and Live Evil (2002) by Paul Pfeiffer | CNN Concatenated (2002) by Omer Fast | The Blink (2000-2001) by Michael Joaquin Grey

The show is on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum through September 11, 2005 (yoinks!). permanent link to this post

Maybe notstar.tv?

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

On the comments of this post, Dan of iconoduel.org points out that artstar.tv is being produced for Gallery HD, The Arts & Museum Channel which is broadcast on the VOOM hi-def satellite TV service.

Or, maybe not: Cablevision Shuts Down Voom Service.

(note: I mistakenly labeled the satellite service as ZOOM on a previous post.) permanent link to this post

McCoy’s new stuff = hot

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m subscribed to the McCoys’ Flickr RSS feed and they’ve been posting new images like crazy today.

The new stuff looks great! Start here to check out the new images. The new stuff is in the ‘Clouds’ sets.

The McCoys are having a show of new works at Postmasters opening on the 4th of March, 2006. permanent link to this post

Marking Time @ Getty Center LA

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s 1YPV will be included in the Marking Time video screening at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

This ninety-minute screening surveys sixteen artist who incorporate the experience, memory, or anticipation of time’s passage into their single-channel video works. This screening is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Marking Time, currently on view at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE).

The screening and exhibition is organized by Glenn R. Phillips, research associate and consulting curator, Department of Contemporary Programs and Research at the Getty Research Institute, in association with the Getty Research Institute’s 2004-2005 research theme “Duration.”

It’s tomorrow night at 7:30PM. You can get more info and make reservations on the Getty’s web site. It’s free, but they charge you $7 to park.

And no, they won’t make you sit through n minutes of the 1YPV. They’ll be screening it prior to the more linear screenings for a half hour or so as people take their seats. Evidently we’re gracing the cover of the brochure too.

I’m not entirely sure (they may screen the web version), but this might be the first public screening of the 1YPV (installation version). The installation version differs from the web version in that it uses higher quality, full frame-rate video (among other differences). Note that this is a screening of the video only, not an installation of the entire sculptural tableau (I know, I know, it’s confusing). permanent link to this post

Christian Marclay @ Eyebeam tonight

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

From Eyebeam’s e-mail:

Wednesday evening artist Christian Marclay will screen and discuss his work as part of the Focal Point lecture series from Eyebeam’s Moving Image Studios. Marclay’s talk will include the seminal pieces Telephones and Record Players as well as his more recent work including The Bell and the Glass.

It’s from 8:00PM - 10:00PM tonight and is *FREE* (with a suggested donation).

I can’t make it unfortunately. M.River and I need to go to the studio and eat lobster dinners in our cell. permanent link to this post

Mac mini!!!!

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Just announced by the Jobs Himself at Macworld Expo SF 2005:

Mac mini

This machine is super-tiny and is perfect to be used in art installations. Can’t wait to get my hands on one but the store seems to be taking a beating right now.

UPDATE
Bought one :) permanent link to this post

Lucasfilms Nixes Star Wars Live Screening

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Seattle PI has an article about Lucasfilms sending a cease and desist letter to a local Seattle-based theater company. The company had been planning to do a live parody of Star Wars in which they would turn off the sound and redub it live. This brings up the question are parodies fair use? And if so, should copyright holders be allowed to order people not to parody their work?

[ Lucasfilms Nixes Star Wars Live Screening, Slashdot ] permanent link to this post

LOW LEVEL ALL STARS

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A copy-and-paster from Rhiz:

Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: LOW LEVEL ALL STARS—Weds and Thurs at Deitch Projects
Date: February 21, 2005 9:17:41 PM EST
To: list@rhizome.org

DEITCH PROJECTS AND THE NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL PRESENT:
LOW LEVEL ALL STARS
CURATED BY CORY ARCANGEL and RADICAL SOFTWARE GROUP

FEBRUARY 23 + FEBRUARY 24, 7-10PM
76 GRAND STREET, NEW YORK CITY
FREE!! PLUS FREE RED STRIPE

Deitch Projects is please to present a two-night music and video event, LOW LEVEL ALL STARS, in conjunction with the New York Underground Film Festival. Cory Arcangel of the BEIGE programming ensemble and the Radical Software Group have put together two nights celebrating the best in contemporary home hobbyist hacker aesthetics. Featuring musical performances each night by:

BODENSTANDIG 2000- who released Maxi German Rave Blast Hits 3 on Aphex Twins label Rephlex, definitively a CULT LEGEND ALBUM, made the first chip tune record out of old Ataris. FIRST NYC APPEARANCE! http://bodenstandig.de

TREEWAVE- Atari supergenius Paul Slocum and Laura Grey will be performing as Treewave, using hacked home electronics, dot-matrix printers and more to make music and videos. www.treewave.com/about.html

NULLSLEEP- 8bitpeoples member and Nintendo uber-nerd will be performing music and showing demo videos all programmed in assembly for the NES. Awesome!!!!! http://www.8bitpeoples.com/

Videos and other performances (including NES demos, ASCII movies, Atari break movies, C64 intros + more!!) will be featured, as well as interactive and explanatory portions familiarizing the audience with whats going on…in Corys words: THESE GUYS ARE THE REAL DEAL

permanent link to this post

Letter to Wichita

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Mr. David Butler,

I’m writing to express my outrage that you are allowing a special interest group to post brochures and a sign in the gallery to express their views on Middle Eastern politics in conjunction with Ms. Jacir’s exhibition “Where We Come From.”

I agree with Ms. Jacir:

“This is a complete infringement on my right to free speech, not to mention an insult to me as an artist. It is intolerable that I have to go through this just because of my background. I am sure no other artist would accept to work under such conditions. They are placing a huge unnecessary burden on my exhibit with the presence of the brochures which are intended to silence or censor my work. I am shocked that they would place such conditions in a the space of a museum.”

You are treading on a very slippery slope. If you were to exhibit work of a gay artist would you allow right-wing christians to display brochures and posters beside the exhibition explaining how gays are abominations? If it was an exhibition of Jewish artists would you allow neo-nazis or the KKK to express their views? These may sound like ridiculous speculations, but that is where this twisted logic leads.

I urge you to resist this pressure and allow artists’ voices to be heard in a neutral context. Do not allow special interest groups to take over your museum in their wrong-headed pursuit of “balance.”

Read all about this ridiculousness at NEWSgrist. permanent link to this post

Lazy Sunday SNL rap

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

You must download and watch this video because it’s really, really funny.

Lazy Sunday (QuickTime, .mov, 29.7MB, 02’22) permanent link to this post

Let’s all get stoopid

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Man I can’t wait ‘til the American Dark Age! It’s going to be a blast! Your civil rights will be privatized by corporate feudalism, scientific fact will be just another opinion, and Great Moral Leader (appointed by Gawd™) will rule in benevolence until the end of days. What a bright and shining moment in our history!

It’s on the way, wooohooo!

A suburban American school board found itself in court Monday after it tried to placate Christian fundamentalist parents by placing a sticker on its science textbooks saying evolution was “a theory, not a fact.”

Atlanta’s Cobb County School Board, the second largest board in Georgia, added the sticker two years ago after a 2,300-strong petition attacked the presentation of “Darwinism unchallenged.” Some parents wanted creationism — the theory that God created humans as related in the Bible — to be taught alongside evolution.

via: Salon permanent link to this post

Kuspit on digital art

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve only read the first two grafs. I totally agree with this:

The status and significance of the image changes in postmodern digital art: the image becomes a secondary manifestation — a material epiphenomen, as it were — of the abstract code, which becomes the primary vehicle of creativity. Before, the creation of material images was the primary goal of visual art, and the immaterial code that guided the process was regarded as secondary. Now, the creation of the code — more broadly, the concept — becomes the primary creative act. The image no longer exists in its own right, but now exists only to make the invisible code visible, whatever the material medium. It makes no difference to the code whether it appears as a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image.

The Matrix of Sensations

from Artnet.com via Murphy on thingist. permanent link to this post

Kerry rocks

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

At kerryrocks.net

This image is blatantly being lifted from andreaharner.com :-) permanent link to this post

Kill Monty

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is a pretty simple game, just kill everything that moves: Kill Monty.

I guess “everything that moves” is named Monty? I dunno.

BTW, screw you Windows users, it’s Mac-only. Hah! permanent link to this post

Kitsch

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

n.
Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts: “When money tries to buy beauty it tends to purchase a kind of courteous kitsch” (William H. Gass).

adj.
Of, being, or characterized by kitsch: “The kitsch kitchen… has aqua-and-white gingham curtains and rubber duck-yellow walls painted in a fried-egg motif” (Suzanne Cassidy).

Does anyone out there on the old WWW think that any of MTAA’s art work could be: a) classified as kitsh; or b) understood as commenting on kitsch?

M.River adds:
Just to be less clear, T.Whid and I are doing some R and D. Yes, we know. The subject of Kitsch in art is a bit…well, Kitschy. We’re just thinking out loud on this. Does that make any sense? Yes? No? Let me put it this way – I’m not sure if it’s all or none. permanent link to this post

KDM100 — rockin’ the new iPod

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

KDM100’s ‘album art’ for the iPod and iTunes

MTAA was asked to show a couple of pieces in a video exhibition to be shown exclusively on iPods. It’s being curated by Heather Stephens of 31Grand. We’ll have more details or the press release when we get them, but the show is coming up quick; the opening is December 9.

Of course we’re showing a special ‘iPod edition’ of the Karaoke DeathMatch 100 (coming soon to an Internet near you).

I’m very impressed with the new iPod (I picked up two 30 Gb models from the gallery yesterday). It’s super-thin, the screen is larger, it charged up quickly and transfered about 1.75 Gb of KDM100 video in a snap. The video looks and sounds great. Apple really did a good job and it makes me salivate that I don’t have a 5G model (yet). permanent link to this post

KDM 100 stills

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

permanent link to this post

KDM100 preview TODAY!

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’ll be showing a preview version of our new piece, Karaoke DeathMatch 100, at our studio today.

The location is 60 N. 6th St., in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

This coincides with the closing reception for the summer group show, There’s A City In My Mind, at Southfirst gallery (more info).

Get there between 2 and 6 PM to check it out. permanent link to this post

KDM100 = done!

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Last night I finally finished Karaoke Deathmatch 100. WooHoo! It comes to about 18GB of video.

Now, we just need to load it up on our new Mac mini, pack it into a crate (along with M.River) and accost the town of Leonding, Austria with our caterwauling for Leonart ‘05 (german). permanent link to this post

Katrina and New Orleans

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Reading the press about the aftermath of Katrina is sure to enrage any person that isn’t a total partisan zombie. Bush, FEMA, Homeland Security — disgraces all. But the governor of LA and the mayor of New Orleans probably have some answering to do as well. I think it was Wednesday, my fiance and I were watching a press conference with the governor and she was practically incoherent, almost raving. Think what you want about Guiliani (I hate the bastard), he did provide comfort and leadership in those dark days immediately following 9/11.

But I think the Feds deserve the majority of blame for the New Orleans disaster. Bush’s “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” is one of the most disgusting things ever said on national television. He’s either criminally stupid, criminally incompetent or criminally negligent — take your pick.

Also see CNN’s comparison of the Bushie’s rhetoric opposed to reality. It’s simple to extrapolate to Iraq where we don’t have a free (english) press operating to get the reality. permanent link to this post

Karaoke Deathmatch! [coming soon]

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

permanent link to this post

Karaoke DeathMatch shooting complete

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We spent all day yesterday (which I heard was a nice day in NYC) drinking and singing karaoke and shooting it all on video.

M.River has some behind the scenes pics on his tinjail blog (start here and work back).

Super big thanks to Bill Hallinan, André Sala and George Su for donating their time, equipment and talent so generously. permanent link to this post

Karaoke Deathmatch 100 stuff

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA are working on a piece called Karaoke Deathmatch 100. You can find earlier posts about it here and here.

I want to re-title it to Karaoke Deathmatch 100 AKA Self-portrait With Karaoke but M and I haven’t come to a consensus. Regardless, we’re considering doing a few different versions of it.

The first is a pretty straight-forward video using custom-built OSX software to present the 100 clips. Alex Galloway is doing the programming and I just got the first version last night and it’s hot. It probably could have been done as a DVD-Video, but having it run off a computer hard drive allows the hours of footage to loop with no muss or fuss for the gallery. Also, it plays back in a random order which would have been impossible with a DVD-Video. This version is going to be shown at an arts festival in Leonding, Austria in September.

To coincide with the closing BBQ of Southfirst’s summer show, we’re going to show a special preview in our studio this Sunday (our studio is right above Southfirst). More info here.

Another version we’re considering is a limited-time videoblog of all the footage. Each day, 1 round of the deathmatch would be posted and people would be asked to vote for the best by commenting on the blog post of the video they liked best. Not sure if we’ll do this.

And the final version, which may be called simply Self-portrait with Karaoke, would be a dual-channel Flash application that allows people to choose a song, then both M and I perform the exact same song at the exact same time. permanent link to this post

Kac-head

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This Wired News article describes a new installation by Eduardo Kac at the Exploratorium in San Francisco: DNA Spirals Into Artists’ Medium.

Short description of the piece, Move 36: A genetically-modified tomato plant planted on a chess board with a couple of video projections.

Personally, I don’t see how his work is interesting and evidently the art world doesn’t either as he’s showing at a science museum. Remember kids, we don’t want New Media art showing up in science museums!

Then there is this strange section of the article: Kac said the plant is rooted in the square where Deep Blue made the move that flummoxed Kasparov, but it’s actually on a different square, and the board is not oriented correctly. The article doesn’t explain if these are mistakes by the artist or somehow related to the content of the piece. permanent link to this post

Joywar in intelligent agent vol. 4 no. 2

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Painter and blogger Joy Garnett gives a first-person account of her small copyright skirmish (Joywar) over a 25-year-old photograph she transformed into a contemporary painting in Steal This Look available now in intelligent agent’s new issue.

She gives me credit for coming up with the name Joywar but it wasn’t me (wish it was). I did post the first mirror to the image in question and it’s still on-line here. permanent link to this post

Jump to Gmail

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The other night, during Cory Arcangel’s presentation at Jihui, I noticed he used Gmail as his mail client. “Hmm,” I thought, “if someone as smart as Cory is using it, perhaps I should check it out again.”

So I embarked on what I pompously called my “Grand Email Unification Experiment.” It seems to be working. I forwarded my two most-used email addresses to the Gmail account and started using it as my single access point.

POP or not to POP
At first I used it to connect via POP and download to my client but I realized that this was destroying the purpose of having it in one place. The real power would come from the filtering and the labeling features in Gmail so that I could get my email exactly how I like it anywhere with a web browser handy. So now I’ve just decided to use the POP feature to download the email once in a while (essentially a back-up for when the ‘net goes down and I need to find some essential info).

Spam
Gmail’s spam filtering seems very good. After a few days I’ve only gotten 2 or 3 false negatives (it was spam but wasn’t marked as such) and no false positives. I was using a 3rd-party service to filter spam, but Gmail catches more. By forwarding one’s email to Gmail, then connecting via POP to download one could use Gmail as a free spam filter. You won’t download the spam and would just need to check Gmail once in a while to check for false positives.

No one needs to know
The feature that allows one to add accounts to Gmail means that no one needs to know that I’m using Gmail. I can send email from any of my other addresses.

One gripe
Gmail doesn’t work as well with Safari as it does with Firefox. I prefer Safari for browsing and Firefox for Gmail. I wish there was a way to set the Gmail Notifier app to open any browser, not the default browser set in Safari preferences. permanent link to this post

iTunes now supports video

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

You can drop a video into iTunes 4.8 and it will be added to the library. There is a new button on the bottom of iTunes (where the ‘add playlist’, etc buttons are). Once you start playing the video, click it to watch the video fullscreen.

Some videos open in fullscreen automatically… at least a trailer I downloaded from Apple did, while a video I created myself (in After Effects) did not.

Hmmmmmmmmm. permanent link to this post

Jacir resolution

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s very good news that Wichita State University and the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation came to their senses and are allowing Ms. Jacir’s exhibition to continue with no strings attached.

According to the MKJF their excuse is — basically — that they’re clueless. Judith Press, Executive Director of MKJF,

We made a request to the University, and we are under the impression at this point that this was not an appropriate request […] We did not realize that this was considered inappropriate or infringing on the artist’s rights. We need to not ask for that if it is not appropriate.

The University should have known it was inappropriate, and if not, they should have consulted with the professionals running the museum in order to determine the appropriateness of the “request” from the MKJF. But according to a commenter on NEWSgrist posting under the name Debbie Gordon (with a wichita.edu email address), “the lead donor in a major building project on campus. Someone the news got to her about the exhibit, and she threatened to pull her donation.” So we see what sort of “request” this was — one that is very hard to refuse.

What is somewhat bizarre to me regarding this whole affair is that there are plenty of ways to encourage dialogue around the exhibition which would have been sensitive to everyone’s needs and expectations. Public panels, symposia, gallery talks and etc probably would have been acceptable to the artist, but the University simply took some ham-handed approach to the situation and compounded the stupidity with lack of communication between all involved.

It’s important to remember that the outcry against the MKJF’s “request” to place brochures and signage outside the gallery wasn’t an outcry against dialogue in the white box of the contemporary museum gallery. It was an outcry against springing a forced dialogue on a particular artist that would have pitted Jacir’s aesthetics against the MKJF’s polemics and propaganda without consulting with the artist.

++++++

In response to these posts on NEWSgrist:
Art Intolerance, Part 3: Jacir Exhibition Moves Forward
Art Intolerance, Part 2: Emily Jacir/Ulrich
Arts Intolerance: Emily Jacir/Ulrich Museum, Wichita permanent link to this post

It wasn’t just drunk talk!

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A WELSH rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate his team’s defeat of old enemy England in Cardiff on Saturday.

Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win the Six Nations opener that he told fellow drinkers at a social club, “If Wales win I’ll cut my balls off”, it was reported yesterday.

via: Rugby fan carries out threat to cut off testicles after Wales win

Don’t really know why I’m linking to this… permanent link to this post

It’s a cartoon for crying out loud

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m with James Wagner on this one:

It’s time for all newspapers, and all nations, everyone who has a media outlet, to make themselves a common target of those who would threaten the freedoms which support liberal societies.

update
To be clear: I don’t agree with the stereotypes conveyed via the caricature above. In fact, I think they are dangerous and those who hold them I usually find disgusting. But I also believe very strongly in free speech and freedom of expression. Religious fundamentalists have no right to try to censor this image no matter how hateful or blasphemous they perceive it to be.

Please read Juan Cole on this issue:

Muslims are not, as you will be told, the only community that is touchy about attacks on its holy figures or even just ordinary heros. Thousands of Muslims were killed in the early 1990s by enraged Hindus in India over the Ayodhya Mosque, which Hindus insisted was built on the site of a shrine to a Hindu holy figure. No one accuses Hindus in general of being unusually narrowminded and aggressive as a result. Or, the Likudniks in Israel protested the withdrawal from Gaza, and there were dark mutterings about what happened to Rabin recurring in the case of Sharon. The “sacred” principle at stake there is just not one most people in the outsider world would agree with the Likudniks about.

permanent link to this post

On ISP censorship

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

As part of a recent research project, [Christian Ahlert] posted a section of Mill’s On Liberty on the internet (which is clearly in the public domain), then issued unfounded copyright complaints against it (1). One internet service provider (ISP) removed the chapter almost immediately. This illustrates the problem with self-censorship procedures, which rely on hidden judgements being made by unaccountable bodies. [spiked-online] permanent link to this post

Is Anish Kapoor a dumb ass?

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It certainly sounds like it. [More info here and here]

I don’t agree with Cory Doctorow that Chicagoans should ‘melt the thing down for slag.’ It’s a very beautiful sculpture and there is never a good reason to destroy art no matter how ignorant or greedy the creator is perceived.

Whenever I hear anyone advocating the destruction of art it really makes me get queasy in the gut. It’s an extremely ugly thing to advocate.

What would probably be more helpful is to contact the artist’s representatives and urge them politely to council the artist to adopt a non-commercial creative commons license for this public art work.

He’s represented by Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York and Lisson Gallery, London.

update:
This is the email I sent to Ivy Crewdson, director of Barbara Gladstone Gallery. I urge others to contact the gallery as well.

Subject: Cloud Gate copyright
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 13:50:05 -0500

Hello Ivy Crewdson,

I’m writing to urge you to council Anish Kapoor to consider adopting a less restrictive copyright concerning his work ‘Cloud Gate’ in Chicago.

Non-commercial images of this art work should be allowed to be taken by the general public. I’m sure you would agree that the public good is served by allowing citizens to take photos and video of this beautiful art work. The piece is destined to become one of the major landmarks of Chicago but only if the public is allowed to enjoy it fully.

Perhaps using a Creative Commons [http://www.creativecommons.org] license would help you solve this matter. I suggest using a license entitled the “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License”. This license protects the work from commercial uses and derivative works.

There is a bit of online direct protest happening regarding this matter. See this web site for more information: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/07/¬
please_add_photos_of.html

update the 2nd:
I changed the links at the top of the page to pages that provide more information. permanent link to this post

Ippolito rebuts

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Still following the discussion started by Jon Ippolito…

Philip Galanter rebutted Ippolito’s original assertions via Rhizome. And now Ippolito is back with a reply. permanent link to this post

Ippolito rebutted

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Philip Galanter offers a rebuttal to Jon Ippolito’s Internet2: Orchestrating the End of the Internet? on this thread at Rhizome.

To be completely honest, I have no idea who’s right. They both sound right. I’ve never known Jon to be wrong about much. Let’s hope for a reply to this rebuttal from him.

(I mentioned Jon’s essay in this post.) permanent link to this post

Interview with Olia Lialina

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check out an interview with one of the original net.artists (note the dot) at The Thing:

Online Newspapers by Olia Lialina
Interview with the net.art veteran by James Allan permanent link to this post

Ippolito: MPAA looking to break Internet2

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The technology behind Internet2 *breaks* anything remotely resembling a broadcast business model, which is why the MPAA will do its best to disarm the technology by installing Digital Rights Management directly in its routers to stop interesting content from ever getting into the pipeline.

Read the entire essay: Internet2: Orchestrating the End of the Internet? permanent link to this post

Interesting new work

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Today, Peter Horvath and Turbulence released Peter’s new web art work, Intervals.

From the web site:

Intervals explores a series of characters whose investigation of self and identity unfold and elide through a sequence of cinematic interludes.

[…]

Horvath’s innovative use of pop-up windows create a virtual collage that posit identity as a series of random ‘memory acts’ but whose inquiry accumulate into a slowly revealing narrative of the human condition.

You need to make sure you have a broadband connection and a fairly healthy computer to view the work and QuickTime is required as well. permanent link to this post

How to get into the popular sushi place in your neighborhood

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is a hot NYC tip!

It turns out it’s really simple to get into the hot sushi restaurant in your neighborhood, here’s the secret:

go during the 4th of July fireworks display :-) permanent link to this post

Infinite Phil (Hartman/Donahue)

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

[8MB .mov]

Infinite Fill permanent link to this post

The Infinite Fill Show opening tonight 6:00 - 8:30PM

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Infinite Fill Show is opening this evening at Foxy Production in NYC. The show is curated by new media/dirt-style superstar Cory Arcangel and his sister Jamie Arcangel and includes too many artists to name here. Go here for a list of the artists.

Too many artists to name here except for one of course: MTAA is proud to take part with a new piece completed just for the show entitled ‘Infinite Phil (Hartman/Donahue)’ (8MB .mov).

The gallery is tiny. If you’re planning on seeing anything I suggest you get there as early as possible (5:59PM). permanent link to this post

In the studio

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

permanent link to this post

Images from getawayexperiment.net

posted at 16:42 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

[click thumbs to see larger images]

getawayexperiment.net is a project by Nathaniel Stern and Marcus Neustetter which “commissioned local sign-makers in Johannesburg to ‘re-mix’ five websites, by painting stylized versions of each image on their main pages.” The project has a lot more than that going on with it and I urge everyone to check it out.

Turbulence.org (who commissioned the project) was one of the web sites re-mixed in this way and MTAA’s thumbnail for 1YPV was caught in the process resulting in the images above.

update:
Read the net art news blurb about getawayexperiment.net. permanent link to this post

If you are reading this…

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…please post a comment.

If you are reading this via an RSS news reader, this is the link to the web site where you can post a comment.

This is just sort of a very casual survey of who’s reading our little blog here.

Thanks. permanent link to this post

IKEA WALKTHROUGH v2.3.1">IKEA WALKTHROUGH v2.3.1

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

For those of us are getting a bit older and find ourselves giving into the ‘nesting’ impulse this guide is a must read:

IKEA WALKTHROUGH v2.3.1

This link was forwarded to me by M.River (whom I never thought would nest, but there you go). We’ve recently rented a studio and that, I suppose, is a form of nesting for net artists who are used to our computers being our studios. permanent link to this post

Idiot of The Day

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The state’s school superintendent, Kathy Cox, has proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia’s science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase “biological changes over time.”

I hate ignorant people. I hate ignorant people who attempt to force their ignorance on others even more. So I don’t like this person. permanent link to this post

I’m now a proponent of ID

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

OK, OK, I’m now a proponent of ID — Incompetent Design!

The only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution’s way of modifying something or else it’s just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student.

via Daily Kos by the way of Kottke permanent link to this post

How To Hack Copyright for Fun and Profit

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yo! Reminder! Tonight!

Columbia University School of the Arts
presents
A Lecture by Jon Ippolito:

“How To Hack Copyright for Fun and Profit”
Thursday, December 2
6:00 PM
702 Hamilton Hall
Columbia University
116th and Broadway
New York City

Jon Ippolito is an artist, a curator at the Guggenheim museum, and co-founder of the Still Water program for network art and culture at the University of Maine where he is an Assistant Professor of new media.

Mr. Ippolito’s lecture, “How to Hack Copyright for Fun and Profit,” will examine alternative approaches to intellectual property and creativity.

Here’s Jon’s abstract:
Now that the music labels have sued 6,000 college kids and universities are spending more on anti-plagiarism software than on student art exhibitions, you’d think young people would finally grok the message that sharing is bad. But as this presentation aims to demonstrate, a cadre of dedicated artists, musicians, and activists are offering digital creators an end-run around broadcast flags and RIAA summonses—from tools for embedding open licenses in music files to an online environment for sharing art and code to a semantic search engine for remixable art and video. In conclusion, this presentation will examine the question of whether such innovations are sufficient to prevent the lockdown of creative culture.

[ via: How To Hack Copyright for Fun and Profit ] permanent link to this post

How do you spell loozer?

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

You would think that with all the art festivals, openings, fairs, parties, carnivals, feasts, festivities, performances, installations, exhibitions, jubilees, and shows going on in NYC this week MTAA would be in one or have been invited to at least one.

Wouldn’t you?

Well, I would.

Find the whole list here.

For the past few years I haven’t really paid any attention to this stuff because I guess I didn’t really care. But now that M.River and I have made our decision to start doing some gallery work (not just on-line hijinks), I find it a tad troubling just how outside the whole art world thing we actually are. Bah!

Good luck everybody! Send me some free passes!

(PS, please commiserate in the comments if you’re feeling left out too.) permanent link to this post

Hot shit

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Massive Manure Fire Burns Into Third Month (AP)

Makes me proud to be a carnivore — oy! permanent link to this post

Homeland Insecurity Advisory System

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Today, in conjunction with the US Department of Art & Technology, Jonah Brucker-Cohen launched his newest project, the Homeland Insecurity Advisory System. The Homeland Insecurity Advisory System (HIAS) is a public rating system that allows people from across the globe to determine the US Government’s Threat Level by collectively rating RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) feeds from major US news sources.

link: Homeland Insecurity Advisory System permanent link to this post

Help: 1 year performance video

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s web art project 1 year performance video is a victim of it’s own success.

The piece lives on Turbulence.org and it’s causing bandwidth overages.

It’s a commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. They are a not-for-profit arts organization that has been commissioning web and net art projects since the early days of the medium and they simply can’t afford the overage charges.

If you have resources to help us continue to serve this piece on the web please contact T.Whid using the email link on mteww.com/mtaaRR (near bottom of the left nav).

If you are considering helping out, check out the piece: 1 year performance video.

mriver adds:

Please, please, please. We’ll behave for once AND we’ll give you a real live MTAA drawing. (9 x 12, ink on Arches watercolor paper) Ooo- la-la. permanent link to this post

Heavy duty postcards - film at 11!

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Roberta Smith in the NYT:

Lifted your mail lately? Counted the number of ostentatious announcement cards printed on stock that approaches, and sometimes exceeds, the thickness of cardboard?

uuummm. no?

It is one more sign that some New York art galleries of the contemporary kind have more money than they know what to do with, and that the competition for attention-getting frivolities in the overpopulated art scene is on the rise.

Each day’s mail seems to deliver a series of challenges and counter-challenges from the galleries that consider themselves in the upper echelon of the upper echelon.

via Art Promoted Heavily (Even in Your Mailbox)

I’m trying to figure out who exactly this article was written for. It seems so supremely naval-gazing that it really should have been put on a blog somewhere (NYT art reviewer with a blog? Is it raining toads?).

Roberta, get a clue, the vast majority of your readers don’t receive the high-end invites from the gallery blue-chips.

Whatev. My whole interest in this article is simply a ruse to link to an old art work of MTAA’s that exalted the lowly flimsy postcard invite of the more low-lying echelon’s of the New York art world.

Our piece, IN PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER AIR IN BROOKLYN TO RISE FROM THE CONCRETE IN A MANNER WHICH DISTORTS ONE’S ABILITY TO JUDGE DISTANCE AND MEANING (AKA MANUAL ZOOM MIRAGE), never got as much attention as it deserved in my opinion.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Go Vote! permanent link to this post

Has Google become evil?

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check out this story over on eWeek

This is pretty funked up I must say, from the article: When Oceana challenged the ban, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google responded with an e-mail advising the group that it doesn’t accept ads with “language that advocates against Royal Caribbean.” That sounds like an incredibly amateurish sort of thing to say, no? Did they have an intern write it or something? Anyway, it’s sad. I’m used to thinking of Google on the side of the Good&trade, but it’s looking more and more like the power has gone to their heads. permanent link to this post

Hang on to your hats…

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Contagious Media Showdown has been slashdotted! permanent link to this post

Happy Thanksgiving

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A giant balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade snagged a street light near Times Square and caused part of it to fall into the crowd, injuring two people, according to police and eyewitness accounts.

via: Balloon Injures Two at Macy’s Parade - Yahoo! News

Abe Linkoln says Happy Thanksgiving too! permanent link to this post

Greater New York gender equality

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Via Newsgrist

Though PS1 positions itself as a venue for cutting edge work, it clearly has not overcome historical prejudices that privilege men over women. The system is still broken, and the efforts made by the PS1 staff to examine work from a wide range of artists were severely flawed.

On Monday, March 7th, the press office at PS1 released the following numbers about the gender balance of the show:

100 men > 50 women

in other words

33% < acceptable

I know nothing about this other than what was found at this website: http://www.brainstormersreport.net/.

Could be totally made-up for all I know. All they have is a screen shot of an email sent from PS1’s press contact (easy to fake). No links to any official acknowledgment or announcement from PS1 (yet). permanent link to this post

Hair Metal Redux

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s Music Video Week on the MTAA-RR!

Well, not really, but this song is so funny, but at the same time very catchy, that I had to post it. It’s from a band called The Darkness and they are a shiny new version of the hair metal bands of yore. They’re even from the UK, just like Def Leppard. Watch the video, it could almost be 1983 all over again: spandex, hair, operatic metal vocals, and guitars!

Link to high bandwidth real media version of “Keep Your Hands Off My Woman (Motherfucker)”!

Go to The Darkness’ official site for more video options.

My question: Is it ironic or not? permanent link to this post

Google video upload sucks

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Good news: Google has launched their Video Upload Program.

Bad new: appears to be Windows only! WTF?!

And the weird thing is, they don’t even have a system requirements section! There’s a weird little instruction page that assumes that everyone has a Windows machine. You would think that with the popularity of video on the Mac (no matter how you cut it, video is one of the Mac’s strongest points), they would have figured out a way to let Mac users upload video!

So I say, screw you Google! (until you allow Mac and Linux users to upload video, then I will love you again.) permanent link to this post

Google goes Van Gogh

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Is it Van Gogh’s birthday or something? I guess it is. I didn’t know our birthdays were so close, mine is tomororow :)

Clicking the logo on Google’s site takes you to their results for ‘vincent van gogh.’ permanent link to this post

Getting our asses spammed off

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Just a note. I might be closing comments on this site until I find a solution to the spam issue we’re dealing with.

Most readers probably don’t see a problem, but, trust me, it’s there.

really pisses me off

+++

In other news, M.River is throwing me a bachelor’s party tonight. It will be pretty tame. We’re going to Peter Luger Steak House for dinner (best steaks in NYC), then off to a private speakeasy for some poker. permanent link to this post

Get yer net art on 2007

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Rhizome has an open call for net art commissions. You could score between US$1k and US$3K to MAKE SOME GODDAMN NET ART FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

Deadline is April 2, 2007 and that ain’t no joke.

Get on over there and find out how to submit a proposal for chrissakes! permanent link to this post

Get Behind Me Satan

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(OK, OK, I know I’m entering onto thin ice here with my little music review. M intimately knows a real, live professional music writer. Please be kind to my amateurish peckings.)

I’ve been a pretty big White Stripes fan for a while. M and I even did an artwork involving them. Their new album, “Get Behind Me Satan (iTMS link),” is pretty damn good. The garage-y rock stuff like “Blue Orchid” and “Instinct Blues” really… well, those songs really rock. Jack and Meg know how to use older blues or roots genres while updating them in a way so that they seem fresh.

Take “The Nurse” for example. It starts with piano and vibraphone but interspersed through the beat is some great heavy drum and guitar noise that takes it beyond the average rock-band-gonna-experiment toss-away tunes that bands like The Hives use as filler.

The White Stripes are musically fresh, not lyrically fresh. What bugs me about the album is embodied in the title: “Get Behind Me Satan.” WTF? Jack, man, you’re a white boy from Detroit who grew up in the 80s & 90s. You’re not a black man from the 30s Mississippi delta. Please drop this tired lyrical nostalgia and sing about what you know, not what you wish you knew.

And so ends my nickel review of The White Stripes, “Get Behind Me Satan.” permanent link to this post

wURLdBook Research

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

wURLdBook’s mission is to help people stay connected to information on the Web. wURLdBook is a free web based information aggregator. wURLdBook offers you a new way to unobtrusively navigate, collect, categorize, annotate, clip, archive, find, publish RSS (including enclosures) and share information with others that is important to you on the web.

wURLdBook Research

This sounds pretty cool and very Mac-friendly too. permanent link to this post

Cleaning out my closet

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Actually, I was cleaning up my bookmarks and I found lots of very cool bits of info that most web/graphic/visual designers would find useful so I list them below, have fun.

logotypes - company logos in vector formats

NS4 compatible 3 column CSS layout

PNG behavior - get your alpha on in MSIE

Javascript & Iframes - a good breakdown

Zeldman’s good CSS links

Mezzoblue’s css crib sheet

Lipsum generator - all the gibberish that’s fit to print

CSS2 reference - I use this on a weekly basis

Perhaps I’ll keep adding to this list… let me know if you find it helpful. permanent link to this post

Webmonkey closes

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Is it the end of an era? Or just an error? Webmonkey closes.

I learned much from Webmonkey back in the day. But Webmonkey, along with their non-standards supporting interface, has simply been left behind. permanent link to this post

Speaking of enhancing the MTAA-RR

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

On my way to the deli I wondered if there is a plist parser written in PHP. Why would one want such a thing and what the hell is a plist you ask?

To answer the second question first, a plist (property list) is an XML format (created by Apple I believe) that is used “to store, organize and access standard data types” (definition from Apple’s site). Generally, it’s used in Mac OS X to store user preferences and other info that an application might need. If you use Mac OS X, look in ~/Library/Preferences to see examples.

But why would we want a PHP parser for this stuff? So you can parse plists anywhere that’s why. Why would you want to parse plists anywhere? I have one very specific application in mind. I want to parse my NetNewsWire sync data and display it somewhere on this blog.

When you sync NetNewsWire 2.0 via FTP it stores the state of your feed reading in plist format on your server. If I had a PHP parser I could share my real feeds in a sort-of blogroll deal. I’m suspicious that some people who have HUGE blogrolls don’t really read them all. If I used NetNewsWire’s sync data I could share my REAL daily feed reading habits.

I found one written in Python, but no PHP. permanent link to this post

RSS: Really Stupid Syndication?

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Or, does RSS = DoS?

Is RSS too stupid to behave properly on the Internet? CmdrTaco over on Slashdot seems to think so:

We’ve seen similiar problems over the years. RSS (or as it should be called, “Speedfeed”) is such a useful thing, it’s unfortunate that it’s ultimately just very stupid.

I’m not sure what he means by stupid. Is the tech stupid? There is a tag for ‘last updated’ in RSS but not all readers and aggregators pay attention to it I guess.

More here, and here. permanent link to this post

Quicktime 7 released

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

The new Quicktime 7 is pretty cool. Only for Mac OS (both panther and tiger) for now. Haha PC users!

I’ve already upgraded to Pro. The scaling to fullscreen is definitely very eye-candiful. Worked great on my G4 1.25 with a 64MB ATI video card (running two monitors).

They’re boasting an awful lot about the this new H.264 (there’s a catchy name) format, but I can’t find any damn content on Apple’s site to watch. Anybody know where any is? Somebody point me to some of the HD quality stuff, please!

There are a bunch of new features in QTPro. You can capture audio and video right in QT (don’t have to fire up FCP or iMovie anymore, yeah!); more editing controls (easier to create in- and out-points); export concurrently; the interface is redone and cooler; and this new H.264 (damn marketing must have gotten to that name) codec of course (where is any? where? where? I’ll do some tests; maybe post them later).

Definitely a solid upgrade and it’s nice to get some Tiger tech without upgrading the OS.

Update: I should have added this, from Apple:

Installation of QuickTime 7 will disable the QuickTime Pro functionality in prior versions of QuickTime. If you proceed with this installation, you must purchase a new QuickTime 7 Pro key to regain QuickTime Pro functionality.

update the 2nd: Finally found some of the HD .movs using h.264, here ‘tis.

update the 3rd: The system recommendations for the HD content are fairly high. My system doesn’t meet the requirements for the true HD content (1920x1080 (1080p)). Running the 1080p stuff I could only get about 12-13 FPS. And my monitor isn’t big enough to fit it at it’s native resolution anyway :-( (maybe it’s time to upgrade…? yeah… upgrade…) permanent link to this post

powered by Blosxom

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

After reading all about the new Movable Type 3 licensing scheme, I can’t think of a recent situation that better illustrates the huge chasm between open-source software (OSS) and the proprietary kind.

Hundreds of people who have poured their imagination and time into creating websites based on MT will now have to deal with the developer’s new license plan which, IMO, restricts the creative use of the software. (See this post on the Eyebeam reBlog for more.) To be clear, I wish the developers of Movable Type the best of luck; this whole situation seems to simply be growing pains. But to put it simply, these licenses underline this simple fact: with proprietary software, it’s not OUR software, it’s THEIR software.

Luckily for Blosxom users, our blogging software is released under the MIT license which is almost absurdly non-restrictive. We’ll never need to post in outrage because our toy is about to be taken away, or rail at Rael. We’re all as much owners and developers of Blosxom as is our main developer and that is the beauty of OSS. permanent link to this post

PodART makes Digg’s front page (sorta)

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

OK, OK — I know it was a dupe; I know it was totally self-serving since it led to a blog post that also mentioned PodART and a link to MTAA, but on my second post ever submitted to Digg, I made the front page (sitting pretty at 524 diggs currently — oops, make that 526. They just roll in so fast!). permanent link to this post

OS X 10.4 Tiger upgrade

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

I upgraded to Tiger last night. The installation went extremely smoothly. I’m using a single 1.8GHz G5 with 2GB of RAM.

Digression 1: I still think it’s funny that the entire contents of my 1st Mac’s hard disk could fit into memory on my current Mac. Digression 2: Yes, I am a loser for being home on a Friday night upgrading my operating system.

INSTALLATION This is all I did: backed-up all my data to an external firewire drive, after I was sure it was safely backed-up, I stuck in the Tiger DVD, chose upgrade and an hour later I was done. Simple. Don’t believe the geek-hype: you don’t need to erase the disk and install clean. Of course, it’s good idea to keep things running smoothly. I just didn’t have time to deal with re-installing all my apps, preferences, etc, etc.

DASHBOARD Dashboard is phat. P.H.A.T. Look for an MTAA widget of some sort soon. Not sure what, but it’s gotta be art. Since I use a 3 button mouse, I set the 3rd button to launch the Dashboard.

SPOTLIGHT I’m kinda torn about Spotlight. I’ve used Quicksilver for a while and like it very much. Spotlight is similar. I guess they can live together happily, but I would like to use one or the other for simplicity. One thing that bums me big time about Spotlight is that it doesn’t seem to index iTunes playlists. It indexes song files, but not playlists. Which sucks. What doesn’t suck is that it indexes text inside email, PDFs and other documents — which I don’t think Quicksilver can do. Maybe I will need to use both…

SAFARI Safari RSS hasn’t done much for me, I use NetNewsWire and will continue :-) One nice thing is that you can set the default app for RSS feeds within Safari, so one click can subscribe you within NetNewsWire.

MAIL I wish you could configure which side the sidebar appears on. I hated the drawer (hopefully the whole drawer idea will die, it’s always been extremely dumb) as much as anybody, but I got used to it being on the right. Now the sidebar is on the left. Also, I don’t think it’s as clear as the old drawer design. It’s not as easy to see which mailboxes have new mail since they aren’t bold. Overall it’s a plus IMO, the design is cleaner and clearer.

FONTS My fonts have been funky for a while. Weird stuff where the wrong font gets activated and renders all crazy in Safari. This doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore.

MISC So far the only problem I’ve had is that I needed to configure Apache to use PHP (the Apache config file got overwritten by the default install). That took all of 1 minute. I did have to install the latest version of my mouse driver. Also, I’ve upgraded other apps like BBEdit and Transmit to the newest versions too. Most of my apps are working flawlessly.

Overall a great update! permanent link to this post

NYTimes does RSS

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

The New York Times finally has its own RSS Feeds, get ‘em while they’re hot.

Sure, for a long time you could get NYTimes RSS feeds via UserLand but now the Times has its very own feeds.

Maybe Rhizome can get some feeds now? I mean — damn — the old grey lady’s got feeds, you would think a progressive contemporary art site focused on new media could embrace some (not so) new tech. Wouldn’t you? permanent link to this post

Microsoft to introduce PDF competitor

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Computerworld reports that Microsoft will be including a new document format called ‘Metro’ with Longhorn. Apparently, Metro is intended to be a competitor to Adobe’s PDF and Postscript formats. The format will be open and available for royalty-free licensing, and will be based on XML.

via: Microsoft to Introduce PDF competitor ‘Metro’ (The /. commentary is actually not that bad on this one. )

This sorta puts the whole Adobe aquiring Macromedia deal into a new light.

Original article permanent link to this post

NetNewsWire Pro demo expiration

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

NetNewsWire Lite (NNW) introduced me to the wonderful world of RSS (XML) feeds some time ago. RSS-enabled websites and an excellent aggregator like NNW make an info-junky’s wet dreams come true. RSS is crack to HTML’s cocaine.

After using NNW Lite for a long, long time I’m thinking of upgrading to the Pro version and using it’s Weblog Editor to post to this site. To make the editor useful for me I wrote a little applescript that uploads a post to my website when I save it (via NNW’s ‘post’ command) to a specific folder on my hard drive.

But when I downloaded the Pro version I couldn’t use it. The demo had expired. Darn. I must have demo’d the Pro version long ago and forgotten about it. What is an aspiring geek to do? Attempt a hack of course.

But listen up first! Ranchero, the makers of NetNewsWire Pro, seem to be extremely cool Mac OS X developers so don’t use this tip to rip them off! Use this tip only if you’re seriously considering an upgrade and find yourself with an expired demo. It would be extremely UNCOOL to steal from small Mac developers putting out great software like NNW.

And now to the little hack:

It’s ridiculously easy to get the demo working again. This tip is for Panther users and you need to have Xcode installed too. Go to your ~/Library/Preferences folder and find this file: com.ranchero.NetNewsWire.plist (ah yes, the .plist, where all good mac hacks start ;-)

Xcode comes with a little app called the Property List Editor. If you double-click NNW’s .plist file it will open in that app. Next, click the arrow next to “Root”, scoll down to the entry “FirstRun” and double-click on it’s value so it’s editable and change it to something that isn’t more than 30 days ago, like today. And that’s it, NNW Pro should work fine for the next 30 days.

Of course .plist files are simply XML files that can be edited in any text editor so you don’t NEED the Property List Editor, its just a tad easier. permanent link to this post

Is a Mac OS X RSS aggregator SMACKDOWN brewing?

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

It certainly looks that way:

The reigning champ, NetNewsWire, is heading for a BIG upgrade.

But a feisty contender, PulpFiction, is on the horizon.

Looks like it could get interesting…. permanent link to this post

iTunes playlists and Spotlight

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

I was a Quicksilver user before I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.

Spotlight steals the command-spacebar key combo that launches Quicksilver and the functionality is similar so I decided to see if Spotlight could be used as a replacement.

One thing I really liked about Quicksilver was that it could find an iTunes playlist and let you navigate to items inside it. I use this for one and one thing only — launching my WNYC MP3 streams.

For some reason, Spotlight wasn’t indexing the playlist that I keep the streams in. So I created a little Automator action to launch the stream for WNYC AM 820. It was super-easy (much easier than AppleScript) and only took two actions: “Find Songs in iTunes” and “Start iTunes Playing.” Saved as wnyc.app, I can now type command-spacebar, then type wnyc and launch my stream. Easy-peasy :-) permanent link to this post

Super-drool

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Dual 2.5GHz G5 features liquid cooling

As briefly noted earlier today, Apple’s top-of-the-line dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 features a new liquid cooling system that is supposed to be more efficient than a traditional heat sink… [MacMinute.com] permanent link to this post

Illustrator CS2 woes

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

The new Adobe Illustrator CS2 has some great features, most notably to us here at MTAA, the new auto-trace capabilities. It’s a vast improvement over the old auto-tracing in Illustrator.

But I’ve been having a nasty font issue that won’t even allow me to launch it. Reading a thread on the support forum and a technical article, I narrowed it down to the font issue — and man — it’s an issue. My /Library/Font folder is so fucked up it’s choking the Mac Finder! No wonder AI couldn’t deal. I guess I’ll have to go in there via the Terminal and delete some stuff… don’t know what to delete though.

Wish me luck :-o

update
WooHoo! Fixed it. It was indeed bad fonts or font-like files. Transmit’s ability to browse local files graphically came in very handy in identifying the bad files that needed to be removed from the /Library/Fonts folder. Since the Finder would choke when I tried to open the folder, I used Transmit to browse the folder and see which files didn’t seem to be recognized by OS X as a good font. permanent link to this post

Handy reference

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

This is an extremely handy reference for graphic/web designers:

300 images from 1800 sites, from the site:

I visited only Fortune 1000 company sites, major online retailers, well known blogs, top advertising, publishing, and design agencies, technology and software industy leaders, and the very largest online news publishers.

permanent link to this post

Ho. Lee. Shit.

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Apple Computer plans to announce Monday that it’s scrapping its partnership with IBM and switching its computers to Intel’s microprocessors, CNET News.com has learned. Apple has used IBM’s PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel’s chips, sources familiar with the situation said. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said. The announcement is expected Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, at which Chief Executive Steve

via: Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | Tech News on ZDNet

update:
There’s some decent chatter on Slashdot and MacSlash (and elsewhere) that puts this whole thing into perspective. Basically, people are speculating that Intel could manufacture PowerPC chips since the original C|Net article didn’t say that Apple would be using x86 (Pentium) chips.

We shall see on Monday. permanent link to this post

I love the Paparazzi!

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

You Mac OS X web developer geeks out there will be excited by this little app called Paparazzi (I know I am). You just feed it a URL and the little app takes a screenshot of the web page in PNG format. The cool thing is it takes a screenshot of the entire page, not just the part that would show up in your browser. No more editing screenshots to get the whole damn page.

It looks to be a GUI wrapper for this command line tool: webkit2png. permanent link to this post

GIF: pronounced “gif” or “jif” ?

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

I pronounce GIF like it’s spelled, with a hard “G.”

This page makes a good argument that the creators of the format wanted folks to pronounce it “jif” (soft “G”).

It does seem like the creators wanted people to say “jif.” My question is: who cares? If the majority of english speakers see the acronym GIF and say “gif,” then that’s how it’s pronounced. It doesn’t matter what the geek who created the format thinks, he’s been outvoted! permanent link to this post

Googlex

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Googlex: mad props to OS X!

Google is really doing some amazing interface stuff these days. The cool thing is, much of what they do is very simple, but just works great… like googlex.

Google Suggest and Google Maps also rock.

update
Sadly, it seems Googlex is no more :(

update 2:
Happily, some nice geek mirrored it :) permanent link to this post

Free Apache software odyssey

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

This weekend I’ve been on a little geek odyssey.

It all started with a possible job redesigning a site that currently uses coldfusion. So, I thought to myself, I need to learn some coldfusion.

To install coldfusion on a Mac OS X, you need to have Tomcat installed. So I installed it.

Then, I saw a posting on Zeldman’s site about a CMS from Apache called Lenya. It can be installed under Tomcat too (tho I never got it to work that way). But I did get it to work as a standalone servlet. Of course Lenya led me to Cocoon which I had to install and give a whirl.

Finally, after all of that, I remembered that I was supposed to be installing coldfusion. I followed the directions on Macromedia’s site, but for some reason it’s not deploying on my Tomcat set-up at home. I did get it to work on my machine at work though. permanent link to this post

Firefox now builds with SVG

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Firefox nightly builds now have SVG support. (Look for builds with the string -svg- in them.) Currently Linux is not build with SVG; both the Mac and Win32 are.

If you are using an older version of Windows it might be that you get a warning message. Also note that native SVG support is disabled by default. To enable it you need to follow some steps.

Have fun! You can try your build with some nice SVG samples or you can run it through the W3C SVG test suite.

Although in the current nightlies SVG is disabled it might be that native SVG support in Firefox 1.1 will be enabled by default. Another update: it appears the patch attached to this bug has been checked in; Firefox now builds with SVG and has support for it enabled by default. This seems like a good thing with the only downside that authors might think to ‘know’ how SVG works, while it actually is a bug. (For example, try width:200 in Internet Explorer

from: Firefox nightlies now build with SVG - Anne’s Weblog about Markup & Style

ooooooooooOOOOOO

Hopefully this will light a fire under Microsoft’s ass. They’ve been adding improved standards and native alpha support for PNG to MSIE lately — seemingly because of Firefox’s competition. Will they follow this lead as well? Let’s hope. permanent link to this post

Microsoft awarded patent on double-clicking

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

And I’m not making it up. It’s true!

Here’s a nice understatement from the article:

“These are symptoms of the fact that the patent system is not well-adapted to being applied to software,” says Jonas Maebe, of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure

permanent link to this post

Dreamhost servers run Debian Linux

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

It took me a while to track this info down, so I thought I’d share it here with what I think are the keywords that someone might use in Google when trying to track down the same.

Dreamhost servers run the Debian Linux operating system. As of Sept 7, 2005 the are currently using the “Woody” version. All according to their wiki.

Keywords:
Dreamhost, Linux, operating system, version, distro, distribution permanent link to this post

CSS podGuide

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

I would be completely remiss in my Mac/web-dev geekitude if I didn’t post a link to Westciv’s CSS podGuide, from their site:

The Style Master CSS podGuide is an iPod ready edition of our renowned Complete CSS Guide. Featuring a handy overview of CSS concepts, and in-depth information for every selector, property and @rule of CSS 2.1, the CSS podGuide is a must have for any web developer with an iPod

I downloaded it to my iPod and I must say it’s pretty cool. It takes a minute to load up the first time but after that you’ll have a handy CSS reference handy at all times. Cool. permanent link to this post

Create 2 feeds for different media formats in Wordpress 1.5 (quick and dirty)

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

When linking to media files in WP 1.5.2 the default behavior is to create 2 enclosures for that particular item in the RSS 2.0 feed. My quick and dirty little hack allows me to generate 2 separate feeds for two different media formats. It’s not a plugin for Wordpress and isn’t easily extended without some knowledge of PHP.

What I did is fairly simple and specific to my needs. First, in wp-rss2.php I check for a query string with the media format I want in the feed:

if ( isset($_GET['format']) ) {
	$enc_format = 1;
} else {
	$enc_format = 0;
}

Note: This needs to go after the if (empty($feed)) { etc } bit.

Then later in the same file I decide whether I should pass the format to the rss_enclosure() function. If there is a format specified we pass it to the function, if there isn’t, we just pass false:

if ( $enc_format ) { 
	rss_enclosure($_GET['format']);
} else { 
	rss_enclosure(false);
}

The official WP version of rss_enclosure() doesn’t take an argument, I edited that a bit so that it would take an argument. It is in the file wp-includes/feed-functions.php:

function rss_enclosure($input)
{
global $id, $post;
if (!empty($post->post_password) &&¬
($_COOKIE['wp-postpass_'.COOKIEHASH] ¬
!= $post->post_password)) return;

if( is_array( $custom_fields ) ) 
{
while( list( $key, $val ) = each( $custom_fields ) ) { 
if( $key == 'enclosure' ) {
if (is_array($val)) {
foreach($val as $enc) {
$enclosure = split( "\n", $enc );
if ( $input ) 
{
if ( $input == "wmv" && trim( $enclosure[ 2 ] ) ¬
== "video/x-ms-wmv" ) {
print "<enclosure url='".trim¬
( htmlspecialchars($enclosure[ 0 ])¬
 )."' length='".trim( $enclosure[ 1 ] )."' ¬
type='".trim( $enclosure[ 2 ] )."'/>\n";
}
if ( $input == "m4v" && trim( $enclosure[ 2 ] ) ¬
== "video/quicktime" ) {
print "<enclosure url='".trim¬
( htmlspecialchars($enclosure[ 0 ])¬
)."' length='".trim( $enclosure[ 1 ] )."' ¬
type='".trim( $enclosure[ 2 ] )."'/>\n";
}
}
else
{
print "<enclosure url='".trim¬
( htmlspecialchars($enclosure[ 0 ])¬
)."' length='".trim( $enclosure[ 1 ] )."' ¬
type='".trim( $enclosure[ 2 ] )."'/>\n";
}}}}}}}

You can see that I only check for WMV or M4V, eg, if ( $input == "m4v" etc. Those are the two formats I will be using in my project. It works like this: if I’m asking for a WMV file and the enclosure is of that type, it writes the enclosure line. The same for M4V. If there is no format specified both enclosure tags are written. If the format isn’t recognized, no enclosure tag is written.

Now I can construct a URL like this and get a feed for the specified file format:

http://www.domain.com/wp_dir/index.php?feed=rss2&format=m4v

That’s all fine and good but I wanted nicer URLs. A little bit of work in my .htaccess file:

RewriteRule ^wp/feed/?(.*$) /wp/index.php?feed=rss2&format=$1 [QSA,L]

And now a URL like this works:

http://www.domain.com/wp_dir/feed/m4v

+++

This was a quick and dirty hack for my specific purposes. There’s definitely smarter and more extensible ways to do this. I wish I had time to make a plugin or something to help out more people, but this is what I have presently.

Sorry for the funky formatting of some of the code above. You’ll probably need to cut and paste into your text editor to make any sense out of it. permanent link to this post

Apocalypse (maybe) now

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Apple Developing Two Button Mouse

&

Microsoft support of PNG alpha-transparency

My world is being turned upside-down! permanent link to this post

Ajax, Shmajax. Read about the future of HTML

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

HTML isn’t a very good language for making Web pages. However, it has been a very good language for making the Web.

via IBM The future of HTML, Part 1: WHATWG permanent link to this post

new iPod info leaked

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Newsweek inadvertently leaked an article about the new 4G iPod to be officially announced this week. The article has been taken down (you can check if it’s back at this link) but you can read the text below.

July 26 issue - Veteran Podsters understand that at least once a year Apple performs a feat that at once infuses them with dread and delight: an iPod upgrade. The delight comes from a new look and new capabilities. The dread comes from the realization that you’re a step behind the cutting edge and must consider whether to buy your way back on it.

And here it goes again. The considerably tweaked fourth-generation iPod will roll out this week, and NEWSWEEK got an advance peek. It looks a bit different, operates more efficiently, has a few more features and costs less. Here are the highlights.

The click wheel. The iPod keeps getting slimmer and more streamlined. While the initial version had a relatively boxy feel, subsequent versions have been curvier and smaller. This one is about a millimeter thinner and, more significantly, eliminates the control buttons that sat under the display screen. Instead, it uses a “click wheel,” where the controls are placed on the compass points of the circular touchpad that lets you scroll through menus. This is an innovation carried over from the diminutive iPod Mini. “It was developed out of necessity for the Mini, because there wasn’t enough room [for the buttons],” says Steve Jobs. “But the minute we experienced it we just thought, ‘My God, why didn’t we think of this sooner?’ ”

New features. You can create multiple on-the-go playlists and delete songs from those ad hoc mixes. And audiobooks are not only easier to find, you can listen to them at normal speed, slower or 25 percent faster, without its sounding like a Munchkin.

Longer play. Coast-to-coasters rejoice: the new iPods are rated for 12 hours of rockin’ between chargesÑa 50 percent boost in battery life. This is accomplished, Apple says, not by a heavier battery but diligent conservation of power.

Lower price. The top-of-the-line iPod, holding 10,000 songs (40 gigs, as geeks will tell you), now costs $399. The lower-capacity model, with room for 5,000 songs (20 gigs), costs $299. That’s a $100 price reduction for each. (There’s no more 15-gig model.)

Color. Fuggedaboutit. Despite rumors to the contrary, the wide-bodies are still as pure as the driven snow.

Bottom line: If you have yet to jump on the iPod bandwagon, it’s cheaper and more attractive to do so. If you’re already plugged in, the question is whether you should engage in the “iPod Bump,” where you snap up the spiffy new version and pass Old Reliable to a grateful friend or family member (or the highest eBay bidder). If your music collection has exceeded your iPod’s storage space, or your listening binges exceed your current iPod’s battery lifeÑor if you want to hear Bill Clinton’s abridged book in 4-1/2 hours rather than sixÑconsider the Bump this time around. Of course, if your heart went aflutter at the very sight of this year’s model, you’re probably in line at the Apple Store already. permanent link to this post

Adobe to acquire Macromedia

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/geek

Holy shit!

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

via: About Adobe - Adobe to acquire Macromedia

My thoughts and hopes for what’s going to happen because of this:

1. GoLive will GoAway. (will anyone care?)

2. Hopefully they’ll take Illustrator’s tools and interface and slap Flash’s timeline and actionscript onto it. At the very least, we’ll get beefed-up interoperability between Illustrator and Flash and PDF (which would be extremely helpful).

3. Since Adobe was pushing SVG as an alternative to Flash, I wonder if they’ll keep promoting it? Not that they were doing a particularly good job.

4. Fireworks will go away. (will anyone care?) This application has always suffered because of Photoshop’s dominance.

5. Wonder if they’ll build any bridges between After Effects and Director? Imagine including an After Effects project as a ‘live object’ within Director, that could be cool.

6. Nothing will happen to InDesign.

7. Hopefully they’ll build better font support into Flash. Flash’s font handling sucks hard.

8. Import Flash animations into After Effects? Holy shit! That would be great. permanent link to this post

Gallery unveils interactive tree

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A Christmas tree that can receive text messages has been unveiled at London’s Tate Britain art gallery.

[ via: Gallery unveils interactive tree ]

One word: Endnode. permanent link to this post

Gallery hopping on Sat

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

After visiting my accountant this past Saturday (taxes, ugh). I popped over to Chelsea to see some art.

First stop was Pace Wildenstein for Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art which featured lots of big art stars and RSG. RSG was sharing a room with Paul Pfeiffer. The curator was trying to draw some progression through time so I guess video games follow video. But that stuff is always a curatorial construct with no basis in reality.

After that it was one big blur of crap. I remember thinking two things over and over, “Why do I hate so much art if I’m an artist?”, and the words “fucking painting” kept going through my head.

Finally I stumbled into Postmasters who were showing Guy Ben-Ner who’s work is witty and fun and put me back into a good mood. permanent link to this post

Gallerist busts artist

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

via: Bloggy

[…]

On Saturday, Mike Weiss called the police on Eric [Doeringer]. James has the story. This is my favorite part:
He packed up his work and confronted Mr. Weiss, who admitted he had called the police. He said that he didn’t like “seeing people walking around with tiny paintings,” while he was paying high rent for his gallery and, “trying to sell $30,000 paintings.” When Doeringer told him he was certainly going to let everyone he knew in the art world hear about what he had done, Weiss said, “If that’s the way you want to play it, I’ll call the police whenever I see you anywhere.”

[…]

Eric has posted his account on his website.

What a dork. Seriously, someone goes to Weiss for a painting retailing for thousands of dollars but decides to plunk down 100 bucks for a small ‘bootleg’ instead? Bullshit.

update:
Moody’s got some comments about this as well as some images of Doeringer’s ‘bootlegs.’ permanent link to this post

Fuck The South

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I had to link to this because it’s so damn funny.

Fuck The South

The next dickwad who says, “It’s your money, not the government’s money” is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least… can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they’re red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

permanent link to this post

Fuck Pataki

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Pataki, via the NY Daily News:

We will not tolerate anything on that site that denigrates America, denigrates New York or freedom or denigrates the sacrifice and courage that the heroes showed on Sept. 11.

What a fucking dumbass. What “denigrates New York or freedom” is the NY Gov’s seeming intolerance of free expression.

Evidently the ‘freedom’ in Freedom Tower doesn’t cover free speech.

What a bunch of fucking assholes. permanent link to this post

Fuck Pataki redux

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Serious rant, be forwarned…

More on the Drawing Center/Freedom Center/WTC memorial/Pataki’s an ass/Bloomberg’s a hedging technocrat brouhaha at the NYTimes.

(First mentioned on this site here, check out Kevin’s letter to the Daily News in the comments.)

Concise commentary on Greg.org too.

NYC art institutions have to step up, throw down, grow some balls, whatever you want to call it and tell these pandering politicians that if government censors are part of the deal, then NO NYC art institution is going to play ball!

Artists too! Who’ll join me in boycotting (both exhibiting or visiting) any art museum or gallery that plays ball with the goon Pataki and his art police? Who’s coming with me? Who’s coming with me?

It’s just so fucking new America to apply censorship to a museum called the Freedom Center and say you’re protecting freedom from ‘denigration’ by making the institution a free speech-free zone.

Aaaarrrggghhhhh! permanent link to this post

From The Floor review of ArtBase 101

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Practical Jokes, Mechanical GIFs, and Art Data

MTAA’s favorite part:

Far from showcasing tech art by tech artists that can only be appreciated by other techies, this show presents an emerging body of art that sparks thought about new uses for a technology that is mostly deployed for commercial ends. Anyone interested in artistic practice today (Luddites included) will appreciate the current state of the art as shown here

permanent link to this post

fuck _ ____

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is the entire N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton album edited down into just the “explicit” content.

via: |:ni9e:|:destruction:|:production:|

Listen to it here. permanent link to this post

Rhizome needs to drop its membership fee and free its content

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

During the debate regarding Rhizome’s membership fee I was very vocal in my support of the idea. The argument went like this: an obligatory membership fee for Rhizome is better than no Rhizome at all. I was sure that if the fee wasn’t implemented then Rhizome as we know it would cease to exist. There would be no more lists, no more ArtBase, and no more web site.

But what I failed to understand is that the fee basically caused Rhizome to cease to exist. As the founders and current directors of Rhizome know well, to exist on the network you need to be linked. I am hyper-referenced therefor I am. Rhizome’s membership fee effectively shuts down links to articles and artwork on Rhizome’s web site.

I know, it’s free on friday. But if I want to link to a Rhizome post or artwork, am I to attach a disclaimer? “This link only functions on Fridays.”

I know, first time’s free. But what if I have visitors to my site who follow the links to Rhizome regularly? They get shut out.

Why should Rhizome care? Since I can’t trust links will resolve to the article or the artwork they point too, I simply don’t link to Rhizome. I didn’t mean this to happen, it just started happening. I can’t help but think that other people must feel the same way.

These days newer on-line publishing technologies like weblogs, (RSS, RDF, Atom) feeds, and link aggregators (like del.icio.us) are connecting people to information in very exciting ways but I have a feeling that Rhizome is being left out and left behind. How many blogs link to Rhizome articles and artworks? Probably not many, blog authors know the value of freely linking across the web; Rhizome stops them at the door.

Being locked up behind the membership fee leads to a degradation in the content on Rhizome. We could argue whether it’s happening or not — I’m not sure it’s happening myself — but I’m sure it’s going to happen and I’ll tell you why. Folks don’t want to post to closed forums. If they want their articles read or their artwork looked at they want to be linked far and wide. Sure they might drop a post on Rhizome (if they’re a member) and a few other places. If the other places are free, guess where the links will go? Not to Rhizome. So at best you’ll get duplicate content on Rhizome which is harder to find. Since not as many people are finding Rhizome, membership might start to drop. Since membership is dropping even fewer articles are posted; a very bad downward cycle could start.

Rhizome needs to drop the fee, find new ways to connect with new audiences — an XML feed of the Rhiz list posts would be a good start — and then work on ways to get these new audiences to donate voluntarily.

Perhaps it was an emergency at the time the fee curtain came down. I hope it’s over and Rhizome finds a way to free their content.

I really want to link Rhizome. permanent link to this post

My Blog Has Fleas

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

UPDATE! Yes, there is an update to this post. Can you believe it? My Blog Has Fleas permanent link to this post

Flickr coincidence

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is cool.

(Reblogged from reBlog which was reblogged from somewhere else.) permanent link to this post

Free quality crates!!

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

At some point in our career, two large crates took up residence in our studio. It’s time to evict them!

If you want two (2) professionally built crates for shipping or storage, contact MTAA (our email addresses are on our web site). These are the highest quality wooden crates!

dimensions
Apx two foot square interior measurement

pick-up?
Yes, you would need to pick them up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, USA.

pass the word
Please pass the word! We want to find someone who would really need the crates. permanent link to this post

Five Small Videos: Macromedia Site of The Day

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA’s Five Small Videos About Interruption And Disappearing has been selected as Macromedia’s Site of The Day for October 21, 2004. permanent link to this post

First iPod film festival

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Flux Announces the iPod Video Film Festival

Coming soon to a small screen near you: The iPod Video Film Festival. The Flux announced today the opening of The Flux iPod Film Festival, an online film festival/competition of content formatted for the iPod. Visitors to the site can download the films for playback on their computers or iPod video, then vote for their favorite video. Prizes will be awarded in four categories: student film, indie film, family clip, and best music video. “The iPod video has people yearning for fun, portable video content, and our festival will give people access to free content, while exposing independent filmmakers and bands to an exciting new audience,” said Flux producer Ryan Ritchey. Submissions must be less than ten minutes, and formatted for the iPod. Flux partner site R Cubed Productions will offer conversion services to properly format films for iPod playback for a small fee. Submission deadline is January 25th. The Flux was founded in March 2005 to be the single stop for the creators and viewers of short films, including movie reviews, how-to tips, movie hosting, and resources for filmmakers.

Entry fee is 15USD. Bah, entry fees suck, but it’s normal in film festivals I guess. But they don’t tell you what the prizes are! from this page:

The top three films in each category will be given awarded prizes, to be determined.

I’m not sure I would pay to compete in a contest that makes it unclear if it’s worth the dough. I would wait until after January 15th when they announce the prizes. permanent link to this post

Senate: Toss Film Pirates in Jail

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could go to prison for up to three years under a bill approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Friday.

Hackers and industry insiders who distribute music, movies or other copyright works before their official release date would also face stiffened penalties under the bill…

A House subcommittee approved a similar bill in March.

[full article in Wired News]

3 - 10 YEARS! For copying a movie? Damn. You can kill somebody and get less time than that.

I guess this means that in the future, projects like Pirated Movie (more info, & more info, & even more) or the work of Jon Routson will go from commentary on our culture to acts of civil disobedience. permanent link to this post

Finger food

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

What a dick! From CNN:

[…] Clarence Stowers still has the digit, refusing to return the evidence so it could be reattached. And now it’s too late for doctors to do anything for 23-year-old Brandon Fizer.

[…]

“The man who lost the finger has the superior claim,” said Paul Lombardo, who teaches at the University of Virginia’s law school. “It’s his finger and he might be able to use it.”

Well yeah, I suppose the guy could use it. Sheesh! permanent link to this post

FDA Approves Use of Chip in Patients

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

AP - Medical milestone or privacy invasion? A tiny computer chip approved Wednesday for implantation in a patient’s arm can speed vital information about a patient’s medical history to doctors and hospitals. But critics warn that it could open new ways to imperil the confidentiality of medical records.

[ via: Yahoo (AP) ]

ZOINKS! permanent link to this post

Fake movie hits the streets

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

0100101110101101.ORG’s “United We Stand”

Read the press release on Rhizome. permanent link to this post

Face the fact

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

If you don’t have an RSS feed, you’re nobody. permanent link to this post

<PAUSE> & FACT

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

<PAUSE>
MTAA leave tomorrow for the opening of <PAUSE> in Montreal, Quebec. This is a on-line art exhibition curated by MobileGaze. From the press release:

<PAUSE> addresses the notion of time as experienced in art and through technology. The exhibition aims at intercepting this stream of information in order to provide a disruption within this endless expanse of data — by providing the viewer with a vantage point, a moment of reflection and a slowing down in his/her interactive viewing habits.

The opening is at Oboru. There will be presentations by artists and some performances too, here’s the schedule:

Artist talks - 3:00PM - 4:30PM; MTAA is going last so you don’t have to get there too early ;-)

Cocktails - 5:00PM - 7:00PM; get loaded.

Performances 7:00PM - 8:00PM (apx)

+++++
FACT
Liverpool’s FACT (Film, Art & Creative Technology) seems to be having some interesting things happening. We have it on good sources that every curator’s favorite DEMO artist, Cory Arcangel, is going to be doing a project with them this coming fall. There is also talk of a show including american digital artists with discussions going on with some folks in the new york net art scene including yours truly. Everything is tentative at the moment, we’ll let you know when we know more… permanent link to this post

Eyebeam reBlog

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Eyebeam’s reBlog should provide a way to look at archived posts from individual reBloggers. One of the things I like most about reBlog is how the flavor of the site changes with each new reBlogger.

Plus, I want to go back and re-live my own time as a reBlogger. permanent link to this post

Extremely grumpy

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I might start blogging elsewhere, the constraints here are starting to get to me.

The MTAA-RR will continue in order give official MTAA news and announcements, but I need a place to post my own personal stuff with no constraints.

Maybe I’ll start one at twhid.com… permanent link to this post

Email from Baghdad

posted at 16:39 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Steve Mumford is an artist who has been making trips to Iraq for the past year (read my first post re: him). He publishes his thoughts and sketches in his Baghdad Journal on artnet.com. A recent email sent to friends was, I thought, interesting so I’m posting below with his permission.

Hi Everyone,

Yeah I’m back in Baghdad, hanging out with my Iraqi friends here. It’s awesome what different opinions they have about the situation from some of the journalists here, who are aghast when I ask them how they think things are going - that is, the journalists assume I share their view that the sky is falling. In contrast, my Iraqi friends (both Sunni and Shia) regard the Najaf episode as a triumph, both for Sistani and the Iraqi gov - and by association, the US - Sadr was essentially humiliated, resulting in a big loss of popularity in favor of moderate Sistani. The destruction of Najaf was grave, but reconstruction money is already flowing from the government, with most people apparently blaming Sadr, more than the US, for the damage.

Even in Falluja, my friends maintain, the majority want peace and stability and are willing to join the government, but for the time being are scared into silence by the jihadists. However, talks are going on between Allawi and the tribes of Falluja. They’re optimistic that this will all be reflected in the coming elections.

So, who knows - I can say that I feel some journalists I’ve met are so blinded by their hatred for Bush and recent US foreign policy that they clearly want this to become a massive failure. It’s certainly hard to find Iraqis who will openly compliment the US at this point, for a variety of understandable reasons. But crucially, this doesn’t mean that they are lending their support to the insurgents. In fact, my friends maintain, just the opposite.

As usual, Baghdad is surreal in it’s normalcy amid explosions - you hear them almost everyday, yet the Iraqis barely turn their heads and go about their business. I use caution traveling about, generally with my friends, but I’m not holed up in my hotel either. The local art world continues apace, with the usual salons held every Monday at the Hewar Gallery and the Shebander Tea House, internet cafes filled, the streets bustling, everyone eagerly anticipating the cooler days of Fall.

I was saddened to find that Nezar, a haircutter on old Rashid Street, who gave me 2 haircuts, was killed along with his nephew by a car bomb parked right outside his shop, about 3 weeks ago. He was a sweet guy who wouldn’t take my money the first time, and was a friend of my friend the artist Ahmed al Safi. His blackened, ruined store is still there, with traditional Shia obituary flags draped over the storefront.

Baqubah remained relatively peaceful for the remainder of the time I was there. Rumors of an impending insurgency keep circulating but have yet to materialize. The police and Iraqi National Guard are gaining strength and confidence with better training, heavier weapons and flack vests. In spite of recent conspicuous failures, they’re getting better. They’re starting - in baby steps - to stand up to insurgent attacks. You see them everywhere in Baqubah and Baghdad, whizzing around in new cars and SUVs with the Iraqi Police insignia on the side. I can’t overstate the importance of this to Iraqis. You can’t have a democracy or even an economy without security.

I’ll remain here a bit longer, replenish art supplies, and try for another embedding for a couple of weeks, then return home.

Please, everyone, try to keep an open mind about things over here - Muqtada Sadr is NOT Che Guevara! Bremmer fucked some things up very badly, but somehow, Iraqis are optimistic that the situation is improving.

Love, Steve

I’ve been critical of Steve’s project in the past (but always giving respect). Reading some actual on-the-ground info from a friend is interesting but I have to ask: If his Iraqi friends think things are getting better, better than what? All out war? Normalcy and explosions? Your barber got killed in a car bombing! What is this better than?

And now the news today…. permanent link to this post

“Echoes of Art” Emulation Symposium May 8 at Guggenheim

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This symposium looks interesting and I’m thinking of attending the “Emulation Performance” by jodi and the afternoon session. Get the details here (click symposium once you arrive).

The symposium accompanies the exhibition “Seeing Double,” which is very successful IMO. According to the press release:

This exhibition tests the promise of an experimental treatment—emulation—for rescuing new media art from the ravages of time.

The art work seems to have been “rescued.” The exhibition does more than just that however. By exposing ‘how’ you emulate new media art the curators also illustrate the ‘material’ of new media art.

That’s to say, most people go to a museum and look at a moving image on a screen of some sort and it’s not always self-evident what the material of the image is. Is it simply a video? Or is it a computational piece which is getting real-time data from the Internet or running a software algorithm to auto-generate visuals or what have you. It’s not always obvious.

But in “Seeing Double” the materials become obvious through the process and exploration of emulation and that does new media art and the art public a real service. permanent link to this post

Easter eggs

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yes there are easter eggs in 1 Year Performance Video, so glad you asked.

Check ‘em out: STEAL THIS VIDEO: 1YPV easter eggs.

Download interesting stuff regarding 1YPV here (more on this later).

To expand on this easter egg thing: we consider the videos in “STEAL THIS VIDEO: 1YPV easter eggs” to be easter eggs because they don’t follow the overall narrative of being locked in a cell 24/7. For example, we address the camera and do other things that don’t follow the narrative logic of 1YPV in these easter egg videos. Normally you would only see them if you happen to be watching 1YPV between 4AM and 5AM and you get lucky :) permanent link to this post

Dvorak’s ignorant blather

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I posted this to Rhizome too: John Dvorak trashes creative commons. It was a big mistake. I’m a proponent of Creative Commons so when I saw the link on Slashdot I figured that it would be good to link to it and get another side of the story.

But the article is so full of ignorant statements and falsehoods that it wasn’t really worth a link. Some examples?

If you are unfamiliar with this thing, be sure to go to the Web site and see if you can figure it out. Creative Commons actually seems to be a dangerous system with almost zero benefits to the public, copyright holders, or those of us who would like a return to a shorter-length copyright law.

What is he? Stupid? It’s not hard to figure out what it’s for. Right now copyright law is very complicated, so Lessig created these licenses to help individuals publish and share without having the need of a lawyer. Simple as that.

This means that others have certain rights to reuse the material under a variety of provisos, mostly as long as the reuse is not for commercial purposes. Why not commercial purposes?

Creative Commons allows you to share your work for commercial purposes. And he knows it too because he writes ‘mostly.’ He’s intentionally trying to misrepresent what CC is about.

I apologize for linking to this garbage. permanent link to this post

Dude ransoms rabbit online

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A fairly humorous attempt at Internet blackmail.

This guy says he’s going to eat his rabbit unless he gets $50K from suckers on the web. Are there enough gullible animal-lovers out there to pay the ransom? So far he’s made around $14K.

Goddamn, I wish I had thought of this first. permanent link to this post

Duchamp’s “Fountain” most influential

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A porcelain urinal is the most influential work of modern art, according to a survey released Wednesday.

More here: Urinal Named As Most Influencial Art (AP). permanent link to this post

Dubya the Defender

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The perversly talented director, Final Cut ninja, and After Effects master Sorrel Ahlfeld (more here) is entering this very funny and well produced video into MoveOn’s Bush in 30 Seconds Contest. According to Sorrel his intention is, “to poke fun at, and educate people about, the Bush administration’s outrageous hypocrisy.” Seems to work on all counts brilliantly IMO.

Dubya The Defender (quicktime 3.8MB, right- or control-click to download.)

Credits:

Written and Directed by Sorrel Ahlfeld
Production Design: Devin Clark and Verena Weisendanger
Production Assistance: Amos Katz
Music: Jim Morgan, David Driver, Connie Petruk
Starring: Emily & Dubya The Defender! permanent link to this post

Duct Tape Festival

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Not only am I posting a link to the web site for the INAUGURAL AVON HERITAGE DUCT TAPE FESTIVAL, but AVON, OHIO is practically my hometown. It’s the town where my mother and grandmother live.

It really isn’t my hometown, Elyria, OH has that glorious distinction, but it’s pretty damn close.

I never thought I’d ever type this — but — thanks for the link Mom! permanent link to this post

Drinkin’ & Drawin’

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

First noted on this web site by M.River in this post, the 1st Annual Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship is happening!

Go HERE for all the details. But we’ll let our loyal followers (like you because you’re reading this blog) in on a few details.

M.River and I aren’t quite sure how to handle what becomes of the drawings at the end of the night. We need to keep the drawings to create documentation of the project, but we don’t want to scare away any artists who don’t want to give drawings away. Our plan is to inform competitors that we’ll need to keep the drawings for a time of up to 6 months in order to get hi-res scans of them. We’ll also need non-exclusive rights to publish the drawings. Does this seem reasonable? Please leave a comment if you have an opinion.

Other mechanics of the evening: Each contestant will need to sign-in. They’ll be given an ID number (which will be associated with their name and contact info), paper, and pencil. The paper will be stamped with a small rubber stamp so that the contestant can label the drawing with their ID number and the list the drinks consumed while making the drawing.

We don’t want the drawings to have names on them as that may influence the judges. That’s why were going to label them with a number. permanent link to this post

Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship TONIGHT!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

All the info is here: MTAA’s Drinkin’ & Drawin’.

See this earlier post for more info: Drinkin’ & Drawin’.

See you there :-) permanent link to this post

Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Champion

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Champion for 2005 is:

Luke Butler!!

More info to come…

Check out M.River’s pics permanent link to this post

Drinkin’ and Drawin’ TONIGHT!!!!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Get yer ass out to BKLYN and win yer ass a 100 BUCK BAR TAB at BAR MATCHLESS.

And while you’re at it, buy T.Whid a drink for his birthday.

More info here:
www.tinjail.com/drinkAndDraw

and here:
The 2nd Annual DRINKIN’ & DRAWIN’ CHAMPIONSHIP

+++++++++++++++++

Time: 8-11PM

Location: Bar Matchless
Corner of Driggs and Manhattan Aves, Greenpoint, BKLYN

Directions:
From Manhattan: L train to Bedford Ave.
Walk North on Bedford Ave. (past the park) to Manhattan Ave. Take a right, one block down on the corner.

From Brooklyn or Queens: G train to Nassau
Walk one block east on Manhattan Ave. to Driggs Ave.

permanent link to this post

Dreamland Artists Club in NYTimes

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…in the summer of 2003, when the artist Steve Powers became simultaneously obsessed with Coney Island and the dying art of sign painting, he had a tough time convincing many of the wary and con-wise business owners that he wanted to give them - free, really - brand-new hand-painted signs for their aging bumper-car palaces and clam bars.

[…]

But Mr. Powers, a former graffiti artist who has had scrapes with the law and lots of experience dealing with suspicious authority, was persistent. And now his personal mission has become a sprawling public art project that blurs the line between art and commerce in a way that perhaps could happen only on Coney Island.

[ via ]

If you live in or near NYC or are coming to visit this summer you must go to Coney Island.

The Mermaid Parade is next weekend, June 25th! permanent link to this post

Dreams DO come true!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

If you wish hard enough and pray to the baby Jesus every night before you go to bed then…

Your dreams can come true too!

(See comments in the first link and see ‘prepared piano’ description in the second link for this post to make any sense; M.River noticed this coincidence.) permanent link to this post

Double awesome

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yahoo! Creative Commons search!

Obligatory MTAA narcism:

MTAA (we come up number 1)

simple net art (number 1 again)

net art (number 13, bah!)

It’s funny when you search too, it’s like you know everybody on the results page. Haha! permanent link to this post

Drawing Center may quit WTC

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Amid a storm of controversy over plans for the Ground Zero cultural centers, the Drawing Center says it has put the entire planning process for its move downtown on hold and is considering whether it should pull out of the site.

via: Crain’s New York Business

Good. They should. To paraphrase NWA, fuck The art police!

Found the link via Greg.org. permanent link to this post

MY DOOMSDAY WEAPON: An exhibition by Jakob S. Boeskov @ The Thing

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This sounds fascinating, from the press release:

Weapons that shoot microchips into the bodies of innocent civilians. An artist smuggling blueprints for fake technology inside China’s first international weapons fair. Laughing arms traders drinking 30-year-old Chivas Regal among teenage models advertising new weapons. No, it’s not a chilling sci-fi movie; it’s reality, and a project by Danish artist Jakob S. Boeskov.

» Dates, times and more information on The Thing’s web site.

» And more here permanent link to this post

“Doomsday Weapon” slide show @ THE THING

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check out the slide show of Jakob Boeskov’s “Doomsday Weapon.” We mentioned this art project in this post on this web site.

Sorry Wolfgang, I linked right to the slide show — bypassing THE THING log-in. But, check out the benefit auction while your over at THE THING. permanent link to this post

Don’t hassle the Hoff

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This is a very funny video from David Hasselhoff.

My wife and I are debating whether or not he knows he’s being super-cheesy. My position is that he’s playing both sides. He’s trying to be sexy for his actual fans, but he’s trying to be cheesy for those that love to hate him. It’s a strategy invented and perfected by Shatner.

I’ve gained more respect for the Hoff if he truly is working the irony angle.

(BTW, I got the title of this post from the comments on this post: David Hasselhoff is hooked on a feeling.) permanent link to this post

Don’t tell anybody…

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…but we never really finished 1YPV. There are two things that need to be done in order for it to be finished:

1) figure out the how the ‘art data’ will be distributed

2) shoot the last “scene.”

We’re shooting the last scene this weekend :-) permanent link to this post

This makes me feel safe?

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Received from the building management at One Penn Plaza (directly across 33rd street from MSG and Penn Station):

Canine Teams Walking Corridors

Please be advised that Canine Teams will periodically be touring the corridors of the building. There is no cause for alarm as this is soley a preventative measure. Thank you for your cooperation.

Aug 27, 2004 12:07p

permanent link to this post

Cory Doctorow on piracy and DRM

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Could it be better timing?

On the eve of the release of Pirated Movie (more on Pirated Movie here) the text of Cory Doctorow’s talk to a group of Microsoft employees concerning DRM (Digital Rights Management) is posted to the web.

Needless to say, Doctorow describes the problems with DRM and the entertainment industry’s branding of consumers as ‘pirates’ much better then I can. Pirated Movie was created in part to poke fun and expose the hypocrisy of this whole mess. Doctorow’s talk touches on the technology behind DRM (and why it fails), dangers of branding large portions of society criminals, why it’s bad for business, and why it’s bad for creators.

AND he uses Pirates of The Caribbean as an example in his talk (which is also the subject of MTAA’s Pirated Movie).

The full text Cory Doctorow’s June 17th Microsoft Research DRM talk

There is slashdot discussion here. permanent link to this post

Dipshit attacks urinal

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Isn’t this whole physically-attacking-art-as-your-art thing a tad tired?

PARIS, Jan. 6 - The Dada movement made its name in the early 20th century by trying to destroy the conventional notion of art. Taking literal inspiration from their exploits this week, a latter-day neo-Dadaist took a small hammer to Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” the factory-made urinal that is considered the cornerstone of Conceptual Art.

From the NYT. permanent link to this post

Dirt style masterpiece

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

~The Dream Girls~ is a true dirt style masterpiece. Make sure you have .GIF animations turned ON or you’ll miss out.

It seems the dream girls are prolific too. permanent link to this post

Dimwit

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Recently, I called a commenter on this site a ‘dimwit’ (see the comments on this post for the sordid details).

It wasn’t very nice of me to call someone names, but the commenter had done two things which I felt gave me reasonable cause: 1) anonymously insulted my work and 2) anonymously made a smarmy personal insult. Both of the… we’ll call them critiques… weren’t very bothersome and I would have been happy to engage in polite debate on whether or not our work is hamfisted and whether or not Aljira’s Emerge program is akin to Tony Robbins’ motivational tapes but the comment was intended to belittle. It was also done in a very cowardly way behind the anonymity that we generously provide on this web site. So I felt calling the person a dimwit was well within what one would consider a reasonable response. Plus I was really hung-over from my bachelor party (thanks M.River :-)).

The commenter really did not like being called a dimwit and in a subsequent comment used all sorts of personal information found on this blog for an ad hominem attack on yours truly. This was truly cowardly; hiding behind anonymity while using personal attacks on another is extremely low net etiquette. Dimwit has truly earned the title. If you read Dimwit’s little schread, you’ll see that Dimwit also feels the fourth amendment is for pussies. What a fool.

But originally I thought of Dimwit as a dimwit because the dimwit doesn’t realize that the break between analog and digital materials is a real, live paradigm shift. The difference between a photo and a JPEG is much greater than the difference between a photo and an oil painting. This is the fact at the crux of the Kuspit graf I posted. If one fails to understand this simple truth of contemporary image-making then one is truly a dimwit.

And since Dimwit has proven to be annoying, stupid, ignorant, insulting and simple-minded I’ve decided to close comments on this post. You see Dimwit, this is my web site; I do what I want. permanent link to this post

Digital Negative (DNG)

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The public, archival format for digital camera raw data Raw file formats are becoming extremely popular in digital photography workflows because they offer creative professionals greater creative control. However, cameras can use many different raw formats — the specifications for which are not publicly available — which means that not every raw file can be read by a variety of software applications. As a result, the use of these proprietary raw files as a long-term archival solution carries risk, and sharing these files across complex workflows is even more challenging.

The solution to this growing problem? The Digital Negative (DNG), a new, publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. By addressing the lack of an open standard for the raw files created by individual camera models, DNG helps ensure that photographers will be able to access their files in the future.

[ via: Adobe: Digital Negative (DNG) ]

I’ve grown a bit suspicious of Adobe of late, but this seems to be a good thing. I wonder when/if/how the camera manufacturers are going to support this? Obviously the workflow benefits are killed if you need to transcode all your photos to the new format, it will only be really beneficial once most cameras support it as the RAW format. permanent link to this post

Howard Dean or Not Howard Dean

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

According to the article Dean: Ninja Power? in Salon today (free day pass required) Howard Dean may or may not have had a bit role in a cheesy 1984 low-budget Ninja flick called “Ninja III: The Domination.”

I’ll let you judge for yourself: Link to quicktime file (1.2 MB, 00’21)

My thoughts? It sounds exactly like him, and I mean EXACTLY. The small quicktime linked above makes it hard to see if it LOOKS like him however. It is listed as a credit when you search ‘Howard Dean’ on the IMDB but our beloved M.D. has denied it according to the Salon article.

I would be very interested in hearing anyone else’s thoughts, please comment. permanent link to this post

Dead Reagans

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Ronald Reagan is dead. Good. We have one entry on this web site that has anything to do with Reagan. Here it is. permanent link to this post

DC 9/11 - EDR screening TOMORROW

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’ll be screening DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix tomorrow night.

WHERE:
Fischerspooner Excellent Workshop Salon
110 N. 1st St. (btw Berry and Wythe)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

WHEN:
Wednesday October 13, 2004
7:45PM SHARP

This screening includes a new re-mastered soundtrack with added material.

Screening of the 3rd and final presidential debate to follow!

George W. Bush is a MORON! permanent link to this post

DC 9/11 EDR new web version

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’ve posted a new QuickTime version of DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix (follow the link).

Direct link to video (1 hour 10 minutes, 224 MB, .MOV).

This new version has much better audio. Tinydiva added lots of new stuff and re-mastered the entire track using higher-quality original audio so the speech is much crisper and clearer.

We were hoping this video would have become a curiosity from those dark days of the W administration before Americans had come to their senses. Unfortunately it hasn’t. permanent link to this post

DC - 9/11 The Evildoers’ Remix TONIGHT

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix today!

The screening is at Postmasters gallery, 459 W19th St., NYC @ 8PM
More info here.

The download will be available later today at this URL:
www.mteww.com/dc911

update:
The quicktime is available. Download from this link (222MB!).

update 2:
The RealPlayer version is available, go here for details and link. This version might be best for some folks as you can seek through the video without downloading the entire thing. permanent link to this post

DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’ve been working our little fingers to the bones coming up with something that, in our own little way, tries to battle some of the right-wing propaganda that’s taken over our media since 9/11.

We’ve come up with “DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix.” This was originally Peggy’s idea (aka tinydiva) but MRiver and I are so used to taking credit for each others’ ideas that we just naturally fooled ourselves into thinking we came up with it ourselves (to be fair, she was inspired by our Pirated Movie). What is “DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix” you ask? Read the press release below.

++++++
Media Release
For Immediate Release: August 24, 2004
Contact: MTAA, T.Whid
twhid@mteww.com
http://www.mteww.com/dc911/

DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix video to be released August 30th, 2004

New York, NY - DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix, a guerilla edit of the pro-Bush propaganda film DC 9/11 - A Time of Crisis, will be released to the internet public on Monday, August 30th, 2004 to coincide with the opening of The Republican National Convention. The video is a collaboration between new media art duo MTAA, video artist bodyatomic and musician/DJ tinydiva.

Using careful editing, on-screen commentary, new special effects, added footage, and an original musical score DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix exposes the not-so-subtle right-wing spin of its source material in hilarious and disturbing ways.

Available August 30th, 2004. Download here: http://www.mteww.com/dc911/

Free screening
when:
Monday, August 30th, 8PM sharp!

where:
Postmasters
459 West 19th St. (at 10th Ave.)
New York, NY 10011

The video will be screened with live audio accompaniment by tinydiva to coincide with its release. The screening is part of RNC NODE organized by Postmasters gallery.

Release notes
Title:
DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix

Duration:
70 minutes

Medium:
digital video

Parental advisory:
contains explicit sexual material (those scenes between Condi and George can get pretty hot).

Credits
Remixed by:
MTAA, bodyatomic and tinydiva

Audio by:
tinydiva

++++++ permanent link to this post

Darkrooms going the way of egg tempera?

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Before oil painting was invented the state-of-the-art of painting was egg tempera. Egg tempera uses egg yolk as a binder and vehicle for the pigment and is a very unforgiving medium to paint with. You don’t find many artists working with this medium because you can get (more or less) the same effect using oil paint which is cheaper, easier and faster. Once oil painting was invented most painters started using the superior medium (it was a gradual process of course, things moved very slowly in 15th century europe).

Strange thing is, you can still find people using egg tempera (there is even a Society of Tempera Painters) though it’s an archaic, technically-dead medium with a superior subsitute.

With the help of digital photography darkroom photo printing seems to be heading the way of egg tempera (according to the NYTimes.com).

[…] Mr. Megargee hopes that the darkroom will endure. “Platinum printing is still around, despite the convenience of silver printing,” he said. “What we do in the lab here, in 15 years, may be a very specialized area, like platinum printing. But it will still be viable. I don’t see the craft not being here.”

Is darkroom printing fast becoming a dead technique practiced by a few die-hard revivalists? permanent link to this post

danceMOBs for the RNC

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

BarlowFriendz: Dancing in the Streets: Revolution with a Smile

The preparations are underway. Here are some items that need to be taken care of, for these dancemobs to bring some melodic disturbance to the streets of New York:

From: John Perry Barlow
Date: Tue Aug 24, 2004 01:22:31 America/New_York
To: John Perry Barlow
Subject: Guerrilla Dancers, Start Your Happy Feet!

Greetings, Dancers!

You were probably wondering if plans to dance with the pedestrian Republicans during the RNC are still on. They are, and I hope you will be part of them.

[snip] There are a number of items I could use some help with. They are as follow:

1. MEETING SPACE. We will need a fairly large place to convene on the 29th. I’m still looking for a dance studio, or similar space, that is relatively convenient to Manhattan. If you have one, or are aware of one, please contact me.

2. SOUND DISTRIBUTION. I’ve still not solved the problem of how to distribute the music we will be dancing to. I would prefer that it not be audible much beyond the operational radius of each dance platoon. Someone watching from across the street should be completely mystified about what these people are dancing to. For this reason, using a single boom-box is not ideal. Besides, we don’t want to give the authorities any reason to consider us subject to arrest. A boom-box turned up loud enough to be heard over a hundred foot radius might be a boom box loud enough to attract official attention.

On the other hand, I have tested my original design - an iPod with an FM transmitter broadcasting to four or five transistor radios - and have found the popular transmitters of insufficient range. If anyone knows of a small transmitter capable of broadcasting a hundred feet, please let me know.

There remains some possibility of getting one of the smaller New York radio stations to broadcast Music to Vex Republicans By, but I haven’t found the right contact yet to make this happen.

Ideas are certainly very welcome.

3. MUSICAL SELECTION. I’m looking for music that readily inspires hard, crazy dancing, and is, at the same time, politically provocative. I can think of a lot of Rolling Stones songs that fit this bill - “Street Fighting Man” being a case in point - but they are too generationally specific. I don’t want this to be a Baby Boomer fiesta. I’d prefer to see a broad variety of ages and types in each group. (We just can’t look too much like scruffy young demonstrators, lest we be sent off to a “Free Speech Zone.” Besides, someone matching that description might be an infiltrator, sent by the government to mess with our groove.) If you have music you’d like to use, please e-mail me an MP3 file of it or bring it to the organizational meeting.

4. TARGET LOCATION. We will want to choose eruption zones carefully for maximum Republican contact, pedestrian density, unpredictability, and lack of duplication. If there are 5 groups erupting 5 or 6 times a day for 3 days, that would require at least 75 different locations. Of course, we will be opportunistic, but we need to map the zones of opportunity. One of our colleagues has obtained a map of all the areas that will restricted to convention delegates and attendees. We’ll want to strike often on the perimeter of that area. Your suggestions of good locations to cut loose will be welcome.

5. MORE DANCERS. As I say, I don’t expect all of you to turn up. Many of those who do will not be able to dance all three days of the convention. For this reason, I’d like to have an available pool of about 100 dancers. So, when you come to the organizational gathering, please feel free to bring willing friends. Feel further free to send this and following bulletins out to others who might be interested.

6. PLATOON LEADERS. As I say, I will need a number of folks to help work out various details between now and the 29th. Also, since I expect this enterprise to be largely self-organizing, I would like to find some folks who would lead and coordinate the various dance pods. Please contact me if you’re interested.

More soon,

Barlow

permanent link to this post

Curry’s Podshow gets Sirius

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Adam Curry, father of podcasting, goes back to radio with…. podcasts. According to the NYTimes, Curry will be “host of a radio program devoted solely to podcasts,” and help choose the material. This is all happening on Sirius Satellite Radio. Along with Gore’s Current tv, this is another example of DIY media going bigtime.

My favorite graf from the NYTime’s article:

Podcasting has grown out of the boom in MP3 players, which can store hundreds of hours of music in devices the size of a transistor radio.

How big is a transistor radio? What *is* a transistor radio? Hahahahahahahahahaha! The NYT is so far behind. permanent link to this post

Criminal negligence

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

“We have been abandoned by our own country.”

“Bureaucracy has committed murder.”

Watch this video. (4.28MB, .mov mpeg4)

This was from Meet The Press (one of the national Sunday morning news shows here in the USA) this morning.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard tells Tim Russert his colleague’s mother drowned in a nursing home on Friday. FRIDAY!

If this video doesn’t bring you to tears… permanent link to this post

CoryBlog

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Lord have mercy!

Cory Arcangel has a blog. Here be the feed.

(Sorry to bump your post down M.River.) permanent link to this post

Creative Capital: made the first cut

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Got an email today that MTAA’s Creative Capital application to apply (or Letter of Inquiry as Creative Capital calls it) has been approved! We submitted an application that describes a project which is a collaboration between MTAA and RSG.

June 8, 2005 Dear Artist:

Congratulations! We have reviewed your Inquiry, and it is with great pleasure that we invite you to submit an application to Creative Capital.

This is the second step in our selection process. In the first step, more than 2,200 artists submitted Inquiry Forms in the three disciplines under review: Performing Arts, Emerging Fields, and Innovative Literature. Each of these was read by the appropriate staff program director and a distinguished arts professional from the designated discipline. Of those, 598 artists are being invited to apply.

Oh. Now that I read it, it looks like I got it yesterday. Good thing I found it as it was filtered to my junk folder. permanent link to this post

Cory interviews Tom

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

From Rhizome

The following is an interview of Tom Moody, conducted by Cory Arcangel, over several emails. Below are their bio’s, followed by the interview, which touches upon blogging, fandom, defunct hardware & software, music, code, studio processes, and their shared appreciation for the lo-fi…

Tom Moody is a visual artist based in New York. His low-tech art made with MSPaintbrush, photocopiers, and consumer printers has appeared in solo shows at Derek Eller Gallery and UP&CO and numerous group shows. His weblog at www.digitalmediatree.com/tommoody, begun in February 2001, was recently recommended in the Art in America article “Art in the Blogosphere,” and his web video “Guitar Solo” made its live audience debut this month in “23 Reasons to Spare New York,” curated by Nick Hallett at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, NY.

Cory Arcangel is a computer artist, performer, and curator who lives and works in Brooklyn. His work centers on his love of personal computers, the internet, and popular culture. He is a member of the artist groups BEIGE + R.S.G. His work has shown recently in the Whitney Biennial of American Art, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Migros Museum in Zurich, and Team and Deitch Galleries, in New York. Aside from gallery installations, most of his projects can be downloaded with source code from his website… http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/ Future projects include the music group Van Led, a self produced version of MTV cribz, and various assorted computer hacks.

Click through for the entire read. permanent link to this post

Contagious Media Showdown!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Eyebeam has launched The Contagious Media Showdown. From the website:

Announcing the world’s first Contagious Media Showdown. Do you have what it takes to corral enough traffic to win the cash prizes? Can you make the next Dancing Baby, All Your Base, or Star Wars Kid and ride into the sunset with the bounty? This is your chance to prove you are the best in the West.

It was created by the Contagious Media Group at Eyebeam who are Jonah Peretti (Mr. Contagious Media himself), Cory Arcangel, Ze Frank, Ann Poochareon, Paul Berry and Mike Frumin.

Sounds like lots of fun. I think M.River has some plans but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get anything done for it.

My one fear about taking part is that if a heavyweight like Kottke (perhaps he’s ineligible?) takes part, one link from his site could generate more traffic than the rest of the projects combined. And though the contest is open to all (so that seems perfectly fair for a big blogger to take part), it would be nice to find some weird little meme that really sparks general net interest. That seems like what the organizers are looking for too.

Either way, it’s another great idea from Eyebeam and I’m looking forward to watching the competition. permanent link to this post

Conceptual art wins again!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

You are not going to believe this. Read this post first (Murphy’s law in full effect) if you haven’t already read it.

Now. What are our chances? Zilch you’re thinking? Well, all I can say is that when technology fails, ideas are what matter. We were accepted to the program.

Conceptual art wins again! If we were painters, and had shown only 1 slide of our work, there is no way we would have been accepted! But since M.River held his own and simply described some of our ideas, we won the jury over.

Thanks M.River, for staying cool while I sulked. Thank you conceptualism, for making clear that ideas can be as important as aesthetics in art.

(Of course, they could have just felt sorry for us. Or, perhaps our dismal display of incompetence may have made it abundantly clear to them that we were in sore need of some professional development.) permanent link to this post

Winners of Turbulence’s Comp_04 Announced

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

(the following was edited from a press release from Turbulence)

+ More info here +

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. is pleased to announce the winners of Comp_04:

Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett
Andy Deck with featured poster graphics from contributors Sonja Smith, Jørn Jøntvedt, Bina Altera, Verónica Perales, Fred Adam, jimpunk, Paul Garrin, Laurent Fetis, Fran Duncan, and John Schettino.
Nick Montfort, Dan Shiovitz, and Emily Short
Martine Neddam, with BlueScreen and students from Shanghai University, China.
Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga, with collaborators in the US and Nicaragua (to be announced)

Each team will receive $5,000. The commissioned works will be launched in spring 2005. Eighty-seven collaborative applications involving several hundred individuals were received, many of which were highly competitive.

COMP_04 JURORS: Luci Eyers, low-fi; Marc Garrett, Furtherfield; Eduardo Navas, Net Art Review; Norie Neumark, out-of-sync; and Helen Thorington, Turbulence.

+ More info here + permanent link to this post

Comments shut off

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve shut off the commenting feature. No more comments here for a while because of the spam. As a reader, you mostly didn’t see it, but I needed to keep an eye on it so I would be getting dozens of spam comment email notifications every day and I finally just got sick of it.

Hopefully we’ll find a solution in a few weeks. permanent link to this post

Collecting and living with video art

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Interesting story in the sunday NYTimes about collectors living with video art.

Yet, as the first generation of video collectors is discovering, video remains a confounding, ornery medium - especially when it’s placed between the silver-framed vacation snapshots and the door that leads to the laundry room. Most artworks sit, mute and distinguished, on a mantel or behind a couch. Video pieces demand attention, and they never blend into the background the way even the most monumental Rothko or vibrantly colored Stella can.

[…]

THE first odd thing about collecting video art is this: the medium came into being partly because artists wanted to make work that couldn’t be collected. It was born in 1965 when Sony introduced the first portable video camera, attracting artists like Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, Joan Jonas and Vito Acconci. “The dream we had was art that couldn’t be sold, but broadcast on television,” the video artist Bill Viola said in a recent phone interview.

By the 1980’s, however, dealers and artists were turning video into a commodity. Now prices range from a few thousand dollars to six figures.

If collectors are figuring out how to collect and live with video art, it seems a simple matter to expand that habit to encompass digital, software and/or networked art. Some software art is already easily collected since it can run locally from a computer (John F. Simon Jr. is mistakenly referred to as a video artist in the article). To the collector there is no difference: they need a deck to play the video; they need a computer to output video. In both cases there is one appliance to output the media to a display.

[…] technicians are familiar presences for anyone who owns video art. Each time a new piece is installed chez Kramlich, electricians are brought in to snake audio, video and power lines to the location and punch new sockets into the walls.

With networked art there is an additional requirement to consider: the internet connection. But if committed collectors are willing to go through the hassle of hiring techs to install new video pieces, it’s a small step to adding an ethernet cable or wireless network to support the art work. permanent link to this post

Charlie Finch comes around

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

And says what we net artists have been saying for years:

The Cory Arcangels dithering with videogames are one small window into the potentialities of the next art wave. Artist collectives will be able to stream their creations to potential collectors in the tens of thousands under a myriad of fee structures, inviting critical response and interactive participation in real time. Gone will be collector’s waiting lists, the fetishism of individual objects, auctions at Sotheby’s and, with luck, the Museum of Modern Art and its grotesque roster of trustees.

via: The Museum Comes to Us: Art in 2050

Of course, we’ve been wrong for years, but perhaps by 2050 we’ll be right. permanent link to this post

City/Observer launches on Rhizome

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m proud to say that I designed the exhibition web site and helped three of the artists (Chong, Sigurdardottir and Tanaka) get their stuff online.

Press release below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

CONTACT
Kevin McGarry, Rhizome.org
Phone: 212.219.1288 X220
Email: kevin@rhizome.org

NEW YORK, NY — Rhizome.org is pleased to announce the opening of City/Observer, curated by Yukie Kamiya, Associate Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. City/Observer is the fourth online exhibition of works curated from the Rhizome ArtBase, an archive of over 1500 new media artworks established in 1999.

link to City/Observer

City/Observer presents projects by a group of international artists, AUDC (US), Heman Chong (Singapore), Katrin Sigurdardottir (Iceland), the collaboration of Aisling O’Beirn (Ireland) and Marjetica Potrc (Slovenia), and Koki Tanaka (Japan), who take the cities they live and work in as the subjects of their art practice. Rather than interrogating “the city” as an ideological construct or manifestation, these artists organize their subjective experiences as residents to reveal the distinct, yet connected, characters of their surrounding structures, societies and situations—and articulate some effects of making art in a global world.

Three of the artists — Chong, Sigurdardottir, and Tanaka — included in City/Observer have never before situated their work on the Internet. Their offline practices have been transposed to the Web as an experiment initiated by Kamiya, who remarked that, “it was fascinating to see how the artists approached the Internet as a unique, limitless place, and how these projects grounded in experiences of physical cities interfaced with a foreign, virtual terrain.” Kevin McGarry, Content Coordinator for Rhizome.org commented that, “City/Observer is not only several of the artists’ but also Kamiya’s first time staging an exhibition on the Internet. Through this exhibition she has successfully framed the Web as a site that is informed by unique urbanisms and politics, which at times mirror, overlap and confront those of physical territories.”

+ + +

Rhizome Exhibitions is a program begun in November 2004, which invites international artists, curators, and writers to curate online exhibitions from works in the ArtBase.

http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition

permanent link to this post

Charles Darwin has a posse

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

These stickers are being introduced to increase awareness and appreciation of Charles Darwin. His theory of natural selection provided a simple, non-supernatural explanation for how life on earth had evolved and continues to evolve. Although scientists worldwide view evolution and natural selection as completely uncontroversial, popular support in the United States is waning.

via Charles Darwin has a posse permanent link to this post

You can get ANYTHING on the internet

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Even self-delivering meals of human flesh! YUM!

That’s right, if you are a cannibal, just fire up your computer and put out an advertisement that you’re hungry and you’ll get folks eager to have themselves roasted in your kitchen.

I would be really interested in seeing the video. Is it on the ‘net anywhere? It must be? Right? If you know where to find it please let me know!

On second thought, you might want to find your human dinner by advertising on the local bulletin board at the grocery: The case only came to light when an Austrian student spotted another advertisement placed by Mr Meiwes on the internet and alerted police. permanent link to this post

Caitlin Jones on net art

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Check it out yo!

Concurrent with a wave of technological optimism and new capabilities during the mid-’90s was the steady rise of “net.art.” Artists who used the internet to make and distribute work could easily subvert institutional and market-based constricts, had no historical shadow to answer to, could “show” their work 24/7, and—crucially—work without spending a fortune on materials. The star of internet art may have faded slightly since (mirroring the decline of utopian rhetoric about the internet’s ability to provide a new level playing field), but it certainly hasn’t disappeared, as exhibitions like The New Museum’s Rhizome ArtBase 101 and recent solo shows by artists like Cory Arcangel and Jacob Ciocci have shown. Internet art may actually be more “present” than ever—just not exclusively in virtual space.

permanent link to this post

Bring it

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

ALICE COOPER SCHOOL’S OUT ANIMALS, THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, THE ARETHA FRANKLIN RESPECT BARRY MANILOW COPACABANA (AT THE COPA) BEATLES, THE BACK IN THE U.S.S.R. BEATLES, THE REVOLUTION BEATLES, THE YELLOW SUBMARINE BEATLES, THE LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS BILLY IDOL DANCING WITH MYSELF BLACK SABBATH PARANOID CHRISTMAS FROSTY THE SNOWMAN CREAM WHITE ROOM DAVID BOWIE ZIGGY STARDUST DEEP PURPLE SMOKE ON THE WATER DEVO WHIP IT DONOVAN MELLOW YELLOW ELVIS PRESLEY LOVE ME TENDER FRANK SINATRA NEW YORK, NEW YORK FRANK SINATRA SUMMER WIND FRANZ FERDINAND TAKE ME OUT GO-GO’S, THE WE GOT THE BEAT GUNS N’ ROSES WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE J. GEILS BAND CENTERFOLD JEFFERSON AIRPLANE WHITE RABBIT JIMI HENDRIX ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? JIMI HENDRIX HEY JOE JOHNNY CASH RING OF FIRE LED ZEPPELIN STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN LED ZEPPELIN WHOLE LOTTA LOVE MAMAS & THE PAPAS,The CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ MICHAEL JACKSON BEAT IT PAUL MCCARTNEY JET PRINCE KISS QUEEN ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST QUEEN WE WILL ROCK YOU QUIET RIOT CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE ROBERT PALMER ADDICTED TO LOVE ROLLING STONES, THE SATISFACTION SOFT CELL TAINTED LOVE STANDARD HOKEY POKEY STANDARD THREE BLIND MICE STANDARD ROUTE 66 (GET YOUR KICKS ON) U2 WITH OR WITHOUT YOU WEEZER HASH PIPE WEEZER ISLAND IN THE SUN WHITE STRIPES, THE DEAD LEAVES AND THE DIRTY GROUND WHITE STRIPES, THE FELL IN LOVE WITH A GIRL WHITE STRIPES, THE I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF WHO, THE MY GENERATION ZAGER & EVANS IN THE YEAR 2525 permanent link to this post

Completely Outrageous!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This news should drive you insane for so many different reasons:

Who’s Teaming Up Against P2P? (wired news). The article describes a document being distributed by the California Attorney General which spreads some deeply irrational fear and doubt in regard to P2P, like:

It is widely recognized that P2P file-sharing software currently is used almost exclusively to disseminate pornography, and to illegally trade copyrighted music, movies, software and video games. File-sharing software also is increasingly becoming a means to disseminate computer worms and viruses.

This is SIMPLY ridiculous.

And if that’s not bad enough, it looks like the document was authored by the MPAA:

According to this metadata (automatically generated by the Word application), the document’s author or editor is “stevensonv.” …. Sources tell Wired News that the draft letter’s authorship is attributed to Vans Stevenson, the MPAA’s senior vice president for state legislative affairs.

It simply makes me want to scream. Fortunately, Slashdot readers supply some humorous opinions to lighten me up. permanent link to this post

Buren at The Gug

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Daniel Buren’s installation at the Guggenheim Museum is a spectacular folly, a lumberingly chilly and theatrical construction, mirrored floor to ceiling.

via: Tall French Visitor Takes Up Residence in the Guggenheim (NYTimes)

Some of you may know that Mr. M.River has something to do with the Guggenheim. Perhaps he’ll share some pix of his daring-do in installing this piece? permanent link to this post

Boxer finally writes an intelligent article

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

All praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

[…] Bobby Henderson, a 25-year-old with a physics degree from Oregon State University, had a divine vision. An intelligent god, a Flying Spaghetti Monster, he said, “revealed himself to me in a dream.”

[…]

In perfect deadpan he wrote that although he agreed that science students should “hear multiple viewpoints” of how the universe came to be, he was worried that they would be hearing only one theory of intelligent design. After all, he noted, there are many such theories, including his own fervent belief that “the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.” He demanded equal time in the classroom and threatened a lawsuit.

It’s a good and informative article describing an online viral parody of I.D. baloney.

Visit the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster… permanent link to this post

Devin Clark’s “COCK”

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Watch what video artist Devin Clark’s penis sees as he describes in a documentary-style voiceover the intricacies of attaching a video camera to one’s member.

More video by Devin Clark at his website bodyatomic. permanent link to this post

Blogging panel

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Francis Hwang, Technical Director of Rhizome.org and convener of tomorrow’s Blogging and the Arts panel at the New Museum forwarded the panelists some questions. Here are my answers.

Do you personally see blogging as another way to present art, or simply to talk about it? Is the blog art, or is it information about your art?

I see it as information about MTAA’s art. But I use it as my own soapbox to rant and rave about whatever I feel like ranting and raving about. M.River feels differently (see this post for more).

Does this sort of approach push the artist as a personality or individual forward at the expense of the artwork?

We’ve been our own subject since we started working together (a bit like Gilbert & George in that way). We’re not our exclusive subject, but we’re definitely part of it (see TIME!©, Five Small Videos…, 1YPV, &c). So there is no danger in our personalities being put forward at the expense of the art; our personalities are integral to our work.

Does blogging affect your creative process? Does it affect your sense of schedule and deadlines? Your thinking process? Do you find yourself sharing ideas with a public more quickly than you would otherwise? Does the feedback you get from readers influence your work?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Come to the panel if you would like me to elaborate ;-)

Why doesn’t the mainstream art world care about this?

They’re stupid.

m.river adds:
Funny T.Whid, but no. It’s not that they do not understand. It’s just that Blogs have no value at this point. Note, I’m not using value equals money here. Blogs are either ephemera of an art practice or they function as zines to art criticism. Only rare exceptions (like jimpunk/abe linkon) function as artworks.

It took some time for rock and punk zines to have value to music criticism. Only when an art practice is deemed important does the ephemera gain value. New art forms like "Artblogs" take time to grow.

The question is not exactly accurate. It should read -Why doesn’t the mainstream art world care about this now? When and under what circumstances will Blogs matter to a larger art audience?

t.whid rebutts:
Blogs have no value? You are right and wrong. To the top-down structure which is the dominant art world, yes, they have no value. Blogs networks info from one to many. The art world needs to network info from a few to a few so the value is limited in that sense (relative few galleries, museums, etc to a relative few collectors, curators, etc).

But, the simple fact that the dominant art institutions don’t or can’t find value in the Web (in general) and blogs (in particular) due to their structural deficiencies and no one in a power position seems to want to fix their problems is why, I say, “They’re stupid.”

Are you conscious of who might be your reading/viewing audience when you’re posting work or commentary online? Are we talking about other people in your “scene”, other artists, members of the more general art-interested public, your friends, your mom, etc.? How is that different from when you’ve got work in somewhere else, like a gallery?

I’m conscious, especially when I’m posting my political rants. But if I’m dishing some gossip or something I think twice about what I put on the blog. Plus, M.River gives me inside info now and then about the large art institution he works for and I can’t share some scoops unfortunately. permanent link to this post

Speaking Softly, Carrying a Big Talent

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Ms. Bontecou’s monumental works as seen at the Museum of Modern Art blur the difference between the artist’s inner eye and the outer world. [ from NYT: Arts ]

A review of the Lee Bontecou retrospective now open at MOMA QNS. Don’t miss the slideshow on the NYT. permanent link to this post

Blogging and the Arts 2

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Tomorrow night at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City @ 6:30PM.

Rhizome.org Director of Technology Francis Hwang will lead a panel discussion on Blogging and the Arts. This panel, the second in a series hosted by Rhizome.org, includes painter and web-artist Chris Ashley, painter Joy Garnett, artist and programmer Patrick May, and writer Liza Sabater. The discussion will address issues such as ways that artists are using blogs to distribute their own work, and the influence of blogging culture on political issues of interest to those in the arts.

About Rhizome.org
Founded in 1996, Rhizome.org is an internet-based platform for the global new media arts community. Through programs such as publications, online discussion, art commissions, and archiving, it supports the creation, presentation, discussion, and preservation of contemporary art using new technologies. Since 2003, Rhizome.org has been affiliated with the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

This is the second in a series. I was on the first panel back in November. You can read some of what we were thinking back then. Things haven’t changed much. permanent link to this post

Bloggers: “People of The Year?”

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

For 2004, I cannot think of a single person or persons that had a greater influence on society than the bloggers. Let’s remind them by making our voice heard. If you think about American politics, media, business - no one, no one had a greater influence for better or worse than the bloggers.

via: Eyebeam reBlog; via unmediated; via Micro Persuasion: The Bloggers Should Be TIME’s People of the Year

Why should most bloggers care about what the one of the oldest and crustiest media outlets around thinks about who should be ‘person of the year’? Hell, the whole ‘person of the year’ idea is the most outdated idea of outdated ideas. Is it not? Who cares?

But if anyone should be, it should be the American voters. They did the most important — and vile— act this year by putting GWB back in office. American voters: collectively we are dumb asses. permanent link to this post

Billyburg highrises a-comin’

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

City officials agreed yesterday to let developers turn the decaying north Brooklyn waterfront, with its relics of Brooklyn’s industrial past, into a neighborhood of residential towers with a parklike esplanade along the East River.

The plan, which rivals the ambition and scope of the creation of Battery Park City, would rezone a 175-block area of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, two neighborhoods that have surged in popularity because of their proximity to Manhattan but whose development has been curtailed because much of the area is now restricted to industrial use.

via: City Is Backing Makeover for Decaying Brooklyn Waterfront

Our studio is a half-block away from this so-called ‘decaying Brooklyn waterfront’ and already the rent is too high! With this and the new cruise ship terminal in Redhook, there just ain’t places for beat hipsters to get a fair shake in Brooklyn anymore. I smell the Bronx, yeah… the Bronx. Or, we’ll need to move out to ~~Bushwick~~ I mean EAST Williamsburg. permanent link to this post

Bill Gates backs intelligent design?

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The answer would appear to be no. But the fact that it’s a question at all is worrisome to me.

An article in Salon goes fairly in-depth into the the $10 million that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given to the Discovery Institute over the past five years. Yes, that Discovery Institute, the charlatans who are pushing the “intelligent design” bullshit.

According to the article, a Gates Foundation director says the dough went to a specific project called the “Cascadia Project” which “strictly” deals with transportation in the Northwest USA.

From the article:

“I’ve been getting so many e-mails from people who are frothing at the mouth at this,” says Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, whose tag line is “Defending the Teaching of Evolution in Public Schools.” “There is confusion about, ‘What is Bill Gates doing supporting intelligent design?’” As far as Scott is concerned, the Microsoft chairman is not funding intelligent design.

But, seriously. Gates should demand that the Cascadia project be spun-off from the Discovery Institute if he continues to fund it via his foundation. Think what you will about Gates — evil monopolist, etc, etc — he’s one of the US’s leading technologists. He needs to make a firm and loud stand against the this bogus intelligent design claptrap. permanent link to this post

Bic loc pic

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Did you lose the key to your fancy (and expensive) Kryptonite bike lock?

No problem, just find a Bic pen and have at it:

(1 MB .mov)

My sources tell me that this technique will work with almost any similar lock which uses a cylindrical key.

Hmmm… I’ve been thinking about getting a new bike…

Video courtesy of Ben Running.

It should go without saying that I’m posting this information to warn people about this vulnerability in certain locks and that they should take extra precautions against theft. permanent link to this post

Bellwether Moves From Brooklyn to Chelsea

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Becky Smith, a woman who has made a big impact on the Brooklyn art scene, has decided to relocate her Bellwether Gallery to Chelsea. Her inaugural exhibition in the new space (at 134 Tenth Avenue in New York) Hello Chelsea opens on June 3rd. Featuring 24 artists, including fabulous gallery artists Melissa Brown and Sharon Core, Bellwether is sure to start things off with a bang. [The Art Weblog]

t.whid adds:
And so finishes Bellweather’s move from scrappy start-up to official playa. Ah, I remember the old days.. Bellweather started as a little storefront on Franklin St. in good ole polluted Greenpoint. I think they’re still keeping it real ;-) permanent link to this post

Bendable electronic paper

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

An anonymous reader writes “Fujitsu today announced their joint development of the world’s first film substrate-based bendable color electronic paper with an image memory function. The new electronic paper features vivid color images that are unaffected even when the screen is bent, and features an image memory function that enables continuous display of the same image without the need for electricity. The thin and flexible electronic paper uses very low power to change screen images, thereby making it ideal for displaying information or advertisements in public areas as a type of new electronic media that can be handled as easily as paper. The jointly developed electronic paper will be showcased at Fujitsu Forum 2005, to be held July 14 and 15 at Tokyo International Forum.”

via: Fujitsu Debuts Bendable Electronic Paper

When are we get real paper-like (reflective as opposed to projective) digital displays there will be a total revolution in all aspects of the digital art field (and every other field that deals with digital display).

By real I mean hi-resolution, cheap, low-power (if it’s reflective it would have to be) and easy-to-use. Is this Fujitsu product it? From the images on the linked site it would appear the answer is no. The images appear jagged (no anti-aliasing on digital paper?) and practically colorless. permanent link to this post

Beck does Beige & paper rad

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Beck is channeling Beige and paper rad heavily with his new video and single, GHETTOCHIP MALFUNCTION (Hell Yes) (iTunes Music Store link).

It’s pretty catchy :) permanent link to this post

Beastie Beuys

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

M.River delivered to me last night a video of Joseph Beuys performing as the lead singer of an extremely cheesy german pop band of the early 80s. M.River said to me, “Share this with the world.” And so here it is:

Joseph Beuys Singing (quicktime 4MB)

This video embodies everything MTAA values in art. It is our x-mas gift to you.

update: Thanks to HG over on The Thing we know more about our strange and beautiful video, HG wrote: Sonne statt Reagan - sun instead of Reagan… is a play [on] the fairly similar German word Regen (rain).

The people you see in the video are some state representatives of the Green party and the band Bap, a fairly successful musical abomination from Cologne. HG also provided a link to the lyrics in the original german and to google’s english translation. Thanks HG! permanent link to this post

BBC to Open Content Floodgates

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The BBC plans to open its vast archive of TV and radio programming to the Net this fall. Observers are excited about the liberal licensing terms: Users could download and remix all they want, turning the notion of copyright on its head.

Wired News has the full story

This is great. Along with the Prelinger Archive there is starting to be lots of high-quality video available on the ‘net. permanent link to this post

Subway Officials Seek Ban on Picture-Taking

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, it’s not so bad, David Crawford needed to move on to the next stage of his career anyway.

Citing the security of 7 million daily riders, 48,000 employees and its transportation network, New York City Transit yesterday proposed a ban on unauthorized photography, filming and videotaping on city subways, buses and Staten Island Railway trains. The press and businesses or individuals with permits would be exempt.

Of course, if they simply ban all people from the subway, then they will be perfectly safe; perhaps we should just go to that idea and skip all these middling half-steps and swats at flies.

PS. Just kidding Mr. Crawford, you know I’m a big fan. permanent link to this post

Bad or Brilliant?

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

By way of IM from Ben Running:

The 10 worst Album Covers

Check it while you can, it looks to be in a ‘temp’ directory.

My fave is Julie’s Sixteenth Birthday :-) permanent link to this post

Intolerance at home

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It’s nice to know that our home state is so f__kin’ intolerant:

Ohio bans gay marriage

Makes me proud to be from Ohio.

I would swear that when I was a kid Ohio was much more liberal. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking or because my family was staunchly Democrat I didn’t see the right-leaning nature of the place… permanent link to this post

Back from Maine

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It was a great trip!

Many thanks to the New Media Program at UMaine for inviting us. Special thanks to Jon and Joline for showing us the coast.

M.River’s got some pics. permanent link to this post

Bad Apple

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Goddamn you Apple Computer, stop being such a dick!

Initial coverage of the story:
Apple attacked over sources row

Apple goes to court to smoke out product leaker

New developments:
Apple 1, bloggers 0

More on Apple vs. Think Secret

Apple wins initial ruling in ‘Asteriod’ case, can pursue publishers’ confidential sources permanent link to this post

Back from OH

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

…didn’t post anything the last couple of days as I was Ohio doing some get-out-the-vote work with Downtown for Democracy.

Fourteen of us took a van from Bklyn to OH last Thursday, driving all night to get to Toledo by 6AM Friday. Then it was a weekend of canvassing in Toledo, Dayton and Columbus; trying to get young, progressive voters to sign-up with the organization and letting them know how, where, when, and why to vote.

Not sure if my work did any good, but I have a great feeling about the entire trip and met some really fine people too. One of those fine people was John Berger (?) who posts on MrLeft.org a new political blog, it’s good. (send me an email dude, it’s over there on the left.)

Shout out to Jenny and Joshua (if you ever find your way to my little blog here). permanent link to this post

Audio interview with artist Steve Mumford

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Steve Mumford was interviewed on WNYC’s The Next Big Thing today.

You can listen to the Real stream here (direct link to RA stream).

I grabbed it from the live stream. You can download an MP3 (4MB, 9’56”). The beginning and end got cropped a tad.

Steve’s new Baghdad Journal (9/15) is available on artnet.com.

I’ve posted many times about Steve’s trips and work. Read more here, here, here and here. Or do a search for Mumford in the search box on mteww.com/mtaaRR. permanent link to this post

Avast Ye!

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Avast Ye, MTAA go on Account:

MTAA will be in a summer group show at Postmasters, June 19 – July 24 (Reception on Saturday June 19 from 6 to 8pm). We will be presenting a DVD of the Pirated Movie performance filmed last August at the gallery. Postmasters is at 459 West 19th street, NYC

To Go on Account - a pleasant term used by pyrates to describe the act of turning pyrate. The basic idea was that a pyrate was more “free lance” and thus was, more or less, going into business for himself.

“Avast Ye!” - a hailing phrase to indicate that the hailed must “stop” and give attention. permanent link to this post

Aspect - the Chronicle of New Media Volume VI

posted at 16:38 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTAA are included in the 6th volume of this interesting DVD-Video mag on new media. PR blurb follows.

Synopsis:
Without a fixed physical or temporal locus, Aspect Magazine maximizes the fluidity of its ephemeral site in Volume 6: On Location. Extending from the momentary to the monumental, terrestrial to celestial, micro to macro, and personal to cultural, this issue explores the vast concept of location. Where beyond the genre of new media art could so many different interpretations of location exist?

Included in this issue:

KENSETH ARMSTEAD: in_authentic_b (an invisible cities excerpt) with audio commentary by Andrew Perchuk

C5: The C5 Landscape Initiative with audio commentary by Christiane Paul

RICHARD CLAR: COLLISION II with audio commentary by Jean-Luc Soret

SHELLEY ESHKAR AND PAUL KAISER: Pedestrian with audio commentary by George Fifield

PETE GOMES: Stedelijk Drawing with audio commentary by Jelle Bouwhuis

MTAA (M.RIVER & T.WHID ART ASSOCIATES): 1 Year Performance Video (aka samHsiehUpdate) with audio commentary by Marisa Olson [emph added]

DOUGLAS WEATHERSBY: GSG Office Project with audio commentary by James Hull.

Catalog No. MC-490
2005, 110 minutes
DVD, Region: 0 (All Regions)
TV System: NTSC
ISBN: 0-9749657-3-1
UPC: 837101115414
SRP: $25.00 (includes PPR)
Street Date: December 6, 2005
Prebook Date: November 14, 2005

To order/more details:
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=490
orders[at]microcinema.com
or fax: 509-351-1530 phone: 415-864-0660
or send PO to:
Microcinema International
1706 Church Street, #1222
San Francisco, CA 94131, USA

permanent link to this post

Artstar.tv

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Not sure if this is for-real…

ARTSTAR is looking for artists working in all genres to create new works for a group exhibition.

Gallery HD and Deitch Projects announces ARTSTAR, a groundbreaking new television documentary. ARTSTAR is the first-ever unscripted television series set in the New York art world. Selected from this open call, eight artists will have the opportunity to participate in a group exhibition at Deitch Projects, and may have a chance to land their own solo exhibition with Deitch Projects. ARTSTAR will document these eight artists as they interact with leading critics, collectors, curators and artists in New York, while making new artworks as part of a historic collaborative exhibition at Deitch Projects.

Artists of all ages and experience are encouraged to participate in this open call. You’ll be recorded and talk on camera about your work with esteemed colleagues of the gallery, including critics and artists. The selection will be reflective of the excellence and scope inherent in Deitch Project’s program since 1996.

If you are an artist, and plan to be in New York for the entire eight days of February 27 through March 7, come to the ARTSTAR open call. The ARTSTAR OPEN CALL begins at 10AM on February 28, 2005, and continues at 10AM on March 1, 2005. Please bring with you FIVE samples of your work (original works, 35mm slides, DVD, CD-ROM or VHS video documentation) to Deitch Projects, 18 Wooster Street in Manhattan, between Grand and Canal Streets.

The end of the world as we know it? Or pure brilliance?

More at the web site: http://www.artstar.tv/ permanent link to this post

Artist Anti-Defamation League

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Found this interesting new web site. It’s called the Artist Anti-Defamation League.

Not sure if it’s a spoof or what…

Looks to be run by two guys named bob and Franklin; sound like pseudonyms to me. permanent link to this post

ARTIFICIUM

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This showed up on Rhizome_RAW today:

Today 24th of September 2004, 20.923 images representing all of the objects the conceptual artist Alberto Frigo has used the last in 365 days, has been updated at the following URL: http://www.id.gu.se/~alberto/

The on-line system links the images from their daily sequences to one of the 185 object-type sequence and vice versa.

The system will keep on expanding as the artist intends to extend the performance.

I’m guessing the name of the project is ARTIFICIUM.. I can’t find the official name on the site.

I’m not sure I understand the classification system totally… but it’s a very cool project nonetheless. permanent link to this post

ArtForum blog

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

ArtForum has started a blog — kinda. It’s more of a long-format diary, but at least ArtForum is beginning to revamp their website. The entries are a little long to be true blog entries, there’s nary a link to be found, and they’re more concerned with scene than art, but hey, maybe with ABMB out of the way they’ll become more truly blog-like. Or maybe, given the academic dryness of the magazine, they’ll become as stiff and unreadable as, well… let’s just see how they do. We’re rooting for them.

via: ArtsJournal: Modern Art Notes

Go leave your dirty comments now! permanent link to this post

ArtCal RSS

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

ArtCal now has some phat RSS feeds.

If you’re interested in the gallery scene in NYC, it makes it super-easy to stay on top of things.

Why didn’t someone do this sooner? permanent link to this post

Art v. Pop

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This bit from an article in the sunday NYT on artist Ilya Kabakov’s (triumphant?) return to his native Russia for a retrospective at the Hermitage Museum got me thinking again about the low place art is afforded in contemporary culture:

It was a conflict between two kinds of culture, and one is more popular, he said. Oleysa Turkina, a young curator from the Russian Museum, took issue. “Kabakov is much more important now than Paul McCartney,” she said hotly. “Maybe in Soviet times, when a McCartney concert seemed impossible, it would have been the other way around.”

But few of her contemporaries, ambivalent about reminders of the Soviet past, would agree. “Does Kabakov Really Exist?” asked a headline in the magazine Afisha. “People in this generation don’t know Kabakov,” the writer declared. “They don’t understand him, and I’m one of them. I don’t love Kabakov, and I don’t know Kabakov.” The 5,000 tickets to Sir Paul’s concert, on the other hand, quickly sold out.

I suppose I was hoping it was only an American problem, but this article would suggest otherwise (though at the end it mentions record attendance for the show). I have a fantasy (built from some ignorance) that in Europe (and other parts of the ‘old world’) art is given a higher status than in America. I’m wrong? Or am I reading to much into this article?

It’s very important that artists not attempt to broaden art’s appeal by making it more like entertainment. This would result in the eventual disappearance of art. permanent link to this post

Art Dirt Redux: Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

GH’s Art Dirt Redux is available now! Brand new podcast of MTAA’s DADC event. Follow the link, to grab the MP3: Art Dirt Redux: Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship

Art Dirt redux goes to Greenpoint Brooklyn for the 2nd annual Drinkin’ & Drawin’ Championship organized by MTAA at Bar Matchless (corner of Driggs & Manhattan Ave.). Put on by M.River and T.Whid This competition has a sort of Fluxus spirit of fun.

permanent link to this post

Art blogs revisited

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Back in June, I (as well as others) was contacted by a student name Marie Omann who was doing research on a paper about ‘art blogs.’

Just in time for the panel tomorrow, she sent me her final paper and she also gave me permission to make it available here. Download below.

Artblogs: Why Such a Timid Emergence? (268KB PDF) permanent link to this post

Art blogs

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Recently I received an email from a very polite Danish student who is doing research on contemporary artists’ weblogs. She asked me a few questions and I thought I’d post them with my replies. See below.

Nice Danish Student:
After having done research on the artblog phenomena for a couple of months now, I’m surprised to find that not many artists use this media. Personally I would find it an ideal space for artistic exhibition, exploration and exchange. Do you have an explanation to this?

T.Whid:
I agree with you (which is obvious as I’m a fairly avid blogger). I’m not sure why more artists don’t maintain blog-like web sites. Those artists who don’t use technology in their work I’ve found to be fairly computer-phobic. You find many more photographers and designers in the ‘blogosphere’ then your average fine artist. There is a huge design blog world, with some of the biggees being k10k.org, zeldman.com, www.mezzoblue.com, stopdesign.com, and whatdoiknow.org.

What made you start blogging?

At first I wanted to separate MTAA’s art site (mteww.com) from documentation of the art (resume, texts etc) so I set-up what we call the MTAA Reference Resource (mteww.com/mtaaRR) which eventually morphed into a blog-like web site. I added the blog so we could easily post updated news to the site. At first I thought it would just be upcoming shows, events and etc. I was sick of maintaining a mailing list so I thought it would be easier.

What keeps you blogging?

Since it’s very easy to update the site I just post things there all the time that I might email to either my collaborator M.River or post to a discussion list like Rhizome. I was very active on the Rhizome list for many years but I like the blog better. Discussions started on the blog are less likely to devolve into flame wars and it’s less aggressive. If people want to read my opinions and thoughts the site is passively waiting for them to visit, my ideas don’t wind up in people’s in-boxes. Plus, after Rhizome switched to a fee-based membership I decided that any extended writings of mine needed to be freely accessible via the Internet.

Do you perceive your blog primarily as a personal or as a professional project?

Hmmm. Good question. I have two professions, designer and artist. The blog is about the art aspect of my career. I treat it very personally: I use slang, curse, swear, and don’t check my spelling. But it has all of MTAA’s professional artist info as well (resume, documentation, etc) so it is a professional site. I guess I assume that folks will cut me some slack on the sometimes highly opinionated and bawdy posts that find their way to the blog section.

Does your blog affect your work process as an artist?

Sometimes I’ll post thoughts and ideas regarding current projects and will get feedback via the comments. Sometimes I use it as a way to communicate with M.River without having to use email if I think some folks might find that communication interesting.

Do you know of other artists blogging (besides M. River)?

Not in anyway an exhaustive list: Joy Garnett, Tom Moody, Jonah Peretti set-up reBlog, Jonah Brucker-Cohen. jimpunk keeps one that is art!

Do you know of artists reading your blog?

I’m not sure. We don’t get tons of comments. But folks who read it tend to be personal friends, and MTAA know lots of artists.

Do you feel part of the blogosphere? I mean do you feel part of a community of (art)bloggers?

Yes and no. There isn’t a huge community of art bloggers. And I don’t really feel part of the larger blog community as I don’t include typically ‘bloggy’ things like link lists and trackbacks. The mtaaRR blog is really specialized. And it’s supposed to be about the art collaboration, MTAA, many times I’ll twist a post back to why it relates to MTAA. I think people find this narcissistic. Which it is I suppose.

Have you met any problems being a blogger?

Being so outspoken on the blog could lead to problems professionally. But I’m not aware of any specific issue to date; the fear lurks in the back of my mind sometimes, but I don’t worry about it much.

+++++++++++++++

I CC’d a bunch of other ‘art’ webloggers and they had some really great replies (better than mine). It would be grand if any of them lurking out there would post their replies via the comments function. (You can use HTML tags now :-) ~or~ let me know it’s OK and I can post them for you. permanent link to this post

Arrests on 16th St. on Aug 31st.

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Before I begin, let me explain my stance on the demonstrations during the RNC. First, I hate Bush as much as anybody, if not more. I was busy during the RNC: I marched from Union Square to 8th and 30th on September 2nd, marched in the big march on Sunday the 29th, and screened an anti-Bush propaganda film, DC 9/11 - The Evildoers’ Remix, on the 30th. In short, I’m the opposite of a right-winger and my free speech rights are very sacred to me. The police were waaaaaaaay out-of-line in their arrests. But, from my POV, they warned people that the arrests would go down. It seemed pretty easy to avoid arrests if you kept your wits about you.

I’ve read two accounts by arrestees of (I would call it) a march at around 7:00-7:30PM on August 31st near Union Square on 16th street. I have to say, the arrestees sound very naive. You can read an account by Eddie Codel here and one by my favorite political cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow, here.

They both play dumb, especially Tom Tomorrow, but to me it was obvious that the cops were going to round everyone up and everyone had a good amount of time to disperse.

Of course you can argue whether or not it was legal to round everybody up (I would argue it wasn’t), but to pretend like you didn’t know it was going to go down is simply disingenuous.

This is what happened on the 31st on 16th street:

The march started at Union Square South with a band leading it. It was a pretty spontaneous eruption. Very exciting (photo). The band led the marchers up Union Square East — in the street — until the police blocked them at 16th. The marchers tried to go up on the sidewalk heading uptown but the cops blocked them so they headed down 16th towards Irving Place with the bulk of them in the street and some on the sidewalk (photo). I was following along in the median of Union Square East (photo).

At this point the cops blocked off 16th (photo). Now, at this time, it was obvious to me that anyone on that block would be arrested if they didn’t disperse. IMO, this should have been obvious to anyone. I saw some people slide through the police line and go down 16th and a superior yelled at other cops, “What are you doing? Don’t let any more people down there, let them out if they want out, but don’t let any more go down.” I saw the police letting people leave the block if they wanted. I left a few minutes after this so I don’t know how long it was until the arrests went down.

What’s my point? The police and city’s policy was out-of-line, way out-of-line. They should have allowed for more marches and demonstrations. But I don’t think the cops (on a whole) were out of line. They gave people time to leave. If I was one of them I might have thought that anyone who elected to stayed wanted to be arrested. permanent link to this post

Art & Blogging: Recap

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Last night’s Blogging and the Arts Part 2 at the New Museum was fun. Nice to finally meet some veteran bloggers whom I admire, and good to see old bloggy/art pals. I offered an abbreviated version of the talk I gave in Sept ‘04 at Columbia (and later elsewhere) about that ol’ frivolous copyright dispute hurled at me last year. Since I usually present this story in the context of open source culture, art and appropriation, fair use and copyright, survival skills for artists etc., it felt good to do so in light of the blog phenomenon—without which I would have had nothing much to tell in the first place. I put some nice screen shots together.

More at: Newsgrist permanent link to this post

Are the Religious Right idiots?

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, yes, of course they are. And they’re big ugly bigots too!

Microsoft is being threatened with organised boycotts by the religious Right after twice reversing its policy on homosexual rights legislation in recent weeks.

(via)

Microsoft eventually decided to support the bill in Washington that would outlaw discrimination against homosexuals in the workplace.

What I find interesting about this is how hard it would be to actually boycott Microsoft. At this point in time it’s kinda like saying you’re going to boycott water. IT’S EVERYWHERE!

It’s going to be fun to watch all the religious wackos doing look-ups on netcraft to ensure that no web site they visit is running ISS. Can’t have an OS that supports the radical homosexual agenda feeding you a site featuring your favorite bible hymns. That would be sinful.

Hmmmm, one moment while I do a quick check….

CHECK IT OUT!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Focus on the Family’s web site (no link from here, fuck them), family.org, runs on… you guessed it, Windows Server 2003! So does the American Family Association’s website, afa.net, which also uses ASP. Have fun re-tooling your entire web site when the boycott starts.

Dumbasses.

What computer will the Religious Right use when this boycott starts anyway? Microsoft = pro-radical homosexual agenda, Apple is run by well-known liberal Steve Jobs and has Al Gore on their board, and Linux/OSS software is built by godless anti-capitalist communists. What would Jesus do? permanent link to this post

Appalling, simply appalling

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

With all the news of killer Katrina this may have gotten lost…

Can this be true: Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey?

Can Americans really be this ignorant?

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that “living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.”

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was “guided by a supreme being,” and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

(emphasis added)

42 percent hold ‘strict creationist views’? Am I that out of it? This is astounding to me! 64 percent want to teach creationism alongside evolution? In a SCIENCE class? Did they ask them that?

I’m feeling ill&hellip

update: Maybe this is why? (NYTimes again)

One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.

permanent link to this post

Anish Kapoor is not a dumb ass

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Re: The post before this one.

I read the entire article discussing this situation and it’s not as flagrantly copyright fascistic as I portrayed it. Reading the explanation from the Millenium Park’s director on this scanned page:

A professional photographer has to buy a $325 media permit to shoot any part of one day in any city park […]. “The policy allows students, journalists, and amateur photographers to shoot in the park with no restrictions.”

I’m changing my position. I think it’s wrong to disallow anyone from shooting in the public park. It’s not quite as heinous as I made it sound in my original post, but is still a nasty precedent. Locking down images of what should be a public resource is wrong.

(M.River helped me to look further into this situation and I hope it’s been clarified a bit.) permanent link to this post

Another one for meat week

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Giant Catfish May Be World’s Largest Freshwater Fish

story.giantcatfishap.jpg

update
Reading the AP story, I see that this species of catfish is listed at “critically endangered.” Well, that sucks. permanent link to this post

Ant’s Not Television

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

One of the developers of ANT (a podcaster for video; Mac OS X only — nah-na-na-nah-naaaaah!) is Josh Kinberg of Bikes Against Bush fame.

They really need to change the name because of Apache’s Ant project.

How bout PINT.. Pint Is Not Television :) permanent link to this post

And yes, another 1YPV update

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Some of you may think that 1YPV was done about a year ago (it was released on 9/30/04).

You would be wrong.

Something is supposed to happen when the viewer reaches a year. Conceptually we know what happens: the viewer is transformed into a collector. What does this mean? It means they get to own a piece of the project in the form of 1 Year Performance Video Art Data.

When it was released we figured that we didn’t need to release it with this functionality since no one was going to reach it for at least a year. But now with the top viewers at 307 days and counting I’ve had to get busy and build the functionality.

This is how it will work:

When the viewer reaches a year, they become a collector and are be redirected to the Collectors Page and assigned a password (delivered to them via email). The collector then logs into a special section of the site where they can generate and download their 1YPV Art Data. Thereafter the collector is allowed to return and download the Art Data, but they are allowed to generate it only once.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, there is also a special online art work that only the collectors get to see (at first anyway, eventually we’ll make it public).

tech notes for the hardcore
As you approach the year mark, you want to make sure you’re running it in a browser via the official interface.

If you can’t log in and get your saved time, make sure that there is a ‘www’ before ‘turbulence.org’ in the location bar. Sometimes the site will drop the ‘www’ then another cookie is set. Basically you need to make sure that you either have a) cookies for both ‘www’ and without, or b) when you login, be certain the domains match from the login page to the viewing page. permanent link to this post

America: born Jul 4, 1776; died Jan 20, 2005

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

AMERICA’S GRAVE
A multimedia installation by Randall Packer
In collaboration with John Anderson

Presented by the US Department of Art & Technology
http://www.usdat.us

On view at the American University Museum
Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC
AU Art faculty show: From the Studio

January 18 - March 12
Artists Reception: Saturday, January 21, 5 - 8 pm permanent link to this post

Aljira Emerge OPEN CALL

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

An opportunity for New York and New Jersey area artists.

MTAA are just completing this program. It was very helpful in helping us define our goals and coming up with strategies for attaining them. Aljira has a really nice exhibition space in Newark and Emerge is done in association with Creative Capital.

The Aljira Emerge program involves strategic planning workshops, an exhibition, and other professional development programs.

From Aljira:

We are now accepting applications for the fall 2005 semester of Aljira Emerge, a career management and exhibition program for emerging artists.

Click here to learn more and download a PDF application.

All applications for the fall semester, which begins September 24, 2005, must be in Aljira’s office by FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2005. This is not a postmark deadline!

Net/New Media artists should apply! permanent link to this post

Airport posts

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I just noticed that my last two posts both had to do with airports.

What would have been really interesting is if all the wildly drunk art party-goers had been packin’ some heat. The Port Authority would have been cleaning more than barf off the floor… permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Survey of participatory art events in Williamsburg

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Actually. This is more like a curatorial idea of the day (CIOTD).

Williamsburg, Brooklyn has seen many creative events over the years. It would be nice to see a survey of some of the best participatory events. I’m thinking of recent events like Power Ts and Brooklyn Gravity Racers at Pierogi 2000; MTAA’s own 1st Annual Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship; and also the ole skool Williamsburg art raves like Organism, Cat’s Head, and Fly Trap.

There must have been dozens if not hundreds of these things since the early 90s. It would be great if someone would devote their masters or doctoral thesis to documenting the best. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Infinite Smile

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A 2-channel video self-portrait of MTAA grinning and grinning and grinning.

(M.River, I’ve got some concrete ideas about this that we should talk over in private).

addendum
This AIOTD has nothing to do with this. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Email Hijack

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We had a couple of good ideas last night, this is another.

There is always a problem when exhibiting net art on a computer terminal in a gallery that everyone just uses it to check their email for free.

Well fuck that! Those people should be looking at ART man! Give those bastards an unpleasant surprise with the “Email Hijack.” It’s easy! Just redirect requests for gmail.google.com, hotmail.com and mail.yahoo.com to your own server that spoofs those web sites. When the user logs in they’ll find something other than their web mail! You could also steal their username and password at this point, but you wouldn’t do that. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Choose Your Own Conversation

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The artist collaborative MTAA (M.River & T.Whid) talk about culture, politics, NYC, technology and the meaning of life. But the viewer gets to choose their own conversation. Is T.Whid talking smack? Should M.River give him a verbal beat-down? You decide in this interactive video installation.

Based on the Choose Your Own Adventure book series and early text-based role-playing computer games, MTAA use this early interactive technique as an examination of their collaborative relationship and friendship while also exploring a new form of self-portraiture. permanent link to this post

Art Idea of The Day (AIOTD): Artist Vomit Machine aka AVM

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

A soft drink vending machine selling ‘artist vomit.’ Custom graphics on the machine portray the artist’s mouth as bottle/can dispenser and his ass as the coin/bill slot.

Drop the proper amount in the money slot/ass to receive one can/bottle of artist vomit.

References: Delvoye, Manzoni, Duchamp permanent link to this post

AIOTD: Art By Computers, For Computers

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Two software programs are created. Program A creates ‘art data’ which is transmitted to program B. Program B is programed in such a way that it has aesthetic criteria with which it evaluates Program A’s art data transmissions. The human witness doesn’t view the art data, but Program B responds to the art data in a way that is discernible by the human witness.

Oh! I almost forgot. This is hardcore conceptual digital art. permanent link to this post

Art idea of the day

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Make available an XML feed of all the email you send. ALL OF IT! permanent link to this post

Ah, the old days

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

MTEWW.com ca. April, 2001 permanent link to this post

After the opening: Rhizome ArtBase 101

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Looking around the tiny art blogosphere (James Wagner, Tom Moody) it looks like Paperrad and Matt Barton’s piece, extreme animalz: the movie: part 1, was the hit of the show. Well, it was pretty obvious at the opening that it was the hit of the show. It’s a great piece and funny too.

M.River has some photos up. M.River and me in front of 1YPV, 1YPV, Paperrad and more Paperrad.

++++

It’s usually pretty hard to tell how one’s own piece was received. We had a pretty good spot and a very large display to show our piece and I couldn’t have been happier with how it was installed (thanks again to the crew).

But a gallery isn’t the best place to have this piece shown. It was really conceived for the web and the gallery versions would need a very committed gallery to be shown correctly. What is the correct way to show 1YPV (gallery version)? It needs to be installed for a year and it needs to be accessible to the public 24/7. Does anyone know any galleries that want to give themselves over to MTAA for a year?

++++

The opening was fun; saw lots of people, etc, etc.

Artists generally hate openings that they’re in (many hate them entirely). I had only one person asking annoying questions this time. He kept asking them even though I was trying to pay attention to someone else whom I actually wanted to talk to. The (I’ll call it a) conversation ended something like this:

annoying guy: “So it’s not that complex?”

me: “No, it’s not complex at all.” permanent link to this post

AFC covers Craptops Vs. Laptops @ Monkeytown

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

This Rhizome sponsored gig didn’t get covered much on the ol’ ‘zome. Unclear why…

One of the more exciting places to note is the Williamsburg performance space/restaurant/bar Monkey Town. Assuming you can handle a few hours on the most uncomfortable couches on the planet, this place will be considered a real jewel. Their sound system is impeccable, the food is great, and all this week they are showing cool videos in their performance/screening room.

Kicking off the event last Friday, was the Rhizome curated event Craptop vrs Laptop. The title is slightly misleading in that it was really more of a Craptops vrs One Beat-up Laptop showdown but I think we can all agree that the later is an unnecessarily wordy re-title. I had thought that perhaps 50% of the line up would be comprised of recent MIT graduates, who in addition to hacking Bass, were waiting to see the latest full page spread of their work in MAKE magazine, but alas this was not the case. I guess there aren’t as many video-maker-singing-fish-hackers as I had thought.

via AFC

(And yes, it’s official: when I’m feeling ‘unposty’ I just link to AFC. It makes my life much simpler.) permanent link to this post

AFC on MTAA, Lee Walton and more

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

[mriver also posted about this, just below — so sorry for the dupe but I feel that this is an enhancement of his post rather than just duplicate info]

It’s official. Art Fag City is now MTAA’s officially endorsed and favorite art blog. And it’s not because AFC loves MTAA so much! Well, maybe it is.

AFC’s new post, Gallery Goer Asks The Question: What Is This Shit?, covers MTAA’s “10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli” (images here) and Lee Walton’s “Garbage Day” (m.river snaps here) all recently shown in We are all Together: Media(ted) Performance curated by Marisa Olson. permanent link to this post

AFC beats on On Kawara

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Art Fag City: Power Plant Disappointed: No On Kawara Dated Canvases to Mark the Beginning and End of His Show

The artist has inspired many BFA thesis projects documenting hair growth, and frankly, this is the kind of influence I can do with out. The show is worth going to see, but only because it demonstrates how over rated this “major” artist is.

Ouch.

I’m not in total agreement with the review (I like On Kawara’s work) but it’s nice to see an actual no-holds-barred real-live personal opinion and not a simpering description (which is what most art reviews are these days). permanent link to this post

Absolutely, positively the last post on artstar.tv

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

After reading this post, which discusses the artist behind the project, my feelings about Artstar have tempered a bit.

The artist involved, Christopher Sperandio, is one-half of the art duo called the Kartoon Kings. Until today I was ignorant of their work. But from what I’ve seen of it, it’s very good.

So perhaps there is a chance that something interesting will come of it. I still have heavy reservations however. No matter how ethical the motives of the artist may be, there will be enormous pressure to exploit the well-worn (and successful) reality tv strategy of humiliating the contestants. permanent link to this post

A plague of artists

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while…:

From a prayer distributed in January 2004 by Hasidic Jews at a demonstration in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Between 1990 and 2000 the median monthly rent in the area increased by 67 percent, more than anywhere else in New York City. Williamsburg is reputed to be home to the highest density of artists in the world. Translated from the Hebrew by Steven I. Weiss. Originally from Harper’s Magazine, March 2004.

For the Protection of
Our City of Williamsburg
From the Plague of the Artists

Master of the Universe, have mercy upon us and upon the borders of our village and do not allow the persecution to come inside our home; please remove from upon us the plague of the artists, so that we shall not drown in evil waters, and so that they shall not come to our residence to ruin it.

Please place in the hearts of the homeowners that they should not build, God forbid, for these people, and strengthen their hearts so that they can withstand this difficult test and so that they will not sell for the lure of money.

Please, our Father God of Mercy, have mercy upon our generation that is weak, and remove this difficult test from these people, these immoral antagonists that by their doing will multiply, God forbid, the excruciating tests and the sight of the impurity and immorality that is growing in the world.

And here we live in fear that owing to the encroachment of these individuals upon our community we will not be able to teach our sons and daughters according to the methods of Israel.

Please, our Father of Mercy, for the sake of our fathers and our sages who gave their lives to allow religion to remain upon the lowly American soil, and for the sake of their merit, preserve the residence, do so for your love of those who came from the dust. Please, our Father of Mercy, do not give the aggressor the portion that you have acquired and that you have freed from slavery with your great strength.

And we know also, we know that we have no strength other than our mouths, and if we have brought on a decree from you, please repeal this harsh decree, because we lack strength and may not be able to withstand this difficult test, God forbid.

permanent link to this post

A new famous MTAA quote

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yesterday, during an IM conversation with a friend I came up with this soon-to-be famous MTAA quote:

“I think that people think that we think about our work more than we do.”

To bad it didn’t get into the Rhiz interview…

Update: M.River breaks into T.Whid’s post to say - “We…?!”

update twhid: I guess M. thinks that he thinks more than I. I guess I should just speak for myself ;-) permanent link to this post

A momentous occasion

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Avi Rosen becomes the first person to view the 1 Year Performance Video for one year.

See him in the 1YPV hall of fame.

Thanks and congratulations to Avi!

1YPV was launched on September 30, 2004. Avi finished his year viewing in a little over 13 months. That’s pretty impressive. I’m emailing him to see if he’ll give us more info about himself.

update:
I talked to Avi and he agreed that I could share some information about him.

What is your name?
Avi Rosen

What do you do?
New Media Artist - http://siglab.technion.ac.il/~avi/cv.html

Where do you live?
Nesher, Israel

Why did you watch 1 Year Performance Video for one year?
It’s an interesting project, I’ll write about it in my Phd, thesis on Cyber Art.

+++

We would like to take this opportunity to thank New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for commissioning and hosting the project on Turbulence, The New Media Program at the University of Maine (especially Jon Ippolito and Mike Scott) for hosting the video and Rhizome.org for being supportive. permanent link to this post

A Mac for under $500?

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Thinksecret is reporting that Apple will introduce a sub-$500 Mac at the Macworld SF keynote on January 11.

This could be a dream come true for many, many people — including me. I work mainly on a Mac and am in need of cheap hardware to do some installation pieces and would love to use OS X on cheap hardware to do it. I’ve been planning on building my own PCs and using Linux but I’ve never used Linux and have been worried about the learning curve. These cheap Macs could be just the ticket!

Of course, it’s just a rumor, but Thinksecret has been right before. They correctly predicted the iPod mini. permanent link to this post

[PAM] Wants You!

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

[PAM] The Perpetual Art Machine, 2001-2006, Reflections on the first five years of the millennium. An interactive multimedia spectacle of progressive video, new media and internet art.

[PAM] Wants You! permanent link to this post

A definition of hardcore conceptual digital art

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

related to the this post.

Art that is created for appreciation by digital computers or software running on digital computers.

The art can be created by a human, machine, software program or any other method but is differentiated from traditional digital, conceptual or digital conceptual art by the fact that it’s created to be experienced only by a digital computer or software running on a digital computer. permanent link to this post

8-Bit Porno

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I know, I know, you want to see some *actual* 8-Bit porn. So do I, trust me. But they seem to be a musical group, dubbing themselves:

…a capitalist ninjacore band from the swiss alps.

But the press says,

…a noise band, not noise rock like Boredoms or a noise-pop band like Sonic Youth. 8-bit Porno is pure, unadulterated noise.

Why is this of interest? I just liked the name and they must have played Northsix in Brooklyn because they stuck a sticker to our studio door.

They do sound like a noise band, from their ‘Bury The Evidence’ CD: Duct Tape and Garbage Bags (Dance Mix), Woodchipper Rental, and —oh damn— no MP3 of Chainsaw Sodomy Flapjack. permanent link to this post

‘COBBLE HILL’ TV

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Emailed to me by my gal:

IT may never make it on the air, but hipster Brooklynites have arrived.

CBS is fiddling with the idea of a new TV series to be called “Cobble Hill.”

The show is only at the script stage, but already it’s being described as an hour-long version of “Friends.”

The show is said to be based on a tightly knit group of young urban professionals.

Cobble Hill is the once-rag-tag neighborhood just south of Brooklyn Heights that in recent years has seen a huge influx of young professionals and artists looking for cheaper rents.

The New York Post
Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Bah! There goes the neighborhood. permanent link to this post

666 compressions

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

From Cory’s weblog:

If you have ever wondered what Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” would sound like compressed over and over as an mp3 666 times…here’s your chance…click here to download…and if u r wondering, YES, it does lose quality each time it is compressed. Here is the perl source code to do this yourself!!! You’ll need the “normalize” binary, and also the “lame” decoder….

ps - If u like this project, don’t forget to study up on your old school and check out Alvin Lucier’s “I am Sitting in a Room”.

via: Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” compressed over and over as an mp3 666 times.

permanent link to this post

60 wrd/min art critic does MTAA

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

For the launch event of The Believer’s Dec/Jan issue (vol. 3, no. 10), the magazine asked a few of the contributors to do some presentations. Caitlin Jones, who wrote a great piece called “MY ART WORLD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR ART WORLD” for the issue, interviewed Lori Waxman about her “60 wrd/min art” critiques. As part of the presentation, she asked Ms. Waxman to review two net art projects. One of them was MTAA’s Five Small Videos About Interruption And Disappearing.

Following, the review:

“Five Small Videos About Interruption And Disappearing” nods with a knowing smirk to 70s conceptual and performance art via the filter of a computer keyboard. Using their own digital images as maleable matter, the duo of M.River and T.Whid play brief, witty tricks on themselves — or rather, invite the viewer to do it to them. Thus one can choose to pixellate their faces to a greater or lesser degree, or turn T.Whid’s image on or off, and so on. The decision making is done through point-and-click: the viewer clicks the “lights on” button, and poor M.River, who’s been snoozing happily on screen, is woken up by bright lights. (One can then be kind and put the fellow back to sleep by clicking “lights off”.) Though light hearted, these quick interactive games engage the viewer to make choices that affect another human being — or do they? The sticking pin of 70s performance art was that real bodies were involved, and as the viewer, you were either an active or a passive participant in what really happened to them.
- Lori Waxman

permanent link to this post

1YPV: Yahoo! Pick 11-14-2004

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

1 year performance video was a Yahoo! Pick for November 14, 2004.

What the hell is a Yahoo! Pick you ask?

Choosing Yahoo! Picks is a democratic process. Our team of surfers — the folks responsible for building the Yahoo! Directory — suggest sites for inclusion in Yahoo! Picks. The candidates are whittled down to a select few by our editorial team. What do we look for? Sites that are different, compelling, educational, and, most of all, entertaining. It’s unlikely you’ll find the latest web site for a new laundry detergent featured in Yahoo! Picks — we strive to find things a little off the beaten path.
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/picks/

It’s nice to know we’re off the beaten path, at least by Yahoo! standards. And I like to think we’ve met all criteria: 1YPV is different, compelling, educational, and entertaining. I mean, how often does the web public get to view video of a grown man bare-bottomed on a bucket? permanent link to this post

1YPV update 2/3/05

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Being stricken with green-faced envy of the worst kind over our absence from the “Greater New York” show I’ve decided to blow MTAA’s horn a bit to make myself feel better.

Today, there are four 1YPV viewers who are over a quarter of the way to the 1 year goal: u-1, avi, ofsmith, and bobbyjoefontenot. Visit the front page of 1YPV for the top 5 or subscribe to the top 10 RSS feed to watch the watchers.

Also, we’ve had over 5100 people from around the world log-in to the piece since it was launched on September 30, 2004.

(My arm is going to be cramped from patting myself on the back). permanent link to this post

1ypv update

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

The top 10 viewers RSS feed for 1 year performance video now displays the days, hours, minutes and seconds in the description. permanent link to this post

1ypv top viewer

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

In a few short hours, ofsmith (the top 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE VIDEO (1ypv) viewer) will pass the one month mark. As of now, ofsmith has been watching 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE VIDEO for 29 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes, 41 seconds.

Only 11 more to go ofsmith :-)

Watch the top 10 watchers via the 1ypv RSS feed. Or check out the top five via the 1ypv home page. permanent link to this post

1YPV probs

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

1YPV is down. It seems the video is 404; I have an email into the folks responsible for the server it’s on. It’s a drag, but not so bad. Afterall, it ran for over a year without a major problem.

If you happen to check it and you don’t see this problem, let me know. permanent link to this post

1YPV: gallery version

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m very excited to report that the gallery installation version of 1 Year Performance Video looks like it’s ready to go.

The installation version is different from the web version in a number of significant ways outlined below.

First, it’s a stand-alone application written in pure Cocoa for Mac OS X. The web version is programmed in Flash and PHP.

Second, It was programmed by RSG. MTAA generated the XML playlists for the piece using a modified version of the PHP script that builds the playlists for the web version, (more on this below). But, otherwise, it was RSG all the way.

Third, it uses MPEG4 video instead of Flash video. Due to the constraints of the web we needed to use a low frame rate (15 fps) and a small size. Since the stand-alone version is using video already residing on the local hard drive we can use full NTSC frame rate (30 fps) and the video is much larger and clearer.

Fourth, it works at full screen with both channels of the video presented on the display. This is opposed to the web version which functions only within a web browser.

Fifth (and most importantly IMO), it functions differently in (what I think) is a fundamental way. Currently, the web version pulls a new playlist every time the piece is loaded in a browser. This playlist contains about 8 hours worth of video for each channel (the piece is a two channel video, one channel is mriver the other twhid). When it reaches the end of this playlist, it pulls a new one.

But, the new stand-alone version has one year-long playlist for each video channel (around 30MB of XML summed). When the piece first starts it plays the first video and keeps playing videos until it gets to the end (about 200,000 entries). It then starts over. If the piece is interrupted (crashes, quits, etc), it will pick up where it left off.

Sixth, the amount of days that the piece has been running are presented. This is opposed to the web version where the number of seconds the viewer has been running the piece are presented.

Seventh, no internet connection needed (it’s not net art!).

We hope to present this work sometime later this year, stay tuned for more info. permanent link to this post

1YPV over 8K

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

8046 rows in set (0.07 sec)

We’ve had over 8000 logins to 1 Year Performance Video. I’m really proud of that. We never thought it would be so popular.

Our top viewer is u-1 at 195 days, 14 hours, 47 minutes and 10 seconds (as of 10:54 EDT today). We provide an RSS feed of the top ten viewers at this URL.

Looks like I’m going to have to figure out how to generate the art data automatically.. (and password protect it). Not sure if Turbulence will want to configure their server so my little PHP script can churn out 34MB worth of XML (d’oh!).

As always, thanks to New Radio and Performing Arts for commissioning the piece and thanks to the New Media Program at the University of Maine for hosting the video. permanent link to this post

1 year performance video question and answer

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I recently received this question from a big MTAA supporter:

I’ve been watching your performance video. I must say, it’s a lot like watching grass grow (sorry). What is the little dark object on the back wall? A picture? Just wondering.

The dark object on the wall is a vent. All the video was shot during the summer and the studio was hot. Directly behind this vent is a window-mounted air conditioner. Why is there a window behind the wall? Because the back wall of is fake.

We are a tad more active than grass wouldn’t you say? ;-) permanent link to this post

1YPV bandwidth problems solved!

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We got off to a bit of a rocky start but now, I’m happy to report, our bandwidth problems with 1 year performance video have been solved. Turbulence, the organization that hosts and commissioned the piece is no longer in danger of paying large overage fees.

Super Big Extra-Strength THANKS to Owen Smith, Jon Ipollito, and Mike Scott at the University of Maine for helping to make the continuance of the project a reality.

Also, thank you to other folks who offered help and advice: Alex Galloway, Jack Stenner, Eduardo Navasse, Francis Hwang & Rachel Greene at Rhizome, Darrel O’Pry at The Thing, and Matthew Mascotte. (Hope I didn’t forget anybody.) permanent link to this post

1 year performance video RSS FEED!

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Hot off the blazing fingers of t.whid…

The TOP 10 “1 YEAR PERFORMANCE VIDEO” viewers RSS FEED

It’s RSS 0.91. Also linked from the home page.

Now it’s simple to obsessively follow just who and how long people have been watching the 1 year performance video. Yes! Watching the watchers, how deliciously post-modern! permanent link to this post

1 year peformance video UPDATE

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

We’ve added a new TOP FIVE feature to 1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate).

If you go to the home page of 1ypv you will see in the bottom right a ‘top five viewer’ list. The current stats are:

ofsmith
690471 seconds
avi
538746 seconds
djstupid
157513 seconds
boodha
156222 seconds
ajoan922
72602 seconds

permanent link to this post

1 year performance video - first million

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

At around 5AM DST (-400 UTC), 1 year performance video viewer ofsmith passed the 1 million second mark, the first viewer to do so. By my (perhaps wrong) calculations this means he’s been ‘viewing’ 1ypv for approximately 11 days 14 hours. permanent link to this post

Update from 1 Penn Plaza & around town

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Hanging around on 34th St. between 8th Ave and 7th Ave (for non-New Yorkers: this is just a block above Madison Square Garden) on my smoke break I ran into some interesting folks.

Accosted and chatted with the very nice Atrios (well-known political blogger) at the Starbucks in 1 Penn Plaza:

On my way to lunch I noticed Lewis Black, the comedian, doing a bit for Comedy Central on the corner of 8th and 34th:

Otherwise, if you can overlook the crowds of police (some toting m-16s) concrete barricades, and temporary fences it’s pretty mellow around here.

update:
Left work around 17:30 and decided to see what was up in the city; posted some photos with comment.

I love this dude:

A march developed in Union Square but the cops put the lid on it pretty damn quick.

permanent link to this post

10 Women Artists get $25,000 Grants

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

And one of them is our blog pal Joy Garnett. Congratulations Joy! Part of the press release below:

“Anonymous Was a Woman Awards 10 Women Artists with $25,000 Grants”

Anonymous Was A Woman
New York, NY, USA United States of America

Anonymous Was A Woman has announced the 10 artists selected to receive the Foundation’s ninth annual awards. The “no strings” grant of $25,000 enables women over 35, at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow, recover from traumatic life events, and pursue their work. Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, administrator of the program, explained, “Anonymous Was A Woman Awards have become synonymous with important recognition at a crucial stage in the artists’ careers. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment, and the award itself helps them feel worthy in their chosen pursuit.”

The name of the grant program, Anonymous Was A Woman, refers to a line in Virginia Wolf’s A Room of One’s Own. As the name implies, the nominators and those associated with the program are un-named, and artists are unaware that they are being considered for the award. Winners are often stunned by the news, once even calling back in the middle of the night to confirm that it wasn’t a dream. [emphasis added]

[…]

To date, 91 women have received the award. Each year, an outstanding group of distinguished women – art historians, curators, and writers - nominate artists for the award.

[…]

permanent link to this post

1. avi: 4268159 seconds

posted at 16:37 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

avi has been watching 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE VIDEO for 49 days, 9 hours, 35 minutes, 59 seconds.

via: 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE VIDEO

People have been cheating on 1YPV (I’m not going to call it a hack because the ways to game the system were known and left there from lack of belief that anyone would waste their time doing it and laziness). Not Avi, the top viewer, he and the rest of the top 10 (RSS) seem to be playing by the rules. (I’ve been trying to keep everyone honest.)

At first, it was really easy to cheat. You could input anytime you wished into the database via a certain page. After a few people took advantage of that, I took that page offline.

Then, it was harder to cheat. You still could, but it took more work. Then, someone cheated in the new, harder way. Argh! I decided to fix that hole.

I wrote the fix. Tested the fix (thx Owen). But didn’t implement the fix until this morning.

I noticed someone was rapidly rising through the ranks and sure enough, they were incrementing the DB time much quicker than the folks playing by the rules. So I zeroed their time in the DB and implemented the fix on the server.

Now, hopefully, there is no way to cheat. Perhaps there is, but I haven’t figured it out. Both cheats thus far were known to me, but I didn’t fix them until they were taken advantage of. If you figure out a way to cheat now, please let me know.

One other note: I don’t really care that people cheated. But it wouldn’t be fair to the people playing by the rules to let all the cheaters take over the top 5 list and the top 10 RSS feed. Plus those lists wouldn’t reflect the actual usage of the piece and become worthless and I think they’re a very valuable part of the piece. permanent link to this post

Help a pal out.

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is a note from a MTAA “pal”. Feel free to post your cultural highs and lows here. here.

Hey Kids:
I’m writing a story on the 2004 Year in Entertainment, and I’m looking for some input.

The year opens with Janet Jackson’s boob, so you kinda get the idea of how the rest of the story’s gonna go. If anything else sticks in your mind or made a big impression on you this year, TV, movie, music, celebrity break-up, procreation, accidentally released porn tape, etc., please advise. You know, stuff like Britney getting married, Pixies touring, Ashlee screwing up, blah blah blah permanent link to this post

Yikes!

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

and now the possibility arises for pure conceptual art? permanent link to this post

Damn.

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Even my breakfast has a blog. permanent link to this post

wish I had seen this show…

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“…they also totally rock as musicians. repeated this phrase twice, in one short paragraph - cause its damn straight true.” artloversnewyork on Paper Rad’s performance at EAI

btw - if you ever get the feeling that NY has another art world, one that you would like to know about but you can not find, check around artloversnewyork site. (and they link to the MTAA-RR…thanks!) permanent link to this post

Year 4703 or 2 depending on who is counting

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

An early post because I know that I will forget - Not only is next Wednesday (Feb 9) the beginning of the year of the Rooster, I believe it will also be the two year anniversary of the mtaa-RR. permanent link to this post

snow snow snow…

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Well, it’s winter in New York and I’m bored. Yes, bored. I know it’s boring to complain about being bored but that’s all I got right now. Just to underline all of this, here is my luch-time list of 10 things that can be made of snow as art. If you make any of these snow sculptures, send me a jpeg.

1. an inside out igloo
2. smoke stack with smoke
3. an icebox
4. Netscape 4.7
5. 100 white bunnies, dancing
6. Enron,on fire
7. life size garden gnome
8. one ream of paper
9. New York Times, Sunday edition
10. one quart of vanilla ice cream permanent link to this post

Secret art project

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey. Check it. This is my wireless new media ready made that I sneaked into the latest show at Eyebeam ! Shhhhhhhhh…. permanent link to this post

unreadable at any speed

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

T.Whid and I received a rough draft of an interview we did for an online art/ culture magazine. It’s a good interview and we had fun doing it. We will post all the details when it is live.

The reason I’m posting about receiving the rough draft is this – After reading the rough draft, I realized that I feel sorry for anyone who has to translate what I say from audio tape or proof read what I write. When I write, as you probably know if you read the mtaaRR, I have terrible spelling and grammar. On top of that, I couch sentences inside of sentences. It’s just my style or lack there of. When I speak – as some of you I‘m generally passive in conversation…lots of pointing and grunting - I ramble on like Abe Simpson. This is fine for me and T.Whid seems to get what I’m saying – but I fell bad for anyone else who has to deal with it. What do they call it? Adult ADD? Here is a fine example from the interview.

“These web pages had this quasi-porn look to them -at least that’s what we were shooting for, but as you kinda dig though the piece a little more and you investigate pass the visual part of the piece, you realize that these little web pages, these fake web pages, are basically pages that we built to kinda have the look “about us”.”

Note: Hey look. It’s a narcissistic post with a narcissistic self quote. Sad. permanent link to this post

why we need mac mini

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

This is a shot of sculpture we are working on for 1YPV. It joins all the materials in the performance into a projection tower. I’ll post some more photos as we work on it. permanent link to this post

What to do late Saturday night or early Sunday morning?

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I’m thinking about checking the 24 Hour Incidental at the Swiss Institute.

Fav work from the website? I hope to see Jason Dodge’s Kristin Larson has been to the South Pole

“Jason Dodge will utilize the open structure of the event by inviting Kristin Larson, who has explored the South Pole, to visit anonymously at any time, for any amount of time.”

This show is part of Performa 05. Roberta Smith gives an overview of Performa in the Friday NYT

Performance Art Gets Its Biennial

MTAA will be part of the Performa show at Artist Space in December. More details soon. Very soon. permanent link to this post

What’s up with Frank The Snowman?

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

At midnight on Saturday, T.Whid and I walked into Superior Deli near our studio in Brooklyn with a video camera and a debit card. For the next 18 minutes we wandered the aisles making odd sculptural design decisions like, “Do we need a bag of charcoal?” or “Tall boys?” After hauling the goods back to the studio in the cold night air like a pair of over-sized, black-cloaked elves; we knew what we had to do: drink beer and build a snowman. Somewhere in the night, we named him after our favorite architect, Frank (who, as a hockey lovin’ Canadian, might enjoy the thought that two artists named a sculptural snowman made from newspapers, hot glue and crumpled tinfoil after him).

After finishing Frank, we walked out of the studio to the 3am surprise of winter’s first snowfall. Brooklyn’s empty streets never looked better. So, please stop by Artist Space on Dec 13-17 and say “hi” to Frank. We believe he has the power to grant your winter wishes. permanent link to this post

What’s the deal with your blog?

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Tim, CJ and I, as we walked away from a panel talk on blogs and criticism, chatted a bit about the MTAA-RR. Basically, how do we use it?

Although the subject and tone of our posts change over time, the MTAA-RR mainly functions as an open notebook and studio. Some posts are about work, some about our lives and some about the world around us.

The RR also works as an intersection for conversations Tim and I have. Sometimes what I post comes down to passing information to Tim or responding to something we talked about. It’s a good way to track ideas as they bounce between us. Tim tends to place more personal beliefs and life out here and I tend to stand off. The result is the same. What do we want to record? What do we want to transmit?

The odd question, for me, was when CJ asked how Tintype (my other blog) works. I think I made some vauge answer about it being “photos that I like”. I may have said something lame like - “it’s not really for people to look at”. Which, if thought about, makes no sense. The thing is I’m a bit more selective about posting on Tintype than I am on the MTAA-RR. Photos have to be a certain type of subject shot in a certain way. What my “certains” are, I am not certain but the rate is about 10 or 20 to 1. Even with being systematic in choice, the overall Tintype look translates as random. Here are a bunch of pictures someone likes. Here are some dogs, here are some wings, here is some guy wondering around. permanent link to this post

more on the WF-RSS-S

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

During a conversation about Blogs over on Rhizome Raw list, the possibility that everyone will stop placing new material on the net and just repost what’s already online came up. This was in response to Re-Blog. Twhid thought this was funny. So, he posted my AIOTD (02-14-04) World’s First RSS Sculpture

Geert Dekkers then shared his idea of what the WF-RSS-S might look like. “Drawing no. 780, Thursday July 08, 2004.”

Now, if I can only get this Re-blogged. permanent link to this post

The Overlook

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

one of MTAA’s fav artist and Pirated Movie soundscaper Fritz Welch has a new show. Here is his email invite. Check it.

Please visit the opening reception of Slouching Towards Bethlehem @The Project, 37 w. 57th st. 3rd floor. thursday july 29th 6-8pm. it is a groupshow curated by none other than Jeff Uslip and features works by many people including Hermes Trismegistus, George Carlin and Bob Ross. i will be showing a new sculpture/installation entitled The Overlook (please read statement below).

The Overlook is a walldrawing in glossy silhouette, by memory, of the two family homes designed by the artist’s father. Both buildings employed solar power and other utopian design concepts but failed financially causing bankruptcy and endless court litigation. At the point where basements become imagined tunnels, a precariously hanging sculpture is forced out from the wall. It includes a not-to-scale “model” of the artist’s Brooklyn home (currently under eviction caused by yuppie expansionism) flooded by a winter thaw, evoking “the elevator door releasing torrents of blood” scene in The Shining. This Schwarzkogler-esque accident brings flowing fluid from roof to ceiling to floor and finally to sound out on the head of a drum strategically placed underneath, playing Ringo’s parts of the Plastic Ono Band’s song “We All Shine On”. permanent link to this post

We Are All Together: Media(ted) Performance

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Correction: the “kind-a-like-an” opening will be Wednesday the 14th.

From Tuesday, 12/13 to Saturday 12/19, MTAA will be showing a new work in Artists Space’s “We Are All Together: Media(ted) Performance” curated by Marisa Olson. The show includes work by Sabrina Gschwandtner + Cat Mazza, MTAA, Kate Pocrass, Chris Sollars, and Lee Walton.

A “kind-a-like-an-opening” will happen on Wednesday 12/13 from 7-9ish with a performance by Släang (aka Hector Ducci). Please stop in and say hello.

MTAA will be showing a new video/sculpture/online vote/performance called “10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli”

Artist Space – 138 Green Street, 3rd Floor, NYC (212-226-3970) permanent link to this post

Wait a Minute! What da fuck?

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“If you access it online you can log your time and save your time so you can come back, and eventually if you watch it for one year you get what we call art data for free, which is an XML file describing a year-long video,” says Tim Whidden, the artist who created the piece.”

THE ARTIST who created the piece? T.Whid may be telling the press that he made the work but I will NOT tolerate MY art being misrepresented in this media hi jack. T.Whid’s out of town and off line. Who’s with me in a MTTA coup d’etat?

(Please note: the above T.Whid styled blog-rant-performance-parody was only intended to placate those rabid MTAA-RR T.Whid fans who are bummed that he is away. Don’t worry; he’ll be back next week…maybe.) permanent link to this post

War, a brief recap

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Okay, so America invades a country. Or was it liberates? We invade to stop this country from creating nuclear bombs and dropping them on New York. We invade to punish them for 9/11. Okay, that’s not what we are saying now — but that’s what everyone seemed to be saying at the time. Come on, just admit it. You’ll feel better.

Anyway, so we invade. US soldiers are killed. We kill some people. We lock some people up. We get caught torturing some people we locked up but we just blame some low level grunts for that. In general, we kick the old government out and call the war over. We try not to mention the missing bomb factories and terrorist ties.

Some time goes by. More US soldiers are killed. Contractors and aid workers who were going to rebuild the country are killed. The police and army that we had planned to pass our job to are killed. Local politicians are taken out of their cars and gunned down in the streets. Large sections of the country are deemed “no-go zones.” We spend a jaw-dropping amount of money.

Now, talk about “winning.” As in, “we’re going to win this one.” We talk about the upcoming election that will set up a new government for this country. We begin to talk about disengagement.

So, here is my idea. After the January election, let’s all give a big cheer; call it a win and get the fuck out of Iraq.

What? That’s not going to work? The country will disintegrate into a blood bath? Into something far more hospitable to terrorists than when we got there? Damn, I never saw that coming. permanent link to this post

very easy

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Find M.River’s head at the rock show. permanent link to this post

very good art

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Well…now that Twhid’s a vacation, I guess I have to post something. Here is an oldie but a goodie. The following is an actual MTAA proposal to a gallery for participation in group show. Needless to say, the gallery passed on the idea.

Dear (gallery name)

The following are ten artworks and performances that MTAA would like to produce in your new space as a part of the (gallery show’s name). Although the ten projects are individual artworks, they may also be understood and presented as a set. Presenting the set will be accomplished by photo documentation in the space, text in the space (using project 7) and as a web-page on the internet (see project 10)

1. Portable Blue Sky: Ten blue helium balloons with ten penlights attached to the balloons’ strings. Balloons are released in the gallery space and spend their brief life on the gallery ceiling.

2. Midnight in the Deli: Installation made of 100 USD worth of materials bought at the nearest 24-hour deli with an ATM. Materials then used to make a rough model of the deli in the gallery space.

3. Null and Void: MTAA will be available to destroy or render artistically void artworks by any artist in the show at the artist written request.

4. In preparation for the over running of (gallery name) by hordes of Bloodthirsty Barbarians (AKA Bunker Flood): Originally installed at White Columns in 2001. This work is a barricade around the reception desk of a gallery. If at the time of the exhibition no reception desk is available, MTAA will provide one.

5. One Block, One Hour Tour: A one-hour MTAA guided public tour around the block of (gallery name).

6. The Window Game: MTAA will spend an hour playing tic-tac-toe on the windows of the gallery in the time horned method of breathing on the windows until steam builds up and then drawing on the haze with ones finger tips. We will are willing to take on all challengers.

7. LO-Fi BBS: Work consists of a 14’ long black board (and chalk) hung on a 2x4 structure. Work is set up so people in the gallery can leave public messages. A version of this work was installed by Creative Time for the Meat Market Art Fair in 1999.

8. Very Good Art: For the time of the (gallery show’s name), MTAA will rename the gallery Very Good Art. A banner or flag will be made and hung to announce the renaming. Letterhead will be designed.

9. Galleo 100: For the show, MTAA will install a shelf with a one-gallon bottle of Galleo and 100 plastic cups.

10. mteww.com/verygoodart: A web-page will be placed on the MTAA homepage (http:mteww.com) documenting the 10 works for the (gallery show’s name). permanent link to this post

Update on the AADL

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The Contagious Media Showdown ends this Thursday at midnight and the AADL is holding fast at 24. It would be great to work into the top 20 but it looks rough. Any ideas on how to pick up a few 1,000 viewers in the next day would be good. permanent link to this post

USSR

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Space Art ?

I want this. permanent link to this post

Go, join one right now

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Unlike some, MTAA is all for artist collaborations and collectives forming at speeds limited only by the time it takes to create a website and call some friends. permanent link to this post

Internet Art Survives, But the Boom Is Over

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In a small article in the New York Times this morning entitled “Internet Art Survives, But the Boom Is Over”, Cory Arcangel, Rachel Greene, Jonah Peretti, Mark Tribe and Lawrence Rinder talk about the death of Net Art. Yup, that’s right, it’s now officially officially, officially …over and dead.

Or, as Mark Tribe calls it and MTAA officially agrees, “Undead”.

So, let’s all get together tonight to celebrate Undead Net Art at the Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship, 2004 .

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY T.WHID!!! permanent link to this post

Universal Acid - live vlog art tonight

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Live 12 hrs of vlog art to rock your New Year’s Eve party from MO and Abe. Filmed at MTAA Universal Studios in lovely downtown Brooklyn.

universalacid.net

Check it.

update; it’s 10:30 new year’s day…hung over…looking at this remix. wonderful. permanent link to this post

two shots from sat

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is the shot of the DADC flyer on North 6th street and here is a shot of a painting I sent to the Momenta benefit. permanent link to this post

What I did while T.Whid was in Ohio

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Please see post below for reasons for this post. Anyway, while T. Whid was in Ohio, not much happened. I cooked at 12 pound Turkey. I went to Coney Island on Thanksgiving with Helen for lunch. I practiced the C scale on my bass. I skimmed a few coats of plaster on the MTAA studio. I fished 4 paintings. Side note - It looks like I will make my goal of one 9 x 12 painting per week for 2004. Each painting consist of one uncropped figure. I am planing to paint one 8 x 10 head per week for 2005. I started reading Willimas Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. I bought some new black eye glasses. I was going to go look at the polar bears at the Central Park Zoo with Helen today but it was raining. We went to a movies instead. Well, that’s the highlights. Please note that one of the above details is untrue. Just try to think of this as a slow response to the Blogging and Art panel. permanent link to this post

html smack down?

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

rumor has it… it’s on. Anything to say, reblog? permanent link to this post

Truman Capote sez…

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

It must have been the spring of 1950 or 1951, since I have lost my notebooks detailing those two years. It was a warm day late in February, which is high spring in Sicily, and I was talking to a very old man with a mongolian face who was wearing a black velvet Borsalino and, disregarding the balmy, almond-blossom-scented weather, a thick black cape.

The old man was Andre Gide, and we were seated together on a sea wall overlooking shifting fire-blue depths of ancient water.

The postman passed by. A friend of mine, he handed me several letters, one of them containing a literary article rather unfriendly toward me (had it been friendly, of course no one would of sent it).

After listening to me grouse a bit about the piece, and the unwholesome nature of the critical mind in general, the great French master hunched, lowered his shoulders like a wise old . . . shall we say buzzard?, and said, “Ah, well. Keep in mind an Arab proverb: ‘The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.’” permanent link to this post

Toni Toni Toni?

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

found this over at Rhiz.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Finally, Toni speaks up in order to set the record straight at “toniburlap.com”

In a recent interview in Artforum Magazine, Whitney Biennial curators Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne announced that a third curator had joined their team. This curators name is Toni Burlap. To quote Philippe “When two people curate a show, they give birth to a third person. Her responsibility is to channel our illusion.” Is Toni a fictional character? Are these curators serious or is this just a test to see if anyone actually reads articles in Artforum as opposed to just looking at the pictures. While some have described Toni as symptomatic of an art world in retreat— reduced to an infantile world of playacting where characters must be created to say what is REALLY thought in this current conservative cultural climate, others have described Toni as all TOO real.

In the words of Toni herself, “I am a distant cousin of Toni, who you may know from his role as the occupant of Danny’s stomach in the movie “The Shining.” Fame seems to follow the family as I am the bastard child of two art curatorial super stars. Having lived most of my life in the bellies of my parents, I emerged recently by serving as the curatorial “channeler” for this years Whitney Biennial. However, my channeling abilities are open for all to take advantage of. Visit my blog and I will help you channel your illusion as well.”

permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Sound Sculpture

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

all we need is 100 cute sound toys, some contact mics, a table, and some hot glue. Oh, and a BIG amp. permanent link to this post

Tintype RSS

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Tintype has a new RSS feed (thk Tim).

I’ve been working on Tintype since March. I think of it as one big unfinished work or study for a work. I’m not sure what to do with it yet but I do know that I need to keep adding images for one year. permanent link to this post

Tinjail/tintype

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Long time, no post.

Hey, I’ve been busy making some very dull photos. permanent link to this post

thisisamagazine

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Small new MTAA work in thisisamagazine Issue 12. The new issue’s title is based on one of our work as well:”(I promise that) Hardcore (Conceptual art will make a comeback very, very soon)” permanent link to this post

TIAM

posted at 16:37 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Small new MTAA work in thisisamagazine.

Also in the mag, heavy sample and remix of MTAA’s Simple Net Art Diagram ca. 1997

Enjoy. permanent link to this post

THERE’S A CITY IN MY MIND

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA will be part of a group show at Southfirst gallery in Brooklyn. The conceptual framework for the show calls for all the work to be sent to the gallery, that nothing is for sale, and the work must show up before the closing BBQ on July 31. The work we are doing for the show has a sort of an above-below-travel-work-play-vacation-cabin-fever-in-the-city-sort-of-vibe. Southfirst is below our studio. So, one of the projects we are doing involves sending an image to the gallery via fishing line. It’s like summer ice fishing in the studio. Hot as hell in the studio by the way. The other work is 7 emailed black and white photos (printed at 8.5 x 11) of airplane wings from every plane I’ve been on in the last year. They are to be hung in a single vertical column.

If you find yourselves wondering around Brooklyn before July 31, check it out.

THERE’S A CITY IN MY MIND, a summer group show on view through July 31. The exhibition consists of presenting artists who work with or include photography in their work with a series of parameters: all of the work in the show has to be sent to the gallery, nothing is for sale, and the work should arrive during the six weeks the show is on view.

The result is a series of overlapping works-in-progress which will arrive at completion on July 31. Some pieces are sent by email, others by mail or fax. Nothing resembles a heavily-produced photographic object. Because many of the participants are traveling during the summer their pieces are often individually developed around the theme of travel and distance. Jointly these works examine the parameters of making and exhibiting images.

Participating artists are: Doug Ashford, Michel Auder, Fia Backstrom, Matthew Brannon, Peter Coffin, Sean Dack, Jacob Dyrenforth, Anne Eastman, Michelle Elzay, Jesse Eva, Michelle Grabner, Frank Haines, Joyce Kim, MTAA, Maya Schindler, Noah Sheldon, Jacob Stein, Dan Torop, Michael Vahrenwald, Miss Liz Wendelbo, and Yuh-Shioh Wong. permanent link to this post

The Worst Artwork I’ve Ever Made.

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Tonight is the start of the Contagious Media Showdown. I’ve entered possibly the worst “artwork” I’ve ever made. How do I know? Besides the “someone-just-dropped-a-dead-fish- on-the-floor” vibe I get when I mention the idea, here are some direct quotes. The quotes are from friends, so I know they are just being polite.

“It’s just mean.”

“Why would you want to drop that turd like that on the internet?”

“I don’t even read blogs, but I know that is the last one I would want to look at.”

So, that’s about it. It’s bad. It makes me laugh at how bad it is. I’m hoping to come in last place. Everyone should have dream. Right now, this is mine. permanent link to this post

The people have spoken…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The Vote is in…

out of 135 vote, 23 people (17.04%) picked Midnight In The Deli - An installation is created with $100 worth of materials bought at the nearest 24-hour ATM-enabled deli or convienance store. The materials are purchased at midnight.

permanent link to this post

the secert life of apples

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Meat.org “WARNING: This site contains graphic vegetarian-oriented material.” When I saw this warning via Google, I had a brief image of fighting /oversexed fruits and vegetables but alas, it’s about meat. permanent link to this post

the last shot

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

It looks like we are set to film the last clip for the 1ypv on Sunday. We’ve been thinking about adding a “bizarre plot twist” at the end. Post you suggestion here and if we use it we’ll give you the credit. permanent link to this post

The AADL, now in color

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Note to the world. The AADL has been retooled and is now up live. For those of you (all 76) who looked at the site this morning and thought ” …eh…”, I beg of you to re-click that link and see the new and improved. I know you will enjoy it. Also, while at the site, don’t forget to visit the gift shop. Thank you permanent link to this post

Tengo…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Yo La crowd in the late afternoon summer sunlight.

Fireworks from my fire escape. permanent link to this post

Sunday at work

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Argggrgggrhrggggrghhhhhhhhhh…I need a vacation. AIOTD, me on a beach with a beer. Life size. permanent link to this post

from Bloomberg in the ny times…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“We welcome people to the park, and hopefully the weather will be good,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “There’s a lot of people in the park - there’s roughly a quarter of a million people in the park on a normal Sunday afternoon - and this will just add to that. So it will be crowded but it will be a lot of fun.”

It’s a strange city with a strange mayor. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Last Star in Brooklyn

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Last night, as I walked home, I saw a rare site in the sky. It was a lone bright star (or planet?). So, AIOTD, a small model landscape with a big night sky and one small star. permanent link to this post

SU 02-07-05

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA Studio Update 02-07-05 Here is another “Studio Update”. Fair warning, reading about the nuts and bolts of our studio is akin to reading about the weather.

At long last, the floor has a fresh coat of deck paint (Battleship Gray). Our studio is above South First Gallery. Apparently, some paint dropped down into the gallery last week. I went down to apologize on Sunday. He laughed and showed me the two small drops of paint that had landed on his note book. The drops came from the holes he drilled in the ceiling for a phone line last year. Somehow, I think we could make some art this way.

Last Wednesday we assembled what we thought would be the final 1ypv sculpture. Basically we took all the parts of the “set” and stacked them up with the projector on top. It looked interesting but it was difficult to get an image of the sculpture with a good sized projection in the studio. After trying a few different arrangements, we decided to take the sculpture apart and put the props back on the stage. On Sunday, we had the set rebuilt on the stage with the 1ypv projected on the back wall. I think we got some good shots.

Also on Sunday, we also stopped by our new down the hall neighbor LMAK projects to see a very cool installation / performance by Emily Katrencik permanent link to this post

Fun with tree spiking

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Almost everything you want to know about legal tree spiking. Site includes software and hardware section for all you teck geeks. permanent link to this post

So Ho, ho, ho…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

If you find yourselves in lower Manhattan today (12-17-05), worn out from shopping and looking for the true meaning of “the Holidays” in a Charlie-Brown-kind-a-way…Why not end your day gifting some joy to your consumer soul with some FREE PERFORMANCE ART IN SOHO?

It’s Garbage Day in Soho and just a few blocks away you can check Lee’s last performance at Art In General (4 to 5pm) Also, while in Soho, stop in at Artist Space and say “Hey, Happy-Merry-Whatever!” to knitPro and Frank permanent link to this post

so dam cute - Jen n’ Ken

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

jenniferandkenmccoy permanent link to this post

So, anyhoo…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Back to what I was suppose to be working on this week. That being some text based photoblog studies. My rule on this is to present new photos taken on the day of the post. Of course, intention makes casual activities difficult. I mean, my weekday life is kinda slow. Not much to shoot. That being said, here are some points of interest in my evening.

the crappy carb on my 65 Dodge
the hole in the studio floor
the shot that I see at least 2 people take every time I drive down Kent street in Brooklyn on a Sunday
permanent link to this post

:( MTAA’s SNAD + Abe + Jimpunk ) :

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Almost everything you want to know about Jimpunk’s new remix of the Simple Net Art Diagram

Simple Net Art Diagram by MTAA ca. 1997 /
2004.remix ):
:f / Abe + ): =
*

“an explanation to what really happens” - Jimpunk ): permanent link to this post

Now Playing in Aspen

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Good luck to our friend Bill Hallinan with screening his short movie Pony Under a Painted Sky at Slamdance. It looks like it premiered on Sunday so hopefully Bill and Dawn are being whisked around Aspen in a limo right now. permanent link to this post

site visit

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Murph, T. Whid and I checked out The Thing’s new/temp space in the AT&T building yesterday.

pics on tinjail

I might end up building a very small projection room. Not sure yet. permanent link to this post

Sing it with me…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Vacation, all he ever wanted… Vacation, had to get away… permanent link to this post

Showdown

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, artist of all ages…my worst “artwork” ever.

The Artist Anti Defamation League.

Please link, blog, post, forward, feed or ignore. We will be doing a redesign in a week. Enjoy the awesome wordpress default template for now.

Oh…and if you have a story for the AADL or would like to blog for it, send me an email - mriver (at) mteww.com subject line - blog art. You can also send hate mail. Thanks. permanent link to this post

Shaq beats Lee

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

final score

damn. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - World’s first RSS Sculpture.

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Two blogs are created. Blog A picks up and posts content from blog B. Blog B picks up and posts content from blog A. Each blog updates posts once per day. An ASCI image of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is sent to Blog A to begin the work. permanent link to this post

Robbin Murphy’s My Smile

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Robbin sent me this after seeing the Infinite Smile on Friday. Here is his My Smile. I think he made it some time ago. If you have a self smile loop, send me the URL. Smile. Smile. Smile. permanent link to this post

Rhz. Field Trip

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

As “AFC” dubbed it, MTAA went to check out the “hot new media chicks talk about art with some dudes” lecture at EAI last night. What did I learn? MO pointed out after the talk that “sublime” comes with a trace of horror. For me, that about sums up Internet Art 2.0

No, I mean that in a good way.

Also, props to CP for the impromptu Jodi / Wikipedia mash. I think I got a photo of it.

Yeah, you had to be there.

Final note - the SNAD 2.0 is the same SNAD surrounded by a cartoon thought bubble

twhid adds:
All-in-all a great time was had by all.

My one quibble with the panel was that 3 of 4 were very similar in their approaches and inspiration (Wolfgang Staehle being the odd man out). My feeling was that it could have shown a bit more range in what net artists are doing right now.

Another disappointment was not meeting Paddy from AFC who I assume was there since she promised a review.

And one final dissapointment: after the panel Wolfgang joked with me asking why MTAA wasn’t on the panel since we’re always on these panels. I regret not coming back with, “I guess MTAA is just too net art 1.0.” ;-) permanent link to this post

Red Ball, NYC

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

This is Lee at his opening at 31 Grand and he needs your help.

Go to his site and add your suggestion to the Red Ball NYC project. He needs 100 ideas before he can start the project and he is only at 41. He needs quality ideas people, quality.

Oh, BTW, cool show at 31 Grand…check it permanent link to this post

red ball

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Looks like LW got his 100 suggestions and is into the elimination rounds. Looks like I’m in round one permanent link to this post

Team MTAA Update

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Yes, MTAA’s “Born 2 Lose 2” raced last night and we lost. Yeah Team. Not only did we lose our race but our car did not make it all the way down the track. Not only did we not make it down the track but I swear that of all the cars, we traveled the least distance. This under-performance was accomplished by outfitting our car with giant scoop to slow down, keeping the car under weight and piloting the vehicle by a small ceramic bunny.

I have some pics that I’ll post later. permanent link to this post

Rapunzel

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is a review of a computer driven animation on Artnet - Jennifer Steinkamp’s Rapunzel Also, check Lehmann Maupin’s site for a short movie of the work. permanent link to this post

PSI’s The Unseeable Portrait (Too Shy)

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Our friends and Pirated Movie sound artist PSI sent an email post card:

On May 27, 2004 the members of The Peaceye Mystery Achievers arrived at Cave 12 in Genevé, Switzerland ready to spread the gospel like a solid coat of rose enhanced sardine paste on a smooth bed of unleavened bread. Their preparation for this glorious event included 17 hours of intensive meditation while driving from the south of France in a downpour of plague ridden spirit residue. They began the concert driven by an unbridled sense of optimism and hope but ended crushed by the unexpected circumstances unleashed by the deep rooted unpleasantness of demonic possession. This mp3 is the last surviving evidence of the groups remarkable ability to amaze and confuse but now you the listener must decide

check it permanent link to this post

Race day

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA’s car “Born 2 Lose 2” will race tonight as part of the brooklyngravityracers.

details and directions

MTAA’s car is 79 and we have been rated “R-” (raceable but underweight). We will be on The Fine Arts Racing Team. I’ll see if I can get some pics. permanent link to this post

pretenders

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Who the hell is David Cross and why is he stealing my look?
Becon’s closet guy, you’ve already been warned. permanent link to this post

Press

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey. Cool beans. MTAA in the The Globe and Mail

Thanks to dymond for the heads up.

t.whid adds:
Shamefully, I wasn’t familiar with The Globe And Mail. I knew it was a Canadian paper, but not sure of its place in the Canadian media-scape. Here’s a wikipedia article about it.

UPDATE:
Some nice person added the full text of the article in the comments. It became unavailable at The Globe and Mail web site. permanent link to this post

Talk about, Pop Music

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

An MTAA fan, as well as M. River’s arm candy, H. Popk calls the other vital national election - Who will be pop’s next princess? permanent link to this post

ping

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

po ng permanent link to this post

Phone Mod

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A few weeks back at that Dumbo art crawl thing, I saw this guy talking on an old (70’s? 80’s?) phone tucked under his arm. I asked him if it was “real”. He smiled and said “yup”. So I snapped a pic of him for Tintype

Thanks to Rhizome this morning, I found his site permanent link to this post

Pics of Infinite Smile

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Infinite Smile and detail permanent link to this post

parade paul mccarthy

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I can not help it. He rocks.

Late side note: if ya know about PM’s work, ya know he’s all about meat. permanent link to this post

Off line - Help

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA is on vacation and, for the most part, off line until 2004. I will be working on a essay for a zine called Smac while on vacation. The issue is on defunct technology. So, if you have a opinion on defunct, please place a comment at the end of this post. I will need all the help I can get cuz the other writer for the issue is Bruce Sterling. I am so fucking out of my league. Help. Help. permanent link to this post

onkawara.thing.net

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

On Kawara Generator by Darrel O’Pry permanent link to this post

jimpunkmtaa

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

the first readymade off-online collaboration from our net bud jimpunk

++
t.whid adds:
The collab is related to an early post re: MTAA’s inclusion in an article by Valerie Lamontague in Parachute #113. permanent link to this post

NYT Review

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is the NYT review of the Artbase 101 show. I was a bit fearful of this review based on Boxer’s last tee-up on interactive art but she seems somewhat charmed by the show. Good job to all.

Here is the MTAA section.

Certain works come right out and demand great gobs of your time. Overreaching is part of their charm.

“1 Year Performance Video,” by M. River and T. Whid Art Associates, asks that you “please watch for 1 year.” You will see “two artists living out 365 days in identical white rooms,” the site says; it’s an updating of “Sam Hsieh’s notorious ‘One Year Performance 1978-79,’ in which the artist isolated himself in a cage-like room for a year’s time.” In the new piece, you’re asked to put in as much time as the artists did.

That doesn’t mean you have to. Lots of pieces of online art loosen their grip on you once you get the point. And by the way, nearly every piece of online art does have a point.”

permanent link to this post

AIOTD - America’s Worst Novel, 2005

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Unreadable at Any Speed, America’s Worst Novel, 2005

Helen A.S. Popkin vs. M. River of MTAA

It’s a simple plan. Write a novel in 10 chapters with 10 pages per chapter. Publish the novel on December 31, 2004 at midnight via an online vanity press. For a brief or maybe a long moment this text will be the default “Worst American Novel of 2005”.

It’s a simple plan. It will work. I know it will work.

All I need to do now is con Helen into helping me write a novel or at least a bunch of stuff that we’ll call a novel.

Good Lord…this is goina’ work! permanent link to this post

not new media

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

52 paintings in 2004

Each painting is 9 x 12 inches and depicts one figure from head to toe. My pace was one a week for most of the year. This plan was derailed in mid December when the local store I buy the canvases from ran out of my size. So, after a few months of waiting for the back order to show up, I’ve finally got around to finishing the set. A few people asked me why I did not get the canvases from some other store. My only answer was something like - “Hey, it’s my weird working system.”

I’ve made a set of 53 small grey landscapes in 2003 (I think it was a leap year or a have an extra painting for some reason.) This year, I’m working on 52 paintings of heads. Each head is 8 x 10. All the paintings are made in acrylic with the line work done with a dip-pen and ink. Most of the images in the 03 and 04 sets started with an image from the Sunday New York Times. The heads, so far, have not. permanent link to this post

that barney opening again…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Well, my new year is staring off on a good foot. I have always hoped someone would clip something off our site and use it for some quasi commercial purpose without telling us - thus breaking our CC license (or at least the CC as I understand it… any thoughts t.whid?)

So, as I was surfing this fun parody site, located via an article in the NY Times this morning, I once again found that all my dreams can come true. permanent link to this post

Bondi Blues

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In the fall of 98, I bought my first computer. It was, and still is, a first generation Bondi Blue iMac. Non-Nomadic (…yup, that’s the name of my HD) and I have been through quite a bit over the last 6 years. It’s been a good little computer but I’ve decided it is time to put it out to greener pastures.

So here is the big question: I‘m interested in video editing and DVD publishing. What should I get? Also, what can one do with a old but good iMAc? permanent link to this post

MTAA’s New Home

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Not only has MTAA moved our virtual studio to a new server, we signed a lease on our first studio in Brooklyn last night. Yippeee. Yes, as the McCoys told us last night, making stuff is the new net art. The first thing I want to do is write our URL on the door.

+++
t.whid adds
Well, I wouldn’t say it’s our first studio in Brooklyn. Up until about a year ago M.River was the lease holder of a very nice and large loft in Williamsburg. He had lived there for 10 years. Needless to say, he had a good sized studio in the loft. I guess it wasn’t our studio, it was more like his studio, but it was where MTAA did our first collaborative projects. permanent link to this post

new media barn raiser…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is an update on my “shelter” post.

The Thing has entered the Death Star

Yup, that’s right. I’m thinking about building a small sculpture / 2 room sleeping pod / workspace inside this undead skyscraper. If your interested in joining the project, send me a email. Be forewarn ye new media types…I’m looking for free manual labor. Next step? - site visit. permanent link to this post

New Media Outdoors

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Looks like CP’s Technorganic 05 was a hit. Check out MTAA’s Infinite Phil in pic #6. Very cool. permanent link to this post

need to know when the other shoe drops…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

dude, like your site sooooo needs a RSS feed. permanent link to this post

net art from Austria

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

How Does the Internet work? permanent link to this post

My Last Week

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

DVDs
sympathy for the devil
punishment park
year of the pig

Work
R5
R4
HG

permanent link to this post

MTAA ego surf…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

shout out to Mandy in Manitoba, Canada of the blog Sleepless in Hickville

permanent link to this post

MTAA, the boys of summer.

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Once upon a time I wrote an email to announce another summer gig for MTAA. It started something like - ”Now that everyone has left New York, it is once again safe for MTAA artwork to be shown.”

Well, it’s that time a year and here is what we have lined up for your summer art viewing pleasure.

There’s a City In My Mind, a Group Show at Southfirst in Brooklyn (located directly under the MTAA studio), Rhizome’s Artbase 101 big group show at the at the New Museum and last but not least, the Pirated Movie is being shown at 00130 in Helsinki Finland.

We will be posting more details about each show, so stay tuned or whatever one says about checking in on a blog. permanent link to this post

MTAA needs you.

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Bloggers wanted for 1 month online performance artwork. Must be funny if not cynical. Interested? Email mriver@mteww.com with subject line “blog art?” for details. permanent link to this post

MTAA general note on the artwork Infinite Phil ; )

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

From the Gaurdian (thanks to Murph)

Pressed on whether he stole ideas from others, Cattelan replied: “Was Warhol robbing Marilyn [Monroe’s] identity when he painted her? And what was Cézanne doing? Robbing apples? In art, all you can do in the end is appropriate that which surrounds you. So it is never a robbery. At the most it is a loan. Unlike thieves, artists always give back the stolen goods.”

more permanent link to this post

MTAA Fan mail

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

While T. Whid tries to find a fix for the comments on the blog, here is a note from a MTAA-RR reader:
HP asks. “how come you never do art like this?”

Police: Artist who chained legs together lost key, hopped 12 hours to rescue

MR answers: T.Whid and I have cell phones.

twhid:
Sorry, gotta butt in on M’s post. This is my favorite line from the article:

And the drawing?

“He brought it down with him,” Ford said. “It was a pretty good depiction of how a chain would look wrapped around your legs.”

permanent link to this post

MTAA, boys of summer (part 2)

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

If you happen to be near Helsinki Finland between June 28 and July 31, please stop by gallery 00130 to see “international art connection vol. 1 & 2” The show has work by Michelle Handelman, Atomic Elroy, Lee Walton, HoneyByte, Bo Lee, MTAA, Luna-Nera and Maria Ocanto. permanent link to this post

MTAA, also on a mission…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA said to all of us: ‘We’re driven with a mission from God. God would tell us, “MTAA, go make net art in Brooklyn.” And we did, and then God would tell us, “MTAA, go make art for public spaces …” And we did. And now, again, we feel God’s words coming to us, “Go get a gallery and get artworks in some collection, and get a retrospective in a museum.” And by God we’re gonna do it. permanent link to this post

MTAA, Boys of Summer, 05

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Okay, I’m on vacation next week so T.Whid is running the blog solo starting Monday. I’m looking forward to seeing the Warhol show at DIA Beacon, visiting Woodstock, and canoeing on lake Kiwassa in the Adirondacks. I’ll bring some arty jpegs back for ya’ll.

Also, below is a note about a closing BBQ (mmmmmmm…lord I love summer) for a group show MTTA is in. The gallery is right below MTAA studio. We might have a new video running in the studio for people to check out.

So, if your in the mood for a hot dog and quasi-conceptual art (and who isn’t?), stop in.

SOUTHFIRST: PRESENTS

THERE’S A CITY IN MY MIND
A Group Show
10 June – 31 July, 2005

CLOSING BBQ: SUNDAY, 31 July 2-6 PM

Participating artists are: Doug Ashford, Michel Auder, Fia Backstrom, Matthew Brannon, Peter Coffin, Sean Dack, Jacob Dyrenforth, Anne Eastman, Michelle Elzay, Jesse Eva, Michelle Grabner, Frank Haines, Joyce Kim, Nate Lowman, MTAA, Jessica Peterson, Maya Schindler, Noah Sheldon, Jacob Stein, Dan Torop, Michael Vahrenwald, Miss Liz Wendelbo, and Yuh-Shioh Wong.

The gallery will be closed between August 1 and September 16 See you at the bbq or see you in the fall!

S O U T H F I R S T
60 N6th Street Brooklyn, NY 11211
phone/fax 718 599 4884
www.southfirst.org

————————————

From Time Out New York
“Critic’s Picks”
“There’s a City in my Mind.” Southfirst Sat & Sun 1–6 pm and by appointment. The rules of the game in this show are as follows: All work must be mailed to the gallery during the exhibition, nothing will be for sale and each piece must have a photographic element. On view will be submissions from Fia Backstrom, Peter Coffin, Jacob Stein and Dan Torop, among others. Through Jul 31.

From The Village Voice
“Voice Choices”
‘There’s a City in My Mind,’ SOUTHFIRST: ART
A mail art project of sorts, but more like a group show in linear flux: Here, all work must not only include a photographic element, but must arrive at the gallery during the six weeks the show is up. Another twist: Nothing is for sale. (SNOW) Thru July 31 permanent link to this post

More Fill

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Wow. Cool review of the Infinite Fill Show. Check it.

I think this is the first time the name “MTAA” has been used in the NYT. Thanks Cory and Jamie. (Yes, they are brother and sister not brothers as noted in the article)

Also, the McCoys and Inka Essenhigh are in the review of Site Santa Fe (I do not think of “Horror Chase” as a loop, but its’ hard to explain to people how it differs)

Anyway, it’s great to see people I love in my morning paper.

twhid adds:
The reviewer describes our piece entitled “Infinite Phil (Hartman/Donahue)” which you can download here: 8MB mov.

And to give credit where it’s due this is how the idea came about:

twhid: ‘Infinite Fill’ hmm, we should do an endless loop of Phil Donahue.

mriver: OK

M.River tells his partner Helen about the idea.

Helen: You should do Phil Hartman doing Phil Donahue.

MTAA: OK

+++

So Helen is now not just an honorary member of MTAA, she should be made an official member. What about H.Pop? permanent link to this post

M. River’s Deep Thinkin’ in Canada

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here are 3 ideas that I came across while in Canada. They are not new ideas to the world but they are new to me.

1. 8-Bit is the New Punk Rock
2. The base line for New Media Art is something gets plugged into something else.
3. Sarte for Southerners: “Hell’s Ya’ll”

Please feel free to discuss. permanent link to this post

more on Frank the beersnowman…

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Art Fag City just posted some thoughts about MTAA’s and Lee Walton’s work in the “We are all Together: Media(ted) Performance” show. Thanks again AFC. Blog on. permanent link to this post

more on Snoarc

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Oh, btw…now that the other possible tenant for the Snoarc building at the WCT has been kicked out, I’d like to bring up this AIOTD again. Who do I need to talk to get this project rolling? content@snoarc permanent link to this post

more on “and more and more awesome”

posted at 16:36 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

First off, read the post below.

Okay, now. Here is the truth.

I do not exactly know how it happened. I think I told TIAM that I would send something in for the issue. I may have given them a rough idea of what I wanted to do. Truthfully, I do not remember. I think, in the end, nothing was sent.

I got an email from Andy at TIAM. He said the issue was ready to launch and to check it out. I thought,”…did I send something in?” I do not have Power Point on any of my machines. So, I ignored the email.

It’s like this. I do not know the TIAM folks but I have done some projects with them. I just send them info and they put it together. It always looks great and has just the right tone for MTAA work. I feel that they “get” our art.

I called T. Whid this morning. I asked him to look at the TIAM Powerpoint and what our art was for this issue. He was a bit confused about 1.How I could not know what the work was and 2. Where the work started and stopped. He recognized my “America’s Worst Novel” writing on one of the slides. He said the work seemed to be a misnumbered and misspelled list about things I did not have time to finish. He said it is a list of 10 with only about 6 items made.

As far as I can tell, TIAM created a new work for us. I asked T. Whid, “If you did not know that I did not make it, is it good or is it just fucked up?” He said it was great. I have never seen it, I’m not sure if I made it, I think it is great as well.

I said in the beginning “Here is the Truth”. Here it is:

Sometimes I do not know at what point my life starts and stops. Things are made and conversations are had. Things get cloudy and I smile and smile. permanent link to this post

more boys of summer 05

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Oh, we have one more for you. Looks like “DC 9/11 - The Evildoers Remix” and “Pirated Movie” may be screened as part of ~scopeHamptons. I think we might be shown on the bus but I might have misunderstood. I do like the idea of it being shown that way. I hope we can get some pics. permanent link to this post

means of expression

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“While you may use the Internet to shop, gather information or share information, artists are continually finding new ways to use it as their means of expression. In the following report, NY1 Tech Beat Reporter Adam Balkin takes us inside a new Internet art exhibition.”

more on the Artbase 101 show from NY1 permanent link to this post

meat week on the MTAA-RR

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

So, just in time for 4th of July cookouts, a mad cow in Texas. Yum. permanent link to this post

MTAA bloc

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

It was more than a shuffle than a march but we, along with 5000,000 others, paid our disrespects to the RNC. MTAA bloc was made up of H.popk, T.whid and M.river. We tried to meet up with P.earl but got stuck at the beginning of the march for an hour.

So, as we do at all protest, here is MTAA bloc’s favs:

Voted as favorite sign, banner or t-shirt: “Go ahead and take my civil liberties, I was not using them anyway.”

Voted favorite float: the big inflatable pink pig with marching mice.

Voted bad protest idea: illegible graphic novel on a banner

Voted worst float: the dumb ass burning green dragon

Special political theater award for The Raging Grannies and Billionaires for Bush

Props to the Upright Citizen Brigade for letting people use their bathrooms even when a show was going on.

Thumbs down to Macys for showing Fox News on their big screens across from the Garden.

Anyway, it was good to see a big peaceful crowd. I have my fears that Bush will win in Nov. but I think people are starting add up his failures and realize that he has taken America in the wrong direction.

Stop by Postmasters tonight at 8 pm for DC911, Evildoers remix. Should be fun permanent link to this post

M.River’s out of focus photos of the DADC 05

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hot off the press and uploaded with a hangover, pics from last night’s event are now up at Tintype.

T.Whid should have some more pics soon. Big thanks to all who came out. permanent link to this post

M. River, not the brightness bulb in the Net Art chandelier.

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Okay, it’s going to take a second to explain this but stay with me.

While T.Whid was on vacation. (I can hear him groan as he reads this) I made a post on our blog based on a search for the tag “paintings” on Flickr. Somewhat amused by my own cleverness, I decided to make another list based on the tag “painting”. From a noun to a verb, I found that the images people placed in Flick with the two tags to have a slight shift in flavor. But…I kept getting a broken link on the second set. So, I deleted the post from our blog. (This is the part where T.whid groans)

M. Tribe just posted the second set on Reblog.

To review - M. River, clever but not that clever – both the “paintings” and “painting” list are somewhere on the net. permanent link to this post

M River, Art Star

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I’m going out on a limb here to say, “Hey, why not? I could be interesting. It might even be fun.”

First off, a disclaimer. I don’t have a tv. When I told my young brother about my no tv life he deadpaned “Yes, I know how hard it is for you to block those mind controlling rays with tinfoil”. I’m not sure if he was kidding. Sometimes people get offended when I tell them. It is as if I was pissing on their friend. They tell me about all the great parts of tv. They bring up cable. My mind wanders off.

A reality tv show about a fight to show in a hot gallery in NYC? It might work. Artist are a smart and funny lot. I think they can see the trap as they walk in. I have a feeling artist and people who are not artist but who will be acting as them (more on this thought later) will fuck with the whole idea. Think of the whole thing as something akin to “Museum Critic”.

So here is what I would look for - artist playing “artist”, political rants, live performance art, actors acting as artist, Jane and Joe public “I can make better art than that”, fashion models, the insane and freak in general. Let the stereotypes fly high.

For me, the most interesting will be people who are not artist. The ones who will try to pass them selves off as or just mock artist. I want to see what they make. I want to see if a bald headed 30 something with black frame glasses shows up to talk about his work with this cool thing called the internet.

As I’m told Paris would say, “…fake internet art geeks…that’s hot.” permanent link to this post

LOL

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

RSSJOCKEY on MTAA-RR

permanent link to this post

Lucy the very good dog

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Please join MTAA and sponsor Lucy the dog!

Lucy has registered for AIDS Walk New York and is very excited about the event. Lucy and her best friend Janice will be walking and would appreciate any donation you can give. They are participating under (team) EYEBEAM and team captain Perry says, “It’ll be super fun #1, I promise!”

Even a small amount such as $5 or $10 is helpful.

Just click HERE to enter Lucy’s personalized web page and charge your donation. permanent link to this post

a letter to Joan

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Dear Joan Campas Montaner,

After thinking about your questions for sometime, I decide to answer in the form of an action. On December, 8, 2004 I posted your questions on the MTAA blog with a plea for someone to take on a reply. I stated that any answer would be passed on to you with the person’s name. So here is the reply from the artist and net art guru Robin Murphy.

http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/mriver/helpout.html

murphy@thing.net says,
Difficult Questions… Yikes!

Q: What is your opinion regarding the political commitment of digital artists in the complex reality of today’s world?

Robin: Well, obviously, the Dean blog revolution didn’t have much effect on the election, and moveon.org turned into a therapy group. I’ve said elsewhere that Americans aren’t very good at political art — it’s usually either bad politics or bad art — but I do think the opportunity to network with people from other parts of the world with different aesthetic agendas has been one of the great breakthroughs of digital art.

Q: What is your position on the type of political activities that digital artists should be undertaking?

Robin: Digital artists should be good citizens and seek to understand how the technologies they are using can help them be good citizens.

Q: What social function do you believe digital creation plays — or should play?

Robin: To encourage thoughtful skepticism in our social lives.

Thank you for your questions. I hope this is of use to you. permanent link to this post

Live Net Death

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Cory to commit “Friendster Suicide” on Thursday. I should send note or something. I’d like give him a reason not to off his account but I’m not sure if I have one.

At the same event, our pal Caitlin Jones challenges Lori Waxman to critique some net art live. Works up for crit include MTAA’s “5 Small Videos”. This could get ugly folks. permanent link to this post

last AIOTD in 2005

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Yo Ho Ho permanent link to this post

Last night’s weird art dreams.

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Go for it all you Freud / Jung types.

We are at a galley opening in a small industrial space. The gallery is empty except for an orange extension cord plugged into a low 8’ sheet rock ceiling. A small crowd is milling about waiting for something to happen. I ask someone to grab a fire extinguisher and for Tim to close the front door.

People run as a small explosion opens a 4’ x 4’ hole in the ceiling where the cord was once plugged in. The hole reveals the inside vertical brick shaftway. It runs about 20 feet straight up and then becomes dark. I’m standing under it looking at the smoke from the explosion and small blue sparks rise up the passage. I feel content as to how the sculpture turned out.

Later in the dream, I’m at a larger gallery. The floor of the gallery is covered by large maze composed of yarn. No one is in the space except for a yarn-costumed guard, who leads me to the center of the maze. In the center of the maze I kneel next to Vito Acconci who is lying on his back completely covered in orange and yellow yarn. permanent link to this post

KDM100 on the road soon

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

From September 19 to the 25 I will be in Leonding Austria for Leonart 05. MTAA will be showing the KDM100

This is our 2nd Mac Mini driven artwork and I excited to hook it all up and see it run. I am also excited to explain to customs that the small mac-mini in my bag is art. That statement and my weird passport photo might be a problem. If you have any travel or art or tourism tips, please send them on or just wish me luck. permanent link to this post

geek love

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

khaaan permanent link to this post

Kinda creepy, but cool…

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“Now is the time to begin preparing your amateur radio station to receive signals from SuitSat , the most unusual Amateur Radio satellite ever orbited. SuitSat amateur radio equipment will be installed inside a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit. It will become an independently orbiting satellite once it is deployed by the crew of the International Space Station during an extravehicular activity, tentatively planned for February 2nd, 2006.”

(thks, ml and bh)

So, basically they are going to toss an empty Russian space suit out the hatch and let it broadcast pre-recorded images and sounds as it falls out of orbit. Yikes. Here is to all the Cosmonauts that died on the launch pad. permanent link to this post

kdm100 - mriver’s picks

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

1.ALICE COOPER, I’M EIGHTEEN 2.ANIMALS, THE, WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE 3.BAY CITY ROLLERS, THE SATURDAY NIGHT 4.BEACH BOYS, THE GOD ONLY KNOWS 5. BEATLES, THE COME TOGETHER 6.BEATLES, THE GET BACK 7.BILLY IDOL, WHITE WEDDING 8.BLACK SABBATH, PARANOID 9.BLONDIE, CALL ME 10.BLUE OYSTER CULT, DON’T FEAR THE REAPER 11.BOB DYLAN, LAY LADY LAY 12.BUGGLES, THE VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR 13.BUTTHOLE SURFERS, PEPPER 14. BYRDS, THE, TURN! TURN! TURN! 15.CAMEO, WORD UP 16.CARPENTERS, SUPERSTAR 17. CHEAP TRICK,I WANT YOU TO WANT ME 18.CHRISTMAS- ELVIS PRESLEY BLUE CHRISTMAS 19.CLASH, THE SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO 20.CREAM, WHITE ROOM 21.DAVID BOWIE, ZIGGY STARDUST 22.DAVID BOWIE/QUEEN, UNDER PRESSURE 23.DEPECHE MODE, PERSONAL JESUS 24.DEVO, WHIP IT 25.ELVIS PRESLEY, POOR BOY 26.EURYTHMICS, SWEET DREAMS (ARE MADE OF THIS) 27. GUESS WHO, THE AMERICAN WOMAN 28.INTERPOL, SLOW HANDS 29. JAMES BROWN, GET UP (I FEEL LIKE BEING A) SEX MACHINE 30.JAY-Z, 99 PROBLEMS 31. JIMI HENDRIX, ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? 32. LED ZEPPELIN WHOLE LOTTA LOVE 33. MOBY FEAT. GWEN STEFANI, SOUTH SIDE 34. OUTKAST, HEY YA! 35. PRINCE WHEN DOVES CRY 36. QUEEN, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST 37. ROB BASE & D.J. E-Z ROCK, IT TAKES TWO 38. ROLLING STONES, THE NOT FADE AWAY 39. SIMPLE MINDS, DON’T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME) 40. SLY & THE FAMILY STONE, DANCE TO THE MUSIC 41. STANDARD, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU 42. STEPPENWOLF, MAGIC CARPET RIDE 43. TALKING HEADS, BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE 44. TONE LOC, WILD THING 45. WAR, CISCO KID, THE 46. WEEZER, HASH PIPE 47 WHITE STRIPES, THE SEVEN NATION ARMY 48. WHO, THE MY GENERATION 49. YEAH YEAH YEAHS, MAPS 50. ZOMBIES, THE SHE’S NOT THERE permanent link to this post

KDM100

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

ready to rock permanent link to this post

justatestofsomething

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Ummmm…just ignore this post.

It’s really just a test of something on the backend of the site.

It’s nothing more than that.

Well, okay, as long as I am here I’ll give you the MTAA Studio Update. I think writing a MTAA S.U. is like a reporting the weather. Some stuff happens but unless you are in it, it’s kinda dull. Anyway, Monday we tested the software that RSG wrote for the 1ypv and then moved the sculpture up onto the stage so that I could paint the floor. Last night I painted the floor (oil based deck paint - battleship grey - hot). I have just a small patch still to paint under the desk. John, our landlord stopped by to say hello. Sounds like a new lease for 05 is fine. I gave him our URL so he can see the 1ypv. Hopefully we will move the sculpture off the stage this weekend so we can get a photo of it working.

Man, I can’t believe you would actually read down to this point. Thanks. Get back to work now. permanent link to this post

jail house 8-bit

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

LOL…How could the police miss the camera phone?

8 bit musicians in NYC jail permanent link to this post

Is the big one next?

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I hope not. permanent link to this post

it will be like some sort of bleak-industrial-beer soaked-sanhippie- woodstock

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Why should I haul all the way to Dumbo, Brooklyn in the rain and cold this Friday night?

1. MTAA shows Infinite Smile at Video_Dumbo
2. RSG shows Black Hawk Down (RSG-BLACK-1) at Smack Mellon
3. 2 venues of Todd P shows !!!
permanent link to this post

If in London…

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Check out Fritz’s show

When the Time-Traveller Kills Their Grandmother is a manifestation of soundart and noiselove at Alma Enterprises (1 Vyner Street, London E2 9DG. nearest tube station is Bethnal Green) september 2 - 25, private view sept 1st. 6-9pm. In this multiphase project, humansacrifice presents sets out to explore the possibility of using sound, noise and even music as tools for warping reality and shifting time while placidly wading through the mire of contemporary psychic potentiality.

The first night (sept 1, 9pm-midnight) will expand into staged demonstrations of these concepts at Bistrotheque (23-27 wadeson Street in hackney. 9pm-midnight) Music actions by Pleasure/Drenching Improvers, Dylan Nyoukis & Stefan Jaworzyn, and The Nekid Kidmen. Noise becomes flesh as music is food and art is love!!! permanent link to this post

cool like this

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

An email from an MTAA fan: “How come you never do cool stuff like this ?” permanent link to this post

Ich Bin Ein American

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is the list for the Whitney O6. Yes, I’m scratching my head on this as well. Apparently this will be the “All the Artworld is American” Biennial. It might work but it does seem…strange. Fighting a static international art fair/ biennial look with a biennial? Well, fight fire with fire. It might work. But anyways, Hey! Japanther’s playing !!!

Also, props for Steve Parrino. RIP.

permanent link to this post

I always knew he would be a freaky-mac-kinda guy

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Lucas Samaras iMovies

Cool permanent link to this post

Home in Brooklyn

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. permanent link to this post

Help a pal out, part 2

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

More difficult questions for the mtaaRR –

Joan Campàs, a professor of digital art and hypertext in the Department of Humanities at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)is writing a book about the social history of digital art, literature, and music. Joan sent me two questions based on questions posed to artists in the September 1970 by the journal Artforum.

The question are:

1. What is your opinion regarding the political commitment of digital artists in the complex reality of today’s world? What is your position on the type of political activities that digital artists should be undertaking?

2. What social function do you believe digital creation plays—or should play?

So, with some faith in the internet, I pass the question on to anyone who would care to take a stab at it. I will site your name(s) in my reply. permanent link to this post

hmmmmmmm…

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Software Art ? permanent link to this post

Helping the Judges:

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I asked a friend if a formula could be written to help the judging of the Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship. Here is his reply:

The formula would depend on your weighting of the importance of things, (quality of art vs drunkenness)

But you could simply add the drunk score to the art score plus drunkenness* art.

So if your art is a 1, and drunk is a 10, you get 1+10+10=21. If your art is a 3 and drunk is a 7, you get 3+7+(3*7)=31

permanent link to this post

Hello MTAA-RR

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I’m back from vacation
permanent link to this post

hate speech

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

T.Whid and I tend to agree on most things. This is not going to be one of them. Yes, free speech and a free press is something that democracies need to function. I do not think this image is the moment I want to uphold in that fight. I find it baseline intolerant and something more fucked after that.

From the guardian:

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung went further, calling for the caricatures to be published in as many newspapers as possible. Urging “Europe-wide solidarity”, it said: “Religious fundamentalists who do not respect the difference between satire and blasphemy have a problem not only with Denmark, but with the entire western world.”

Yeah, I understand it’s satire but when I step back, it’s something darker. permanent link to this post

hdtv

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Yeah. Yeah. I’m overposting today. GH sent me a link to an artist HDTV site called moovelab that I wanted to pass on. Looks interesting. permanent link to this post

happy earth day

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

earth art ? permanent link to this post

Greenpoint, USA

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Almost everything you want to know about Greenpoint, Brooklyn (aka m.river’s hood). Things like, “just how toxic is it here”? permanent link to this post

Greater New York’s Blogin’ N Drawin’

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey gang, It’s a drawing bee over at J.W.’s pad. I think I’m going to try Cory’s rave vid in the elevator. permanent link to this post

good for winter blues

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Map of wild parrots in Brooklyn

Yes, Brooklyn is paradise on earth. permanent link to this post

go team

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

T. Whid of MTAA gives a big thumbs up outside of Aljira after what we thought was our big interview screw up. permanent link to this post

Gimme Shelter

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

a bedroom, a pod, a hotel, a shack, a fort, a bunker, a cell, a cave, a pad, a tent, a shelter, a cabin, an igloo, a hut,

“Oh, a storm is threat’ning
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away”

I have the possibility of building a one or two bed structure inside a skyscraper. It is part workspace, part sleep space and part art. It needs to be temporary, small, and very very inexpensive (as in free) to build. I’ve always been interested in idiosyncratic workspaces and shelters. Tim and I have built two installations in this mode as part of MTAA.

Bunker Flood
Cage Match

I think the appeal of this possible site is that it will be a temporary work space and a sleep space - a mash of two different needs and states. I’m not sure what Tim and I will do or if this project will happen at all but it might be interesting to a talk about it as it develops. permanent link to this post

Buy Now

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The massive and cool This Is a Magazine Compendia #3 - CHAOS HAPPENS is out now. The Compendia includes some fine examples of MTAA print quality art. Get it now. Get it. permanent link to this post

general note on “To Be Listen To” project

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

NYT helps MTAA’s “To Be Listen To” project (coming this fall) by explaining Podcasts to the world.

Admit it. You don’t know what podcasts are. Your plan is to do that thing of half-reading tech articles and waiting in denial until it’s scarily mandatory that you really understand it -for instance, you have to create your own podcast for some random reason in one hour - and then desperately turning to Wikipedia or a teenage relative for a last-minute explanation. Just as you did long ago with the World Wide Web.

more NYT on podcasts permanent link to this post

Gelitin

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Gelitin is awesome
via James Wagner

I think the court Gelitin built for the first PS1 “Warm Up” was perfect. In the following years, the MOMA curated young architects have seemed to me a bit, well…bland. I’d love to see some more cross discipline for this space…or just have Acconci Studio do it. Ya know? permanent link to this post

Free Quality Sculpture

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

title - “Double Portrait Abandonment Plan Number 2 in Wood”

Two wood cubes (24x24x24) signed and dated (2005) by M. River (cube left) and T. Whid (cube right) of MTAA. Work is free to the first person, gallery or museum to contact MTAA (mriver at mteww.com - subject line “free sculpture”) Work must be removed from artist studio in Williamsburg Brooklyn before Jan 1, 2005.

And Bonus Artwork !
MTAA will include free photo document (an emailed jpeg) of the sculpture removal permanent link to this post

found with “paintings” tag

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

ten
paintings
found
on
flickr
to
make
a
group
show
permanent link to this post

found last night

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

My summer vacation destination.

Henry at my kitchen table.
permanent link to this post

First AIOTD in 2006 - MTAA 24 hour strike.

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

This AIOTD started around 2 am in a group of 10 or so people in front of T.Whid’s home in Brooklyn during his New Year’s Eve party. Someone in the crowd asked, “What the fuck is MTAA?” Someone, it might have been Peggy, answers, “You know, those artist who go on strike”

So, I think we will go on strike at our studio one day this year. permanent link to this post

FLA

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Living will permanent link to this post

EVERYTHING WILL BE OK

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

EVERYTHING WILL BE OK is the new READER’S COMPANION (#4) to This is (not) a Magazine (Issues 14 through 17). It is a book, a DVD, it has some work by MTAA, and it is only 33 Euro + S/H. What more do you need? permanent link to this post

sigh

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

4 more wars. permanent link to this post

4 Walls Projects present — Election Night

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Dear MTAA Blog friends,

I’ll be doing some very unprofessional turntable/ analog background sound stuff for the following election night event. Please stop on by if you can.

4 Walls Projects present — Election Night — a setting for the viewing of the National Election. 8:00pm on Nov. 2, 2004 at Supreme Trading 213 N. 8th St. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. No matter which way it goes, it’s better to be together. Please join us.

Also, if you have a favorite election related quicktime - we are showing it local - please email me - mriver@mteww.com - or just post it here. Thanks permanent link to this post

Eduardo Navas, allegorical

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

I still find it odd that people look at my (our) work. I always have that strange feeling of working in the basement with the light out when suddenly someone opens the door at the top of the stairs, shines a flashlight down and shouts, “Hey! What’s going on?” I know that perception is somewhat the base of art, but it does freak me out a bit. It’s very cool to know someone is thinking about your work in a big picture kinda way, but, like I said, freaky. Anyways, here is an essay by Eduardo Navas on Conceptual Art and its relation to New Media.

“While it is true that artists part of the net.art group were influenced by a certain type of conceptualism, the premises behind conceptual art as it is understood from its origins in the New York scene is practically irrelevant in new media practice. When it is brought up it is often in allegorical form. In regards to this, we can consider a work that has been reviewed here. MTAA’s One Year Performance,[1] which allegorizes Performance artist Sam Hsieh’s One year performance where he stayed in a cell for a whole year.”

more over at netartreview

Endnote: In the end, I think it’s good to get the flashlight in the face soemtimes. Keeps ya awake. permanent link to this post

eBay - Team MTAA

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

1. MTAA’s car “The Born 2 Lose 2” will be at Perogi toninght as part of the brooklyngravityracers show. I’ll try to find out what day we race.

2. MTAA pal H. Popk pointed me to this news on Salon -

Sept. 10, 2004 Indicators measure the nation’s unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay. “That’s a source that didn’t even exist 10 years ago,” Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. “Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.”

Yes, that’s right. The economy is not bad, we’re just selling eachother our crap on eBay.

So, to bring item 1 and 2 together, we will be selling out car on eBay after the show. permanent link to this post

Ebay art pals

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Two of the artists in this Ebay art show better be sayin’ “THANKS MTAA”…if ya know what we mean. Good job guys.

twhid adds:
What do you mean? Are we gonna break some legs/heads if they don’t give us proper accolades? I say yes. We should fuck them up.

OK, just kidding. M.River means that we helped out with two of the projects. Actually, one of the projects we list as one of our own since we sub-contracted it to Eryk Salvaggio. He made the entire thing though, we don’t deserve any credit :-) permanent link to this post

Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Thursday, March 31st, 2005 8:00PM - 11:00PM, Brooklyn, NY

Get ready for…

the Second Annual Drinkin’ and Drawin’ Championship

Check the images from last year show down. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Drinking and Drawing

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

My friend owns a bar in Brooklyn called Matchless (named after the motorcycle). Every so often, he or his wife asks me if I would like to show some work at the bar. The question is usually place in a we-know-you-do-not-do that-kinda-art sorta way. Well, I finally got around to say yes. Here is the idea.

MTAA and Matchless present the First Annual Drinking and Drawing Championship.

All we need to do is do is get a few reams of 8.5x11 white paper, pencils, some push pins, a few B-list celebrity judges, a dj and a 100 dollar bar tab for the winner. The competition is open to all professional and amateurs but one MUST have a drink while working on the drawing. All works get hung on the wall of the bar for a month. The winner gets a fancy frame.

So, if you will be in New York in late January, and would like to test your skills, start practicing at your local bar, cafe or restaurant tonight. permanent link to this post

Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges (Overpasses?)

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA is showing a new video installation in Brooklyn called “Infinite Smile” next Friday, Saturday and Sunday as part of video_dumbo

Come on by and smile smile smile. permanent link to this post

Dear Jeffery

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

You probably woke up this morning to find my collaborator, T.Whid, slagging artstar.tv in the New York Times , we at MTAA feel downright bad about that. Sometimes T. Whid just needs to call them like he sees them. To be honest, the article makes it sounds like you might have some doubts of your own.

So, I just wanted to tell you that we DO love your gallery and the artist you show. No, really, you’re one of our favorites. Artstar.tv just seems like some sort of fluke.

Anyway, to show you that we hold no hard feeling, please feel free to stop by our studio. We’ll buy you a beer. You can slag our artwork if it makes you feel better. You can even bring the camera crew.

Just send us an email. :) permanent link to this post

David Colosi’s Ed Kienholz Owes Me 2/5¢

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Big congrats to VTAV alum David Colosi for being selected to the Art Statements section of Art 36 Basel, the International Art Show. permanent link to this post

Critical Art Ensemble Legal Defense Fund

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Auction to benefit the Critical Art Ensemble Legal Defense Fund at Paula Cooper Gallery, Sunday April 17, 2005 permanent link to this post

coco

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

From James Allen’s interview with Olia Lialina

“I wonder if we could talk a bit more about chocolate and its relationship to net.art? Do you think chocolate affects creativity? For example: Jodi’s work is rich and complex with a mysterious after taste just like Belgian chocolate (http://www.neuhaus.be/). While in the U.S. the work of MTAA, like American chocolate, looks like the real thing but when you taste it you see they’re just kidding, what you’ve bought is something completely different (http://www.hersheys.com/). Do you think I’m reading too much into this?“

M.River of MTAA: No. Just kidding James. permanent link to this post

Clamp Calls Out

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is a post form our good friends in Clamp. MTAA sez if ya like to “Rock”, check this show out.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: IMPORTANT: CLAMP RELOCATION FOR FRIDAY SHOW

NEW LOCATION…NEW LOCATION…NEW LOCATION

ROCK STAR BAR (AKA LOCAL, AKA SHIPS MAST)
351 KENT AVE.
AT S. 5TH ST.

ATTENTION ALL ACTIVE-DUTY PERSONNEL:

DUE TO THE MOST-HEINOUS AND TRAITOROUS ACTIONS OF THE POSSIBLY FRENCH TOMMY’S TAVERN, WE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO BIVOUAC IN A NEW LOCATION. KNOWING THAT IF CLAMP DOES NOT PLAY THE TERRORISTS HAVE ALREADY WON, THE AMERICAN PATRIOT HEROES AT THE SHIPS MAST (AKA ROCK STAR BAR, AKA LOCAL) IN HISTORIC WILLIAMSBURG BROOKLYN HAVE OPENED THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS TO ALLOW US THE GREAT HONOR OF PLAYING IN THEIR ENCAMPMENT. ATTENDANCE IS, AS ALWAYS, MANDATORY. AS YOU ALREADY KNOW:

BERNARD GOETZ WILL PROCLAIM FROM THE HIGHEST ROOFTOPS THE NEED FOR DUTY, HONOR, AND VIGILANCE AT 2200 HOURS.

DJ TEETH WILL SLICE YOUR FACE WITH THE KNIFE’S EDGE OF THE DARKEST, SHARPEST METAL DEEP INTO THE NIGHT.

AND CLAMP WILL SHOUT THE CALL TO ACTION PROMPTLY AT 2300 HOURS OR THEREABOUTS.

IN CLOSING, KNOW THAT NO ENEMY OF THE STATE OR BAR OWNER CAN STOP THE INEVITABLE POWER OF CLAMP: THE AMERICAN ROCK AND ROLL BAND. SHOW YOUR PRIDE IN THIS GREAT NATION THIS FRIDAY NIGHT, OR BE COUNTED AMONG THOSE TOO COWARDLY TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE.

YOURS IN LIBERTY… permanent link to this post

champ

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

First off, thanks to all drinker, drawers, gawkers, judges, bartenders and one very cool dj for a fun time.

Now, to clear up one strange detail from the contest:

Twhid and I had did not have any say in the art judging. People kept asking us about it but we decided to leave it up to the unbiased pros. The only thing we did do to influence the outcome was supply the judges with lots of drinks. The judges, after a good bit of delegation, seemed to have just picked what interested them. We found out later that the judges did not pick the winners for a single drawin, but selected people who produced a body of good works.

So, here is the odd part.

Luisa, who won, happened to be the first person to show up. I think she even came before 8pm when the show was to start. She won, though it looks like she had only one drink. Later that night when she signed into the bar ledger, I think she said she was the person who emailed me about the event. Only two people emailed me about the event and one was to say they could not attend but liked the idea. And now, after a small google search, I find out that she may the same Luisa who writes for New York Magazine. Hmmmmmmmm….

I think MTAA and the judges have been hustled by a pro. And to this, I say, congratulation Luisa. You are the ideal Dinkin and Drawin Champion 2004. All contender for 2005 take note.

ps. if you are in nyc, the drawings will stay up at the bar for the next two weeks if you would like to take a look. permanent link to this post

Oh, Canada…

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Going to Canada April 14-16 for PAUSE. So, it will be important for MTAA to know about Contraband and Whatnot…

Here’s what you are allowed to bring in with you duty-free [no extra charge]:…

200 cigarettes
50 cigars
7 ounces of tobacco
1.1 liters of wine or liquor [21 or over]
24 12-ounce bottles of beer [21 or over]
Gifts valued at no more than $60 CDN permanent link to this post

Here ye ! Here ye !

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Carnivore is dead, long live Carnivore permanent link to this post

Can Net Art Survive Without (or with) a Market?

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“Panel Discussion moderated by Kevin McGarry, with Francis Hwang, Artist and Software Engineer; Helen Thorington, Sound Composer and Media Artist; Michelle Thursz, Independent Curator, and Mark River and Tim Whidden of MTAA, a New York-based conceptual and net art collaboration.”

Sunday, October 30 @ 2:30pm at AAF in NYC

Note for those who can’t make it to this panel - MTAA’s short answer will be “sort of…”

t.whid update:
Hmmm, on the AAF web site the title is:

“Net Art: What is it and Can it Survive?”

Seems like a much more bleak outlook with the new title. Don’t it?

But the short answer is: “It’s art and why the hell not? (Crochet seems to be making a huge splash.)” permanent link to this post

totaly busted

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

J. Ippolito is the first to bust MTAA on our secert master plan for art. Yesterday, he found our real site at MTEW.COM. I am full of shame, but that will not stop us. permanent link to this post

breaker 1-9

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

10-4 good buddy

++++

twhid adds: M. is talking on his radio in the photo, hence his, er, CB joke above. The photo is kinda small and you might not be able to tell.

Regardless, good press Mike! Congrats. permanent link to this post

Brazil

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA is showing 1ypv at File 05. Will 1ypv be fixed in time? Stay tuned.

UPDATE - Hey, looks like 1ypv is back up and running!

FILE FESTIVAL 2005

FILE’s sixth edition happens at SESI’s Art Gallery, with the exhibitionof webart, netart, artificial life, hypertext, computer animation, real-time teleconference, virtual reality, software art works, besides games, interactivefilms, e-videos, digital panoramas, and electronic-art and robotic installations,in interactive and immersive rooms.

NOV 1ST - 20TH, 2005
tuesday - sunday, 10am to 8pm

OPENING: OUT 31ST, 2005
monday, 7:30pm - for guests only permanent link to this post

Boom

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Happy 4th of July

Going down to Battery Park to see Yo La Tengo later this afternoon then fireworks. permanent link to this post

Art Blog

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

When I am not blogging here at the mtaaRR, I moonlight at 544x378(WebTV). permanent link to this post

joystick nation

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey all you video game enthusiasts, are you blue?

found thanks to jameswagner.com permanent link to this post

M. River’s brief notes on the MTAA-RR

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

1. After some internal debate at MTAA, the MTAA-RR has been designated to be “not an artwork” but may contain some things that are artworks.

2. Everything needs a metaphor. For the MTAA-RR, let’s use: notebook, soapbox, recipe set , vanity publishing, or a big Winnebago that M.River and T.Whid drive around the internet in search of roadside attractions.

3. Yes, T.Whid rants on the blog. What do you want? At least it keeps him from running through the streets of Brooklyn with a wild look in his eyes shaking strangers and yelling COPYFUCKINGLEFTFUCKINGBUSH.

4. Yes, M.River’s spelling, grammar and coding are a crying shame. So, repeat after me, We don’t care. Go get a goddam perfect boring academic blog of your own. (Actually M.River does like when readers send in typo reports. He needs all the help he can get.)

5. Some blogs have a lot of links to other people’s work, some have a lot of new content. MTAA-RR has a lot of new content that we ripoff of other sites.

6. Our Moms read and post on our Blog. We think this is cool. permanent link to this post

big steel elevator

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

PS1 Greater New York 2005 Artists Sketches

A quick drawing from memory of what CA and FM’s work at PS1 might have looked like for JW. Note: I’m not even sure it was the “rave” dvd but I do remember it was in that big steel elevator. permanent link to this post

big day

posted at 16:35 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey, It’s Chinese New Year, Ash Wednesday and the MTAA blog (aka MTAA-RR) birthday. We’re turning 2 today. I’m told that means that we will start hitting things, yelling and crying for no reason. Insert joke here.

twhid adds:
(Yeah, I know, we’re not supposed to do this anymore…)

Since I’m not Chinese, I don’t really care about Chinese New Year. Seems to be just another excuse to have a party — which is fine — it just doesn’t get down into my emotional core like other holidays I’ve celebrated all my life.

Since I was raised catholic (note tense: was) I have nostalgic feelings for Ash Wednesday. I was always pissed that the smudge on my head was supposed to be a cross but never looked like one. Since the priest had to smudge so many ashes on so many people’s heads he couldn’t make ‘em all look good I reasoned.

Since I am T.Whid I’m immensely proud that our little blog here has made it two entire years! Congrats to us! Here’s the first post BTW (technically it wasn’t first, but the one before was just some filler). I think something got a little screwy and we lost some of the earlier posts. Oh well.

M.River, you know damn well that I’ve been yelling and crying for no reason for years! permanent link to this post

Awesome

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A big rock on to my new favorite bunch of weirdos. permanent link to this post

Back home

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here are some photos from in and around Leonding Austria permanent link to this post

ART FOR THE HEART OF NEW ORLEANS

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

As some of ya know, I make paintings under the name Michael Sarff (Yeah…yeah, that is my real name but please feel free to call me m.river). I’ve been making about one a week for the last 3 years. Every once in a while, I give one to a benefit. I think the last one was for Momenta and Bloggy and James picked it up

So here is chance to help out the once and future magical city of New Orleans by taking home a painting called Nooy Bidding on Nooy starts a one buck. So, if your in Brooklyn this weekend, pick up some art.

ART FOR THE HEART OF NEW ORLEANS
Katrina Benefit Silent Auction
Sunday, October 2nd 6-9pm

Viewing and bidding: Saturday October 1st 1-7pm
Viewing and bidding: Sunday October 2nd 1-6pm
Silent Auction, Bidding and Reception: Sunday October 2nd 6-9pm *(bidding closes at 8:30pm)*
location: spring - 126a Front St. (between Jay and Pearl Sts) d.u.m.b.o., Brooklyn
NY 11201 contact: 718.222 1054 - 917.216 7188

spring3d
money goes to architecture for humanity permanent link to this post

Art Dirt Redux

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MTAA talkin’ shop and Podcasting with Robin and GH on Art Dirt Redux

Portraits of them over on Tintype permanent link to this post

Apache

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Sigh. If only my contagious media idea was as hot as this.

Slow download. Worth the wait.

twhid adds a little preview image:

permanent link to this post

anniversary

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

1 year ago? Wow. It seems like it was last week. Thanks MO! permanent link to this post

and speaking of 1ypv..

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Primer

I’ve been working on a nasty cold and yesterday was a rainy fall Sunday afternoon. So, I rented the movie Primer. I found myself getting a bit choked up watching it. This was odd because 1. I don’t get choked up about movies and 2. Even if one was prone to getting chocked up about movies, this is defiantly not one to get choked up about.

Primer is a movie about engineers who make a time machine in a garage. That’s really not what the movie is about but it’s the easiest description. Oh, and yes, it’s geeky.

Anyway, there I was - in my kitchen, rain falling, nose running getting wrapped up in a movie that, by style, is very unemotional. Was it the Dayquill with the Claritin chaser? Was it fall rain? Was it the line about what happens to engineers when they turn 40?

It did not click until later when I checked to see if 1ypv was running. Yes, I knew that my response to the movie had to do with Tim and I making work together and about being of a certain age in a creative field but I did not get it until I saw 1ypv was still down.

Now, if you have seen this movie you know that the two characters travel in time by entering side by side boxes. You know that as part of this movement in time they need to isolate themselves afterwards. They go to a hotel, turning off the TV, unplug the phone and just sit around. So, yes, it has a surface relation to 1ypv. I think the thing that bothered me was somewhere underneath the formal similarities.

In the movie, when a person moves in time, they fracture their identity. You have the person who moves and the person who stays. You get a feeling of alienation or loss between the characters and the left behind selves. Seeing 1ypv not running I had the slight feeling that one of my selves had stopped and that if it started running again it might not be the same self.

Okay, just try to think about it when you look in the mirror while brushing your teeth tonight. You’ll see what I mean.

A feeling of loss, a feeling of being fractured in time, a feeling of not being able to control one’s fate – perhaps this was what was being triggered by the film. Then again, maybe it was just a low grade fever. permanent link to this post

and so…

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

summer starts again. permanent link to this post

and more and more awesome every day

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“EVERYTHING WILL BE OK”, the new issue of This Is A Magazine (with some work by MTAA), comes as a downloadable Powerpoint presentation. Did any of that make any sense? No? That’s OK. permanent link to this post

an art review

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Make it now, the debris of former industrial NY arranged via improved performance triggering nostalgia. permanent link to this post

america

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

MLK Day permanent link to this post

AIOTD Surrender

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is another Art Idea of the Day. Build a large stucco dome. Paint it dark red. Set a white flag, on a pole, at the top of the dome. permanent link to this post

all I need to say right now…

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

WAR, CISCO KID, THE permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Un Meme- able Net Art

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A webpage that can not be seen from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. Page consists of a single jpeg (maybe a parked car) that takes around a 20 minute to load. permanent link to this post

Give and take

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

AIOTD, A Mobius Strip out of 20 dollar bills and clear tape. Yes, it is a bar art project for you and your friends. permanent link to this post

AIOTD – Stretch Noguchi Table

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Build a 20ft long Noguchi Table (black) permanent link to this post

AIOTD Sonic outlaw outlaws

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Make an unauthorized remix of Craig Baldwin’s documentary “Sonic Outlaws” for the internet. Reason? Doug Kahn’s dis of the net as “mail art”…and because it’s funny. permanent link to this post

AIOTD – Pre-Date

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Our update series takes experimental performance based artwork from the 60s-70s and automates them with computer technology. Okay, yes. That is not what we are doing with the Updates but “automates with computer technology” seems to yank at people’s chains. So, that is what we tend to say.

Anyway, I think we have been going in the wrong direction. Resounding established works is one thing, but what if we went the other direction?

AIOTD – Create an artwork based on young performance artist. Ideally artist is still in school or having first one-person show. permanent link to this post

AIOTD Pre-Rejected Pre-Approved Performance

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“Pre-Rejected Pre-Approved Performance” is a list of 10 performance based artworks that have been rejected by curators at various art venues world wide. An online vote via the MTAA website will determine which one of the performances will be created for a show. An 8.5 x 11 inch framed drawing with the list and documentation of the voting process is shown next to the final work. Note: Depending on the work selected on the website, the resulting work may be shown only as documentation in the form of a print or DVD. 2nd Note: This AIOTD was just sent to a curator who will now accept or reject our rejections. Got it? Good. permanent link to this post

AIOTD – Mr. iPod Head

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In the studio last night, T.Whid thought that iPod video could be actually size. I first thought of a loop of a penny spinning on side. Then T. Whid said it could be an eye looking around. That became two iPods, side by side, with two eyes. I tossed in an upside down iPod mouth under the eyes. Alex, who was also at the studio, suggested different bodies for each video. So, in the end, the AIOTD is to make Mr. iPod Head. Yes, It’s kinda Tony Orsler, but in my book, that’s a good thing to be. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Passing Fad Art

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

It seems that a successful strategy for art (and music) these days is making work with a dead fad. Let’s say Rubik’ s cubes or Goth rock. The trick is that the fad has to be somewhat lame but still somehow cool. I’m sure someone is working on a D and D project as I type this. So, just to buck this trend, here is my AIOTD - Jazzercise.. I’m thinking of it as a performance. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Another Blank Conversation

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In software driven two channel video, M. River and T. Whid of MTAA hold a rambling conversation about life and art. Note: It is in some ways like our 5 Small Videos “Blank Conversation” but with a larger text set and randomized call and response permanent link to this post

AIOTD – Dumb Luck Generator (DLG)

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is one T.Whid thought of last night (I guess we can call it an “Art Idea of the Night” but we’ll stick with AIOTD)

A small (4 x 10 inch) window set in a white wall a little above waist height. Next to the window is a number key pad. If you look into the window you will see a pile of new dollar bills (100 in total). If you randomly punch in the right 10 digit number, the window will open.

Side note: Why I named T.Whid’s idea the Dumb Luck Generator.
This morning at the newsstand, two scratch-and-win players consoled each other. “ You just have to stay positive to win a free gift”. My first thought was “free gift” is redundant. My second thought was lotto is not free. My third thought was that you do not have to be positive, you just need to fork over some cash and check the results. My last thought was that I should be a bit more positive and less judgmental first thing in the morning. Anyway, the Dumb Luck Generator is a sculpture about faith. permanent link to this post

AIOTD – jeffKoons Update

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The Updates tend to be of performance based work of the 60’s and 70’s but here is one for an 80’s sculpture. Make a CGI stainless steel rabbit with actions of rabbit generated by software. permanent link to this post

AIOTD – Debaser: an Endless Bass Solo in the Key of C

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

An endless bass solo in the key of C using modified software from the 1 Year Performance Video. Of course, the video segments are shot in a basement and , of course, the solo will be based on the Pixies’ Debaser.

update: of course it will need to be filmed on a military base. permanent link to this post

AIOTD – 100 Words And Blah for Andy

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

An audio and visual text reader that only speaks the 100 most popular English words. “Blah” is used for all other words. Alternating each word, Tim and I speak entered text. When not reading entered text, we read Warhol’s diary. permanent link to this post

AIOTD. content@snoarc

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The problem with the snoarc building at WTC is content. The building is to be a cultural center but whatever goes into it needs to be mindful that the WTC is, in some ways, forever a gravesite. The Drawing Center looks like they have pulled out and the Freedom Center might be asked to withdraw as well. So, here is a simple plan. Fill it with flowers - rooms and rooms of flowers. That’s all. Well, maybe a place for music sometimes, but in general, just flowers. permanent link to this post

AIOTD 040505 MTAA Away Team

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Flash controlled video loops that change when mission destination for transport is selected. Work starts in MTAA studio with destinations like T.Whid’s house. Local Brooklyn Bar, M.River’s Kitchen, Postmasters, The McCoy’s Pad, and so on. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Forget 2004

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A general request to help me forget 2004

As the year come to an end, I would like to ask my friends, family and general cohorts to help me forget that year 2004 ever took place.

It’s not that I had such a terrible year. I’m in a good relationship. I have a job. I think MTAA made some good artwork this year. I have my health. I saw some artwork that I got excited about - off the top of my head - Paper Rad, The Infinite Fill Show, McCoys, Steve Mumford, Brooklyn Gravity Racers, Gregor Schneider, Jennifer Bolande and Pierre Huyghe. I also saw some great concerts this year - Lightning Bolt, AMC, Mission of Burma, Clamp, PTV3, and, of course, Pixies.

On the surface 2004 was all right. That is, expect for the election, the rise of the right, the off target war in Iraq and what I never thought I’d see Americans do in modern times, the torture of humans.

Please understand, it’s not that the good was not good this year or that the bad was bad. Something else makes me want to forget 2004. It’s something in the year I have not been able to point at. I have some weird feeling about the year in general. The year sits in my mouth, tinged with a metallic aftertaste. Sharp and toxic, 2004 is a year I would like to fade.

So, if you could help me out and not mention it after December 31. Thanks. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - 120704 - Cannibalcannibal

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A 3x4x3 table, a computer, a printer, and a paper shredder are covered in zip-up fun fur suites (white, grey, red and black). The suites have small details like ears, tails and air vents. The computer, connected to the internet, picks up and prints all email sent to cannibal@mteww.com. The printed email is then dumped directly into the shedder which is mounted under the table. The shredded email creates a pile on the floor under the table. A portrait (20 x 24 framed c-print) of MTAA as small furry self eating beasts hangs on the wall near the table. The portrait contains the email address for the work. On-line, MTAA will plant the address in various locations to generate email from both humans and spam bots.

Note: Hey, it’s only an idea right now. The email is not active. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - 121404 - Ready Made

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Steal an art idea from this guy. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - 120604 - MTAA as sound

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A interactive sound sculpture in the form of two human sized theremins in a dark and empty room. permanent link to this post

AIOTD 11-11-04

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is another MTAA Art Idea of the Day. This is a rough idea for a show that we might be part of in small town in Austria . The shows theme is Kitsch

MTAA’s Karaoke Death Match 100

It can be said that kitsch is culturally relative. That is, of course, except for Karaoke (contemporary pop songs sung off-tune in a drunken haze of pretend stardom accompanied by a video jukebox) Let us be clear, Karaoke is the kitsch among kitsch but we all love it. We love it and MTAA will now battle with it.

Plan:

A projection (DVD) shows a spilt screen waist-up shot of M. River and T. Whid of MTAA.

M. River is on the left wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. T. Whid is on the right wearing a black button-down shirt. Behind each figure is a video green screen.

One at a time, M. River and T. Whid select and perform a song from a Karaoke machine. They sing until they reach 100 songs. As they sing, the Karaoke video with lyric is displayed behind on the green screen. The entire performance will be done in one take without pause. For 100 songs, we estimate the performance will take 5 hours.

We suspect that over 5 hours of non-stop Karaoke: 1. M.River and T.Whid will try to out perform and/ or outlast each other. 2. Over 5 hours, they will become fatigued and begin to struggle with the songs. 3. It will be very poorly sung and hopefully very funny.

Physical installation:

The installation is fairly straight forward. The work projected with a good set of speakers. permanent link to this post

AIOTD 120204 – Wood Thrush by a creek in West Virginia

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

This is not a MTAA project or really an art project at all. Well, it is kind of art but it is hard to explain. Anyway, basically this is a request for technology help.

A friend of mine would like to set up a way to webcast the sounds of Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina) near a creek on her farm in West Virginia so that she can hear them when she is in Brooklyn. The Wood Thrush is a bird that is not on the endangered species list but apparently should be (ahem - developers). West Virginia is a prime love shack (i.e. breeding ground) for the Wood Thrush. I think this makes their song by the creek a good thing to send out to the world.

So, if you have any thoughts on how to go about this, post them below and I’ll pass them on. permanent link to this post

A Live Dramatic Reading

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Art Idea of The Day (AIOTD) – Bens’ Live Dramatic Reading.

A script for a movie read in a public space by Ben and some friends. (Note: this is Ben’s idea, MTAA is just stealing it and calling it our art)

I’ve run this one by T.whid and P.earl. They have some doubts. They only seem interested if the script is for a movie that has not been made yet. So, if any one out there wants to pass us a script (Sci-fi or Horror would be my top choice.) or point us to a location on the net where one might find a good one, just let me know.

If not, then it’s Star Wars, Episode 4 (a true classic). The only question would be which script revision.

permanent link to this post

AIOTD 11-08-04

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A group show with 5 to 10 artists. Each artist is given one early MTV video to remix / remake. MTAA would make “BugglesX2”. This is the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” slowed down until it is twice as long. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Everyone

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

While driving around the city on a perfect July late afternoon, T. Whid told me about his AIOTD (Art Idea of the Day). The following is my half remembered and somewhat modified description of his idea.

“Everyone we know’s Ideal Artwork That Was Never Made Has Now Been Made” A plywood sculpture/ environment/ performance that combines F.O.G. / Monument to the Third International / Thunderdome / Revenge of the Nerds and Classic Quake. Work contains 3 or more work/ battle stations, some big projections and a sound system with very nasty sub woofers. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Bass

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A performance project consisting of a band called “Wall Of Sucky Bass (WOSB)” or “League of Crapy Bass Players (LOCBP)”. The band is made up of 7 or more bass players of indeterminate skill. The band will learn one and only one song: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. This song will be presented as a sing-a-long. Goal of project is to play out at a rock club at least once.

Update – My bass instructor, Hostile 17, just sent me new the instructions

Update x2 - I got 4 bass players to join the band last night. I need at least 2 more. Also, found out that the song clocks in at 17 min. Perfect. permanent link to this post

AIOTD - (from T.whid) Waiting Room for the Internet

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A white page with no links playing some sad Musak loop. permanent link to this post

random mtaaRR name

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

The comments section of the mtaaRR asks for your name. I’ve noticed that a few people post under aliases. AIOTD - We could have a drop down option for shy people that generates a random MTAA name (one letter a dot then 4 letters – Yes, I know M.River and P.erl – Alex’s MTAA name - do not work but we thought of the name rule only recently). So anyway – random MTAA name generator. Total nerd style. permanent link to this post

Ahhhh sweet schadenfreude….

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

When I’m feeling a bit “unposty” (nice one twhid), I like link to hiLARIous articles by MTAA fan HASP

What’s Portuguese for ‘no-talent hack’? permanent link to this post

AIOTD – Adventures in the Studio

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

An online video project based on the old “interactive” (not really) structure of choose-your-own-adventure. Work starts with a loop of T.Whid and I staring at the walls in our studio. Text reads: “Your pals MTAA are thinking about art again and they need your help. Should they make a painting, a sculpture or some overacted performance art?” permanent link to this post

ah, spring

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Performance Art ?

No, silly, it’s a bunch of super secret Yale society hi-jinks. Behold our near future. Shhh… permanent link to this post

AFC on Believer

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

“Art Fag City” posted some thoughts on the Believer event.

Thanks AFC. permanent link to this post

Advent Art from Frankie

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Frankie Martin, who will be part of our 2B Listen 2 project in 06 (yes, sometimes next year - yes, we are going slow on this), sent us an Advent Calendar / Meta Sci Fi Christmas Musical made with her friend Joe Milutus.

DON’T DRIVE TODAY WITH YESTERDAY’S MAPS

Check it! permanent link to this post

AADL update 05-27-05

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Okay listen up everyone. Right now the AADL is right behind that farting saucer site and the porno for stockbroker thing. If we get pass them, we land in the top 20. It looks like the fart saucer stats have flat lined but we are about 1,000 users behind.

Using a Olympic weight lifting analogy, we have succeeded in the clean and now need to power it up for the jerk…or something like that.

Anyway, we need your help now. We need stories for the blog and we need some new ideas as to how to get another 1,000 people today.

Go AADL Go.

Ready…BREAK permanent link to this post

AADL Update

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Just a quick update on the Artist Anti Defamation League

We have dug our way out of the 30’s in the CM Showdown and we just found a fan site. Well, it’s sorta like having a fan site.

So, keep clicking and we might get into the top 10. Here is a handy little email from Astrid that you can pass on.

+++
How can YOU support the Artist Anti-Defamation League (without spending any money)??!!!

Click on http://artistadl.org at least once from both your home and work computer.

Forward http://artistadl.org to every person you ever knew. Ask them to click on http://artistadl.org from both their home and work computers.

Post http://artistadl.org on your personal blog and every blog or bulletin board you ever went to.

LINK to the AADL Web site from YOUR Web site.

Click through every blog on the AADL LINKS PAGE from both your HOME and WORK computer.

Print OUR FLYER and make a bunch of copies and leave them anywhere OPPRESSED and otherwise DEFAMED artists are known to frequent. (Xerox from work and it’s totally free! Take BACK from THE MAN!!!)

Post responses on the AADL BLOG!!! EMAIL the AADL drippy and overly-enthusiastic letters of support and/or scathing criticism or personal insults about the AADL, our crappy spelling and grammar, sloppy coding, Jackson Pollack, Bob Ross or even Georgia O?Keefe!! Send us your personal stories of artistic defament (real or imagined) either BY or AGAINST YOU!!! We?ll POST them all, and respond either as over-enthusiastically or as scathingly as our personal time allows.

EMAIL text or Photoshopped THREATS & INSULTS. Defame ANY Artist(s) in any way YOU deem appropriate!!! We’ll even post your threatening video—providing the technical stuff is compliant with our stuff (EMAIL and we’ll discuss).

JOIN the AADL! Receive the latest AADL ACTION ALERTS & BREAKING NEWS ?AS THEY OCCUR!!!

Put http://artistadl.org on your FRIENDSTER profile.

Put http://artistadl.org on your MY SPACE profile.

Put http://artistadl.org in your NERVE PERSONALS profile.

Make http://artistadl.org your EMAIL signature line.

$$$For non-starving artists whose Art careers are booming and wish to give back to the community$$$:

BUY AADL APPAREL & MERCHANDISE!!! Wear or display the AADL proudly. Our crap makes great gifts!!! It’s never too soon to start your Christmas Shopping!!! Father?s Day is just around the corner!!! Memorial Day is May 30th! What a great day to show your AADL PRIDE!!!!

LEGAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: Failing to click on AND forward http://artistadl.org will result in VERY BAD THINGS HAPPENING TO YOU. For example, Mary Smith of Des Moines, Iowa, received this EMAIL and refused to forward OR click on http://artistadl.org from either her HOME or WORK computer. Mary was later killed in a horrible defamation-related accident!!! Her support of the AADL (http://artistadl.org) could have prevented her unspeakable demise. DON’T let Mary Smith?s FATE befall YOU!!!!!

To remove yoursleves from spam like this just Click http://artistadl.org permanent link to this post

AADL update 05-26-05

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Looks like we have another fan blog going on over at live journal. Why not start your own AADL fan site today?

Oh, by the way - Mom, if you’re reading this - yes, the new picture on the AADL is in bad taste but we’re fighting for a cause here. Sometimes you got to break a few eggs. Know what I mean? permanent link to this post

A Cool 7 Hour Performance in Soho (seen only by 4 people?)

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

A photo showing the near end of Lee Walton’s Garbage Day performance is now up on Tintype. (The photo shows a worn out and cold Theo making his secound to last drop. Lee can be seen in the street behind the flash) permanent link to this post

“IN THE NIGHT , SUDDENLY, I WAKE UP AND THINK….”

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hello MTAA_RR readers, Here is a note from Abe L. , Jim P. and the good folks over at SCREENFULL. Enjoy. +++++++

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NOW IN LIVE A REAL DIRECT INTERNET BOXE MATCH ONLY FOR YOU

ASK TO GET YOUR OWN MIX IN ONE CLICK MAILTO:1@SCREENFULL.NET

ThINK ABOUT IT FOR GIFTS TO YOUR BEST FRIENDS AND FOR YOUR FAMILY

“”WHAAAWW !!!!WHAT A GREAT IDEA !!! FOR ME A PERSONAL PERFORMANCE WEB PAGE ON SCREENFULL.NET!!! YEAAHH”” Tim \/\

“”IN THE NIGHT , SUDDENLY, I WAKE UP AND THINK, WHAT THE SHIT HAPPEND IN SCREENFULL.NET AND I OPEN MY COMPUTER? THIS IS ALWAYS CRAZY”“.Mark R.

“”I KNOW THEM, THEY ARE TWO”” Abe L.

“”YES “”” Aniie 4

“”I ASK FOR ONE AT CHRISTMAS FOR ONE OF MY BEST FRIEND, DONOT TELLHIM, ITS A SURPRISE”“Tom |\/

JOIN US FOR FREE AT 1@SCREENFULL.NET AND CHECK FOR THE BEST DEAL

ONLY FOR YOU YOU CAN GET A PASSWORD FOR YOUR WEBPAGE AND NOBODY CAN SEE IT !

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1. You can mix alcohol drinks with SCREENFULL Soft WEBpage without any undesired effects.
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- DON’T MISS THE CHANCE - BE THE FIRST TO GET A MIX

permanent link to this post

found in the NYT, at 7am, on the subway, as I travel to my day job…

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Interactive art is irritating.

Sarah Boxer on the 05 cyberarts festival permanent link to this post

hot from the oven net art by jimpunk

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

beuys ala jimpunk

JA JA JA JA JA NEE NEE NEE NEE NEE

AsCii Sound rem:x permanent link to this post

5SV

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Hey look Twhid, a lo-fi delete delete permanent link to this post

#2 google for “mtaarr”

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

sound art ?

note - push play permanent link to this post

3, it’s a magic number

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

On Feb 9, the MTAA-RR turns 3. To celebrate, here is our blog’s horoscope

Your personal ruling planets are Uranus and Mars.

You are governed by the bold and energetic Mars, the passionate, active and impulsive person you are. Certainly courageous, quick and fiery and never one to back down from an argument. You never like laziness, are always working on new projects and like to be the first and best at what you do. The combined effect of Uranus and Mars however indicates you need to take a little bit of precaution as you are prone to injury.

Always take note of the road rules, always take precautions in health and don’t be in a mad rush to achieve your goals or get to your destinations. As the old saying goes “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Your lucky colours are red, maroon and scarlet.

Your lucky gems are red coral and garnet.

Your lucky days of the week are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Your lucky numbers and years of important change are 9, 18, 27, 36. 45, 54, 63, 72

Famous people born on your birthday include William H. Harrison, Dean Rusk, Mia Farrow, Ronald Colman, Joe Pesci, Danni Leigh, Charles Shaughnessy and Amber Valletta. permanent link to this post

4pm, still at work

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

vlog art?

Okay, this one is a bit dated but I just found it today. It made up for the other two art world readings posted below. MTAA may not be on the A lists, but when cute faux and obscure newscasters mention your art…the world feels kind of all right. permanent link to this post

2004

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

happy new year
please, please ask MTAA to show some art in 2004. we need a show. we are now 100 percent gallery and museum ready. ask us for a studio visit.

here is just one example of fine, ready to show MTAA art from 2003 permanent link to this post

12 noon at my day job desk…

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

social diary art? permanent link to this post

Karaoke Smashup

posted at 16:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Here is a art project by some students of JM.

Karaoke Smashup

at MatchlessThursday, June 9th, 9:00 pm.

Karaoke Smashup takes an experimental twist on Karaoke. In this multimedia extravaganza, artists’ videos, audio, and texts collide with the elements of spontaneous performance. Karaoke Smashup breaks all the barriers of the traditional “art performance scenario” by providing full contact between local artists and their audience in a casual bar environment. Audience members are encouraged to participate.

Featuring works by Jill Auckenthaler, Rebecca Dolan, Carl Ferrero, Carrie Fucile, David Gitt, Marni Kotak, Nick Lesley, Sarah Phillips and Robert Ramirez.

Music will be provided by DJ Ó and DJ Rob the Rich

This event was curated by Jennifer McCoy, organized by Madeleine Gallagher and Susan Landau, and produced as a collaborative community art project between PIMA, Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College and the artist community of MFA Students in the Fine Arts Program at Brooklyn College. Admission is Free. permanent link to this post

Selected Exhibitions

HYPER-RUNT
2004, group show, curated by Ebon Fisher and Emily Zimmerman, exhibited at National Products Building, Philadelphia, PA

<PAUSE>
2004, group show, curated by MobileGaze.org, exhibited at Oboro, Montreal, Quebec

Beta Launch: Eyebeam Artists in Residence ‘02
2002, group show, organized by Eyebeam Atelier.

(718) A Bridge To Brooklyn
2002, group show, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Whitney Artport
2001, The Whitney Museum Portal To Net Art, gate page project.

Pixel Plunder
2001, group show, organized by Year Zero One, curated by Michael Alstad and Michelle Kasprzak.

Tipping Point
2001, group show, White Columns, curated by Lauren Ross

Art Entertainment Network
2000, group show, organized by the Walker Art Center, curated by Steve Dietz.

Protocol Prone
2000, group show, curated by Jennifer Crowe. (read a review)

Use Nor Ornament
2000, group show, The Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK, curated by Sarah Cook, Helen Smith & Ele Carpenter.

The Upgrade!
A monthly gathering of new media artists and curators in New York City.

Projects At Walden Gallery
2001, Walden, NYC, NY

In 2001, M.River curated a series of exhibitions at Walden, a small gallery in NYC’s lower east side.

Lo-Fi Baroque
1998, Thread Waxing Space, NYC, NY

Curated by M.River (AKA Michael Sarff) and Carol Stakenas.

participating artists
Peggy Ahwesh, Barry Barlett, Thereas Brezany, Gregory Green, Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg, Rachel Harrison, James Hyde, Cary S. Leibowitz / Candyass, Cotter Luppi, Vik Muniz, Amy O’Neill, Elizabeth Zawada, Thomas Zummer

film-night artists
Peggy Ahwesh, Mike Ballou, Brian Dewan, Michael Gitlin, Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenburg, Rafael Montanez Ortiz, Julie Murray, Lee Ranaldo, Jimmy Raskin, Leah Singer, Nozomu Suwa, Leslie Thornton, Elaine Tin Nyo, Kevin Walsh and Jeffrey Reiman

Catalouge Project: “Static Fragments Afterimages”

7” x 7”, 32 pages. (Available for 10.00 USD, contact M.River to obtain a copy.) By Thomas Zummer, with disographies by Michael Sarff and Carol Stakenas.

Imagine holding a large and almost round pearl in your hand. Peering into its translucent surface, one may attempt to view one’s refection. The distortion of your view within the surface’s flaws may be a point where understanding and meaning occurs.

Long MTAA Biography

MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates) is a Brooklyn, New York-based conceptual and net art collaboration founded in 1996. Please read this explanation of MTAA naming.

m.river cartoon portrait

M.River was born in Iowa in 1967. After some time he moved to Ohio where he met his friend T. Whid in art school. After a bit of time in a Michigan grad school, M. River began his life as an artist in the then untamed outbacks of Brooklyn, NY. In Brooklyn, he rejoined his friend T. Whid (around 1997 or so) and together they began the collaboration known as MTAA.

When not working as a Net / Conceptual / Early 21st Century American Artist, M. River works as a carpenter at a “world class museum” to pay his bills. M. River may be the only Net Artist in the world to have received his forklift operator license from the National Safety Council. When not making art or building walls, M.River enjoys music, camping, the beaches of Long Island, Rolling Rock beer (no endorsement, it’s not that great a beer) and bicycling the streets of New York.

M. River’s five favorite topics for online chat currently are:

I still belive in Net Art
Classism in contemporary America
Painters
Para-Normal Architecture
Text as art

T. Whid was born and raised near Lake Erie in Northern Ohio. After a stint in art school, he relocated to Brooklyn, NYC. During the early 90s, T. Whid was involved with underground comix. His work, created with the poet Chistie Haag, was published in zines like “World War 3”, “Bloody Wymen” and “Top Shelf”. T. Whid also co-edited and co-published the short lived Brooklyn comix anthology “Burger”. Around this time T. Whid also designed and painted a large cartoon mural at the Bronx roller rink “The Key”. This mural is enjoyed by thousands of skaters each year.

In 1996, T. Whid, with his friend, M. River, formed the on-going art collaboration MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates). During the daytime T. Whid works at an on-line media company as a graphic designer. When not at his job or creating art with MTAA, T.Whid enjoys music, watching movies, bicycling the streets of NYC, fine dining, and playing Unreal Tournament and chess.

MTAA’s examinations of networked culture, the economics of art, digital materials, and the institutional art world take the form of web sites, installations, sculptures, and photographic prints. Their work has been commissioned by The Alternative Museum, Creative Time, and The Whitney Museum of American Art and has been exhibited by PS1 Art Center (New York, 2000), The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, 2000) and Eyebeam Atelier (New York, 2002).

See MTAA’s resumé for a full account of their creative activities.

MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates)

the MTAA-RR

about the MTAA-RR

MTAA-RR:

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10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli 2005, web page, $100 worth of deli goods, digital video, wood Artists' Space, We are all Together: Media(ted) Performance

Sep 12, 2006

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Sep 09, 2006

Sep 06, 2006

10 Pre-Rejected, Pre-Approved Performances: Midnight In The Deli
2005, web page, $100 worth of deli goods, digital video, wood
Artists' Space, We are all Together: Media(ted) Performance