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4316: History and Theory of Digital Art
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| The US Departmetn of Art and Technology enables artists to move their works into a broader scene. It seems to denote that art ask questions and by asking these questions in a more publicly visible arena, the questions (idea) can more readily be acted upon. It promotes media art and denounces corporate control of the media. It encourages the use of art to address issues of politics and society.
It is located in the Executive Branch, and is the lead US cultural agency. The secratary is the Presidents's principal art and technology adviser. Its budget is less than .1% of the total federal budget and goes towards such activities as exploration of virtual spaces, and technological assistance programs.
The secretary of the department is secretary Randall M. Packer. He represent the United States in aesthetic and cultural matters generally and also gives advice and opinions to the President. Additionally, he appears in person to represent the government before the US supreme court and congress in cases where the "visionary aspirations of the avant garde is of exceptional gravity or importance to the nation." When chosen for the position, Packer pledged to renew the war on cultural poverty, reduce the incidence of one way exchange on information between an active agent and a passive recipient and ocmbat discrimination so no American feels outside the field of aesthetic inquiry of the contemporary media arts. He works to encourage participatory artworks and protect alternative art spaces.
I believe that the slogan "Representation through Virtualization" is a means to represent people from disenfranchised backgrounds by encouraging digital artworks from these areas. They can address these issues in the digital arena and enter the artistic cultural scene, possibly more readily than from other genres of art, dispite differing backgrounds. The reason I think this is because the site made mention of art from the barrios of new york and the lofts of san fransisco.
The experimental party is an artist based political party aiming to incorporate the avant garde and the spirit of experimentalism into the mainstream. Their platform is to create meaningful and enduring change in the political process. They aim to empower the experimental and the disenfranchised and enable them to become active citizens.
Their candidate is Abe Golam, an avatar. (A Golem is like a doll created from materials by man; I assume Abe is a spin off of abe lincoln....so this is a presidential avatar). He proposes that the true battle for democracy will be fought on computer networks.
Their political platforms seems to be to involve everyone in the political process and to vocalize their political voice...people from all backgrounds. Their party is artist run and they believe the artist is the number one means in shaping this goal into a reality.
I would support this party, and may join, but if it came down to it, I would not vote for such a party at this time. Though our country claims to be open to multiple parties running for president, it is in reality and practice, a two party system. The chances of someone who is not democrat or republican winning the presidency is slim, and, at this time in history, I feel it is more important to assure that someone who is more sane, capable, and who has this countries BEST interests at heart, (which is generally, not the current person), gets into office. I feel that at this time, it is not worth the risk of GWB rewinning the presidency to vote for another candidate from a party that isn't democrat. I am in full support of multiple parties, but this country is still too closed minded to let that happen...my words here may seem closed minded, but I'm just thinking about the big picture...if the current president wasn't such a threat to our rights, economy and general well being, then I definitely would consider voting for someone who was not democrat.
The media deconstruction kit seems to take the images, words, and sounds from actualy media broadcasts, and reconstructs them into a sensory experience. "The MDK scrambles live news broadcasts and puts the altered matter out on the Net as a revolutionary weapon."
Ad Infinitum seems to address issues of branding, corporate identity and globalization, and how the media tries to make people believe that it is directly related to money, and our sense of peace, happiness and spirituality. I found this particularly interesting because I'm interested in branding and notice how brands are EVERYWHERE. State of Emergence was very poetic in it's imagery and sync with the music. The name along with the video makes me think that the piece is about after 911 and how we chose to emerge from it, with force, attacking another people (who we never really claimed had anything to do with 911)...who is the evil one, really? I believe the artists are bringing up political issues with art. This is art, it raises questions, addresses issues and aims to make people aware. |   |
| Lynn Hershman Leeson, who is a Professor of Art at the University of California, Davis, is the artist behind Tillie the Telerobotic Doll. Tillie is a doll with camera for eyes. By clicking on her eyes, you can see what Tillie sees. I found this exhibit to be rather creepy which is the main reason why I decided to investigate the artist, Lynn. Along with Tillie, Lynn also created CybeRoberta, which is another doll with virtually the same functions. You click on the eyes to see what the doll sees. A lot of Lynn's work revolves around cyborgs, voyeurism and surveillance. Tillie, and CybeRoberta both appear to be surveillance dolls that have cameras built in to their eyes so they can record the occurances in a room without anyone knowing.
In addition to Tillie and CybeRoberta, Lynn Hershman Leeson's additional net works include the Difference Engine, Time and Time Again and Synthia, which is a piece create for the Charles Schwab lobby and is a virtual woman who reacts in real time to changing stock market data. If the stock market is doing well, Synthia cheers and does backflips. If the stockmarket is doing poorly, then Synthia pounds on her desk and her pet fish die.
Lynn Hershman Leeson has also worked on many film projects. Her first feature film, Conceiving Ada, is a story about Lady Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, who was credited with writing the first computer program and predicting the digital revolution that occurred over 100 years after her death. The movie involves a modern day woman, Emmy, who is a genetic memory expert, who tries to communicate directly with Ada with a computer DNA memory extension. As the story progresses, Emmy's life begins to intertwine with Ada's life. In an interview regarding Conceiving Ada, Lynn states that her academic background did not help her in film because "you get categorized as a professor, an academic, which really has nothing to do with the story you are telling". She also said that if Ada was alive today, that should would probably be working on the internet.
Her second major film, Teknolust is the story about a biogeneticist who creates three "self-replicating automatons" from her own DNA, who are part human and part computer and are named Ruby, Olive and Marine. The SRAs act as 'portals' on the Internet, helping users to fulfill their dreams, and are nourished through touch. Lynn also created AgentRuby.com as an extension to the film. At this site, you can have a virtual conversation with Ruby. | | |
| | Security: | | | Subject: | Reviews | | Time: | 12:15 pm |
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| Loaded 5x, by Doug Aitken and Dean Kuipers appears to be two stories that are interwoven. The project beings with several images pieced together to form what looks like a quote or deep thought touting how we all are waiting to find out our purpose in life is. I searched for the quote online and could only find one other instance of it, which was simply someone else quoting it without referencing the author of the quote (perhaps the creators of the project also created this thought). Clicking the first text brings up one of two images. The principle subject of one of the images is a man smoking a cigarette and the other is of a woman. The woman also appears in the background of the image focusing on the man but I cannot find the man in her image. Both images are image maps where the linkable areas surround the different figures in the image. Clicking any of the figures takes the user to another, different page from any of the other linkable pictures. Each subsequent picture may consist of an image (with or without linkable areas and may or may not be a link itself), or and image with text underneath. Following through the project several times, I saw that some of the picture combinations show up for both the man and the woman’s stories. The feel of the project reminded me a lot of the ‘choose your own adventure’ book that were fairly popular a long time ago. I searched online and while the online version are lacking in comparison to the actual books of yore, here is a small example of a choose your own adventure game. In the books, you were given a few options that you could choose based on your current condition. Sometime, the different paths would overlap, but you would have to go through the book several times and choose something different each time in order to know what all of the options would lead to.
Screen by Joshua Decter, describes itself as an ‘interplay of exhibition and television pictures.’ In essence, the project consists of four panels and each panel displays and image. Each image can either be a picture of and exhibition (mostly paintings displayed on a wall) or of a screenshot from a television. When the user clicks an image, a new page will load in which only that image has changed. If the user gets every panel to display a television image, then the next time any panel is clicked, all of the panels will change. Classification of this piece is somewhat difficult and it can not fall under strictly ‘net art’ nor strictly ‘art on the net’. Following the “What is Net Art” email on ZKP, this piece seems to be a mixture of both. The images used would definitely be ‘art on the net’ as they are merely images of scenes found outside the realm of the net, photographed or scanned into the computer and placed on the web. However the project itself could be considered ‘netart’ as it specifically functions on the net. | | |
| Walter Benjamin in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction speaks a lot about reproduction and what that does to the art world. With reproduction so wide spread, what is ‘original?’ Especially in the world of net art, where appropriation and reproduction is a key practice, what is the original piece of artwork? What does the reproduction do for art? Can both the original and the reproduction be art?
Vannevar Bush’s description of the memex, from 1945’s What We May Think sounds conspicuously similar to technology that exists today. It sounds very much like the internet experience. Centrally located items that can be copied and sent to other people easily. This technology has enabled net artists to create their work. An odd practice indeed. Taking another person’s ‘certified’ art and sending it through a blender with several other ‘certified’ artists’ work, smoothing out the creases and calling it your own ‘art.’ A strange concept indeed, very controversial among art viewers and barely recognized as ‘art’ by the general public.
Virtual art definitely needs the museum as well as vice versa. The museum’s purpose, ultimately, is to display to the public and provide a controlled environment for experiencing art, both old and new. Virtual art is an important movement in the world today and it is the museum’s duty to educate the world and make them aware of the characteristics of virtual art.
Most people aren’t even aware of virtual or net art. Almost anyone who hears the term ‘virtual art’ will think computers and as such will expect to view virtual art on a computer. The museum would be an excellent place to show the public that, while a lot of virtual art is created and even exhibited on a computer screen, this is not necessarily a concrete fact. Virtual art can be exhibited in many ways and the public would receive the opportunity to see that virtual art can be displayed differently in different installations.
Today, most people do not take the time to experience net art. If they are aware of it, generally they won’t specifically search for it. If they stumble upon it, they may play with it for a few minutes but would rarely sit down with the piece to fully experience it and to figure it out. Most people would play a bit, think that it was ‘neat’ and move on with their lives, having learned and truly experienced nothing. Even if such a piece was exhibited in a museum, people wouldn’t try to understand it too much. Until net art is commonplace in museums, people won’t worry about trying to understand and experience net art. When it becomes commonplace, people will think, “This is important, I should learn more about it.” | | |
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4316: History and Theory of Digital Art
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