Archive for the ‘net art’ tag
Thumbing Youtube
Jodi, Thumbing Youtube, 2009 – ongoing.
All Over
Samuel Bianchini, All Over, 2009.
All Over is a beautiful internet piece currently on show in the brand new “virtual space” of the Jeu de Paume, Paris. From the press release: “‘All Over‘ is a piece of Internet art involving a series of images formed exclusively out of typographic characters, in the manner of ASCII art, made by using the display techniques of the first computers. Here, however, the figures and letters composing the images are dynamic and keep changing: they are generated in real time by the financial flows on stock exchanges around the world. Originating in fixed photographs, these transformed images are thus dependent on financial movements, which both feed and disrupt them at the same time. Destabilised by their system of representation, their meaning too becomes unstable. These pictures without captions seem to be constantly struggling for their visibility and their uncertain reality: demonstration, traders, supporters, a religious or political rally?”
Will Gompertz and Net Art
I just posted the comment below on Gomp /arts, Will Gompertz’s blog on the BBC website. Three days ago Mr. Gompertz, currently the BBC arts editor, posted an article where he claims that he “can’t find any net-based art of note”. No surprise that this article produced a lot of rumor on new media art magazines and mailing lists…
Whole Earth Catalogue
[ITALIAN VERSION BELOW]
Video selection for the series “Playlist”, Neoncampobase, Bologna (Italy)
Opening: January 27, 2010
Curated by: Domenico Quaranta.
Founded by the American writer Stewart Brand in 1968, the Whole Earth Catalogue (WEC) was a catalogue of tools that was regarded as a bible by the counterculture generation – that is, by those who shaped the techno-cultural environment we are living in. Published regularly until 1972 and sporadically until 1998, it definitely died with the rise of the Web, of which it is considered a conceptual forerunner by people such as Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) and Kevin Kelly (founder of Wired). WEC was conceived as an “evaluation and access device” meant to bring power and knowledge to the people. It featured excellent reviews of books, maps, professional journals, courses, and classes, along with objects of any kind, from gardening tools to computers. Everybody could submit a review for the catalogue.
Like the WEC reviewers, the artists in this exhibition are contributing to a shared resource; like them, they love their tools and, like them, they are interested in understanding the world as a whole. What did change, in the meantime – and mostly thanks to the WEC generation – is the world itself.
Seppukoo
Seppukoo is – no kidding – the killer app in terms of social networking. I got in love with it the very first time I heard wispers about it. Now I’m really proud to announce my brand new memorial page.
Seppukoo is a project by the imaginary art-group Les Liens invisibles (www.lesliensinvisibles.org). It helps you to suicide your virtual identity, apparently deleting your account on Facebook. While doing it, it spreads the suicide virus among your friends. In the meantime, it creates a memorial page – an account – for you on Seppukoo.com, which is nothing more than a social network of wannabe self-murderers. Yet, when you go back to Facebook, you’ll discover that your suicide was merely simbolic, because you can reactivate your Facebook account just logging in again. Through parody, parasitism and viral distribution, Seppukoo shows how difficult it is to regain control on your identity, data and information when you gifted them to a social network. Life never ends – at least, on Facebook!
