Studies in the ASCII Nude.
New Six Rules Compliant Net.Art From Eryk Salvaggio.
http://www.salsabomb.com/nude/
I have always considered the sexual element of the world wide web to be
either ignored or presented as though there is only professional porn on
the internet. The phenomenon of "Cam Girls", for example, blurs this
line between gross commercial exploitation and a kind of feminine
empowerment. I came across the scene while involved with my own online
diary; to me, there is little difference between exposing yourself
online and writing with any kind of honesty; both are a kind of
exhibitionism. While I immediately rejected the idea, later it came back
as an obvious source of material for "net.art nudes." I hadn't seen
nudes created in this medium before, excepting the pornographic
displays, which is interesting to me, since you see the nude figure
represented in almost every other media and style since the dawn of
mediums and styles. There is something about the representation of a
nude body that really defines any given art form. The images were used
with permission [she loves them, in fact] and, as always, feed back is
welcome and hoped for.
[Oh, and you could probably figure this out, but even though there is
nothing even resembling "pornography" presented, it might not be
suitable for a workplace viewing environment.]
Cheers,
-e.
New Net.Art From Eryk Salvaggio
-
Type: discussion
Comments
<body>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">eryk,</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">>I think from that
point on the idea of </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> the nude was
seen as an antithesis of the internet- the nude was </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> personal, gender
specific, and inescapable.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">ironic, as it seems to be the ideas
of interactivity & play may have
become inescapable now…?</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> You can run from
txt files </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> about your body
but not images. The flip side was on the commercial </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> sphere where,
as the saying goes, the main engine that drives the </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> development of
media since the 1960's is pornography. VCRs, DVDs, the </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Internet, etc,
were all pretty much pioneered for the sake of </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Pornography-
that is, apparently, the reason for the "angle" function on </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> the DVD players
these days. </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">bloody hell:-) you learn something
new every day…!</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">.>So I think there
was a holdover, </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> intellectually,
from people who were around at the start when the </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> radicals were
here, when the net pioneers were making the heroic early </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> net art it was
tied in very tightly to activist and political circles </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> [this was probably
no doubt connected to the fact that net.art's only </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> outlet at first
was nettime- an activist, political list] so you didn't </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> have room to
do anything that didn't portray the net as- at the minimum- </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> a Leftist Phillip
K Dick version of Walden Pond.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Its interesting you say that. Coming
into all this so late, I still have
trouble building a clear image to what those times were like and how
the 'agendas' that tend to predominate (particularly net.art museum
portals) were created and by whom. I'm gradually getting an idea
through what I've read and seen. It does seem as if there was an
unwritten manifesto (again, ironically considering much of the records
are text-based) to what the net artists concerns should and should not
be.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">>bodies look the
same and </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> sexuality remains
the same whether the hot new technology is Cable </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Modems or Wind
Mills.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> absolutely, apart from the monitor-induced
lines around our eyes and
the slump or our shoulders:-)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> I think what
people who preached about the end of gender were missing </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> was that gender
would remain the same but that there would be a new kind </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> of isolation; </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">yes, I remember reading an interview
with beth stryker (?) when she
said (something like) 'despite all the talk of surfing the net it still a
fundamentally solitary experience' - or words to that effect.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The strange effect of global communication
is the possibility of global
rejection. chat rooms and mailing list have their 'populars' and their
bullies. I often wonder if on the net, the power of the written word has
become the parallel of idea of 'beauty'. That on on net we have started
subtituting the 'beauty' of the body (text) for body (skin). People will
going to english classes and theory classes to be 'accepted' on the net
much in the same way we go to beauty parlours and fitness centres to
be accepted in the real world. Will verbal beauty be the difference
between whos 'in' and who 'out' ? The strange thing thats strikes me
about some of the cam-girl sites is that in this way they are using their
'old style' beauty (nakedness) to buy into this 'new style' beauty (people
reading their words about their lives)…I'm not sure if that's beautifully
modern or a double edged sword…</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> You could be
right! The classic story for that was a friend of mine </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> trying to do
research on lesbians for a sexuality class, typing "lesbian </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> sexuality"
into google and guess what happened next. The same comes true </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Yeah I live in sussex - which the
search engines refused to accept
which is why I always say I live in nowhere, england….</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">cheers, jess.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><br>
</div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">btw the urls for my couple experiments
with the nude are:</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">http://www.rssgallery.com/inertproclivity.htm</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">(flash 5)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">http://www.rssgallery.com/gameboy.htm</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">(html)</span></font></div>
</body>
In a message dated 7/26/2002 7:21:51 AM Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
> "Cam Girls"
Bad girl, what are you tryin' to do?
Bad girl.
nyd1979
eric- hi
I really like what you have done here. I've also questioned the
apparent absent of the nude and tried to use it in my work but I don't
think as successfully as you've done here. Do you think that part of this
[absence] might be as a result of the conscious rejection on the part of
the
net artist (particularly in the early days) to deny the place of the
'real' or the 'body' on the net?. Maybe in an effort to abandon the
constraints of the old school training or perhaps escape the formulas
and
styles of the the traditional idea of the artist. New representations
around the
'new thematics' such as space, play, interactivity replaced the 'old'
investigations of the body: form, flesh,sensuality….. I wonder wether
this rejection will (or has) led to a crisis of representation. (where
are the women doing this…???? ) How, and even if the net.artist can
represent
the body. I feel its currently seen as 'not the done thing'. I guess the
high levels of pornography on the net has also made the artist 'shy' of
developing the nude in net.art. For fear of the category - from the
search
engine to the net museum - grouping things like the nude with
pornography.
The middle-class horror of the net.nanny; that nudity as a subject not fit
for artists working in an environment where children might see (dear
me!)
Probably repeating questions already asked, but you know my 'thing'
for
the domestic. Skin is about as domestic as you can get. I'd like to see
much more of the kind of work you've been doing… cheers, jess. > >
>
> Studies in the ASCII Nude.
> New Six Rules Compliant Net.Art From Eryk Salvaggio.
>
> http://www.salsabomb.com/nude/
>
> I have always considered the sexual element of the world wide web to be
> either ignored or presented as though there is only professional porn on
> the internet. The phenomenon of "Cam Girls", for example, blurs this
> line between gross commercial exploitation and a kind of feminine
> empowerment. I came across the scene while involved with my own online
> diary; to me, there is little difference between exposing yourself
> online and writing with any kind of honesty; both are a kind of
> exhibitionism. While I immediately rejected the idea, later it came back
> as an obvious source of material for "net.art nudes." I hadn't seen
> nudes created in this medium before, excepting the pornographic
> displays, which is interesting to me, since you see the nude figure
> represented in almost every other media and style since the dawn of
> mediums and styles. There is something about the representation of a
> nude body that really defines any given art form. The images were used
> with permission [she loves them, in fact] and, as always, feed back is
> welcome and hoped for.
>
> [Oh, and you could probably figure this out, but even though there is
> nothing even resembling "pornography" presented, it might not be
> suitable for a workplace viewing environment.]
>
> Cheers,
> -e.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> + yeah yeah yeah…
> -> Rhizome.org
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php3
In a message dated 7/26/2002 8:16:42 AM Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
> Coming into all this so late
I'm a little late to net.art too Jess; by '98, when I blew my cherry, most of
the roster was already chosen. Thankfully now we are in post-netart. In
medias res, i.e., I back you one hundo percent if you don't object. All
systems go. Harder and harder!
I love the nudes vis-a-vis the Ancient Greek stele genre, anyone know it?
I was also thinking about Transgression in Bernini's Theresa while watching
an utter abomination of a film called "Stigmata". Can we discuss the Theresa
sculpture viz the nudes?
Please mommy?
Max
++
Looks like we're reverse engineering the thread…..I posted this to
Jess offlist but decided maybe some Rhizomers
might have some interest in it.
-e.
Jess Loseby wrote:
> eric- hi I really like what you have done here. I've also questioned
> the apparent absent of the nude and tried to use it in my work but I
> don't think as successfully as you've done here.
Do you have any links to some of the works yr talking about?
>
> Do you think that part of this [absence] might be as a result of the
> conscious rejection on the part of the net artist (particularly in the
> early days) to deny the place of the 'real' or the 'body' on the net?.
> Maybe in an effort to abandon the constraints of the old school
> training or perhaps escape the formulas and styles of the the
> traditional idea of the artist. New representations around the 'new
> thematics' such as space, play, interactivity replaced the 'old'
> investigations of the body: form, flesh,sensuality…..
I remember looking at a lot of the work that people were doing on gender
and what have you when the web started up; this was back in the tribal
utopian internet "global village" rave days of the mid 90's, and
everyone was saying MOO's and MUD's were going to make it so that no one
had a gender anymore, that all of it was blurred because you could be
whatever you wanted on the net. I think from that point on the idea of
the nude was seen as an antithesis of the internet- the nude was
personal, gender specific, and inescapable. You can run from txt files
about your body but not images. The flip side was on the commercial
sphere where, as the saying goes, the main engine that drives the
development of media since the 1960's is pornography. VCRs, DVDs, the
Internet, etc, were all pretty much pioneered for the sake of
Pornography- that is, apparently, the reason for the "angle" function on
the DVD players these days. So I think there was a holdover,
intellectually, from people who were around at the start when the
radicals were here, when the net pioneers were making the heroic early
net art it was tied in very tightly to activist and political circles
[this was probably no doubt connected to the fact that net.art's only
outlet at first was nettime- an activist, political list] so you didn't
have room to do anything that didn't portray the net as- at the minimum-
a Leftist Phillip K Dick version of Walden Pond.
And it could also be that nudity is another casualty to
commercialization, which makes it a much less interesting platform for
artists to explore. It's probably a lot more revolutionary to declare
that an end to traditional sexuality has been brought about by the
development of technology, but really, bodies look the same and
sexuality remains the same whether the hot new technology is Cable
Modems or Wind Mills.
> I wonder wether this rejection will (or has) led to a crisis of
> representation. (where are the women doing this…???? ) How, and even
> if the net.artist can represent the body. I feel its currently seen as
> 'not the done thing'.
>
I think what people who preached about the end of gender were missing
was that gender would remain the same but that there would be a new kind
of isolation; and this is why I chose the "cam girl" thing to work with,
is because you have these girls, and you have the guys who watch them,
and they never meet in person. It's intensely about isolation. The girls
I've come across are not the parodies of lives that might be presented
in porn plot lines, but they're day to day recountings of their lives;
people read about their lives, get to know them, to a degree, and then-
every so often- sex comes into the picture, in exchange for money, or
gifts, or just, like, as a means of having more people read about your
life after you're done being naked. And it's a bit exploitational of the
girls and the visitors, but it's also a kind of beautifully modern
relationship that has all of the human pathos that the cybersexuality
experts in the mid 90's overlooked in their race for genderless utopias.
>
> I guess the high levels of pornography on the net has also made the
> artist 'shy' of developing the nude in net.art. For fear of the
> category - from the search engine to the net museum - grouping things
> like the nude with pornography. The middle-class horror of the
> net.nanny; that nudity as a subject not fit for artists working in an
> environment where children might see (dear me!)
>
You could be right! The classic story for that was a friend of mine
trying to do research on lesbians for a sexuality class, typing "lesbian
sexuality" into google and guess what happened next. The same comes true
for "nude," for "sensuality," etc. So yeah, it does make me think about
that- it's possible that a 15 year old kid in a public library won't be
able to access salsabomb.com now. Which is ridiculous!
>
> Probably repeating questions already asked, but you know my 'thing'
> for the domestic. Skin is about as domestic as you can get.
> I'd like to see much more of the kind of work you've been doing…
> cheers,
> jess.
>
Oh, and I liked the Kitchen thing you're doing. I have been thinking
about things I could contribute but come up blank, since I hate my
kitchen. I do love to cook, however. Maybe I can share some recipes in a
net.art manner. I'll let you know if I come up with anything. :)
In a message dated 7/26/2002 7:21:51 AM Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
> Skin is about as domestic as you can get.
How about we turn it up, and blow the knob off?
That's a UW Madison joke. "Turn It Up–And Blow The Knob Off."
Why? Because I'm sick wid it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Herman
genius2000.net
++
In a message dated 7/26/2002 12:46:35 PM Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
> Looks like we're reverse engineering the thread
Cosmically, that's why/how we get paid the big bucks.