Launch of Catalogue: Spring 2003: Nothingness

This is one of the best realized HTML/DHTML pieces I've encountered that focusses on writing,
Kate, and is not ignorant of design or programming. And the use of image, email, and javascript
focusses the piece on writing also.

What seems to happen too often in hypertextual work is that the writing itself is weak. Or the
design defocusses the writing. Or debases it. Or the design is slick but irrelevant to the
meaning of the writing. Or the design is simple-minded. Very rarely is the writing good while
the design and programming complement the work.

I used to take the subway in Toronto from Pape to Yonge and Queen, and would exit through Eatons
Centre, lots of stores. Have been sitting here musing about a Nothingness 'store'. Um, maybe
further down Queen street.

ja

> I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new project CATALOGUE: Spring 2003:
> Nothingness at http://www.surreytechlab.ca/catalogue/website/index.html.
>
>
> CATALOGUE: Spring 2003: Nothingness is a net.art work that uses description, image,
> email and javascript to interrogate some of the cultural and mechanical forms that
> operate in online shopping. The work is designed to exist on a parallel plane with
> commercial shopping sites and to offer a menu of small interventions that extend
> outward into the world. The theme of nothingness was chosen for the Spring catalogue
> in order to defamiliarize common structures found in online shops by substituting
> imaginary objects, states of being, and existential drama for regular items and
> marketing strategies.
>
>
> Spring 2003: Nothingness was realized during the Techlab digital media
> artist-in-residence program at the Surrey Art Gallery http://surreytechlab.ca
>
> Next in the series will be the Fall Catalogue, which is being funded through a New
> Media production grant from the Canada Council for the Arts http://canadacouncil.ca
>
> Kate Armstrong
> http://katearmstrong.com

inspirational!!!
—i get a lot of ideas for things looking at this, kate////


lovely script, too….


bliss
l




> I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new project CATALOGUE: Spring
> 2003: Nothingness at
> http://www.surreytechlab.ca/catalogue/website/index.html.
>
>
> CATALOGUE: Spring 2003: Nothingness is a net.art work that uses
> description, image, email and javascript to interrogate some of the
> cultural and mechanical forms that operate in online shopping. The
> work is designed to exist on a parallel plane with commercial shopping
> sites and to offer a menu of small interventions that extend outward
> into the world. The theme of nothingness was chosen for the Spring
> catalogue in order to defamiliarize common structures found in online
> shops by substituting imaginary objects, states of being, and
> existential drama for regular items and marketing strategies.
>
>
> Spring 2003: Nothingness was realized during the Techlab digital media
> artist-in-residence program at the Surrey Art Gallery
> http://surreytechlab.ca
>
> Next in the series will be the Fall Catalogue, which is being funded
> through a New Media production grant from the Canada Council for the
> Arts http://canadacouncil.ca
>
> Kate Armstrong
> http://katearmstrong.com

What seems to happen too often in hypertextual work is that the writing itself is weak.