Artport | Tate Online Commission: "The Battle of Algiers" by Marc Lafia and Fang-Yu Lin, 3-1-06

The Battle of Algiers
by Marc Lafia and Fang-Yu Lin
launched March 1, 06
artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet art
http://artport.whitney.org
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/battleofalgiers/BattleofAlgiers.shtml

This work recomposes scenes from the 1965 film "The Battle of Algiers" by I=
talian director Gillo Pontecorvo. The original film is a reenactment of the=
Algerian nationalist struggle leading to independence from France in 1962.=
The success of the actual battle for independence has been attributed to t=
he nationalists' organization: a pyramidal structure of self-organized ce=
lls. For their project, Lafia and Lin recomposed the film along a cell-base=
d structure, in which French Authority and the Algerian Nationalist cells a=
re represented by stills from the film and move according to different rule=
sets. When cells of different camps intersect, they trigger video cells di=
splaying each side's tactics (as depicted in the film) according to the rul=
es of the system.

Accompanied by an essay by Daniel Coffeen: "Film, Play, Power and the Compu=
tational, or Byting Celluloid: On Marc Lafia's and Fang-Yu Lin's 'The Battl=
e of Algiers'"



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"The Battle of Algiers" is the second in a series of three works co-commiss=
ioned in collaboration with Tate Online. See http://artport.whitney.org/com=
missions/new\_commissions.shtml

Critical texts and video interviews with the artists will accompany the wor=
ks at http://www.tate.org.uk/netart/
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Upcoming commission:

Launch Date: March 22

Screening Circle by Andy Deck
This project adapts the cultural tradition of the quilting circle into an o=
nline format. Visitors to the site can enter the drawing area to compose lo=
ops of graphics and affect and edit each other's screens. The pieces can =
be made by one person or by several people and the arrangement of the segme=
nts can be haphazard or precise. In the screening area, the resulting motio=
n graphics will be on view instantaneously.