When you log on to "Clear" by UK-based digital music comoposer Martin Franklin, you'll realize that there are no "rules" for interacting with this collection of sounds and images, despite the work's title. Franklin describes the project as "immersive, layered soundfields and images with a hidden eroticism"...we're not sure about the eroticism, but the site's worth a look (er, a listen), as Franklin has worked with everyone from Ghanian drum troupes to underground Rap crews. He has a discography of many CD's released throughout the world on labels like Island and lesser-known but well respected Beyond and Planet Dog.

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Eric Deis's art work "Beauty and Chaos" is a multi-user environment that involves both cyber space and physical space. Based on real time user data, music and images are generated and projected and played in a gallery when information is received from the "Beauty and Chaos" web site. This website features a multi-user drawing interface where people all around the world can draw simultaneously. Everything created by a web site visitor is sent as raw data to the gallery where it is processed by a computer. Based on this data, the computer composes an impromptu musical score and generates an impromptu, ever-evolving image.

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Christophe Bruno devised a way to turn online ads into poetry...and was subsequently censored by Google. The concept was to "launch a happening on the web," via Google AdWords . Bruno spent five bucks to open an account to buy some keywords. Instead of writing a small block of text to correspond with the keyword (the service is intended as a means for advertising products related to the keyword) Bruno wrote short, often funny "poems." In only one day, 12,000 people read the postings...for the words "symptom," "dream," "mary," and "money."

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If you're in Los Angeles this Sunday, drop by Rocco in Hollywood for "In Our Image: Extreme Genetics," a Rhizome.LA event. A heated panel discussion is sure to take place between Natalie Bookchin, Cheryl Kerfeld, David Kremers, and Ruth West. The group will chat about such controversial topics as animals with vegetable genes and vice versa, getting oneself cloned, and how art can or can't make a difference in the debates on man-altered biology. Rocco's is at 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. (just west of Vine St.), and everything starts at 5pm. Bring $5-10 for the sliding scale donation.

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It's a bit like a Nine Inch Nails video...and a bit like Poe's poetry. Yet it's something totally different. But also like both of those things combined. It's "Distillates," a recent online work produced by a five year old outfit called Texturadesign, that offers up a combo of digital video, text, eerie images, and other features to create a moody piece of art. A three-stanza poem gradually unfurl across abstract images. It's not like reading a book, not like reading film titles, not even so much like reading hypertext fiction. So how do we categorize such literary works? Do we need to?

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Eduardo Navas has created a charming (and haunting) portrait of a professional child model, "Chloe" -- at the urging of the girl's mom and dad. Navas observed that even when Chloe was photographed for casual vacation shots, she was always "on" for the camera, or at least aware of it. The Web portrait of this self-aware six year old utilizes straight Javascript and HTML manipulating sliced images. The pictures evolve every ten seconds, along with the background color as well. The image is never the same twice, as Chloe, as she herself grows, will never be, although she might try to remain in "character" as she poses for the camera. Navas is currently Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he teaches technical and theoretical multimedia principles in the Art and Art History Department.

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For a new twist on one of the most popular tragedies of all time, check out Italian artist dlsan's new site, "The HyperMacbeth." The Bard's famous lines pop up on the screen, and you choose which phrase or monologue comes next. Rather than actors, abstract graphics and some figurative animations pop up...giving the words a new dynamism in themselves. A javascript code randomly chooses colors, fonts, music. Of course the "lyrics" are credited on the site's opening page to noneother than Mr. William Shakespeare...who no doubt would have dug hypertext lit.

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Stanza's "The Central City" takes you on a wild ride through an urban landscape based on digital images and recorded sounds of London, towers, streets, and all. Navigate through networks and grids much as you would through streets and alleyways. But this metropolis is actually a melange of issues that are raised in the urban dweller's mind. You may start seeing the similarities between a design encountered on this site and the veins in a leaf rather than just concrete boulevards. This metaphorical experience is intentional. Of course the way that you navigate, as you would in the real London, is up to you. Don't get lost...although if you do, you'll have fun.

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