Rhizome | Blog Posts tagged "ArtBase"

ArtBase Update

Ben Fino-Radin | Fri Mar 23rd, 2012 3:18 p.m.

Takeshi Murata – Untitled (Pink Dot) (2007)

Here at Rhizome HQ we have been quietly working away from within the depths of the ArtBase. I'm pleased to announce that we have recently archived six works by Takeshi Murata, spanning from his early hand drawn animations, through his pioneering datamosh works, the 3D animation that was included in Free, to his recent body of work that debuted at Ratio 3 gallery last April. The excerpts of his work now available in the ArtBase are in most cases the only high quality (read: not bootlegged) examples available freely online.

Untitled (Silver) • Untitled (Pink Dot) • Melter 2 • I, Popeye • Homestead Grays • Get Your Ass To Mars

Here are some more recently archived works we are particularly excited about:

Christian Oldham – Selected works 2010-2012
Brenna Murphy – facingface~terrestrialtrancetree
Nicolas Sassoon – Mansion Studies
John Transue, Micah Schippa, Tabor Robak, Parker Ito, Jon Rafman – PaintFX
Adam Cruces – Desktop Views
Justin Kemp – Proclaiming My Love
Kim Asendorf – ExtraFile • GIF MARKET • Solo show in Sim City
Jonas Lund – Collection Enlargement • I'm Here and There • Over and Over Again
Jon Rafman – Woods of Arcady
Sarah Weis & Emilie Gervais – blinkingsite.com

What are we missing? The ArtBase is a constantly growing and evolving archive – if we are lacking to represent a particular facet of net.art history or contemporary practices, by all means let us know. As well, we are always accepting submissions. Stay tuned for an update soon on a few big projects that are in the works!

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Ben Fino-Radin Rhizome's Digital Conservator on Supporting Preservation

Rhizome | Thu Dec 15th, 2011 9:29 a.m.

Ensuring that a piece of software will always work; capturing the subtleties of aging technology; extracting content from the clutches of closed platforms – none of these are simple feats, yet this is what Rhizome does on a daily basis. Since the ArtBase was founded in 1999, it has grown to become one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of it's kind. Today, the ArtBase is a free collection providing documentation and access to over 2,500 art works spanning nearly two decades. We need your continued support to keep the ArtBase free, open and permanent - Please make a contribution today!

I joined Rhizome this past August, and it has truly been a pleasure to become part of a team that is saving a significant moment in art history from the void. We work hard every day to ensure that future generations will be able to study the work of our time.

Thanks to your support the following is only a tiny selection of what we have accomplished recently:

• Archive and restore lost video assets to Lev Manovich's "Little Movies" (1994)

• Restore access to "VVEBCAM" (2007) by Petra Cortright, after it was censored and removed by YouTube

• Support new additions to the collection, including Travess Smalley, Esther Hunziker, Richard Vijgen, Mouchette, Dave Gerber, Sterling Crispin, and Andrew Norman Wilson just to name a few recent additions

• Begin collaborations with online exhibition spaces to archive and preserve their output

Simply put, we are only able to do this because of your continued support. The fact is we can't do it without you. Your donation today enables Rhizome to be a greater advocate for the preservation of a unique moment of art history. With your support, we can take bigger steps toward solving the complex challenges posed by preserving digital ephemera. On behalf of everyone at Rhizome, and on behalf of the artists whose work we preserve, I hope you will consider making a contribution to our Campaign today!

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Update From the ArtBase

Ben Fino-Radin | Tue Sep 20th, 2011 3:56 p.m.

For my maiden post on the Rhizome staff blog, I’d like to highlight some recent developments and changes in the ArtBase. First and foremost, it is my pleasure to announce that Rhizome is a new member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance. This consortium devoted to the longevity of digital materials consists of a diverse range of institutions, from non-profit organizations such as the Internet Archive, and ArtSTOR, to academic libraries and research institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, Emory University Libraries, and Harvard University. We could not be more pleased, and look forward to complementing our own research with the aggregate experience of the more than 80 partner institutions.

Next up on the agenda: today we are launching a new set of featured works in the ArtBase, including artists Vuk Cosic, Kristen Lucas, Mouchette, Eryk Salvaggio, and Kendal Bruns. While perusing these featured works, you may notice a new little icon, next to the year of the work’s creation. This little blue icon indicates that we have an archival copy of the work you are viewing. If you see this icon displayed on an ArtBase record, you can rest assured that as time passes, the work’s longevity and your ability to access it is ensured. From link rot, to digital obsolescence, we’ve got it under control. We are hard at work transitioning the entire collection to archival standards, but until we do some entries will still have the following red icon, indicating that we have yet to create a stable archival copy of this work:

The ArtBase team has been hard at work with some very exciting projects involving the restoration of classic pieces of net art – some of which have been inaccessible for years. We will be releasing more details on the progress of ...

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Keeping it Online

Ben Fino-Radin | Fri Aug 5th, 2011 11:06 a.m.

Today I am pleased to announce the publication of a paper that documents the past, present, and future preservation practices of Rhizome's archive, the ArtBase. This paper is the synthesis of years of research conducted by Rhizome and other leaders of digital preservation, in and outside of art institutions. What follows is an attempt to summarize a few key points. The paper in its entirety is available here: Sustainable Preservation Practices and the Rhizome ArtBase

"…if nobody sees a museum piece, what’s the point of having it or keeping it? Museums exist for a social purpose, for us humans."
Bruce Sterling, keynote address at “Preserving the Immaterial: A Conference on Variable Media,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2001.

JODI – Globalmove.us

What happens when an institution acquires a digital work of art? How does one preserve and ensure the longevity of an art object that is inextricably tied to infrastructure built and controlled by neither artist nor institution? How can a work that exists in a social space, or makes use of real-time external data sources, be documented? These questions have long plagued collectors, conservators, and collecting institutions, as well as artists themselves. At Rhizome we face these challenges daily in our effort to preserve and ensure access to a multi generational practice and legacy of work produced by the communities we are built upon. The first line of Rhizome's mission statement reads: "Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology." Of these tenets, one that perhaps occupies the least public awareness, yet constitutes a significant portion of our labors ispreservation. It is at the core of Rhizome's mission of support.

Since it's inception in 1999, the ArtBase has undergone numerous stages of evolution. What began as a simple place for sharing links has grown into a comprehensive archive adherent to international archival standards, containing over 2,500 works. Parallel to the archive's evolution, we have witnessed the aging of these works, some dating to 1994. From broken links to obsolete plugins, we have seen it all. Slowly but surely we are migrating works to host on our servers so that we may provide stable URLs, understand the digital objects that a work is composed of, and create stable versions of works that will remain unharmed by technological innovation. We are on a deep level working to ensure true longevity for these works, that 30 years from now they will be accessible and functional. Rhizome is 100% committed to providing permanent, free, public access to this collection and its cultural context...

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From the Rhizome Artbase: %20wrong (2000)- JODI

Natalie Saltiel | Tue Jul 5th, 2011 10:19 a.m.

In this series of posts, we will be blogging recently updated content from Rhizome's Artbase.

Founded in 1999, the Rhizome ArtBase is an online archive of new media art containing some 2503 art works, and growing. The ArtBase encompasses a vast range of project by artists all over the world that employ materials such as software, code, websites, moving images, games and browsers to aesthetics and critical ends.

%20wrong (2000)- JODI

%20wrong (2000), JODI (Screen Shot)

This work has been restored and is now being permanently hosted on the Artbase. More recently repaired works from the ArtBase can be found here.

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Why + Wherefore in the ArtBase

Natalie Saltiel | Mon Jun 20th, 2011 7:44 a.m.

Why + Wherefore is now a part of the Rhizome Artbase. Founded in 2007 by Summer Guthery, Lumi Tan, and Nicholas Weist, the collective has curated online exhibitions that explore questions of presentation and representation on the web. Over the past few years Why + Wherefore has brought together artists and curators to consider online culture across a variety of media. Their alternative and distinct approach to online exhibition has a distinct voice in the broad field of online curation.

Colby Bird, Dave and Tim, 2007 (Screengrab from Why + Wherefore's "The Inaugural Invitational: Beginnings")

For their inaugural show Beginnings, Guthery, Tan, and Weist addressed the uncertainty of a work between its conception and final completion, inviting a diverse group of artists, practicing both online and off, to submit entries around the process of beginning a piece.

In PDF, Why + Wherefore organized an online exhibition in conjunction with more than 20 international venues. PDF was installed at each of its material sites for only one day, but a reproducible selection of specially commissioned PDF files were freely available on their website along with instructions for displaying a real life exhibition of the work.

The Long Gallery, Brenna Murphy, reallybig, 2008 (fragment)

Follow up shows like their 7x7 series, where seven websites were invited to curate seven separate online exhibitions featuring seven works composed around a theme, including Rhizome's entry "The Long Gallery" organized by Brian Droitcour, explored the variability of online curating. With entries as diverse as VVORK's Unititled sound show and I Heart Photograph's (Naturally Occurring Emoticons), each exhibition feels unique, yet unified within the exhibition's format.

This One Goes Up to 11 (screen shot)

Pursing online curation across media, in the 2008 exhibition This One Goes Up to 11, the founders and curator Hanne Mugaas, chose ...

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From the Rhizome Artbase: Bodydrome (2001) - Marcello Mazzella

Natalie Saltiel | Wed Jun 15th, 2011 1:13 p.m.

In this series of posts, we will be blogging recently updated content from Rhizome's Artbase.

Founded in 1999, the Rhizome ArtBase is an online archive of new media art containing some 2503 art works, and growing. The ArtBase encompasses a vast range of project by artists all over the world that employ materials such as software, code, websites, moving images, games and browsers to aesthetics and critical ends.

Bodydrome (2001) - Marcello Mazzella

Bodydrome (2001), Marcello Mazzella (Screen Shot)

This work has been restored and is now being permanently hosted on the Artbase. More recently repaired works from the ArtBase can be found here.

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From the Rhizome Artbase: Absolut Net.Art (2001)- Eryk Salvaggio

Natalie Saltiel | Tue Jun 14th, 2011 3:52 p.m.

In this series of posts, we will be blogging recently updated content from Rhizome's Artbase.

Founded in 1999, the Rhizome ArtBase is an online archive of new media art containing some 2503 art works, and growing. The ArtBase encompasses a vast range of project by artists all over the world that employ materials such as software, code, websites, moving images, games and browsers to aesthetics and critical ends.

Absolut Net.Art (2001)- Eryk Salvaggio

Absolut Net.Art (2001)- Eryk Salvaggio (Screen Shot)

This work has been restored and is now being permanently hosted on the Artbase. More recently repaired works from the ArtBase can be found here.

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Splashback: Rhizome's Splash Pages, 1998-2002

Rhizome | Tue Apr 14th, 2009 1 p.m.

Image: Mark Tribe, Alex Galloway, and Martin Wattenberg, Starry Night, 1999

Rhizome is pleased to announce the launch of “Splashback: Rhizome’s Splash Pages, 1998-2002,” an online exhibition featuring the 39 splash pages commissioned over a four-year period. “Splashback” offers a brief overview of online art and design practices from ten years ago through a nearly obsolete medium, the splash page.

Artists include: Annie Abrahams, Daniel Garcia Andujar, Ben Benjamin, heath bunting, Gregory Chatonsky, Shu Lea Cheang, Andrew Childs, Curt Cloninger, David Crawford, Mark Daggett, Joshua Davis, entropy8zuper, Andrew Forbes, Valery Grancher, Matthew Hoessli, Olia Lialina, David Lindeman, jimpunk, JODI, Yael Kanarek, Lucas Kuzma, Antonio Mendoza, Mouchette, MTAA, Robbin Murphy, Nettmedia, Scott Paterson, Pavu, Waldemar Pranckiewicz, Reinis, Satellite01, Sigma6, Starry Night, Eugene Thacker, Jake Tilson, Maciej Wisniewski, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries

“Splashback” is organized by Brian Droitcour, Rhizome Curatorial Fellow.
Site built by Elise Roedenbeck, Technology Assistant.

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ArtBase Update

Brian Droitcour | Fri Feb 20th, 2009 noon

Image: Christian Marc Schmidt, Marketscape, 2008

Rhizome's ArtBase has been fortunate to receive some great submissions in the last few months. Cody Trepte sent Cody on Cage on Joyce, a text generator based on a series of poems by John Cage where "JAMES JOYCE" is spelled vertically through rows of horizontal text that are as difficult to read as Finnegans Wake. Cage wanted to create a form of writing free of intention, and Trepte uses software to take that idea to its logical conclusion. Tomasz Konart submitted August, the most recent in a calendar of twelve interactive animations that use faint, obscured, or distorted photographs to evoke a feeling of loss and reflection. Roch Forowicz, a Polish artist who explores issues of surveillance, contributed documentation of his installation Panopticon, two rows of eighteen CCTV cameras submerged. As viewers pass down the central aisle, they are observed from all directions, like in the eponymous eighteenth-century prison design. Marketscape by Brooklyn-based artist Christian Marc Schmidt is data visualization of the S&P 500 stock index. It's sure to provide suspenseful viewing for months to come.

Keep checking the ArtBase for more updates or subscribe via RSS, and artists should remember that we're always accepting submissions.

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