Kitchen Table Coders Panel Discussion from Rhizome on Vimeo.

Last Friday, Rhizome hosted a panel discussion on code literacy in the arts including Amit Pitaru of Kitchen Table Coders; Vanessa Hurst of Girl Develop It and Developers for Good; Jer Thorpe, artist and educator; Sonali Sridhar of Hacker School; and moderated by Douglas Rushkoff, educator and author of Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age.

Kitchen Table Coders workshops in the New Museum Theater

Following the panel, Rhizome hosted five Kitchen Table Coders-style workshops Saturday afternoon in the New Museum Theater. Twenty-five eager coding novices came to get a crash course in Processing with some of New York City's most talented programmers; Amit Pitaru, t3db0t, David Nolen, Jer Thorp and Rob Seward. The Kitchen Table Coders host intimate workshops around a kitchen table in their Brooklyn studio on any topic the attendees choose. 

Jer Throp introducing Processing to his students

Participants learned the basics in Processing, an open source programming language for visual art.

t3db0t demonstrating Arduino

More advanced students had the opportunity to sit down with t3db0t to take their Processing skills to the next level with Arduino to create interactive electronic objects.

Thanks again to all the panelists, Vanessa Hurst (Developers for Good), Sonali Sridhar (HackerSchool), Amit Pitaru (Kitchen Table Coders) and Jer Throp (NYTimes and ITP), and our moderator codevangelist Douglas Rushkoff for a stimulating conversation about code literacy. And big thanks to Nick Hasty, Director of Technology for Rhizome, who was instrumental in making this event happen. I look forward to organizing more code and hacker workshops in the future!

 

 

We're pleased to announce that Rhizome is now on Tumblr! Over the last 16 years, Rhizome has amassed an incredible collection of images, videos, and more from memebers of our community. On RHIZOME DOT ORG we we'll bring to light this great content and more right to your dashboard.

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Still from Art Gallery

This month The Download features Elna Frederick's screensaver triptych Birth, Art Gallery, Death (2012).

Birth, Art Gallery, Death is a minimalist triptych in the form of a screensaver package. With white as life and black as death, each screen saver panel marks a stage in the cycle of consciousness. Birth is the genesis of consciousness through a birth canal of white arriving out of darkness. Art Gallery, where black is conspicuously absent, is the finite enclosure of a lifetime. Its contents are the thoughts and creations arising in consciousness; representations of life. Death, represented by black slowly descending upon a white screen, is ultimately a representation of life.

The Download is accessible to all Rhizome members. Start your digital art collection by becoming a member today.

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Rhizome is pleased to announce London-based artist James Howard is featured this month on The Download.

Still from www.luckyluckydice.com (2012)

Utilizing spam that lands in his junk email folder and pop up ads, Howard appropriates the deceitful images and text in his collages highlighting the emotional tiggers that trap users. Rhizome members can download www.luckyluckydice.com (2012), a 51MB animated GIF of 1990s internet-style advertisments; a file size too large for dial-up speeds, but now easily viewable in any internet browser once downloaded. Rhizome editor Joanne McNeil interviewed him last year about the images he collects:

Images in online scams and phishing schemes can seem as artificially generated as the text — like botnet generated folk art. But there is a human hand at work. What do you think is the human element that draws people into these schemes?

People are like machines - their brains react to temptation like a computer does. Most people are able to recognise a scam, but if someone pulls the right string, sooner or later all that subconscious stuff inside you is going to lead you down the wrong path. Scams  get people by playing on insecurities, desires, fears, greed, whatever - it's uncontrollable and causes one in a thousand people to make a snap decision and pay up.

What do you consider the visual clues of this kind of kitsch of deception? Any interesting patterns or trends you've spotted over the years of collecting examples?

Squashed grinning businessmen looking into fisheye lenses, sunsets over serene oceans, happy families, sexy nurses- it's an endless and totally recognisable global visual language. There's a gruesome image of someone hooked up to a life support machine that keeps landing in my junk-mail folder these days -it always comes from a new person, with ...

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Rick Silva's La Région Decentralized is featured this month on The Download.

Still from La Région Decentralized, image courtesy of the artist

Working with nature and land feels natural to me. Nature and land are part of a larger fascination I have with perception, light, and time. I do spend a lot of time outdoors, my new project/blog En plein air http://enpleinair.org is all about that actually. For the project I’m taking my laptop outside and seeing what I can create while reacting to the immediate landscape and elements.

I’m interested in Snow’s use of a rotating camera/horizon. Spinning terrains are a reoccurring theme in my recent videos. Texts about La Région Centrale suggest that the camera/horizon movement in Snow’s film creates a cosmic perspective of space at the human scale, and I agree with this reading. My video game version adds an endless random time component to this idea as well.

In 2010 I used video game engines to generate scenes and imagery for video projects. I’ve used 3D spaces like Google Earth for projects since 2005 with my Satellite Jockey performances, but this is the first time that I’m releasing a game as an application. There is something very interesting in the stretching and randomizing of time that video ...

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Wed May 15, 2013 00:00

New York, New York
United States of America

The Rhizome | Tumblr Internet Art Grant expands upon Rhizome's existing Commissions program to specifically target Tumblr's significant artistic community. The Internet Art Grant will award three commissioning awards with a special focus on projects from emerging artists engaged with Tumblr.

The grants will be determined by a jury of art and Tumblr experts: Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions at the New Museum and Artistic Director of the 55th Venice Biennale; Laurie Anderson, noted experimental performance artist and musician; Jon Rafman, leading contemporary artist; Zoë Salditch, Rhizome's Program Director; and Topherchris, Tumblr Editorial Director.

Application Deadline: Wednesday May 15, 2013

Wed Feb 06, 2013 00:00

New York, New York
United States of America

EDITOR & CURATOR, RHIZOME
Deadline: Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Rhizome seeks an experienced Editor & Curator to create and communicate a distinctive and unique voice for Rhizome – one that is international in scope and engages with the history, values and direction of the organization as a leader in contemporary art and technology.

Rhizome is a 501c3 non-profit organization based within the iconic New Museum of Contemporary Art in SoHo, NYC. Founded in 1996, Rhizome's programs, many of which happen online, support artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic, social and political implications of new tools and media.

The role will significantly shape the artistic direction of the organization overall. The Editor & Curator will be primarily responsible for the editorial vision of Rhizome.org, assigning, editing and occasionally writing features for the site. Additionally, s/he will ensure the art and ideas featured on the site tie into all areas of Rhizome’s program, by working closely with the Rhizome staff, and by initiating and/or leading on select curatorial programs.

http://rhizome.org/

Responsibilities

• To work closely with the Executive Director to shape Rhizome’s overall artistic direction
  
  
• Assign, edit and occasionally write stories for the Rhizome.org site, across a variety of disciplines including art and technology
  
  
• Cultivate and manage a strong team of writers
  
  
• Develop and experiment with formats for Rhizome’s online publishing, while maintaining consistent voice and style guide
  
  
• Act as a strong and visible advocate for Rhizome through public speaking, online/social media discussion and other avenues
  
  
• Help engage with and cultivate a readership and community around Rhizome.org
  
  
• Initiate and lead on select curatorial and public programs; feed curatorial ideas into all Rhizome programs
  
  
• Proactively feed into strategic conversations about Rhizome’s site, programs and future

Requirements

• Thorough knowledge of contemporary art, technology, and online culture
  
  
• Senior experience in editing and/or curating, ideally with demonstrated aptitude in both
  
  
• An understanding of and interest in online publishing
  
  
• Writing experience that demonstrates a high capacity for critical thought and strong ideas
  
  
• Excellent national and international contacts in art and technology, as well as with writers
  
  
• Articulate and engaging communicator; confident public speaking skills and an excellent command of the written language
  
  
• Managerial and team working skills, and generosity, toward working effectively within an organizational structure
  

To apply, please send a resume, cover letter and two writing samples to editor@rhizome.org by Wednesday, February 6, 2013