RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.17.05

<br />RHIZOME DIGEST: July 17, 2005<br /><br />Content:<br /><br />+note+<br />1. Francis Hwang: Coming next week: A new front page for Rhizome.org<br /><br />+announcement+<br />2. Jo-Anne Green: Turbulence Spotlight: &quot;1001 nights cast&quot; by Barbara<br />Campbell<br />3. Ryan Griffis: Fwd: Invitation / Day-to-Day Data Project Launch<br />4. matthew fuller: software: OPEN HISTORY TIMELINE v1.1<br /><br />+opportunity+<br />5. Kevin McGarry: FW: Announcement for &quot;Project netarts.org 2005&quot;<br /><br />+interview+<br />6. Thomas Petersen: Stars Fading on the Web - An Interview with Olia Lialina<br /><br />+commissioned for Rhizome.org+<br />7. Ryan Griffis: Fielding Questions: Notes on the Fieldworks Symposium<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome is now offering Organizational Subscriptions, group memberships<br />that can be purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow<br />participants at institutions to access Rhizome's services without<br />having to purchase individual memberships. For a discounted rate, students<br />or faculty at universities or visitors to art centers can have access to<br />Rhizome?s archives of art and text as well as guides and educational tools<br />to make navigation of this content easy. Rhizome is also offering<br />subsidized Organizational Subscriptions to qualifying institutions in poor<br />or excluded communities. Please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/org.php">http://rhizome.org/info/org.php</a> for<br />more information or contact Lauren Cornell at [email protected]<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />1.<br /><br />Date: 7.16.05<br />From: Francis Hwang &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br />Subject: Coming next week: A new front page for Rhizome.org<br /><br />Hi everyone,<br /><br />Starting next week, you'll be seeing a change in the front page here at<br />Rhizome. Currently the front page features artworks and texts from<br />inside the Rhizome site. But we've added a heavily-modified version of<br />Eyebeam's ReBlog software ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.reblog.org/">http://www.reblog.org/</a> ), so the front page<br />will soon combine great texts from inside Rhizome with the best memes<br />from the internet as a whole.<br /><br />The goal is for the front page to become a quick, easy filter for the<br />entire field of new media arts online–both for our current Rhizome<br />users and Members, and for anybody else who might be interested in the<br />field but not know where to start looking. At the same time, Superusers<br />will continue to enrich the archives by adding metadata to our internal<br />content. (External content will not be added to the archives.)<br /><br />And another note: This new front page will be based on the consumption<br />of RSS feeds. So if you have any sort of new media arts site of your<br />own, and it's got an RSS feed attached to it, make sure to send that my<br />way so I can forward it to all the Superusers. And if you've got a site<br />without RSS, well, what are you waiting for?<br /><br />Francis Hwang<br />Director of Technology<br />Rhizome.org<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />2.<br /><br />Date: 7.11.05<br />From: Jo-Anne Green &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br />Subject: Turbulence Spotlight: &quot;1001 nights cast&quot; by Barbara Campbell<br /><br />July 11, 2005<br />Turbulence Spotlight: &quot;1001 nights cast&quot; by Barbara Campbell<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/spotlight/1001nights/index.html">http://turbulence.org/spotlight/1001nights/index.html</a><br /> In &quot;1001 nights cast,&quot; Barbara Campbell performs a short text-based work<br />for 1001 consecutive nights. The performance is relayed as a live webcast<br />to anyone, anywhere, at sunset. A frame story written by the artist<br />introduces the project?s nightly performances. It is a survival story and<br />it creates the context for subsequent stories generated daily through<br />writer/performer collaborations made possible by the reach of the<br />internet.<br /><br />Each morning Campbell reads journalists? reports covering events in the<br />Middle East. She selects a prompt word or phrase that leaps from the page<br />with generative potential. She renders the prompt in watercolor and posts<br />it in its new pictorial form on the website. Participants are then invited<br />to write a story using that day?s prompt in a submission of up to 1001<br />words. The writing deadline expires three hours before that night's<br />performance.<br /><br />&quot;1001 nights cast&quot; is a project generated by the forces of that great<br />compendium of Arabian tales, The 1001 Nights also known as The Arabian<br />Nights. The project explores the theatrics of the voiced story, the need<br />for framing devices, the strategies for survival, the allure of the Middle<br />East and its contrasting realities.<br /><br />BIOGRAPHY<br /><br />Barbara Campbell is an Australian artist who works primarily in the medium<br />of performance. Since 1982 she has worked with the specific physical and<br />contextual properties of a given site, be it art gallery, museum, atrium,<br />tower, radio airwaves and now the internet, in developing and presenting<br />her works.<br /><br />After completing undergraduate degrees in fine arts and art history,<br />Campbell was awarded a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the<br />Arts, The University of Sydney in 1998. She has undertaken residencies at<br />Griffith University, Queensland, The University of Melbourne, The<br />University of Sydney and the Australia Council studios in Santa Monica and<br />New York. In 1994 the NSW Ministry for the Arts awarded her the Women and<br />Arts Fellowship and in 2004 she received one of four Fellowship grants<br />awarded by the Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council for the<br />Arts.<br /><br />For more Turbulence Spotlights please visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/spotlight">http://turbulence.org/spotlight</a><br /><br /> &lt;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/spotlight">http://turbulence.org/spotlight</a>&gt;<br />– <br />Untitled Document Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director<br />New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://new-radio.org">http://new-radio.org</a><br />New York: 917.548.7780 ? Boston: 617.522.3856<br />Turbulence: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org">http://turbulence.org</a><br />New American Radio: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://somewhere.org">http://somewhere.org</a><br />Networked_Performance Blog and Conference: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://turbulence.org/blog">http://turbulence.org/blog</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome ArtBase Exhibitions<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/">http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/</a><br /><br />Visit the fourth ArtBase Exhibition &quot;City/Observer,&quot; curated by<br />Yukie Kamiya of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and<br />designed by T.Whid of MTAA.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/city/">http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/city/</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />3.<br /><br />Date: 7.11.05<br />From: ryan griffis &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br />Subject: Fwd: Invitation / Day-to-Day Data Project Launch<br /><br />Begin forwarded message:<br />&gt;<br />&gt; You are warmly invited to the launch of the Day-to-Day Data project on<br />&gt; Wednesday 20 July from 6 ? 8pm at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham.<br />&gt;<br />&gt; Day-to-Day Data is a national touring exhibition, publication and<br />&gt; web-based exhibition curated by artist Ellie Harrison.<br />&gt;<br />&gt; It features newly commissioned work by: Abigail Reynolds, Adele<br />&gt; Prince, Anders Bojen &amp; Kristoffer &#xD8;rum, Christian Nold, Cleo Broda,<br />&gt; Ellie Harrison, Gabrielle Sharp, Hannah Brown, Helen Frosi, Hywel<br />&gt; Davies, James Coupe, Hedley Roberts &amp; Rob Saunders, Jem Finer, Kevin<br />&gt; Carter, Lucy Kimbell, Mary Yacoob, Richard Dedomenici, Sam Curtis,<br />&gt; Therese Stowell, Tim Taylor and Tony Kemplen.<br />&gt;<br />&gt; If you are unable to make the launch, then you can find out plenty of<br />&gt; information about the project and the artists involved on the<br />&gt; exhibition website: www.daytodaydata.com<br />&gt;<br />&gt; The web-based exhibition featuring new work by Adele Prince, Anders<br />&gt; Bojen &amp; Kristoffer &#xD8;rum, Jem Finer and Kevin Carter also launches on<br />&gt; 20 July and will be viewable on the Day-to-Day Data website.<br />&gt;<br />&gt; Angel Row Gallery<br />&gt; Central Library Building<br />&gt; 3 Angel Row<br />&gt; Nottingham<br />&gt; NG1 6HP<br />&gt;<br />&gt; Exhibition Dates: Wednesday 20 July ? Wednesday 7 September 2005<br />&gt; Launch Event: Wednesday 20 July, 6 ? 8pm<br />&gt; Open: Monday ? Saturday, 10am ? 5pm, Wednesday, 10am ? 7pm<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />4.<br /><br />Date: 7.13.05<br />From: matthew fuller &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br />Subject: software: OPEN HISTORY TIMELINE v1.1<br />OPEN HISTORY TIMELINE v1.1<br /><br />The Open History Timeline v1.1 (OHT) is an open-source<br />content-management system designed to support online community-based<br />history writing. It is a system that can be used to work<br />collaboratively on defining and writing history about any subject you<br />would like. Which questions need to be asked, and which answers are<br />valid? The OHT is designed with the idea in mind that history is a<br />practice - not fixed but alive, and invites users to make history<br />through adding experiences, anecdotes and personal perspectives.<br />The Open History Timeline is now available for download and can be<br />used in your own projects. Built on open-source software, you can run<br />the OHT on any web server with PERL &amp; PHP installed.<br /><br />Read more, see a working example, and download the files at:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.designtimeline.org/oht.html">http://www.designtimeline.org/oht.html</a><br />The OHT and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.designtimeline.org/">http://www.designtimeline.org/</a> were built and designed by<br />Femke Snelting and Michael Murtaugh. The project was financially<br />supported by Thuiskopiefonds and Digitale Pioniers. With thanks to<br />Institute for Network Cultures, Amsterdam.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org 2005-2006 Net Art Commissions<br /><br />The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to<br />artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via panel-awarded<br />commissions.<br /><br />For the 2005-2006 Rhizome Commissions, eleven artists/groups were selected<br />to create original works of net art.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/commissions/">http://rhizome.org/commissions/</a><br /><br />The Rhizome Commissions Program is made possible by support from the<br />Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial, the<br />Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and<br />the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support has<br />been provided by members of the Rhizome community.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />5.<br /><br />Date: 7.15.05<br />From: Kevin McGarry &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br />Subject: FW: Announcement for &quot;Project netarts.org 2005&quot;<br /><br /> —— Forwarded Message<br /> From: Keisuke Oki &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br /> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:53:26 +0900 (JST)<br /> To: Kevin McGarry &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br /> Subject: Announcement for &quot;Project netarts.org 2005&quot;<br />&quot;Project netarts.org&quot; 2005 - 1st announcement<br /><br />1. From &quot;Art on the Net&quot; to the new &quot;Project netarts.org&quot;<br /><br />2. Call for the nomination<br /><br />3. The schedule<br /><br />————————————————————-<br /><br />1. From &quot;Art on the Net&quot; to the new &quot;Project netarts.org&quot;<br /><br />&gt;From 1995 to 2003, The Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts hosted the &quot;<br />Art on the Net&quot; project promoting the Internet as a space for artistic<br />expression. For nine years, this project had been calling on artists<br />around the world to investigate the relationship between Art, the<br />Internet and the Society.<br /><br />After the years of the &quot;Art on the Net,&quot; we launched a new event called<br />the &quot;Project netarts.org&quot; last summer. The &quot; Project netarts.org&quot;<br />consists of an Internet Art exhibition, artist essays, theoretical<br />articles, and an online forum.<br /><br />The Exhibition section of the project will feature recent developments<br />in Internet Art and is open to all forms of creative expression that use<br />the Internet as their primary medium. The essays and articles from<br />artists, critics, curators and other contributors, will be featured in<br />the Writings section. The Online Forum is open to everyone who is<br />interested in Internet Art and other hybridized forms of Digital or<br />Media Art that use network technologies.<br /><br />Although this project is primarily focused on the latest developments in<br />the field of Internet Art, we are also very interested in considering<br />contributions that reflect the influence of Internet Art production on<br />the wider fields of Media-Art, Digital Art, curatorial practice, digital<br />pedagogy, and online publishing.<br />2. Call for the nomination.<br /><br />This year, the artworks for the exhibition and the &quot;netarts.org 2005<br />prize&quot; will be chosen by our Selection Committee. The prize fee for the<br />top selection will be 200,000 yen.<br />The members will make their own nominations, but we will accept<br />nominations from the web also. Please send your nomination to us<br />directly at our website <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netarts.org/">http://www.netarts.org/</a> .<br /><br />The members of the Selection Committee are:<br /><br />Mark Amerika (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.markamerika.com/">http://www.markamerika.com/</a>)<br />Susan Hazen (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.imj.org.il/">http://www.imj.org.il/</a>)<br />Akihiro Kubota (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://homepage2.nifty.com/%7Ebota/">http://homepage2.nifty.com/%7Ebota/</a>)<br />keisuke Oki (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://homepage3.nifty.com/oob/">http://homepage3.nifty.com/oob/</a>)<br />Rick Silva (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://ricksilva.net/">http://ricksilva.net/</a>)<br />You Minowa (Curator, MCMOGATK).<br /><br />For further information, please visit<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netarts.org/webmuseum.html">http://www.netarts.org/webmuseum.html</a><br />3. The schedule<br /><br />We will accept nominations by mail from 15th, July 2005 to 15th, Sept.<br />2005.<br /><br />The award-winning artwork will be selected by 30th Sept. The exhibition<br />will be launched 1st, Nov. 2005. We will soon announce some physical<br />events to take place in Nov. at the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts,<br />Tokyo.<br />–<br />You Minowa<br />Curator<br />Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netarts.org/">http://www.netarts.org/</a><br />[email protected]<br />****************************************************************************<br />*<br /><br />—— End of Forwarded Message<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Support Rhizome: buy a hosting plan from BroadSpire<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/hosting/">http://rhizome.org/hosting/</a><br /><br />Reliable, robust hosting plans from $65 per year.<br /><br />Purchasing hosting from BroadSpire contributes directly to Rhizome's fiscal<br />well-being, so think about about the new Bundle pack, or any other plan,<br />today!<br /><br />About BroadSpire<br /><br />BroadSpire is a mid-size commercial web hosting provider. After conducting a<br />thorough review of the web hosting industry, we selected BroadSpire as our<br />partner because they offer the right combination of affordable plans (prices<br />start at $14.95 per month), dependable customer support, and a full range of<br />services. We have been working with BroadSpire since June 2002, and have<br />been very impressed with the quality of their service.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />6.<br /><br />Date: 7.13.05<br />From: Thomas Petersen &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br />Subject: Stars Fading on the Web - An Interview with Olia Lialina<br /><br />Stars Fading on the Web - An Interview with Olia Lialina<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artificial.dk/articles/olia.htm">http://www.artificial.dk/articles/olia.htm</a><br />Artificial has previously explored how stars are used in digital artworks<br />(<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artificial.dk/articles/netstars_eng.htm">http://www.artificial.dk/articles/netstars_eng.htm</a>). With remarkable<br />frequency, digital artists have used stars as aesthetic elements in their<br />works.<br /><br />Coincidentally, stars on the web also turned out to be a great interest of<br />Russian artist Olia Lialina - especially the outer space backgrounds that<br />once adorned so many pages on the early web. Olia has dealt with these<br />digital stars in both her texts and artworks. Today these stars are<br />fading, as the host pages eventually become redesigned and the stars<br />removed. The disappearing stars are thus poetic examples of the state of<br />transience that web expressions are born into. Thomas Petersen talked to<br />Olia about her peculiar interest, which resulted in a discussion about the<br />ephemeral nature of web expressions and how to archive them.<br />Interview here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artificial.dk/articles/olia.htm">http://www.artificial.dk/articles/olia.htm</a><br />————————–<br /><br />Thomas Petersen<br /><br />+45 2048 2585<br /><br />www.crossover.dk &lt;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.crossover.dk">http://www.crossover.dk</a>&gt;<br /><br />www.artificial.dk &lt;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artificial.dk/">http://www.artificial.dk/</a>&gt;<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />7.<br /><br />Date: 7.17.05<br />From:<br />Subject: Fielding Questions: Notes on the Fieldworks Symposium<br /><br />Fielding Questions: Notes on the Fieldworks Symposium<br />Ryan Griffis<br /><br />In an April broadcast of the radio program &quot;On the Media,&quot; ABC News<br />editorialist John Stossel was asked why he had invited well known fiction<br />writer Michael Crichton to appear on one of his programs to discuss<br />science and the global warming debate. The exchange ended like this:<br /><br />On the Media's Brooke Gladstone: &quot;In December, you featured novelist<br />Michael Crichton on 20/20, and you praised him for contradicting something<br />most people believe and fear. You went on to say that environmental<br />organizations are fomenting false fears in order to promote agendas and<br />raise money. Why use a fiction writer to refute the scientific<br />community?&quot;.<br /><br />John Stossel: Because he's famous, and he's interesting, and he's smart,<br />and he writes books that lots of people read, and I could interview the<br />scientists for 20/20, but more people will pay attention when this<br />particular smart fiction writer says it.<br />( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_040805_skeptic.html">http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_040805_skeptic.html</a> )<br /><br />This particular exchange is interesting to consider in light of debates<br />around all manner of cultural and scientific developments, including stem<br />cell research, evolution, sex education and energy production just to name<br />a few. What makes this interesting to me is the visible and unashamed<br />collision of claims to truth with tactics of representation. Stossel<br />recognizes that the global warming debate is constructed as a &quot;he said,<br />she said&quot; debate, so truth claims are only as valid as the prominence of<br />the person making them, not the verifiability of the claims themselves.<br />Likewise, the &quot;other side&quot; often points to consensus as verification.<br /><br />This discussion was in the back of my mind when I attended the Fieldworks<br />symposium just a month later. Organized through a collaboration between<br />Departments of Art, Art History, Geography and Architecture at the<br />University of California, Los Angeles, Fieldworks was designed to discuss<br />&quot;the emerging relations between geographic sciences and artistic<br />production&quot; found in the work of certain contemporary practitioners. From<br />the preliminary program, it was apparent that the two-day event would<br />attempt this exploration through both creative works and traditional<br />discussion.<br /><br />The first event included a video screening and audio performance within<br />the space of UCLA's Hammer Museum. Heather Frazar, a recent graduate in<br />cultural geography from UCLA and one of the organizers of the conference,<br />presented &quot;Core Matters,&quot; a video narrative of the Greenland Ice Sheet<br />Project Two core sample. This sample of ice, the deepest ice core record<br />of the Northern Hemisphere at more than 3000m (<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://arcss.colorado.edu/data/gisp_grip/document/gispinfo.html">http://arcss.colorado.edu/data/gisp_grip/document/gispinfo.html</a> ), was<br />traced from the site of its recovery in remote Greenland to its residency<br />in an archive at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver, Colorado,<br />where it is parceled out for research. By focusing on the language, images<br />and instruments through which this object of inquiry is understood as one<br />containing &quot;information,&quot; Frazar reveals how scientific knowledge is<br />produced, distributed and differentiated from other kinds of knowledge.<br />The difference, for example, between the way the core sample is treated by<br />the technicians collecting it as a material artifact and those preserving<br />and distributing it as a container of knowledge illuminates the process of<br />transformation that occurs as material becomes information.<br /><br />Following the screening, the LA-based sound artist/activist collective<br />Ultra-Red ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ultrared.org">http://www.ultrared.org</a> ) performed a site-specific audio<br />intervention. Called &quot;Silent/Listen,&quot; the performance began with an<br />interpretation of John Cage's famous silent composition &quot;4'33&quot;,&quot; used here<br />to invoke ACT-UP's famous &quot;Silence=Death&quot; slogan, redirecting attention<br />away from the phenomenological experience of the space and toward<br />experiences that may not be seen or heard in the moment, yet are ever<br />present as we move through any space as an HIV positive or negative (or<br />somewhere in between) identity. After the scripted silence, pre-arranged<br />participants were invited to a table to speak of their ongoing battle with<br />the personal and political ramifications of HIV and AIDS. These speakers'<br />stories, both deeply personal and polemic, were recorded and mixed into an<br />increasingly complex montage by the members of Ultra-Red, highlighting key<br />phrases within ambient and discordant soundscapes. This technique has been<br />used by the collective before, especially in their collaborations with<br />activists in LA's fair housing struggles. While it may seem to stretch<br />Fieldwork's thematic to the point of breaking, Ultra-Red's practice has<br />been well defined by the group as site-specific and has consistently<br />tackled perceptual and political conditions as inseparable properties of<br />space. In this context, the performance, perhaps arguably, offers a<br />challenge to a science of geography that does not account for its role in<br />the distribution of housing and health care and especially people.<br /><br />The next day, formal presentations set the stage for discussions about the<br />developing exchange occurring between the sciences and aesthetic<br />production. The presentations ranged from artist and architect Laura<br />Kurgen's analysis of declassified satellite images to examine the<br />political implications of imaging technologies and information networks (<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.princeton.edu/~kurgan/">http://www.princeton.edu/~kurgan/</a> ) to Canadian draftsman Juan Geuer's<br />anecdotal narrative of his experience as an artist and researcher among<br />geophysicists ( <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www3.sympatico.ca/fred.mrg/">http://www3.sympatico.ca/fred.mrg/</a> ) and Trevor Paglen's<br />summary of his performative research on the &quot;black world&quot; of the US<br />Military's classified defense programs (<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.paglen.com/pages/projects/nowhere/index.htm">http://www.paglen.com/pages/projects/nowhere/index.htm</a> ). One common<br />thread to all of the presenters, aside from the whole geography thing, was<br />their deliberate transgression of recognized academic fields, while still<br />maintaining a rigorous relationship with them.<br />Cross-discipline research, especially between the humanities and<br />technology-based sciences has become something of a holy grail in academia<br />(in the US, at least), as both sides seek to capitalize on new funding<br />sources in an increasingly privatized funding environment. One of the<br />targets of Fieldworks is the accepted definition of the &quot;field&quot; itself,<br />i.e., the boundaries that compartmentalize knowledge into discreet regions<br />that must be defended. University departments now routinely offer joint<br />degrees, and many art programs have dissolved the traditional walls<br />between media. This may seem like an academic problem, and perhaps it<br />largely is, but when Business Journals assert that &quot;the MFA is the new<br />MBA,&quot; the paths of commerce and academia don't seem so divergent (<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.latimes.com/extras/careereducation/brush_wsuccess.html">http://www.latimes.com/extras/careereducation/brush_wsuccess.html</a> ).<br />In this competitive climate, where notions of a science free from<br />commercial influence have all but disappeared, the distinction between<br />making something of value and merely illustrating or understanding reality<br />has become all-important. The production of illustrations –<br />representations of different phenomena designed to reveal something about<br />them – is now merely one step in the development of commercially viable<br />goods. For the physical sciences, it is a matter of not just reading and<br />interpreting the world, but of making something from interpretations,<br />whether it's a new pharmaceutical product, a faster computer processor, or<br />hydrogen powered cars. While art may not feel the same pressure toward<br />utilitarianism, the historic struggle of the aesthetic avant-garde to move<br />beyond illustration, whether one looks at modernist abstraction or<br />tactical media, is a provocative parallel development.<br /><br />One of the comments made during the open discussion pointed out that as<br />social science moves more towards cultural studies (developing a critical<br />language of its own histories and languages), art seems to be moving<br />toward invention-oriented and empirical methodologies typical of the<br />physical and social sciences. In the work of Paglen, Kurgen, and many of<br />the speakers at Fieldworks, observational instruments that are considered<br />to be within the domain of science - statistics, geology, astronomy,<br />physics - are used toward creative ends not exactly familiar to their<br />origins, but not completely alien to them either. The tools of observation<br />and recording, considered illustrative in the hands of science, become<br />generative in the realm of art, where the &quot;performance&quot; of the instruments<br />is itself a final &quot;product.&quot; The comment mentioned above about social<br />sciences moving towards cultural studies, made by a geographer, may be<br />true within high academia, where science is indeed becoming more<br />self-conscious and critical, but perhaps it also has some resonance with<br />the further commercialization of research within universities, where the<br />&quot;scientific method&quot; is applied to test the marketability of a particular<br />research venture. While the geographer most likely intended to reference<br />the growing numbers of science scholars, like Bruno Latour, who are<br />creating a critical theory of science, it could be argued that science and<br />art are becoming complimentary methods of production, both situated in<br />terms of &quot;markets.&quot;<br /><br />How does all of this impact upon daily life and cultural contexts broader<br />than museums, classrooms and conferences? Well, Michael Crichton appearing<br />as an &quot;expert&quot; on climate change may be one instance. The example of John<br />Stossel citing Crichton as both an expert and a popular figure, is what<br />Bruno Latour might call iconoclastic. For Latour, iconoclasm - the<br />renunciation of religious iconography - is used to describe the process<br />(in Western society) of destroying and creating images in a cyclical<br />search for truth. In this sense, images can be understood as instruments<br />that point to what is not immediately visible - and understanding that<br />encompasses satellite photography as much as religious icons, despite<br />major differences in how such images relate to notions of information<br />(see: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensmp.fr/~latour/expositions/001_iconoclash.html">http://www.ensmp.fr/~latour/expositions/001_iconoclash.html</a> )<br />Crichton can be seen as an iconoclast (or Stossel for using him), as he<br />keeps the distinctions between knowledge production and social conventions<br />intact while destroying images that seem to represent that distinction -<br />namely that of specialized experts. Images that are assumed &quot;empty&quot;<br />vessels of information for scientists, such as photographs of fetuses or<br />of the planet Earth, can become weaponized icons in fierce ideological<br />battles. And representatives of the scientific community, in attempts to<br />keep the distinction between truth and social invention in tact, are<br />finding themselves on the front lines of battles over such images and<br />their constructed meanings.<br /><br />This concern for iconoclasm lay just below the surface of my experience of<br />the discussions framed by Fieldworks. While there was certainly much to<br />celebrate in terms of the diversity of practices and the ability of<br />artists and scientists to blend and stitch together innovative methods for<br />observing and imagining reality, I wondered if this collision could escape<br />the confines of professionalism. In many ways, it appears that these<br />collaborations between disciplines were taking up the role of producing<br />illustrations and questions about our surroundings that was once expected<br />to be played by an &quot;autonomous&quot; science. But, what is to prevent any<br />interdisciplinary effort from become just another, and potentially more<br />obscure, guarded dialogue? The question for me is how to replace the<br />&quot;fielded&quot; expert with interdisciplinary and amateur knowledges–without<br />following an iconoclastic program that seeks to destroy established fields<br />only to replace them with new, interdisciplinary ones, in a search for<br />more accurate and descriptive methodologies. In other words, how can the<br />field be expanded without leaving the position of expert open to Michael<br />Crichton?<br />The Fieldworks Art-Geography Symposium was held at the UCLA Hammer Museum<br />in Los Angeles, May 5-6, 2005<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fieldworks.org/index.html">http://www.fieldworks.org/index.html</a><br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome.org is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of<br />the New Museum of Contemporary Art.<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is supported by grants from The Charles Engelhard<br />Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for<br />the Visual Arts, and with public funds from the New York State Council<br />on the Arts, a state agency.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br /><br />Rhizome Digest is filtered by Kevin McGarry ([email protected]). ISSN:<br />1525-9110. Volume 10, number 29. Article submissions to [email protected]<br />are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art<br />and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome<br />Digest, please contact [email protected].<br /><br />To unsubscribe from this list, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/subscribe">http://rhizome.org/subscribe</a>.<br />Subscribers to Rhizome Digest are subject to the terms set out in the<br />Member Agreement available online at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rhizome.org/info/29.php">http://rhizome.org/info/29.php</a>.<br /><br />+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<br />