Online magazines come and go

In the Spring of 2001, when Randall Packer taught a course in Advanced Web Design: Producing an on-line e-zine, the magazines he wrote about were still in existence.
Salon is now subscription only, or you can get a 'free' day pass if you watch a commercial. Once there, you can read current articles and browse the archives back to 1995; that is, if you're willing to search around the archives. Browsing by date finds articles in 2000, but browsing by subject will find articles back to 1995. Maybe it's asking too much to have an issue by issue listing. [Dec. 24/06 - Now it's there, right back to November, 1995, with a table of contents for each article. Just scroll down to the bottom of the first page to find the search box.]

But I did search around until I found an article by Thomas Bartlett (for his page see Audiofile, with lots of downloadable mp3 files), which listed the 10 best records of the year for 2004. One of those is "Real Gone" by Tom Waits. So I googled that and found the ANTI web site which has just enough downloadable music and video to make me want to buy the album. And a jukebox, which unfortunately played Merle Haggard as the first track. Tracks can be selected, though. The ANTI page has lots of links, including one to a NPR review of Waits' album, with sound clips inside the audio file of the program.

More to follow, when I get around to checking out the other magazines that Randall Packer suggested that his students read.

The Digital Stage - Powered By Bloglines: "A totally self-indulgent guide to the websites I find, and like, as I ramble though cyberspace, or at least the web-connected part of it."

My other blog, just what it says it is.

Piotr Szyhalski

Well, the link about Piotr Szyhalski's appearance at Carleton College is working again. One incorrect link on that page is the one to 'Final Analysis' - it goes to 'Ding an Sich'. 'Final Anaysis' is one of the 'Inward Vessels', or you can click here. [Link updated Jan. 9, 2011)

I'd advise reading Steve Dietz' explanation of this work, or you might think that the piece no longer works, as I did the first time or two I tried to go through it. Tip: If the screen looks blank, move your mouse around until you see the hand, and then click. As Dietz demonstrates, you can easily click into the wrong screen but if you persevere, as I did, you get through the piece in it's entirety and see the complete picture. Another tip: The links in Dietz' article are for illustration only, and may bounce you out of the 'Final Analysis' prematurely, or may place you in the middle of the work [or send you to a bad link, but it has been at least seven years since the piece was published, after all].

Piotr Szyhalski

I've admired Piotr Szyhalski's work ever since I first saw "Ding an Sich (The Canon Series)" shortly after it was first displayed in 1997. "Ding an Sich'" still remains one of my favourite pieces. Each piece demands user input in order for it to display completely. Some pieces are more complicated than others, but each one is open to interpretation and will behave differently according to the action, or inaction, of the viewer. Each time I see it, I find something different because, as the artist explains on the first page "all works are designed to be "performed" by the viewer, so that with each visit the viewer performs each piece differently.

Szyhalski sometimes works in Macromedia Director, but also employs a very skilled use of HTML in order to create a home page that is not at all ordinary. While I may find his use of dark text on a black background really annoying, a voyage around The Spleen [link updated Jan. 9, 2011] will uncover many thought-provoking pieces. Do they fall into the category of online performance, installation, or public art, I wonder? Or are they part of a whole new art movement which is redefining itself with each passing minute?

The "Inward Vessels of the Spleen" [link updated Jan. 9, 2011] dates from around 1995 or 1996 and is, in my view, the most intricate of the Szyhalski's works. Or maybe it is a really convoluted catalogue of his works. If you venture into the Outer Vessels, you will find that many of the links no longer lead to the originally intended destination. The site is eight years old, after all. [Jan. 9, 2011 - it is now 15 years old and has been relocated, so it's surprising that any of the links are working at all.]

A search on Szyhalski's name on Google will find over 600 pages. [1350 or more on Jan. 9, 2011, including YouTube videos]. Most have to do with his earlier works [now there are many more later works] and I would suggest that you grab a cup of coffee or tea and explore some of those pages.

One site well worth visiting is the one covering his appearance at Carleton College's Digital Art Festival 2003. Along with information on his work and a 'blue' poem, there are video clips of 10 or so other artists. At least they were there a few weeks ago. The page has a "Sorry, but the page was not found" message today. [Dec. 21/06 - The link to the Festival pages is here.]

Here is the 'blue' poem.

The other artist at the festival whose name I recognized was DJ Spooky. He has some interesting things to say. [Jan. 9, 2011 - His website is here.]

Fun Fiction and Improbable Truth

For Doctor Who fans, the BBC has a very detailed website, including The Scream of the Shalka, a six-episode online "animated adventure". The episodes are in Flash using vector art so that they can be viewed full-screen without lose of image quality. [Dec. 13/06 - Site is updated and there are now games, scenes from the earliest episodes, video, and much more.]

Margot Lovejoy's new book - Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age has just been published and has an [almost] excellent web page. The artists' page has links to work by 180 artists, which you find by revealing one of the names, clicking on it, and then on the URL. The search feature works only if you know which artists are included - there are lists of artists under 'contexts'.

On a much more serious note, I've been following the reports of the arrest of Steve Kurtz, a member of Critical Art Ensemble. When I first read about it, I discussed the story with a colleague who thought it must be an urban myth, since it sounded so improbable. Not so, unfortunately. Read more at CAE Defense Fund and in the Washington Post (registration needed).

I found this information in the June 4, 2004 Digest from Rhizome.org. Although access to (some/all?) Rhizome features is free on Fridays, a yearly donation provides access to all their web pages, daily and/or weekly emailed news if you request it, and many other features. You will find detailed information about donating if you try to access Art + Text messages.

One of the readings for several of the classes listed in Randall Packer's Course Information is Margot Lovejoy's "Art as Interactive Communications : Networking a Global Culture", chapter 6 (pages 212-247) in Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media. (Prentice Hall, 1997, 2nd ed. ISBN 0131587595). I'll leave it to you to buy or borrow it if you'd like to read it, but I would like to list some of the websites which are mentioned there and are still findable on the Web. The fluidity of the Web is such that links can disappear overnight (or be redirected in odd and usual ways) but some really interesting sites have been relocated or still exist. Of course, there is still the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive if you want to find the original thing and you know the original URL. This is a bad site to go to if you are easily distracted - there are links to archives of old recordings and old movies. I've seen a film from 1906 San Francisco there. I've also used the Wayback machine to find a copy of a webpage I had in 2002. Sort of like a Web ghost since I know that the web pages have been totally erased from the server.

But I digress -

According to Lovejoy, "one of the first art works on the World Wide Web" was Antonio Muntadas' "The File Room". It has been at its new site, since 2001. Basically, it is a project having to do with censorship of all types. Incidentally, if you want to read books that have been banned over the years, go to Banned Books Online.

I've been an admirer of Jenny Holzer's work for some time so I'm pleased to see that her "Please Change Beliefs" web installation is still on äda 'web. Julia Scher's "Security Land" is there as well. I found that Scher's installation was better visited after Holzer's, since it is then more obvious that she has 're-arranged' the other artists exhibits.

Lynn Hershman Leeson

It's a month since I last entered anything into this blog. For one thing, I've been taking a class in Entended Media at the University of Saskatchewan, where I work full time in the Library. The art department here has only one class having to do with digital media, and a half-credit class dealing with the history of art on the Internet. My Extended Media projects have been real (whatever that is) installations so far, but I hope that the next two will be computer-based. If my proposal is successful, perhaps I will post the link here.

Back to the purpose of this blog (see the December,2003, archive):

As part of my continuing quest to find information about artists listed on Randall Packer's Zero Gravity, even after links lead to blank pages, 404 errors, and 'could not be found' messages, I would like to report that when I found that the link under Lynn Hershman's name didn't lead anywhere and clicking on the ZKM link took me to the German version of the main web site, I didn't give up. A search of the English version of ZKM's site finds links to some of Hershman's work - text is in German. Near the bottom of each page is the word 'Linkempfehlung' followed by a link to the work on Hershman's site - Examples: America's Finest or Lorna

Lynn Hershman - Private Eye [December 5, 2006 - now called The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson] is the artist's webpage and while there is a lot of information, including video clips and explanations of her work, I found that the Investigations link didn't work for me although the Timeline link works well. [Dec. 5/06 - Website is updated and links have been renamed.]

As with many things on the Internet, there is more than one way of accessing information about Hershman's work. For instance, in the Timeline, clicking on Conceiving Ada 1994-1997 , and then on 'More Information', provides details of making the film about "the brilliant mathmatician, Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace". Clicking on 'Official Site Link' takes you to audio clips, info on the film and on Lynn Hershman Leeson.

Ken Goldberg et al

The links for the second artist, Ken Goldberg, listed on the Zero Gravity web site all lead to active web pages. The Telegarden site has links to several other projects. The Mori installation is ongoing, so viewers can watch "streaming seismographic data" of the Hayward Fault in California. Goldberg's home page looks very ordinary but the links lead to technical papers for those who want to know the details behind the art. Other links take you to the artworks themselves which are well documented, and offer video clips or live interaction. There is even an online Tele-Twister game.

The Audio and Video Archives link of the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium, curated by Ken Goldberg, leads to audio and video files of "lectures from invited artist and media theorists", including Sara Diamond, Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky, and Christiane Paul. You will notice that I'm not including very many links here. Clicking on 'Zero Gravity' above will take you along a web journey to these sites and half the fun in travel is the side trips.

I've looked at the InterCommunication Center (ICC) site several times and I haven't found links to archived performances or lectures. There seems to be live internet feeds of some conferences but I haven't been online when any of them were being presented. Exploring the site will find information about past exhibits, artists's statements, and descriptions of installations. The site is tricky to explore but each time I visit it I find more links and more information. For instance, the image of four faces on the home page leads to lots of other webpages, if you have patience.

In the fall, 2000, class description for Electronic Media and Culture, Randall Packer has a link for Zero Gravity, a list of artists, galleries, and publications. As I explore this list, I'll do a write-up on what I found for each entry on the list.

Showing once again how annoying, and/or wonderful, the Web can be, none of the links for Shu Lea Cheang will lead you directly to her works. Exploring the sites that are indicated will find her works eventually. Buy One Get One is described at http://www.ntticc.or.jp/Collection/Icc/Buy/index.html. Clicking on the link listed there takes you to a webpage for the work - watch out for the persistent Java applet, and read the lines scrolling across the bottom of your screen.

The link from the artist's name leads to a '404 not found' but if you go to Bomb magazine's main site and then check out the archives, you can find an interview with Steve Earle and some very nice audio files. Browsing through the back issues will find some very interesting interviews, including one by Atom Egoyan of Janet Cardiff. Leaf virtually through the magazine to find artists and writers of your choice.

The Guggenheim link for Brandon sent Netscape's icon twirling aimlessly, but a visit to the Guggenheim Museum site's Virtual Projects page provides information that the work has been archived. You can find Mark Napier's Net Flag from 2002, apparently still a work in progress - it can be changed by the viewer and has been, often.

A Google search for Cheang was frustrating until I found some of her works at the Video Data Bank. The VDB site has video clips from works by many other artists, including Laurie Anderson and Bruce Nauman.

Randall Packer's class in Intermedia Studio

In the Spring, 2003, session, a class in Intermedia Studio was offered. Students from MICA and other college classes collaborated on projects using audio and video. Some are digital only, some are part performance and installation. Macintosh computers and programs were used. Max/MSP/Jitter which is a "software environment" for controlling audio and video input/output was used in several of the projects. The Cycling '74 website describes the programs, which are also available, some in beta, for Windows XP.

Some student projects are listed at http://digitalmedia.jhu.edu/Gallery/Gallery.cfm, although I'm not sure that all are from students of this class. [The page seems to be updated regularly with new files. /March 7, 2006] Some of the projects are very good, and make me wish I used a Mac. My favourite is the last project on the list - "The Little Things", which uses 3D animation.

The Sample Project Proposal has a description of the steps needed to set up a collaborative project and would likely contain useful information for anyone having to take part in a collaboration for an art class.