[digital stitchings: my interview with rachel beth egenhoefer ]

I recently did an interview with digital/textile artist/creator Rachel Beth Egenhoefer for Furtherfield:

Jess: What are the main differences (pros and/or cons) of creating a work that is to be experienced digitally, and that which is contained within physical material borders (sweets, fabric etc...)? - this is very much a question to you as a *creator*

Rachel Beth: In some ways I feel like this is a hard question for me to answer because my work is very much about bridging these two experiences and pointing out that they aren't that different.

There's lots of clich'e answers like the digital being accessible anywhere on the web and that the material has the traditional sense of making and 'aura', but my work really sits between them and is about bringing the two together. Making the digital tactile, and the tangible coded.

Jess: What aspects of the digital would you like to be able to bring into your future work?

Rachel Beth: My most recent work, and the work I did during my residency in the UK uses motion and acceleration tracking. I'd like to continue using ideas around mapping motion and interaction. I'm not so interested in data visualization but rather how mapping actions and systems can make for new interactions or parallels. I've also begun to work with hacking the Nintendo Wii that has just kind of opened a whole slew of ideas. So I can see myself working more with that.


Jess: How would you define a literate reader/experiencer of your work? (I'm thinking especially of the lovely melting sweets...how do you want your IDEAL audience to participate?)

Rachel Beth: I don't really have an ideal audience. I strive to have multiple entry points in my work. I've had computer scientists view my work who know much more about code than I do but never knew that a knitting pattern looks exactly the same, or ludites who hate technology but suddenly realize there are simple, beautiful concepts in computing. Some people see my work and don't realize it's even a piece, some people spend hours coming back and looking at it. I'm okay with either of these extremes. It's my hope that people find something to grab on to or relate to. Leaving a door partly open allows other people to add their own perspective as well. It's always rewarding (well most of the time rewarding) when people discover things in your work you didn?t see before.


Read more over at Furtherfield.

[employment opportunity - lecturer art & design]

Senior Lecturer in Games Art & Design

This post is available as either:
One full time post of 35 hours per week, 52 weeks per year
OR
Two posts of 17.5 hours per week (0.5FTE), 52 weeks per year

£31,136 - £41,410 p.a. (pro-rata)
(Job evaluation pending)

As a key member of the Games Art & Design Course team you will contribute to the academic development delivery of the FdA/BA (Hons) Games Art & Design awards.

The successful candidate will be expected to have a broad understanding of contemporary context for Games development and design and will contribute to the learning, teaching and assessment within the FdA/BA (Hons) programmes.

As a practising professional, you will be active in research and knowledge transfer, using these skills to inform the quality of teaching excellence.

Reporting to the Course Leader, Games Art & Design, you will need to demonstrate experience of teaching at HE level, appropriate technical skills and knowledge and an awareness of the creative and cultural industries.

Closing date: 5th September 2008

Interviews to be held: 1st October 2008

For an application pack please email jobs@nuca.ac.uk or contact Human Resources on 01603 756243.

[job opportunity - creative industries research fellow]

Creative Industries Research Fellow

Policy & Research

Contract:
Three days a week (or equivalent), Six month initial contract with possibility to extend for further six months

Salary:
£40,000-£50,000 (pro-rata), plus benefits

Closing date:
5pm, 13 August 2008

Location:
London

Core Purpose of Role:
This role will involve researching and writing analytical pieces on the creative industries and helping Hasan Bakhshi, who leads NESTA's policy development and research on the creative industries, to manage NESTA's ambitious programme of research on the Arts & Innovation.

The position will suit an analyst who wants to combine a NESTA research fellowship with their academic research or freelance work on the creative industries, or someone who is seeking a secondment, as we can be flexible on the exact pattern of working hours in the week.

To apply:
To apply, please email or post your CV and covering letter to recruitment@nesta.org.uk, or Tanya Holland, NESTA, 1 Plough Place, London EC4A 1DE.

For further information and to review the Candidate Brief and Role Profile please visit our website at
http://www.nesta.org.uk/creative-industries-research-fellow/.

NB. Interviews will take place on Wednesday 20 August.

[interrupt festival hosted by john cayley]

eUInterrupt 2008, to be held at Brown University from October 17-19, is a three-day festival of readings, performances, and symposia organized around the theme of “interruption” in digital art and programmable literary practices. Why “Interrupt”? In computing, a hardware interrupt request or IRQ is used to prioritize the execution of certain processes over others. It is a command sent to the processor to get its attention, signaling the need to initiate a new operation.

In the context of contemporary art, the act of interruption is a performance that redirects threads of process and lines of thought into fields of new expression. Interrupts trigger the moment when a process of creation yields a public manifestation. The cycle of ongoing work is paused by a challenge, calling for the attention of a provisional community: just as we read ICQ as “I seek you,” we can read IRQ as “I argue.” In this sense, interrupts articulate critical thresholds at which formal expressions are offered up to (or forced into) new circuits of communication, countering that which came before and making a case for new artistic and political futures.

We ask you to attend and participate.

Artists in Residence:
* Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries *

Confirmed Headliners:
* Alan Sondheim & Foofwa d'Imobilité *
* Laetitia Sonami *
* Eugenio Tisselli *
* Marko Niemi *

Details and arrangements to be confirmed:
* cris cheek *
* Abigail Child *
* Chris Funkhouser *
* Loss Pequeňo Glazier *
* Talan Memmott *
* Bill Seaman and Penny Florence *
* Patricia Tomaszek *

Critics, theorists, artists and students who would like to attend are asked to contact John_Cayley (at) brown.edu. We will be organizing two or more round table sessions during the festival, and we invite brief presentations intended to spark critical discussions relating to the work of interruption within the context of digitally mediated language practices. Participants will also be invited to instigate discussion at these round tables.

If you would like to attend, and particularly if you have institutional backing, we ask you to consider supporting Interrupt with a registration contribution of $50 (checks only please) made out to 'Brown University' and sent to:

Interrupt 2008
Brown University
Literary Arts Program
Box 1923
Providence RI 02912

For letters of invitation, please contact John_Cayley (at) brown.edu. Register now.

To read more about what we mean by Interrupt and for other details about the festival – including the preliminary program, schedule, location, venues, and accommodation information – please refer to our website: http://interrupt2008.net

Organized and hosted at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design by graduates and undergraduates from Literary Arts, Modern Culture and Media, MEME, RISD D+M, and other departments.

Funding and support for Interrupt currently includes the following sources: Brown Creative Arts Council, the Literary Arts program, RISD Digital+Media, MEME, the Brown Graduate School, the Comparative Literature department.

[synesthesia]

I've been reading Cretien Van Campen's The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science. In it Van Campen wonders how it might feel like to "hear music in colour, or to see someone's name in colour." Me too though sometimes when speaking to listening to people speak (not singing though) I imagine words or letters...not sure if that counts. According to Van Campen, synesthetes "perceive the colours of words and letters only when they read themin written or printed form." Brain scans of synesthetes show that even when blindfolded and listening to spoken words, the areas of the brain responsible for hearing AND colour vision light up simultaneously. This is unlike nonsynesthetes where brain activity is generated "only in the areas known to be responsible for hearing."



For those of you who are not synesthetic you might be interested to try the "synesthesia on demand" application at hypertextopia. My attempt as a synesthete resulted in this:



(text from Van Campen p. 58)

[nature and textile art]

A little while ago I participated in a round-table discussion at the ICA where 2 of the 3 artists were textile artists...or at least they created art with textiles. I'm thinking here specifically of Rachel Beth Egenhoefer and Nicola Naismith. Both artists create some really interesting objects and installations with wool etc... That must be why I'm going to be checking out the THE HYPERBOLIC CROCHET CORAL REEF at the Hayward Gallery in London curated by Margaret and Christine Wertheim from the Institute for Figuring.

"During Summer 2008 - in this International Year of the Reef - the Crochet Coral Reef will be showing in London at the Hayward Gallery. The exhibition will include an expanded version of the Bleached Reef, a new configuration of the Ladies Silurian Reef, the beautifully archaic Branched Anemone Garden, and the ever-growing Toxic Reef. On show for the first time will be the wondrously surreal Chicago Cambrian Reef (curated by IFF contributor Aviva Alter), plus a new formation of the Beaded Reef by master beaders Rebecca Peapples and Sue Von Ohlsen. The exhibition will also debut several new plastic installations: The Exploding Plastic Inevitable Reef (with hot-pink sand by Kathleen Greco), and the Bottle Tree Grove (featuring works by Christine
Wertheim, Evelyn Hardin and Nadia Severns). Hanging elements in the show will include the all-plastic-bag Rubbish Vortex by Australian contributor Helle Jorgensen, a flotilla of jellyfish by Irish crafter Inga Hamilton, and Dr Axt's psychedelic coral-cloud "Reefer Madness."

In addition to the IFF reefs, the exhibition will also debut the amazing new UK Reef, currently being constructed by crafters across the UK (with contributions from Ireland, and even Australia - hey its a former colony)."

On the 13th of June there's going to be an all-day symposium with the crochet reef creators Margaret and Christine Wertheim; mathematician Dr Daina Taimina, inventor of hyperbolic crochet; radical UK crafters, environmentalists, and coral reef biologists. How neat is that?

Now I just need to learn how to knit or crochet...right Edith?!

Thanks to Sue for the head's up.

[Open Source Embroidery: Craft and Code at HTTP Gallery]

Ele Carpenter, a digital-textile artist who I interviewed for Furtherfield, is curating a super exhibition. It's a must-see:

Preview: Friday 16th May 6-9pm, 17th May – 15th June 2008

Open Fridays to Sundays 12-5pm

http://www.http.uk.net/

This exhibition explores the connections between the collaborative characteristics of needlework, craft and Open Source software. This project has brought together embroiderers, patch-workers, knitters, artists and computer programmers, to share their practice and make new work.

HTML Patchwork in
progress

The centre-piece of the exhibition at HTTP Gallery is the HTML Patchwork developed in response to the popularity of quilting in Sheffield, the result of a participatory project initiated by Ele Carpenter in partnership with Access Space. The patchwork is built on open principles of collective production and skill-share where each person contributes a part to the whole. The final work is a collectively stitched patchwork quilt of HTML web-safe colours with embroidered codes, and a wiki website, where the makers of each patch identify themselves and write about their sewing process. Each patch is
personalised by the sewer, often including embroidered web addresses.

telinit Ø: time for bed, Lisa Wallbank, 2007
Knitted Blog (detail),
Suzanne Hardy, 2006-

In an interview with Jess Laccetti, Ele Carpenter said about the project: "The same arguments about Open Source vs Free Software can be applied to embroidery. The needlework crafts also have to negotiate the principles of 'freedom' to create, modify and distribute, within the cultural and economic constraints of capitalism. The Open Source Embroidery project simply attempts to provide a social and practical way of discussing the issues and trying out the practice. Free Software, Open Source, amateur and professional embroiderers and programmers are welcome to contribute to the project."

Hexart GDlib Script Error, digital print on canvas, James Wallbank,
2007
Weaving network cable in progress, Paul Grimmer, 2007

The project was developed by Ele Carpenter when working as an artist in residence at Access Space in Sheffield and Isis Arts in Newcastle upon Tyne. Access Space is an open access media lab using recycled computers and open source software. Anyone can drop in and use the lab to develop their creative projects.

The exhibition at HTTP Gallery in Harringay, North London, includes works by 11 artists and makers alongside the collectively made HTML Patchwork quilt and wiki. Other works in the exhibition include Susanne Hardy’s Knit-a-Blog, a collective knitting project made by contributors from across the UK and USA, Iain Clarke’s PHP Embroidery, which explores the open source PHP programming language as a form of self-generating weaving, as well as artworks by Paul Grimmer, Tricia Grindrod, Jake Harries & Keith o’Faoláin, John Keenan, Trevor Pitt, Clare Ruddock, James Wallbank, and Lisa Wallbank.

The HTML Patchwork has been created by people at: Access Space, Art through Textiles, The Patchwork Garden, The Fat Quarters, Stocksbridge Knit n Chat, Totley Quilters, Isis Arts, and the Banff New Media Institute at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada.

Events at HTTP

Preview
Your chance to meet Ele Carpenter, the curator as well of some of the other exhibiting artists, to enjoy a few drinks and conversations about the exhibition.

Open Knitting and Embroidery
evenings
Dates and times TBC

Bring your knits, your embroidery and your friends for tea, biscuits and conversation amongst the artworks.

These events are open to the public and entrance is free, however advanced booking is necessary.

Contact:
Lauren Wright,
HTTP Gallery
lauren@furtherfield.org

HTTP
Gallery
http://www.http.uk.net/
Unit A2,
Arena Design Centre
71 Ashfield Road
London N4 1LD
+44(0)79 8129
2734
Click here for map
and location details

Further info:
www.open-source-embroidery.org.uk
www.eleweekend.blogspot.com
www.access-space.org

[pavement art]

[learning on screen - part quatre]

"How to Write and the Question: Is it Still Necessary to 'Write'?"
Neil Rose, Sonic Arts Lecturer at Plymouth College of Art and Design (his myspace page)

"Writing is important but putting pen to paper seems not so..."

What is Audio Writing? - radio documentary, radio play (The Archers), more examples in the electro-acoustic (think K. Norman, J. Cardiff etc...)

Although audio writing comes out of a history it is still difficult to assess.

How to quote in audio? What are the quotation marks? Having another voice say the quote?

Problem with assessment - students never really know how their grade is broken down?
Relies on exploring technique and process, most film art, fine art and sound students work with concept and the amount of work (and time) required to create the artefact may not be proportional across disciplines.

To assess fairly: skim reading no longer applies, would increase marking time (so lecturers would need more time), are lecturers really equipped to mark this work - do they *know* the media techniques?

If we can use audio work as a viable outcome then we can learn and figure out how to assess it.

[candy + code @ the ICA]

Shamefully I arrived home quite late lastnight and then had to pack for today's trip up to York (Inanimate Alice is up for a Learning on Screen Award and the Faculty of Humanities is paying for me to go up there AND enjoy the 2-day conference!)...so I didn't really have *time* to blog. Is that a better excuse than the dog ate my blog post?

I'll catch up and post all the notes I made on the three incredible artists: Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Dr Barbara Rauch and Nicola Naismith? They were all working on different things yet there were loads of crossovers. I was able to ask a few questions too during the final panel session but amazingly, we ended up going over and we had to be kicked out into the ICA bar (darn!). :)

I also want to *shout out* to Helen Sloan director of SCAN who is interested in social media and mapping business networks!

Thanks to Dr. Jane Harris for organising the event and to Lucy for all her help e-mailing updates and organising ppts etc...

Hopfully the National Science Learning Centre will have wireless...

[candy + code at the ICA, London]

On Monday night I'm going to have the pleasure of listening to three female [digital] artists who interestingly incorporate textiles/textures into their work which seem to (at least to me) question the role of code/coding (among other things). A kind of digital/textural semiotics perhaps? My job, after their presentations, is to ask them *riveting* questions. Hrm...anyone out there in the blogosphere have any questions they'd like to put to Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Dr Barbara Rauch or Nicola Naismith? I won't be the only one asking questions though. Dr Jane Harris, Director of TFRG, and Helen Sloan, Director of SCAN will have their interviewing caps on too.







This what the ICA says about the event:

[transliteracy and digital art]

In the recently published Digital Artists' handbook, Kristina Anderson talks about making and modding technology. At the end of her chapter she makes an interesting point:

"Maybe we can say, we are making technology in order to understand it, and understanding technology in order to make our own."

This resonates (for me) with the concept of transliteracy. We've named transliteracy in order to understand it and in beginning to understand (conceptualise, interpret etc...) transliteracy perhaps we are making it our own, as a symbol of a 21st century literacy?

[Museum Residency: New Media]

The V&A is inviting applications from experienced and established practitioners for a New Media residency in the Sackler Centre for Arts Education, the first in an exciting new programme of residencies.We are particularly interested in UK based practitioners, who wish to work with the Museum’s spaces and use the facilities in our new Digital Studio with visitors, and who have a track record of development and regular exposure of new work.Purpose of the Residency

The new Sackler Centre at the V&A, opening in Spring 2008, will have two studios for museum residencies which will be occupied by artists/ craftspeople/ designers/ writers/ performers/ architects/ film and video makers etc. There will be 4 residencies of 6 months ( 26 weeks ) each year. This programme is integral to the philosophy of the Sackler Centre, helping to make it a dynamic, creative space. The residency offers practitioners the opportunity to develop new work, re-assess their practice or see work in different contexts by responding to and working with the Museum’s collections and to promote greater understanding of art and design processes for the public.

The aims of the residency are to:

· Enable the selected practitioner to carry out research, develop new skills and explore new ideas towards the creation of new work in the future

· Promote greater understanding of new media production processes for the V&A’s audiences.

· Create links between the V&A’s collections and contemporary art practice.

· Develop practitioners as ‘artist educators’.

· Raise the profile of contemporary art practice with the V&A’s diverse audiences.

The residencies will include a research and developmentphase, enabling practitioners to consider new directions for their own work, work with the collections and plan a project with the public. This could include holding open studios, running workshops or master classes, giving talks and presentations or working with specific groups to produce work for display. This programme of work will be negotiated with the successful candidate and confirmed by the V&A. Any additional activities, such as involvement in the Museum’s public programme will be separately negotiated and an appropriate additional fee agreed.

The resident artist will be supported in their public projects by the V&A’s experienced Education, Access and Diversity staff. This will make a significant contribution to the artist’s own CPD and help to develop a pool of ‘artist educators’ for future museum projects.

Expectations

The focus of the residencies will be on process and on engagement with audiences. We would like to achieve a balance of benefits for the artist, the public and the V&A. Evaluation is a very important component of the residency programme since we will be piloting new approaches and the resident will be asked to contribute to this.

Residents will be expected to:

· be based in the museum for a minimum of 3 days per week

· open their studio to the public for a minimum of one weekday, two late night Fridays per month and one weekend per month (to be arranged in advance)

· display work in progress in their studio (there may also be other opportunities for display elsewhere)

· contribute to the process of dissemination on the V&A website· provide feedback for the purposes of evaluation

Note : work produced during the residency remains the property of the maker, but the residency programme must be acknowledged in any subsequent public or press showing. Any work produced with the public as part of this residency is owned by the V&A.

Selection Criteria

The residency should be dynamic, ambitious and inspiring – pushing forward boundaries of perception about contemporary art and design We are looking for residents who can adopt a range of different roles and who are keen to develop those aspects of their career which include using collections, engaging in public programmes and communicating about their work.

Candidates must demonstrate:

· originality, and evidence of a strong personal style in their work

· dynamic and inspiring ideas about how they would use this opportunity and how they intend to meet the aims of the Museum Residency

· ideas for innovative ways to respond to the V&A’s collections

· an established practice, through a track record of development and regular exposure of new work through exhibitions at a regional, national and international level· an interest in or experience of working in educational / community settings

·an ability to work and communicate with a diverse range of people

Payment

This appointment will be on an Occasional Professional Assistant (OPA) basis and, for the avoidance of doubt, there is no intention to render the Resident an employee of the V&A. The artist will be paid approximately £7000 during their 6 month residency. This will be paid on completion of agreed work stages at the equivalent of £1083 a month (plus 8.3% rolled up holiday pay).

For more information e-mail: hr AT vam.ac.uk

[music at sharon temple]

Ok, I admit. When I heard the word "temple" I thought "oh no..." this is going to be some kind of *religious* thingey...but in fact I was pleasantly relieved and the acoustics were amazing (the temple topped last year's Toronto Star list of Canadian essential architecture) . The choir was moving and the first song, Gloria, written by choir member Timothy Corlis was my favourite - it seemed to suit the surroundings the best.

Here is a blurb from the site:

"June 10: Noel Edison will conduct the Elora Festival Singers in a varied programme highlighted by notable Canadian commemorations including John Beckwith's Three Motets on Swan's "China", which was performed at the first Music at Sharon concert in 1981. Glenn Gould’s witty So You Want to Write a Fugue? will honour the 75th anniversary of the late- musician’s birth, and movements from Glenn Buhr’s Richot Mass will mark the 10th anniversary of Manitoba’s 1997 Red River flood."

[UK launch of the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 1]

Lastnight was the UK launch of the ELC, the cd and online collection of web works put together by the Electronic Literature Organization.

Guests included
- Scott Rettberg (http://retts.net/, writer, co-editor of ELC Volume 1, co-founder and first executive director of the Electronic Literature Organization)

And the UK-based writers who feature on the ELC Volume 1, who will show their work and discuss what Electronic Literature means for them:
- John Cayley (http://www.shadoof.net/in/)
- Jon Ingold (http://www.ingold.fsnet.co.uk/)
- Chris Joseph (http://www.chrisjoseph.org/)
- Kate Pullinger (http://www.katepullinger.com)

and me, in the place of Dr. Donna Leishman. Sadly I could not do a Scottish accent (I struggle with my own!) but as I spoke about The Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw (Sept 2004), Chris interacted/played with the story so audience members were able to enjoy exactly what Donna terms "the fragital":

"an uncommon pairing of the digital experience, involving the individualised remote onscreen touch, and the sense of a material and sensitive tangibility which is located in the drawing, movement, composition and the responsive actions of the visual practice."

[bits and bytes: a conversation with chris joseph]

I interviewed Chris Joseph for Furtherfield.org:

Chris Joseph is Digital Writer in Residence at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is a writer and artist who has produced solo and collaborative work since 2002 as babel.

His past work includes Inanimate Alice,



an award-winning series of multimedia stories produced with novelist Kate Pullinger; The Breathing Wall, a groundbreaking digital novel that responds to the reader's breathing rate (also with Kate Pullinger); and Animalamina, an A-Z of interactive multimedia poetry for children. He is editor of the post-dada magazine and network 391.org.

Jess: Babel has been extremely active and has maintained a web presence since the late 90s but only recently, with your new post as digital writer in residence, have you begun a blog under your *real* name. What motivated this addition to your internet profile and how is it different from your other sites?

Chris: I’ve been using the babel name since around 1997, when the Babel Encyclopedia first went live, as (amongst other reasons) a way to distinguish my commercial daytime activities from my ‘artistic’ ones. Very happily as digital writer in residence there is no need to make any such distinction! But it is more than that... babel is (or was) an online identity, and this residency has large offline requirements, so it always made sense to me revert back to my ‘real’ name, as you put it!

The blog was a requirement of the residency post, and initially I resisted as I really didn’t want to add to the mass of superfluous texts out there. Eventually I settled on making it a site that might be of use to other UK-based digital writers, where they can find out about relevant events, calls for submissions, and other flotsam and jetsam of possible interest. It may change over the course of the residency, but that’s pretty much what it is for now. I also try to break up the text entries with creative posts – flash movies, sound files etc.

Jess: Although initially you say beginning your blog was a proviso of your new role how is it modifying or transforming how you work? Especially since you note that you “try to break up the text” with “creative posts” (suggesting that words in themselves are not substantially creative on their own)?

Chris: Ha ha, would I ever dare suggest such a thing? The majority of my blog postings so far have been calls for submissions, so these particular words in themselves are not particularly creative, rather informative. It's nice to break up these texts with more creative posts. Completely coincidentally I was invited to post on remix_runran, and the posts there provide exactly the kind of thing I wanted to break up the informative texts on my blog.

Whether the blog is transforming how I work... aside from the remix_runran pieces, which are designed specifically for a blog format, I don't think so - at least not yet. There is a project in the works that may change this, but I can't say much more about it yet.

Jess: You’ve lived in Canada and the U.K., how do the different environments affect your creations?

Chris: Profoundly. The different cultural influences and language you are exposed to in (French) Canada are obviously important, but so are the extremes of Canadian weather, which I find cause very particular creative rhythms (for me, winter=creative hibernation, summer=play and procrastination). There are other practical differences: up until very recently, the Arts were very well supported in Canada, and the financial cost of achieving a good quality of life is much lower, which makes it a great place to be an artist or writer. However the quality of life is almost too good, in some ways... the greater friction in UK society is somehow more inspirational. Perhaps that’s because I was born here.

Jess: The remix_runran creations you’re doing for Randy Adams seem incredibly tactile. I’m thinking particularly of la cicciolisa. The words which flash all over the Mona Lisa obscuring both her from viewers and us from her, except, very intermittently, do words disappear from in front of her eyes; not often enough for me as I find myself attempting to snatch the words away with my mouse. Of course ciccio means chubby in Italian (interestingly you did not use the female form, “ciccia”) but perhaps this reference alludes to the filling out you’ve accomplished with this flash piece. In fact, Randy describes you as someone who “fleshes the invisible words.” Design here seems more than an effort to render something smooth and sexy. What role do you see design playing in this piece and in others for remix_runran?

Chris: The text that appears in this piece was taken and remixed from a previous post on remix_runran by Ted Warnell titled ‘Porno Italiano’. The Porno Italiano text was itself taken from a spam comment on Geof Huth’s blog ‘dbqp: visualizing poetics’ - I really liked the notion of using and reusing spam in this way. So La Cicciolisa is a textual and thematic remix of Porno Italiano, the title and visual being a mashup of those two icons of Italian culture, La Cicciolina and Mona Lisa: the words that deface Mona reveal La Cicciolina, or perhaps vice versa.

Jess: Being a digital writer in residence it is logical (more or less) that you create digital works however most of your (published) creations seem to live online. Do the internet and its possibilities for “real-time” and communication influence how and what you create?

Chris: Actually the great majority of my creations are offline, awaiting (perhaps forever) their call to online service :)
The possibilities you mention are certainly exciting, and I have explored them in pieces such as Online/Offline [ http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk/frame/oo/ ] or more recently Universal Wish [http://www.391.org/40 ], but they probably haven't influenced what I create as much as the basic ability to distribute work online. Online distribution (for me) generally necessitates creating within certain file size/download time boundaries, or adapting works to attempt to reach non-English speaking audiences. Of course the ability to meet and communicate with collaborators online has been a big influence on how I create."

Jess: Moving from the online environment to offline work, I’m thinking here specifically about your Electromagnetic Radiation Soundmap on display in the IoCT, how is this installation different from works of yours that are created for the internet? What different considerations do you take into account?

Chris: I've found offline installation pieces are much easier in the sense that you (normally) have much greater control over - or at least understanding of - how the piece will be experienced, who the expected viewing audience are, and how much time they will have to spend viewing your piece. No more of those pesky platform or bandwidth considerations!

I think each installation piece has its own particular set of considerations, but clearly the immediate physical environment in which the piece is displayed is a key issue. The Soundmap is displayed on a touchscreen in the IOCT, which is a very pleasant state-of-the-art environment: the main consideration here was that it has lot of time-limited visitors, so the intention of the piece and how to interact with it had to be very clear.

A distant version of this Soundmap will be a mobile 'augmented reality' installation. This will be less concerned with the particular IOCT audience and environment, and more with the variety of physical features that the soundmap will overlay, and the physical movement and safety of the viewer in a non-bounded 'live' environment. The idea of a mobile installation is somewhat oxymoronic, but some of the same considerations of a fixed installation will be relevant, such as the intended audience and the time they will have available to experience the piece.

Jess: What kind of dialogue does the sound in the Electromagnetic Radiation Soundmap enact with its users? What does sound offer this piece that text and image do differently?

Chris: This is something I am still trying to understand... the best answer I can give at the moment is that one side of the 'dialogue' is about revealing the unsensed - at least, for most people, unseen, unheard and unfelt. The sound is a simple translation of particular geographical and environmental features (electromagnetic radiation and the way it manifests in a specific space), so in these sounds could act in a similar way to a textual or image location marker: it is a 'map' of sounds, though without those additional textual and image markers we have no simple way (so far) to use these sounds for practical navigation through the space.

The other side of the dialogue - how the listener responds to these sounds - is determined primarily by how much they know about electromagnetic radiation and perhaps sound in general, so this is much more variable than the equivalent textual or image knowledge might be. For many people it seems to act as a prompt to find out more, which was certainly one of my intentions.

Jess: As you’re playing a role in the digital arts as creator and facilitator (http://www.ioctsalon.com/) what might your view of a “history” of new media work look like and where would you situate yourself?

Chris: Trying to give a clear account of the history of new media work is like trying to keep hold of two dozen slippery eels: just when you have one in your grasp, six others wriggle loose. Those eels represent photography, animation, film, video art, electronic sound, programming, audience participation, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Situationism and Fluxus, to name just a few.... I wouldn't want to explicitly situate myself anywhere within these fascinating but messy histories. However of particular interest to me is the history of aleatory art and writing, as exemplified by the Dadaists and later Burroughs, Metzger and Cage.

Jess: If early outlooks of the internet might be broadly classified as utopian what would you suggest is a key theme for today’s conception of how technology can influence art (in general)?

Chris: I can't speak to wider (public) conceptions, but my own conception of how (electronic) technology can influence art is still broadly utopian, though there will always be important contrary opinions: for example, issues regarding who has access to the technology, and the environmental impact of these technologies during their creation, use and disposal.

[art experiments in new york]

From Rhizome:

"New York-based organization Location One's International Residency Program was initiated in 2001 to foster artistic experimentation. Each year a group of artists develop a body of new work?often involving technology?during a period of four to ten months, which is then presented in a group show at Location One's Soho gallery. The first of two exhibitions showcasing the projects of eight of the 2006-2007 artists-in-residence runs from February 14 to March 17. Reflecting the multiple practices of their creators, the pieces on view represent multiple media and aesthetics, from sound, sculpture, and performance, to political readings of the urban space or explorations of perception. Bewernitz and Goldowski's installation, 'Unveiled Presence (secret sounds 2)' (2007), constitutes one of the highlights of the exhibition. The artists were inspired by the rooftop water towers found all over New York, as well as Duchamp's 'Bruit Secret' (1916), an assisted ready-made consisting o! f a ball of twine between two brass plates containing a small, unknown object revealed only when shaken. Using a complex topographical approach, they recorded the city?s sounds in specific locations, creating a psychologically engaging vision of the secret dimensions of this otherwise well-known metropolis. Other works are also worth mentioning, including Teresa Henriques's drawing/sculpture, created with the open-source animation software Blender, or Alessandro Nassiri's video of a fictional demonstration in which the participants wear white t-shirts exposing a scarlet letter, so that, together, the participants?s shirts spell-out the expression 'coming soon.' Presenting innovative artists and works to New York?s audience, this promising group show thus continues Location One's custom of contributing to the dynamics of its art scene." - Miguel Amado

[hen weekend]

The Seminar by the Sea for Female Artists, Writers and Curators

Hen Weekend is a new format networking event set-up by artist Ellie Harrison. It aims to facilitate discussion and encourage collaboration between its participants - who (at each event) will be a mix of 16 high-profile and emerging artists from around the UK and abroad.

Hen Weekend has just received funding from Arts Council England and the pilot event will take place at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea over the weekend 30 March - 1 April 2007. Over the course of the next two years, further Hen Weekend events will take place at a number of seaside arts venues around the country.

Hen Weekend is funded by The National Lottery through Arts Council England, with support from De La Warr Pavilion, ARC and the Networking Artists' Networks initiative (NAN) through a-n The Artist Information Company.

For more information visit the site.