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Norwayweb by Bjorn Magnhildoen

2008-04-28T15:33:00-05:00

Norwayweb was originally part of a series called Protocol Performance realised in 2007 with the support of the Norwegian Cultural Council, section for art and new technology. This work uses specific data collected from a source or sources originating from the national system’s database. The information is scraped from about 4 million Norwegian tax payer’s databases. As soon as you visit the web page, you automatically trigger off the action of collecting the data. On the left side of the interface figures cascade down the page before your very eyes, which gradually evolves into what Magnhildoen calls a carpet. The term carpet is a reference to the textile based craft of weaving.

When opening the web page the viewer becomes a participant in the collection of the data, each number represents one singular individual which is added as you watch it in real-time. It stops when you close the browser and starts all over again if you return. Once the total of the numbers reach 3943077 the carpet is completed. If you leave the browser open on the page of the Norwayweb artwork for I minute, you will have triggered off and received information equivalent to 60 people. The whole work itself is complete once there has been 555 hours of viewing of it. By taking part in the process of web-scraping we become affiliated as peer scrapers in the accumulation other people’s personal tax details based in Norway.

Bjorn has mentioned that he is aware that collecting such data could be ethically questionable and is not clear himself how real it is that a law is actually being broken. As a kind of opt out clause or fail-safe he suggests that, visitors to the artwork could also be peer criminals due to the fact that they are (or we are) going through the systematic process of collecting this information and are not necessarily just passive observers. The complexity of acting out a simple thing as clicking onto a web page and becoming a co-conspirator without the intention of criminal intent, poses some confusing questions. Not only regarding our liberties in respect of are we really to blame for someone’s work of art by just viewing it? But it also begs the question that if Magnhildoen unintentionally (or intentionally) broke the law and involved other people visitors to the work, surely he is the main culprit. Like a drug dealer who peddles drugs, perhaps he is peddling illegal information, by actively setting up a system in sourcing it and then distributing it to others to potentially use. My guess is that all is fine if the Norwegian Cultural Council funded and supported the project.

Bjørn Magnhildøen uses network media for creation, distribution, exhibition, and documentation of his works. His main practice is analog and digital net media and covers a period of twenty-five years ranging from mail art to net art. His work might be characterized as marginal, fleeting, transient; changing, casual; unstable, deviant; ironic, contextual. Many of his recent projects deals with net art books, writing machines and software implemented on the net, live or performative writing and programming, codework, hypertext, and e-poetry. He’s the author of more than fourty books, many of them collaborative and generative works, and also publishes books concerned with net art and net writing.

In the eighties he got involved in mail art. These activities migrated into the emergent electronic networks in the nineties, as did his academic interests, from philosophy, via language, logic and information, to computer science. He has supported himself as a system developer, later as freelance programmer and artist within the field of art and new technology.

via: http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=295

Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks

2008-04-22T19:46:00-05:00

[...]Researcher Johnny Lee became a YouTube star with his demo of Wii Remote hacks -- bending the low-cost game piece to power an interactive whiteboard, a multitouch surface, a head-mounted display ... [...]
via http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/204

I CAN HAZ FLICKR VIDEOZ

2008-04-13T21:51:00-05:00

This past week Flickr started to allow Pro users the ability to upload videos or rather "long photos".

Apparent Horizon, Derek Lerner 2008 Digital video 01:30:00 minutes 720 x 405 pixels

Orwellian self-surveillance by Hasan Elahi

2008-04-12T15:46:00-05:00

Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project, 2007

Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project is derived from a six month long FBI investigation after the artist was erroneously reported as a terrorist. This experience led him to voluntarily develop a network device, which opens just about every aspect of his life to the public.

Throughout the FBI investigation, he actively decided to cooperate with them to a point of compliance to where the current work now borders on a collaboration with them, albeit unauthorized. The network device generates a database of imagery and locative information that combined with a web-enabled companion tracks him and his points of transit in real-time.

Since the development of this device, his FBI agent (along with everyone else) has been able to track him online. This video installation is created from the thousands of images captured and compiled by his mobile network device along with other information in the database.

Elahi is an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines issues of surveillance, simulated time, transport systems, borders and frontiers. His work has been presented at the Venice Biennale; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Kulturbahnhof, Kassel, Germany; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia; and The Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, among others.

Elahi has one foot in art and one in science. His media is databases and all sorts of electronic information, essentially tracking himself as spies would. He explores the border between society and technology, attempting to bridge the human and the virtual worlds. He analyzes the way technology is packaged to be perceived as desirable and essential by people. Elahi’s process results in translations and mistranslations between the physical and the virtual, between the body politic and the singular citizen.

Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project Website: http:/trackingtransience.net

Artist Website: http://elahi.rutgers.edu/

via: http://www.sundance.org

charity: water PSA

2008-04-09T18:30:00-05:00

Hurling Earth into parallel universe?

2008-03-30T18:56:00-05:00

matter swallowing microscopic black holes, strangelets, & magnetic monopoles

The biggest experiment in particle physics, the Large Hadron Collider, starts this summer in Switzerland. The goal is to find signs of the Higgs boson particle (AKA the “God particle") as it may ultimately lead to a grand theory of the universe.[1] 200 feet underground, a proton does 17-mile laps at nearly the speed of light. Guided by powerful magnets, it zooms through a narrow, circular tunnel. Then a tiny adjustment in the magnetic field throws the proton into the path of another particle beam traveling just as fast in the opposite direction which happens 10 million times a second. Massive superconducting magnets cooled to near absolute zero by liquid helium will bend 20 micron-wide beams of protons into precise trajectories and crash them into each other.

The Higgs boson, the most elusive speck of matter in the universe. It’s supposed to be the key to explaining why matter has mass. Physicists believe that Higgs particles generate a kind of soupy ether through which other particles move, picking up drag that translates into mass on the macroscopic scale. The Higgs is the cornerstone of 21st-century physics; it simply has to be there, otherwise the standard model of the universe collapses.[2]

Could black holes be portals to other universes?
Some physicists have theorised that black holes might act as spacewarp wormhole portals into alternate universes.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, the builders of the world’s largest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet. The LHC, is due for startup later this year at CERN’s headquarters on the French-Swiss border. Many new and exciting phenomena are expected to occur as a result of these very high energy collisions. It is hoped that some of them will be unpredicted and will point to new directions in our understanding of the structure of matter. At the same time it is legitimate to wonder whether any of these new phenomena may be potentially dangerous.[3]

[1] http://www.newsweek.com/id/128877
[2] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.04/grid.html
[3] http://doc.cern.ch/yellowrep/2003/2003-001/p1.pdf

David Lynch on iPhone

2008-03-28T22:45:00-05:00

Beautiful Losers

2008-03-28T13:50:00-05:00

[...]Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural movements of a generation. In the early 1990’s a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the “establishment” art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture. Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories...speaking to themes of what happens when the outside becomes “in” as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today’s youth.[...] via http://www.beautifullosers.com

[...]For over a decade, outsider sub-cultures have influenced the mainstream. Now, a feature documentary finally explores that creative ethos driving youth culture and popular art today. First a traveling museum exhibition and book, Beautiful Losers, is now an unique documentary celebrating the independent and D.I.Y. spirit that unified a loose-knit group of American artists who emerged from the underground worlds of skateboarding, graffiti, punk and hip hop.[...]
via Press Release

Derek Lerner in “Connected Unconscious” group exhibition @ BAM

2008-03-27T19:17:00-05:00

Connected Unconscious
Apr 17—May 11
Opening Reception: Thu, April 17, 6—8pm

BAM and brooklynartproject.com have teamed up to produce “Connected Unconscious,” an exclusive exhibition at BAM celebrating the creative possibilities of our web 2.0 connected world. The theme “Connected Unconscious” is a contemporary expression of the collective unconscious: a web 2.0 social network of artist exchanging ideas, work, process and inspiration. The exhibition is a tangible result of that connection. The work will reflect an aspect of this connected unconscious, exploring themes of connectivity, technology, consciousness and our common humanity.

The exhibition features original artwork from ten of Brooklyn Art Project’s rising stars along with five juried selections submitted from the BAP member community of 1000+ artists from over 22 countries.

Foon Foono — Singapore
Josh Heilaman — Oklahoma city, OK
Derek Lerner — New York, NY
Maya Bloch — Tel Aviv, Israel
Helene Mukhtar — Brooklyn, NY
James Cospito — Brooklyn, NY
Sarah Nicole Phillips — Brooklyn, NY
Stephan Fowlkes — Brooklyn, NY
Kim McCartrhy — Portland, OR
Jun-Jun Sta.Ana —Chicago, IL

Brooklyn Academy of Music
Peter Jay Sharp Building
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217

listen @ Art Center in Second Life

2008-03-27T18:01:00-05:00

Art Center presents:

listen

with DJ Astrud Sands

Sat 3.29.08
3-6pm PDT

virb.com/artcenter
astrudsands.blogspot.com

SLurl