( http://0100101110101101.org/home/unitedwestand/ )
United We Stand: Europe Has A Mission is a fake movie by Eva and Franco Mattes, advertised with posters and online advertisements despite not existing. The fake movie is advertised as being a blockbuster action movie about the forces of Europe teaming up to stop a disaster caused by tensions between the United States and China starring Penelope Cruz and Ewan McGregor.
This is interesting to me because it shows the power of viral marketing and the public space. Significant buzz and interest was formed for the movie through it's fully realized advertising campaign.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Entry 11 - CarnivorePE
( http://www.rhizome.org/carnivore ~ New Media Art p.78 )
In the 90s, the United States FBI created a program called Carnivore which sniffed traffic on the internet through the servers of internet service providers, allowing agents to eavesdrop on the online activities of ordinary citizens. In 2000, Alex Galloway created a response program called CarnivorePE; PE standing for Personal Edition. This program would record the traffic on the networks of computers it was installed on. However, rather than using this data for eavesdropping, it instead uses it as raw material for artistic interfaces.
This is interesting to me because it is using the same concept of taking the data of others without permission, as the FBI's program, but in this case is ultimately giving. To me it acts as a critique on the actions that governments make to harm and take away privacy from its people. It allows for the data to be used in the clients of others to create unique art with no personal information being stolen.
In the 90s, the United States FBI created a program called Carnivore which sniffed traffic on the internet through the servers of internet service providers, allowing agents to eavesdrop on the online activities of ordinary citizens. In 2000, Alex Galloway created a response program called CarnivorePE; PE standing for Personal Edition. This program would record the traffic on the networks of computers it was installed on. However, rather than using this data for eavesdropping, it instead uses it as raw material for artistic interfaces.
This is interesting to me because it is using the same concept of taking the data of others without permission, as the FBI's program, but in this case is ultimately giving. To me it acts as a critique on the actions that governments make to harm and take away privacy from its people. It allows for the data to be used in the clients of others to create unique art with no personal information being stolen.
Entry 10 - etoy.SHARE
( http://www.etoy.com ~ New Media Art p.42)
Etoy is a Swiss corporation created by a group of European artists in 1994, inspired by corporations with strong brand identities. Because of the low costs of publishing a web site, a small group of people could easily present themselves with the same presence of a large corporation. Etoy acts as a "corporate sculpture" and follows the model of many business ventures by raising funds for projects and issuing stock to shareholders. Years after its creation, an online toy merchant called eToys threatened to sue Etoy for trademark infringement, despite Etoy being registered first. Etoy retaliated by offering points by attacking eToys with the goal of driving down the stock price of eToys. 1,798 people participated by criticizing eToys online, corrupting their server logs with false information and doing other internet attacks. eToys' stock declined by nearly 4.5 billion USD before dropping the lawsuit.
This is interesting to me because of the power that the low costs of the internet can give. With very little resources, one can gain enough of a presence to cause 4.5 billion dollars worth of damages. That amount of money is awe-inspiring, regardless of whether or not it was fully caused by Etoy's war.
Etoy is a Swiss corporation created by a group of European artists in 1994, inspired by corporations with strong brand identities. Because of the low costs of publishing a web site, a small group of people could easily present themselves with the same presence of a large corporation. Etoy acts as a "corporate sculpture" and follows the model of many business ventures by raising funds for projects and issuing stock to shareholders. Years after its creation, an online toy merchant called eToys threatened to sue Etoy for trademark infringement, despite Etoy being registered first. Etoy retaliated by offering points by attacking eToys with the goal of driving down the stock price of eToys. 1,798 people participated by criticizing eToys online, corrupting their server logs with false information and doing other internet attacks. eToys' stock declined by nearly 4.5 billion USD before dropping the lawsuit.
This is interesting to me because of the power that the low costs of the internet can give. With very little resources, one can gain enough of a presence to cause 4.5 billion dollars worth of damages. That amount of money is awe-inspiring, regardless of whether or not it was fully caused by Etoy's war.
Entry 9 - [domestic]
( http://www.marryflanagan.com/domestic ~ New Media Art p.44 )
[domestic] is a video game made by Mary Flanagan using the Unreal 2 engine. Unlike most of the games that use the Unreal 2 engine, [domestic] does not use violence as a mechanic, instead having the player explore a home-like 3d environment which represents childhood memories and feelings of the artist. The design of the environment is surreal with the combination of photographs and text as textures in the environment, representing her internal psychological horrors based on her memory of seeing her house burning as a child, knowing her father was still inside.
I like this piece because it uses interactive medium to tell a story in a unique way. Projects like this reaffirm my belief that the interactivity of video games adds, rather than detracts from the artistic value, despite the beliefs of certain critics. The arrangement of photographs and text in a 3d space allows for different artistic expression than a traditional photoalbum. This piece exemplifies that the medium effectively allows for a 3d space that does not need to be bound to the laws of reality.
[domestic] is a video game made by Mary Flanagan using the Unreal 2 engine. Unlike most of the games that use the Unreal 2 engine, [domestic] does not use violence as a mechanic, instead having the player explore a home-like 3d environment which represents childhood memories and feelings of the artist. The design of the environment is surreal with the combination of photographs and text as textures in the environment, representing her internal psychological horrors based on her memory of seeing her house burning as a child, knowing her father was still inside.
I like this piece because it uses interactive medium to tell a story in a unique way. Projects like this reaffirm my belief that the interactivity of video games adds, rather than detracts from the artistic value, despite the beliefs of certain critics. The arrangement of photographs and text in a 3d space allows for different artistic expression than a traditional photoalbum. This piece exemplifies that the medium effectively allows for a 3d space that does not need to be bound to the laws of reality.
Entry 8 - Life Sharing
( http://0100101110101101.org/home/life_sharing ~ New Media Art p.26 )
Life Sharing is a project by Eva and Franco Mattes where they made every file on their computer public for three years. This included private documents and emails, effectively making their identities the medium of their work. The graphical interface that was used to share all of the files was a homage to the text-based command line interface of Linux. Like Linux and other open-source software, their lives were effectively transparent. Anyone was able to examine their personal information, as anyone is able to see the workings of open-source software.
The idea of sharing one's entire computer is interesting because it the files one saves, and how they organize them tells a lot about who that person is. It tells how they organize things, and what kinds of information they think is important.
Life Sharing is a project by Eva and Franco Mattes where they made every file on their computer public for three years. This included private documents and emails, effectively making their identities the medium of their work. The graphical interface that was used to share all of the files was a homage to the text-based command line interface of Linux. Like Linux and other open-source software, their lives were effectively transparent. Anyone was able to examine their personal information, as anyone is able to see the workings of open-source software.
The idea of sharing one's entire computer is interesting because it the files one saves, and how they organize them tells a lot about who that person is. It tells how they organize things, and what kinds of information they think is important.
Entry 7 - Zapatista Tactical FloodNet
( http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html ~ New Media Art p.40 )
Zapatista Tactical FloodNet is a html web application that visits nonexistant urls of certain targeted websites. The catch is that the user inputs the message they want to send to the website holder, which the program converts into a url that it visits. This causes an error to be recorded on the site's error log. The purpose of this is to leave a message using civil disobedience. Using the webapp, people have submitted names of people silenced by their dictatorship to its error log.
I am unsure of the effectiveness of this idea, since the people in charge of the government are unlikely to read their website's error log. Electronic civil disobedience is an interesting idea, however. I feel as though it might be unsafe to protest the government in this way. Your IP address is traceable, and if the government was willing to kill someone, what's to stop them from killing you as well for trying to keep their actions in the light?
Zapatista Tactical FloodNet is a html web application that visits nonexistant urls of certain targeted websites. The catch is that the user inputs the message they want to send to the website holder, which the program converts into a url that it visits. This causes an error to be recorded on the site's error log. The purpose of this is to leave a message using civil disobedience. Using the webapp, people have submitted names of people silenced by their dictatorship to its error log.
I am unsure of the effectiveness of this idea, since the people in charge of the government are unlikely to read their website's error log. Electronic civil disobedience is an interesting idea, however. I feel as though it might be unsafe to protest the government in this way. Your IP address is traceable, and if the government was willing to kill someone, what's to stop them from killing you as well for trying to keep their actions in the light?
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Project 3: Subvertisement
In Colombia, Coke bottle factory workers who join unions are often tortured and murdered. Coke has turned a blind eye to this and do not have any intention to help stop this practice.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Entry 6 - Big Buck Bunny / Blender
( http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=306 )
Big Buck Bunny is an animated 3d film about a rabbit that fights back against some evil squirrels. What makes the movie special is that it was made with Blender, a free 3d modeling / rendering program, and is licensed under the Creative Common's Attribution license. The source of the project is provided, so anyone who owns a copy has full access to the resources and assets used, and can make derivative works and use it as they wish.
This is very different from the way most media is consumed. Most media is restricted at its very core. This revolutionary approach could be a glimpse of the future of similar media. There's an incredible amount of creativity that could be harnessed with this open source art.
Big Buck Bunny is an animated 3d film about a rabbit that fights back against some evil squirrels. What makes the movie special is that it was made with Blender, a free 3d modeling / rendering program, and is licensed under the Creative Common's Attribution license. The source of the project is provided, so anyone who owns a copy has full access to the resources and assets used, and can make derivative works and use it as they wish.
This is very different from the way most media is consumed. Most media is restricted at its very core. This revolutionary approach could be a glimpse of the future of similar media. There's an incredible amount of creativity that could be harnessed with this open source art.
Entry 5 - Ubermorgen.com: Google Will Eat Itself
( http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=362 , http://www.gwei.org/index.php)
Ubermorgen.com is a website of collaborative conceptual art projects by Hans Bernhard and lizvlx. The projects are presented in a "hackivist" style, with the main page extremely minimalistic, with a white background and black text, formatted like a command prompt. One project on the page that interested me was titled "Google Will Eat Itself". The project is a company that generates money through google ads on a network of hidden websites, and automatically uses that money to buy Google shares. In essence, as Google makes revenue from the advertisements, it gets bought out with those same funds.
I thought it was a very interesting work because of its parasitic nature. To me, it seemed like it worked in a way similar to Google itself. Google is taking over the internet with its use of ads that make money for itself and grow bigger based on the content of others. With Google Will Eat Itself, the content of Google is being used to make GWEI bigger, its tactics being used against itself.
Ubermorgen.com is a website of collaborative conceptual art projects by Hans Bernhard and lizvlx. The projects are presented in a "hackivist" style, with the main page extremely minimalistic, with a white background and black text, formatted like a command prompt. One project on the page that interested me was titled "Google Will Eat Itself". The project is a company that generates money through google ads on a network of hidden websites, and automatically uses that money to buy Google shares. In essence, as Google makes revenue from the advertisements, it gets bought out with those same funds.
I thought it was a very interesting work because of its parasitic nature. To me, it seemed like it worked in a way similar to Google itself. Google is taking over the internet with its use of ads that make money for itself and grow bigger based on the content of others. With Google Will Eat Itself, the content of Google is being used to make GWEI bigger, its tactics being used against itself.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Entry 4 - SwanQuake: House
( http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=333 )
Igloo's "SwanQuake: House" is a piece of interactive art, where the user navigates an urban setting with fantastical, surreal elements. The user navigates through areas such as an apartment, a stairwell, and a subway station, inhabited by ghostly figures, giving a sense of threat. The user eventually finds an underground warehouse housing a number of motion-captured dancing figures.
The art of dance is unexpected in 3d interactive art, because of the violence that games, which use the same method of delivery, rely on. The dancing bodies celebrate life, rather than the usual celebration of death found in violent media. It seems that SwanQuake: House is not available to the public at the moment, so I could not try it out myself, but it was reported that it is easy to miss areas and not see the full experience. This is an issue that all interactive art has to a degree, but it is up to the artist to balance the amount of freedom and interactivity that the user has.
Igloo's "SwanQuake: House" is a piece of interactive art, where the user navigates an urban setting with fantastical, surreal elements. The user navigates through areas such as an apartment, a stairwell, and a subway station, inhabited by ghostly figures, giving a sense of threat. The user eventually finds an underground warehouse housing a number of motion-captured dancing figures.
The art of dance is unexpected in 3d interactive art, because of the violence that games, which use the same method of delivery, rely on. The dancing bodies celebrate life, rather than the usual celebration of death found in violent media. It seems that SwanQuake: House is not available to the public at the moment, so I could not try it out myself, but it was reported that it is easy to miss areas and not see the full experience. This is an issue that all interactive art has to a degree, but it is up to the artist to balance the amount of freedom and interactivity that the user has.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Entry 3 - The Freesound Project
( http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=361 )
The Freesound Project (http://www.freesound.org/) is a website that was created to host free sounds for others to sample from. The site contains a database of sounds protected under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license, so people must provide credit to the original sound creators, but the derivative work can be used commercially or non-commercially. The sounds range from electronic beeps to anything you can imagine, although the database is specifically for sounds, not music.
The site is an exciting prospect for remix artists, who now have a fully-legal library of sounds to sample from, rather than having to record the sounds themselves, or resort to sampling without permission, which could get them in legal troubles later. I feel like copyright laws need to change a bit to allow proper artistic expression while still protecting the rights of the original content creators, after all, a lot of sounds in the world are not under the Sampling Plus license. How can someone claim ownership to a few seconds of sound? It is a difficult issue, because creative works require protection, but this protection also limits future creativity.
The Freesound Project (http://www.freesound.org/) is a website that was created to host free sounds for others to sample from. The site contains a database of sounds protected under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license, so people must provide credit to the original sound creators, but the derivative work can be used commercially or non-commercially. The sounds range from electronic beeps to anything you can imagine, although the database is specifically for sounds, not music.
The site is an exciting prospect for remix artists, who now have a fully-legal library of sounds to sample from, rather than having to record the sounds themselves, or resort to sampling without permission, which could get them in legal troubles later. I feel like copyright laws need to change a bit to allow proper artistic expression while still protecting the rights of the original content creators, after all, a lot of sounds in the world are not under the Sampling Plus license. How can someone claim ownership to a few seconds of sound? It is a difficult issue, because creative works require protection, but this protection also limits future creativity.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Entry 2 - Games as Art
( In response to http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=345 )
Edward Picot's article discusses the notion of games being a new art form, and examples many 'games'. He makes reference to a The Escapist article, "Game Rules as Art," which states that the rules in games qualify as art, regardless of the graphics and other components. Picot references many games throughout the article, examining their artistic merits. Two of these games are Gravitation, where you control a man who plays with a child giving him the power to travel to a screen above and knock stars onto the screen below where the child is, only to find that each time the stars might grant you points, but also trap the child until you collect them, and eventually the child disappears completely; and the Graveyard, where you control an old lady through a graveyard to a bench, and then control her out, with very little room for interaction.
I believe that Gravitation is a much stronger piece than the Graveyard because of its proper use of the medium. The Graveyard's creators, Tale of Tales, state that the lack of any gameplay in their 'game' is that "gameplay distracts from the story." I find this to be an absurd statement, as without interaction, the piece is not a game, and attempts to wipe away any differences the medium of games have from movies. It is making the mistake that most commercial games make, by trying to copy the format of movies. Because the rules of most games do nothing to tell the story beyond the visuals and music, Tale of Tales assumes that gameplay can only distract. The Graveyard is an extremely weak piece because it does not use its medium effectively. It is akin to a movie containing only an audio track without any visuals. It is a collosal step in the wrong direction, even ditching game-specific qualities that could enhance the story, such as the ability to move the camera, perhaps making you notice different things in each playthrough.
I consider Gravitation to be a much more successful example of how games can be art. The game uses its medium-specific interaction to add to the way the (although simple) story plays out. Because of the way your interaction adds to the experience and emotional response, it shows how games might be able to tell stories in a different way than movies, books or music. When game designers learn how to tell more complicated stories through their interaction, the medium might begin to get some recognition as a legitimate art form.
Works not cited:
"Indie Nation #39: The Graveyard" by Anthony Burch for Destructoid.com "http://www.destructoid.com/indie-nation-39-the-graveyard-110611.phtml"
Edward Picot's article discusses the notion of games being a new art form, and examples many 'games'. He makes reference to a The Escapist article, "Game Rules as Art," which states that the rules in games qualify as art, regardless of the graphics and other components. Picot references many games throughout the article, examining their artistic merits. Two of these games are Gravitation, where you control a man who plays with a child giving him the power to travel to a screen above and knock stars onto the screen below where the child is, only to find that each time the stars might grant you points, but also trap the child until you collect them, and eventually the child disappears completely; and the Graveyard, where you control an old lady through a graveyard to a bench, and then control her out, with very little room for interaction.
I believe that Gravitation is a much stronger piece than the Graveyard because of its proper use of the medium. The Graveyard's creators, Tale of Tales, state that the lack of any gameplay in their 'game' is that "gameplay distracts from the story." I find this to be an absurd statement, as without interaction, the piece is not a game, and attempts to wipe away any differences the medium of games have from movies. It is making the mistake that most commercial games make, by trying to copy the format of movies. Because the rules of most games do nothing to tell the story beyond the visuals and music, Tale of Tales assumes that gameplay can only distract. The Graveyard is an extremely weak piece because it does not use its medium effectively. It is akin to a movie containing only an audio track without any visuals. It is a collosal step in the wrong direction, even ditching game-specific qualities that could enhance the story, such as the ability to move the camera, perhaps making you notice different things in each playthrough.
I consider Gravitation to be a much more successful example of how games can be art. The game uses its medium-specific interaction to add to the way the (although simple) story plays out. Because of the way your interaction adds to the experience and emotional response, it shows how games might be able to tell stories in a different way than movies, books or music. When game designers learn how to tell more complicated stories through their interaction, the medium might begin to get some recognition as a legitimate art form.
Works not cited:
"Indie Nation #39: The Graveyard" by Anthony Burch for Destructoid.com "http://www.destructoid.com/indie-nation-39-the-graveyard-110611.phtml"
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Entry 1 - Damien Hirst
( In response to http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/damien-hirst-in-vicious-feud-with-teenage-artist-over-a-box-of-pencils-1781463.html )
At first thought, it seemed ridiculous to me that a box of pencils could be considered to be worth £500,000. However, after thinking about it for a bit, it makes more sense to me. After all, a bottle of paint is not worth very much, while a painting can be worth quite a lot. The medium is not what is of value, but rather the artistic expression that it conveys.
What bothered me most about the article was not how Cartrain could be fined such a large amount for taking the box of pencils (although it does bother me quite a bit. £500,000 worth of damages were not incurred and it wouldn't take £500,000 worth of effort to replace that one box of pencils), but rather how Hirst could have Cartrain's collage removed. Surely Hirst didn't create that box of pencils himself. In essence, Hirst and Cartrain are both doing the same thing, using existing materials as their medium. The only difference in my mind is that Hirst has the money and legal power to be able to take that medium away from Cartrain. This is an injustice: Cartrain is not allowed to take ownership of Hirst's medium and compromise his work of art, and Hirst should not be allowed to do the same thing. No matter what the medium, the artistic expression is what is of value.
At first thought, it seemed ridiculous to me that a box of pencils could be considered to be worth £500,000. However, after thinking about it for a bit, it makes more sense to me. After all, a bottle of paint is not worth very much, while a painting can be worth quite a lot. The medium is not what is of value, but rather the artistic expression that it conveys.
What bothered me most about the article was not how Cartrain could be fined such a large amount for taking the box of pencils (although it does bother me quite a bit. £500,000 worth of damages were not incurred and it wouldn't take £500,000 worth of effort to replace that one box of pencils), but rather how Hirst could have Cartrain's collage removed. Surely Hirst didn't create that box of pencils himself. In essence, Hirst and Cartrain are both doing the same thing, using existing materials as their medium. The only difference in my mind is that Hirst has the money and legal power to be able to take that medium away from Cartrain. This is an injustice: Cartrain is not allowed to take ownership of Hirst's medium and compromise his work of art, and Hirst should not be allowed to do the same thing. No matter what the medium, the artistic expression is what is of value.
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