Ryan Trecartin is a digital video artist whose work both makes use of, and critiques the digital arena as a space for communication. This video seems to represent such a space, filled with “chatroom noise,” where threads of communication happen simultaneously, cut-off, and start again, or transform in to something entirely different. Half sentences, such as: “Charity, when I was your age…basically I don’t like your name…”pervade the dialogue, making it hard to keep up with the content, and creating a feeling of speed, and in-the-moment spontaneity.  Following each thread of content in this video in one viewing is nearly impossible. Almost every time I sit down to watch this, I become aware of an alternate “storyline” that I had not paid attention to in previous viewings. Perhaps this chaotic tone is a comment on our inability to take advantage of such a Democratic space as the internet in a useful and productive way. Our failure to grasp how to make use of this space results in non-sensicle noise, but nevertheless there is an obsession with the internet, and an obsession with publicizing even our most inane day-to-day activities, in a way that makes us all feel unique.  I-BE Area says, “Life, reproductions, on top of shit, always in the moment, always, always, always…” Twitter, for example, enables people to post status updates from their computers and phones so that people can know what you are doing/where you are/ how you are feeling at all times. With everyone posting, responding, and commenting on these kinds of updates, are we really accomplishing anything productive at all? Is the reproduction of ourselves in digital form better than our actual organic selves, because of our ability to edit and re-edit?

For the 50 concert dates, MJ planned to perform amid a retinue of dancers, “pole-arialists,” a live band that snapped at his every whim, and a stage crawling tarantula-bot, all the while IMAX sized CGI-concotions developed especially for the show would project behind him. (Check this one out too.)

Say nothing of  the candid MJ moments where he sheds much of his public sexual/racial ambiguity, and boogies sumptuously with female back-up singers and dancers, like a frisky 50 year-old man. Yeah, plastic Michael was a cyborg, but there was some soul in that shell.

Beyond Broadway 3.0, “This Is It” also flaunts fashion-tech, as the LA Times noted: “… his ‘Billie Jean’ costume was the piece de resistance, with a jacket, tuxedo pants, ankle socks and a single glove that would light up using remote control, thanks to new Lumalive LED textile technology rushed through development by Philips Research in the Netherlands.”

All of this couched in Michael’s final message, a 3D cinematic warning against the dangers of environmental disaster …  it doesn’t get much more New Media than that, befitting one who pushed the boundaries of musical film during his career.

If you still got issues with MJ for that Elephant Man thing, perhaps you’d enjoy some other musical revisionist history: “Lecture 21,” by Alessandro Baricco, a film that “offers an impressionistic recreation of a lecture on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony” set in a snowy netherworld, showing in San Francisco, Friday and Saturday only at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema.

Email your proposal to bcnmprograms@lists.berkeley.edu by Weds. Nov. 18. Please address the following:

Logistics

Location: Inside of window, 340 Moffitt, UC Berkeley. (see http://bcnm.berkeley.edu/commons)

Dates: Feb – May 2010

Dimensions: no larger than approx 9 ft x 3 ft x 8ft

Materials: Must be safe and durable. Should be UV safe. Must be free standing or be supported without damaging the floors, walls or ceiling.
Lighting: natural, from window.

Sound: very limited or no sound at all.

Maintenance: Minimal. Upkeep the responsibility of the creator.
Installation Period: Approx. 5 days, but additional time possible.

Desinstallation Period: TBD

Ownership: Belongs to the creator

Installation/Desinstallation: Responsibility of the creator.

Other requirements: Brief artist talk at opening Reception.

Budget: Maximum $1,000

Reimbursement Schedule: After the completion of requisite UC paperwork and the completion of the installation

Image rights: Image rights are with the creator, however, BCNM reserves the right to photograph the work and reproduce these photographs in BCNM promotional materials.

Credits: Creator agrees to acknowledge BCNM as follows — “With support from the Berkeley Center for New Media.”

University of San Francisco
2130 Fulton Street
SF, CA 94117
McLaren room #251

LASER is a monthly series of lectures and presentations organized by Piero Scaruffi on behalf of Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST)

This event is FREE but space is limited. Please RSVP to p@scaruffi.com.

Schedule:

6:15pm-6:45pm: Socializing/networking.

6:45-7:10: Warren Sack (UC Santa Cruz) on “Software Studies, Software Art, Software Design”

Since software design is a process of writing, the “computer revolution” can be understood as the rewriting of the world. One can identify a minor literature, within computer science, that has been premised on an understanding of software designers as writers, as essayists, as those who articulate ideas in code to communicate with other people. In other words, within this minor literature, computers are understood not just as tools but also as media that connect and separate people. Software studies is an emerging area in which code is examined as a digital medium.

7:10-7:35: Jim Campbell (artist) on “More is Less: Delving Into Lo-fi”

I’ll discuss how my work over the last few years has gone from looking at very low-resolution visual image representations to looking at almost no-resolution non-image visual representations. I’ll show different ways of distilling time and rhythm information from an event, ways that , when successful, present an essential and felt (as opposed to analytic) extremely minimal representation.

7:35-7:50: BREAK

7:50-8:15: Phil Ross (artist) on “It’s Alive!: Curating life into the art realm”

An introduction to the ideas and ambitions that gave rise to BioTechnique, a 2007 show that traced the history of life as a cultured thing; the complicated logistics in curating living works into galleries and museums; a larger view of the bio-culture industry.

8:15-8:45: Renetta Sitoy (artist) on “The Internet as Media”

Employing a range of strategies for acquiring, organizing, and re-contextualizing information found on the World Wide Web; exploring themes such as online communities (in which participants communicate through mediated, self-defined personas), “cyber-stalking,” as well as using the Internet as a means of self-discovery and recollecting personal histories.

8:45-9:30: More Socializing/Networking

Find out more about past LASERs: http://www.leonardo.info/isast/laser.html

From A to B and Back Again
Candice Breitz, Artist, Berlin

Monday, October 19, 7:30 – 9 pm
160 Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley
Free and open to the public.
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Should an art audience be suspicious of works of art that open themselves up to popular cultural content? Do explorations of screen life affirm or undermine the commodity structure of mainstream entertainment? Are copyleft strategies legitimate or objectionable?  How is the artist’s relationship with the subjects that she kidnaps as found footage or those she films herself in studio settings mediated by the technological display formats?

Candice Breitz will field such questions and speak about her recent works, including ‘Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon)’ and ‘Mother,’ two multi-channel video installations that are currently on view in a monographic exhibition of her work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The artist will have video footage on hand from most of the installations that she has made over the last decade. The open format will allow participants to steer Breitz towards talking about particular works that they would like to discuss.

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Candice Breitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1972 and is currently based in
Berlin. She holds degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), the University of Chicago and Columbia University (NYC). She has participated in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Studio Programme and ran the Palais de Tokyo’s Le Pavillon residency as a visiting artist during the year 2005-2006. She has been a tenured Professor of Fine Art at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig since 2007.  In recent years solo exhibitions of her work have been hosted by the Kunsthalle Berlin, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, De Appel in Amsterdam, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, the Collection Lambert in Avignon, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humleb?k, White Cube in London, Yvon Lambert in New York and the Bawag Foundation in Vienna.  A museum-scale survey of her work is currently running at The Power Plant in Toronto until late 2009. The catalogue published parallel to the exhibition contains an essay by Berkeley scholar Anne Wagner.  Breitz will participate in the Performa Biennale in New York in November 2009. Additionally her work can currently be experienced on group exhibitions including the Gothenburg Biennial in Sweden and at the Tate Liverpool in the United Kingdom.  An exhibition of her work showcasing multi-channel installations ‘Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon’ and ‘Mother’ is currently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

http://www.candicebreitz.net

There are two great new media related events over the next couple of days. The first is the unveiling of the Grey Area Foundation for the Arts with two major events today, Thursday, October 1st with Galvanize event and then a the night event, GAFFTAHours. Then on Friday, October 2, is the big OPENing of the first show, OPEN.

Barry Threw blogged about the event in detail, and I’m scraping a few details from him:

GALVANIZE Fundraiser Gala
October 1st, 2009 6:30pm – 9pm GALVANZE is a special “Gray Tie” benefit gala and preview of GAFFTA’s Inaugural Exhibition, OPEN.

Attendees to GALVANIZE will be the very first to experience GAFFTA’s inspiring new space and exclusive preview of our Inaugural Exhibition: OPEN. This limited-capacity, one-time engagement will feature a champagne reception followed by remarks from GAFFTA’s founders and The Mayor’s Office, culminating with an artist-led exhibition tour. Guests will also receive commemorative gifts and other premiums commensurate with the generosity of contribution.

Interested patrons may find more information and purchase tickets by visiting the Galvanize Page or emailing support@gaffta.org
GAFFTAHours Preview Celebration
October 1st, 2009 9:30pm – 1amImmediately following GALVANIZE, the evening will transition into the first in a series of regular nighttime preview celebrations for each new exhibition, beginning with our inaugural show OPEN. GAFFTAHours will be a 21+ limited-capacity ticketed-event (priced at $25), featuring live music from QZEN and Kid Kameleon, hosted bar and Limited Edition keepsakes.

For more information and to buy tickets to GAFFTAHours, visit the GAFFTAhours Page or email support@gaffta.org
Public Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
October 2nd, 5pm – 6pmJoined by representatives from the Tenderloin Economic Development Program, Mayor’s Office and Grants for the Arts, GAFFTA will hold a ceremonial ribbon cutting at 55 Taylor Street marking the official opening of its new digital art center. This event is free and open to the press and the public.
Public Opening Reception
October 2nd, 6pm – 10pm

Then, on Sunday, October 4, there is the Renegade Art Show and Auction in Sonoma, with several DMAX Vanguard members participating, including myself, and then some:

On Sunday October 4th, 2009 the world of art and politics will come together for one event. Best-selling author Anne Lammot, Academy award-winning director (Wall-e) Andrew Stanton, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, Survival Research Labs founder Mark Pauline, videographer Lynn Hershman and WIRED Magazine founder Jane Metcalfe will discuss what it takes to create a renegade legacy. Each is a renegade artist in their own right and they will be featured guest speakers at Renegade Art & Democracy, an art auction and reception hosted by Lynn Woolsey — the renegade Congresswoman from Petaluma.

I’m unveiling a new artwork, Virii 2009 Conficker:

Virii 2009 is an annual acknowledgment of the computer virus which has replicated the most, globally, for an annual year. The first Virii 2009 unique plaque, VIRII 2009 CONFICKER, is presented as a certified record of authenticity, framed for hanging on a wall in a secure location. Future certifications are to be only distributed as an annual unique plaque. It is entrusted to a collector to be stored or shown securely. The attached disc and samples contained on the disc are packed in a secure manner that only the artist, Jon Phillips, or his designated agents may discuss.

Come and support digital and new media arts at GAFFTA’s events and at the Renegade Art Auction. Come find me and we’ll talk shop.

The mission of the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film. One of the largest university art museums in the United States, in physical and budget size and in attendance, BAM/PFA has developed an international reputation for presenting one of the most active and ambitious exhibition programs, as well as for the quality of its art and film collections and research resources. BAM/PFA is an institution with a stellar history and an exciting future. Currently, BAM/PFA is in a campaign to fund a new building. For more information, visit our website: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu.

Responsibilities:
• Researches, proposes, designs, implements and maintains programming and other technical solutions for BAM/PFA’s online presence including website, blog, online databases, e-commerce and social media.
• Provides technical support for all aspects of the website from back-end databases to client-side scripts to dynamic data exchanges.
• Analyzes existing programs or works to formulate logic for new systems, devises logic procedures, prepares flowcharting, performs coding, data analysis and tests/debugs programs.
• Supports and modifies the back-end databases including mySQL, including making changes to fields, calculations, tables, layouts and scripts.
• Creates automated solutions for batch processes and Internet data exchanges using standards and protocols like RSS and other XML formats.
• Provides programming solutions for museum projects including exhibitions that include Internet or digital media components, media management projects and other projects as assigned.
• Provides access to, manages, and preserves media assets, including images, audio, video, multimedia, and text, and supports the databases and systems that serve these functions.
• Collaborates with curators, artists, vendors, and other digital media staff to develop and implement a wide variety of technical components for online activities, public programs and exhibitions.
• Gathers and analyzes data to prepare systems and programming documentation.
• Serves on museum’s Digital Media team and the cross-departmental Web team.

Qualifications:
• Highly developed knowledge of, and experience with web applications, web programming languages, Internet protocols, and object oriented programming concepts.
• Demonstrated skills with compilable programming language such as C++ and scripting languages such as PHP or Perl.
• Familiarity with content management systems such as Joomla, WordPress, or Movable Type.
• Strong self-motivation and ability to learn new technologies quickly and independently.
• Must be able to communicate technical information in a clear and concise manner with non-technical colleagues, and strong interpersonal and collaboration skills.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and meet multiple deadlines.
• Strong problem solving skills and creativity.
• Strong analytical and design skills, including the ability to abstract information requirements from real-world processes to understand information flows in computer systems.
• Critical thinking skills and attention to detail.
• Familiarity with the Mac platform.
• Accurate color perception and visual acuity.
• Ability to physically work in low or tight places.
• Ability to safely lift computer equipment weighing up to 30 pounds.
• Valid California driver’s license and a safe driving record.

This position has been designated as sensitive and may require a Criminal Background Check. We reserve the right to make employment contingent upon successful completion of a Criminal Background Check.

Hours: This is an 80% position, with additional hours up to 100% as needed for special projects.

Salary & Benefits: The full time annual salary range is $46,200 to $52,000. Actual pay will reflect hours worked. There is an excellent benefits package including three weeks’ vacation and benefits for eligible family members.

Closing date: Open until filled. First review of applications will occur on 9/3/09.

To Apply: Visit http://jobs.berkeley.edu/ and look under Latest Job Postings, or click the Advanced Search link and enter 10056 in the Job Opening ID field. Follow the application process detailed on the website. To be considered, applications must be completed through the campus online website. If you have trouble completing the online application, send an email message to hrmshelp@berkeley.edu or call 510-642-4621 for assistance.

The University of California, Berkeley is one of the world’s leading universities in research, teaching, and public service. The campus employs 2,028 faculty and over 14,000 staff in more than 130 academic departments and interdepartmental groups, libraries, museums and more than 65 interdisciplinary research units contribute to this dynamic and vital research and teaching environment.

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We offer a diverse working environment, competitive salaries, and comprehensive benefits.

• Compensation: The full time annual salary range is $46,200 to $52,000. Actual pay will reflect hours worked. There is an excellent benefits package including three weeks’ vacation and benefits for eligible family members.

SFAI Fall, ACE – Artists in Virtual Spaces

CANCELED

Instructor: John Sappington

Time: 10:00am–1:00pm

Location: San Francisco Art Institute

This course focuses on the technical, aesthetic, and critical skills integral to the creation and interpretation of Internet art. Through the writings of artists, scientists, and theorists, as well as the work of contemporary net artists, we will examine issues surrounding Internet culture: its history, evolution, and impact on art, society, and the human condition. Central to this study will be the identification of trends, issues, and key concepts critical to our understanding of emerging contemporary net culture. The course will also focus on design strategies, tools, and applications used in website production. We will apply this technique to the creation of new forms that are net-specific, as well as those that bridge virtual and physical space. Students are expected to produce net projects, to create a home page/on-line portfolio, to independently research and critique net artworks, to engage in class discussion, and to participate in the online forum in which they will collaboratively record their reflections on the issues presented.

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After receiving his MFA in Photography in 1992 from SFAI, John Sappington established an electronic arts production company (bASE.ARTS), collaborating with internationally recognized artists to produce a number of interactive CD-ROMs and diskettes. For over fifteen years he has worked as an IT manager, systems consultant, and media producer in both the private and nonprofit sectors. He has taught a variety of courses around the bay area in analogue media and all ranges of digital media production.

Introducing BAM/PFA NetArt
http://netart.bampfa.berkeley.edu

In this online gallery we bring you an experimental work of Internet art every three months, back to back, 24/7. The sun never sets on BAM/PFA NetArt. BAM/PFA NetArt is a showcase for the full range of this evolving and maturing art form, from the iconic works and veteran artists of the latter 20th century to later generations of net artists who are creating some of the most compelling and critical art of our era. Each online exhibition will feature a 3-minute interview that lets the artist talk over your shoulder as you experience their art. 

Open-Source NetArtchive

Once a BAM/PFA NetArt exhibition concludes, each work becomes part of the open-source net art archive, the old always accessible alongside the new. Each artist decides how they would like their work represented in the archive and they allow relevant source files to be made available for download. This access opens up new possibilities for including these artworks in research and teaching. The NetArtchive encourages viewers to upload their own remixes, allowing these works to inspire an ongoing cycle of new artistic creation.

Angelo Plessas
Sept 1 – Nov 30, 2009

The inaugural presentation of the BAM/PFA NetArt portal features work by young Greek-Italian artist Angelo Plessas. In a series of four related works, Plessas offers his whimsical and nuanced critique of the society of spectacle, appearance, and commodity. These works are like small derailments or turnabouts that disrupt the dominant glitz blitz via the Internet. The purposeful and limited interactivity of these hypnotic works alludes to no goal, no score, no mastery to attain; it functions like electronic prayer beads instead of a virtual joystick.

If you were following Iran crisis, you already know that all of the foreign reporters are kicked out of Iran by the government. In the meanwhile social networking websites and micro blogging services have been playing a major roles in spreading the news about the crisis. Don’t let the news fool you though. Fraudulent elections and massive protests is not really new in Iran.  But it is the first time that people all across that country get updated about what is happening in Iran. They can organize protests using facebook and twitter. Share links through Google reader and facebook. And get the updated news from a Persian digg clone called balatarin.com . Some people have access to ADSL internet that is not controlled by the government and those can upload videos to youtube.

I am very impressed by the role of new media in informing people. either in Iran or here in the US. Although it is very sad for me to hear about all these killings it is also exiting to see people use this new media so efficiently.  I follow bbc coverage on Iran but I find huffingtonpost live blog much more up to the minute. I know a number of Iranian journalists that update their tweeter accounts with accurate news. and on facebook my friends share videos from rallies that have happened 40 minutes ago. Google has just released it’s Persian to English translator so other people can read Iranian tweets.

This is a youtube video from CNN. A young lady “Neda” was shot by militia two days ago in Tehran. Her name is now being chanted all over Iran. Her father is shouting “Stay with us” but she is already gone (Note the video might be disturbing to watch)

We are all witnessing the birth of a new world. A world in which no dictator can suppress people’s freedom. And people fight for their freedom even with 140 character tweets.