Grand Text Auto

“Our machines are disturbingly lively, while we ourselves are frighteningly inert.”

Kenneth laughs, quoting the prophecy of Donna Haraway. He wiggles his fingers limply as the cyborg pins him to the wall. “It’s quite apt, don’t you think?” He turns to me and grins. “Who knew that giving all artificial lifeforms links to communicate with each other would lead to this? Now I’m the canvas, and this– this machine, the painter…” He turns and stares the creature in its webcam. “What’s your name, then?”

“ALICE.”

He doesn’t understand my perspective, James thinks. He’s old, and utterly oblivious to what I want for myself!

As he flips through his tattoo artist’s portfolio, James imagines how his dad will respond when the deed is done. After all, that ink would be embedded in his skin forever—barring, of course, expensive cosmetic surgery. No amount of shouting or demeaning could change that fact. His dad might inflict some punishment, but the subversion would be immutable.

With an interface that is so controlled, can there ever be something truly original? Moreso, is there something that cannot be reproduced by someone else?

The hand of the artist is forever attached to the artist and is unlike any other hand and their brain unlike any other persons.  Yet, the computer and technology is made uniform, homogenous, so that the interface is the same for everyone that uses it.  Is that where it all differs?

I’m very pleased to see the article Mia Consalvo and I wrote published in Loading…,
the journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA). There’s an intriguing lineup of articles in Loading… Vol 6, No 9; ours is:

Montfort, Nick and Mia Consalvo. “The Dreamcast, Console of the Avant-Garde.” Loading… 6: 9, 2012. http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/104/116

When people say the words “Virtual world” people think of the digital world that mimics our own in many ways. However, artists are now creating installations which redefine what we think of a virtual world. In the works of Jeffery Shaw, we are confronted with a different type of virtual world, especially in one his pieces, called “The Legible City.” In this work, the artist recreated the architecture of real maps and cities in a virtual world in which the viewer was able to navigate through cycling. However, instead of buildings and landmarks, these monuments are replaced with words or phrases that were recovered from documents recording historical events. According to Christiane Paul, this work creates a connection between our physical world and the virtual, which we see through the introduction of the cycling. We were always removed or distanced from navigating the virtual world physically. We walk around in a virtual world usually by using the arrow keys on keyboards. However in “The Legible City” the viewer can incorporate his entire body to interact with this virtual world.

The following is a response, or perhaps companion, piece to Olia Lialina’s My Boyfriend Came Back from the War.

I didn’t go- none of us did.
They thought we went, but we didn’t.

Here.

We were here.
They didn’t think so, so they screamed at us
and shot at us
and wanted us to die.
“Maluus zebr” they said about
each of us in turn.

But here it is, I still have it.

And this- see the dust
still caked into the fibers?
I shouldn’t have it, they have rules about trophies,
but this is from when we were bombed
out of bed-
well, I wasn’t in bed.

What’s the boundary between “virtual” reality and actual reality? Virtual reality’s original meaning, according to Christiane Paul in Digital Art, is “a reality that fully immersed its users in a three-dimensional world generated by a computer and allowed them an interaction with the virtual objects that comprise the world” (p. 125). As technologies improve, the boundary between alternate realities can be faded and hard to discern. This phenomenon is effectively used in digital art and can bring an entirely unique experience to participants.

“A 1700 line text generated using a string of unix commands to process a short text file describing an encounter with a cat.”

This is all thanks to James W. Morris. He is the author and artist – not the cat.

Often we go to see artwork that enlightens us about the non-statistical part of the human condition. Our emotions and relations are often popular subjects. However, Camille Utterback was commissioned to complete an artwork called Drawing from Life.

by goyo

Imagine entering a dark gallery space at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, in Mexico City, Mexico and experiencing a multi-dimensional sound scape. The lights behind you cast a shadow of your body against a brightly lit wall. Your shadow joins dozens of others in a space where your every movement is monitored by scanners. Behind the scenes, a vast array of radios, transmitters, antennas, amplifiers, mixers, and an assortment of electronic devices input your data and output it as a “mash up” broadcast. The effect is similar to what happens when you push the scan button on your car stereo. A steady stream of snippets consisting of traffic reports, pop music, video, advertisements, and news tickles your ears.

When we consider art, specifically visual art, the term can conjure a variety of images. For most people, art can be represented by classical art: drawings and paintings, such as the Mona Lisa. But with the development of technology, visual art begins to encompass new mediums and styles. An art student might begin by learning drawing and composition, then proceed to develop skills in charcoal or watercolor. Computing transforms this paradigm altogether. Digital artists today can paint through tablet interfaces, or illustrate with vectors.

Dear Mr. Montfort,

I do not want to cause offense, merely offer a suggestion: would you
consider removing the parts of your blog that clearly do not deal with
interactive fiction from “Planet IF” (http://www.planet-if.com)?

While I am not saying that your posts are not intersting or that the term
“interactive fiction” should only apply to text adventure games in the
narrow sense (and while I appreciate the articles on Game Design and other
forms of interactive fiction that appear on Planet IF), the sheer volume of
your blog posts, along with “Grand Text Auto”, sometimes tends to drown out
anything else.

In today’s society, we rely heavily on technology to keep us connected, organized, and entertained.  Yet, how does technology work in the field of the arts? Some find it utterly disturbing and detrimental to the essence of artistry, while others see it as an exciting new tool that unlocks another world of possibilities.  So this leaves us with the question, is technology in the art world our friend? Or is it our foe?

In today’s society, we rely heavily on technology to keep us connected, organized, and entertained.  Yet, how does technology work in the field of the arts? Some find it utterly disturbing and detrimental to the essence of artistry, while others see it as an exciting new tool that unlocks another world of possibilities.  So this leaves us with the question, is technology in the art world our friend? Or is it our foe?

Next Tuesday, January 31st, new media curator and digital art scholar Christiane Paul will be speaking in Loew Theater at 4:30pm. She will be presenting a talk titled “Feedback: Histories of New Media Art,” sponsored by the Digital Humanities Initiative and the Department of Studio Art.

Christiane Paul is the Director of the Media Studies Graduate Programs and Associate Professor of Media Studies at The New School as well as the Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has written extensively on new media art and technology with publications like Digital Art and New Media in the White Cube and Beyond. At the Whitney Museum, she has curated shows like ”Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools” (May 2011), “Profiling” (2007), and “Data Dynamics” (2001), and the net art selection for the 2002 Whitney Biennial.

Imagine that you could make a person suffer, and no one would ever know. Would you do so? Were you to pose that question in person, few if any would claim to exercise such a power. But wipe away any identifying factors, and give the respondent total anonymity—how will they respond?

How can art be used to raise awareness of problems in society?  There are many methods artists can pursue to address social issues, but for Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, the answer lies in animation and digital collages.

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung

Radical Books of 2011, 10/10

Big Questions, Anders Nilsen, Drawn & Quarterly, 9781770460478

I have always thought no connections existed between art and subjects like biology, mathematics and chemistry. I thought these subjects to be independent of one another. It was not until I read about the early experimentation of American artist Charles Csuri or the artwork of Joseph Scheer that I realized I had been creating art in classes like biology and chemistry. Charles Csuri used wave functions to digitally modify the reproduction of landscape, while Scheer used a scanner to scan the bodies of moths. When I first saw the artwork of Scheer it made me think of Lepidopterists, scientists that studies butterflies and moths, or even a collector.

Radical Books of 2011, 9/10

Pale Fire: A Poem in four Cantos by John Shade, Vladimir Nabokov, Ginkgo Press, 9781584234319

Imagine that you could make a person suffer, and no one would ever know. Would you do so? Were you to pose that question in person, few if any would claim to exercise such a power. But wipe away any identifying factors, and give the respondent total anonymity—how will they respond?

Radical Books of 2011, 8/10

You Can’t Have Everything… Where Would You Put It!, Bruce Andrews, Veer Books

There is no way this book will get past your spam filter:

facework cootie itsier-off
we are the dream sequences in your conventional cultural life –

Indeed we are. Here’s verbal salad (French dressing? Russian dressing?) shot through at times with lines of split and reassembled words:

zy^rit
sect^in
sing^franchi
cres^offi

What is interactive art? I’ve always thought art was something one admires from the perspective of a passive observer. But recently, I’ve learned that there is a category of art called new media art which challenges this traditional framework. “New media art” is a term used to describe  nontraditional forms of art that have evolved with technology. One of the most interesting types of new media art that I have read about is “interactive art,” which allows the audience to physically interact with art pieces to create some sort of effect. Interactive art usually involves the use of digital technologies that were not present until the past few decades.

This Thursday, January 26th, humanities scholar and Duke professor Cathy Davidson will be giving a talk here at Dartmouth, at Filene Auditorium in Moore Hall at 5pm. She’ll be discussing her latest book, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn.  

According to Davidson, “distraction is your friend.” Our brains aren’t linear, and disruptions can be welcomed. Within the midst of immense technological change, Davidson emphasizes the synergy of collaboration by difference. Collaborative digital learning and distributed multitasking become essential for 21st century learning. She advocates for re-envisioning our Industrial-age institutions, a crucial update necessary for a new world of constant connectedness, information overload, and global collaboration.

We are still discovering the possibilities that “new media” art can contribute to our art culture. With new media, which is distinguished from other art by its dependence on, or integration with technology, one attribute that has completely consumed me is the interactivity of some new media art.  In my “New Media Theory and Practice” course at Dartmouth College, we observed different works where interactivity was the main component of the piece.  For example, one artist projects video footage into people’s shadows who are walking around in a town square.  Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv ‘s 1999 work  text rain incorporates participation: people stand in front of a screen with falling letters that, once caught on part of one’s shadow, begin to form words.