Olia Lialina, My Boyfriend Came Back From the War

My boyfriend came back from the war from Per Platou on Vimeo.

Tag ties & affective spies is a critical approach on the social media of our times. What happens when we are “tagging” , “posting” and “sharing” our experiences and opinions in platforms such as those of Facebook, YouTube, flickr or del.icio.us? Are we really connecting and interacting or are we also forming the content and the structure of the social web itself? curated by Daphne Dragona
+interview

Olia Lialina and New Media Art Histories of the (so-called) net.art, Net Art and Web Art moments

My colleague Bruce Jenkins (formerly the curator of the Harvard Film Archive and currently on faculty with me in the Film, Video & New Media department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago) asked me to recommend Web Art that could be included in his upcoming "Presenting and Preserving Moving-Image Media" course. I suggested he include a discussion of the work of Olia Lialina. In particular, her Last Real Net Art Museum project:

http://myboyfriendcamebackfromth.ewar.ru

which in part hosts remixes of her MY BOYFRIEND CAME BACK FROM THE WAR project from 1996. The remixes function as a form of archiving and preservation in that they extend the life of the work by reworking this now historical New Media Art project. As such, this series constitutes a significantly dynamic and vital artistic use of archives and archiving.

Her FIRST AND THE ONLY REAL NET ART GALLERY:

http://art.teleportacia.org/

directly addresses web-based exhibition of New Media Art as well as the legendary death or historical status of net.art. In particular, this issues are addressed through the online exhibition MINIATURES OF THE HEROIC PERIOD from 1998:

http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/miniatures/


Her collection of texts in the "Texts on net.art, new media and digital folklore" section:

http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/

provides important views into these histories. From that section, her text "Vernacular Web" originally from 2005:


http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/vernacular/

which was then updated and reversioned in 2007:


http://www.contemporary-home-computing.org/vernacular-web-2/

also considers New Media Art Histories and issues of historicity by unlocking ways in which artists and those who do not identify as artists have used the internet and the web over the last 15 or so years...

// jonCates

Networking. The Net as Artwork (English Version) by Tatiana Bazzichelli

Copying from a post at the http://faces-l.net list:

"Networking. The Net as Artwork" by Tatiana Bazzichelli is finally ready in English language. It is promoted by the DARC, Digital Aesthetics Research Center of Aarhus University.http://darc.imv.au.dk/?p=62You can download it from this link:http://darc.imv.au.dk/wp-content/files/networking_bazzichelli.pdf

A reconstruction of the history of artistic networking in Italy and of the Italian hacker communitiy from the 1980s to date.Preface by Derrick De Kerckhove. Epilogue by Simonetta Fadda.

Contents:Networking means to create nets of relations, where the publisher and the reader, the artist and the audience, act on the same level. The book represents a first tentative reconstruction of the history of artistic networking in Italy, through an analysis of media and art projects which during the past twenty years have given way to a creative, shared and aware use of technologies, from video to computers, contributing to the creation of Italian hacker communities.The Italian network proposes a form of critical information, diffused through independent and collective projects where the idea of freedom of expression is a central theme. In Italy, thanks to the alternative use of Internet, during the past twenty years a vast national network of people who share political, cultural and artistic views has been formed.The book describes the evolution of the italian hacktivism and net culture from the Eighties till today. At the same time, it builds a reflection on the new role of the artist and author who become networker, operating in collective nets, reconnecting to Neoavant-garde practices of the 1960s (first and foremost Fluxus), but also Mail art, Neoism and Luther Blissett.A path which began in BBS, alternative web platforms diffused in Italy through the 1980s even before Internet even existed, and then moved on to Hackmeetings, to Telestreet and networking art of different artists such as 0100101110101101.ORG, [epidemiC], Jaromil, Giacomo Verde, Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, Correnti Magnetiche, Candida TV, Tommaso Tozzi, Federico Bucalossi, Massimo Contrasto, Mariano Equizzi, Pigreca, Molleindustria, Guerriglia Marketing, Sexyshock, Phag Off and many others.Tatiana Bazzichelli (Rome, IT, 1974), is a communication sociologist and an expert in network culture, hacktivism and net art. She is a Ph.D. Scholar at Aarhus University.

Norman Klein and Lev Manovich's Freud-Lissitzky-Generator

Some of you might still know this great project by Lev Manovich and Norman Klein, the Freud-Lissitzky-Generator:

http://www.manovich.net/FLN/

(about:) Freud-Lissitzky Navigator: FAQ

1. What is Freud-Lissitzky Navigator ?

Freud-Lissitzky Navigator is a computer game prototype; a software narrative*; a virtual exhibition; an imagionary software; a tool to navigate through 20th century cultural history; an experiment in developing analysis of new media which uses the very forms of new media (in this case, computer games and software interfaces).

Software Narrative-- a theoretical or fictional narrative about software (L.M.).

2. Where is the actual game?

We will post the playable prototype once its reconstruction is complete. Note, however, that the project history and the accompanying historical images are are also important parts of the game. If in normal computer games, motion rides and other forms of new media "background story" is usually a prelude to the game experience, here this story becomes the main part.

3. What kind of gameplay can I expect?

The gameplay in Freud-Lissitzky Navigator will largely consist in navigating through the narrative of game development. Each part of the narative (i.e., Freud’s meeting with Lissitzky; Eisenstein’s contribution; Prague episode, etc.) will occupy a separate level. The player will also have a chnace to uncover various related cultural events of the 20^th century for extra credit, hidden on each level.

4. Is Freud-Lissitzky Navigator a game or a software?
It is both. Since the key part of the game is the historical narrative, we are developing diffirent software interfaces to navigate through this narrative. They will be based on common software interfaces such as a database, virtual space, hypermedia, image composing, spreadsheet. For example, a Photoshop-like interface will allow composing of separate "text objects" (i.e., particular historical events) into a coherent narrative. A complementary "de-composing" operation will allow to decompose a snapshot from the game into its historical layers.