| Quim Gil on Fri, 6 Jul 2001 20:09:59 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> Mutella #5 |
Mutella - http://metamute.com/eletter/ A monthly e-letter coming from Metamute. Read it, forward it, subscribe to it or simply delete it. Thanks. -----------8<----------------------------------- | M | U | T | E | L | L | A | __ sprrrrrread it! ____________________________________________#5__30/6/2001_ _______________________________________TABLE__OF__KONTENT ........1. Editorial [Mutella #5] ........2. LA, UK [funding the digital arts in London] ........3. The Male History of Net.art [NOT, NOT, NOT] ........4. Coke goes mobile [a new era for blue-chip branding?] ........5. Coca Karma [Coke rots more than your teeth...] ........6. Echelon Gets as Good as it Gives [new EU report out] ........7. Locker Baby Takes First Steps [on-offline art] ........8. Randomiser [oh don't ask why] ........9. Goatee Corner [what's hot in the music shop] .......10. The Museum of Jurassic Technology on English Soil .......11. Food for Mediaworms .......12. Metamute Philes, Mute Data ........1...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. Hi, Sorry for the delay in getting your end of June Mutella this was due to a few technical hitches at Mute server central, our punishment for not sticking to the first rule in the hacker bible 'if it works don't fix it'. Hot, hot, hot. Sounds surprisingly unlike London, but hey, who are we to complain? June's Mutella is out *just* before Mute20, which is out mid July... Themed partly around the notion of the digital commons, it features several members of Sarai, Delhi's New Media Initiative; Ted Byfield talking to James Boyle; JJ King on the ignominious ICANN and four frankly psychedelic UK farming futures by James Flint and Hari Kunzru. To each and every dozen-or-so of you who chanced dipping into the Metamute forum, we want to apologise for its recent New Millennium-style disaster... Seems we overloaded the poor thing, but it's up again and with better stabilisers. All we can say is Please Come Back. And hope that All is Forgiven. No news yet on the next Mute's Public Life, but keep an eye on Metamute... Gutentag, You can find the Metamute forum @W--: http://metamute.com/forum/ Pauline van Mourik Broekman, Simon Worthington, Josephine Berry, Hari Kunzru, James Flint, Jamie King, Chris Darke, Kate Rich, Quim Gil, Lina D. Russell, Joan Johnston. ........2...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. LA, England [funding the digital arts in London] London Arts aka 'LA' have started their programme of infrastructural funding for the digital arts in London by giving a number of groups two years' worth of funds to develop and provide a variety of resources (covering cultural programming, education, critical debate, technical resources, training, infrastructural experimentation, and more). Lest it be raised (understandably) that there are already organisations out there doing this, the onus is on building stronger networks *outside* of established institutional structures and supporting those that are 'emergent'. In this case, being: W--: Media Arts Project (MAP) http://mediaartprojects.org.uk W--: Digital Guild http://www.digitalguild.org.uk W--: DECKSPACE http://dek.spc.org W--: Audiorom http://www.audiorom.com W--: Port55 (which we can't find a website for at the mo') W--: and us lot, Metamute http://metamute.com W--: London Arts http://www.arts.org.uk/directory/regions/london/index.html ........3...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. The Male History of Net.art: Temporary Autonomous Pavilion at the Venice Biennale I'm not sure what was more disturbing during this year's Venice Biennale opening week: the endless 'Luc Tuymans appreciation society' conversations at the Haig Bar or the notion that across town, net.art history was, yet again, being written by men - and hardly anything was being done about it.* Safely packaged into an artworld-friendly exhibition format, the Temporary Autonomous Pavilion curated by Vuk Cosic, stood as a testament to the 'heroic period of net.art'. In Cosic's own words, the pavilion included work of 'several artists that have shared the net.art adventure since the early days'. Housed in a disused church, the pavilion included a number of key projects by Heath Bunting, Vinyl Video, Tom Jennings, Jodi, Rtmark and Cosic himself, providing the Biennale the much needed soupcon of that 'net art thing'. Setting aside the problems of showing this type of work in static (gallery) spaces, the Temporary Autonomous Pavilion included some of the most interesting work in this years' Biennale. What is perplexing, however, is what seems to be by now, an accepted omission of many equally important projects dating back to the 'heroic period'. Presented in the context of a major exhibition such as the Venice Biennale, a show like the Temporary Autonomous Pavilion is likely to become what the art establishment equates with net.art. A question that is difficult to avoid is: Didn't artists such as Olia Lialina, Rachel Baker and Natalie Bookchin (to name but a few) share the net.art adventure, and why will the Venice Biennale visitors never know this? * In an action called 'Mind the Flowers', incensed representatives of the cyberfeminist group Old Boys Network did present Cosic with an ironic bouquet and commended him for his 'services' rendered to net.art and on reaching the pinnacle of his career. Sadly, he didn't seem to get the joke. W--: Slovenian Pavilion and Temporary Autonomous Pavilion: http://absoluteone.ljudmila.org/ W--: Old Boys Network http://www.obn.org To discuss this article go to the Metamute forum W--: http://metamute.com/forum/viewforum.php?forum=5 ........4...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. Coke goes mobile... In a move of truly worldwide significance, Coca-Cola is changing its advertising strategy. The original monolithic brand, whose identity has always been micromanaged from global HQ at Atlanta is, for the first time, decentralising. The new sales push, reported in Media Guardian as worth £30m in the UK alone (that's £82,000 a DAY kids) is an increase of 45% on last year's ad spend and for the first time sees ads (for Fanta, Dr Pepper and Diet Coke too) made by local agencies. No more generic US teens. No more cryptic 'enjoy!' message. Instead quirky local dv-shot edgy yadda yadda UK stuff from McCann Ericsson. Coke has always controlled all aspects of its business centrally, and in the last few years this has been causing it to lose ground. The new chief exec. Doug Daft (!) is decentralising all Coke decision making to regional offices. Coke's new 'act local' policy must surely be seen in the context of the new unease about global homogeneity which is filtering even into the heart of corporate America. The localisation of Coke is a pluralisation, a multiplication which inaugurates a new era of fluidity and hypermobility. Since Coke's whole branding strategy has always been based on global universality, this is a watershed, potentially opening a new era where global brands play down their omnipresence - where multinationals retreat into invisibility, only breaking the surface as pseudo-local brands. In another interesting UK move, Coke has been marketing a drink called 'Burn', conceived as a competitor to Red Bull WITHOUT any coke branding on the packaging. No Logo Coke? The death of universal branding as a positive thing? Welcome to a new era of corporate dematerialisation. (Coca-Cola, the patron saint of fizzy drinks hath spoken. Verily, it sayeth unto us: "No matter how big or complex our business becomes, we must always demonstrate complete respect for each other. As the world becomes more interconnected, yet more firmly rooted in local pride, recognition of our interdependence with our stakeholders [err, anybody else?] becomes even more essential.") W--: WebHQ http://www2.coca-cola.com/about/whatwedo/beliefs.html ........5...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. COCA-KARMA There's a long, unwieldy, but stirring article on guerillanews.com which may be of interest for the following reasons. One, that Coca-Cola might have somehow forgotten, in this intellectual-property obsessed hell-hole in which we live, to re-register a prime bit of its identity*. One-point-one, that a second-rate ad exec could have inadvertently registered it himself during the hiatus. Two, that Coca-Cola has functioned since the 1960s as a front for the CIA, helping operatives get respected corporate positions in otherwise chary** nation states. Three, that it can cost about a million bucks to become a judge in the US system, and that the cash is often stumped up by third parties to 'buy' the judge's seat and turn the judge in question into a corporate or political 'bitch'. Four, that Coca-Cola has got the infamously bendy Chicago court system royally sewn up. Five, that the whole nasty mess continues all the way up to the Appeals Court. Six that the Supreme Court itself has open contempt for the principles of the sacred US Constitution when it comes to preserving the even more sacrosanct liberties of the Corporation. Sound like the world we live in to you? Then you won't need to read it, will you? * The device of putting the Coca-Cola bottle on the can as an image. ** "Chary: discreetly cautious: as a: hesitant and vigilant about dangers and risks b: slow to grant, accept, or expend a person - very chary of compliments" W--: Guerillanews http://www.guerrillanews.com/cocakarma/ __________________________________________________AD/____ New Designers launches the careers of 4,000 selected designers from over 100 colleges. Meet the emerging stars of the design industry and view their skills today. To take advantage of the Mute Priority Trade Ticket Price of £11.00 (normally £12.00) - which allows you unlimited access to the event and Trade Previews on the 4th & 11th July - call the ticket Hotline 0870 739 0973 (quote MUTE) Part One 5-8th July, Part 11-15th July. __________________________________________________/AD____ ........6...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..* Echelon Gets as Good as it Gives "LONDON, UK - Echelon exists. Now it's official: A report published by the European parliament removes any lingering doubt. Echelon, a shadowy, US-led worldwide electronic spying network, is a reality. In the cold war, eavesdropping was aimed at military and diplomatic communications, but today it has switched to commercial targets and private individuals. Echelon computers can store millions of records on individuals, intercepting faxes, phone calls, and emails. The report was prompted by claims that the US and other nations was using Echelon to spy on European companies on behalf of American firms. Though Members of the European Parliament claim there is no conclusive proof of industrial espionage, there is concern about the threat posed to privacy." W--: From the Association for Progressive Communications http://www.apc.org W--: Full article http://www.apc.org/english/news/fulltext.shtml?sh_itm=01ac1b10fae13c0a61c5292ba72d70b1 Over on mailing list Nettime, Sean Cubitt says: "Echelon no longer respects private property. The private individual was never an essential element of capitalism. Now we learn that capital does not need private intellectual property either. Nettimers should welcome and encourage the development of such progressive technologies." While Aldon Hynes tells Sean to cool his boots, quoting the following from Nazi Party leader Robert Ley: "In Germany there are no private matters any more. If you sleep, that's your private matter, but the moment you wake up and come into contact with another person, you must remember that you are a soldier of Adolf Hitler." Hmmm… W--: Nettime's fully searchable archive (1995--) http://www.nettime.org/ W--: Anti-Echelon links page http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net/ W--: [[AND TODAY]] Celebrating ten years of Statewatching http://www.statewatch.org/conf.htm ........7...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..* Locker Baby Takes First Steps Net artist and cyberporn film maker Shu Lea Cheang is in the midst of another epic production. Mixing cyberpunk staples with a self-alienating and ice-cool take on sex and gender, her "Locker Baby - the Clone Generation" is a thematic continuation of her not-to-be-missed movie "I.K.U.". The first part of the trilogy, "Baby Play", is up and running at the InterCommunication Center (ICC) in Tokyo and on the Net. The installation comprises an enormous, over life-sized game of 'foosball' or 'baby foot' in which 140 cm inflatable dolls are substituted for footballers. As gallery visitors put the surreal game into play, the ball's movements are tracked by sensors and relayed to the website. The Locker Baby story itself, set in 2030, begins with the posthuman babies' birth inside Tokyo coin lockers (we're not exactly sure what happens next but its bound to involve some very fucked-up Freudian fall-out). The locker metaphor is carried over onto the website and serves as an interface for a database of words and sounds left behind by visitors. Although the feedback between the installation and the website is pretty standard fare, the image of these huge suspended baby dolls does come close to the wild imaginative helter-skelter of Cheang's film. The titles of the next two parts of the trilogy, Baby Work and Baby Love, sound just about kinky enough to fulfil all our expectations. W--: Baby Play http://babyplay.ntticc.or.jp ........8...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..* Randomiser: you wot?! 1) Electronetwork Thank you, oh world, for giving us people dedicated to: "investigating and interrogating eletromagnetic reality". This site has the rare talent of being equally dedicated to activism and the appreciation of recherché cultural and scientific works of electromagnetic merit. Their first project, launched this summer, is called Seeing Cyberspace - an initiative for " teaching citizens how to 'see' the Internet in the every day electrical infrastructure, relating it to the major issues we face today as human beings, and organising the public to enact changes necessary to sustaining a democratic society in the 21st century." Phew. W--: Electronetwork http://www.electronetwork.org/ 2) Orgasmatrix We suspect that these freaky geeks still live at home with their mommies. (Parental Advisory: Explicit 'content') W--: Orgasmatrix http://www.orgasmatrix.com ........9...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..* Mutella Music aka Goatee Corner *… Victor Malloy: The Musings of Victor Malloy (Inertia, June 2001) Young Mr. Malloy is clearly living in his own nouvelle vague movie. You can tell this from the moody pic of him smoking a fag on the album cover and from his music, which is like a jungle remix of Miles Davis's soundtrack to "L'Ascenseur a l'Echafaud". Super cool. *.. Various Artists: Border Crossing (Immigrant, June 2001) Sampler from LA-based electronic label, including offerings from John Tejada, Paul Mac, and Alexi Delano. Deep n pumpin'; will probably be played a lot at Great Eastern parties throughout the summer. *… Gorodisch: Thurn & Taxis (The Leaf Label, June 2001) Delicate melodies etched out on cello, guitar and horns, over a programmed backdrop, natch, from the same scene as Four Tet, Fridge and Badly Drawn Boy. Sort of This Mortal Coil meets Neil Young, if that makes any sense at all. *… DJ Spinna: Strange Games And Things (BBE, May 2001) A good one this, if you fancy filling out your collection with a few more rare groove classics. A three CD set, on CD 1 Spinna does you a mixŠ but on CDs 2 & 3 he thoughtfully gives you the full length cuts of all the toones he's used. Nice. *… Hazard: Wind (Ash International, May 2001) Old mute faves the Ash label are back, with more eco-minimalism. This time its Stockholm-based composer Benny Jonas Nilsen reporting in from the bleeding edge of the wind recording scene. 'I did catch some fine air movement in trees, branches, grass and hail or thunderstorms,' he says. Go Benny. *… Various: Kaleidoscopic Beats Groove Anthology (Farside, June 2001) A cosmopolitan collection of cuts from the likes of DJ Food, Hidden Agenda and the Nextmen. One to play while sitting in the traffic queue for that summer festival. *… Various: Nightstarter (Moodmusic, June 2001) Okay, I know, it's not strictly fair to award a compilation Mutella record of the month, but this is the CD I just couldn't keep out of the tray. It's track one that's the clincher, Freestyle Man & Gs' "I Need your Love", a simple tune of pure groin-tugging grooviness. Get down! .......10...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. The Museum of Jurassic Technology on English Soil 'Our Inheritance in The Great Pyramid God's Cubit' An exhibition curated by James Putnam at the Petrie Museum, UCL London UK An installation of the so-called 'Phantogram', a special viewing apparatus entailing a stereographic system optical station with additional audio accompaniment. Once you've jacked into this high-tech system a very 'special' story about Sir William Flinders Petrie, the father of modern Egyptology and the Golden Cubit, unfolds. Also check out the collection of the Petrie Museum itself - very impressive. May 26 - Aug 18 2001-05-30 Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 1-5pm/ Saturday 10am - 1pm WHERE: The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology University College London Malet Place, London WC1E 6BT T--: +44(0)20 7504 2884 W--: http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk ........11...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. Food for Mediaworms [MuteEyes & Ears R bigger than MuteStomachs] The cream of the propaganda crop - for your delectationŠ *... INTERACTION: Artistic Practice in the Network Edited by Amy Scholder and Jordan Crandall Forward by John S. Johnson Publisher: Eyebeam Atelier & D.A.P Price: £16.00 ISBN: 1891024248 "A passionate debate on the vast transformations wrought by the internet and their implications for artistic practice." Contributors to the book include: Robert Adrian, Simon Biggs, Josephine Bosma, Andreas Broeckmann, Craig Brozefsky, Critical Art Ensemble, Ricardo Dominguez, Alex Galloway, Marina Grzinic, N. Katherine Hayles, Brian Holmes, Jodi, Lev Manovich, Margaret Morse, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Luiz Camillo Osorio, Saskia Sassen, Matthew Slotover, Alan Sondheim, Brett Stalbaum. And so on. And on and on. W--: Eyebeam Atelier: http://www.eyebeam.org/interaction/home.html *... Secret City By Department of Ongoing Digital Situations (DOODS) Label: Secession, 2001 Price: $14.00 inc. p&p What's on it: Alberto Tsara's Legends to Maps of Freedom (a provocative collage comprised of sound fragments with media art luminaries such as Greil Marcus, Bruce Sterling, Natalie Jereminjenko and Craig Baldwin) and Ion Van Gemsy's Unheard History of Cyberspace (dedicated to the social activists who shaped and extended the net across Asia from the late 80s to the early 90s). W--: Secession: http://www.toysatellite.org/secession/releases/sr004.php *... [Reminiscent of all those 80s manuals, but with a decidedly different flavour from the "Sloane Ranger's Handbook"] The Dream Dictionary: for the Modern Dreamer By Tim Etchells Publisher: Duck Editions, 2001 Price: £9.99 ISBN 071563108X *... [for anyone not forever put off de Sade by Philip Kaufmann's silly costume-flick 'Quill', this is supposed to be "a fine addition to Sadean studies" and a controversial whip, ehem, around 120 Days of Sodom, Philosophy in the Boudoir, Justine and Juliette] Sade: The Libertine Novels By John Phillips Publisher: Pluto Press, July 2001 ISBN 0745315984 W--: Pluto Press http://www.plutobooks.com *... Routledge's Thinking in Action series is the theory junkie's answer to the eminently pocketable Penguin 60s series. Now you can read a whole book by Derrida in one train ride, a Railtrack-based ride that is… Thinking in Action, edited by Simon Critchley and Richard Kearney, includes the following titles: On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness By Jacques Derrida On Science B.K. Ridley [admitteldy this would have to be a train ride between Thursoe and Penzance] On Religion John D. Caputo [hopefully the heating will have broken down and the chairs will be covered in woven horse hair] On Belief Slavoj Zizek [gulp] On Immigration and Refugees Michael Dummett On the Internet Hubert L. Dreyfus [Although the Routledge blurb quite inaccurately states that "On the Internet is one of the first books to bring philosophical insight to the debate on how far the Internet can and cannot take us", it isn't Dreyfus's surplus of philosophical knowledge but his total deficit of concrete Internet experience that distinguishes this book. The result is a flattening of the Net's many different capabilities and uses into the corny and frankly passe cliché of the extropian who longs to jettison 'the meat'. Starting from this false premise of what actually goes on on the Net, Dreyfus then proceeds to boringly pontificate on how there are certain physiological forms of communication and experience which cannot find their equivalent in the Net. We say: Big fat hairy deal.] Paperback price: £7.99 W--: Routledge http://www.routledge.com ........12...*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*..*.. Mute Philes Martin Conrads' and Ulrich Gutmair's interview with science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, featured in Mute19, is now finally available on Metamute's current issue pages…The hour-long interview, in which Sterling explores the impact of President Bush's anti-ecological stance and discusses his own interventions in the global warming issue, is at… W--: Current Mute http://metamute.com/mutemagazine/current/bruces.htm W--: Viridian Design http://www.viridiandesign.org W--: Thanks to Micz Flor for streaming support http://crash.mi.cz Mute Data To subscribe to Mute (UK £18, student rate £12) W--: http://metamute.com/acatalog/metamute_subcription_17.html Also on offer, bac packs (issues pilot thru 7) and back issues @£14 each… W--: http://metamute.com/acatalog/metamute_products_14.html Single issues of the present Mute issue 19 can be purchased online @£3.50 W--: http://metamute.com/acatalog/metamute_current_issue_20.html ________________________________________________END # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net