Updates from May, 2014 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Ciara Finnegan 06:19 on 21/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Edie’s Farm 

    800px-Jean-François_Millet_-_Gleaners_-_Google_Art_Project_2
    Jean-François Millet. The Gleaners. 1857

    On Saturday, I donned my virtual wellies and headed down to The Farm. Edie, The Farm is conceptually brilliant! I love the notion of artist/farmers, idea-planters and cultural tillers. I want to go back there and get my hands dirty:-) I also sensed something of a cheeky wink at the health-farm/clinic concept – the kind of place they might have shipped you off to back in the day, to “recover”.
    BTW Edie, thinking about your relationship to the camera which, I agree, appears to be one of mutual celebration, I was amused as, scrolling down this page, I caught sight of an image of myself in which I look like I’m playing the theremin during the recent Berry Shake hangout…
     

    • Scott Lord 19:21 on 01/06/2014 Permalink | Reply

      You’ve reminded me of Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth. There’s tone in the Millet, an oval shadow, light on their shoulders and backs, but the isolation is from a vast expanse where the estate can be found. Its interesting that he uses perspective to show the depth of the background and size in the foreground; I’m not sure how he did

    • Christa Forster 08:56 on 14/07/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I’m wondering how Dave Hickey’s book Pirates and Farmers might resonate with Vanessa’s Edie’s Farm.

      http://www.texasobserver.org/art-critic-dave-hickey-calls-it-quits-again-with-pirates-and-farmers/

      Also, Is Edie’s Farm anything like Ant Farm (the 70s underground architecture and arts collective)?

  • Ciara Finnegan 01:44 on 15/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Location, Location, Location 

    Dearest Edie,
    I was thinking, while I was doing the ironing (in dying prematurely, sweetheart, I’m guessing you avoided entrapment in this particular activity) but, mindless enough task as it is, I find it affords a bit of thinking space and I haven’t burnt a hole in anything…yet…
    Anyway, I was thinking about your comment and wondering how do we say: There’s this amazing online kind of Cabaret Voltaire/Factory/Salon experimental artist-led space. Really! Yes! You should come! without making it sound like another arts sales-pitch.
    And I was also wondering if, in fact, this matters so much at all.
    This is not a discussion about funding-by(through)-numbers but a question of location and visibility. I had an interesting conversation, with a friend, about this kind of thing in relation to two galleries located in adjacent neighbourhoods in a city. The first gallery was, in the eyes of many, the Arts flagship of the city, its central location ensuring it a much higher footfall than the second. The second gallery, though only 5 minutes walk from the first, involved departing the centre of town, crossing a major arterial road and navigating a car-park before arriving on its doorstep. In other words, the location of the second gallery demanded that the visitor make a conscious choice to visit it.
    This gallery perceives its location not as disadvantageous but as a good thing. The people who go there do so because they want to.
    I think there’s something similar going on here with .re/act…
    What do you reckon?
     

    • Edie Sedgwick 06:05 on 16/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh hi Ciara! haha, you’re right, I don’t iron! But I hired Ondine to be my French Maid! But he mostly woke me up and set out makeup and drugs, I don’t think he ever ironed anything?

      Yes, I think I know what you mean. Being in the spotlight is great. haha, really great! Did I mention I love cameras! (and they seem to love me!)

      But if you think about blogs, well, nobody actually reads my blog, but it’s new, so maybe I’ll get readers one day. So far I’d say it’s easier to be the life of the party! 🙂

      But Vanessa’s blog iRez gets quite a bit of traffic. And I guess Facebook sends quite a lot of that traffic. But those peeps never leave comments. Or mostly they don’t even go to the blog, they just “like” the link on FB.

      So FB’s kind of like your mid-city gallery. A lot of traffic. But mostly all those eyeballs turn into “Likes” and other minimal engagement comments on Facebook. The peeps not from there are like your lower traffic zone, but they’re more likely to have something to say.

      The real trick I think is to make your party the one everybody wants to be at! I was pretty good at that IRL, but this cyberspace thingy is pretty new to me, so I’m not so sure about that. And my blouse is wrinkled. Guess I’ll have to go buy a new one.

  • Vanessa 03:26 on 11/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Mother’s Day USA Germany 

    Happy Mother’s Day!
    (USA, Germany)

     

  • Ciara Finnegan 09:45 on 06/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Thinking about .Re/act… 

    I think a lot about the space .re/act provides and about the value of this space. I was hoping that, perhaps, we could talk a little about what .re/act and spaces like it (do we know of any others?) mean to the artists engaging with this platform and how do we perceive this space relative to the real-world institutional spaces we are familiar with within our respective practices.
    (More …)

     

  • Rebecca Narum 08:43 on 22/04/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Hello all I haven’t been extremely present on… 

    Hello all!

    I haven’t been extremely present on the website, so some of you may not know or recognize me. But I met Vanessa through the online NovoEd course, “Performance Based Research” and she invited me to join the group as the class came to a close. Life has been a bit hectic and full of a lot of soul searching in the past months as I am trying to decide what my next step. But, as things are becoming more clear, and as I am heading into more of the action stage of my ‘project’ rather than the processing stage I reached out to Vanessa looking for some input on how to make it happen. She recommended I post something on .Re/act to see if any of you had ideas.
    (More …)

     

    • Vanessa Blaylock 18:14 on 05/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Rebecca! We’ve put you on the agenda for the Hangout on Monday 12 May! Hopefully our bunch of smart berries can help brainstorm some helpful ideas! I’m so excited about your new program – best wishes!!

  • Vanessa 13:39 on 16/04/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ## EZTV Talk by Andrea Foreander EZTV’s co… 

    EZTV Talk by Andrea Foreander

    EZTV’s co-hosting a young scholar from the U.K. who’s been creating and Anthology on Computer Art & researching EZTV’s history.

    Google hangout:
    Wed 6-8 California time

    * Andrea Foreander / 18th Street Events
    * Andrea Foreander / An Essex Girls Guide to the Universe

     

    • Vanessa Blaylock 09:49 on 17/04/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Andrea’s talk was very Interesting! Unfortunately the audio was pretty hard to hear: I think it might have been a combination of speakers not being that close to the microphone in a boomy room, multiplied by massive Google Hangout audio compression & audio artifacts. When it’s a “broadcast” more than a “Hangout / Chat” maybe we should try something like Ustream and see if it’s any clearer / less compressed. For some reason, perhaps mic proximity or vocal characteristics, whenever Michael spoke he was the 1 person that way crystal clear! 😀

      I’m dashing out of the studio ATM, but here’s 3 interesting points Michael raised, and I’ll comment about them later in the day:

      1. Siggraph as “trade show”
      2. Archival issues in new media
      3. Who transcends new media to become historically important

      Thanks so much for streaming Andrea’s talk!

  • Christa Forster 15:38 on 27/03/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Tomorrow from 9-10am PDT the second #1850charla will… 

    Tomorrow, from 9-10am PDT, the second #1850charla will happen on Twitter. I hope to see y’all there, and perhaps you’ll bring some other time-travelers or just plain old charla-tans with you. Please feel free to spread the word. Last time (February 28, 2014), we had some good tunes, interesting exchanges, and a few job offers!

     

    • Ysidora Pico 15:43 on 27/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Thank you for the reminder! I will see you there. I hope to see Isabella, Donnie, Mr. Sweetman (blush), and Aunt Renie there. And what about our comadre, Vanessa? And Ciara?

    • Michel Nostradamus 18:54 on 27/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Very good! I shall be pleased to attend (but you already knew that, right?) I hope I do not wear everyone out with my venting. The Princess of Florence is doomed; the Queen of France is being blamed for the very war she worked so hard to prevent; difficult times. Being a see’er of truth in such times is an unpleasant affair at best.

  • Michel Nostradamus 16:38 on 26/03/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    My Journey Begins http n ostradam us queens… 

    My Journey Begins:
    http://n.ostradam.us/queens-errand/

     

  • Ciara Finnegan 04:27 on 24/03/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    The Other Steve McQueen 

    You know, Isabella, I reckon I channelled the wrong Steve McQueen when vacuuming the other day as it was a pretty dull experience. However, this morning, plugging in the hoover, it was you that popped into my head and a much more inspiring visitor you proved to be!

    I was thinking about this thought in your recent post:  
    I’m not sure you can have maximum story and maximum co-creation.
    I too wonder how far one, or rather, many can push the idea of a collaboratively authored story. Is the prevailing form* of “story” (and, I guess, I’m thinking standard novel here) so at odds with the concept of collaboration that they are, ultimately, incompatible? Does the single story at some point, fragment or simply disintegrate? At what point does this occur? Is it relative to the number of co-authors? Is top-down, directorial influence ultimately unavoidable? How could or should the original initiator of the story intervene? Should there be appointed curators or moderators of the story? So many questions – but I think this is part of a very interesting discussion and they reflect questions that Christa also raised  when I confided in her after the “Oscar debacle” 😉 I also wonder if it is not the idea of story that fails but the enduring strength of the single Author? (Though, to be fair, Barthes took a good stab at undermining this).
     * Because I wonder when it became this way. Of course stories existed and were born by word of mouth, morphing en route from teller to teller for a very long time before consolidating in the 19th Century printed novel…
    I must add that I really liked the radar diagrams. I mentally plotted my own this morning with Wee Children, Blimmin’ Laundry (a category inclusive of SteveMcQueen style activities), Creative Activity and Critical Reflection on the axes…The fact that I didn’t manage to get around to actually offering a visual representation of this says a fair deal about where the polygon is weighted at present!!;-)
     

    • Isabella Medici 10:57 on 24/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Perhaps it wasn’t your choice of Steve McQueens, but your vintage Hoover. If you win the lottery, you should totally get a Dyson!

      • Ciara 23:29 on 24/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Funny how “Hoover” caught on as a verb in a way that “Dyson” never did. Or didn’t it? Maybe Steve McQueen gets good ideas while doing the dysoning?
        (To further complicate matters, would you believe, my hoover is, in fact, a Dyson!!! (albeit a very vintage one…))

        • Isabella Medici 04:13 on 25/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

          haha, IDK Dyson was old enough to be vintage! And, OH NO, even Dysoning isn’t inspiring?

          WE’RE DOOMED!

  • Izzy 16:10 on 23/03/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Hello Ysidora and anyone else who might be… 

    Hello Ysidora, and anyone else who might be interested: after a 438 year absence, I’ve decided to relaunch my Salon! As before it will be a celebration of many art forms: Literature, Poetry, Music, Song as well as visual arts and ideas about culture.

    I enjoyed your songs at your recent Houston / EZTV performance Ysidora, and I wondered if you might like to sing for our first salon of the new millennium!?

     

    • Ysidora Pico 15:30 on 24/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I would be honored!

  • Ciara Finnegan 06:37 on 17/03/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    A man walks into a bar… 

    Gin & Tonic

    Gin & Tonic

    This guy swears they were in here earlier…

     

    • Isabella Medici 02:23 on 23/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

      So who is “this guy”? He’s quite dashing. No frock coat, I see. Is that some sort of wool-lined jacket?

      • Ciara Finnegan 07:10 on 23/03/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Gosh, do you know, Isabella, I didn’t manage to catch the chap’s name at the time. I reckon he’s a regular at that place, though, so I’m sure I can ask him next time. He is rather smartly dressed, I agree. He’s got that whole chequered look going on with his trousers and, if I’m not mistaken, matching lapels on his jacket!

  • Meg O'Ryan 20:17 on 04/03/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Somebody That I Used To Know on disk… 

    Somebody That I Used To Know, on disk drives!

     

  • Vanessa 14:12 on 02/03/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Meta Lord 

    Vanessa Blaylock & Ayara Illios dancing at a party

    Vanessa Blaylock & Ayara Illios

    My friend Meta Lord, producer of the annual Dutch Gogbot event was nominated for “Sexiest Actor” in The Sexiest Awards! Here’s a photo of me dancing at the afterparty with Ayara Illios who was a double-nominee for Sexiest Actress & Sexiest film.

     

  • Izzy 21:54 on 01/03/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Aww The Cockroaches did a song for me… 

    Aww, The Cockroaches did a song for me! How sweet!

     

  • Aunt Renie 19:36 on 27/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Hello children I have exciting news I’m coming… 

    Hello children! I have exciting news! I’m coming out of retirement! I’ve been so touched by the sad stories of avatars who can’t bear their own children, that I’ve decided to open an Avatar Fertility Clinic focusing on surrogate avatar arrangements. What a gift to be able to give! More info coming soon!

     

  • Vanessa 09:07 on 27/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Meanwhile if anyone remembers that old PBR… 

    Meanwhile if anyone remembers that old “PBR” MOOC, the peeps over on the FB group are determined to get the certificates promised in the syllabus and for some reason, the instructors seem adamant that certificates not be given:
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1397802437119883/1432171353682991/?notif_t=group_comment_reply

     

    • Hugh 10:00 on 27/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I’m not in that loop. I bailed out of FB and into Diaspora. Something similar but more flexible and open source. And oh yeah, user owned so Markie Zee doesn’t have his mitts on my stuff. Do the instructors give a reason for not wanting to give the certs seems curious? I can’t really see the cert being a deal breaker in a job interview though so it seems like a little bit of a waste of energy. But people will often stand on principle before they stand on their own two feet.

      • Vanessa Blaylock 10:05 on 27/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Agreed Hugh. It’s not worth making a fuss. Yet weird that the MOOC that asked for more work than any I’ve taken doesn’t want to pass out certs. The instructors apparently claim they never offered one, but the FB group has pointed to the promise in the syllabus.

        I originally liked the vision of Diaspora. But love or hate FB, it’s biggest strength is that it’s the new “Phone Book” with almost everybody in it. There aren’t a lot of peeps (that I know of) to share stuff with on Diaspora.

    • Hugh 10:16 on 27/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      All true. I just feel ikkey every time I use it and I have this messiah complex. If I join they will follow. So far I only know one person there. Perhaps there is an opportunity for a collaborative project there?

      • Vanessa Blaylock 10:25 on 28/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Yes Hugh, there are SOOOO many platforms out there! For any activity you like there are numerous Proprietary, and numerous Open choices. Just to take blogging as an example, you could get an account at a proprietary site like Tumblr or Medium or Blogger, or use Open software like WordPress or Open Blog or Ghost. Or many others!

        It’s an obscenity of riches! Perhaps all the choice / confusion is even a piece of why so many mostly use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and that’s it. “FTY” IS “The Internet” for many. I was shocked to hear that many people can go a whole week without ever using Google Search, since I, like so many others, use it so many times every day.

        It doesn’t have to be an oversimplified binary thing, but when I’m choosing which Feudal Lord to pledge my allegiance to, I choose Google. They’re still proprietary, and they definitely make choices I don’t like, but when it’s Google vs anybody else, Google’s perspective almost always suits me better than the other peeps.

        With FB vs G, for example, Facebook really wants to be The New AOL. They’d love it if you never left their walled garden. It’s not quite that simplistic, and they do provide lots of hooks in and out, but I still find some truth in that perspective. By contrast, Google really wants you to surf the complete Information Superhighway, they just want to be the gas station on all the on-ramps. As a blogger, the Google perspex suits me a whole lot better than the FB.

        • Christa Forster 11:22 on 28/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          Great metaphor there at the end, Van. Love this discussion!

  • Ciara Finnegan 09:52 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    ‘Flu 

    Hi Guys,

    I’m afraid I have to step out of the 1850Charla process for a couple of days as I’ve come down with a horrible flu.

    Fortunately, I am privileged to be suffering in the 21st Century with access to products of modern medicine helping to alleviate the symptoms that might otherwise have me writhing on my 19th Century deathbed 😉

    Cough. Sniff. Sniff…

     

    • Christa Forster 12:28 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, no, Ciara! I hope you are better very soon!

    • Isabella Medici 16:06 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

      I am uncertain that this will offer much consolation, but if you think 1850 medicine was bad, honestly, you should try 1550!

      Bleeding your right foot didn’t cure it? No problem, we’ll bleed your left today!

      • Ciara 23:02 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Aw, thanks, Christa & Izzy. I’m dying here and it’s all starting to heat up on “the wire”. I’m losing the pace! Argh!! Bring on the leeches!!!!!

        • Isabella Medici 08:53 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          16th century doctors are quacks… 21st century surgeons are incompetent… patients are violent… what a world!

          I think the best advice might be rest & plenty of fluids. Maybe stream a few Renaissance movies on YouTube or Netflix.

          Get well soon! 😀

  • Christa Forster 14:55 on 31/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    Reading this article I thought of Michael Masucci’s… 

    Reading this article, I thought of Michael Masucci’s worry that our technology could be creating a cultural vacuum. If the grid goes out, what happens to all the art that is stored there digitally?

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/30/we-need-to-talk-about-ted

     

    • mjmasucci 23:14 on 01/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Interesting article, Christa. I liked how it clearly describes the “American Idolization” not only of science, but of thought in general. It has become far more important how many re-tweets an idea gets, than if the idea has specific merits for discourse. In such a paradigm, the flat earth theory would have won.
      TED is infotainment, disguised as discourse. That’s not necessarily bad, but the model needs to mature, evolve, and become less like a sales pitch, and more like a discussion (hard to do with its one-way lecture format).

  • Vanessa 18:04 on 30/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    FACEBOOK AS BODY LANGUAGE You know that always… 

    FACEBOOK AS BODY LANGUAGE?
    You know that always depressing stat that something like 70% of communication is non-verbal? As in what the hell you’re actually saying doesn’t really matter much? I’ve always wondered if the type of content mattered in that percentage? So “flirting” would be almost ALL body language, your actual “content” would be very minimal. But I can’t imagine that 2 astrophysicists talking at a white board is mostly body language! That must be mostly content, right?

    So… a lot of Facebook discussion is “You’re cool,” “That’s great,” “I agree!” This builds connections and community, but it doesn’t really TELL us anything content wise. Could it be that Facebook is a sort of Virtual Body Language? Low on “content” but higher on feeling and connection?

     

  • Michael Masucci 23:21 on 19/12/2013 Permalink | Reply  

    Building multi-generational communities 

    One aspect of my project/practice that has been difficult/interesting to navigate so far, is maintaining the older arts communities that I have worked with over the decades, ( many of whom only occasionally utilize social media) with the younger more social media-centric communities. Such integration will be a challenge, and as with most challenges, a creative opportunity as well.

     

    • Vanessa 08:42 on 20/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Michael, this is a really interesting space. As a new media dweeb, I’m always amazed by how many artists have very minimal online footprints: some don’t have websites at all, others do but aren’t present on many of the spaces that are “basic” to me.

      What I’ve learned is that we all have the place or places that “feel like home” to us. If you want to have a conversation and you really like F2F over coffee or beer, then you gravitate to the places and people who facilitate that. If you do or don’t like Facebook or blogs or Vimeo or any other on/offline space, that becomes your community.

      If you’re someone with a message you want heard, then you can’t expect them to come to you, you have to take that message to all relevant media where publics you want to reach can be found. That can be a lot of work, but at least conceptually it’s easy.

      What’s a little more conceptually complex for me is the idea that if I do or do not frequent a particular type of watering hole, that’s going to influence the people that are part of my sphere. Katrina told us at the last hangout that she deleted her Facebook because it took too much time / attention / focus. I’m probably too much of a media whore to actually delete FB, but I don’t spend much time there. For me FB is the place where even smart people say banal things. vs, eg, “The Well” (which is actually before my time, but “so I hear…”) was a place where you took time to craft a really compelling response. On FB even smart people become banal. On The Well you sounded smarter than you were IRL.

      On the other hand, I have a few really smart friends who, for reasons I don’t entirely get, pretty much only communicate on FB. So if you want to interact with them, you have to go to FB.

    • Michael Masucci 19:32 on 20/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Yes, you are so right. When The Well (which was not before my time) was in its heyday, for the most part, only ‘tech savy’ people had it. Professors types, scientists and artists associated with tech/art groups such as SIGGRAPH. Just having a thewel.coml email address gave the pretention that you were ‘smart’. Thos days are behind us.

      Your comment that, for example Katrina stopping FB (as for the most part I have well), is another cultural trend to take note of. You so correctly point out that not ustilzing one of the numerous spaces that are in cyberspace, means you basically do not exist to that community. That has always been the case even in proto-digital communities ( i.e. BBS, web 1.0, etc) and especially before that, in the world of print media. If the ‘recognized’ art press did not write about you, then you did not exist, at least not in the so-calledc ‘art world” ( a term I find offensive, art is not a world but more like a series of unrealted feudal states). So, as you said, if you want to communicate with some people, who for whatever reason only communicate on FB, then that;s the platform you must take.

      With so many of these emerging and declining platforms out there, the decentralization of the past reasserts itself, in some ways. I realize that through search engines and multiple feeds to your Twitter, FB, Pinterist, Youtube, etc., etc., etc, distribution channels does automate the need to repost, over and over again, but marginalization does seem to be trending forward for more analyitcal and critical discourse.

      I’m not being pessimintsic, only observations. In general I think the trends are very, very positive. But those friends of mine, who, smart as they may (or may not) be,find FB, Twitter, etc, boring still need to be raeched in more tradional off-line ways (yse, I like meetinf F2F over beer, coffee, but more becuase I like beer and coffee and prefer to be talking to someone interesting wjhile I’m partaking).

      But, like you, most of the people I know are living more and more online, and I also must adapt my daily routines to find more time each day to interact this way. For decades email has done this quite effectively, but the change that was brought about by people like ( among many others) Dave Winer is now ubiquitous, and if that is the way that information will essentially be distributed, everyone I know must also accept this simple truth and must adjust accordingly.

      Thanks so much for your thoughts, they are always very helpful and appreciated.

  • Vanessa 12:00 on 19/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    Hey Molly did you see Adelina’s post She… 

    Hey Molly, did you see Adelina’s post? She also took both PBR & Site Dance!
    http://practicebased.re/search/hello-adelina/

     

  • Christa Forster 00:21 on 17/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    Open Culture 

     

    Screen Shot 2013-12-16 at 6.15.37 PM

    Today I referenced Open Culture while hanging out with the Blueberries. My recommendation is that Michael promote the EZTV archives by tweeting out links to different content, the way Open Culture promotes its content.

    Screen Shot 2013-12-16 at 6.18.05 PM   Screen Shot 2013-12-16 at 6.19.56 PM

     

    • Vanessa 01:09 on 17/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Gravatars are tied to email accounts. So if the email associated with a site is different than the email for your gravatar, you might get a “waveatar” instead.

      You potentially could have a different email address on your own WP blog, and here on .Re/act and you could even have a different email over on .Re/search. If you wanted to, you could change the email on address on any or all of those sites, and then the corresponding gravatar would show up on comments.

      • Michael Masucci 23:16 on 19/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks Christa,

        I will definitely start looking into this and the other flavors of social media that you, Vanessa and others are suggesting. They are all really great ideas. Around Jan 18th, we plan to announce the formal press release, not just about the EZTV Museum projects, but some related events, including several exhibitions and performances (including one that Van will be virtually participating in). We will attempt to distribute ti through both existing social media channels, but also through more traditional press outlets. This will be in conjunction with USC, as well as through the email lists of about half a dozen art organizations here in LA.

        Your suggestions have been great, and much appreciated, so never hesitate to give your thoughts, criticisms, etc. as we move forward.

  • Vanessa 23:13 on 16/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    .Re/ad? (virtual book club) 

    Christa mentioned Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried in today’s hangout because of his use of Metafiction, or a blend of fact & fiction that promises to be more real than real. Of course you could argue that great fiction has always been a blend of fact & fiction… and perhaps that’s true of “non-fiction” as well. Poor James Frey could have avoided such a scandal if his publisher had just called his memoir A Million Little Pieces, “metafiction.”

    The idea of an online book club was floated briefly and a few heads nodded. If we did one, would we want it to be like an F2F book club: go read for a month and then meetup in a Hangout and discuss the book? Or use the asynchronous web to have a .Re/ad site like this .Re/act site where peeps could chime in and interact as they read along. Any preferences?

    And do we want to read The Things They Carried? Or any other nominations?

     

    • xtaforster 03:26 on 20/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      I would prefer F2F if possible. Depending on the size of the group reading the book, we could make it work in a variety of ways.

    • xtaforster 04:23 on 25/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Here are a couple other books that I’ll throw into the suggestion: The Anxiety of Influence: a Theory of Poetry, by Harold Bloom (inspired by Vanessa’s comments on Michael’s “Chain Reaction” post in Practicebased.Re/search); it was published in 1973.

      Pirates and Farmers, Dave Hickey’s new book. I’ve read parts of it, and it’s quintessential Hickey, parts unreadable and parts brilliant. So far, I’ve loved the essay on So Cal artists, “Coping with Paradise” the best, but the essay on biennales is pretty funny and good, too.

  • Molly Ross 13:55 on 13/12/2013 Permalink | Reply  

    Public Art Has Rules–who knew? 

    rulebook_3-e1386854118491I knew there was sets of standards by which the people with money, land and power pick art they want in the public space. Work is chosen that communicates an agenda, an aesthetic or a certain version of history that those with money, power or land want showcased.  In the last few decades the definitions of art has changed and this is affecting what is considered Public Art–Yeah!  Today this came across my social media.  UK organization, Situations, is proposing new rules for contemporary public art–some of them are great!

     

    • Vanessa 17:03 on 13/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      It seems that we have moved decisively beyond the idea of public art as a large steel sculpture in a public plaza. Nothing against Mark di Suvero, but the emphasis has shifted from what Critical Art Ensemble called the “sedentary model” of public art toward practices that involve participation, performance, and other process that unfold over time.

      Mark Tribe

    • Vanessa 17:06 on 13/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Rebecca & Christa have started to think about how we might use the .Re/cipes site, and “lists of rules” or “rulebooks” seem to fit right in with Algorithmic or Generative things like .Re/cipes

  • Vanessa 11:27 on 11/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    I’ve just done a quick browse of Udacity… 

    I’ve just done a quick browse of Udacity, Iversity, NovoED, and Coursera, and Coursera definitely seems to be the Arts MOOC leader. Or perhaps they’re just the biggest and have the most of everything…
    https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming&cats=arts

     

  • Molly Ross 02:11 on 10/12/2013 Permalink | Reply  

    Tangents: Online Professional Development (MOOCs and more) 

    Check out this site from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA–where I used to teach). This project evolved out of the training MICA did for the faculty on Hybrid Learning. The faculty (me included) were very concerned about how you share the tactile knowledge of a visual arts program–this is one solution. SKILLSHARE

    SkillShare

     

  • Molly Ross 22:20 on 06/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    Twitterification (in the best way) for academic writing. 

    LeslieHill
    Over at the PBR MOOC, we’ve entered the final week! In a Vlog, Leslie Hill planted the seed for publishing some of the “findings” from this class. Great idea but I’d like to see it reflect this experience. Vanessa Blaylock said it best in a note to our team “The Internet is not a “thing” but a “place” and our experiences there are not “nouns” but “verbs.” LOVE THAT!

    I imagine short form essays–the twitterification (in the best way) of academic writing. Writing that is concise, concrete and contemporary to reflect the place and actions of a MOOC.

     

    • Vanessa 14:56 on 07/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      What a wonderful idea Molly! It would be interesting to try to literally do it in Twitter – though I think that might be pretty hard, not sure.

      But I wonder if a space like .Re/act which sort of encourages 1 or 2 paragraph interactions, would work? (for any tech dweebs, .Re/act is the “Houston” child theme of the WordPress “P2” theme)

      Or maybe do it in 4:53 videos? Or 4:33? (haha, Leslie went 20 seconds long!) Or embrace mobile? Video apps like the 15 seconds of Tout, the 30 seconds of Viddy or the 36 seconds of Keek…

      Leslie’s video:

    • Vanessa 09:19 on 08/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      kk, let’s try a couple more… (adapting from Kevin Kelly)

      Creativity is a tendency, not an entity; a process, not an artifact.

    • Michael Masucci 01:38 on 09/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Molly,

      I’m still adopting to the ‘less is more’ style of communicating using as you put it Twitterfication.

      My resistance is that is results is going straight to the conclusion, with little room for analysis. This has been problematic throughout history. Think of the U.S.’s 2nd Amendment. It means two entirely different things to different people, Example: for the NRA-types, it says absolutely no regulation of guns. I read the exact same words and get an opposite impression ( the word ‘regulated’ is actually in it). To me it says we can have a National Guard. Very different conclusions. With a shortened approach, it seems there is much more chance of misunderstanding, not a good thing for scholarship.

      But it is more efficient, to be certain. But I’m not sure that’s what scholars should care about. But their may be no other viable choice with a MOOC.

      • Vanessa 08:39 on 09/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

        Hey Michael, I wonder if you’re comparing “one long monologue” (an academic paper) to a Single Tweet. The thing that I think critiques of Twitter sometimes don’t think too much about is that it can be a dialog between 2 or more participants. It doesn’t have to be one vague paragraph, it can have lots of detail and specificity, but instead of being in the form of a monologue or tablets coming down from the mountain, it’s in interactive dialog form. It’s a tapestry being woven live, and each participant part of the Global Loom has an impact on the evolving tapestry. You might choose a particular color or material of fiber to contribute, but you can’t know what the tapestry will be without the actual process experience of the collaborative weaving.

        I really like the form of interactive dialog in that they’re a key aspect of the realness I feel on The Net or in Virtual Worlds. With a monologue it’s kind of me dumping content on whatever journal or audience that’s willing to take it. Although I may not have read the journal yet, what I will eventually read there is already fixed. My reading it doesn’t really impact it. But in an online dialog, in a vaguely Heisenbergish way I suppose, my reading it becomes part of the dialog and the resulting trajectory couldn’t be obtained without the set of participants that chose to engage in it. The Net is alive.

        Maybe this is why I go on such tirades when peeps post PDFs. PDFs are dead. I like content on the open, interactive web.

      • Molly Ross 18:25 on 09/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

        Great points! And I am by no means advocating any major shifts just opening up the conversation for myself and asking how can publication communicate effectively the experience of Practice Based Research in digital realms (like our PBR mooc)? Is there a way the short form essay can be a “portal” to deeper analysis of a topic? What webs can be explored (tangents-my favorite concept this week) and how is the possible for the reader? I’m also questioning as you are “what scholar’s should care about?”

        • Michael Masucci 19:54 on 09/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

          Yes, Molly & Vanessa, interactive dialogue is of course useful, perhaps even vital. But there are areas of investigations that are complex, and easy to mis-interpret without exhaustive verbiage, often coming from one voice.

          I suspect that we all three like both approaches, and see value, in differing contexts for both.

          Think of how some of the critics of Obamacare used the number of pages of the law ( over 1,000) as a criticism of it. When its length really showed a realistic approach, it showed that the multiple authors had operationally defined and then stipulated every possible contingency they could imagine ( and even so left out a few variants). The critics complained that they actually had to do some work, and read the entire thing (actually, usually its their assistants that end up reading it). But isn’t that their jobs? I think the same for scholars, not just ‘opinionators’ (who of course have their significant place and value).

          I don’t argue that short-form is one form of communication, but I just hope that the option of deep, structured analysis, does not become rare. Not a down ‘from the mountain” approach as you mentioned Van ( in fact those tablets constituted short-form edicts) but a full explanation of ideas or opinions, with the space to make the case in specific, detailed ways.

          But I’m taking too long to make my point, so should stop 😉

  • Molly Ross 14:43 on 03/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    Critiki! rubrics and the ways of the MOOC. 

    This week in the PBR MOOC we’ve been tasked to create a rubric to evaluate our work. Framing your evaluation was a trick and a skill that I worked hard at in Grad School. I found that if you did not set up the right parameters your crit would veer off into strange unhelpful territories. In a MOOC we are faced with extreme parameters in which our work is viewed– The anonymous reviewer looking at our work digitally for a brief amount of time. How can we use these parameters to benefit our critiques? What does this experience offer us that other forms of critique do not? It’s always a question of how do we connect with our listeners/audiences/readers in the most clear and concrete way possible–maybe even more so within the format of the MOOC evaluation.

     

    • Vanessa 17:25 on 03/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Smart questions Molly! Maybe it’s year-end fatigue or something but we (I) havn’t totally run with the Bespoke Rubrics too much yet, but you’re absolutely right! This is a really important and valuable opportunity!

    • xtaforster 20:43 on 03/12/2013 Permalink | Reply

      It’s totally November-into-December fatigue for me. Just getting started on this now. Thanks, Van and Molly for helping orient me toward the task!

  • Vanessa 01:57 on 01/12/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    Surprisingly I found the Site Dance Final Projects… 

    Surprisingly, I found the Site Dance Final Projects a bit less exciting to read (peer review) than the Project 2 “Designing & Structuring Your Work” projects. I found the P2’s especially compelling! Maybe just the luck of the draw, IDK.

     

  • Vanessa 15:57 on 29/11/2013 Permalink | Reply
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    I’ve never heard how many students enrolled in… 

    I’ve never heard how many students enrolled in Practice Based Research in the Arts or Creating Site Specific Dance & Performance Works, but The Future of Storytelling from Potsdam / Iversity is now up to 80,000. I’m sure PBR & Site Dance are vastly smaller, still in all cases it’s thousands at least.
    (More …)

     

    • Vanessa 14:36 on 30/11/2013 Permalink | Reply

      Also, only NovoED even has the feature of messaging classmates. On both Coursera & Iversity your only hope of communicating with colleagues outside of the closed, soon to be shut down, forums, is if you can find them out on the web. Some students put URLs in their profiles, but shockingly many do not.

      Again, in a “massive” course, of course you can’t expect 1-to-1 contact with faculty or TA’s, so it is very much peers & colleagues that we need to form relationships with. Otherwise a MOOC is just a lecture class, and that’s a lot less.

      1. We need student-2-student messaging
      2. We need profiles that prompt (optionally) for your website
      3. We need groups & group messaging
      4. We need Peer Review with the option to not be anonymous
      5. We need Peer Review structured like Coursera so it’s easy, fast, fun, and useful. Not like the peer reviewing a whole transcript of discussion on NovoED that requires aspirin just to get through doing a lousy job that will help no one anyway.

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