| Commissions |
| Spotlight |
| flanagan | mikic | gilbert | wattenberg | murphy/sigal | cabral |
| andrews | arcangel | walczak/wattenberg | belgum/loss | riel |
by Mary Flanagan
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts
[rootings] explores string theory, time, narrative, mental order/disorder, and interactivity as engaged by a female subject in an internet game format, and also calls into question standardized and popular notions of time.
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by Vlasta Volcano Mikic
with funds from the Jerome Foundation
ISS is about the building of the International Space Station. It shows a series of scenes inside and outside the station. Combining VRML and Flash files it creates a walk-through experience with each scene zooming into the next. ISS explores the feeling of anti-gravity, dreams and possible changes in human perception.
by Jesse Gilbert and others
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts
interaXis is an investigation into the possibilities of improvisation, form, and presentation in multi-site, network-based performance. A group of accomplished composer-improvisers and technologists coming together to create a dynamic, structured, experimental sonic exploration on the web and in real space.
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by Martin Wattenberg
with funds from The Greenwall Foundation
What does music look like? The Shape of Song is an attempt to answer this seemingly paradoxical question. The custom software in this work draws musical patterns in the form of translucent arches, allowing viewers to see--literally--the shape of any composition available on the Web. The resulting images reflect the full range of musical forms, from the deep structure of Beethoven to the crystalline beauty of Philip Glass.
Net Art News >>
by Jay Murphy and Isabelle Sigal
with funds from the Jerome Foundation
Privilege is spun from a larger work; these fragments seek to accrete and produce a subliminal confrontation with their ever-shifting subject matter, much as the body is reputed to create vortexes of healing and repose in response to traumas. Multiple, intersecting planes of experience, often mired in a sordid backstory of the American dream/empire (featured voices include Florida death row inmates, Palestinian poets, and novelist Kathy Acker) seek to produce new areas of resolution.
by John Cabral
with funds from The Greenwall Foundation
Set in a world filled with contradiction and parody, Ground Zero stars Ratzo [the king of all rats] and features a colorful cast of characters who reflect and inform texts, sights and sounds all sequenced to the current time and conditions of the day. In this real world setting, you're invited to explore Ground Zero and collect clues that allow you to enter hidden levels, find secret opportunities and ultimately transcend time and place to learn the meaning of this parallel universe!
by Jim Andrews
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts
Nio is a two part interactive audio piece for the Web that combines sound poetry, music, and visual poetry of Andrews’ animations and vocals. It suggests a new form of music. Since the audio and the visuals are pretty tightly conjoined, it might be described as a multimedia form rather than solely a musical form. The underlying program plays synchronized, interactive layers and sequences of audio and animations for the Web.
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by Cory Arcangel
with funds from the Jerome Foundation
Filmed at Urbandale Plaza in the eastern suburbs of Buffalo N.Y., "urbandale" is a study of America's suburban sprawl stripped to its barest essentials and void of unnecessary contemporary cultural influence. This film captures the sly, bland smile strip plazas cast at modern culture. The film, rendered in text, focuses on the repetitive motion of food stuffs being cooked in the lobby of a discount department store.
by Marek Walczak and Martin Wattenberg
with Jonathan Feinberg
with funds from the Jerome Foundation
In The Apartment you are confronted with a blinking cursor. As you type the room responds, engaging you in conversation, building a home around you. Over time the dwelling acquires a history, being a palimpsest of conversations with those that engaged with it. The scratches in the space are made up of images and texts derived from the dwellers' inputs, web searches and translations, organized into clusters of spaces/ideas.
Read 1/interview >>
Read 2/interview >>
by Erik Belgum and Katrin Loss
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts
and the Jerome Foundation
The spiral parking ramps of late 20th century life create a world in which our sense of direction continuously collapses and re-forms. Set inside this twist of cement, Strange Neonatal Cry tells the story of a woman who witnesses the assault of a parking ramp attendant and becomes obsessed with the whorl of events leading up to and away from it.
by Michelle and Eric Riel
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts
Telesthetic Communis is a negotiated communal space in which a networked mechanical device initiates remote happenings. Beware: erratic behavior may result due to another user's conflicting commands.
by Wesley Meyer
Employee 12995 punches the clock. You've clicked your way into a sea of cubicles, endless meetings, paper pushing, form filing, homogeneity, subversion, and anxiety. More-Inc is an interactive simulator allowing users to explore questions of identity and happiness in a culture dominated by materialism and corporate control. The user's interactions and decisions lead to an experiential crescendo realized in breakdown, dissimulation and resurrection.
Read an interview >>