WAC | Gallery9 | WebWalker

WebWalker
gallery 9, walker art center, the internet, and digital culture
May 1999

	° support B92 ° C5, 16 Sessions ° Consensual Fantasy Engine ° webwalking ° what's new ° what's next ° awards ° press ° links		The Walker Web site was relaunched in September 1997. Since then we have produced two educational sites in collaboration with The Minneapolis Institute of Arts: ArtsConnectEd and ArtsNet Minnesota; acquired äda'web as the backbone of a new Digital Arts Study Collection; and established Gallery 9 as an online catalyst for digital culture. From new projects in Gallery 9 and the Digital Arts Study Collection to interviews with visiting artists to cyber travel reports, WebWalker is a newsletter about the Walker Art Center Web sites and digital culture on the net. Subscribe here. Steve Dietz Director, New Media Initiatives steve.dietz@walkerart.org ________________________________________
	Support B92		"This is the homepage of the B92 Support Group. The group is an essential lifeline for B92 and other independent media in Yugoslavia, all of whom are struggling to defend free speech and maintain their news services in a dramatic and extremely difficult environment. To help these journalists maintain links to distribute their news and information, the Support Group provides from Amsterdam round-the-clock Internet and RealAudio support. To raise money to help these journalists survive and heighten international awareness of their plight, Help B92 is running an international fundraising and media campaign." See Matthew Mirapaul's "Kosovo Conflict Inspires Digital Art Projects" ________________________________________
	C5, 16 Sessions		New Gallery 9 commission In September 1998, the Walker launched "Shock of the View: Artists, Audiences, and Museums in the Digital Age," a series of online exhibitions and parallel discussion list. A collaboration with Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Rhizome, San Jose Museum of Art, and Wexner Center for the Arts, Shock curators paired a physical museum object or event with a virtual one. For the exhibition curated by former San Jose Museum of Art Director of Multimedia Randall Packer, Gallery 9 commissioned C5, an artist collective/Silicon Valley startup associated with San Jose State University's CADRE Institute, to create a project based on the installation, "Not to See a Thing," by C5 member and CADRE Director Joel Slayton. The resulting 16 Sessions is now viewable in Gallery 9. Packer writes in his curatorial essay: "16 Sessions is an extraordinary and original exploration of the micro-universe that lies within our information structures, taking nothing for granted while exposing their seemingly alchemical properties. In a world growing increasingly rich with data, and limitless opportunities for mining these information riches, 16 Sessions leaves little doubt that C5 stock is on the rise." ________________________________________
	cfe		Documentation of Paul Vanouse's and Peter Weyrauch's Consensual Fantasy Engine added to Gallery 9 Digital Art Study Collection In 1994 much of the TV-viewing world was transfixed by a white Bronco being driven down the highway by O. J. Simpson. California residents could be seen milling about the roadside with signs and banners, cheering OJ on. Some wore radio headsets so that they could determine exactly where he was from the real-time broadcast. Although the televised chase included a famous celebrity, millions of dollars worth of media gear and personnel and took place near the heart of American fiction--Hollywood--we did not see a dramatic conclusion. Paul Vanouse's and Peter Weyerauch's The Consensual Fantasy Engine (CFE) is a computer program capable of creating a cinematic drama based on audience preferences. The "engine" asks the audience questions to which they answer by applauding for their preferred choice, which allows the program to generate an audience profile. The engine responds to the audience profile by creating a customized scenario for them, using a database of video clips that have each been annotated with its narrative content. Every 5 minutes the audience is invited to and influence the plot. CFE was first performed in April 1995 and at the Walker in May 1998. A sampling of the questions in this audience interactive narrative is archived in the Digital Arts Study Collection, along with an interview with Vanouse . Vanouse's forthcoming project, Terminal Time, an interactive history of the last millennium, will also show at the Walker. Steve Dietz: Can you describe your new Terminal Time project briefly? Specifically how did the experience with Consensual Fantasy Engine influence some of the decisions you are making with Terminal Time? Paul Vanouse: In 1996, a reporter in Copenhagen asked me, "So what is your next project? What do you do after the O. J. Simpson Spectacle?" He expected me to say the Waco story or something, but in straight-faced jest I said, "Oh, the story of man, you know, the history of the world from Neanderthal life to the third millennium." It was totally a joke at the time, but afterward it seemed the obvious next step. One of the things that is unavoidable with the Consensual Fantasy Engine is an experience of fracture between clips. Since we used appropriated material, in one clip the hero would be Nick Nolte, in the next Steve McQueen, which gave the plot this very odd effect. I felt that it was important in the Consensual Fantasy Engine to do this, because it called attention to the constructed nature of the news media. Anyway, it made me look toward other styles that would also dictate a new way of thinking about the interactive program's structure -- in Terminal Time's case, documentary. Documentary film is really about this visual fracture. It is what gives it its feeling of "authenticity." We don't care if the underlying images switch from a pan of an old photograph to a reenactment to a field of wheat, so long as the narration is consistent. Well, this gave us the ability to still work experimentally with image gathering, and also with narration. We could use a digital voice to narrate, which made for much more sophisticated possibilities for the system to make decisions. For instance, it could go through a sentence and alter the adjectives to reflect certain perspectives. Basically, we felt that we could create a system that had much more control over AV sequencing and would also more closely mirror an audience's expectations. This is just one formal/technical concern, of course. Having the Consensual Fantasy Engine as a base experiment gave us a great jumping-off point for a lot of things. We realized that the questions were probably the most exciting moment for the audiences and that groups of people looking for a good time will answer much differently than, say, an individual taking a poll, and that the questions needed to be better thought through to get as much variance from the system as possible. We're still trying to work in a few more interactive Q&A moments within the show. We also realized that we needed to give audiences a bit more information before the questions begin, so we've tried to make an intro to get them into the mood, and to make it less necessary to have a presenter around to warm them up. Lastly, we've realized that we should try to schedule the event with time to go through the entire process twice so that audiences can understand and enjoy the fact that different answers dramatically affect the outcome. Full interview ________________________________________
	WebWalking		[techne]W3LAB :: an online node of projects for the web Organized by Eugene Thacker as part of the annual Program in Comparative Literature conference at Rutgers University, [techne] is a compilation of "works-in-progress/works-in-process" as well as a number of critical essays. Besides being a fan of the unabashedly techno interface, [techne] is particularly interesting to me for how it interrogates scientific method and the idea of the "lab" in relation to net practice. As Thacker writes: "This online node of works for the Web - let's call them 'projects,' 'research,' 'experiments' - this online node focuses on the kinds of practices that are formed when (net)art, theory, performance, techniques and technical knowledge, and digital technologies intersect and coalesce around questions of experiment: How are the rapidly developing computer and communications-based technologies of the Internet and Web challenging, changing, and more importantly producing different types of activities that frustrate the boundaries of what may be considered 'art,' 'theory,' 'science,' 'communication,' and 'politics'?" The Post-Media Era For ARCO Electronico, a component of the 1999 International Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid in February, Jose Luis Brea selected Web sites for "The Post-Media Era." He writes: "Through 'The post-media era' we try to bring together, in a common virtual space constituted on the Internet itself, some of these web communities . . . favouring debate and reflection on the nature of the artistic, cultural and communicative practices in contemporary societies." Gallery 9 is presented as part of "The Post-Media Era" along with Alt-X, Blast, convextv, rhizome, the Thing and others. The site is an excellent jumping off point for exploring digital culture -- its practice, theory and implications--through a kind of alternative net of interested communities. disCOURSE Ever wonder what the designers of some of the most innovative Web sites are _thinking_? Ryan Holsten has organized a yearlong project, disCOURSE, which sets up a process of interaction between approximately 25 Web designers and producers via a series of "blind questions," live chats, and interpretive-interactive presentation. Each month, two particular designers are featured. disCOURSE #01 presents the work and ideas of George Williams of Studio Bohemia 59 and Andy Slopsema of Combine and Construct. CIMI metadata testbed What happens when you mix worms and art? Hard to say, but you can draw your own conclusions. The Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information's metadata testbed is now available. The interface is crude but the point is the underlying resource which currently includes 202,882 item and collection level records from natural and cultural history museums across the globe. Date: 5/26/99 1:42 PM From: Robin Dowden ________________________________________
	What's New		Interactive Art Activity In May, the Walker Education department launches its first Interactive Art Activity based on Lorna Simpson's Wigs. Designed by George LaRou in Flash, the activity is aimed at kids and allows them to create their own portraits by manipulating facial shapes and colors as well as adding different "accessories," from eye glasses to body piercings. Vivian Selbo, "ah, 'da process" . . . questions? some answers . . ." A new essay by äda'web art director, Selbo: äda'web is a research and development platform, a digital foundry, and a journey," thus reads the collectively written meta-description tag incorporated in the site's HTML code. "Here, artists are invited to experiment with and reflect upon the web as a medium, and as a means of distribution for their work. While we produce most of the projects you experience on our site, we also house co-productions, guest work, events, and source material on the artists and their galleries. ah, 'da web--always subject to change." The file header hints at a process carried out by an unspecified we. From the outset the site deliberately masked the presence of the individuals working behind the screen. This cryptic stance was adopted to maintain a sharp focus on the work and to foreground the notion of the site as a space for exploration with a singular personality--äda. Only with diligent hunting and scrolling could a visitor eventually find a short list of first names with e-mail links @adaweb.com, and it changed over time. How did this shifting we work? Find out. ________________________________________
	What's Next		In June look for: Mark Amerika's new project, commissioned by Gallery 9, PHON:E:ME, a collaboration with sound artist Erik Belgum, Ann Burdick and others. PHON:E:ME will include an mp3 conceptual art album, a streaming audio installation, hyper:liner:notes, and a unique flash interface. In this preview track, the reconfigured author disappears behind his own voice, a voice that is his because it is the voice of language itself, that ever-elusive Other.... instant play mp3 download A new hyperessay, "Comin' On Over: The Legacies of Urban Bush Women" by Ananya Chatterjea, designed by Ahree Lee. George LaRou designs a new interactive art activity based on Charles Long's "3 to 1 in Groovy Green ". Empire of Signs Visual Arts curator Philippe Vergne's daily account of his trip to Japan. Designed by Louis Mazza. ________________________________________
	Awards for Walker Web sites		At the recent American Association of Museums conference in Cleveland, ArtsConnectEd, a joint project of the Walker Art Center and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts won a Gold Muse Award for best museum Web site. In March, at the third annual international Museums & the Web conference ArtsConnectEd also won the award for Best Educational Museum Web site. Walker Art Center won the overall prize for Best Web site. ________________________________________
	Press		"At the forefront of the art meets Internet movement, or Cybermuseology, is the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis." Janice Maloney, "Museums Click on to the Web, and the Favor Gets Returned," The New York Times, April 21, 1999 "Among American museums, the most ambitious online art program is taking shape . . . at the Walker Art Center." Robert Atkins, "State of the (On-line) Art," Art in America, April 1999 "Projects like the Digital Arts Study Collection have earned the Walker Art Center an oft-cited reputation as one of the most contemporary of contemporary art collections." Amanda Kraus, "The Walker's Cyber Collection," Museum News, March/April 1999 "The site is quite a remarkable place for anybody who likes to drop by an art museum once in a while and doesn't mind making some of those visits in a digital way. The Walker and the Institute are justifiably proud of their latest world-class achievement, and so should be their various faithful publics." Editorial, Star Tribune, April 12, 1999 "The site's Digital Art Study Collection and Gallery 9 is, like the Walker's physical collection, a delicious selection of the obscure and the absurd, the playful and the dour, the linear and the linked, the pretentious and the profound. Related site ArtsConnectedEd features 12,000 works of art and 1,000 audio and video files from the Walker and the MIA." Frank Jossi, "The State of Digital Art," Wired News, April 24, 1999 ________________________________________
	Links		äda'web http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/dasc/adaweb/ American Association of Museums http://www.aam-us.org/ ArtsConnectEd http://www.artsconnected.org ArtsNetMN http://www.artsnetmn.org B92 Support Group http://www.aam-us.org/ C5, 16 Sessions http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/c5/ CIMI metadata testbed http://cimi.adlibsoft.com/dct/data/dct.html Consensual Fantasy Engine http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/dasc/vanouse/ Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College http://www.wellesley.edu/DavisMuseum/davismenu.html Steve Dietz, "Cybermuseology," Museo de Monterrey http://www.museodemonterrey.org.mx/english/mediateca/tours/index2.html disCOURSE http://www.liftingfaces.com/discourse Interactive Art Activity http://www.walkerart.org/education/activities/simpson/ Matthew Mirapaul, "Kosovo Conflict Inspires Digital Art Projects" for more. http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/04/cyber/artsatlarge/15artsatlarge.html The Post-Media Era http://aleph-arts.org/epm/eng/ Rhizome http://www.rhizome.org San Jose Museum of Art http://www.sjmusart.org [techne]W3LAB :: an online node of projects for the web http://gsa.rutgers.edu/maldoror/techne/w3lab-entry.html Vivian Selbo, "ah, 'da process" . . . questions? some answers . . ." http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/dasc/adaweb/selbo.html Shock of the View: Artists, Audiences, and Museums in the Digital Age http://www.walkerart.org/salons/shockoftheview Wexner Center for the Arts http://www.wexarts.org/