maps and indices :allegorical interfaces

Hybrid MediaJudith Doyle / February 22,

2005

Etienne-Jules Marey, Motion Study, Circa : 1870

where we left off…

Katherine Hayles calls them "skeumorphs" - formerly functional elements such as

dials and knobs that resurface and rewrite the body in familiar ways as design

features on the Internet

TITLE: World view according to Homer

DATE: prior to 900 B.C.

DATE: ca. 1350AUTHOR: Ranulf Higden, “Polychronicon”

There are 12 wind-blowers surrounding the map. Oval layout is in the medieval tradition of drawing maps in the shape of Noah’s ark.

"Alberti Dvreri pictoris et architecti praestantissimi De vrbibvs...," 1535Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)Paris: Officina Christiani Wecheli, 1535Illustrated book; 78 pp.; H: 13 3/4 in.

Albrecht Durer. Allegory of Justice. 1498. Black ink on paper.

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Alfred Jarry, creator of Pataphysics and his character, Ubu Roi (King Turd), 1896, Paris.

Alfred JarryAlmanach du Père Ubu illustré, Paris, 1899Lithographs by Pierre BonnardPage 12

“Chapter I” EUNOIA, Christian BokEunoia was recorded on June 2, 2002 by Steve Venright in Toronto.

UBU (the first) laser print, Christian Bok, 1998.

Conceptualism vs. Romanticism ?

"I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” - William Wordsworth

“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work… all planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.” Sol LeWitt, Artforum, summer 1967.

“If you like conceptual art, think about honking.” Bumper sticker, circa 1977.

Komar & Malamid, “Most Wanted and Least Wanted” paintings (USA)

Circa 1995.http://www.diacenter.org/km/index.html

showing only the motion suit 'markers'. 1882

DUCHAMP, MarcelNude Descending a Staircase, No. 2

1912Oil on canvas146 x 89 cm

Philadelphia Museum of Art

cheap imitation, David Rokeby, 2002.

By 1912, Marcel Duchamp would paint only a few more canvasses. He was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with what he called “retinal art” - art that appealed to the eye. He asked the question, “can one make works of art that are not ‘of art’?” The readymades were the answer : he substituted manufactured (ready or custom-made) objects for works by the hand of the artist, and non-conscious or random procedures for conscious principles of design.

http://www.understandingduchamp.com/

“Unhappy Readymade (1919) consists of a set of instructions for exposing a geometry textbook to the elements for a designated period of time.

Craig Owens, “The Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of Postmodernism”, October no. 12 (Spring 1980)

“Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.”

- Walter Benjamin, ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’

Robert Smithson, PARTIALLY BURIED WOODSHED

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio Jan, 1970

one woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth;

18'6" x 10'2" x 45'

• Smithson’s Spiral Jetty : “derived from a local myth of a whirlpool at the bottom of the Great Salt Lake.”

Craig Owens

• “We should be prepared to encounter allegory in photomontage… the “common practice” of allegory to “pile up fragments ceaselessly, without any idea of a goal””.

Craig Owen quoting Walter Benjamin

Film clip : Walter Ruttman : Berlin : Symphony of a City

Mineko Grimmer, whose works have as much to do with sound and aleatory music as they do with sculpture, traces it all back to her home in northern Japan. Born in Hanamaki and educated in Japan and at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, Mineko makes sculptures of wood and metal, above which she suspends inverted pyramids of white or black pebbles frozen in ice. As the ice melts in the course of each daily exhibition, the pebbles fall with increasing rapidity striking the elements of bamboo, fir or pine, bronze or piano wire, and the pool of water, of which the sculpture is composed, creating a random series of sounds that are part of the work. In her home in northern Honshu, which she left eight years ago, Mineko says that she was able to watch "the icicles melt and refreeze all winter long," inspiring her current series of musical pieces.http://www.ubu.com

SHOOT, Chris Burden F-Space, Santa Ana,

CaliforniaNovember 19, 1971

“It’s not the bullet that kills you, it’s the hole” (For Chris Burden), Laurie Anderson, 1976.

http://www.neurotransmitter.fm/biodist_update.html

Groups like neuroTransmitter in Finland seek analogiesbetween spoken language congition and technological structures such as radio.

John Baldessari"I will not make any more boring art"

Robert SmithsonA Heap of Language

Metaphor and metonymy / Lev Manovich (paraphrased by JD) :

“The hypertext of the World Wide Web leads the reader from one text to another, ad infinitum. Contrary to images of (the web as) a giant library (which suggests an ordering system) or a giant book (which implies a narrative progression) the new media is more like a flat surface where individual texts are

placed in no particular order.”“TThe pond strikes on adaweb : http://adaweb.walkerart.org/context/stir-fry/hangzhou_f.html

Internet Archive “Wayback machine”http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/codedoc/index.shtml

Languages: Java, C/++, VB; Perl, Lingo, xml[html and FlashScript have been excluded for pragamatic reasons] Assignment and Requirements: * The code should move and connect three points in space. [This could obviously

interpreted in a visual or more abstract way]. * The code should not exceed 8 KB. 8 KB refers to your "main." The emphasis and

focus is on code written by the artist. Obviously it’s almost impossible to *not* call any libraries and subroutines but if possible, you should avoid relying on them too much (if they haven’t been written by yourself); meaning, the idea is not that you write one line that calls powerful subroutines and libraries. However, if you can’t resist bending the rules, please write a short line explaining what you did (so it becomes a bit more intelligible for anyone who isn't a programmer).

* The code must be compilable / interpretable; it should run in a browser window or be accessible as downloadable executable.

* The "object" is the code itself not what it produces. "Visual beauty" does not have to be the main focus.

* By the deadline, you should deliver your code as a text file + the applet / exe etc.

David Rokeby’s 4 models for interaction between an artwork and an interactor :

• Navigable structure• The invention of media• Transforming mirror• automata

David Rokeby’s 4 models for interaction between an artwork and an interactor :

• Navigable structure : examples - “They Rule”, “Myst”

MYSTCreated by Rand Miller

and Robyn C. Miller 1993

Graphics and Construction tools:

HyperCard (Apple)Think Pascal (Symantec)

Photoshop (Adobe)Premier (Adobe)

Illustrator (Adobe)Painter (Fractal Design)

Morph (Gryphon Software)

QuickTime™ and aCinepak decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

• http://www.theyrule.net/

Mark Lombardi's

'Conspiracy' Art

Iran-Contra, the Big Picture

Oliver North, Lake Resources of Panama, and the Iran-Contra Operation, ca. 1984-86 (4th Version, 1999)

Geocaching : geomaps

• http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=bcd8261a-d3bd-4eda-8840-7bc77c521e65

http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/home.html

• http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/vns.html -a very nervous system (1991) “a sort of instrument you can play with your body”.

David Rokeby’s 4 models for interaction between an artwork and an interactor :

• The invention of media - examples : “MacPaint”, “A Very Nervous System”

David Rokeby’s 4 models for interaction between an artwork and an interactor :

• Transforming mirror : examples “MUDs”, “RPGs”

David Rokeby’s 4 models for interaction between an artwork and an interactor :

• Automata -- example : Norman White’s robots.

Mac ClassicSystem 3.2

1996

Janet CardiffTo Touch, 1993, Table, photocells, electronic circuits, audio equipment.