- - The original note follows - -
Newsgroups: alt.artcom
Path: psuvm!news.cac.psu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!uunet!well!fjt
From: fjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Frederick John Truck)
Subject: Art Com Magazine
Message-ID: <C91s36.1pz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nntp-Posting-Host: well.sf.ca.us
Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 00:01:54 GMT
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/\ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __
/__\ /__/ / / / / / / /
/ \/ \ / /__ /__/ / / /
______________________________________________________
JUNE 1993 NUMBER 60 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 2
______________________________________________________
Welcome to ART COM, an online magazine forum dedicated to the
interface of contemporary art and new communication technologies.
You are invited to send information for possible inclusion. We
are especially interested in options that can be acted upon:
including conferences, exhibitions, and publications. Proposals
for guest edited issues are also encouraged. Send submissions to:
artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back issues of ART COM can be accessed on the Art Com
Electronic Network (ACEN) on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
(WELL), available through the CompuServe Packet Network
and PC Pursuit.
To access the Art Com Electronic Network on the WELL,
enter g acen at the Ok: prompt. The Art Com Electronic
Network is also accessible on USENET as alt.artcom.
For access information, send email to: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
*Guest Editor: Brian Andreas, briney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Editor: Carl Eugene Loeffler
*Systems: Fred Truck and Gil MinaMora
ART COM projects include:
ART COM MAGAZINE, an electronic forum dedicated to
contemporary art and new communication technologies.
ART COM ELECTRONIC NETWORK (ACEN), an electronic
network dedicated to contemporary art, featuring publications,
online art galleries, art information database, and bulletin boards.
ART COM SOFTWARE, international distributors of interactive
video and computer art.
ART COM TELEVISION, international distributors of innovative
video to broadcast television and cultural presenters.
CONTEMPORARY ARTS PRESS, publishers and distributors of
books on contemporary art, specializing in postmodernism, video,
computer and performance art.
ART COM, P.O.B. 193123 Rincon,San Francisco,CA,94119-
3123,USA.
WELL E-MAIL: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
TEL: 415.431.7524 FAX: 415.431.7841
______________________________________________________
Brian Andreas is a virtual performance artist, working with new
forms for human connection using both electronic technologies and
traditional techniques of theatre and storytelling. His latest
works have included <The Sun Shone Dark: A Temporary Creation
Story> and <Hall of Whispers: A Virtual Opera>, a worldwide
virtual performance with participants from four continents.
Currently, he is completing his book <Mostly True: Collected
Stories, Volume 1> & collaborating with writer Cris Hamilton on
another book of interviews with artists worldwide on the value of
art in a world in flux. He holds an M.F.A. in Fiber and Mixed
Media with an emphasis in electronic community from J.F.K.
University in Orinda, California, and lives with his wife, Ellen,
and their two wild and beautiful boys in Berkeley. He can be
reached on the Internet at briney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
______________________________________________________
ON RETURNING TO THE WORLD
by Brian Andreas
I find it curious that the more I work in electronic space, the more I
wonder at the beauty of the world. It is not an uncommon
experience for someone who has just exited cyberspace, especially
full immersion virtual reality, to stare at the most commonplace
objects with a renewed sense of what? Appreciation? Awe? I take
great heart in the fact that electronic realities are leading us back to
the touchstone of the physical world. In this short essay, what
began as an attempt to give you a sense of my work in virtual
space, ends as a meditation on using virtual space to become more
human...
I make stories. I think of story as a unit of memory, or group of
memories, which has a clear sense of movement & focus to it.
Story is simply the written or spoken form of memory. These story
units can be used to build larger stories that are inherently non-
linear. Zen koans & the Sufi teaching tales are historic precedents
for this sense of story. They are perhaps closer to memory & dream
than to the traditional Western idea of story as linear
beginning/middle/end. These stories exist in a virtual space in their
own right: both real & unreal, concrete & fantastic, malleable to the
needs of their audience.
I make stories to shape an experience of virtual space. My focus is
not on generating electronic space itself. While I'm aware of the
arguments about the space affecting the ultimate outcome of the
interactions, e.g. the text based BBS format dominated by verbal
thinking is one good example, I'm much more interested in how we
perceive the fluidity & possibility inherent in a space. My focus is on
how we come alive in electronic space, how we experience deeper
aspects of ourselves. Another way of saying this is that for me the
space itself is prose, while the experience of the space is poetry.
In our experience of physical space, we take so many factors into
account. Walking on a summer night in Berkeley, I move lightly in
the center of a vast web of memory & perception. The smell of rain
on the night breeze, the far off sound of a small dog barking, the
rumble of the pavement under my feet as a truck passes. Each
sound or smell brings a tumble of connected memories: the first
time I saw that particular color of sunset, standing on a shrimp boat
after Hurricane Anne had passed. The white knife edge of a gull
swooping in to grab a scrap of food from the beach brings back the
sweep of an owl's wing across my face one dark night when I was
ten years old. The smell of diesel oil over the water is sweet as hot
asphalt on the summer's streets back in the small town where my
grandmother lived. Memory & perception & world seem intertwined.
I am reminded of the mind that is my body in moments like these.
Curiously, electronic media heighten this same awareness of the
necessity of the body. In order for virtual space to be anything more
than a plaything or fact storage medium, it must engage our store of
lived experience. I tend towards story because it so quickly
engages the imagination of the participant, and the imagination is a
virtual reality engine of the highest order.
We remember & think by using stories: it is the way we experience
our world. In order for a virtual space to be felt, it must carry a
sense of lived experience & history. It must carry stories. We are so
intrigued by traces of other human beings, but most so when the
traces remind us of ourselves. So the stories in virtual space must
feel, if not literally true, then poetically true for us to accept them.
I work with stories for several reasons (in addition to my belief that
they are the best way of communicating non-verbal/non-linear
experience):
1. While a space is relatively stable & defined, the experience of
space is not. The experience of space is mediated by the story
we bring to it.
2. So, our experience of space is, like the underlying
memory structures of the human brain, based in stories.
3. Stories are primarily experiential. Previous stories (memories) can
be reconfigured to give wholly new stories, and therefore, a
wholly new experience of a given space. Virtual space engenders
active experiential participation, which leads me to believe that
storymaking is a natural mode of behavior in the medium.
In virtual space, all interaction takes place in a sort of private
consciousness. Even the public forum of the Internet or the various
BBS's are constructed in the reader's theatre of the mind. It is not
surprising to me that there are so many passionate discussions
about the nature of consciousness in these forums, since the
experience of these spaces so closely mirrors the experience of
consciousness already. Multiple voices, emphasis & belief ebbing &
flowing depending on time, interest & desire, & equal parts
measured rationality & howling irrationality.
All of these go into making up the experience of virtual space. I
think, perhaps wishfully, that this experience can be spun & shifted
through imagination, through conscious narrative. There are so
many possibilities opening up in this global age. The promise of the
global village is just now beginning to take shape, but it must be
shaped. We have literally forgotten how to connect, and linking a
cable from one country to another, or adding another node on the
Internet, is no guarantee of connection. Connection requires the
transmission of living energy between one human being and
another. The technology that makes it possible will never make it
alive.
So, I continue to work with stories. Stories that tell us we are more
than a resource for dry facts halfway around the globe from
someone on the net we have never seen face to face. Stories that
tell that other people haved live here before & scrawled on the
electronic walls their tales of the hunt & the dance. Stories that
remember the mystery & beauty & possibility of life, no matter the
space....
With much love,
Brian Andreas Berkeley, CA June, 1993
Newsgroups: alt.artcom
Path: psuvm!news.cac.psu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!uunet!well!fjt
From: fjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Frederick John Truck)
Subject: Art Com Magazine
Message-ID: <C91s36.1pz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nntp-Posting-Host: well.sf.ca.us
Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 00:01:54 GMT
Lines: 186
/\ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __
/__\ /__/ / / / / / / /
/ \/ \ / /__ /__/ / / /
______________________________________________________
JUNE 1993 NUMBER 60 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 2
______________________________________________________
Welcome to ART COM, an online magazine forum dedicated to the
interface of contemporary art and new communication technologies.
You are invited to send information for possible inclusion. We
are especially interested in options that can be acted upon:
including conferences, exhibitions, and publications. Proposals
for guest edited issues are also encouraged. Send submissions to:
artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back issues of ART COM can be accessed on the Art Com
Electronic Network (ACEN) on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
(WELL), available through the CompuServe Packet Network
and PC Pursuit.
To access the Art Com Electronic Network on the WELL,
enter g acen at the Ok: prompt. The Art Com Electronic
Network is also accessible on USENET as alt.artcom.
For access information, send email to: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
*Guest Editor: Brian Andreas, briney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Editor: Carl Eugene Loeffler
*Systems: Fred Truck and Gil MinaMora
ART COM projects include:
ART COM MAGAZINE, an electronic forum dedicated to
contemporary art and new communication technologies.
ART COM ELECTRONIC NETWORK (ACEN), an electronic
network dedicated to contemporary art, featuring publications,
online art galleries, art information database, and bulletin boards.
ART COM SOFTWARE, international distributors of interactive
video and computer art.
ART COM TELEVISION, international distributors of innovative
video to broadcast television and cultural presenters.
CONTEMPORARY ARTS PRESS, publishers and distributors of
books on contemporary art, specializing in postmodernism, video,
computer and performance art.
ART COM, P.O.B. 193123 Rincon,San Francisco,CA,94119-
3123,USA.
WELL E-MAIL: artcomtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
TEL: 415.431.7524 FAX: 415.431.7841
______________________________________________________
Brian Andreas is a virtual performance artist, working with new
forms for human connection using both electronic technologies and
traditional techniques of theatre and storytelling. His latest
works have included <The Sun Shone Dark: A Temporary Creation
Story> and <Hall of Whispers: A Virtual Opera>, a worldwide
virtual performance with participants from four continents.
Currently, he is completing his book <Mostly True: Collected
Stories, Volume 1> & collaborating with writer Cris Hamilton on
another book of interviews with artists worldwide on the value of
art in a world in flux. He holds an M.F.A. in Fiber and Mixed
Media with an emphasis in electronic community from J.F.K.
University in Orinda, California, and lives with his wife, Ellen,
and their two wild and beautiful boys in Berkeley. He can be
reached on the Internet at briney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
______________________________________________________
ON RETURNING TO THE WORLD
by Brian Andreas
I find it curious that the more I work in electronic space, the more I
wonder at the beauty of the world. It is not an uncommon
experience for someone who has just exited cyberspace, especially
full immersion virtual reality, to stare at the most commonplace
objects with a renewed sense of what? Appreciation? Awe? I take
great heart in the fact that electronic realities are leading us back to
the touchstone of the physical world. In this short essay, what
began as an attempt to give you a sense of my work in virtual
space, ends as a meditation on using virtual space to become more
human...
I make stories. I think of story as a unit of memory, or group of
memories, which has a clear sense of movement & focus to it.
Story is simply the written or spoken form of memory. These story
units can be used to build larger stories that are inherently non-
linear. Zen koans & the Sufi teaching tales are historic precedents
for this sense of story. They are perhaps closer to memory & dream
than to the traditional Western idea of story as linear
beginning/middle/end. These stories exist in a virtual space in their
own right: both real & unreal, concrete & fantastic, malleable to the
needs of their audience.
I make stories to shape an experience of virtual space. My focus is
not on generating electronic space itself. While I'm aware of the
arguments about the space affecting the ultimate outcome of the
interactions, e.g. the text based BBS format dominated by verbal
thinking is one good example, I'm much more interested in how we
perceive the fluidity & possibility inherent in a space. My focus is on
how we come alive in electronic space, how we experience deeper
aspects of ourselves. Another way of saying this is that for me the
space itself is prose, while the experience of the space is poetry.
In our experience of physical space, we take so many factors into
account. Walking on a summer night in Berkeley, I move lightly in
the center of a vast web of memory & perception. The smell of rain
on the night breeze, the far off sound of a small dog barking, the
rumble of the pavement under my feet as a truck passes. Each
sound or smell brings a tumble of connected memories: the first
time I saw that particular color of sunset, standing on a shrimp boat
after Hurricane Anne had passed. The white knife edge of a gull
swooping in to grab a scrap of food from the beach brings back the
sweep of an owl's wing across my face one dark night when I was
ten years old. The smell of diesel oil over the water is sweet as hot
asphalt on the summer's streets back in the small town where my
grandmother lived. Memory & perception & world seem intertwined.
I am reminded of the mind that is my body in moments like these.
Curiously, electronic media heighten this same awareness of the
necessity of the body. In order for virtual space to be anything more
than a plaything or fact storage medium, it must engage our store of
lived experience. I tend towards story because it so quickly
engages the imagination of the participant, and the imagination is a
virtual reality engine of the highest order.
We remember & think by using stories: it is the way we experience
our world. In order for a virtual space to be felt, it must carry a
sense of lived experience & history. It must carry stories. We are so
intrigued by traces of other human beings, but most so when the
traces remind us of ourselves. So the stories in virtual space must
feel, if not literally true, then poetically true for us to accept them.
I work with stories for several reasons (in addition to my belief that
they are the best way of communicating non-verbal/non-linear
experience):
1. While a space is relatively stable & defined, the experience of
space is not. The experience of space is mediated by the story
we bring to it.
2. So, our experience of space is, like the underlying
memory structures of the human brain, based in stories.
3. Stories are primarily experiential. Previous stories (memories) can
be reconfigured to give wholly new stories, and therefore, a
wholly new experience of a given space. Virtual space engenders
active experiential participation, which leads me to believe that
storymaking is a natural mode of behavior in the medium.
In virtual space, all interaction takes place in a sort of private
consciousness. Even the public forum of the Internet or the various
BBS's are constructed in the reader's theatre of the mind. It is not
surprising to me that there are so many passionate discussions
about the nature of consciousness in these forums, since the
experience of these spaces so closely mirrors the experience of
consciousness already. Multiple voices, emphasis & belief ebbing &
flowing depending on time, interest & desire, & equal parts
measured rationality & howling irrationality.
All of these go into making up the experience of virtual space. I
think, perhaps wishfully, that this experience can be spun & shifted
through imagination, through conscious narrative. There are so
many possibilities opening up in this global age. The promise of the
global village is just now beginning to take shape, but it must be
shaped. We have literally forgotten how to connect, and linking a
cable from one country to another, or adding another node on the
Internet, is no guarantee of connection. Connection requires the
transmission of living energy between one human being and
another. The technology that makes it possible will never make it
alive.
So, I continue to work with stories. Stories that tell us we are more
than a resource for dry facts halfway around the globe from
someone on the net we have never seen face to face. Stories that
tell that other people haved live here before & scrawled on the
electronic walls their tales of the hunt & the dance. Stories that
remember the mystery & beauty & possibility of life, no matter the
space....
With much love,
Brian Andreas Berkeley, CA June, 1993