Upcoming Events of possible interest....

November 11, 2010, Denver, CO at 7:00PM Shutter Shift
Panel Discussion on Contemporary Photography with Albert Chong and others.

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Friday, November 19, 3 p.m., CAS Speaker Series Event: "The Prehistory of Soft Power: Godzilla, Cheese, and the American Consumption of Japan," a lecture by William Tsutsui, Professor of Japanese History and Dean of Humanities and Science at Southern Methodist University. Humanities 1B90.

Today, manga, anime, fashion, food and other forms of popular culture have created the image of "cool Japan" internationally.  But Japanese "soft power"—the global appeal exerted by culture rather than the threat exerted by force—is a relatively recent development. This lecture will explore the reception of Japanese pop products abroad in the decades before Japan was cool.  Focusing on the editing and dubbing of Japanese films and television shows for American audiences, it will also reveal how Japan has regularly been framed as a laughable, cheesy, and inferior place in the American imagination since World War II.

Rhythm Science

Figure 1. The Remix Cycle must begin through a complex creation of multi-consciousness. 

A forensic investigation of sound as a vector of coded language.

Margaret Crane and Jon Winet

Introduction to General Hospital, 1996.

“A kind of do-it-yourself soap opera looping through the infinite void of electronic space,” General Hospital, a virtual mental hospital, occupies public space to analyze how mental health is accepted and represented in 20th century American society (Harris).  The creators, Margaret Crane and Jon Winet, went into their art residency at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Pair Program to confront the diminishing support and lack of awareness for mental health programs through a satirical augmented reality.  Having an optimistic view of technology, Crane and Winet explore the use of technology to shape and evolve the collective psychology of society through 1) cyberception and 2) critically analyzing aspects of urban life through language.   

New York, America and The Globe, 2004.

"Artists and scientists tend to be similar types of people... They are interested in finding truth -- whatever that is...” (Gold).  Previously, Margaret Crane and Jon Winet had been working collaboratively for over ten years before being recommended to the Xerox’s PARC artist residency.  The goal of the company was to pair artists and scientist to solve societal problems by using technology.  Previously, Margaret Crane and Jon Winet had dealt with the issues surrounding political elections in their art, which is still an overall theme of both their collaborative and individual work seen today.  An example would be the 2004 America and the Globe where multiple sites where created to follow the election campaign and analyze America’s political culture.  They have learned to skillfully occupy online space by providing information about an issue.  Then, they influence their audience to be aware of each other by analyzing and adding to that information within that space.  Their use of technology to “[communicate, share, and collaborate]” as well as “[to transfer thoughts and transcend our limitations]” points to their ability to create what Ascott referred to as cyberception*.  Associational lineage within their work from one idea and image to the next mimics the mind and allows this convergence of the language and visual representation.  Thus, each experience of the audience and society becomes unique and that aspect is captured and reframed back within the work to form a new perception. 

One major component that allowed for the collection of this material was a newsgroup and forum created within the 1996 General Hospital project called alt.society.mental-health.  Here anyone from mental health professionals to individuals wishing to research side effects of antipsychotics could come together and add their presence and information to the space.  This is why the Internet is an important medium for Crane and Winet to embrace. “[All… activity amounts to a largely unscripted 24-hour improvisation… [which serves to gain] insight into our culture.  [It is thoses who are left out that are]… heavily [affected by the] edited mainstream media” (LeFarge, 213). Crane and Winet’s use of the Internet can similarly be identified with Umberto Boccioni’s idea of synthetic continuity where human movement within space is infinite.  With the focus of space and perception, this is how works such as General Hospital positively incorporate technology into the virtual setting of urban life and analyze culture.  

Clinical Depression Screening Test, The Typhoon Ride, General Hospital, 1996.

To further analyze, General Hospital, the hyperlinked images and text not only give an alternative “space” for individuals to learn about mental health, it begins to create a poetic nature through language.  Limited by HTML encoding and technology of the later 1990’s, the interactivity of the site was purposely left simple and conceptually complex with themes of brain and technology function placed together.  With language discussing the history and experience of the mental health system, such as discussing Freud and mental health surveys, the language becomes very concrete.  Linking the language loosely, it allows for associating to occur.  By referencing popular culture with the title, they are able to filter and analyze how their audience is psychologically affected by what they refer to as three different forms of information provided for mental health awareness: 1) mental institutions, 2) romanticized versions of that institutions through media, and 3) their institution in virtual reality.  Then through forums, such as alt.source.mental-health, the audience is able to access and add their opinions and experiences on mental health.  Through the collective flow of language, Crane and Winet’s General Hospital changes the way American society occupies a public space and builds upon creating consciousness beyond our world.  Thus, creating a platform for society to critique the culture surrounding societal issues. 

Another example of their work that incorporates data, societies, and space is entitled, Monument from 2002.  In this project, they researched and collected data from interviews and mapping the inner-city from industrialized area of Newcastle, England over a one year period and recreated the place in a virtually space with hypertext.  As the project came together, both the negative and positive psychological affects on the area’s culture from industrialization were reflected through the collective consciousness of the community.

Margaret Crane and Jon Winet positively use technology to address social issues and the psychological affect of those issues on the collective conscious of their culture and society.  Through the power of politics, the collaborative team addresses the Internet as public space and uses it as a tool to transcend and evolve the function of the mind within a virtual space.  General Hospital stands as a powerful example of their ability to use that space through the simple means of hypertext.  Crane and Winet unfold the history of societies and record the affect of events and real life within that society. 

* A new form of awareness that converges conceptual and perceptual processes (Ascott).


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LINKS: 
General Hospital 

List of Exhibitions and Information

Beyond Interface

Related Artists:
JEVBRATT (Information)


Ascott, Roy. 2000. Art, technology, consciousness mind@large. Bristol, UK: Intellect. 
http://www.netlibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=71082.


LaFarge, Antoinette, and Robert Allen. 2005. "Media Commedia: "The Roman Forum Project". Leonardo. 38 (3): 213-218.

Feeser, Andrea, and Margaret Crane. 1997. "An Online General Hospital:

Constructing an Experience and Representation of Mental Health". Leonardo. 30

(5): 355.

Gold, R. PAIR: an experiment in using technology as a common language between artists and scientists. International Society of Electronic Art; 1996 September 9; Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Harris, Craig. 1999. Art and innovation the Xerox PARC artist-in-residence

program. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. http://www.netlibrary.com/urlapi.asp?

action=summary&v=1&bookid=39958.

Pseudonymous, confidence, art

Bernard stated, “We have reached the fraud stage of social control in the evolution of succession [through the] forms of [that] control.”  According to this sociologist, social control contrives itself on framing a network in which it will consequently turn on itself and create the need for “means” in a society engulfed in self-interest.   In this manner, this is how the members of Yes Men operate.  The swindle, the mark, and the operatives are the subversive means of deception that the Yes Men employ.   “[With some degree of] establish[ed]… rapport [with the] mark, he [will] see… that the mark will trust him… [and] the con man [creates a scheme to evoke the dishonesty of the mark] (Schur).  Being a brilliant form of what Debord termed as detournement, the Yes Men bring the act of hacker activism to a new degree to allow the consequences and power of “social control” to expose and fix itself.   Whether some artists agree with their artistic method, I believe that their work holds an aesthetic of “intelligence” in art that has been long upheld in societies.

 In the case of Yes Men, the “means” and purpose become “identity correction.”  Led by the activists, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bananno, they use tactical media to correct the identities of large corporations and organizations.  Their purpose is to address the abuse of power within these systems that affect their society and the world at large.  Their movie, Yes Men, focuses on the World Trade Organization (WTO).  By taking over the appearance of the organization’s website, they were able to attract the attention of those desiring association with the WTO and pose as spokesmen in their favor.  With the structure of social control, they were able to research and fit into the ‘norm’ as standards of appearance and language give the power back to the individual.  This action in itself is satirical of social control and power, since the abuse of control and power is now manipulating ‘the abuser’.  Then again, this relates back to De Certeau’s explanation of consumers and producers that move within a “technocratically constructed space, [using an already established vocabulary].”  These become the tools that the individuals will form into pseudonymous invention and challenge and critique their society and art practice.         

Just within the field of art, “Introduction to net.art 1994-1999,” and “Fluidities and Oppositions Among Curators, Filter Feeders, and Future Artists” are examples of the satirical nature of individuals and networked operatives critiquing the sub-society of art.  They deconstruct themselves in order to address the abuse of control within their world and evolve the methods of Debord.  As the society works itself into a self-indulgent state, it begins to wear down its well-formed structure.  The same is true of works, such as the autocannibalistic, Google Will Eat Itself.   GWEI recycles incoming money from Google’s text advertisement accounts to buy shares of the Google Company.  As the system continually updates, the system in the end will buy itself.  This work mimics how technological is now possessing the “societal control structure” and creating a “norm” in a space of unreality.   Therefore, the evolution of social control and power abuse are emerging to a level that swindler is now beyond the “means.”  By forming an unconscious power, the aesthetics of this art form, tactical media can alone embody “intelligence” and create a new standard that the next generation of media artists will have to evolve and expand farther into. 

   

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Bain, R., Bernard, L. L., & American Sociological Society. (1934). The Fields and Methods of Sociology. New York: Farrar & Rinehart.

Hollingshead, A. B. (January 01, 1941). The Concept of Social Control. American Sociological Review, 6, 2, 217-224

Lambert, D. R., & NAVAL OCEAN SYSTEMS CENTER SAN DIEGO CA. (1987). A Cognitive Model for Exposition of Human Deception and Counterdeception. Ft. Belvoir: Defense Technical Information Center.

Schur, E. M. (January 01, 1957). Sociological Analysis of Confidence Swindling. The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 48, 3.)