~e; EM art context...

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

  an example of what an EM art context
  enables can be shown by a few works
  of widely different natures yet all
  of unique value to relating to the
  environment, culture, perceptions,
  understandings. there is so much i
  see that is in the same context that
  it is hard to choose some over others
  as it is all included and yet a new
  structure is needed (than e-mail and
  hand-coding websites) to show it all.
  here are four instances of artworks
  that may go beyond an electromagnetic
  view in their totality, yet offer some-
  thing unique in their EM context, about
  the EM culture, understanding it, or in
  some way engaging it in a way that is
  quite impossible without addressing EM
  issues/ideas as a part of its meaning...

1) 07454.jpg  by bbrace  (ref. Walker Evans)
http://electronetwork.org/temp/07454.jpg

http://www.electronetwork.org/assemblage/zone3/walker1.htm
about 12hr IBSN: http://www.eskimo.com/~bbrace/12hr.html

2) wire paintings by Sally Grayson
http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?action=list&rid=44358

3) Flash! Flying Saucer Crash Lands in Davis, CA
New project and web site announcement.
www.radlab.com/information/saucer/

4) Urban Probes by Eric Paulos and Intel
A methodology for conducting Urban Computing Research
http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/UrbanProbes/

5) infinite others...



maybe some of the context has to do with
generalism and specialism, categorization,
etc. I have yet to encounter a privileged
position in the EM context based on some
kind of hierarchy, as even those who are
most successful in a traditional context
with EM-based works/skills, are just one
of many doing similar work in an EM context.
one who can knit is equal to one who codes,
in terms of what is possible to explore. it
is the realm of ideas, not of multibillion-
dollar corporate funding or art-star status
that the value of the ideas is based on.
and there are so many great and interesting
ideas and approaches that it is limitless,
when taken as an assemblage of works and
a community of people, working together,
that the full scope and breadth and depth
can be defined and sensed. by default it
is an inclusive yet not exclusive context.
i don't know about others but for myself,
having focused solely on electromagnetism,
i've yet to find that it limits other views
and ideas or lessens their meaning- it can
offer another dimension of experience and
value and understanding- and so it can add
a general context (maybe specific for some
whose work explores it more solitarily)-
which is complimentary to what has been
developed and established, and extends
concepts in a new realm, recontexualizing
questions and responses, offering new views
of old works, and new ideas for new works.
it is a network of ideas relating in some
way in some EM context or environment or
issues or ideas or questions or forms or
something or anything. i just know that
there is no monopoly on the ideas, there
is no gatekeeper, and it remains open to
interpretation, refinements, questions,
and debates regarding any of the ideas.
it is simply based in fact not opinion,
that works exist in this context, and
yet it is at some point not a choice as
it is a reality, a realism to be engaged,
to be a part of the evaluation of ideas.
without it, the overall structure that
can link shared ideas and conceptions
together is invisible, an infrastructure
which connects the dots of many things
into one shared thing of many variations.
an EM context can increase meaning/value,
though of some overinflated works, it may
decrease the value of present-day Icons
of the traditional ideology and values.
this is one view of it, probably with a
good dose of my individual warped view,
yet i feel this is something that is held
in common in many works, that i thought
sharing some ideas about an 'EM context'
may open it up to more views about what
may be going on, by those with greater
knowledge and understanding than myself
about art and the art world and language
and issues that this attempts to mediate.

it feels very alienating to write this,
as if it is a technical coding of what
is legitimate and what is not, based on
some arbitrary criteria. this is not it,
yet there is some presumption in using
words that one has to defuse all of the
standing issues in order to go beyond it,
at least this is my sense of writing this.
it is not an attitude, a marketing plan,
an ideology, it is a fact that is being
communicated and has relevance to those
who make and interpret things, that may
be another area for critical analysis
when similar (traditional) criteria are
being used all the time in similar ways.
it is not a judgment in itself, or of a
value in itself. though it may be one
(of many) truths, and it may be another
dimension, and things that exist in this
dimension may have some conversations to
be had, between artists and others, in a
sharing of these ideas and facts and of
views that otherwise are without language
which can engage them on their own terms.
that is, electromagnetic terms for the
electromagnetic-based thinking or works.
to defer to other mediums, disciplines,
ontologies, takes away the uniquely EM
qualities, realities, and sometimes it
is not equivalent to consider it just
another view when it may be the most
important yet undiscussed view, which
without it makes it impossible to write,
talk, speak, think, see, sense the real
event and relegates the mind to fictions
based on book-knowledge and consensual
perceptions of what is allowed to be true,
real, authentic, and allowed to exist in
its own right. both scientists and artists
equally ignore electromagnetism in itself.
it simply does not exist as a point of view.
but it actually does, it actually is its own
point of view, and not an insignificant one
at that- it makes a lot of sense out of the
chaos of the daily grind and offers options,
futures, dreams, skills, culture, aesthetics,
work, precedent, knowledge, with just a shift.

a change in context can allow a change in
perspective, in perception, thus in thinking.
to change the traditional context totally
void of electromagnetic knowledge, to one
of some semblance of electromagnetic sense,
that will raise the bar for what is needed
and what is possible in our EM environments,
in our goals for developing infrastructures
and the EM-based cultures, in ways that are
beneficial to traditional goals and values,
yet are dealing in the reality that decision-
making actually exists in, by engaging it,
learning about it, and making things happen.
art and artists are uniquely able to do this.

and a lot of art and artists exist which
have already done a lot of work that could
raise the bar, the reality-level, immensely
if only it were organized enough to show
works/ideas together as one, in a shared
context, and with some empirical context.
i tried to write as best i can this hope.

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