In Conversation with:
Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett: Networked Production and Culture. Keywords: community, collaboration, mail art, Fluxus, DIY, DIWO and networked environments. (Feb. 17th, 2009)
Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett of Furtherfield.org and the HTTP Gallery discuss their approach to networked production and culture. The Skype-streamed lecture took place Feb. 17th, 2009, in the context of a three-day MA seminar entitled, “From Representation to Participation” at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts.
Lisa Bowden: Kore Press and Literary Activism (Jan. 06, 2009)
Since 1993 Kore Press has been dedicated to publishing women’s literary art. Situated in Tucson, Arizona, it embodies the spirit of “literary activism”. Kore, pronounced (koray), is the Greek word for daughter and another name for the goddess Persephone. The press was founded by Lisa Bowden and Karen Falkenstrom, and Shannon Cain is currently the Director of Sales and Marketing and editor of fiction. Kore’s mission is “to publish and distribute excellent works of literary and artistic value by a diversity of women, those traditionally underrepresented in the cultural mainstream; to promote those voices; and to educate young people about bookmaking, printing, the literary arts as social activism, and publishing.” The press has printed works by authors/artists such as Alison Deming, Ani DiFranco, Adrienne Rich and Faith Wilding. Next to these activities, Kore promotes literacy through The Grrls’ Literary Activism Project, a community arts program for girls and young women from ages 14 to 18.
Lisa Bowden, co-founder, poet and book designer talks about literary activism à la Kore-style, and what that entails in practice. She also discusses Kore’s latest publication, Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq.
Tsila Hassine: Shmoogle versus Google, order versus chaos, and fruit versus the corporations (March 27, 2007)
Tsila Hassine: Yes, and in computer science I focused again on theory and design of algorithms; so that is to say that both were theoretical studies. I wasn’t too much into programming and was never one of those “hacker kids”.
Renée Turner: How did your artistic/cultural interests come into the picture that eventually led you to the Piet Zwart Institute?
Tsila Hassine: I was looking for ways to reflect on software culture, and more broadly - on the human impact of technology. I wanted technology with an “umpfff”, that would make me reflect on my life, the way “regular” art does.
Ryan Griffis: Thinking through the geographical underpinnings of the web (Sept. 18, 2005)
Ryan Griffis: hmm… I would think in some ways. I’m also attracted to the work of people looking at the physical/geographical underpinnings of networks - analyzing the actual location of the infrastructure as point of departure. AUDC (an LA based collective) looks at the increasing consolidation of networked infrastructure, due to concerns of real estate and communication lines. For example, I think that this (looking at the physical needs of the infrastructure) taken together with concerns of reception open up lots of avenues.
Renée Turner: Can you elaborate more on what you mean by “the physical needs of the infrastructure”?
Ryan Griffis: To use the AUDC example, they have generated a body of work on one building in LA, the One Wilshire Building, which became obsolete as a structure to house people (expenses), and so is mostly used to house servers, broadcast technology, etc. It became a central location for communication lines (fiber optics and such). So their concern is to visualize the materiality of the “economics of immateriality” (as the net is often discussed).
