Yes Men (THE IMPOSTURES)

        What a great idea!! These guys are kind of geniuses for thinking this up. A fake website that people think is the WTO ( World Trade Organization) website because it is http:/www.gatt.org/ (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.) I don’t think they intentionally started to impersonate the WTO. It is just that they started receiving emails from confused visitors that thought it was the WTO. As emails started rolling in about invitations to conferences they just decided to write back as if they were the WTO.  It is a great way to get their voices heard about issues, but kind of an outrageous one as well. Andy and Mike the impostures…bringing information to the public about the hypocrisy of the World Trade Organization, or just making the WTO look really stupid! Their work is hilarious because the issues they are bringing up are so outrageous and would never really happen. Yet everyone seems like they do not have a clue that these two are bluntly making fun of the WTO.

      The part of the film where they show Andy as Bicklebauer on CNN, I believe it was. Talking about banning siestas from Italy. I started cracking up! To even think culturally that you would really get that to happen is a joke in itself. Andy and Mike have put a new form to hactivism.  They are “culture jamming activists who practice what they call "identity correction" by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations.” They’re culture jamming is brought to the publics attention through main stream press who get word of their acting taking place. When they show Andy explaining the “Leisure” suit and how it will be used, I was baffled at the fact that anyone at that conference even believed that it was happening. I can not believe that anyone did not say anything……I mean, COME ON!

    At the end of the movie when they are talking about recycling peoples shit! I am sorry but that is hilarious, that they were even able to hold straight faces when they were talking about it.  When Andy was answering one of the questions, I could not believe his response. I was glad that the class actually started calling them out on their shit.  I think what they are doing does put action into the issues that they want the public to be more aware of. One has to admit that it is clever. I would never be able to get up in front of a professional conference and talk about bullshit issues. I would just be to nervous that someone in the audience would call me on my shit….or that I would start cracking up. For Mike and Andy though I think it is an alter ego for them. Andy especially he really knows how to play his part, and his character on stage is quite different then him off stage. The YES MEN ROCK!

REMIXED THOUGHTS

Is not our whole being a remix? Each individual is a remix of the last, ever evolving, never the same. Everyday we experience something new that adds to our “so called” life memory chamber and changes it in some way. “We’re in a delirium of saturation. We’re never going to remember anything exactly the way it happened. Memories become ever more fragmented and subjective.” Although at the time it might not occur to one, but in hindsight it made ones life what it is right now. Each little piece of knowledge that enters into ones individual mind can remix and change that person bit by bit. “It’s life in the data-cloud, of course, but it’s also about life in a such a dense place that the human mind acts as kind of an osmotic unit, absorbing randomly but at the same time with some sort of underlying structure.”  This structure that can be influenced, by not only the exterior but the interior as well. All knowledge that we absorb is not always stored into the right part of our brain, therefore remixing and connecting with something completely different.

As in dreams….aren’t dreams a remix of the reality or non-reality one is living in? All the knowledge that we absorb is stored. Although not always accessible, it is there, somewhere in ones mind flowing and interchanging. It is this exterior information that is interchanging and influencing the interior. “The strangest sounds I hear at this point in my life come from inside not outside. Dreams and basic nighttime thought processes generate the most creative sounds. Nothing else can come close to some of the sounds I’ve heard in my mind.” Just like that of DJ Spooky, I also have never experienced or come close to the places I have been in my mind. I don’t care what anyone says…dreaming is the best experience possible. Your inner mind takes you to places not even the best writer or animation artist could describe or create in stories. That is because it is ones own knowledge that is creating the dreams they dream and remixing the experiences in which one has. It is all the information one gathers from everyday life that is absorbed and remixed into this different world in ones dreams. “Sampling is a new way of doing something that’s been with us for a long time: creating with found objects. The rotation gets thick. The constraints get thin. The mix breaks free of old associations. New contexts form from old.” Dreams are just that, memories from both your past and your present are stitched together and remix with each other to create this new world that involves places, people and emotions that one would never think to combined.

We are forever living through the history and the past that we have created through choices. Not only our choices, but also the choices that we have seen others make. It is this outside influence on ones life that makes them take what is happening in the now and somehow alter it with something else that has happened in the past. “You can always squeeze something out of the past and make it become new.”  It is about the identity of each person, this remixing that life brings upon us is forever changing each individual. I grew up in a family of four kids, now think about it we were all raised in the same household, created by the same two people and had a lot of the same influence in our lives…yet we are all completely different because of the environment around us that influences each of us differently. “Identity is about creating an environment were you can make the world act as your own reflection.” Take identical twins for another example…they have the exact same genetic composition but in the end the twins are completely different because of the environment that influences them individually. It remixes the input that comes into their lives to make them two different people. “The eyes stream data to the brain through something like two million fiber bundles of nerves. Consider the exponential aspects of perception when you multiply this kind of density by the fact that not only does the brain do this all the time, but the millions of bits of information streaming through your mind at any moment have to be coordinated and like the slightest rerouting is, like the hearse and omnibus of Melies film accident, any shift in the traffic of information can create not only new thoughts, but new ways of thinking. Literally.” 

Bloggers

As I checked out all the sites we were sent to I felt like my blog was nothing special compared to theirs. My blog is just my thoughts on certain subjects, but the blog art that I just checked out goes way beyond that. How they create their blogs like that? I have no idea .....asking the wrong person. My favorite out of the five we checked out is triptych TV. It was so busy and had so much going on that I was actually entertained. On some of the other sites it was a little harder to keep my attention. I also like that the Triptych TV scrolled down itself and you have no real control of what it is doing. I liked that, compared to alot of other sites that we have looked at and you have to click everything if you want to get somewhere else.
The artists deconstruct the blog format completely. If I came upon any of these sites randomly I wouldn't even think of them as a blog. Some of them I would think might be infecting my computer. I think the artist makes their creation of art in blog form because it is another form of the digital. It is a way for them to display their digital art work. I have to admit it is a damn good idea if you can get your name out there enough for people to actually log on and look at your blog. I would have to say though that alot of the work probably would not catch the eye of the general person. Unless someone is specifically looking at digital net art...I think most of these sites would be skipped over because they are so chaotic and not many people would know that they are net art.

M. Rivers and T. Whid

The daring duo of net art..MTAA!

Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden are the net artists behind M.River & T. Whid Art Associates. The two met in art school in Ohio, after they both went their own ways, the two reunited again and created MTAA in Brooklyn, New York in 1996. Their art is net based. They use the internet not only for the distribution of their art, but also as a material that is part of their art. The mediums they explore are video, internet, software and sculptures for their conceptually based art.

A definition of net art by Steve Dietz is: “Internet art projects are art projects for which the Net is both a sufficient and necessary condition of viewing/expressing/participating. Internet art can also happen outside the purely technical structure of the internet, when artists use specific social or cultural traditions from the internet in a project outside of it. Internet art is often, but not always, interactive, participatory and based on multimedia in the broadest sense.”

I thought this was a perfect definition to define MTAAs art. M. Rivers and T. Whid have been creating digital art works since 1997. Their work has evolved and changed since they first started MTAA. In the beginning their work consisted of diagrams and interactive art on the net and over the net. In the last few years it has evolved into more of the digital based technology realm that is taking over the world. Much of their recent work is video footage of the two of them doing different dialogues, while still using interactive art over the net. While most of their work is the presentation of a performance of the two of them, they also involve the entire worlds public. They open up their art to everyone who chooses to be involved. In a recent piece of theirs Automatic for the People: (). They opened up a voting poll to the public through online viewers and museum visitors, to determine what they wanted MTAAs next performance to be at SFMOMA on February 7, 2009. http://www.mtaa.net/aftp/

On February 7, 2009 they involved everyone who showed up for the performance at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. That day both M. Rivers and T.Whid spoke to the crowd and then all together everyone there built robots out of the materials that where brought for the show. Both the artist and the public came together to create this live performance/ interactive art. In this digital based world today art can be this interactive part of life. Art use to be something that was only interactive to the people who were around it, such as live art performances or when one would visit a museum of gallery. But today almost all art on the internet is interactive, even if you’re looking up a photograph your still interacting because you’re logging on to look at that art. I think this is a reason that MTAA’s art work is so successful, because it is interactive, but to only those who want to interact with it and access it.

After looking at some of MTAAs pieces of work....my favorite piece of theirs is (Love+Hate)x100.

http://www.mtaa.net/art/love+hatex100/

I think this is my favorite piece because there is no sound involved in the piece, just the visual. I like how the love is coming out of the left counting up and the hate is coming out of the right counting down. I like how simple the loves and hates are. I really connected with this particular piece because I could relate to all the loves and hates that are put forth.

Another one of their works is Our Political Work.

http://www.mtaa.net/art/opw/
This particular work actually is quite annoying at first. The two of them M. Rivers on the left and T. Whid on the right, scream into the camera and make other noises. As your watching this for the first time you wonder is this really classified as art? As I started to think about that question more and more looking through their work I decided....who am I to judge what is and what isn't art in this world? The two of them are putting themselves out there in this newer digital art form. Their interacting with others and involving others in all they do…..so why shouldn’t this be art. So I watched this video a couple more times to try and understand what they are putting across with it. The more I watched Our Political Work the funnier it became to me. The screams that come out of their mouths and how hard they are trying to scream is actually entertaining to me. One review on this specific piece of work says, "While Our Political Work has the appearance of the familiar two channel video installation, it is far more complex. Driven by custom software, each viewer sees a unique combination of small performances of hysteria. This work exists in a space between the server and the computer. MTAA's Simple Net Art Diagram (1997) http://www.mteww.com/nad.html provides context; in that piece, a lightning icon with the words "The art happens here" appears on a line connecting two computers. As in much of their work, the internet is used not only as a system for distribution, but also as a material. The computer code, fiber optic cable, your computer and mine all become the substance of their work.”

For MTAA , I think that the internet is essential for their art to work. The two have built all their work from a digital base, all of their pieces of work are interactive through the internet. They display and get their work out there through the internet and networks across the world. Our technology based world has brought us to new levels of interaction. Anyone who has access to the internet can view MTAA…..people across the world from us can interact with the art of MTAA just from the comfort of there home. It use to be that one would have to travel to interact with certain art they wanted to see. Now everything is so instantaneous. This could be good in a certain sense, for artist who are digitally based this is just another evolution of their art. Internet has brought the art world into a new realm and MTAA is a part of that. For more information on them as well as all of their art pieces in reverse chronologically visit.

MTAA

Mini-Ass

My Artist: MTAA aka….M. River & T. Whid Art Associates. The duo started in 1996, they are based out of Brooklyn, New York. The two artists behind MTAA are Michael Sarff (M. River) and Tim Whidden (T. Whid).
The two met at art school in Ohio. They went there separate ways after graduation. Michael went to graduate school in Michigan and when not working of his digital net art he is a carpenter…..thats rare/ amazing! Tim got involved in an underground commix after art school and also helped co edit and publish a Brooklyn commix anthology “Burger.”
http://issuu.com/timhallbooks/docs/hangover1097
Tim also has a job outside of his net art……during the day he is but a simple graphic designer, but by night he becomes the Digital artist of the 21 century.
http://www.artfagcity.com/2007/06/17/art-collective-mtaa-tops-icommons-exhibition-review/
http://www.myspace.com/mtaa
http://www.codytrepte.com/index.php?/writing/writing-page/
http://www.petitemort.org/issue02/18
http://aabrahams.wordpress.com/tag/mtaa/

Fictional Stories

The first site I visited out of the three was "My Body" by Shelley Jackson. Her site was intense. I liked the idea of using the different body parts to bring up what may have been somewhat autobiographical stories to start, but turned into fictional stories as they came alive. I love her choice of words and how each story can lead to another, which has something to do with a completely different body part. One of the more intense stories that really stuck out to me and kind of made my jaw drop when I was reading it was her “Tail” story.  She starts talking about this tail she was born with and how she was different from all the other kids. One day she spends the night at her friends. Now one has to remember her tail has mind of its own and likes to wander at night. The last few sentences in the story are what really made my eyes open, she says “She plunged her arm under me, closed her fist firmly around my tail, rolled me onto my side, my back to her. Then she guided me inside her. I lay there staring perplexedly at the wall while she panted and strained behind me, sketching out a new world for me.” I actually had to re read this part to realize what was just being said.  Jackson’s stories start off with this autobiographical sense and the insecurities that many of us face with our bodies, but there is always a part in each of her stories where the autobiography becomes fictional into this almost dream like story.

      In Tina Laporta’s site “Distance” it was hard to tell if the story is fictional or autobiographical. The story is definitely something that could happen in this day and age. I don’t know if it is actually a story about Laporta herself or if it is just a character she made up. With the emotions that were portrayed in this piece I feel as though it could be real and I am sure many people in our world feel these emotions today. Especially with how the Internet has changed how we not only meet but also communicate today. Her story brings this yearning for what’s on the other side of the screen.  Are the emotions and love, you find on the Internet real or is it just a part of the cyber world. The technology is almost a veil where a lot of our emotions are lost in translation. The distance between people can be somewhat shortened when communicating on the net because we can still talk to that person and see them in certain circumstances. But emotions are hard to read when one is not right in front of you. There are the emotions you can portray on the screen of a computer and there are the emotions you can’t hide when someone is right in front of you.

       The third site redridinghood was interesting. I was taken aback by this story. Donna Leischman takes this children’s fable story and turns it in a completely different direction. Yes the story is based off a fictional story, but you could relate it to circumstances that happen today. A little blonde girl who goes away to grandmas. On the way is encountered by a bad boy who scooters away. She then starts picking flowers for grandma and passes out and has some different dreams. The big bad boy who follows her to grandmas and is waiting for her there. There to either rape her or get her pregnant? The pregnancy was a big twist to the children’s story, but kind of what happens in this day and age. How many times do you hear about the little girl getting knocked up by the big bad boy? I would say this site was a fictional story based off of real times. I didn’t really understand the ending at all.

Plunderphonics

           
       Our digital world today gives us access to an incredible amount of information. We are in an age where if something is posted on the net.....then it is a free for all. Meaning that I can pretty much access anyone’s art (that is image, noise, song or video production), remix it and call it my own.  In the art world this access has developed what some would call an underground art movement. All new types of art have developed through the use of existing art. Craig Baldwin touches on a few artists who remix existing media into their own form in his video Sonic Outlaws. This type of art has its issues though.... copyright laws. In the video Baldwin interviews Negativland a band who at the time was under lawsuit with U2s record company (SST) for using and printing the letter U and the number 2 on their album cover with a U2 spy plane on it. The issue was over people buying Negativlands album because they though it was a new U2 album. When in reality it is just Negativlands album cover art, they were not trying to pose as U2.
          Negativland is a band that plunder phonics. They use existing media to create their own form of art or media. I think the copyright issues have come up because when artists see or hear what they already created but remixed, they feel offended. As if the remixer should not be getting credit for something the original artist made. On the other side though people who create this type of art have worked hard to create something original of what already was, so they see it as a completely new piece that has developed. Both sides are hard to argue because I feel as if someone took a piece of art I developed and used bits and pieces of it to create something new. I would feel as though that person is a copycat who could not develop their own art or ideas. At the same time though when one puts something out there for the world to see…you can’t expect for it not to be copied in some way or form.
      The internet has brought us to this luxury access of others works. Another art form that also deals with the same type of issues is “culture jamming”. Wikipedia defines culture jamming "as a tactic in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions of corporate advertising. It is usually employed in opposition to a perceived appropriation of public space, or as a reaction against social conformity." In the video Baldwin shows culture jamming such as people who change billboards to represent there point of view on the topic at hand. There is also a group called the BLA (Barbie liberation association) who take Barbie dolls and GI JOE dolls and switch there voice boxes. This movement I thought was hilarious because when little kids get these types of toys they already know what the doll is suppose to say. So when a GI JOE doll blurts out he wants to go shopping in Barbie voice the kid is freaked.
     It seems as though the issues with copy rights and these artists is hard to argue. I would say before the birth of the internet original artists could have held there ground on copy rights and the ownership of their work. In this day and age though it is hard to argue. Art is replicated to easily and is accessed so easily that it is hard to say if someone has rights over their work if it is on the internet. To an extent yes an original artist does have rights, but yet again at the same time when you put something out there for other people to access, you can't expect it not to be used in some way or form.Everything in our world is taken from something else. It is part of the cycle of evolution.