Tech artist?

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Christopher Baker, Murmur Study, Installation view, Art(ists) On the Verge, Weisman Art Museum. Photo: Rik Sferra

Christopher Baker, Murmur Study, Installation view, Art(ists) On the Verge, Weisman Art Museum. Photo: Rik Sferra

I can’t help but wonder when we will be able to stop writing about the art formerly known as new media primarily in terms of its technology – or how much it costs. Nevertheless, Christopher Baker, a recent Art(ists) On the Verge grantee received his due in a nice round up in City Pages: “Twin cities arts buzz: Meet the creatives and their productions.”

“Nobody loves contemporary networked life more than Christopher Baker. ‘I would absolutely love it if the internet could be truly “free,”‘ the Minneapolis-based new-media artist emails from Hungary. ‘Free of censorship, free of bandwidth restrictions, free of cost, accessible to all, environmentally free, free of the political influence and the weight of capitalism. At the same time, I think it’s extremely important the people realize that it isn’t.’

Christopher Baker, HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome), Installation view, Art(ists) On the Verge, Weisman Art Museum. Photo: Rik Sferra

Christopher Baker, HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome), Installation view, Art(ists) On the Verge, Weisman Art Museum. Photo: Rik Sferra

“Baker isn’t just talking out of his beret. This year alone, his web-intensive installations and public works have appeared everywhere from the Weisman to art-tech crucible Kitchen Budapest, where the artist finishes a yearlong residency next month—leaving him just enough time to prepare for the November 20 opening of his first Franklin Art Works solo exhibition. With eight shows in locales ranging from Barnsley, U.K., to Fargo, North Dakota, scheduled for the next six months, the poor devil might perish of exhaustion if not for automation.”

via City Pages

Chris’s work is important – and often mesmerizing – for what it says about the human condition, not because he is a “tech artist,” regardless of how facile.

Will Henry Jenkins hear about it?

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Henry Jenkins Unplugged—Jenkins introduced and screened a series of STAR WARS fan films at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in October 2001.

Henry Jenkins Unplugged—Jenkins introduced and screened a series of STAR WARS fan films at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in October 2001.

Lanfranco Aceti

Monday, May 11, 2009 at 11:00pm
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 2:00am
Location: Istanbul

A socially networked artwork
Please do not spoil the game by telling Henry Jenkins
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
The game – We are throwing bottles in the sea with a message to Henry Jenkins as well as throwing a message in the sea of the information of social networks on Facebook to see if Henry Jenkins will stumble upon the event online first or will receive the message in a bottle. The object of the game is to see if and how he will find out about the project.

Rules of the game – To participate print, copy or download this text, place it in a bottle, on a message board, an announcement list or share it with your Facebook friends. Throw the message in the sea of information systems, and take screenshots or pictures and videos of the bottle in a real space – images can be of any phase – from when you print this message, to when you put it in the bottle or to when you throw the bottle in the river or in the sea of information systems, to when the bottle is traveling in the waters of digital comments. Lastly share the images and videos with me (Lanfranco Aceti) on Facebook. [Please do not throw bottles in the real sea and leave them there adding to the already existing pollution.] The contributions from the audience will become part of an art installation and new video work.

In the chaos of information that characterizes contemporary society, is social networking really making a change? Or does the dissemination and distribution of our lives through social networks add to the sea of information, therefore depriving us of the possibility of making any impact? Are the currents of the seas and the oceans better forms of distribution of information than the speedy currents of contemporary digital media?

The audio, video and photographic records of the game, together with digital artworks and documentation from similar events taking place in Istanbul, Manchester, Rome, London and other locations around the world will be posted on the Internet in order to compare the ‘navigability of the sea of information’ with that of the real waves and chain of events happening in real life.

If you find this message in a bottle, very few were actually placed in the sea, please send it via mail to: Professor Henry Jenkins, Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Building 14N-207, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.

Please also let Lanfranco Aceti know willhenryjenkinshearaboutit@gmail.com that you have found the real bottle and mailed the message to Henry Jenkins.