Arts and Technology News with Camille Renshaw
ForeWord to Launch Web Pay-Per-Review Service
(5/13/01) In a controversial move that divided the magazine's advisory board
and prompted at least one resignation, ForeWord magazine, a Traverse
City, Michigan, monthly focused on independent publishing, announced plans
to launch an online, fee-based book review service in partnership with OverDrive
Inc., an e-publishing technology and services provider. Calvin
Reid reports (Publishers Weekly).
Gnucleus 1.25 Released
(5/10/01) A new public version Gnucleus,
an open-source Gnutella client for Win32, has been released (Gnucleus automatically
checks for updates once an hour).
Technology's Cannes-Do Approach
(5/09/01) It's not all glitz, glamour and artsy films at Cannes' famous
fest that starts Wednesday. There's a big technology exhibition, with a dazzling
array of cinema products for the future. Ron
Dicker (Wired) reports from Cannes.
Musicians Sue MP3
(5/08/01) CNET
reports, a group of musicians including Tom Waits, Randy Newman and members
of the band Heart has sued MP3.com for $40 million on charges of copyright
infringement.
Pritzker Architecture Prize Live Webcast
(5/07/01) Tonight at 7:30pm the Pritzker
will broadcast its award ceremony from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Oxford University to Create 1st Internet Institute
(5/06/01) Reuters
reports, the Oxford Internet Institute, set up at a cost of $22 million,
will carry out research and make policy recommendations about what effects
the Internet has on society.
BOMB Magazine Has Online Art Auction
(5/05/01) Sothebys.com
hosts BOMB's
20th Anniversay On-line Benefit Auction. 63 artworks can be bid on until
May 2001. On the closing night, a Gala Benefit Dinner will be held in conjunction
with a live
auction. Among the works offered in this sale are Mike Bidlo’s infamous
Not Warhol (Brillo Box) silkscreen on wood, 17 1/2 x 21 x 20 1/2",
1991; a dazzling Sol Lewitt, Irregular Grid, gouache on paper, 8 x
22 1/2", 2001; and an exquisite Louise Fishman, Double Dutch,
oil on linen, 8 x 6", 1994.
Denmark Wants to Legalize File Sharing
(5/04/01) The Danish parliament plans to legalize private, digital, non-commercial
music-trading, reported the Danish magazine Politiken
yesterday. This action would make services like Napster legal, as well as
more direct exchanges of copyrighted music. Copy-Dan,
a representative of the record industry, opposes the proposal, but the Danish
minister of culture is certain the bill will pass. Copyright holders will
be compensated by taxing CD-Roms with a fee of ca. $0.60. The judgment will
have interesting implications internationally, as the country will become
a safe haven for file-sharing companies.
47th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen
(5/02/01) Tomorrow kicks off the six-day
festival that will host 149 short films, competing in 4 categories. In
the International Competition, 70 films from 34 countries have been selected.
The USA and Canada are represented most strongly, but there is an unusually
high number of contributions this year from
South America and South East Asia. Countries with a smaller film output, like
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Kazakhstan, are also well represented.
Among the directors are artists and filmmakers like Nam June Paik, Doug Aitken,
Jon Jost and James Herbert, but also others such as Souheil Bachar, a member
of the Lebanese Atlas Group, and Jeferson De, one of the signatories of the
Brazilian Dogma Feijoada.
Digital Copyright Looks Safe
(5/01/01) Digital Copyright Law, reviled by scholars and techies alike,
looks safe on appeal. While academics create doomsday scenarios and subtle
challenges to the 1998 statute, studios can expect a sympathetic audience
at Tuesday's oral arguments in their case against the hacker/ journalist who
posted a program to descramble DVDs. Read
more at Inside.com.
Time Warner to iPublish
(4/30/01) Time Warner Books' new e-publishing branch, IPublish.com,
launches this week and will include sections titled, iWrite.com,
iRead.com and
iLearn.com. the company
will sell about fifty new e-books each month written predominately by bestselling
writers. They are, however, looking to
sign fresh talent.
Napster Victory: Judge Can Do No More
(4/28/01) Federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel says she can't order more filtering
on Napster unless instructed to do so by an Appeals Court. In a victory for
the file-swapping site that has tried policing itself, the court decides not
to intervene any more. But the record industry is invited to 'seek clarification'
from higher court. More
at Inside.com.
Ford Takes 2600 to Court
(4/28/01) 2600
reports: "You may recall that last year we received a
threat from General Motors concerning the fuckgeneralmotors.com
site we had registered. They demanded that we turn it over to them. We declined,
citing such things as freedom of speech. At the time, we had the site pointing
to General Motors while we waited for a better one to be developed. In subsequent
months we pointed the site to all kinds of other places: consumer information
sites, auto safety sites, even sites of their competitors. Imagine our surprise
when we found out that the Ford Motor Company was actually taking us to court
to get us to stop pointing www.fuckgeneralmotors.com at ford.com. Ordinarily,
we applaud when huge companies look out for each other. But this was a bit
extreme."
Bill Ivey Resigns from NEA
(4/27/01) St.
Louis Post-Dispatch reported: Bill Ivey, chairman of the National
Endowment for the Arts, said Tuesday that he would leave his post Sept. 30.
"I'm proud of what's been accomplished during my tenure," Ivey said
in Tuesday's announcement. "We've brought NEA grant-making to underserved
areas and have better connected young people with the arts." Last year,
the endowment won a $7 million increase in its budget, the first since 1992.
Ivey, 56, a folklorist and musician, said he planned to begin several book
projects.
Asia Pacific Electronic Art and Animation Competition
(4/27/01) Held in conjunction with BroadcastAsia 2001, ComGraph 2001 is
a showcase of the best Digital Art and Animation in the Asia-Pacific region.
If you have an animation clip that tells a story or exhibits special computer
graphics/ animation/ art techniques, you can enter
it in the competition. Deadline May 7.
Tolkien Game Developer Drops Suit Against Sierra Online
(4/27/01) J.R.R. Tolkien fans looking forward to playing the upcoming online
role-playing game based on his Middle Earth characters can get their joysticks
warmed with the news that a lawsuit between the game's producer and developer
disappeared less than a week after it was filed. More from Inside.com.
Alexis Rockman: Future Evolution
(4/26/01) "Rockman's paintings collide our complex negotiation between
nature's construction of us, and our construction of it." -Mark Dion,
Flash Art. See this painter's exhibit until August 19 at the Henry
Art Gallery at the University of Washington.
UO Philosophy of Gaming Discussed
(4/25/01) Ultima Online revolutionized the online gaming market by combining
action gaming with community aspects from the Internet. UO senior producer
Rick Hall discusses his company's philosophy at Wired.
Multimedia Art Asia Pacific Festival 2001
(4/25/01) MAAP is seeking submissions
for this years festival from artists relating to Australia/Asia Pacific regions.
They are looking to promote websites, cd-rom, video and new media forms. The
theme for this year is "Excess," considering the theme of extremes
and waste, by-product, recycling media, minimalism and maximalism. Submissions
by May 30th.
Electronic Literature Finalists Announced
(4/23/01) The top 2001
Electronic Literature Awards will go to two of one dozen artists. See
who made the short list in the Poetry
and Fiction
categories. The winner in each category will receive $10,000 (USD). Tickets
are available ceremony at the New School University's Swayduck Auditorium
in New York City, May 18th, 7pm. General Admission seats are available
online for $10.
Cleaving the Body: Bart Gazzola, Brian Piitz, Helena Wadsley, Kevin
Whitfield
(4/21/01) AbsoluteArts.com
reports: "The physical body was once seen as a mysterious vessel
which was vulnerable to many unexplained diseases and endlessly subject to
only divine will. Modern surgical techniques have changed the way people conceive
of their bodies to the extent that we now have
individuals making their own choices and being informed about how they can
change their own bodies." See this new collaborative exhibit at the Forest
City Gallery in London, Ontario .
Radioactive Biohazard as Art
(4/20/01) In Milwaukee, WI, at the Walker's
Point Center for the Arts, Dr. Hunter O'Reilly, an artist and geneticist,
reinterprets science as art in Radioactive Biohazard. View a laboratory bench
installation displaying actual products of scientific experiments such as
DNA visualized with UV light, preserved laboratory animals, x-rays and vials
used to store radioactivity. Using found objects in art takes on a new meaning
when those found objects are radioactive and biohazardous waste from a molecular
biology laboratory. View digital art of actual cells and embryos arranged
by Dr. O'Reilly, and enhanced with neon by Electric Eye Neon. View Hunter's
oil paintings confronting topics such as human cloning. Read more from AbsoluteArts.com.
Cinemattractions
(4/20/01) A new half hour national weekly television program called Cinemattractions
begins on May 5th. The show intends to be "designed for the Home Theater
Enthusiast... fast paced (no talking heads), high tech." The companion
Web site contains a movie database, links to Web sites, movie studios, and
trailers online, and more.
eNarrative3 San Francisco
(4/17/01) June 16-17, 2001, Eastgate Systems
will bring together a small group of leading writers, designers, and theoreticians
to discuss the role of narrative in Web experience in an
intense weekend roundtable and workshop.
Amazon In Pact to Take Over Borders.com
(4/16/01) Publishers
Weekly reports: "Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com, announced
last week that the online retailer will take over all service operations of
Borders.com, the online storefront for the Borders chain, in a deal that offers
advantages for Borders, a distant third in online book sales, and uncertain
benefits to Amazon.com, the leading online book retailer. The new cobranded
site will still be called Borders.com, and will be relaunched in August with
an Amazon-like interface offering books, music, videos and DVDs."
WIPO Recommends Banning Certain Names and Words from Domains
(4/16/01) 2600
reports: "In what can only be described as an ominous sign of things
to come, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has issued new
recommendations to WIPO's member states. These recommendations include new
bans on domain names that, if accepted, will open the door to further - and
more encompassing - restrictions in years to come."
Pulitzer Prizes for Arts Announced
(4/15/01) Fiction: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon; Nonfiction: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
by Herbert P. Bix; Poetry: Different Hours by Stephen Dun. More
at the New York Times.
Harvard to Put Art History Online
(4/15/01) Harvard University's
new art project will attempt to develop, store and distribute digital collections
of works of art. It's called ArtSTOR and will be co-sponsored by the Andrew
Mellon Foundation.
Call for Proposals: Anima, Digital Video Works by Emerging Women
Artists
(4/15/01) Perte
de Signal is currently working on a project called Anima, which
gathers digital video works created by emerging women artists. The selected
tapes will form a program of approximately one hour, which will be launched
in the studios of Groupe Intervention Video (G.I.V.), Montreal in autumn 2001.
Contact Isabelle Hayeur
about submissions.
Mighty Words Partners with B&N and Amazon
(4/15/01) Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com will offer Mighty Words's
content through their sites, according to their agreement. BN.com has established
a new Articles for Download store on its site from which all 3,500 articles
in MightyWord's catalogue can be downloaded and printed out by customers.
Amazon has more than 230 eMatter items available through its e-Books section.
More
from Jim Milliot (Publishers Weekly).
Rare Magicians' Paraphernalia: Etienne Marteret's Collection for eAuction
(4/15/01) Etude Gros et Delettrez will auction Etienne Marteret's Collection
at the Drouot Richelieu in Paris on May 19, 2001. Cast absentee bids at the
eAuctionRoom.
Felix Is Dead
(4/15/01) ThePiecesOf8.com
is the Internet's First Interactive Mystery story. The site launched Nov.
1, 2000, and the series continues weekly. The first person to correctly locate
Felix's Treasure via the Contest Form will be given three authentic 17th-century
gold coins valued at $10,000. Fascinating artwork and design.
Other News Sources:
Wired Culture
News
Publishers Weekly
Online
2600: The Hacker's Quarterly
Online
Slashdot: News for Nerds
Inside.com
The New York Times
on the Web
CNN
Salon.com: Arts
and Entertainment
3a.m. Entertainment: Buzzwords
Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com
Camille Renshaw is the Editor-in-Chief for Pif Magazine.
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