Volume 6 ---CONTENTS--- Winter 1990

TABLE OF CONTENTS

0. MASTHEAD AND TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION TO THIS SPECIAL "ARTS" ISSUE

2. ARS ELECTRONICA - A NETWORK OF SYSTEMS OR TOO MUCH MEDIAHYPE?
................by Ray Gallon

3. DO FOLK MUSIC AND COMPUTERS MIX?........... by Phyllis Barney

4. COMPUTER BASED ART: Notes on the Context
........ by Carl Eugene Loeffler

5. THE SCAN NETWORK ............................by Dwight Steward

6. FACTSHEET FIVE ..............................by Dwight Steward

7. IDEAS OF PLANETARY CREATIVITY: The College Art Association
tackles networking ........................ by Ray Gallon

8. ENA F-T-F - SAN FRANCISCO MAY 23-26, 1990 - SIGN UP NOW!

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This issue is about the arts and networking. In a sense, it makes a good companion piece for the Arts and Mass Media track which is in the works for ENA '90 in San Francisco, dealing with the urgent issues of the role of the creative artist and media maker in the world of networking. Some of the articles concern themselves with ideas in the creation of art, others with ideas or services of networks intended to serve artists. In all cases, the connection between culture, communication, and the greater social good begin to come clearer than they have been, traditionally, in U.S. society.
-rg


CONTRIBUTORS

RAY GALLON, guest editor, is an educator (NYU Film dept.), media
artist, networker, and producer who has worked in Radio, Film,
Television, and theatre for 25 years, in many countries. He has
a passion for international collaborations and intercultural
interchange.

PHYLLIS BARNEY has been telecommunicating for 4 years, has been
enjoying folk music much longer than that, and is SIG
coordinator on The Point, and is the PARTICIPATE Librarian on
Compuserve, where she is better known as PJ.

CARL EUGENE LOEFFLER is the director of Art Comm TV, in San
Francisco, which distributes print, software, and video art and
information, including software as art, and operates the Art
Comm Electronic Network on The Well.

DWIGHT STEWARD is a professor at Delaware State University,
networker, and editor of "GESTUS," an online journal of the
Brecht Society of America. He can be found on NWI and other
networks where he is known, both as DSTEWARD and DWIGHT THE
VERBOSE.

[note: This is a very exciting development for ENA. We're delighted to have our first Guest Editor for NETWEAVER and that he has stretched our organization by heightening our awareness of the role of creative arts in this medium. If you would like to be the Guest Editor of a future issue, please send us your ideas! - Lisa Kimball]

ARS ELECTRONICA - A NETWORK OF SYSTEMS OR
TOO MUCH MEDIAHYPE?

by Ray Gallon

The Ars Electronica Festival is sponsored jointly each September
by the Bruckner Haus, a major state-supported concert-hall in
Linz, Austria, and ORF, the Austrian state radio system. 1989
was the tenth year the Ars Electronica Festival has been held,
and its reputation is as a very prestigious festival of the
cutting edge of the technological arts.

I received an invitation to attend, through my colleague Heidi
Grundmann, who produces a program on ORF entitled "Kunstradio" -
literally "Art Radio." The program focuses on audio art, to the
exclusion of projects rooted in the more traditional forms of
music and drama. To my knowledge, there is not another radio
program which is so rigorous in its support of audio art,
anywhere in the world, including the Hoerspiel Studio 3 of
Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, which may be the major
commissioner of audio art work in the world.

The invitation was to come to the festival and be able,
informally, to present to colleagues the work done in the audio
art field by students in Creative Sound courses at New York
University's department of Film, Television and Radio, Tisch
School of the Arts, and as presented by WNYU-FM Radio program,
"Headphone Theatre."

The Festival had, as its declared theme, "A Network of
Systems." Included in its statement of theme, was a de-emphasis
on formal presentation, 24-hour operation of the festival
exhibits, and the idea that the entire festival was itself a
network, an organic communications system in itself.
Unfortunately, the festival did not live up to its grand
pronouncements. To begin with, the components at the Bruckner

performances, seemed to lack focus, and some seemed more
concerned with using as much technology as possible than with
having something to say with that technology.

These were run concurrently, but seemingly without reference to,
presentations of computer music, video, computer graphics, and
other related work in one of the studios at ORF. It seemed that
rather than a complex intertwined network, we had two parallel
but separate events running. The presentations at ORF, which
were of winners of the annual "Prix Ars Electronica" offered by
ORF, were more interesting in many cases than the installations
at the Bruckner Haus. I found myself spending more time at ORF
than anywhere else. I had the opportunity to view and hear
pieces by artists from Austria, France, Germany, Australia,
Hungary, Canada, the U.S., Jugoslavia, Poland, Holland, Finland,
and Portugal. I was also able to meet some of the artists
personally, and discuss various aspects of the work presented,
which included video, computer art and animation, computer
music, and a variety of hybrid electronic forms.

Unfortunately, despite the idea of the festival as a "Network of
Systems," there was nowhere for people to really "Network."
That is, there were lounges, a bar, places to eat, drink, and be
merry, but no room with computers, video players, audiotape
players, etc. where artists could informally share their work
with each other outside of the official selections of the
festival committee. In short, the whole thing smacked much
more of Official Art (Capital letters emphasized) than of the
freewheeling, open communications that the theme title
suggested. It was very difficult to do the very thing I had
been invited to do, namely informally share the student work I
had brought with me, with colleagues, because there was
absolutely no venue in which to do it.

There was a major contingent of Australian audio/radio artists
at the conference, under the leadership of Andrew McLennan,
producer of the ABC national program, "The Listening Room,"
which focuses on experimental audio pieces. A 4-hour broadcast
was organized by Heidi Grundmann with McLennan's help, featuring
the work of many of these Australians, and other artists
including some from the U.S. I participated in a live radio
performance organized by San Francisco installation maker Bill
Fontana - an old friend whom I see more at events in Europe like
this one, than I do back in the States. This segment of the
broadcast, called "Music for Ordinary Instruments," involved
soliciting listeners to call in and make sounds with ordinary
household objects. Some of these were recorded before the
broadcast began.

In a studio, the ORF had assiduously assembled an array of
soda-pop cans, pieces of stone and brick, paper, whirligigs,
hardware, spray cans, and other miscellaneous household objects
which could be used to produce sounds. Hank Bull, director of
Vancouver B.C.'s Western Front Multi-Arts center, and I, were in
the studio with these objects, and began making sounds with
them. As we did so, Bill Fontana passed them through various
tape loops of different lengths, so that the repetition of
sounds happened on different schedules. Listener sounds which
had been pre-recorded were added, and live calls from listeners
were mixed in, all using the variable loops as controlled by
Bill. The result was a wondrous cacophony of ordinary sounds,
ever-varying, rich, and amazing in the new juxtapositions of
sound which were created.

ENA member Carl Loeffler, and his associate Fred Truck, were
there demonstrating Software as Art, and Roy Ascott, from the
Gwent College of Art in Britain, was there with his "Aspects of
Gaia" installation, which included images and messages from
people connected online all around the world, in a presentation
which was interactive with the spectators in Linz. You can read
more about Roy Ascott in my other article in this issue of
Netweaver.

Another of the more interesting events was a live nightly
broadcast, 3-hours long, conducted by a German group named "Van
Gogh TV." They managed to secure the donation of 3 hours per
night of time on SAT 3, a Europe-wide cable satellite channel.
They filled their airtime with live programming, originating
from a "city" of cargo containers out back, with highly
energetic, often raw, often involving very sophisticated image
processing generated on the spot on an Amiga computer,
responding to telephone calls they received from viewers all
over the continent. Not always polished, but interactive and
exciting.

With the exception of a few interesting pieces, including those
mentioned above, the festival came out a great disappointment to
me. The seminars were occasions for the most abstruse, academic
nitpicking, rather than a place for artists to really exchange
in a stimulating, dynamic multi-log. I have seen a few too many
installations which had, as their focus, drowning out the other
installations in the area, or overwhelming the spectator with
the number of monitors and images it is presenting. One
installation was really nothing more than a series of video
arcade games. The purpose of this installation was a mystery to
all and sundry, since coins were not required to operate them,
(leaving out the profit motive) and there was nothing special
about the images in the games, they were off-the-shelf.

The media arts are still young, but not so young, in my opinion,
that we need to see more pieces which are catalogs of effects
with nothing to say behind them, and then bill and coo over how
wonderful they are. I have experienced this at all too many
media festivals. Curators and critics, all too often are more
concerned with documentation of the event - how it will be
recorded for posterity (how prominent their names are in the
catalog) - than in the event itself, and so various aspects of
fashionability and Art Marketing often take over, even in the
State-Supported realm of Western European art. The one thing
that was hopeful at Ars Electronica was that some of the artists
present were upset by this state of affairs, and felt that much
of the work was dishonest or superficial, and that the festival
needed more focus. This was new for me, where at some earlier
events I have attended, everyone was so concerned with
self-congratulation. If the participants feel this way, we
have the beginning of change, before the Philistines of art
fashion (sometimes also known as critics) cement this
superficial stuff into the annals of Official Art History. Then
the enormous potential of this new form of expression - which is
ably related by other articles in this issue of NETWEAVER - can
more readily be realized by humans of clairvoyance and
clairaudience.

Do Folk Music and Computers Mix?
by Phyllis Barney

The North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance is a fledgling
organization dedicated to five main goals:

1. To increase understanding of the rich variety, artistic value,
cultural and historical significance, and continuing relevance of
folk music and dance among educators, media and the general
public. (Education)

2. To provide a bridge to and from folk music and dance
organizations and needed resources, and to help those organizations
link with their constituencies. (Networking)

3. To influence decision makers and resource providers on the
national, state, provincial and local levels, insuring the growth of
folk music and dance. (Advocacy)

4. To support and encourage the development of new and existing
grass roots folk music and dance organizations. (Field Development)

5. To strengthen the effectiveness of folk music and dance
organizations by providing professional development opportunities.
(Professional Development)

The organization's goals and bylaws were voted on and accepted at a
meeting in Philadelphia January 25-28, 1990. Now comes the daunting task
of implementing the ideas represented by these goals. Telecommunications
can solve many of the organizational dilemmas facing this or any new
professional organization.

At every subunit session of the formational meeting, both regional and
professional subunits identified the need to be better in touch with
others in their area and in their "special interest groups". And nearly
every group reported back to the main session that computer bulletin
boards were discussed.

I hosted a session on the potential of an Alliance bulletin board. The
audience ranged from computing neophytes to those who'd obviously been
BBSing for years. With PAN (Performing Artists Network) as a model 3,3
network, we discussed the mechanics of computer conferencing and the
costs. With that framework, we then got into the exciting areas of what
they wanted computer networking to do for them. The array of ideas
included:

Agents wanted to be able to call a central locale to find out about
booking their artists for a regional tour.

Artists wanted to hear from venues interested in them. They have
already started a toll-free number service as a clearing house, but
computer conferencing would obviously be more efficient in
transmitting full information and maintaining records of transactions.

Festivals and presenters wanted to be able to contact agents about
their artists. They were receptive to the idea of block bookings to
fulfill the financial needs of the artists. They wanted easy access
to publicity information on artists they had booked.

Media people wanted information on venues and artists. The
information is sitting around on computer disks across the country,
but there is no easy mechanism right now for transmitting the
information around.

Access to the public is a side benefit of a conferencing system.
Everyone could have the opportunity to address and educate members
of the public about folk music, and to provide a calendar of events.

In terms of the Alliance, people wanted a place to conduct business
that would overcome the distances between the individuals of the
elected Board of Directors (their locations are across the U. S. and
Canada). They wanted an easy outlet for Alliance news, and to be
cost effective in transmitting that news. Networking is the obvious
goal being met by computer conferencing, but education, advocacy,
field and professional development can all be addressed by
telecommunications technology. Educational materials could be
developed and pooled. Resource information on grant processes,
legislative agendas, field development and archiving the field of
folk music could all be handled online.

It all adds up to computer conferencing. Two strategies emerged, one
being using a commercial service and the other running a dedicated
bulletin board system. The second seemed to be favored, mostly because it
was perceived that it was the way for the Alliance to have the most
control over the system. There would be costs associated, and time needed
to set up a single node or regional nodes to handle the information.

In the meantime the commercial option is one being utilized by a number
of Folk Alliance participants. The Point Information Network is hosting
several Alliance members, including one Board member, and already they
are seeing the benefits of computer conferencing. Recently one of the
agents booked an artist into a venue online, which is certainly a folk
music, if not telecommunications, first. The Point has afforded Alliance
members the opportunity to look toward teleconferencing, and the success
of the merger of folk music with computing is obvious.

Are there enough folk musicians with computers out there to make 3d3
telecommunications an option for the Folk Alliance? There certainly are.
Nearly every festival, folk society and venue has computers to hold their
mailing lists, budgets and to compose their mailings. Agents have their
records on disk, and many artists are becoming computer literate. The
media people do composition on their computers, and several list
commercial network ID's in their mastheads.

While the number of computers out there is large, generally only 20% of
those with computers have modems at the present time. But that's
changing, and the investment in a modem to move into teleconferencing is
small compared to the cost of the machines, let alone to the cost of a
year's mailing of materials that could be transmitted online. I expect
that 20% to grow over the next year.

The Telecommunications Committee of the Folk Alliance will be exploring
the options over the next year. To select and implement the correct
system to meet the diverse needs of the industry is a challenge, but the
benefits to the folk music community will be enormous.

Do folk music and computers mix? You ou bet they do!

COMPUTER BASED ART: Notes on the Context.
By Carl Eugene Loeffler


"The use of computers in art leads to a compatibility of the
instrumentarium-- to a closer link between the different art
forms which, owing to the different classical methods and
instruments, have been separated and taught in different
institutions. It is one of the decisive aspects of the new
situation brought about by the introduction of the computer
that there is no longer a reason for dividing art into
different forms, be they classical or modern."

-Herbert W. Franke, The Expanding Medium: The Future of
Computer Art, Leonardo, Vol 20, No.4, 1987.

"Nobody knows whether this will turn out to be the best or the
worst thing the human race has done to itself, because the
outcome will depend in large part on how we react to it and
what we choose to do with it. The human mind is not going to
be replaced by a machine, at least not in the foreseeable
future, but there is little doubt that the worldwide
availability of fantasy amplifiers, intellectual tool kits,
and interactive electronic communities will change the way
people think, learn, and communicate."

-Howard Rheingold, New Tools for Thought: Mind-Extending
Technologies and Virtual Communities, The Computer
Revolution and The Arts, 1989.
3:3
*INTRODUCTION

The vision of a cosmos of digital creativity is compelling.
One's mind can wander with this notion, taking delight in the
fantasy of possibilities. On the reporting side, a communication
revolution with an undefined future is in process. Factually,
in the creative arts, there is an increase in important new
works produced for computer based applications. The computer has
changed the way "people think, learn, and communicate,"
including artistic expression.

In this essay, the context for a computer based art will be
explored-- the computer as a tool, and attitudes towards tools,
past and present toward it. What of the industry? What
achievements are signals for the advancement of the creative
arts. What are antiquated technologies in light of the digital
era. How are artists responding to this situation?

*INSTRUMENTATION: (Y) OR (N)?

The computer has become a platform for a new creative era, but
not without question. The technology based instrumentation in
computer art, raises many of the same issues previously raised
in response to creative applications of the video medium. These
issues still remain unresolved in the general sense.

"Art works produced with video are not about the future of
television or the future of anything else. Video still exists
clearly apart from the television industry, despite the
television industry's repeated efforts to use video as a kind
of programming. Art work in video and television seems to
have mutually exclusive descriptions in the first place in
much the same way that print dealing relates to the magazine
publishing industry."

-David Ross, The New Television, 1977.

Video art, citing Ross, is a technological orphan, not yet at
home in the arts or respective industries. The same can be said
for computer based art. What is briefly suggested here is the
crisis on hand, the inability for our society and culture to
imagine applications for the tools it builds. Rheingold
explains," the further limits of this technology are not in the
hardware, but in our minds. The nature of the world we create in
the crucial closing years of the twentieth century will be
determined to a significant degree by our attitudes toward this
new category of tool." The very definition of application, is
how things can be used, interrelations, and fixing one's mind
attentively.

The pursuit of imaginative applications is not specific to our
time. The Renaissance, is an example of science being applied to
art, and the results became the known master works of the era.
The birth of the opera, was derived from the merging of
disciplines (i.e. dance, literature, music, painting, sculpture,
and theatre) into one combined form. None of this happened 3r3
overnight. The present situation is still more complex due to
even newer tools and their prodigal rate of invention. The
adage, "withstand the test of time," is an anomaly in a culture
that seemingly renews its tools overnight.


*INTERMEDIA

The computer is a perfect tool for post-modern expression. The
propensity for the erosion of distinct categories, is
symptomatic of both the tool and the attitudes underlying its
applications. The desire to challenge the authority of
categories, can be found in earlier cultural references.
Reminiscent of Claude Monet's infamous passion "I wish I were
born blind, only to regain my sight and not know what things
are!" The merging of perception and categories have previously
been discussed in modern art, and one distinctive summation of
this discourse is termed "intermedia."

"Much of the best work being produced today seems to fall
between media. This is no accident. The concept of the
separation between media arose in the Renaissance...

Is it possible to speak of the use of intermedia as a huge
and inclusive movement of which dada, futurism, and
surrealism as early phases preceding the huge ground-swell
that is taking place now"

-Dick Higgins, Intermedia, Foew&ombwhnw, 1969

Champion of his own time, Higgins points, among others, to John
Cage, who explores the relation between music and philosophy. He
also assaults the idea of high art, suggesting that intermedia
is populist. The ruling class determines categories. Further,
that this is a populist era where "Castro works in the cane
fields," and the Mayor of New York walks to the office. The
suggestion here is that art is categorized by the very world to
which it relates. Our world is changing, so too is art.

The application of intermedia, then and now, is evident in the
working in-between and combining of distinct media. The call for
a "closer link between the different art forms," and for the
merging of categorizing institutions shows a wonderful sense of
intermedia. The primary basis of computer art is intermedia.
What of populism? Many creative artists today are labeled
"cross-over artists," because of the merging of their art with
popular media, such as computers, motion pictures, music, and
television. In music Laurie Anderson is a prime example. John
Sanborn states,"I don't make video art, I make television." The
innovative art of this era is truly populist, not because of
an antithetical relationship with high art, but rather its
relation to the forms of popular media.

There can be little doubt that art will become increasingly
populist, merging with other media industries, with tools and
applications known and yet to be discovered. 3*3

"Cross-over artists," are less concerned with the support system
of high art and the art market, then they are with forging new
approaches for the production of their work, and popular
distribution markets.

Popular marketing implies popular marketing formats, such as
compact discs, computer software, and television for example.
High art attitudes that seek out the "aura" inherent to original
works of art, are at odds with forms exploring digital
reproduction, where the original and copies are one and same.


*MULTI-MEDIA AND CYBERMEDIA

The computer industry is a natural home for intermedia, and
interesting current applications are referred to as multi-media,
and Cybermedia, the most far reaching.

Regarding multi-media, there are many current examples of
combining image, sound, and text components within a computer
based environment. In fact it is the rage for the moment,
loosely referred to as interactive technology, and Hypermedia in
some cases. Here, components can be accessed by the user, but in
advanced applications the organizational structure can be
manipulated, often in real-time. The act of manipulating the
structure, leads to interactive terminology often being applied
to the work. Human interface design is pivotal, and can be voice
recognition, touch screen, mouse, or keyboard. The less
obtrusive, and the more rewarding the interface design proves to
be, the more successful the application. Current projects are
educational and industrial. Creative applications are emerging.

Cybermedia and the idea of "fantasy amplifiers," are becoming
less fantasy then actual fact. The term "cyberspace" is first
found in William Gibson's novel, Neuromancer, in reference to a
global computer network supporting "consensual hallucinations."
As conceived by the Cyberia lab, at Autodesk, cyberspace is a
multi-dimensional space, where information and objects can
freely be manipulated by those who enter. Cyberspace is
illusionary, in that a user can experience a sense of their
environmental participation and interaction. The VPL Research
data glove, allows the user to directly sense that environment.
Now make way for the data body suit. "The cyberspace business is
the magic business-- the business of making illusions," explains
Randy Walser, a Cyberia project member. Their vision includes
"Cyberian Hubs," which promises to be the ultimate experience.
Cyberspace can be a group experience as foretold by Gibson.
Cyberspace applications range from the sciences to entertainment
to the arts.

Both multi-media and cybermedia are populist, in that the user
can conceivably grant the experience shape and meaning, this
becomes another aspect of defining populism.

3b3
*ONLINE COMMUNITIES

The personal computer, becomes a powerful communication tool
when conjoined with a modem. Telecomputing permits users to send
electronic mail, participate in synchronous data exchanges, and
access large, multi-user computers. Users who partake in
telecomputing often gravitate toward "virtual communities,"
identifiable groups of users accessing electronic bulletin
boards and databases. Many online projects are specific to the
creative arts: the Art Com Electronic Network, and Art Link for
examples.

Telecomputing is the epitome of populism, as users can be in and
out of time synchronization, originate from varied geographic
locations, and be from all walks of life. Finally, with regard
to electronic bulletin boards, the data amassed is of shared
authorship and interpretation.


*DIGITAL VIDEO

Will television always be a fuzzy picture? The Future of
Television, an essay by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld published in the
catalog for the recent Dallas Video Festival, cites George
Gilder, author of Microcosm, asking "the kind of question about
television that Time magazine asked shockingly two decades ago
about God.

Is television dead?
Yes, he answers unequivocally."

That television, save for a few test systems scattered here and
there, is analog, a very dirty signal. There is little to no
hope in sight for this situation to change. Even the advent of
High Definition Television on (HDTV) is already substandard when
compared to the advances of digital video.

Meanwhile, John Scully an announces at a recent Macworld Expo a
chip that processes graphics and digitizes video images, in
real-time, the emergence of new directions at Apple Computer.
And International Business Machines (IBM) have there own shot at
Digital Video Interactive (DVI).

Digital video is beginning to reach the level of home consumers
digitizing their home videos from tape, and edit them on their
personal computer. Want to send someone home video? Soon
cassettes will be out, and discs in.

What of video art? Are video artists to continue the struggle to
gain acceptance for an analogous medium, pronounced technically
dead, but giving new meaning to the expression "dirty
pictures?" Video art in museums, including video sculpture, is
less about the advance of the medium, then about the art of the
museum.

Once upon a time, the revolution in communication was grounded 83
in video and cable television. Now computers are the
revelation. With the advent of digital video, computers and
video have become one, enter the new revolution.


*CONTEXT

When we speak of merging the creative arts with computers, the
preceding is a generalized survey of the context. There is a
history for the merging of media.

Cited here are examples ranging from the Renaissance to
modernism - Franke and Rheingold are post-modernists - as well
as the applications of multi and cybermedia, the latter being of
such fantasy that the tools scarcely exist to create it, let
alone language to describe it. The creative "ground-swell,"
predicted by Higgins, is underway.

THE SCAN NETWORK
by Dwight Steward


SCAN (Small Computers and the Arts Network) is technically not a
computer network -- yet. But in June, 1990, SCAN will move into
an office at The University of the Arts, formerly The
Philadelphia College of the Arts. UA/SCAN will jointly operate
an online arts network. SCAN has no formal membership
requirements, dues, or the like. However SCAN does have a data
base (aka mailing list) of over 2,500 names, individuals and
organizations, who are actively involved in "doing" computer
art.

This organization of "non-members" has been ten years in
the making, and will celebrate its first decade with a Tenth
Anniversary Conference on Small Computers and the Arts. Place:
various sites in Philadelphia. Dates: November 6th -- 11th.
Attendance: 500. Program has not been firmed up yet, but it
promises to be awesome, offering sessions and demonstrations on
virtually every aspect of computer mediated artistic creation.
In addition, several co-events are scheduled including a
multi-hosted conference on computer music; the Pratt Institute
will sponsor a demonstration of computer sculpture; and the
deans of several schools or art will meet to discuss the future
of computer graphics education.

Contact: Dick Moberg
SCAN
PO Box 1954
Philadelphia PA 19105

FACTSHEET FIVE
by Dwight Steward


FACTSHEET FIVE

Frequently called the bible of the alternative or underground
press, Factsheet Five reviews magazines (called Zines) which are
self-published by enthusiasts (called fans). Published six times
a year, FF began as a two page mimeographed publication, grew to
its current (No.34) size of 124 pages plus cover thanks to
technology. All types of technology. Zines devoted primarily but
not exclusively to music are published on cassettes. This issue
contains a call for contributions to a Zine devoted to cassette
culture. Zines on records come from around the world, e.g.Vision
No. 5 from Basil, Switzerland, text in German, includes a 33rpm
of "experimental, noisy music which manages to be attractive
without being flashy." Zines reviewed also come in boxes, bags,
balloons. And on erasers: Voice Without Sides No.4 is "a
self-destructing poem object" which contains four short poems
stamped on a pink eraser.

Zines devoted to "small press" comics and their graphics
are numerous and diverse: comic books, strips, classic and new
computer creations. World wide coverage includes news of
Japanese comics, such as Business Jump, a 300 page comic for
"business boys" which combine a bit of violence and some soft
porn.

How about Inbetweening by Lloyd Dunn? "Excerpts from an
animated xerographic film, now captured as a chapbook. This is
the title sequence, in which the name of the work is presented
one letter at a time. The trick is that it's all the same
letter, metamorphosing from "I" to "N" to "B" and so on. Along
the way, graphic elements twist and turn and burst, go from two
dimensions to three and back again."

NB. E&M Comics is looking for reviewers for their two new video
game Zines: one devoted to every system but Nintendo, the other
to handheld LCD games. If interested, write to them at 18C Boyle
Avenue, Cumberland RI 02864.

And of course Zines are published on computer discs. As
Richard Freeman, publisher of a Zine called Plain Brown Wrapper,
puts it: "If the press is free only to those who own a press,
then computers...offer the possibility of owning a fairly
inexpensive press." PBW is available on a MAC floppy.

Or Agog Ago Go, a UK electronic Zine which is basically a 33
poetry magazine but "in translation to the screen it picks up
some interactive qualities and a whole new look."

==>This Zine is also available on the FACTSHEET FIVE BBS. As is
the entire issue. And back issues.

578-479-3879 300-1200bps 7-E-1

In either paper print or online, electronic networkers will find
much of interest. The Ace is the Zine of the Association of
Clandestine Enthusiasts, a group of shortwave radio listeners
who exchange information on everything from pirate radio
stations to coded numbers transmissions from the contras. Lots
of technical and contact information included. In the editorial
in this issue of FF, Mike Gunderloy writes:

"Occasionally I mention things in this section
because I don't know where else to put them even though they're
important. Such is the case of Dewayne Readus, a young, black,
blind activist in Springfield, Illinois. Last year Dewayne went
on the air with a one- watt FM radio station, broadcasting music
of interest to the black community, publicizing incidents of
police brutality and encouraging young kids to learn about
radio. Thanks to segregated housing in Springfield, this signal
was strong enough to reach 75% of the black community. It also
reached the police department and the FCC, who ordered Dewayne
to stop broadcasting and assessed a $750.00 fine against him.
Although the FCC won't issue a license to an FM station below
100 watts, they won't let such a station operate unlicensed
either.

"Dewayne is prepared to fight in the courts and if
necessary go to jail to try and get the right to broadcast.
Since the station was not interfering with any other use of the
airwaves, it's hard to see what justification there is for
shutting him down--other than the obvious one, of course, that
people setting up radio stations for $600 pose a threat to the
established order. Meanwhile, various activists are getting
together to challenge the FCC on this. For more details, you can
either contact Dewayne himself at 420 N. 14th St., Springfield,
IL 62702, or Ron Sakkolsky from the Alliance for Cultural
Democracy at RR1, Pawnee, IL 62558."

And FF also carries an article by Joe Lane, on the
underground press in general and the Underground Press Syndicate
and the Liberation News Service in particular. Bob Grumman's
column "Experioddica" devoted to "Why Publish?" raises issues
which concern all publishers, whether in paper or phosphor
print. As does John Held Jr.'s article on Mail Art Networking.

FF and Zines are, naturally, popular with prisoners
throughout the US and the world--a subject which received
considerable attention in the current issue. Here is an excerpt
from Mike Kelly, a prisoner in Texas:

"On 12-15-89 I was denied the right to mail a sealed letter 3>3
c/o the Editor of FACTSHEET FIVE. I was informed by the prison
bureaucrats that my letter did not meet the criteria as media
correspondence. Since FACTSHEET FIVE is not listed in the Ayers
Directory of Publications the administration denied your
publication as a legitimate media source." Kelly notes that
access to the press gives the incarcerated person the
opportunity to make contact with the public. He notes a Sept.
20, 1978 suit brought by Texas inmates challenging similar
rulings by the Dept. of Corrections. This case gave prisoners
the right to send unopened mail to the media, and relying on
Saxbe v. Washington Post Co., 94 S.Ct.2811, "press" was defined
as "a newspaper entitled to second class mailing privileges;
a magazine or periodical of general distribution; a national or
international news service; a radio or television network or
station."

Kelly asks quite reasonably why The Progressive Periodicals
Directory or the Directory of Alternative and Radical
Publications not be used along with Ayers to verify legitimate
publications and their editors?

If Kelly had access to a computer-modem and telephone lines,
he might have also asked when the Saxbe case will be challenged,
and online publications such as Netweaver also included. Anyone
caring to continue the discussion of approved or sanctioned
publications and the general definition of "press" s" can reach
him at his paper mail address:

Michael P. Kelly #493005
Box 16 -- Eastham Unit
Lovelady, TX 75851

As Factsheet Five illustrates, snail-mail networkers are quite
active, in a variety of arenas where online folk have little
explored.

IDEAS OF PLANETARY CREATIVITY
The College Art Association tackles networking

by Ray Gallon

On February 15 last, as part of the 1990 Annual Conference of
the College Art Association, amid sessions about painting,
sculpture, photography, etc. a single evening offered a colloquy
with the title, "Towards an Aesthetic for the 21st Century:
Networking, Hypermedia and Planetary Creativity." The session
was co-convened by New York video artist Tom Klinkowstein, and
British media artist, Roy Ascott. The session lasted about 4
hours, with too many speakers to outline in detail here. So I
will give detailed summaries of one or two of the most
interesting presentations, and a quick overview of the rest.
3t3
Roy Ascott, whom we hope to have as a presenter at the 1990 ENA
conference in San Francisco, gave the keynote presentation - one
which, to my mind, was the most well thought-out, cogent, and
important presentation of the evening. He began with the thesis
that the convergence of art, technology, and new philosophy
leads to a rupture in contemporary culture. The idea of
aesthetics, he said, was a relatively new one, and represented
an attempt to make order of the essentially unreasonable. This
led to the concept of what we call Fine Art - art which is above
all other kinds of art. In the 21st century, says Ascott, there
is not likely to be enough common agreement for there to be an
aesthetic. Theories, schools of thought, "isms" etc. can not
survive the pluralistic environment which the convergence of
computers and telecommunications (called "Telematics") will
force on the arts.

In the old, Fine Art model, the artist creates art, and the user
receives it. In the new telematic model, the user of art *must*
be a participant in the creation of meaning. The new art is
interconnected, interactive, and the result of new group
processes which will leave the old concept of "collective"
creativity behind in the dust, just as surely as it leaves the
idea of the singular creative demi-god behind.

Interlinks, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Intelligence,
coupled together, provide no end to interconnectivity possible
in the telematic model of creativity. This new model has room
to include both personal, individual values, and cultural
differences, interacting together in a "telematic embrace" that
Ascott likens to the scientist James Lovelock's concept of Gaia
- i.e. that the planet functions *as if* it were an intelligent
organism to maintain the conditions for life. Ascott suggests
that there is so much information traveling around our growing
networks, that a PLANETARY CONSCIOUSNESS may emerge, as people
are now able to interact without problems of place or time.

The installation, "Aspects of Gaia," which was presented at the
1989 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria (see the article
in this NETWEAVER issue for an overview) is a 2-level
schematization of this telematic Gaia. One level is presented
in tents, with computer graphic images contributed by networkers
around the world, and which can be further manipulated by
participants in the tents. Each tent provides a "Bird's-Eye"
view from above, with different kinds of interaction. The
second level is a tunnel, representing the inner earth.
Participants propel themselves, on their backs, on a small
rail-car, down a tunnel which presents thoughts, comments, and
ideas about the earth on LED signs, which have been submitted by
networkers from around the world. These signs can be
ever-changing as networkers continue to input new ideas. We hope
to be able to present the tunnel portion at ENA in San
Francisco.

In sum, Ascott said, we must be willing to re-construct,
redesign, and rename our culture. We must reject the singular,
isolated, unconnected creative act in favor of the amplification 3,3
of mind in a network, i.e. interactivity. He went to great
pains to explain that this did not mean a rule-based set of
operations, but rather a structure that evolves, breaks into
chaos, and reforms and breaks again, naturally, with never any
finality or solidification into an art object. In doing this
work, the artist is freed from the limitations of museums,
galleries, festivals, colleges, and the art market.

The second presentation which caused me to sit up and take
notice, came from Mel Alexenberg, of Pratt Institute of the Arts
in Brooklyn, New York. His work is based on cross-cultural
linguistic patterns, and seeks the connection between the
electronic media and the spiritual nature of human beings. He
pointed out that the agricultural and industrial revolutions
were extensions of the muscular activity of people, of
quantitative effort; while the electronic revolution represents
a change of quality, an extension of the central nervous system,
and therefore quite unique. He believes that telematics
represents the most far-reaching of all revolutions, and leads
to an inherently spiritual character. He points out the seeming
mysticism of the basic truth that in the room, at that moment,
hundreds of events were happening simultaneously, contained in
radio waves traveling through the air of that space, and that
many of the new ways of experiencing and experimenting in art
work were akin to mystical traditions.

The Biblical Hebrew term for art, Alexenberg asserted, means
"thoughtful craft" and is a feminine word form. He decided
once, to see what it might be if changed into a masculine form,
since he was a male artist. It turns out to mean, in modern
Hebrew, "computer angels." He then went on to explain that
artists are angel-makers, creators of images and ideas which
fly, without material substance, into the universe. So
Alexenberg took images of Angels from the work of Rembrandt, and
transformed them into traditional high-touch media, such as
prints, etchings, etc. - reproducible media which have modern-
day equivalents in photography, photocopying, etc.

To honor the 320th anniversary of Rembrandt's death, Alexenberg
decided to make his angels fly: by fax. He began at the Philip
Johnson-designed AT&T headquarters in New York (center of
telecommunications) and sent very large images of angels, in
pieces, to a fax machine located on top of Rembrandt's original
etching press, in the Rembrandt Museum in Holland. The angel
then flew by satellite to a fax machine in the Israel Museum
(the Biblical land), and thence to Tokyo (where fax machines are
manufactured), to Los Angeles (The City of Angels) and back to
New York. In making this journey, the angel went through a
time-warp. It started in New York on a particular "today,"
crossed the dateline into "tomorrow" in Tokyo, and returned to
"Yesterday" in New York. Back at the AT&T Building, Alexenberg
pasted the elements of his images on the wall as they came in by
fax, each showing the history of its time-warped journey in the
time/date stamps on each panel of the fax, from each location
which the angel had visited!
3d3
Alexenberg's work, which is all concerned with such whimsical
connections between the mystical, the spiritual, and the
technological, is very much based in his personal exploration of
the Judaic tradition, numerology, and a wonderful sense of
humor, all of which combine to make the audience understand just
how profoundly *human* this world of networking and art really
can be.

Among the other presenters were co-convener Tom Klinkowstein,
who presented some of his own work - an attempt to personalize
some of the kinds of ideas presented by Roy Ascott, but which
seemed more self-indulgent to me than communicative, and perhaps
a bit culturally naive; Sarah Dickenson of the MIT Media Lab,
who described work she is doing with Seymore Pappert and
Hispanic children in the Boston area, making logo-based images
and exchanges with children in Costa-Rica. Her presentation was
unfortunately not well assembled, but it seems that she was
doing very important work.

Peter D'Agostino of Temple University gave an overview of work
he is doing with interactive videodisc, touchscreens, and
non-linear media (which he distinguishes as very different from
Video Art). He seeks a metaphoric connection between art and
science, such as the connection between field forces (light,
gravity, etc.) and personal life experiences (he used the
documentation of the growth of his own daughter) which can be
selected by touchscreen in any order by a viewer - creating
his/her own experience by intervening with the computer, by
touching it. He sees this as analogous to the ancient oral
tradition of communicating a society's ideals and mores.

Bruce Breland, who was a presenter at ENA '89, sees a profound
connection between telematics and the work of Black Elk, the
native American shaman and artist. His description and
presentation were almost unsummarizable, so intertwined were his
ideas, concepts, and constructions with the manner and substance
of his talk. He did make the point that the assemblyline method
was in conflict with the multiple perceptions (simultaneity) of
present-day society. We are looking into the future, he said,
with the eyes and ears of our industrial past, and in danger of
being the last of an exotic tribe (like Black Elk) whose time is
ending. He closed by quoting Marshall McLuhan, who said that we
can not see the new culture which is coming, because we have no
tools with which to perceive it.

ONLINE REGISTRATION for
The Electronic Networking Association )-( Conference
"ONLINE NETWORKING: COLLABORATING IN THE GLOBAL 90S"
May 23-26, l990 in San Francisco
/3
ENA Conference Registration Through After
(includes two dinner events 4/15/90 4/15/90
and special activities)

ENA Professional Member $300 $350
ENA Regular Member $350 $400
Conference Registration $400 $450

DISCOUNTS

* Discounts are available for ENA members and conference
fees are set up to provide incentive to join or renew.

* Confirmed speakers may deduct $100 off any registration
for which they qualify. No fee for speakers attending only
the session where they are presenting, registration is
requested.

* Groups of three or more paid by single purchase order or
remittance may deduct an additional 10% off conference
registration fees for the full conference.

* There will be a limited number of partial scholarships for
volunteers. /contact Margaret Chambers, 415-8TO-CONF)

Hotel rooms available from $45 - $155 per night, single or
double. Some suites for 4 available under $100.. Additional
information will be sent with your registration confirmation.

Nan Hanahue is the official registrar. Use the online
registration form for early registration.

* * * * * * *
Daily Rates Thursday or Friday $165 $165
Wednesday or Saturday $ 70 $ 70

* * * * * * *
RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP NOW
Professional Membership $50 $50
General Membership $20 $20

Information on guest tickets for special events and on
hotel rooms available at a range of prices will be sent
with your confirmation

Cancellations will be accepted until April 15 subject
to a service charge of $50. Substitutions may be made
at any time without charge.

* * * * * * *
* ONLINE REGISTRATION FORM *
* * * * * * *

To register, please give us the following information
online or print-out and mail to address below.
FIRST NAME/INITIAL 83
LAST NAME
TITLE
ORGANIZATION
ADDRESS
ADDRESS
CITY, STATE, ZIP
PHONE NUMBER WITH AREA CODE
ONLINE ADDRESS

MEMBERSHIP STATUS: (check one)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBER
___RENEW Professional membership ($50)
___JOIN($50)
___UPGRADEfrom regular ($30)
___Member in good standing
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP
___RENEW Regular membership ($30)
___JOIN ($20)
___Member in good standing

Charge or send Check made out to Electronic Networking Assn
$___ CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEE
$___ Membership Fee
$___ Conference Registration Fee:
less $100 for Confirmed Presenter
(Give name of track or workshop)

$______TOTAL AMOUNT DUE.

CHARGE CARD NAME as it appears on the card:
(VISA OR MASTER CARD?):
CARD NUMBER:
EXPIRATION DATE:

Print out and mail to Nan Hanahue, ENA, 2744 Washington
Street, Allentown, PA 18104-4225 or return online to
Margaret on Pandora.

For additional information, call
East Coast ENA office 215-821-7777
or
West Coast ENA Conference Office 415-8TO-CONF (886-2663).

See you in San Francisco )-(