Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/I got a plan/IRC tightrope

Text File | 1994-10-05 | 19KB | 231 lines

Internet Cafe at the School of the Fine Arts
Saarbrucken - Germany

11-12 of July 1994

9 - 22 (MEZ)

(IRC-Channel Tight Rope)

Please Connect !

[e-mail]_________

During the Internet Cafe we want to present a new digital journal - TIGHT
ROPE - available on
www.

1/1 - The first edition of Tight Rope
A new digital journal for philosophy, science and art.

Contents:

A short introduction by Jens Geelhaar
Aims and aspirations of Tight Rope

The Brain by Jill Scott
About memory. What is the nature of memory? Visualisation of storage. The
internet will be
used as a research medium. Please login to our internet cafe for a list of
revealing questions and
be part of the survey!

New Territories by Thomas Ottmar
The internet viewed as a new continent which is being discovered right now.
This is the time
where artists and designers should claim their part of the net. Money and
politics are already
doing it.

Interdisciplinary Communication - A Project by Jens Geelhaar
Developments in the new media pose artistic and social questions to society
which have not yet
been asked. These complex problems will be discussed by artists and
scientists from different
viewpoints. Tight Rope is introduced as a fast discussion forum in this article.

Auto Cannibalism by Ulrich Behr
Are we consuming ourselves? An individual approach.
Selfreference by Peter Franke
The use of internet services and exchange of so-called multi media data.
Does an internet
religion exist? Individual ideals and goals.

Interactive Television - A Seminar at the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt
A review by Jens Geelhaar

Possible ideas for the magazine include :
Artists Space: a gallery in which works of artists can be viewed
ISDN-conferences : announcement, details and results will be published
Women and Technology : a series of individual articles
Reviews : exhibitions, books and philosophical debates will be reviewed
Events : events of interest will be announced
Guest editions : parts or special editions of Tight Rope can be submitted
by interested
individuals and organisations

During our Internet Cafe (11-12 of July) the articles of the first Tight
Rope edition will be
available in text form.
www-server on which Tight Rope can be viewed with Mosaic:
http://www.phil.uni-sb.de/projekte/HBKS/htm/hbks.html

The technical part : The magazine will be published as a html-document
(hypertext mark up
language) and will be available via the internet.
It can be viewed with Mosaic, a program which is available on several
www-servers.
It can be obtained by anonymous ftp at ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu - Use programs
like FTP or Fetch to
get the files from NCSA. Login as anonymous and use your e-mail address as
password.

The second edition :
The role of Contemporary Art (and artists) in our Society
Do we need a change in the artists position?

Looking forward to your contributions and suggestions

For the editorial team (Tight Rope Acrobats)
Jens Geelhaar   Jill Scott      Thomas Ottmar
School of the Fine Arts, Saarbruecken, Germany
[e-mail]

________________________________________________________________________

Part II Jill Sotts contribution

THE GLOBAL BRAIN
by Jill Scott.

1. Relativity.

Memory is not only information storage, in fact, it is not a thing at all,
but a process of relativity. Most information comes to us through the
body. So I cannot refer to the Brain separate from the Body, nor can I
refer to the Mind without implying the word "memory". All
componants are inseparable. Many people think that the senses of
the body alone, processes information from three basic sources and
to store it in the Mind. These are: Airwaves on which vocalization
and sound are transmitted, Tangible Objects including libraries and
databanks, which become memory supports and Body Gestures
which transmit movement and atmosphere. Some how I think there
is something more Global about the nature of memory than these
rather clinical imput devices.

2. Unusual Results..

For a number of years, I have been making Artworks about the
relationship between Design and Utopia. I chose this century to
reflect upon because it will be remembered as the beginning of two
things-Information Overload and Consumerism.  I started with the
idea, that an increased access to information and consumerism over
this century has had a great effect on the perception of memory. I
chose four decades of time in which to concentrate my research,
1900,1930,1960,1990 because these seem to be the years in the
West, when there was widespead changes in optimistic philosophy. I
started these projects by asking four generations of my family a
series of questions about what they remembered from these time
zones including their attitudes toward the future, their opinions of
domestic technology, their favourite sounds and their access to
information. The people were my Grandmother, my Mother, my
Sister and my Niece. I asked each person to draw a picture of their
memory at the time when their idealism was highest.  Though they
were separated from eachother when they constructed these
drawings, the pictures all turned out to be quite similar- all depicted
an archive of photographs, movements and sounds in a type of
expandable cupboard or container.  Was this a genetic memory we
were sharing, an influence of increased information and
consumerism or is there a universal "container of idealistic memory"
shared by the human race?

3. Memory as a Idealistic Alien

Quote from my Diary-"I am standing in front of an expandable
container: my body is a fast switchboard that can mix and match
parts of the archive. There are some predictable results and some
unpredictable results.  Some of this information is easily accessible,
other parts of it are not retrievable. A lot of it I am unable to trust it
at all.    Sometimes, I cross the wires intentionally just to see what
happens. There are days like today, when this archive feels Alien to
my body, as if it belongs to someone elses body-someone elses
memory, someone who feels disconnected but idealistic.  I'll have a
day today, when I get on the Bus and wonder why all these strange
animals are walking around on two legs or won't be able get
anything done in the city. I feel sort of Re-incarnated. An interesting
twist of Fate.  I'm very sensitive to certain sounds. I wonder if they
irritate me because they belong to someone elses memory whose
information got caught up in mine. Perhaps they are from childhood-
a separate memory laying deep inside the cells of my body. Today, I
don't know if I am the transmitter or the transmitted, the
manipulated or the manipulator but this fluctuation is'nt upsetting.
It interests me. If I close my eyes and meditate I can view a whole
sea of floating memories millions and millions of them, from other
people and other times all feeling the same way"

3. The Electronic Global Body.

I like to think that all the people's memories in the world are all
imbedded within a natural relational network of Transmission and
Association.  A relation which pulls Science, Art and Philosophy
under the same processes. In fact Transmission and Association are
beneficial ways to think about the potential of human instinct
embedded in the same Global body.  Now we have a electronic sytem
with the necessary anarchistic tendency to mimic the processes of
the Global Body called Internet. The positive thing for me about
using Electronic Memory networks is  that I can watch a simple form
of the networks switchboard's Bodies (or linked Mother-Boards) and
leave my own mind to concentrate on the more creative aspects of
transmitting Art and associating philosophy. Lets hope you can join
me!!




5. Interactivity Memory Survey on the Net -Please reply-ASAP-
Conseqently, I am interesed using the Net to gather information to be
published and discussed about the nature of Memory.
Statistics will be available on Mosaic. WWW in
the first edition of TIGHTROPE Digital Magazine.
Questions-Return to [e-mail]
(Please be as creative as you wish to in your answers, and move
qustions to create room, even to the point of sending a larger
drawing or related article you have read or written)

1. Are you an Artist, A philosoper, A Critic, An historian, a Scientist
or an Alien or a combination of these?
(Explain)

2. How do you Visualize your Memory Now?
(Make a drawing or write a description)

3. Is this different from how you would like your Memory to be
described? (Explain or make another drawing of how you would like
to improve your memory)

4. Do different moods or body conditions effect the clarity of access
you can have to your memory? (Explain)

5. How do you feel about Electronic Memory? Would you like to have
memory chips implanted in your body or brain? (explain)

6 Make a list of five objects, sounds, body gestures that you tend to
always remember.
(example names, numbers, sound of weapons)

7. Make a list of five objects, sounds, body gestures that you allways
tend to forget
(example-my lover lips, chemistry, filling out surveys like this)

8 Do you think there is such a thing as a Global Memory? Why or
Why not?

9 Please leave your name and E-Mail Address if you want to
continue this discussion and receive our new magazine. TIGHTROPE

--
Jens Geelhaar, Student of Electronic & Interactive Arts, c/o HdBK
(School of the Fine Arts) Saar, Keplerstrasse 3-5, D 66117 Saarbruecken