Oil Standard

The oil standard project manipulates the common person's use of the internet to demonstrate an economic reality. Mandiberg is using the program to make apparent the actuality of the interconnection between oil and other forms of monetary. He is able to exploit the fact that the internet is changable and open to modifications. Without this ability, Mandiberg would be unable to have this project. Furthermore, since the oil prices are realtime, he must be tapped into some other internet source to supply the program with these prices. Mandiberg is only able to do this because the internet is able
investigate it, and talk about how it uses the internet as an art medium. Explain why it uses it to best advantage, and why the piece could not be made in any other way. The work relates to the history of the internet described in Sterlings article because it pulls from the idea of any person being able to input information into the web. Furthermore, since the download is free, it is a direct decendant of the free file sharing described in the article. The work reflects the time in that it directly comments on the political and economic issues of the time. Also, it uses the common popularity of firefox (as opposed to say netscape navigator or internet explorer, which were more popular in years prior), which makes the program much more accessable to the common population.

Scans

Sketches

In the first sketch, Billie Holiday is singing in a bar where Edgar Allen Poe is drinking and Upton Sinclair is leaving the kitchen with a pad in his hand as a rat runs out of the kitchen. I will need to scan images of Holiday, Poe, and Sinclair. I will also need to photograph or scan images of a bartender, glasses, a rat, and wood pieces to construct a bar and table should an appropriate image not be found.


In this Sketch, Cab Calloway is performing in a theatre while John Wilkes Booth is in one of the front boxes. I will need to scan images of Calloway and Booth. I hope to photograph or scan the images required to create a theare and a band.

When Zombies Attack!

Contest Link

Borroughs Response

In the article, Borroughs describes the cut up. This is a technique where an artist literally will cut up a page of text and reassemble it randomly to create a new text. He relates this technique to collage, but withy words instead of images. While I can appreciate the desire to create poetry in a new, expirimental way, I am unsure how 'poetic' this technique actually is. I see a poet as a crafter or words, where as the cut up seems like artistic expirimentation. The question remains, though, is randomness art? In the definition of art as whatever someone is able to claim as art, the mere activity Borroughs describes would be concidered art. If, however, 'artistic technique' is considered then the argument may b e made that it is not art, but merely activity. Borroughs realizes this and says that its ease is part of how cut ups work. He writes, "Cut=ups are for everyone. Anoyong can make cut ups. It is experimental in the sense of being something to do." In this case, the final product seems to be art as much as the process of creation is artistic activity, and therefore, art.

Photoshop demonstration Photo

S-E-X-Oh!

S-E-X-Oh! is a play created and performed by a theatre group from Chicago called Teatro Luna. Teatro Luna is comprised entirely of Latina women. S-E-X-Oh! deals with the sexual lives, fears, and issues of the actors. The title comes from the opening and closing scenes which has all of the actors spelling the word that was so taboo in their childhood homes, "sexo." The play was comprised of mostly unconnected scenes put together with short snipets of music between. Each scene presented an event or issue of one or more of the women. Issues such as lesbian motherhood, love, childhood sexuality, and pregnancy were discussed through small scenes and short conversations. One of the most interesting parts of the performance came in a series of dispersed scenes through out the play. At some point, each actor came to center stage and had a recorded profile of themselves played. In these short profiles, the women brought up various body issues, which were mirrored by the backdrop. The backdrop consisted of photographs of the women with written commentary of what they think about the offending body part in question. There were also intercuts of one woman discussing her job as a phone sex operator and her interactions with perverts also known as her clients. Overall, the play was able to achieve its goals of openess about sexuality and womanhood and attainment of women power.