Media and Pedagogy Theorist Gregory Ulmer Visiting UWM

From Jon McKenzie
Asst. Professor of English
Coordinator of Modern Studies:

Media and pedagogy theorist Gregory Ulmer is visiting UWM this week.

On Thursday, 9/29, at 4:00 in Curtin 939, Prof. Ulmer will give an informal
colloquium hosted by the Modern Studies program. He will discuss the distinction between grammatology and deconstruction, creativity as supplement to critique, and how all of these inform his "emerAgency" consultancy project. In an open discussion, he will then apply his consultancy skills to the problematic, "w(h)ither modern studies?"
Everyone is welcome; see pdf.

Prof. Ulmer is visiting UWM as part of the Department of Film and Conceptual Studies Colloquia, Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition, where he will give a talk titled "Electracy: Flash Reason Against the Internet Accident" on Friday, 9/30, at 2:00 in Curtin 175. This talk is open to the public, but those interested in new media, Comp/Rhet, and cultural theory are especially encouraged to attend. A full schedule of this exciting colloquia series can be seen here. More information and examples of Prof. Ulmer's research and teaching experiments, can be found here.

Billboard Liberation

I do (not) apologize for the seemingly progressive, antiestablishmentarist sentiment of the last few blogs of art-works. It just seems that all of the good work is produced by angry, disenfranchised people. This is from The Billboard Liberation Front, whose mission states

emphatically and for all time herein that to Advertise is to Exist. To Exist is to Advertise. Our ultimate goal is nothing short of a personal and singular Billboard for each citizen. Until that glorious day for global communications when every man, woman and child can scream at or sing to the world in 100Pt. type from their very own rooftop; until that day we will continue to do all in our power to encourage the masses to use any means possible to commandeer the existing media and to alter it to their own design.

The above image is from the Lord of War project. Also nice is the Information Architecture entry, which explains how the BLF makes its work.

DACSO Meeting Highlights

Here are the highlights from the last DACSO meeting:

-Elections were held, these are the results
-President -- Aaron Lunderville
-Vice President -- Sam Vanderhoof
-Secretary -- Bridget Gallagher
-Treasurer -- Leah Jee

-A DACSO page will be added to the DAC web site.

-We will have a design contest to "brand" DACSO with a visual image

-We are going to have a small exhibition late this fall, and a larger one in the spring

-We are going to apply for funding to travel to the IDMAA convention in April

-Bring ideas for workshops and guest speakers to the next meeting (3 Oct. 3:45 in G10)

Event Resources Presents Internship

Event Resources Presents
Concert/Marketing - Internship

Event Resources does major concerts on college campuses in the midwest and east coast. Currently we are seeking a marketing intern. This person would learn about how record companies and concert promoters advertise/market concerts. We are looking for someone who is motivated and dependable to work 10-20 hours a week.

Please call or email Scott Ziel at:
Ph: 414-221-0550
Email: scott[at]eventresourcespresents.com


Scott Ziel
scott[at]eventresourcespresents.com
Event Resources Presents
338 N. Milwaukee Street
Suite 302
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Ph: 414-221-0550
Fax: 414-221-0554
www.eventresourcespresents.com

Call for papers: Crossings: A Counter-Disciplinary Journal

Call for papers: Crossings: A Counter-Disciplinary Journal
Issue # 9: The "Work" of Art
DEADLINE: December 1, 2005

The ninth issue of Crossings aims at addressing the ambiguous
relationship between the aesthetic and the ethical. The binary between
ethicism (the notion of art as a guide to morality) and aestheticism
(the notion that art and morality are autonomous spheres) has
historically framed the thinking about art and ethics, but what is at
stake in limiting our thinking to this framework? We invite people to
think beyond and across this gulf and to imagine other possibilities
of art's power.

Assuming that art exercises power in the realms of the social and the
ethical, we may ask the question: what should art do, or what is the
work of art? We know that art can instigate social change, but art's
power may reach further, actually determining the social and the
ethical in some way.

Philosophers have long discussed thought's dependence on the
construction of images, or what might be termed "the imagination".
Given this relationship between thinking and the imagination, are
moral and political philosophy, along with other forms of thinking,
forms of art or literature? What is the transformative power of
image-making in relation to thinking and the construction of a social
reality? Do aesthetics and the imagination hold the radical potential
to burst the solidity of the normative structures of "universal" modes
of perception and fundamentally change the way we construct and relate
to our world and one another? What are the implications of this
complex network that encompasses thinking, the imagination, the
aesthetic, and the political, social, and ethical?

All forms of art are open for discussion. We invite essays from
practicing artists in all mediums, in addition to scholars from
various fields.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Aestheticizing politics and politicizing art
Journalism
"Body Art": Piercing, Tattoos, Body Building
Happenings
Politically "committed" literature
Indigenous art
The instrumentalization of art
Art and violence
The institutionalization of art
Art and revolution
Ethics as art/Art as ethics
Art and pornography
Info-tainment
Fetishism
Testimonial
Art and authenticity
Exposure to alterity or the political through art
Myth
The art market
Photography
Grafitti
Performance art
Image-making and thinking
Religion and popular literature
The gesture of art's work in relation to language
Protest art forms
Pedagogical possibilities: Art and the ethical in the classroom

Submissions should be in MSWord or WordPerfect format, double-spaced,
and conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, endnote
citation format. Hard copy manuscripts should be submitted in duplicate
and should be accompanied by a disk version (IBM compatible 3 1/2"
disk). Manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by a
self-addressed, stamped envelope. A style sheet is available in Adobe
Acrobat format on-line at: http://crossings.binghamton.edu/style.pdf.

Additional information can be found at: http://crossings.binghamton.edu

Send all manuscripts and inquiries by December 1, 2005 to:
Amy Smith at xings[at]binghamton.edu

Or,
Crossings
Department of English
P.O. Box 6000
Binghamton University
Binghamton, New York 13902-6000

==========================================================
From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
CFP[at]english.upenn.edu
Full Information at
http://cfp.english.upenn.edu
or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj[at]english.upenn.edu
==========================================================

Political Art

Radical. From Lane Hall:

Dear Folks,

I thought this was a fascinating project - both in its structure and in
the problematic aspects of childhood and agency. Is this a legitimate
way to make "political art?" or is the instigation of power as bad as
the critique?

The Punishment is piece by artistKristofer Paetau.
ThePunishment.pdf

DACSO open meeting

All are invited to the upcoming meeting of the newly formed Digital Arts and Culture Student Organization on Monday, September 19 at 3:45 pm in
Johnston Hall, G24.

There will be cookies, and items to be discussed will be upcoming exhibitions, travel to the International Digital Media and Arts Association Conference, Elections, and Designing Publicity Posters.

If you are teaching a class related to Digital Arts and Culture, please announce to your classes. If you are a student, please ask the teacher if you could make this announcment. Or send this blog as an email to interested parties by clicking on that little envelope below this post.

DACSO approved

The Digital Arts and Culture Student Organization was officially approved by the Student Association Senate in July. Founding members Aaron Lunderville and Leah Jee were at the meeting where they spoke on behalf of the group whose purpose is to promote educational and professional advancement in the general fields related to Digital Arts and Culture. "I'm excited about the opportunity to bring creative students from all areas of the University together to create and share their work," said Bridget Gallagher, another founder.
"Now we have the possibility of bringing media professionals to UWM to share their expertise and experiences with the students," added Lunderville.
Anyone interested in DACSO should contact dacsoboard@uwm.edu.

Raking the Muck left by Katrina

Some of my favorite items in the media now are Kanye West's performance on live TV on NBC's Concert for Hurricane Relief, the captions accompanying the photo's that he described, and current.tv's blog entry entitled citizen rescue, maintained by Robin Sloan.

Vital Source Magazine Looking for Graphics Intern

Vital Source Magazine is looking for a graphics intern for the fall
semester. Applicant must have experience in Adobe suite and be
available 10-15 hours per week. Duties will include, but are not
limited to, creating ads, editing photographs and helping in layout.
The internship is unpaid but Vital does work with all area college and
university internship programs so you will receive credit for your
work.
Please contact esolochek[at]vitalsourcemag.com.

Evan Solochek
Assistant Editor
Vital Source Magazine

P: 414.372.5351
F: 414.372.5356
W: vitalsourcemag.com

MilwaukeeBeacon.com looking for a tutor on Webdesign

"MilwaukeeBeacon is a start-up newspaper with an online presence. At the present time, we are looking for a tutor to teach flash and dreamweaver. Our webmaster is going to school in Florida. So, we need someone in the Milwaukee area. To learn more about us, please check out the website: www.milwaukeebeacon.com. This website will give you an idea. If you are interested in this part-time position, please contact us:

Andrew Shaw
Milwaukee Beacon, Inc.
gtndigital[at]hotmail.com
www.milwaukeebeacon.com
414 535-7804

Compensation is $10.00/hr or $20 per lesson (You decide). We need someone who is located in the Milwaukee area. Finally, we need someone who wants to make a difference with his/her life."

Original URL: http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/art/92066835.html

Robert Moog, Creator of Ubiquitous Synthesizer Dies

There is a really nice audio slide show narrated by Allan Kozinn on The New York Times website detailing the accomplishments of this sound engineer who has influenced music from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys. See his company's website for a simple obituary, and to see the Moog Community.

Student Web Developer Employment Opportunity

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's College of Letters and Science web development team seeks a student web developer. Knowledge of css, xhtml, Dreamweaver, text editors, and Photoshop is required; knowledge of Cold Fusion is also desired. At first the employee would work approximately 12-16 hours a week (approx. half the time maintaining existing sites and half the time developing css for new sites. We would be particularly interested in students with Sophomore or Junior standing who are looking for longer-term work on campus and interested in becoming proficient standards-based web developers.

For more information on applying for the position contact Homer Hruby at
thhruby[at]uwm.edu.

CALL FOR VIDEOS: INPORT International Video-Performance Art Festival (Estonia)

From Paul Coulliard and FADO:
Performance artists all around the world are invited to send proposals for INPORT, International Video-Performance Art Festival, in Tallinn, Estonia on November 2005.

INPORT would like to bring artists from all around the world closer to Estonian audiences. This is non-profit Festival and unfortunately we have a very small budget so we can only show your video/videos on a single screen. We can't offer artistic fees, accommodation or travel expenses. After the Festival we will produce an on-line catalogue on the Festival web-site (http://www.inport.tk).

Last year we received nearly 260 videos from 19 countries; INPORT Festival presented 36 videos by artists from around the world.

Performance artists are invited to submit proposals for Festival in the following categories:

Video-performance (performances made specially for camera)
Video documentary (video documentations of performances)

Formats accepted: VHS (PAL only), miniDV (PAL only), VCD, DVD

There's no limit of length, but please don't send the masters!

There are no official entry forms or entry fees!

Enclosed with the video/videos you must send the following (with e-mail or CD-R/Word document):
Performance artist or group name
Performance title
Statement of performance
Performance date, venue, Festival or event where it was first performed
Brief resume of the performance artist
Contact info (e-mail, postal address, etc.)

Deadline: 15.September 2005 (postal stamp)

Materials will not to be returned, but will be kept in the Festival archive for the projects in the future and for interested curators and art festival organizers!

Send all materials to:
Gert Hatsukov
(INPORT curator and organizer)
Pikk 4-11
Paide
Estonia

All deliveries from international participants must be marked:
"NO COMMERCIAL VALUE - FOR CULTURAL PURPOSES ONLY"

If you have any questions, please contact: inport.festival@mail.ee

FedEx invokes Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against Unusual Blogger

There is some exciting legal back and forth between FedEx and the Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic, who is representing Jose Avila. He built all kinds of furniture for his apartments using only empty FedEx boxes and packing material. His friends encouraged him to document his remarkable work and publish a website, fedexfurniture.com and blog, that chronicles his odyssey . The Big Company didn't like that and tried to bring the wrath of the DMCA on the young artist Jose.

The Milwaukee Divide

The Union Art Gallery is located at 2200 East Kenwood Boulevard on the Campus level is free and open to the public. The gallery will be open for Gallery Night from 11am-9pm on Friday and 11-3pm on Saturday.

Union Art Gallery Director Andrea Skyberg has curated a smart bunch of artists in this exhibition that looks at divisions in Milwaukee. Coming from a myriad of formal and political perspectives the works seem to spark and sparkle- many works use video and invite viewer interaction.
In works like Jeremy Brown's, where any person walking into the space has their moving image projected but eerily divided by a wall that only exists as a digital construct.
Jamal Currie and Steve Wetzel's works uses antennae and video transmitters and receivers to describe an idiosyncrasy in Milwaukee's segregation: Where does Old World Third Street End and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Begin?
Marc Tasman's video work shows us in surveillance video a string of people trying to steal a John Kerry for President sign. In another video we see the haunting flames that dance as they devour a Bush/Cheney sign while the Music of a Belly Dancer's band plays the theme from Laurence of Arabia. Both videos come projected out of a four foot stack of firewood - atop the pile are the actual embattled signs from the surveillance videos.
Also highly intriguing is Nicholas Lampert's photos of North Avenue as it begins on the western outskirts and sketches all the way to Lake Michigan. Reminiscent of the work of Ed Ruscha, the photos also invoke other famous dividing walls, formerly in Berlin and now in the West Bank. This sixty foot long wall in the gallery, covered by this line of photos shows us the visual culture of the city in unique storefronts and street art.
The entire show is held together by stark panels of statistical data detailing the changes of populations of African American, Latinos, and Whites in Milwaukee.
Powerful. Not to be missed.

Additional artists include:

Jesus Ali
Jenny Plevin & Allison Westbrook
Armando Gallegos
Alisha Dallosto
Eliot White
Michael Maier

Runs through August 5. Open during summer Gallery
Night and Day on July 29th & 30th., with closing
performance on Friday, August 5th from 8-10:30 by
Lyrical Sanctuary (an open mic series that welcomes
poets, artists, and performers to express themselves
before a captive audience).

For more info see
http://www.aux.uwm.edu/Union/events/gallery/e-announcment/Untitled-1.htm
+
http://www.aux.uwm.edu/Union/events/gallery/index.html


From the press release:
The Union Art Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UAG) is pleased to present the exhibition The Milwaukee Divide from July 8 th –August 5 th , 2005. This exhibition tackles the issues of segregation and separation in Milwaukee through the mediums of video installation, photography, painting and sculpture. The topics of segregation and separation are being interpreted broadly to include racial issues, as well as geographical, political, gender and economic segregation in Milwaukee.

Photography Crime

I can imagine a pastiche of the 1971 film, Dirty Harry, where the alleged lucky feeling punk, who makes Detective Harry Callahan's day reaches for a digital camera instead of a gun. Milo sent me this link that once again poses the conflict between National Security and the essential rights of every American to Express Free Speech and Bear Cameras.

Is Photography Becoming Illegal?

Even though there's no law against it, you may be interrogated the next
time you snap a picture of the Empire State Building.

How Journalists and PR Professionals Use Blogs

A Forum sponsored by PR Newswire in the San Francisco Bay Area highlights how blogs are becoming more influential on mainstream media outlets. One major advantage sited in this forum of blogs over traditional print and broadcast media is the speed and ease of bloggers to correct mistakes online.
Panelist David Whelan, staff writer for Forbes, countered that mainstream media has one big advantage over blogs: "Most blogs are derivative; very few bloggers pick up the phone or look through documents. They do a lot of important analysis and commentary, but mainstream media will do more reporting."

Thanks to Steve Rubel for deriving this before me.

Call for Submissions: Enso and Lorg

From Andrea Fitzpatrick at the National University of Ireland (NUI) in Galway, Ireland.

Enso and Lorg call for work by performance, video & sound artists, dancers, musicians for collaboration at various venues around Galway during the Galway Arts Festival 2005.

Please send samples of work to ensoart[at]yahoo.ie or to
Enso, c/o Artspace,
7-8 Addley Park,
Liosban Industrial Estate,
Galway, Ireland
www.ensoart.com
Closing date: 13th of June 2005

Once Hactivist Hero Now Called Fraud

Spanish University Lecturer Forced to Resign Over P2P -- Now discredited by the Spanish Blogoshpere that gave him his rise, Jose Cortell has come under attack for his crudentials.

Cortell had been teaching about "Intellectual Property" among other subjects in the Polytechnic University of Valencia UPV (Spain) for more than 5 years, when he tried to organize a Conference to defend the legal use of Peer to Peer Networks in Spain. What followed were claims that pressure was applied by the Spanish Recording Industry Association, and even the Motion Picture Association of America to the Deans and Directors at the University for Cortell's resignation. Then the stories of a fake C.V. emerged. See Comments.