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even though the discussion has moved on, it still is february (in
part of the world anyway), & i started writing something a while
ago in response to renate's invitation for us to post about our
tools & technologies, so i'll send it & run the risk of
being too long to read ... :)<br>
<br>
first of all is UpStage (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.upstage.org.nz">http://www.upstage.org.nz</a>),
the open source web-based platform for cyberformance that i've been
involved in developing & creating with since 2003. it was
initially dreamed up by Avatar Body <i>Collision</i> - a group of
four women using the free software of the time to create live
performances over the internet - mainly iVisit and the Palace,
hacking these tools in the sense of using them to do something other
than what they were designed to do. we started to run into problems
when the intentions of the software didn't match our artistic needs,
such as iVisit suddenly making it impossible to change your
username, which meant we were stuck with character names from one
show. & the Palace became gradually less useable as operating
systems advanced. so we were motivated to develop software that was
actually designed to do what <u>we</u> wanted it to do, that we had
some control over, and also something that made it easy for online
audiences to participate without having to download & install
additional software. the internet was still then a place where it
felt like anything was possible [to paraphrase tracey] & so we
launched enthusiastically into creating our own tool.<br>
<br>
UpStage has grown from being a tool we created for ourselves, to an
international community of artists & a few developers. between
2007 and 2012 we organised 6 successful online festivals in UpStage.
in january last year we celebrated UpStage's 10th birthday, which is
quite an achievement for a mostly unfunded artist-led open source
software project. being part of UpStage's development has been
hugely interesting for me as i'm not a programmer, yet i've been
able to work closely with programmers to try & achieve things
that i'd like to have in the software. i've learned how important it
is to have a good understanding of the technologies that i work with
as an artist, to think critically about them & to be able to
help shape them. [naturally i think that what renate reported about
her university separating digital tool learning from art practice is
a huge mistake]. <br>
<br>
we decided last year that it's time to completely rebuild UpStage;
technology has evolved massively since 2003 & there are now
better ways to do just about everything. however progress is slow
without funding, & funding for a non-geographically-based arts
project is still incredibly hard to get. we need help, so if anyone
out there wants to get involved, please do!<br>
<br>
a similar tool is the waterwheel tap, led by suzon fuks (<a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://water-wheel.net/tap">http://water-wheel.net/tap</a>);
it's primarily intended for projects addressing the topic of water,
& it's not open source. we used the tap in 2012 for most of the
CyPosium (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.cyposium.net/">http://www.cyposium.net/</a>) - an
online symposium about cyberformance & networked performance. it
made sense to use the tools that we work with artistically to also
present & discuss our work. one presentation was given in
UpStage, & alan sondheim would have given his presentation in
Second Life, but we had trouble working out how to stream out from
SL so that people could join the presentation without having to log
in to SL. (i did get it worked out for the 121212 UpStage festival a
couple of months later, where we streamed 3 shows out from SL).<br>
<br>
last year i worked on two quite different projects which used mobile
devices, for geocaching and to scan QR codes and Zappar (augmented
reality) codes (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thesalmagundi.net/">http://thesalmagundi.net/</a> and
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://talesfromthetowpath.net/">http://talesfromthetowpath.net/</a>). i had to learn how to use the apps
and create content for them, & also how to make tablets
childproof in the way that we wanted & how to develop
workarounds when apps didn't quite suit our artistic needs. it was
all a bit mind-bending! but interesting. one thing that i found
really frustrating is that the majority of apps are only available
through either the google play store or the apple store; which means
that if you don't want to sign your soul away to one or the other,
you're prevented from getting the "free" app. some apps are
available from the app makers' websites or other places like F-Droid
where you don't have to sign in, but it disappoints me that most app
makers don't make their apps downloadable from their own websites as
well as the stores. it seems like a pretty obvious thing to do
(unless google & apple prevent them from doing that in their
contracts?). <br>
<br>
we're increasingly forced/coerced to be constantly signed in to
these big corporations, & i object to it as an artist and an
activist. it's vital that we are able to choose whether or not to
sign in, and to have input into creating our own tools that are
independent and actually designed for what we want to do with them,
or that we can hack into what we want/need, rather than having
limits & rules imposed on us. that's why we keep going with
UpStage, even when we have no funding and things move very slowly.
[keeping our sticks, as davin said].<br>
<br>
h : )<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/02/15 2:41 26AM, Renate Terese
Ferro wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:D0F58FDD.1AA8A%25rtf9@cornell.edu" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
We are hoping that all of our subscribers, both active participants and
lurkers, will post a couple of times this month to share
your current work and what tools and or technologies you are using to that
end. Some of you may be developing new apps or platforms where others of
you are pushing the boundaries of other tools that are more ubiquitous.
Just this past week Google¹s CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the world economic
forum in Switzerland exclaiming that ³The Internet is Dead.² Schmidt¹s
call was simply the assertion that the internet is so ubiquitous because
of the nature of networked things. Interfaces are and will become so
naturally integrated into our architectural and living environments
Schmidt stated. The critical question remains how will the rights and
privacy of individuals become impacted.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-internet-disappear-future-cyanogen-tech">http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-internet-disappear-future-cyanogen-tech</a>
-news-digest/
Ironically it was only seven years ago in 2008 that WIRED magazine
published an article entitled ³The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.²
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.wired.com/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/">http://www.wired.com/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/</a>
A move away from the open search of the web to more enclosed and
prescriptive apps, music and movie services all driven by the ease and
impact of i-phone technology has enabled the web to become less important
asserted WIRED authors Chris Anderson and
Michael Wolff when they wrote: ³Sure, we¹ll always have Web pages. We
still have postcards and telegrams, don¹t we? But the centerOf interactive
media ‹ increasingly, the center of gravity of all media ‹is moving to a
post-HTML environment,² we promised nearly a decade and half ago.
"The examples of the time were a bit silly ‹ a ³3-D furry-muckers VR
space² and ³headlines sent to a pager² ‹ but the point was altogether
prescient: a glimpse of the machine-to-machine future that would be less
about browsing and more about getting.²
The internet has experienced dramatic changes since the beginning of its
inception as is the way of any of the technologies we have used in the
past or are currently using. Looking forward to hearing you. It is a new
year. Share you tools and technologies.
Renate
Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office: 306
Ithaca, NY 14853
Email: <<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu">rferro@cornell.edu</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rtf9@cornell.edu"><mailto:rtf9@cornell.edu></a>>
URL: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.renateferro.net">http://www.renateferro.net</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.renateferro.net/"><http://www.renateferro.net/></a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net">http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net/"><http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net/></a>
Lab: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.tinkerfactory.net">http://www.tinkerfactory.net</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.tinkerfactory.net/"><http://www.tinkerfactory.net/></a>
Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/</a>
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
helen varley jamieson<br>
<a href="mailto:helen@creative-catalyst.com">helen@creative-catalyst.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.creative-catalyst.com">http://www.creative-catalyst.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.talesfromthetowpath.net">http://www.talesfromthetowpath.net</a><br>
<a href="http://www.upstage.org.nz">http://www.upstage.org.nz</a></div>
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