RE: [-empyre-] psychogeographies - opening statement

[Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com>]

Well said, Brett.

On the Eu-gene list concerned with generative art, Rob Myers said, in response to my question
'how can software art deconstruct the war machines?' that:

"Computing and computer graphics have been driven by the military and have been trickle-down-ed
through the military-industrial-entertainment complex to regiment postindustrial society.
Computer art is the aestheticization of oppression, a self-delusional liberal sales pitch for
smart bombs.

Deconstructing the war machines with software art is like protesting against debt by buying a
slogan t-shirt with a credit card. Irony can be dusted off here without too much eye-rolling,
though, and an implosion (LINUX) or closure (Dilbert) could be effective."

So let me put the question to you, if I may: how can software art deconstruct the war machines?

ja

> -----Original Message-----
> From: empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> [mailto:empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au]On Behalf Of Brett
> Stalbaum
> Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 2:48 AM
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] psychogeographies - opening statement
>
>
> Regarding the "neutral" representation of the weather, I am reminded of
> Crandall's statement "Where the terrestrial image has an object, the
> aerial image has a target." (Anything that Moves: Armed Vision)
> "[T] he projectile-gaze captures its object, freezes it, holds it in a tracking
> mode, intercourses it, obliterates it, couches it in a mechanism of
> protection." Would I be stretching the case to note that Teri's
> observation about something as initially innocuous as the visualizations
> given in a (battlefield) weather report can be connected to the "projectile
> gaze" in such way that we could reasonably say that such images are
> representations bound to a "tracking mode... obliterate[ing]... couch[ed]
> in a mechanism of protection"; or perhaps even a visual proxy for
> US/British/Australian foreign policy? I am not sure.
>
> But I had a telling experience the other day. I don't own a television, so
> my interface to this war's media is mostly through radio and news sites on
> the web. But I did actually experience the same "battlefield weather
> reports" that Teri refers to, but instead of in my home, it was embedded
> in a multi-media enabled gasoline pump, pumping both petrol into my truck,
> and the latest war analysis by Wolf Blitzer (followed by the battlefield
> weather), into myself. That we can see CNN reporting the war on a video
> screen in our gas pumps is yet another example of why it is so hard to be
> an artist today, especially if you work ironically. I was struck by the
> notion that the pump would make a great installation in a gallery space,
> as a readymade.
>
> But I live in the United States, which is rapidly becoming an irony-free
> zone.