Re: [-empyre-] _Active Narrative Gathering_ Active collecting!

[jonCates <joncates@criticalartware.net>]

On Fri, 13 Jun 2003 11:02:57 +1000 "][mez][" <netwurker@hotkey.net.au>
>  some m.mergent forms of art|n.tertainment|simulcra r interconnected
> via narrative threads b.yond
>  parent forms/individualised media constrictions..

Yes, this is a great example. I like Pokemon (as another example),
wherein Pokemon Island becomes a hub in a network of meanings,
activities, technologies, platforms, etc. It is interesting to see
these tendencies increase + the Matrix seems to be a place where
these attitudes are very self reflexively @ play.
Interestingly the advertie-ins also lead to the video game. @ least
the PowerAid TV spots, here in the States, conclude w/the following
url:
http://www.thisadisnotreal.com/
which is another path to the
http://www.enterthematrixgame.com/
content.

<---cut-n-paste--->
>  this isn't a new phenomenon.....

Celia Pearce calls this kind of interdependency/intertextuality
"transmedia" + has spoken on, written about + designed/developed
media w/these approaches.
<---
Celia Pearce, a visiting scholar who studies games at the University
of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication, is using
Pokemon as a model to teach young game makers how to create what she
calls "transmedia" games that can straddle many platforms and media.

"I believe that Pokemon is the home run of transmedia," Dr. Pearce
says. "It's the first thing that's come out in the transmedia
generation that has immediately extended itself out to multiple media
in a very short time. It's inherently extensible."
--->
from: http://www.redherring.com/companies/2001/0406/600018660.html

Celia Pearce chaired the SIGGRAPH 98 Panels and below is nfo on one
panel that particularly addresses the topic + demonstrates some of
the thinking of those involved.
<---
Out of the Box: Toys Break the Screen Barrier

Moderator

Steve Schklair, Quantum Arts

Panelists

Christian Greuel, LEGO A/S, SPU-Darwin
Andy Rifkin, Mattel Media
Erik Strommen, Microsoft Corporation
Michael Patrick Johnson, MIT Media Lab
John Sutyak, Hasbro Interactive

Transmedia applications blur the line between physical play in the
real world and virtual play in the digital world. Are these
applications precursors to eventual integration of the computer into
more aspects of daily life? As they distribute the play experience
over different media, are they still considered "applications," or
have they become "toys" in which the computer is now only part of the
total experience? This panel analyzed the theory and practice behind
transmedia, and offered live demonstrations of transmedia products.
--->

On Fri, 13 Jun 2003 09:56:51 +0100 <tom@nullpointer.co.uk> wrote:
> Its nice to have a wider number of strands of experience around a
> peice of work/film e.t.c.
> But its also a nice way to sell more products. Inevitable I suppose.
>
> It draws me back to a common idea that we are increasingly a
> population of collectors.

In terms of the collection aspect, most of the activities in Pokemon
are driven by + inspire a sort of hyperactivated
capitalist/colonialist collection. I'll admit to having collections
of unopened Pokemon cards + toys in my collection.

<---cut-n-paste--->
>  Maybe its an archivist urge to fight against those inevitable 404s
> of the future..(that online art suffers
>  from so well)

I'll also admit to being bitten by this archivist urge @ times and
surprised @ certain 404s that I thought wouldn't happen. I often turn
to the Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org/) by The Internet
Archive + Alexa Internet and sometimes find fragments of what I
remembered. This is also what was so wonderful + will be so sincerely
missed about what Steve Dietz was doing w/the New Media Initiatives
program @ the Walker + the Digital Arts Study Collection
(http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/index.html). As I understand it,
äda 'web, for example, would have just 404ed into the past, if it had
not been for his purchase/collection of the work. And now this will
probably 404 before long:
http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/dietz/

<---cut-n-paste--->
>  I wonder about this, perhaps the decay of online work is just part
> of its scope?

It does reveal the wonderfully time/server specific-ness which
contrasts claims to otherness or separateness in terms of the passage
of time online. Of course, the situation can distribute archiving,
making this a kind of community effort. It also presents the
possibility of populating/establishing a parallel network of personal
choices (i.e. this is my [tiny, fragmented, subjective copy of the]
internet from July 1995).
In any case, this is the collection of art as an activity very
different from previous situations which functioned as a form of
economic/social support. I wonder how others feel in relation to how
their work is collected and/or iterated?
--
jonCates

<--------
Instructor
Film Video and New Media
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
http://www.artic.edu/~jcates
-------->

<------------
coreDeveloper
criticalartware
http://www.criticalartware.net
------------->

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