Re: [-empyre-] Opening remarks on new media history

[murphy <murphy@thing.net>]

Hi Noah, Alan, Simon, Patrick et al,

This is my attempt at my New Years resolution to be more positive and 
helpful. For the record I'm tending to agree with Alan.

On Friday, January 2, 2004, at 09:50 AM, Kanarinka wrote:

> Something that would be useful -- I would like somebody to compile a
> book of "case studies" of realized new media projects, how they got
> funding, who contributed (usually many more people than the solo
> artist), critical commentary from artistic and technological
> perspectives, etc. A well-compiled book would, I think, demonstrate the
> amazing variety and hybridity of this "field", that any given "new
> media" project leaks outside itself into many other well-established
> domains and genres, and that there isn't and cannot be a single
> conceivable "new media experience" or "new media format".

"Curating New Media" put out by BALTIC and CRUMB is a wonderful little 
book that attempts what you propose within a limited scope.  I think 
some of it is online at the Crumb site 
(http://www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/crumb) or at The  Baltic site 
(http://balticmill.com). It is comprised of mainly "post-1994" people 
like me.

There was a "Museums and the Internet" symposium in Salzburg in the late 
'90s that had a lot of the "pre-1994" people and a book was edited by 
Christiane Paul but I don't know if it ever was published. I don't think 
it would have much of what you're after though I remember learning a 
great deal between the panels about new media politics. I should have 
taken better notes at the time though there is a report on it I did for 
Intelligent Agent on that site (http://intelligentagent.com).

There is "New Media Arts | New funding Models", a report from the 
Rockefeller Foundation in 2000 by Pamela Jennings available online: 
http://digital-Bauhaus.com

And there is also the Art Dirt archives at the Walker Art Center where a 
number of us in NYC sat around and talked about the then current 
situation each week in front of microphones for web broadcasts. I don't 
think it's been indexed but it would be interesting to mine that sort of 
information from it. Personally I'm afraid to go back and listen to all 
the stupid things I said.

You're right. Such a book would be great.


Robbin Murphy