Re: [-empyre-] forwarded from Jorge Luiz Antonio: Comments and thanks

["arteonline" <arteonline@arteonline.arq.br>]

Dear Jorge,

Many thanks for your kind words about my work and your continuous interest
in it.

Dear Empyreans,

Jorge and I have been working together since 2001. We never met  each other
out of web but I consider him one of my best friends. It is always a
pleasure to work with him.

Jorge mentioned the magazine Arte on Line, which I edited with Marcelo
Frazão and Paulo Villela (other two great and nice friends), it was the
begining of the Museum of the Essential and Beyond That. Jorge have helped
me a lot with this magazine too. It is interesting to say that Jorge and I
are brazilians but it was Reiner Strasser, German,  who introduced us.

 I would like to correct a small mistake of Jorge. The correct name of my
project is not "Book of Marvels", but "Library of Marvels":

I'd like to introduce the Library of Marvels
(http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm ). Through this project, I'm
interested among other things, in examining the cultural impact and
possibilities created by computers as machines that can generate books and
libraries.

The Library of Marvels is a collection of "artists' books" on the web. These
books are electronic narratives that use several media and processes:
pictures, sound, texts, movement, games, simulation, programming, and
interactivity or a simulation thereof.

The library got started in 1999, and  contains five volumes: "The White and
the Black, Reflections on Fog" (1999)  , the "Book of Sand" (2001), "The
Psychiatrist, Net.art / Web.art and Other Stories" (2002), "The Newest Song
of Exile: Sabiá Virtuality" (2003), and the most recent volume: "Viewing
Axolotls"(2004), about which we have talked until now. The starting point of
my research is always SEEING. Whether we are looking at fog (1999), looking
on in horror (2001), looking at madness (2002), looking at culture (2003) or
viewing axolotls (2004). This research have begun with my master
dissertation of thesis: "Four
Views in Search of a Reader, Important Women, Art and Identity," 1994, EBA,
UFRJ ("Federal University of Rio de Janeiro").

Some information about the books:

"The White and the Black, Reflections on Fog" (1999) > I think that this
two followings paragraphs extracted from the review by Jorge Luiz Antonio
will
tell you something about the work. You may search for more information,
including the complete review at (http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm ).
Click "The black and the white, reflections on fog."

"The White and the Black  brings Julien Sorel, Stendhal's French character,
and brings him for a expedition in Brazil. It gives a romantic color to the
history similar to Brazilian Romantic novels, and of other countries, and
"makes" the history to seem true. Regina puts some letters and dates in
order to build a character as it is alive, real, existing in the XXth
century.

The virtual narrative of Regina brings this tone, this ambience, playing a
trick on the reader-operator, making the history become a fact that existed,
and it shows as a creation of the character Julien Sorel. The
reader-operator who doesn't know Stendhal's book, or the Ascher's poem, can
notice a scientific report of an expedition made by Julien Sorel, from 1810
to 1820, to the Serra do Mar , whose map is presented in two routes. Only a
more careful look can deviate the attention to the "true" history, noticing
that the route is constructed under a disguising form of a mouse..."

(Jorge Luiz Antonio)

This book includes the first Fog Game, which I consider one of my best
games. Browser at:
http://arteonline.arq.br/museu/games/fogame.htm

>"Book of Sand" (2001)> This book is based on the Magic Realism of Jorge
Luiz Borges'
"Book of Sand" and it was prepared to express my feelings about the tragedy
of
September 11 2001. People liked very much this book when it was launched.
There is a dominoe game in it. Browser at:
(http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm ) and  click "Book of Sand".

>"The Psychiatrist, Net.art / Web.art and other stories" (2002)> It is a
parody of the excellent brazilian author Machado de Assis ("The psychiatrist
and other stories").
Below the last portion of my parody:

"Arriving at this conclusion, I had two contrary sensations, one of
pleasure, the other depression. That of pleasure was from seeing that, at
the end of long, patient investigations, constant work and hard fighting
with critics, I could declare this truth: - the category "Net Art"- "Web
Art" already occupied extensive territory within the frontiers of art. The
Green House was being thought out and built simultaneously by many artists
of various terrestrial co-ordinates. But as quickly as this idea refreshed
my soul, another appeared which neutralised the first effect; it was the
idea of doubt. So what! In Itaguaí and the rest of the world there were
still many people who did not believe in that. This such absolute
conclusion, would it not be mistaken in itself, and did it not come,
therefore, to destroy the broad, majestic building of the new form of art?

My affliction was defined by friends as one of the most awful intellectual
storms that has broken on a "web artist". But storms only bury the weak; the
strong get stronger against them and stare at the thunder. Twenty minutes
later my expression was lit up with a gentle clarity.

- Yes, that has to be, I thought ...

- On the one side, the issue was commercial, I thought; it was about a
relatively new art form, that until now had little or no market value.
Current society is ruled by the media and by the market.

- This and that: Science and Art were frontier territories. There was a
threshold space between them. This space corresponded to the space of the
Green House.

- No rule?

- None

- Is everything valid?

- Everything. Art, on the web or outside it, has to be of good quality, has
to awake the emotion of the admirer. "The artist creates for himself - only
for himself. The creation of the artist is an emblem: from his innermost he
manifests all the small, ephemeral things: his suffering, free desires,
anguished dreams and those joys that lose vigour. There his soul becomes
great and festive, and he has created a dignified hearth for himself." 1

I went into the Green House, I made it my hearth. "Often I feel such a great
nostalgia for myself and, I know that the path is still long, but in my best
dreams I catch a glimpse of the day in which I will be able to accept
myself." 2
I do not intend to leave it. After all, what is the line that separates the
inside from the outside? "The creator is the ulterior man, he beyond whom
the future is found." 3


1- 2- 3 *RILKE, Rainer Maria. O diário de Florença. São Paulo, Editora Nova
Alexandria, 2002.

This book includes a game of  "Ludo". To know this book and the Green House,
browser at: http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm and click "The
psychiatrist, the net.art / web.art and other stories".

>"The Newest Song of Exile: Sabiá Virtuality" (2003)> It is my favorite book
and  the  most romantic of my books. It is also a declaration of love to the
city where I was born and I live and to people that live here. It also shows
my
preoccupation with the violence and the poverty. It is convenient to say
that all carioca (people who was born in Rio de Janeiro) is passioned for
his/her city. Jim mentioned a show that prevented me to show my works after
aLe.  That show was about my city: 50 cariocas/artists  are showing their
vision of their city. There are works that emphasize the beauty of the city
and there are others that are pure social criticism. The curator of that
show "The Face of Rio"  is Marcelo Frazão. A post card catalogue / book  was
published and
launched during the Vernissage.

There is a hopscotch game in Sabiá Virtuality. Browser at:
http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm and click:  >"The Newest Song of Exile:
Sabiá Virtuality".

>I think is not necessary to speak about Viewing Axolotls again.

Two of these books above have real versions: "The white and the black,
reflections on fog" and "The newest song of exile, sabiá virtuality". These
versions are real artists' books.

Best wishes,

Regina