Re: [-empyre-] Introducing Rhizome ArtBase and Kevin McGarry

[Yann Le Guennec <y@x-arn.org>]

Hi all,

Here is a small contribution to this topic, a small work based on a Manovich 
statement, and called:

'This is not a cloned object'
( http://www.x-arn.org/w3/ThisIsNotAClonedObject )

The first purpose of this work is to provide a simplified access to artworks 
contained in the Rhizome Artbase. Using Artbase parameters such as art 
object identifiers, the work focuses on anonymity wich can emerge from the 
relatively large amount of artworks. Furthermore, it's an illustration of 
the possible relations between interfaces and a database as described by Lev 
Manovich : "The new media object consists of one or more interfaces to a 
database of multimedia material. If only one interface is constructed, the 
result will be similar to a traditional art object; but this is an exception 
rather than the norm."
( http://time.arts.ucla.edu/AI_Society/manovich.html ).


the interface is here:
http://www.x-arn.org/rhizome/



-
Best
yann


Scott Paterson wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'd be curious to hear from Kevin how he considers the artbase as an "archive". I've followed the artbase and the debate around it since its inception and it seems to have grown into an unwieldy database of links rather than an archive because very few artists opt for rhizome's cloning feature and choose instead to add their projects as linked objects.  It is my understanding that the cloning option is rarely chosen because Rhizome hadn't made strides towards an agenda for archiving works(the issues around this previously described here quite well by someone at InterPARES) and at one point looked like they might close shop altogether. So before we talk about accessibility I think it's important to find out what one would actually be accessing.
> Best,
> [sgp]
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Melinda Rackham <melinda@subtle.net>
> Sent: Feb 14, 2005 8:15 PM
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: [-empyre-] Introducing Rhizome ArtBase and Kevin McGarry
>
> Rhizome ArtBase http://www.rhizome.org/art/ has been
> mentioned several times during this discussion as a model
> for net.art collection. Possibly the largest single archive
> of net.art today, containing over 1400 net.art works,  it
> has been built up over many years. To discuss the archive,
> its content guidelines, and its emulation and migration
> strategies,  we are pleased to introduce Kevin McGarry, the
> ArtBases Content Coordinator.
>
> Issues frequently mentioned along with this collection,
> include one of public accessibility, ie that it is only
> accessible online to Rhizome members, except on Fridays when
> entrance to Rhizome is freely available. The perception that
> the online world is a gift economy and content is a public
> service persists despite the dot com crash [pornography and
> massively multiplayer gaming being the obvious exceptions].
> Combining the lack of financial return for the work with the
> slowness with which private collectors and museums have
> acquired  net.art  raises larger issues of who pays for
> archiving net.art works when they are still privately owned
> by the artists who produced them?   What is the public good?
>
> Welcome to the discussion Kevin.