[-empyre-] archiving, playing w/+ remembering A Vernacular Web

[//jonCates <joncates@criticalartware.net>]

olia lialina recently posted an excerpt of her recent 
[presentation/txt] "A Vernacular Web" on Rhizome.org. the extended txt, 
hosted by lialina on:

http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/vernacular/

is extended from the version presented @  the Decade of Web Design 
Conference in AMS .NL on 2005.01.21:

http://www.decadeofwebdesign.org/

the [presentation/txt] includes subjective hystorical recollections by 
lialina + commentary esp relevant to this month's conversation here on 
empyre, i.e.:

"Just as clothing styles come back into fashion so do web designs. On a 
visual level things reappear. Last year I noticed that progressive web 
designers returned to an eclectic style reincorporating wallpapers and 
3D lettering in their work. In the near future frames and construction 
signs will show up as retro and the beautiful old elements will be 
stripped of their meaning and contexts.

In the past few years I’ve also been making work that foregrounds this 
disappearing aesthetic of the past. With these works I want to 
apologize for my arrogance in the early years and to preserve the 
beauty of the vernacular web by integrating them within contemporary 
art pieces. But this is only half of the job.

Creating collections and archives of all the midi files and animated 
gifs will preserve them for the future but it is no less important to 
ask questions. What did these visual, acoustic and navigation elements 
stand for? For which cultures and media did these serve as a bridge to 
the web? What ambitions were they serving? What problems did they solve 
and what problems did they create? Let me talk about the difficult 
destiny of some of these elements."

data.src:

title: A Vernacular Web
dvr: olia lialina
format:  [presentation/txt]
uri: http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/vernacular/

the section "The Starry Night Background" on the [heroism/futurism] 
stars as background imgs, dreams of {inner|outer|digi}space + an 
"extraterrestial web future" particularly connects to this month's 
discussion. 01 such connection is to Rhizome.org's "alt.interface" 
project:

http://rhizome.org/interface/

specifically, i am thinking of the StarryNight project by Alex Galloway 
& Mark Tribe with Martin Wattenberg:

"StarryNight represents each text in the archive as a star in the night 
sky. Click on stars to create keyword constellations and access texts."

data.src:

title: alt.interface
dvr: Rhizome.org
format: various
uri: http://rhizome.org/interface/

Kevin McGarry, i wonder if you could discuss the ArtBase as an archive 
in rltn to these earlier Rhizome.org alt.interfaces, the Rhizome 
Commissioning Program + the Rhizome Exhibitions?

[talk/type] soon

// jonCates
edu: http://www.artic.edu/~jcates
collab: http://www.criticalartware.net
projs: http://www.systemsapproach.net/
blog: http://newmedianowandthen.blogspot.com/