[-empyre-] Welcome new facilitators Marcus Bastos, Tracey Benson

[-empyre- administration <empyre-owner@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>]

Dear -empyreans-,

Please join the "old" -empyre- facilitators in welcoming two new
facilitators, Tracey Benson and Marcus Bastos.  They will be bringing thier
unique and diverse interests to the programming of -empyre-, and helping to
take the list in new directions.

Marcus Bastos, a PhD in Communication and Semiotics, teaches at the
Catholic University of São Paulo and researches experimental literature,
focusing on digital media. Recent work includes the articles "Recycling
Culture", "witt-END? Literature, language, technology" and "Six proposals
for the next minutes", the websites "Weblandscape0" (
http://paisagem0.sescsp.org.br/ ) and "mobil_izing" ( http://pfebril.net )
and the portuguese translation for Jim Andrew´s "On Lionel Kearns"
( http://www.vispo.com/kearns/index.htm ).

Tracey Benson joins us from Canberra, Australia. She is in the final stages
of a PhD at the Centre for New Media Arts at The Australian National
University. Her research focuses on online communities, accessibility and
activism. Tracey is both an artist and writer, and has been working
digitally since 1995, with a focus on developing hypertextual works and
animations. 

Some of her online projects include: swipe - airports, borders and fences
( http://www.swipe.name ); Indahaus, Canberra Contemporary Art Space;
BORDERPANIC online exhibition, The Performance Space, Sydney; Highway of
Shame, CTHEORY Multimedia Issue #3: Wired Ruins, http://www.ctheory.net/ ;
Micromuseum, Mediaterra traveling festival 2002, http://www.mediaterra.org ;
Graffiti, http://www.virtualmuseum.org ; Experimenta media arts on-line
gallery and Sciart'99.

Tracey has written for a range of publications and events including:
Eyeline, Fine Art Forum, Mesh, BORDERPANIC reader, N5M4 and Muse. Her
personal web site is at http://www.byte-time.net/ .

So when you see them at the water cooler, or queuing up for lunch in the
-empyre- cafeteria, be sure to say "hi", and make them feel welcome.
Hopefully all -empyreans- will be as pleased as I am to have experienced and
engaged folks like Tracey and Marcus joining us.

Welcome,
Michael, Jim, Christina and Melinda