[-empyre-] Week 3:Welcome back Melinda Rackham.

[Renate Terese Ferro]

I would like to introduce Melinda Rackham back to the -empyre list.
Melinda as 
many of you know was the innovator of our list-serve back in 2002.
-empyre soft-skinned space
was a research forum for her  PhD research at the College of Fine Arts,
UNSW, 
Australia. Structured as an experimental peer arena, the community has
continued to grow exponentially to its present 2000 subscribers. Looking
forward to not only hearing about Melinda¹s current research but also a
bit about new tools
and technologies that she incorporates into her cross-disciplinary
practice.  

The technology of the list-serve is an interesting one I think.  Melinda
back in 2002 social media
certainly was not as ubiquitous at it is now.  In fact many of us recall
the old dial-up interfaces and
slow speeds that were so characteristic of the internet at that time.
Multi-authored blogs were certainly not
very prevalent. Facebook was launched a couple years after -empyre in
2004.  Our moderating team
has often discussed the efficacy of -empyre as a blog rather than a list
serve but all agree in the end that
the archival history of -empyre and its moderated and curated monthly
themes are still preferred.

I am thrilled you have decided to join us for a couple of days this month.
 A warm welcome.
Renate


Melinda Rackham has worked in the arts and new technologies arena for
thirty years, with an international career as an internet-based artist and
scholar investigating intimacy and identity in human and machine
relations. In the past decade she has been actively
engaged as a curator and writer across the broader spectrum of
contemporary art, craft and design practices.  As her early network art
finds a new generation of viewers, Melinda¹s focus has shifted to writing
- personally in memoir, and professionally on the processes of artists and
artworks.
Find out more at : www.subtle.net <http://www.subtle.net/>




Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office:  306
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rferro at cornell.edu <mailto:rtf9 at cornell.edu>>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net <http://www.renateferro.net/>
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
<http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net/>
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net <http://www.tinkerfactory.net/>

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/