For Immediate Release: Subject: New York net artists hijack webcam voyeur site When: Friday January 26th - Sunday January 28th 2001 Where: <http://www.weliveinpublic.com> Who: The Verbal Group Title: The Warhol Hijack Schedule: http://www.treasurecrumbs.com/verbal/wlip Following close on the heels of their successful sold out performance event Call & Response at The Kitchen in New York this Fall a group of emerging net artists who call themselves The Verbal Group <http://www.treasurecrumbs.com/> will create a new series of performances over the weekend of Jan. 26th - 28th. This highly experimental new art form promises to extend and redefine the scope of performance art for the new millennium. The Verbal Group will do this by using the voyeuristic web site <http://www.weliveinpublic.com>. The site is a further iteration of Josh Harris' (pseudo.com) new media on the web. Josh with partner Tanya Corrin have wired their loft with surveillance webcams and microphones. The Verbal Group will take over the Harris loft for one weekend and "hijack" the site by occupying the loft. More than a simple Tableau Vivant, the group will play with the boundaries of our 21st century mediated world. People can access the site via the web and receive audio/video streams by signing up on the front page to receive a password. The participating member artists from The Verbal Group are: Ricardo Dominguez http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ G.H. Hovagimyan http://www.thing.net/~gh Yael Kanarek http://www.worldofawe.com Tina LaPorta http://turbulence.org/Works/Distance/ Diane Ludin http://www.thing.net/~diane/ Kevin & Jennifer McCoy http://www.mccoyspace.com M.River and T.Whid Art Associates http://www.mteww.com Cary Peppermint http://www.restlessculture.net/peppermint/ Curator in Residence - Jennifer Crowe http://www.artnetweb.com/protocol/ About the Verbal Group Perhaps the most interesting loosely knit group to emerge from the New York net.art scene this group of mostly young artists have been meeting informally for over a year to formulate various strategies to present their work to the public.The first gathering was initiated by Yael Kanarek, who invited Mark Napier and M.River and T.Whid Art Associates to start a series of informal meetings. As the meetings began to include more digital artists Eyebeam Atelier (the future digital art museum) agreed to host the meetings. Part of this formalizing process allowed the artists to present their work to each other for comment and as a way to share ideas. This process is of course nothing new in the tradition of artists groups however the type of art and aesthetics being produced is digital and network centric. The innovation is apparent when one looks at the individuals in the group and their overall reputation as new media artists in New York city and indeed throughout the world. In their most recent effort, the Call and Response performances at the Kitchen all of the artists produced new pieces that questioned the suppositions of a networked society. What is emerging from this group is a willingness to play with some of our common held notions about art, communication, media and culture. The Warhol Hijack <http://www.treasurecrumbs.com/verbal/wlip> The Warhol Hijack is just such an instance of playfulness and innovation. The context is a voyeuristic web site set up by Josh Harris to present his life and that of his companion Tanya Corrin to the web public. This is done via 32 cameras set up throughout their living loft . The phones are tapped. There are microphones throughout the space. Harris, who comes from a media background is presenting the environment as the way we will live in the near future. This is a dystopian vision that has some truth to it. Witness the success of Reality TV in the mass media. What the Verbal Group is doing with the Warhol Hijack is escalating the premise to include artists activities. A casual net surfer can log onto the site and view an artists performance or perhaps the group discussing a future activity. Some of the performances allow for accessors participation via chat. Indeed, this may be viewed as a new way to extend the idea of performance art and interactivity in the arts. What initially attracted the group to use the <HTTP://www.weliveinpublic.com> web site was it's status as a non-place. The site is not really a dot.com group trying to be mass media neither is it a traditional artists venue such as a gallery or performance space. Therein lies the rub. In seeking new venues that are more appropriate to new media the Verbal Group will most certainly come up with intriguing new works that challenge us all. For more background information: <http://www.treasurecrumbs.com/> contacts: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- <twhid> http://www.mteww.com </twhid>
