Thx Marc for this. Great comments at ‘Hack The Art World’, and a fan-freaking-tastic initiative overall. I found the comment written by James Bridle to be extremely interesting - it reads as significant back-pedalling by James, who was not only in the Barbican Show but also wrote an embarrassingly sycophantic puff-piece in the Guardian newspaper spruiking the hell out of it.
Chunks, Mez On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 10:20 PM, marc garrett <[email protected] > wrote: > Hi Shardcore and all, > > I’ve noticed many critical responses whether discussing with friends, > associates, or reading material about it online. > > I have copied and pasted some comments below from the ‘Hack The Art > World’, site. > > “I can't say I was all that bothered by the daft "DevArt" neologism. Nor > Google's unsubtle rewrite of digital art history. It was badly researched, > short-sighted, and a touch imperialistic, yes, but ultimately it only made > them look stupid, not anyone else. > > I was, however, a little creeped out by the DevArt competition. Their open > call to the community. To me it just appeared to be a cynical corporate > attempt to hoover up a load of grassroots enthusiasm and creativity and > take ownership of it, for the benefit of no-one except a multinational's > competitive advantage. > > Google's "opportunity" was, if we are to believe their blurb, intended to > "inspire" the artists of tomorrow. The opportunity was to compete for a > single commission, using tools Google wished to promote, and to surrender > all rights to any submitted work - whether commissioned or not. > > This may well reflect the harsh realities of the commercial world, but if > the aim was to inspire, this was a terrible way to go about it. IMHO, one > inspires by giving a sense of possibility, not limits. By giving a sense of > freedom, not constraint. By giving the experience of achievement, not > disappointment. The DevArt "opportunity" was not a chance for the world to > hear your voice, it was an invitation to queue for the XFactor auditions. > It was a doorstep on which to dump your best ideas in the hope a rich > benefactor might take one in and give it a home.” Matt Pearson. > > —————— > > “Just wanted to lend my support to this, which I think is a creative > response to the DR show. I was immediately galled by Google's arrogance > when they put the statement out. My initial reaction quickly evolved into > complete dismissal. Incursions into cultural discourse by clumsy corporate > actors are probably best ignored. The term itself is a laughable > articulation. > > Having said that, I think the art community should be suspicious about a > 'sponsor' as powerful as this making moves into the art sector. The GOOG > have a track record of challenging, even dismantling (aka 'disrupting') > cultural institutions - just ask the world's libraries. So I guess there > are serious undertones here.” Anil Bawa-Cavia. > > —————— > > “When I wrote about the exhibition for the Guardian (a preview piece - the > show hadn't opened yet) I wanted to be careful not to disparage the work of > those involved, but instead to highlight my discomfort with Google's > involvement (given some of the responses, I may have been too subtle about > this...). I also wanted to separate my personal feelings about Google from > my feelings about what institutions should be supporting in artistic > practice, and what I felt was a failure not by Google (who do what big > corps do) and not by the artists (who need to make work and get by), but by > the Barbican for allowing this to happen in their name. > > This I feel is the main problem: massive corporations are going to > massively incorporate, artists are going to make work, and sometimes they > are going to do it in difficult, questioning circumstances. Institutions > should exist to facilitate work but not direct it. Far more ethically > dubious partnerships (Bloomberg, BP) are common in the art world, but they > don't dictate the form of the work, or try to write art history. It's at > this point that the Barbican should have stepped in and reined Google in a > bit: they're a sponsor, not a curator. > > My fear is that this failure of nerve on the part of the Barbican (and I > hope it was that, and not sheer ignorance) is part of a wider failure of > nerve on the part of institutions dealing with technology and tech/art, > giving up curatorial confidence and simply handing it over to entities with > their own agenda who they feel know more about this area. It's a worrying > precedent.” James Bridle. > > To read the rest of these comments and more about ‘Hack The Art World’ — > visit here http://hacktheartworld.com/discus.html#comment-1495932506 > > And, here is the front end for http://hacktheartworld.com/ > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: SHA1 >> >> *waves* >> >> i'm in this, along with a few others, it's been organised by Jan >> Vantomme. It's getting a surprising amount of press (WSJ, New Scientist, >> Wired etc) which is good. >> >> Having just been to DigitalRevolution this week, I can say we need to be >> making more noise than ever - it's a show full of 'interactive >> entertainment' masquerading as art. Some of it's good, but there's a hell >> of a lot that feels like 'tech demos' >> >> >> >> On 1 Aug 2014, at 09:48, marc garrett wrote: >> >> Artists virtually gatecrash Google's DevArt Barbican exhibit >>> >>> By Katie Collins. >>> >>> A collective of coders and artists who go by the name Hack the Artworld >>> have gatecrashed the Google-sponsored DevArt exhibition currently taking >>> place at the Barbican in London. >>> >>> The artists have uploaded their own digital artworks to a website and >>> have placed location markers within the DevArt exhibition itself -- >>> digitally fencing it off, so that only visitors to the Barbican can access >>> the artworks on their smartphones or tablets. >>> >>> The DevArt exhibition is meant to be an exploration of art that has been >>> made with code, but it has not chimed well with everyone involved in the >>> digital arts community, many of whom have been displeased by various >>> elements of Google's efforts. On the Hack the Artworld website the artists >>> have published an open letter addressed to Larry Page and Sergey Brin >>> laying out their objections in full. >>> >>> Wired - http://bit.ly/1mDOZw1 >>> >>> >>> -- >>> ---> >>> >>> A living - breathing - thriving networked neighbourhood - >>> proud of free culture - claiming it with others ;) >>> >>> Other reviews,articles,interviews >>> http://www.furtherfield.org/reviews.php >>> >>> Furtherfield – online arts community, platforms for creating, viewing, >>> discussing and learning about experimental practices at the >>> intersections of art, technology and social change. >>> http://www.furtherfield.org >>> >>> Furtherfield Gallery – Finsbury Park (London). >>> http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery >>> >>> Netbehaviour - Networked Artists List Community. >>> http://www.netbehaviour.org >>> >>> http://identi.ca/furtherfield >>> http://twitter.com/furtherfield >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >> Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.22 (Darwin) >> Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org >> >> iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJT2166AAoJEBecN5rmsGZ0prUIAMLytr0Br5TV4TPZlZ3f4yiP >> MmWDLLhi5GSq1dl6HUhuOTkKR/OAtFtER1hH2aAhzPfNnmx7V4cQZiilKRjAEMPL >> 3yJgDfCD1xon7rjMkS2DurzkX8N6X/MjMqgjAIPwtX4vJM9UtLfsWyPceXwRaURS >> ZUGovPAV+Vm08PQgA1R8sREuG5sg3UfzYrRyEzpHrV0KU3sFAcP0QhcK3yigP273 >> 0cnvX/FgIZCSu9eqSacwNcfYaIo8Zi7XCuBg8Od3l/0feDxhxcgODFNxqWPmFuyJ >> fGQtWSzrKAHk33ONXBUlUg10imJOK3p2upz3U64u8og1QqMjn4OhD/ZGVMVJxFM= >> =9poY >> -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> > > > -- > ---> > > A living - breathing - thriving networked neighbourhood - > proud of free culture - claiming it with others ;) > > Other reviews,articles,interviews > http://www.furtherfield.org/reviews.php > > Furtherfield – online arts community, platforms for creating, viewing, > discussing and learning about experimental practices at the > intersections of art, technology and social change. > http://www.furtherfield.org > > Furtherfield Gallery – Finsbury Park (London). > http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery > > Netbehaviour - Networked Artists List Community. > http://www.netbehaviour.org > > http://identi.ca/furtherfield > http://twitter.com/furtherfield > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- | facebook.com/MezBreezeDesign <http://www.facebook.com/MezBreezeDesign> | twitter.com/MezBreezeDesign | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mez_Breeze
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