One Cache Memory of New Media in China [html]
A short piece on China's New Media activites in art academies solicited by the editors at art-signal.
A PDF of the essay can be found [here PDF 800kB], while the art-signal site [html] also offers a full PDF version of their journal, and an option to order hardcopies. This essay is a short (2000 words), and is based on mid-term assessments from my fieldwork in China (January 2006 through September 2007).
Supersonic Review [html]
Review of the 2004 multi-school MFA show at ArtCenter in Pasadena
The original text for the artnet review i wrote can be found here [pdf]. The artnet review and accompanying pictures can be found here [html]. The artnet review, at no fault to anyone or thing except that it is a review, did not fully articulate my opinions of many of the works. Some works were not included (Nathaniel Clark's, Eric Deis', and others), and many of those included did not receive their proper due (Melanie Nakaue's, Christopher Russell's), and others deserved yet more elaborate critique (Hope's horn, or Bucher's incredibly smart installation).
Scale v1.0 [PDF]
An examination of Scale in the artwork of Neil Stuber and Jon Phillips
Scale explores the concept of scaling technically and socially in the work of Neil Stuber and Jon Phillips. Stuber's SVG graphics work satires social assumptions, making the viewer laugh nervously, while at the same time the images re-enter the space of their critique. Phillips engineers scale through group dynamics as people around him work collaboratively in an translated OSS environment in the journal Scale. Here, Scale examines models of Self-Organizing Criticality (SOC) as (differently) proposed by Physicists and New Media theorists, outlining strengths and weaknesses within particular key arguments.
Palmistry, rev.2.4 [PDF]
Part one in a description of modular aesthetics.
Palmistry explores the aesthetics of modularity in Southern California art, via the icon of the palm tree, looking at examples from the late 18th century to present. This version was presented at the Univeristy of Arizona in 2004 and published at UCDARNET. It is available as a .pdf file.
CVS and Distributive Writing using Common Open Source "Social Software" [PDF]
Narr@tive: Digital Storytelling
An initial exploration into the framework of CVS/OSS models and their potential for affecting collaborative scholarship in the humanities. This paper/presentation was developed in part for the Digital Cultures Project graduate conference, hosted at UCLA's Hammer Museum. This project is in collaboration with Jon Phillip's CVSBook project.
dwz white paper: prolegomena [PDF]
Distributed Writing, or Geodiscursive Writing; Prolegomena: of non-newness, and one trajectory of its historicity
There is a disconnected history of distributed writing, and it is this multivalent history, and the multivalence of history, that survives in the shadows of deficit; unrecognized. In this particular case the interest lies in exhibiting, developing, and maximizing the modes of distribution as they relate to voice (parole) in the digital realm. The dwz white paper establishes a conceptual groundwork from which other projects developed, including various mutations into cvs, the current dwz, and even Scale. Coauthored with Nathaniel Clark and Jon Phillips; originally published at:dwz.ucsd.edu/old/
Lost in Translation [PDF]
Caltranzit's Taxi Babel (review).
Caltranzit’s recent project, Taxi Babel, is one instance of its collaborative practice that focuses on the contested space of the San Diego, US - Tijuana, MX border. This article was published in Scale Vol.1 No.2, March 2004, and is available as a .pdf file.
Belly full of Mao [PDF]
Representations of agriculture, ideology, and production in Modern China.
How much impact did ideology have on CCP art production? Central to this thesis is the importance of conducting
historical field work. The premise is that such field work provides not only an useful platform for subsequent
investigation, but puts forth the thesis that art history has a need to return to history in an attempt to critique its own myopia. This is a working paper, available as a .pdf. Images for the paper may be viewed here: [image list]
There and Back Again [PDF]
Selections from (attempts at) Revisionist Art History
This essay focuses on the problem of non-connoisseur art objects in the art history of late antiquity China. This is the first part of a series dealing, ultimately, with shortcomings in
current art history writing.
Art for Art's Sake, or for Whom? [PDF]
Art for Ideology's Sake, History for Art's Sake.
This essay focuses on the I essential role ideology has in art production. Focusing on the Republican era to the early CCP, this essay asks to what degree ideology is actively produced by art historians. Central to this project are Chen Jian's theories of state, and the tacit use of non-painting (low) art objects.