AMY ALEXANDER - LINKS TO SELECTED PROJECTS

LIVE PERFORMANCE

SVEN (Surveillance Video Entertainment Network) (2006)
http://deprogramming.us/sven

Real-time computer vision and surveillance system that detects "likely rock stars" among pedestrians and generates music videos based upon their features, as a humorous commentary on the subjectivity and malleability of technological systems used for control. SVEN is a public space project, exhibited in both stationary locations and primarily in a van-based "SVEN Mobile Unit."

TOPLAP (2004-Present)
http://toplap.org/

Live performance ensemble and international online discussion group specifically focused on the emerging activity of livecoding. Livecoding involves writing and/or modifying custom audiovisual performance software as an integral part of the performance. Computer code is projected live as it is being written, generally with a performative component to the code-writing itself. The focus is on foregrounding and demystifying the programming process as a creative and performative act in contemporary audiovisual performance.

CYBERSPACELAND (2003 - Present)
http://cyberspaceland.org/

CyberSpaceLand is an all-text VJ performance that uses custom software, repurposed consumer computer hardware, Internet text, and a live, highly kinetic performer. A humorous, public space art performance, CyberSpaceLand is typically performed in nightclubs, as a type of intervention into club visual performance – aka VJing. CyberSpaceLand brings physical human performance and narrative to VJ'ing. The loose screen narratives are formed from specifically-chosen Internet search queries. The presentation is designed to be easily understood while maintaining a club atmosphere of dancing, socializing, etc.

(Note: CyberSpaceLand evolved from an older performance, Botimation (2000-2003). Botimation was performed for sit-down art audiences and did not contain the range of visual effects that CyberSpaceLand does. There is a webage documenting Botimation within the CyberSpaceLand website.)

DEPROGRAMMING.US PERFORMANCES (2003 - Present)
http://deprogramming.us/perfs

Various short audiovisual performances addressing the convergence of work, play and technology in contemporary culture. Examples include Extreme Whitespace (a UNIX shell performed as a VJ instrument), The Typewriter (updated version of a 1950 musical composition in which an office machine is performed as a musical instrument), and Everybody VJ (large group performance of various pieces of utilitarian software and hardware as VJ tools.)

ONLINE COMMUNITIES

RUNME.ORG (2003 - Present)
http://runme.org/

Runme.org is an international, online software art repository, launched in January 2003. It is an open, moderated database to which people are welcome to submit projects they consider to be interesting examples of software art.

The aim of Runme.org is to create an exchange interface for artists and programmers which will work towards a contextualization of this new form of cultural activity. Runme.org welcomes projects regardless of the date and context of their creation. The repository is happy to host different kinds of projects - ranging from found, anonymous software art to famous projects by established artists and programmers.

Runme.org is structured in two major ways: taxonomically/rationally (category list) and intuitively (keyword cloud).

Though Runme.org partly grew from the Read_me 1.2 festival, it is an autonomous repository upon which the festival is now based.

Runme.org is a collaborative and open project that was conceived by Amy Alexander, Florian Cramer, Matthew Fuller, Olga Goriunova, Thomax Kaulmann, Alex McLean, Pit Schultz, Alexei Shulgin, and The Yes Men. The runme.org website was developed and is conceptualized and administrated by Amy Alexander, Olga Goriunova, Alex McLean and Alexei Shulgin. It is programmed by Alex McLean.

As of August 2006, Runme includes 385 accepted projects.

DISCORDIA (2003-2004)
http://discordia.us/

Discordia was a collaborative media art/theory/activism discussion site, weblog working at the intersections of digital media art, critical theory, tech culture and activism. Amy Alexander was core developer and co-editor of this group project with four other core developers/editors and several contributing editors.

Discordia had 375 subscribed users, plus an undetermined number of unsubscribed readers, as of March 2004.

ARTISTIC/ACTIVIST SOFTWARE

SCREAM (2005)
http://scream.deprogramming.us/

Scream is artistic software for the Windows desktop that responds to human screaming; it addresses the absence of human frustration and dysfunctionality within the cultural realm addressed by software, as well as the apparent loss of fashionability of emotional or disruptive public expression. The scream software can be downloaded by the members of the public; along with the downloadable software, the project website is part of the project. The website further challenges the territory of software and digital art, by semi-ironically presenting Scream in the context of a street art meme; i.e. in the tradition of street art works such as Shepard Fairey's Obey Giant.

REAMWEAVER (2002)
http://reamweaver.com/

Under "hacktivist" pseudonym "Cue P. Doll," in collaboration with art/activist group "The Yes Men." Software art project that deals with issues of digital censorship and authorship as well as corporate critique. Reamweaver automates the process of creating parodies of corporate websites by allowing large numbers of users to create personalized, real-time parodies of websites with a minimum of "manual" labor.

More info. and online press clippings at:
http://rtmark.com/ream.html

CUEJACK (2001)
Under "hacktivist" pseudonym "Cue P. Doll."
(Solo project distributed through art/activist site ®™ark.)
http://cuejack.com/

The :CueCat scanner was created and distributed free to simplify the problem of looking up information about products on the web: simply scan your product's UPC code, and you're taken to advertisements at the company's website.

CueJack is a software art project that lets users scan a product with a :CueCat scanner, then displays a web page with "alternative information" about the product's company: boycotts, company misbehavior, product flaws, etc.

More info. and online press clippings at:
http://rtmark.com/cue.html

INTERNET ART

theBOT (2000)
http://thebot.org/

Realtime, time-based animation and audio net art project using a web search engine robot to reveal the "narrative" of the web. Text gathered by the robot moves as "packets" across the screen and is heard as layered speech spoken by a speech synthesizer. An examination and perverse poetification of the narrative of the web.

PLAGIARIST.ORG (1998 - present)
http://plagiarist.org/

Various net art projects made from raw materials "plagiarized" from the Internet. Satirical, frequently time-based pieces dealing with proprietorship, appropriation, corporate dominance, and the infinite recursiveness of the web.

Some of the more noted plagiarist.org projects:
The Plagiarist Manifesto, Plagiarist Acquisitions, Interview Yourself and Merry Christmas 1999 (aka "the 01 theft")

As of 2001, plagiarist.org is no longer maintained under the above theme, and now functions as a "homepage" of Amy Alexander's projects.

THE MULTI-CULTURAL RECYCLER (1996/7)
http://recycler.plagiarist.org/

The Multi-Cultural Recycler is a net art project that performs image processing and compositing on live images pulled from Web cameras around the world, in a tongue-in cheek commentary on cultural recycling and cyberspace.

The Multi-Cultural Recycler is no longer updated so some cameras may not be functional.

About... Software, Surveillance, Scariness, Subjectivity (and SVEN) Published in online proceedings of Digital Art Weeks Conference, ETH, Zürich, July 2006.

The Code Behind the Screen. Essay from Transmediale '03 Software art jury statement - with Margarete Jahrmann and David Rokeby

Curator's catalog essay for SoftSide exhibition at Sonar 2004, Barcelona, curated by Amy Alexander.

Quickview on Software Art with Florian Cramer, Matthew Fuller, Thomax Kaulmann, Alex McLean, Pit Schultz, and The Yes Men, interviewed by Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin

Readme 1.2 Jury Statement with Florian Cramer, RTMark, Alexei Shulgin.

Software Art Panel Transcript Feb. 2003 with Florian Cramer, Olga Goriunova, Alex McLean, Antoine Schmitt, Inke Arns

Live Algorithm Programming and a Temporary Organisation for Its Promotion with N. Collins, D. Griffiths, A. McLean, F. Olofsson, J. Rohrhuber, A.Ward

Low-fi guest selection (Curator's essay. See Low-fi Net art Locator


REVIEWS WRITTEN FOR RUNME.ORG and README FESTIVAL

Review: Cosmolalia with Olga Goriunova

Review: Outsource me with Olga Goriunova

Review: LYCAY

Review: INTERCAL

Review: Acme::EyeDrops

Review: Mindguard

Review: Visual Poetry

Review: Minimalistic

Review: Postmodernism Generator

Review: Homeland Security Threat Monitor

Review: Dasher

Review: Google Groups Art

Review: Unmovie

Review: AARON

Review: Bible (Alphabetical Order

Review: Gogolchat

Review: Duff's Device


TEXT IN PROGRESS:

A History of Audiovisual Performance. (Abstract here.) Book chapter, with Nick Collins for Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music. Cambridge University Press.


A FEW INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, ETC., THAT MIGHT BE OF INTEREST:

A text by Joan Campas, 2004, discussing my early net project, The Multi-Cultural Recycler (1996).
A text by Thomas Dreher, 2002, discussing some of my older work (in German)
Interview with Tilman Baumgartel, 2002, discussing b0timati0n and some of my older work.
A text by Chris Joseph, 2005, discussing Scream and some of my other projects
An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, 2006, discussing SVEN and some of my other projects