The Ornamental Structures exhibition runs from 20 August to 30 October at the Stadtgalerie Saarbrucken. It features work from myself, Gabriele Basch, Silke Brosskamp, Wim Delvoye, Margret Eicher, Parastou Forouhar, Bernard Frize, Horst Haack, Zhenchen Liu, Bjørn Melhus, Mariella Mosler, Alke Reeh, Diet Sayler, Marten Georg Schmid, Stoll & Wachall, Philip Taaffe, Karsten Trappe, Jorinde Voigt, Marius Watz, and Mark Wilson. I’m exhibiting Process 4 (Installation 3).

The amazing Eyeo Festival took place last week, 27-29 June 2011, in Minneapolis.

Eyeo brings together the most creative coders, designers and artists working today, and shaping tomorrow – expect an amazing three days of talks, labs, demos & events fueled by the people and tools that are transforming digital culture.

I was busy with two presentations and a workshop:

The Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University generously funded a Processing development workshop from 17 – 20 June 2011. Ben Fry, Dan Shiffman, Andres Colubri, Jer Thorp, Patrick Hebron, and myself worked together to clearly define the 2.0 release.

I have two projects in the File Type exhibition curated by Chaz Evans and Lorelei Stewart. The show runs from 17 June to 30 July at Gallery 400 in Chicago. I’m showing the following:

Pre-process Hex, 2005
Unique hand-bound book, 60 pages
Inkjet on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
6 x 8.5 x 1 in

Pre-process Execution, 2005
Inkjet print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
12 x 36 in
Collaboration with Ben Fry

The organizers write:

The specificity of work in electronic media warrants investigations that refine categories past “the digital” or “the internet.” File Type is an exhibition which analyzes the cultural character of digital file formats such as the .pdf, .tiff, .jpeg etc. These and many other file types contain narratives that give specific bodies to the often invisible entities that construct electronic culture. Formats and file types represent ways that artwork in digital or internet media create particular standards of representation. What is often regarded as the minutiae of computer science have now become the parameters given to cultural agents. Or to put it in different terms, computer science is now a direct player in the construction of cultural identity, intentionally or not.

File Type explores the kinetic relationships that construct a network of electronic exchange. How have file types worked their way into, or in many cases have become, our cultural metaphors? What are the politics of implied aesthetics hidden within file formats that are regarded as transparent? What are the effects of expediency in using different formats in communication and exchange? Or perhaps most importantly what is the relationship between electronic formats and artistic practices, electronic or otherwise? Are these adjuncts and extensions of artistic practice necessarily a breakage from non-electronic media, or are they possibly fluid and interchangeable?

The artists in the exhibition include Mike Andrews, Jon Cates, Channel TWo (Adam Trowbridge + Jessica Westbrook), Anthony Discenza, Constant Dullaart, Eric Fleischauer, Patrick Lichty, Ei Jane Janet Lin & Miao Jiaxin, Kristin Lucas, Todd Mattei, Jesse McLean, Chris Meerdo, Casey Reas, Steve Ruiz, and Siebren Versteeg.

Benjamin Bratton organized an amazing symposium from 2-3 June 2011 to kick off his Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. I gave a presentation titled “The Agency of Code” and participated on a panel with Ricardo Dominguez and Elizabeth Losh:

The Agency of Code: Form, Tool, Policy
Casey Reas, Ricardo Dominguez, Elizabeth Losh

The motto of the open government movement‘s digital vision is “government as a platform,” that is, government not only as an information producing and gathering entity but as a ubiquitous and democratically re-programmable machine for making the world-as-information as generally useful as possible. In this, self-governance becomes (depending on which project is invested) the cybernetician‘s dream of infinite leisure, infinitely rationalized labor and/or one of infinitely autopoetic social systems. But “State as a codebase” has an equally ominous promise for when it works as for when it fails: as both a society of control and as a fragile infrastructure. Further, the globalization of information computing technology produces new modes of citizenship and sovereignty in its image, decoupling Modern logics of state and geography. Here it is “platform as governance,” and the agency of code refers not only to how a social domain formulated through software introduces specific biopolitics, but also to how the literacy of programmability becomes technique to modulate that domain.

The list of participants included Benjamin H. Bratton, Adam Bly, Jordan Crandall, Teddy Cruz, Rene Daalder, Manuel de Landa, Hernan Diaz-Alonso, Ricardo Dominguez, James Fowler, Kelly Gates, Elizabeth Losh, Ed Keller, Charlie Kennel, Norman Klein, Peter Krapp, Geoff Manaugh, Lev Manovich, Metahaven, Naomi Oreskes, Casey Reas, Larry Smarr, Vernor Vinge, Tricia Wang, McKenzie Wark, and Molly Wright Steenson.

I spent the majority if April Fools’ Day reading about Dada for an essay that I’m writing. For a quick laugh, I imagined a twenty-first century equivalent called DATA, a movement of artists who embrace the Dada ethos, but who work with software and data. During the following day, the more I thought about it, the more I thought there might be something to it. The idea of DATA (based on Dada ideas) might be a way to group together related work from the last decade into a coherent narrative. I’ve only done about fifteen minutes of work on the topic; it’s half-formed and raw. We’ll see what time and other opinions bring. I’m not going to do more with it for now, so feel free to tear it apart or to build on it. Even if the name DATA is entirely wrong, I think there’s something beyond the name that might make sense.

I’ve started a list of works to think through the idea:

[V]ote-auction, Ubermorgan. 2000-2006. (Or something more recent)
http://www.vote-auction.net/

Invisible Threads. Jeff Crouse and Stephanie Rothenberg. 2008.
http://www.doublehappinessjeans.com/

My%Desktop. Jodi. 2002 (Or something more recent)
http://mydesktop.jodi.org/

net.art generator. Cornelia Sollfrank. 2003?
http://www.obn.org/generator/

The New York Time Special Edition. Steve Lambert and Andy Bichlbaum (The Yes Men). 2008
http://visitsteve.com/made/the-ny-times-special-edition/

No Fun. Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG. 2010
http://vimeo.com/11467722

Carnivore. RSG. 2001-present
http://r-s-g.org/carnivore/

Electroboutique. Alexei Shulgin and Aristarkh Chernyshev. 2005+
http://www.electroboutique.com/

Satromizer OS. Ben Syverson and Jon Satrom. 2010
http://satromizer.com/sOS/

Cory Arcangel. Data Diaries. 2003 (Or something more recent)
http://www.turbulence.org/Works/arcangel/

Something from G.R.L. and/or F.A.T.

The following short text is a proposal. The draft was written in June 2010 and it was revised over the last two days:

The UCLA Arts Software Studio is a group of individuals who develop software within the context of the arts. We create, distribute, perform, modify, and critique software. We trace our history from systems and conceptual art in the 1960s, to internet experimentation in the mid 1990s, to the recent rise of Apps.

The Software Studio has three goals:
+ Cultivate a discussion around software and the arts at UCLA and beyond
+ Fund and assist graduate students who work in this area
+ Provide infrastructure and knowledge around creating software

We propose the following actions to achieve our goals:
+ Use simple networked software such as blogs, wikis, and code respositories to build a knowledge base and audience
+ Attract focused graduate students and encourage this work through fellowships, scholarships, and/or grants
+ Develop and maintain software infrastructure used within the arts

The Software Studio will enhance and build on existing knowledge within the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. Over the last decade, many students have received MFA degrees for the software they’ve developed. Since 2001, the Software Studio founder Casey Reas has co-developed Processing, an open source programming environment for artists and designers. This tool is used heavily within the University of California system and by hundreds of schools around the world. The studio will continue this work and will potentially develop libraries and extensions for other programming systems.

Three years ago, while I was the chair of the UCLA Design Media Arts (DMA) department, we started organizing an annual Career Day event to give the undergraduate students a chance to talk with local designers about different career options. Our department has a broad design curriculum within a university that offers and enforces a large number of electives outside the department. Our lack of vocational emphasis is both the best and worst thing about DMA, depending on ones point of view. I fully support our diverse, general curriculum, but I also want the students to be informed of what might be waiting for them after they walk across the stage at graduation. To that end, I started a list of studios by asking Twitter, “What are the best interaction || digital || computational || web design studios in Los Angeles?” So, here’s the list in progress. Please send suggestions to @REAS or my UCLA email address.

Founded by UCLA DMA alumni:
http://electroland.net/
http://useallfive.com/
http://leftfieldlabs.com/
http://onebitincrement.com/

Design Studios
http://aeolab.com/
http://polychrome.com/
http://variatelabs.com/
http://exopolis.com/

Agencies
http://possibleworldwide.com/
http://hellodesign.com/

This is a short list of books (and one essay) that reflects my understanding of the surge in art and technology collaborations from 1965 to 1971. The books published after 1971 are mostly summaries of events, works, and people that were active during the late 1960s. After nearly three decades of neglect, a new sequence of books has emerged to put the time period into perspective. This is a highly subjective and concise list and I’m happy to receive suggestions. (The bibliographic information was generated by WorldCat and I don’t think it’s entirely accurate.)

1965
Seitz, William C. The Responsive Eye. New York, 1965.

1968
Burnham, Jack. Beyond Modern Sculpture; The Effects of Science and Technology on the Sculpture of This Century. New York: G. Braziller, 1968.
Hultén, Pontus. The Machine As Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1968.
Popper, Frank. Origins and Development of Kinetic Art. Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1968.

1969
Reichardt, Jasia. Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts. New York: Praeger, 1969.

1970
McShine, Kynaston. Information. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970.
Reichardt, Jasia. The Computer in Art. London: Studio Vista, 1970.
Software: Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art. New York: The Jewish Museum, 1970.
Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema. New York: Dutton, 1970.

1971
Franke, Herbert W. Computer Graphics; Computer Art. Phaidon, 1971.
Reichardt, Jasia. Cybernetics, Art, and Ideas. Greenwich, Conn: New York Graphic Society, 1971.
Tuchman, Maurice. Art and Technology: A Report on the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967-1971. New York: Viking Press, 1971.

1972
Benthall, Jonathan. Science and Technology in Art Today. New York: Praeger, 1972.

1973
Davis, Douglas. Art and the Future; A History/Prophecy of the Collaboration between Science, Technology, and Art. New York: Praeger, 1973.
Lippard, Lucy R. Six Years: the Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. New York: Praeger, 1973.

1974
Kranz, Stewart. Science & Technology in the Arts: A Tour Through the Realm of Science/Art. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1974.

1976
Leavitt, Ruth. Artist and Computer. New York: Harmony Books, 1976.

1980
Burnham, Jack. “Art and Technology: The Panacea That Failed” in The Myths of Information: Technology and Postindustrial Culture. Madison, WI:
Coda Press, 1980.

2004
Lee, Pamela M. Chronophobia: On Time in the Art of the 1960’s. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2004.

2006
Gere, Charlie. Art, Time, and Technology. Oxford: Berg, 2006

2008
Brown, Paul, Charlie Gere, Nicholas Lambert and Catherine Mason, eds. White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960-1980. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2008.

2009
Shanken, Edward. Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon, 2009.

2011
Rosen, Margit. A Little Known Story About a Movement, a Magazine and the Computer’s Arrival in Art: New Tendencies and Bit International, 1961-1973. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2011.

I love books and bookshops, so it’s natural that I also love to buy books, make books, and sell books. In looking for nice bookshops to contact about carrying Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture, we asked friends on Twitter to make recommendations. This list is the result of the suggestions. If you have other ideas or corrections, please send them our way through @REAS.

Netherlands
Selexyz
Nijhof & Lee, Amsterdam
Athenaeum Boekhandel, Amsterdam
American Book Center, Hague / Amsterdam
National Architecture Institute [NAi], Rotterdam

Spain
Ras Gallery, Barcelona
La Central, Barcelona
Laie, Barcelona

UK
Riba
Waterstones
Magma, London
ICA Bookshop, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Artwords, London
Design Museum, London

Ireland
Science Gallery, Dublin

Australia
The MCA Store, Sydney
Ariel Bookstore, Sydney
Published Art, Sydney
Berkelouw Books, Sydney
Gleebooks, Sydney
Readings, Melbourne

US
St. Mark’s Bookshop, New York
Spoonbill & Sugartown, Brooklyn
Hennessey & Ingalls, Santa Monica
Arcana, Santa Monica
MoCA Store, Los Angeles
LACMA Shop, Los Angeles
Hammer Museum bookstore, Los Angeles
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
William Stout Architectural Books, San Francisco

France
Artazart, Paris
Le LaboShop, Paris

Switzerland
Archigraphy, Geneva
Ellipse, Geneva

Germany
Pro qm, Berlin

Belgium
COPYRIGHT, Gent and Antwerp