February 05

Mark Tribe: algorithmic net.art

It's our lucky day! Mark has invited the class to sit in on a (fantasy) grant panel. Finally, real power!

The Setup:

Lee Bollinger, as an indication of his support for art & technology at Columbia, has decided to create the new Columbia University Net Art Prize and has given us $20,000 for to award to three net artists: $10,000 for first prize, $5,000 for second prize and $2,500 for third prize, with $2,500 for juror fees. We will exhibit the work of the selected artists on a new Columbia Net Art Gallery to be linked from the Columbia home page. He has given us full discretion over the theme of the exhibition and the selection process. We've decided to focus on algorithmic net art, and have narrowed the field to 10 finalists.

We will look at the works, discuss each project, and then go through again and individually give each finalist a ranking on a scale of 1-10. We'll then tabulate the votes in Excel and come up with the top three. Then we'll have another round of discussion to give us an opportunity to rethink the results and move projects up or down until we settle on a final order and announce the winners.

The Projects:

Every Icon by Jon Simon
http://www.numeral.com/everyicon.html

Shredder by Mark Napier
http://www.potatoland.org/shredder

1:1 by Lisa Jevbratt
http://jevbratt.com/1_to_1

Untitled by Jodi.org
http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org

Industrious Clock by Yugo Nakamura
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~yugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03

The Secret Lives of Numbers by Golan Levin et al.
http://www.turbulence.org/Works/nums

Locate War by MTAA
http://tinjail.com/war/index.html

Bumplist by Jonah Brucker-Cohen
http://www.bumplist.net

POP AUTOMATE¨ by liz
http://popautomate.talk-over.net

Data Diaries by Cory Arcangel
http://turbulence.org/Works/arcangel/index.html

Your assignment:

What would your entry in the algorithmic Net Art Competition be? Sketch out a project, and be prepared to talk about it in relation to the works we've looked at today. Imagine that your piece is in the running for the prize...now sell it to the jury!