posted

neoscenes

I’ve been using the neoscenes pseudonym, brand, art-name, label, whatever, since 1983. I came up with it back when I was living in Santa Monica, California, around the time that I was beginning to print and mail a lot of postcards. Yes, back when I was a passable-but-not-very-talented surfer, back when Reagan’s brain disease became very apparent, and when Suicidal Tendencies was just a band. Back when I used to dress in a three-piece suit and drive a Fiat Spyder convertible down the Santa Monica Freeway to the Harbor Freeway into Downtown Los Angeles up to five days a week, exiting opposite the Bonaventure Hotel, parking in the underground garage under the corporate headquarters of Union Oil Company of California and marching to the elevator, riding to the third floor, often with the CEO, saying hello to that blond girl, Carol? Cindy? who worked the front desk, and, cruising down the hall to the right, past Lida, my secretary, to my office from the window of which, if you leaned up against the walnut-paneled wall and it wasn’t too smoggy a day, you could see THE HOLLYWOOD sign that has been such an icon for the movie-going world… Enough said…

The connotation of neoscenes as a “new scene” — an idiosyncratic personal vision — has been invoked in the creative art icons in a variety of forms that are generated and sent out. Network, time-based, and other electronic media works are signified by a ©19-or-20-something hopkins/neoscenes. All the hundreds of snail-mail postcards, which have decorated peoples refrigerators, walls, galleries, and studios around the world, carry this identification. You never know when you’ll run across a neoscene …

The neoscenes.net domain was reserved back in 1998 or so, and although there is an interior design consultancy in Mauritius ‘neoscenes.com’ and a piece of video editing software ‘neoscenes’ that both came later to the web, neoscenes.net dominates any searches using the name.

posted
  • place: Livermore, California

streaming streams

finally solved the tech problem of the real audio/video stream files from the archive playing properly in a pop-up window. have the space on the tech-no-mad server to load up all media archives, and now it’s just a matter of organizing the html files, and making sure the audio and video windows are sized properly. it’ll be nice to get all that stuff back up and running for posterity. the stream index page is full of those ancient-looking 320×240 streams that were pumped out during the time I was at Boulder, teaching at CU, with access to phat-pipe Real Helix server. a few others go back to true pre-historic times with 160×120 files from the initial neoscenes occupation project in Tornio in 1998. the accretionary process that is the core of this web space goes onwards to an unknown end. with a minuscule audience. and no prospects.

posted
  • place: Helsinki, Finland

neoscenes occupation: an international network-building project

[ED: written and published as part of the acoustic.space initiative established by friends Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits at the re-lab in Riga, Latvia net audio issue 1999 ISSN 1407-2858.]

acoustic.space #2 (1999 ISSN 1407-2858), Riga, Latvia, September 1999

In September of 1998, neoscenes occupation (nso) was formally launched as a networking project in the second Open-X venue at the 1998 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.

The basic concept for the project is rooted in several facets of my former and current involvement as a networker, and my broad experience in arts and design education in Europe and North America during the last fifteen years.

Having taught or lectured in, and visited many tens of art and design institutions, and engaged in wide-ranging discussions with many educators, I had gradually come to the conclusion that much of the (formal) educational process in the developed world is irrelevant, dead, or dying. I viewed neoscenes occupation as a vehicle for the re-creation and renewal of the learning process—applying a series of conditions to make it an “omni-directional flow of energies with a force multiplied far beyond the meat count and with a reach that is far ahead of the game.”

Rhetoric aside, the project has several interlinked concepts and goals relating to creating a viable independent social network of people who share creative aspirations.

Dialogue is at the core of the whole nso idea — dialogue as the bi-directional movement of energies between any two people who engage each other in honest and open exchange. Dialogue that moves in opposition to the oppression of monologue and centralized patriarchal infotainment; that stands as two quiet voices versus the blasting inferno of social emission. Dialogue, as pure expression of heart and soul, is the core of all meaningful activism. more “neoscenes occupation: an international network-building project”

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

Western Lapland Polytech – College of Art and Media, FI / neoscenes occupation project 2 :: June-July.99

Sixten Therkildsen, Minna Nikola, Mikko Rönkä, Eija Mäkivuoti, Heikki Männikkö, Joona Jarvela, Mari Keski-Korsu, Riikka Makinen, Mindaugas Gapsevicius, Kjell Hansson, Norris Koppel, Elina Hartzell, Tiina Ekosaari, Sirpa Vaara, Nadja Franz, Pasi Lehtinen, Hanna Tuominen

neoscenes occupation project 2 rattles and rolls along with a fine bunch of international art&media students!

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

Nadja’s birthday

screenshot, Loki at Nadja's party, Tornio, Finland, June 1999

over, and out. expressing various messages across various means. nso2 rumbles on. through the energy that I lost. thankfully, the workshop is not totally dependent on my energy, otherwise it would fail. the students are enthusiastically picking up the lead and carrying things along with zest. it is all I can do to spend four or five hours each afternoon up at school helping mostly with technical problems. not how I had envisioned things running, but I simply did not envision my energy state to be as diffused as it is. Nadja has her birthday party this evening live and online in the dorm basement party room.

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

re-vealing

closer and closer to the moment of shifting change. energy levels are dispersed and vibrations are not unified. eating too much, not in a rhythm. helping students is fragmentary. walking through states of energy. where there are energy sinks and energy sources. the summer sun, circulating homo-centrically in this place, makes no sound, does nothing but Lights all, even deep recesses are found out. nothing is hidden in summer, and all things sleep and are not revealed in winter.

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

nso 2

so much in the last ten days gone down — life has gone through many cycles and swings, some negative — the college in Tornio has slighted me rudely on the eve of the neoscenes occupation project 2 which finally did begin last Monday. when I was away in Helsinki, they took the belongings I left in the flat that was reserved for me for the summer, tossed everything pell-mell into my suitcase, and moved me to a single room — this for when Loki arrives in a week or so. fuming. and angry over the phone to folks. but the week in Helsinki was a jolt of pure bliss after a long hard year of teaching.

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

neoscenes occupation (nso) project

Presently the neoscenes occupation project consists of semi-annual collaborative online happenings, along with heavy-duty networking and communications behind the scenes. The neoscenes mailing list now has around 200 subscribers in 40 countries. During the years since its inception (1998), it has functioned as a vital tool for the distribution of pertinent info about online events, educational possibilities, subscriber’s research and projects, and related trends. Sustaining active contact with so many of my former students allows me to frequently cross-connect them in different locations with energized results.

text from the original launch of nso:

Much of the educational process in the developed world is irrelevant, dead, or dying. neoscenes wants to re-create and re-new learning, making it an omni-directional flow of energies with a force multiplied far beyond the meat count and with a reach that is far ahead of the game. Join neoscenes occupation, speak, act, make a difference in your own head and body and soul. The revolution will not be televised, it will simply be a praxis embedded in the network that is community. The occupation is of the network, is of each others lives, is of being, is of body, it is of it all.

neoscenes is about the creation of personal spaces where-in the individual realizes the potential of individual and collaborative creativity. It is about seizing the opportunity presented by the internet and contemporary tele-communications to create active spaces that are autonomous from the traditional “institutions of higher learning”. It is about sharing.

neoscenes established a primary level of mechanisms for this engagement in the basic technologies of the web (this site), irc (internet relay chat), and the neoscene listserv (mailinglist). IRC, a live text-based communications medium is widely available on any networked pc; the neoscenes mailing list allows distribution of information via email, and this website will become a central point to network neoscenes participants and their relevant web-based information. Other means of collaboration including iVisit, CUSeeMe, ftp, ISDN, streaming media, and other technologies as they become available are employed as participants determine whether they facilitate human-to-human connection. The all-important flesh-factor is incorporated into the plan whenever possible!

On the invitation of curators at Ars Electronica in the spring of 1998, neoscenes occupation was initiated and submitted as a project in the second incarnation of the openX networking venue at the fall 1998 InfoWar Festival. Several neoscenes students from the neoscenes “networking and creativity” workshop at the Western Lapland Polytech (LLAKY — now Lapin AMK) attended the festival in support roles.

posted
  • place: Amsterdam, Netherlands

next five minutes 3 – tactical education

into the NextFiveMinutes conference. I have been burned out for much of the time for some reason, almost catching a cold yesterday evening, then this morning, spraining my back with the most minimal movement zipping up my suitcase, I wasn’t even bending over. scared the shit outta me. my panel presence (Tactical Education/Media Competence) was shortly after, and that went quite well, but by mid-afternoon I hobble back the the hotel, barely able to walk because of the sciatic pain. missed an appointment with Nan which I was quite looking forward to, not to mention several dialogues with new contacts. really don’t believe it, that I have done something serious. been stretching all afternoon and evening between bouts resting in bed. nothing else to do! Faugh! miss a dinner with an interesting artist. following are notes for the Tactical Education presentation (on the neoscenes occupation project):

sotto voce: introduction: start by restating my conviction that:

venues like this can, by their nature, only mirror or document what is happening “out there” — and although this precise venue here — me speaking to you is probably not anyone’s first choice of interaction — but I was eager to participate in this part of nextfiveminutes as an opportunity to open some dialogues on methodologies and experiences. I would wish that the expressions here will represent ideas so vital that there will be nothing to do after our brief time together but to ACT. but I suppose that the most one can hope for is that some of these thoughts would be on a level fundamental enough that some of you might share these dialogues at future times. or at least be entertained by my ignorant display of polarized generalizations.

put neoscenes occupation within a larger context of praxis, personal philosophy, and reality. more “next five minutes 3 – tactical education”

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

neoscenes occupation project 1

neoscenes occupation project 1 (nso1) took place during the 20-hour period from 0800 (GMT+2) November 27 through 0400 (GMT+2) November 28, 1998 live in Tornio, Finnish Lapland, at the Western Lapland College of Art and Media (LLAKY, now LapinAMK), and online via IRC, iVisit, and Real Audio/Video.

Local node networkers: TORNIO, FINLAND — Western Lapland College of Art and Media: Tuomas Mathelein (web-graphics designer), Henri Peltola, Mikko Rönkä, Karri Pöykiö, Sari Winberg, Reeta Parkkinen, Mari Keski-Korsu, Eija Mäkivuoti, Tommi Piirainen, Toni Ylitalo, Johannes Collins, P. Nurmukumpu, Bono Estente, Antti Autio, Jukka Timonen

Special thanks to Joona Järvelä, sysadmin, who slaves over the local server network, Coke in hand — this event could not happen without his dedicated work!

Remote contributors/participants: Todd Marrone, Brad Brace, Helen Thorington, Mindaugas Gapsevicius, Ken Gregory, AND MORE… (this page to be updated soon — 10.12.98!)

Special thanks to Kiasma and LLAKY (Western Lapland College of Media)

Project 1 will be running during the following times (please note the changed ending time):

(00:14:16, stereo audio, 34 mb)

0800 (GMT+2) November 27 — 0400 (GMT+2) November 28 (Helsinki)
or
0700 (GMT+1) November 27 — 0300 (GMT+1) November 28 (Central European Time)
0600 (GMT+0) November 27 — 0200 (GMT+0) November 28 (London, Reykjavík)
0300 (GMT-5) November 27 — 2300 (GMT-5) November 27 (EST – NYC)
0000 (GMT-8) November 27 — 2000 (GMT-8) November 27 (PST – Los Angeles)
2300 (GMT-9) November 26 — 1900 (GMT-9) November 27 (Anchorage, Alaska)
1500 (GMT+9) November 27 — 1100 (GMT+9) November 28 (Toyko)
ETC, ETC…

The schedule will be filled out as we go! — [Ed: well, you can see there was no time for that, so, basically, you had to be there!]

0800 GMT+2 stuff
0900 more stuff
1000 MANIFESTO READING
1100 Hafler Trio or so
1200 more stuff
1300 more stuff
1400 more stuff
1500 Live: The Highland Cows
1600 Live: The Highland Cows
1700 more stuff
1800 more stuff
1900 more stuff
2000 more stuff
2100 more stuff
2200 MANIFESTO READING
2300 more stuff
2400 more stuff
0100 more stuff
0200 MANIFESTO READING
0300 more stuff

what?:

November 20 — Project one, while floundering in the midst of technical difficulties, WILL happen somehow. At the moment, we are only able to broadcast audio, but by Wednesday the 25th, we hope to have a new video card that can handle the streaming video. iVisit is not operating completely properly either, but at least we have email and IRC to rely on — lo-tech is the BEST! PLEASE STAY TUNED TO THESE PAGES FOR UPDATES DURING THE 24-HOUR BROADCAST!

November 25 — We have gotten real video to work, though bandwidth will be a problem — RealVideo eats it up even though we have a very fast network here. iVisit works, but only with a direct IP connection.

November 26 — No problem, KIASMA, the Finnish National Gallery/Museum of Contemporary Art, has loaned us one of their RealAudio/Video servers which we will use as a back-up…

November 27 — It is now happening, 12 hours into the project, there are a dozen hard-cores hanging around the studio, the Highland Cows did their live happening several hours ago. Night has fallen like a brick on yer face.

November 28 — It’s over. 0300: we ran out of material and steam in the depths of the almost-Arctic Lappish night. Goodnight all!

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

nso one

neoscene occupation project one into the 13th hour so far. more than half done. here for the duration or more. cut. warm bed, lying down, only six more days here in Lapland. and now what? 14.5 hours and counting. tiger skins and prepping the dreams of another age, my son is in Manhattan, missing his two front teeth. 18 hours and crawling. Toni comes by with a couple net-compatriots from Oulu. tuned in. the Amurikans don’t make it. they are fattened and shopping, unconcerned by international events microscopic and macroscopic. whether they are linked to being. or they just limp along with. whatever happens to mirror the face of the beast. catch its eye. and bring some sense to the senselessness. Babylon, huh? what’s that? heading to new states or not. being and not being. chanting. being chanted upon. shaman calls, body recalls. body count, banding together. suit up and bring it all down. good morning, are you there? childish dreams, expectations. cut. a new person to face. another body to quit. form from. fanning flames, army-gettin-on, zat what it’s called? end o’time? beginning of other dreams in the bardo of becoming. I greet these dreams like I greet the morning. some days it is with the flat recovery of self forming nothing of the clay of body that lies dormant on the bed. other times it slides, slides, slides, a sharp-edged wedge of chromium thin at the apex, so thin that there is no perception of being pried from the rock of sleep, a barnacle in the tidal zone of being, being washed by the returning ether of wakefulness and the encroaching sea of dreams, body-in-repose.

posted
  • place: Linz, Austria

open-x

open-x is gearing up. I am trying to collect the various threads of thought that spawned neoscenes occupation to begin with. Alex from Rhizome has the station right next to mine, so we finally meet, along with Stefan, a friend of Carmin’s and partner in the SWARM/Floodnet project. it rains much of the day, after a bright morning where I got up at a reasonable hour and had a breakfast so large I fell asleep for two hours when stopping in the room to pick up things before heading out for the day. so, a slow day. exchanging sms messages with Sanna all day again. cyber-relations take on new dimensions. remote presence is felt as a loss of the warm and steamy in life.

posted
  • place: Linz, Austria

early take

after a long day of travel yesterday, now here early at the open-x venue which this year is at the Brucknerhaus auditorium complex. rather different atmosphere and physical setup than at the Design center last year. but the tech crew is the same, so surely things will go well.

posted
  • place: en route Tornio - Helsinki, Finland - Frankfurt, Germany - Linz, Austria

covert unwritten

conditions change. I cannot write with any frankness here for a variety of reasons. this is disturbing. a question comes to mind (along with several other psychological moments where deja-vu riles me to a presence of being that is sustaining). what question? is this a real platform? speaking from the heart. Christa is kind enough to meet me at the airport looking bright and relaxed. we talk about our lives and work over a coffee. somewhere it’s Labor Day, maybe.

posted
  • place: Tornio, Finland

neoscenes occupation

the neoscenes occupation project for Ars Electronica (which approaches in days) begins to take some form, at least as an idea:

the educational process in the developed world is dead or dying. neoscenes wants to re-create and renew education, making it an omnidirectional flow of energies with a force multiplied far beyond the meat count and with a reach that is far ahead of the game. join neoscenes, speak, act, make a difference in your own head and body and soul. the occupation is of the network, is of each others lives, is of being, is of body, it is of it all.

neoscenes is about the creation of personal spaces wherein the individual realizes the potential of individual and collaborative creativity. it is about seizing the opportunity presented by the Internet and contemporary telecommunications to create active spaces that are autonomous of the traditional “institutions of higher learning”. it is about sharing neoscenes has established a primary level of mechanisms for this engagement in the basic technologies of the web, IRC (Internet relay chat), and the neoscene listserv. IRC, a live text-based communications medium is widely available on any networked PC; the neoscene listserv allows distribution of information via email, and this website will become a central point networking neoscenes participants and their relevant web-based information. other means of collaboration will be employed as participants decide to utilize including iVisit, CUSeeMe, FTP, VRML, and other technologies as they become available.

so it goes. now to make it happen!

posted
  • place: en route Budapest, Hungary - Linz, Austria

open-x ideas

arrived. one of those up early things again, and a late night before. the alarm seems to go off at 0600 instead of 0700. strange. but the sun coming in the window is absolutely brilliant. the French artist who allegedly vacated the flat the day I got to Budapest left a lot of food in the fridge, although I didn’t discover the fridge itself until the last day. it was sitting on the balcony. it was curious to find the kitchen without a fridge, and I assumed it was something about Eastern monetary problems or something. duh. ate the boiled eggs and pastrami-like stick for breakfast before taking the key up to the C3 office and bus – to – Metro – to – EuroCity train Liszt Ferenc (taken that before!) to Linz. in a stupor of half-sleep. tram to Ars Electronica center, Christa is there and not feeling well, I encourage her to go home and rest before meeting Patrice, Ravi and I for dinner later. Ravi is doing a lecture this week as part of the Intertwinedness series, Patrice is in town working on the Festival for the fall. brief meeting with Gerfried about some possible ideas for the Open-X networking scene at the Ars Festival this year. wondering about different paradigms with networking, and in the midst, when asked about a possible proposal/idea, I realize that the concept of a student-based networking situation that brings students together in a variety of places would be a perfect compliment to the Open-X concept. at least the Open-X would be a good launching venue for the whole thing. could make use of the facilities, and the idea of bringing with me some hard-core students from Tornio, Lahti, and Kiel would be great!