Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow

326 Pages·2007·0.68 MB·English

by  Victoria Vesna

Database
A e s t h e t i c s
Electronic Mediations
katherine hayles, mark poster, and samuel weber
series editors
20. Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age ofInformation Overflow
victoria vesna, editor
19. Cyberspaces ofEveryday Life
mark nunes
18. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture
alexander r. galloway
17. Avatars ofStory
marie-laure ryan
16. Wireless Writing in the Age ofMarconi
timothy c. campbell
15. Electronic Monuments
gregory l. ulmer
14. Lara Croft: Cyber Heroine
astrid deuber-mankowsky
13. The Souls ofCyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory
thomas foster
12. Déjà Vu: Aberrations ofCultural Memory
peter krapp
11. Biomedia
eugene thacker
10. Avatar Bodies: A Tantra for Posthumanism
ann weinstone
9. Connected,or What It Means to Live in the Network Society
steven shaviro
8. Cognitive Fictions
joseph tabbi
7. Cybering Democracy: Public Space and the Internet
diana saco
6. Writings
vilém flusser
5. Bodies in Technology
don ihde
4. Cyberculture
pierre lévy
3. What’s the Matter with the Internet?
mark poster
2. High Techne¯: Art and Technology from the Machine Aesthetic to the Posthuman
r. l. rutsky
1. Digital Sensations: Space,Identity,and Embodiment in Virtual Reality
ken hillis
D a t a b a s e
A e s t h e t i c s
Art in the Age of
fl
Information Over ow
victoria vesna, editor
Electronic Mediations, Volume 20
university of minnesota press
minneapolis london
•
An expanded version ofthis book will be on the Database Aesthetics Web site,
http://victoriavesna.com/dataesthetics.This site is a long-term project that will
continuously be making connections as a living artistic organism.
Copyright 2007by the Regents ofthe University ofMinnesota
“The Database Imaginary”copyright 2007by Steve Dietz
All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored
in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written
permission ofthe publisher.
Published by the University ofMinnesota Press
111Third Avenue South,Suite 290
Minneapolis,MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Database aesthetics :art in the age ofinformation overflow /
Victoria Vesna,editor.
p.cm.— (Electronic mediations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-8166-4118-5(hc :alk.paper)
ISBN-13:978-0-8166-4119-2(pb :alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-8166-4118-8(hc)
ISBN-10:0-8166-4119-6(pb)
1.Arts—Data processing.2.Database design.3.Information
behavior.I.Bulajic,Viktorija Vesna.
NX260.D382007
776—dc22
2007008226
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
The University ofMinnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C o n t e n t s
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
victoria vesna
Part I. Database Aesthetics
1. Seeing the World in a Grain ofSand:
The Database Aesthetics ofEverything 3
victoria vesna
2. Database as Symbolic Form 39
lev manovich
3. Ocean,Database,Recut 61
grahame weinbren
4. Waiting for the World to Explode:
How Data Convert into a Novel 86
norman m. klein
5. The Database as System and Cultural Form:
Anatomies ofCultural Narratives 95
christiane paul
6. The Database Imaginary:
Memory_Archive_Database v 4.0 110
steve dietz
7. Recombinant Poetics and Related Database Aesthetics 121
bill seaman
8. The Database:An Aesthetics ofDignity 142
sharon daniel
9. Network Aesthetics 183
warren sack
10. Game Engines as Embedded Systems 211
robert f. nideffer
Part II. Artists and Data Projects
11. Stock Market Skirt:
The Evolution ofthe Internet,the Interface,and an Idea 233
nancy paterson
12. Pockets Full ofMemories 243
george legrady
13. The Raw Data Diet,All-Consuming Bodies,and
the Shape ofThings to Come 249
lynn hershman-leeson
14. Time Capsule:Networking the Biological
[Biotech and Trauma] 253
eduardo kac
15. Aesthetics ofecosystm 260
john klima
16. Polar 269
marko peljhan
Publication History 279
Contributors 281
Index 285
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
Completing this project became so overwhelming in the midst ofall other
obligations (including children,chairing the Department ofDesign | Media
Arts at UCLA,and major art exhibitions involving new work) that I often
felt like giving up.But I felt a commitment to the contributors in this book
and particularly to media arts students everywhere who could benefit
greatly from considering this subject from an artist’s perspective.Many of
the authors in this volume are part ofthe University ofCalifornia’s Digital
Research Network (UC DARnet),and I am grateful for its support in help-
ing to sponsor the editing process.The editing ofthe book was completed
impeccably by Susan Jones,who made sure that every detail was addressed
and all essays were consistent.I thank Mark Poster for initiating this effort
and Douglas Armato,director ofthe University ofMinnesota Press,who had
infinite patience and trusted that I would eventually deliver the manuscript.
Most of all,I am indebted to my daughters,Angelica and Aleksandra,for
growing into beautiful women who understand and support their mother.
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Introduction
victoria vesna
In 1999,I compiled a special issue for the journal AI & Societytitled “Data-
base Aesthetics:Issues ofOrganization and Category in Art.”To work with
the authors more efficiently, I replicated the progress of the book on the
Web as it was emerging and continually updated the Web site until com-
pleted.As with many academic journals,AI & Societywas printed in limited
numbers and distributed primarily in the UK.The working site remained
online and was soon discovered by a number ofpeople and cited frequently.
Even one of the editors of the Electronic Mediations series,Mark Poster,
who approached me to expand the “Database Aesthetics”issue into a book,
found the Web site before getting a copy ofthe printed journal.
With computers becoming smaller,faster,and more ubiquitous,so much
had changed that it was impossible simply to redo the issue ofAI & Society,
and thus this anthology became a much larger project than we first envi-
sioned. In the meantime, the human genome had been decoded, biotech
had become a new field for artistic engagement, and many more media
artists had emerged with online works deliberately manipulating databases.
This compilation is not about the technical aspects of computer data-
bases but,rather,a collection ofessays that begins to show how an aesthetic
emerges when artists take on the challenge ofcreating work using the vast
amount of information that bombards us daily.As an artist working with
networked technologies for the past fifteen years,I have discovered that one
has to be conscious ofthe information overflow and develop a philosophy
in relation to handling large amounts ofdata.This is particularly true with
interactive work,which generates even more information because it includes
audience participation.As a professor in the field ofmedia arts,I have real-
ized that too often novice media artists and designers develop work first,
and then,as an afterthought,turn to thinking about how to store and man-
age the data.This method ofworking results in many awkward pieces that
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