PDF format news release.

Dorothy Simpson Krause uses state of the art techniques to create images that evoke another place and time. Her prints will be on view at the Evos Arts Institute in July.

July 6 - 31, 2002 "Journeys," is a solo exhibit by pioneering digital printmaker Dorothy Simpson Krause. Krause's images are spiritually charged portraits and icons printed on a variety of innovative materials. On view during the Lowell Folk Festival, July 26-28.

Artist's reception July 27, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. 98 Middle Street, Lowell.

Hours: Tues - Saturday 4 - 10 p.m., and by appointment. (978) 251-8138.
Organized by 911 Gallery, www.911gallery.org, a ten year old non-profit organization specializing in electronic media in the fine arts.

For More Information:
http://www.911gallery.org
Call or email
Mary Ann Kearns, Curator
978.251.8138
artgal@911gallery.org

Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 22nd (6-8pm)

Universal Concepts Unlimited announces the opening of new media pioneer Joseph Nechvatal's exhibition "vOluptuary : an algorithic hermaphornology". This exhibition consists of recent computer-robotic assisted paintings on canvas and a complimentary custom real-time operative artificial-life viral computer application which consumes the file images on which the paintings are based. There will be an opening party on Wednesday, May 22nd from 6-8 PM.

Since 1986, Joseph Nechvatal has been making computer-robotic assisted paintings which allow the tradition of canvas painting to integrate into our present digital times. In this sense he has been creating an interface between the virtual and the actual - what Nechvatal calls the "viractual". It is through this exploration of viractuality which has brought Nechvatal to the creation of complex numeric viractual images which typically consist of a mixture of drawing, digital-photography, painting, written language, and externalized computer code - all of which is submitted to computational manipulations (including viral attacks). His current work, called "vOluptuary: an algorithic hermaphornology" (1) stems from a computer virus program developed by the artist in 1991 as a Louis Pasteur artist-in-residence in Arbois, France. Nechvatal's featured paintings translate intimate body images of both sexes into basic pictorial units which he and his computer-virus mutate and metamorphose.

"vOluptuary: an algorithic hermaphornology" makes use of what Gilles Deleuze has called 'pornology' (2) for here representations of the intimate body associated with sexuality (of both sexes) undergo an intricate re-combination and subsequent intermixture with flowers. Of crucial interest to "vOluptuary: an algorithic hermaphornology" is the origin of the hermaphroditic androgyny image. This hybrid image first appears in Ovid's classic text 'Metamorphoses' - and perhaps this emergence is well worth recounting here. The hermaphrodite initially occurs in Western culture as a son of Hermes and Aphrodite named Hermaphroditus. Hermaphroditus was a typical, if exceptionally handsome, young male with whom the water nymph Salmacis fell madly in love. When Hermaphroditus rejected her sexual advances, Salmacis voyeuristicly observed him from afar while desiring him fiercely. Finally, one spring day Hermaphroditus stripped nude and dove into the pool of water which was Salmacis's habitat. Salmacis immediately dove in after him - embracing him and wrapping her body around his, just as, Ovid says, ivy does around a tree. She then prayed to the gods that she would never be separated from him - a prayer that they answered favorably. Consequently, Hermaphroditus emerged from the pool both man and woman.

As the tale of Hermaphroditus suggests, "vOluptuary: an algorithic hermaphornology" is a show of androgyny eroticism married to flowery virtuality (3), incomprehensible transformation and immersive excess. It aims to depict an imagined realm of political-spiritual chaosmos where new forms of sexual order arise such that any form of order is only temporary and provisional. Obviously this sphere is attained through an emergent operation, and, indeed, Nechvatal takes abundant pleasure in the forms of pan-order that arise within his continuously swelling processes. The point is that within the "vOluptuary" all sexual signs are subject to boundless semiosis - which is to say that they are translatable into other signs. Here, of course, it is possible to find resonances and affinities between sexual opposites. Here a chameleon-like sexual attitude is being built from the virtual abyss.

Within the realm of the "vOluptuary" no one fathoms whether they are female or male. All rest between male and female, between straight and gay, between dominant and submissive - nothing but curves and clefts. All is in a matrix of possibilities, self-assembled out of a flowery excess of erogenous organs.
notes:

1. The word 'voluptuary' generally means 'devoted to pleasure'. It comes from a Late-Latin variant of the Latin voluptarius / voluptas.
2. Pornology is aimed at confronting an idea with its own limits. The idea is rendered precise in Deleuze's essay 'Klossowski or Bodies-Language' which is found in his book 'The Logic of Sense'. Here Deleuze develops the term "pornology" so as to describe the dynamic of a transcendental empiricism in the circuit Klossowski establishes between theology, as a divine belief structure, and pornography, as a perverse expression of the body.
3. One here thinks of Alan Turing (the grandfather of computing) and his horrid endurance of a quack treatment for his homosexuality where he was overdosed with female hormones to the point where he developed breasts.

Joseph Nechvatal has exhibited his work widely in Europe and the United States, both in private and public venues. He is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum, the Moderna Musset in Stockholm and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. His work was included in Document 8. His web-site, with full CV, collected writings, and various essays on his work can be found at :
http://www.nechvatal.net

For downloadable digital images of the computer-robotic assisted paintings in "vOluptuary : an algorithic hermaphornology" and/or to see the artist statement concerning this show see:
http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/algorithic.html

Universal Concepts Unlimited
507 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
http://www.U-C-U.com

Tel: 212.727.7575
Fax: 212.727.7676
Email: ucu1@rcn.com

Online at the DeCordova website and in fleshspace at:
The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park
51 Sandy Pond Road
Lincoln, MA  01773-2600  USA

The quilting bee, a gathering of people to construct a quilt, remains a way for people to interact in a group art process. Similarly, the origins of the Internet are community-building in nature. Quiltmaker Clara Wainwright USA and the web artists Carmin Karasic USA and Rolf van Gelder NL have brought the communal creativity of the web and the quilting bee together in The Virtual Quilt: An Interactive Art Project. The entire online world is invited to participate in the creation of a virtual quilt that will be made into a real quilt and displayed at DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, USA from January 19 - May 27, 2002.

The DeCordova hosts the Virtual Quilt in the Exhibitions section of their website, http://www.decordova.org Additionally a PC online in the gallery allows people to contribute virtual quilt squares while theyre visiting Claras quiltmaking retrospective show at the DeCordova Museum. For this interactive project, you design and submit your own quilt square based on provided fabric choices. Carmin and Rolf will then add your square to the virtual quilt. Clara will copy your virtual square to create a real square, which she will add to the real quilt. Return to the website in a couple of weeks to see your square in the virtual quilt and in the photo of the real quilt displayed in the exhibit. Or visit the DeCordova Museum to see the real quilt on display there during the winter spring, 2002.

The Computer Games and Digital Cultures conference offers a comprehensive view into the current state of digital games, and their research, as well as forums for interdisciplinary discussion. Conference includes presentations from leading experts, both from the academic research institutions and game industry, including the opening words by Espen Aarseth (University of Bergen), keynote presentations by Greg Costikyan (Unplugged Games, USA), Steven Poole (author of the "Trigger Happy", UK) and designer of games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief and Deus Ex, Warren Spector (Ionstorm, USA).

Agenda
Computer games have grown into an increasingly important cultural form, that has a profound impact on the way interactivity, digital aesthetics and online environments are currently understood. The conference will explore the aesthetic as well as narrative and structural issues of computer games, while also functioning as a bridge and intermediary between the academic research and professional gaming community. The approach of conference is interdisciplinary and comprehensive; the analysis of games and the gaming communities will advance the study of interactive media, create fruitful exchange of perspectives with the professional game developers, and further the development of digital culture.

Workshops
The CGDC has two parts, the first day consisting of workshops that explore the pragmatic and creative issues of games as a form of culture and industry. The participants can register for this day separately, or for the whole three-day conference. The participants may submit proposals for workshops, focusing on creative design processes, dynamics of gameplay in particular game types, or, e.g., issues related to technical implementation or economics of contemporary game projects. Workshops with an academic focus are also invited. The first day will also include keynote workshops, to be announced later. In addition, participants are encouraged to offer suggestions for topics for the panel discussions.

Research Papers
The second and third days are dedicated to the research papers dealing with games. Both specific analyses of games as a form of art and entertainment are welcome, as well as more general approaches dealing with the cultural practices related with games and social activities in online environments.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

•  design and analysis of games
• communication and community in relation to games
• online and mobile gaming

Since the aim of the CGDC is to foster dialogue between the game developer and researcher communities, organisers wish that even the more theoretical papers would include concrete examples or references to games or game-related practices.

The paper and workshop proposals should be submitted in the form of abstracts by the end of January 2002. The deadline for full papers is April 8, 2002, and papers will be included in the printed conference publication.

There is a half an hour time reserved for presenting each paper in the programme.

The Conference Publication
The publication including the conference proceedings will be delivered to the participants at the conference.

Submission Format
The proposal for a research paper should consist of an abstract of at least 1000 words. A short biography of the author should be included.
The proposal for a workshop has no fixed format. Rather, innovative topics and creative working practices are encouraged. The workshop proposals should include a description of the topic, goals and methods applied in the workshop. The time available for a workshop process is either three hours (a half-day workshop), or seven hours (a full day workshop). A proposal should state which alternative it is describing.
All proposals should be submitted through the online form at the CGDC web site.

Further Inquiries:
For further information and updates on the conference programme, please consult the conference website: http://www.uta.fi/cgdc (the official website opens in December 2001).

The organising committee can be reached through professor Frans M"yr" (frans.mayra@uta.fi; the conference programme) or conference producer Carolina Pajula (carolina.Pajula@uta.fi; the conference arrangements).