tom moody

"More Alpha Please (Beatless)" [2.4 MB .mp3]

In this video, Middle East historian and blogger Juan Cole discusses parallels between Napoleon's failed invasion of Egypt in the late 1700s and the US's current Iraq misadventure. Somehow the New America Foundation got around the YouTube 10 minute limit--it's 71 minutes but worth a watch. Cole says after Napoleon lost 12 ships to the British his troops were stranded and the invasion fell apart. Nevertheless the general returned to Paris, claimed he had won and became Emperor based on this perceived victory. This bears keeping in mind this fall as the Pentagon uses your tax money to create a 24/7 public relations "war room" to sell you on the idea that we are "succeeding" in Iraq. Treat all happy talk in the media in the coming month as completely tainted and try to get your news from blogs and the non-US press.

Photos "live" from the Great Internet Sleepover, organized by Bennett Williamson, at Eyebeam art & technology center last night. Paddy Johnson can be seen in the top photo posting the following words: "A discussion panel moderated by Marisa Olson, and including Michael Bell-Smith and Tom Moody was mediated by a noisy crowd who didn’t give a shit. Needless to say, nobody managed to come to any conclusions about whether this is a scene (a word I suspect was being used in lieu of movement, a term so unfashionable no contemporary artist wants their name attached to it.)" It wasn't as bad as all that--although rude NYC crowds never cease to amaze. Owing to the Ringling Bros. nature of the event, it was difficult to quiet the noise makers in Ring No. 2 while a serious intellectual discussion was happening in Ring No. 1. Thanks to Jeff Sisson for his projected surfing during the panel; it helped to have visuals from the various surfing crews onscreen while the panelists were talking.

The evening had a "demo scene" aura, from what I know of those from films and photos. A pleasant chaos of people doing and trying out many things simultaneously. Projected video, music, and various connectivity and cam experiments kept the room buzzing from 8 pm till the wee hours when people started crashing on couches or drifting home. Excellent music and DJing throughout; these photos so far artfully haven't revealed the jamming going on.

Immediately above, from CAB on the Supercentral RSS feed: "jamie and I trying (and failing) to represent at the internet sleepover."

Update: Am adding to this post over the course of a groggy Saturday. Artist and artMovingProjects gallerist Aron Namenwirth has posted some more photos of the event. Pics of the panel and Sisson manning the "projection booth" begin five images down, after photos of Bit Shifter and others performing at the Tank the same night.

And more photos and commentary at Supercentral.

Also Tintype.

Jon Williams' videos.

Nasty Nets: 38 wipeouts (Marisa Olson) / group shot (John Michael Boling)

Scott Kellum's blog / flickr set

ilxor.com thread

flickr sleepover pool

Bosko Blagojevic's pre-Sleepover commentary

Bennett Williamson's del.icio.us links / flickr set

thegreatinter.net/sleepover (photos, gifs, etc.)

Eyebeam's flickr set

guthrie's NN flickr photos

Attended a "pre-sleepover" party last night (thx Marisa) for the Great Internet Sleepover at Eyebeam. The actual event is tonight. Got to meet folks I only know as internet presences from the various Sleepover-participating crews: Double Happiness, Supercentral, Loshadka, and Nasty Nets.
Several people I met were students of an artist I gave a graduate crit to about seven years ago. Didn't realize he was now a go-to guy in a NYC university art department. The crit was kind of a disaster. He had selected me as a non-faculty advisor, which his school allowed, for his final graduate critique. He was supposed to receive it from all three of his advisors at the same time but the two from the faculty went out of their way to avoid having us all be in the same room together. One rescheduled about 3 times before bailing and the other "caught a cold." I ended up doing the crit with him one-on-one, in the gallery where he had his thesis exhibit. I have no proof of this but it sure seemed like his teachers were putting weird academic turf issues and protecting their own egos from a possible, actual exchange ahead of their student's education, for which he was paying top dollar. Seven years on I can only say--weenies.
Tonight should be fun--doubtful I'll do much blogging but I plan to bring my laptop and will hook it up the Internet. At some point I might attempt an MSPaintbrush demonstration.
Not sure what I'm going to talk about on the panel, hopefully I will not lapse into old veteran reminiscences about the world before YouTube and comment spam.

Acrylic, ballpoint on product packaging
8 x 5 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches

Thanks to Neg-Fi for including one of my tracks in their guest-DJ mix for (Make The) Product last night on WNYU-FM. The weekly music show features demos, self-released, live and private-pressed recordings. You can hear their set in streaming audio, and here's the playlist. The set features much skronky, minimal, micrometallic and otherwise neg-fi material, I'm honored to be in this company with an electronic "drum solo."

acrylic and pencil on canvas, 12 X 12 inches

Per the New York Times, Google has put the final nail in the YouTube coffin with "overlay ads":

...Google believes it finally has found the formula to cash in on YouTube’s potential as a magnet for online video advertising and keep its audience loyal at the same time.

The company said late Tuesday that after months of testing various video advertising models, it was ready to introduce a new type of video ad, which it said was unobtrusive and kept users in control of what they saw.

The ads, which appear 15 seconds after a user begins watching a video clip, take the form of an overlay on the bottom fifth of the screen, not unlike the tickers that display headlines during television news programs.

A user can ignore the overlay, which will disappear after about 10 seconds, or close it. But if the user clicks on it, the video they were watching will stop and a video ad will begin playing. Once the ad is over, or if a user clicks on a box to close it, the original video will resume playing from the point where it was stopped.

This doesn't matter much to me--all my favorite YouTubes have already been deleted for "terms of use violations." Really glad I made the decision to put only one "art video" on YT; it's my belief that my two headed, self drawing deer will only be improved by an erectile dysfunction ad scrolling along the bottom.

Photos of an exhibition by Paul Slocum and Kevin Bewersdorf in Austin, TX. Reification of the internet is a big theme (i.e. taking something "virtual" and making it into a tangible object), as well as celebrating/critiquing trash media such as chiropractor TV ads, theme park architecture, and corporate promotions. Imagine taking the concerns of the Nasty Nets website, where Slocum is a member* (surfing, making fun of low rent graphics), and translating them into a physical environment. The point is not commodification, although that surely factors in, but creating a neutral zone where you can walk around an object or imagine touching it when its only previous life was passing rapidly through your screen. Also included is performative-type work suggested by everyday Internet interaction, such as Bewersdorf's use of the Walgreens digital photo center to have Google-found images printed on pillows and coasters. Or the crystal clock they ordered online to commemorate the exhibition. The show isn't all static objects; it also features video such as Slocum's Time Lapse Home Page, consisting of hundreds of screen captures of a web page changing over time played at hyperfrenetic speed.

*also me, struggling for objectivity as usual