[Nettime-bold] periodic notice, etc. - alan

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

(last one of these sent out in September)


Internet Philosophy and Psychology -                             -05/01/02


My recent work has been dealing with sexuality, terror, death, windows
onto worlds, the confluence of subtropical nature with subsumption neural
architectures.

In Miami, my job has been terminated, the new media line cancelled, the
track itself eliminated. I contain my frustration, writing under the sign
of the repressed.

Below is the usual intro:

This is a somewhat periodic notice describing my Internet Text, available
on the Net, and sent in the form of texts to various lists. The URL is:
http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt/ which is partially mirrored at
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html. (The first
site includes some graphics, dhtml, The Case of the Real, etc.)

The changing nature of the email lists, Cybermind and Wryting, to which
the texts are sent individually, hides the full body of the work; readers
may not be aware of the continuity among them. The writing may appear
fragmented, created piecemeal, splintered from a non-existent whole. On my
end, the whole is evident, the texts extended into the lists, partial or
transitional objects.

So this (periodic) notice is an attempt to recuperate the work as total-
ity, restrain its diaphanous existence. Below is an updated introduction.

-----

The "Internet Text" currently constitutes around 100 files, or 5000 print-
ed pages. It began in 1994, and has continued as an extended meditation on
cyberspace, expanding into 'wild theory' and literatures.

Almost all of the text is in the form of short- or long-waves. The former
are the individual sections, written in a variety of styles, at times
referencing other writers/theorists. The sections are interrelated; on
occasion emanations are used, avatars of philosophical or psychological
import. These also create and problematize narrative substructures within
the work as a whole. Such are Susan Graham, Julu, Alan, Jennifer, Azure,
and Nikuko in particular.

The long-waves are fuzzy thematics bearing on such issues as death, sex,
virtual embodiment, the "granularity of the real," physical reality, com-
puter languages, and protocols. The waves weave throughout the text; the
resulting splits and convergences owe something to phenomenology, program-
ming, deconstruction, linguistics, philosophy and prehistory, as well as
the domains of online worlds in relation to everyday realities.

Overall, I'm concerned with virtual-real subjectivity and its manifesta-
tions. I continue working on a cdrom of the last eight years of my work
(Archive); I also additional video materials, created with Azure Carter
and Foofwa d'Imobilite, on two cdroms, Baal and Parables. I've worked on a
series of codeworks and political pieces, as well as Asteroids, a group of
videos based on 3d modeling of spatial objects and fly-byes. Finally, I've
recently completed two cdrom collections of materials, Miami and Voyage.

I have used MUDS, MOOS, talkers, perl, d/html, qbasic, linux, emacs, vi,
CuSeeMe, etc., my work tending towards embodied writing, texts which act
and engage beyond traditional reading practices. Some of these emerge out
of performative language - soft-tech such as computer programs which _do_
things; some emerge out of interferences with these programs, or conversa-
tions using internet applications that are activated one way or another.
And some of the work stems from collaboration, particularly video, sound,
and flash pieces.

There is no binarism in the texts, no series of definitive statements.
Virtuality is considered beyond the text- and web-scapes prevalent now.
The various issues of embodiment that will arrive with full-real VR are
already in embryonic existence, permitting the theorizing of present and
future sites, "spaces," nodes, and modalities of body/speech/community.

It may be difficult to enter the texts for the first time. The Case of the
Real is a sustained work and possible introduction. It is also helpful to
read the first file, Net1.txt, and/or to look at the latest files (lq, lr)
as well. Skip around. The Index works only for the earlier files; you can
look up topics and then do a search on the file listed.

The texts may be distributed in any medium; please credit me. I would ap-
preciate in return any comments you may have.

For information on the availability of cdroms containing the text and
other materials (graphics, video, sound, articles, books), see the appen-
ded notice below.

You can find my collaborative projects at
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm and my conference
activities at http://trace.ntu.ac.uk - both as a result of my virtual
writer-in-residence with the Trace online writing community.

See also:
Being on Line, Net Subjectivity (anthology), Lusitania, 1997
New Observations Magazine #120 (anthology), Cultures of Cyberspace, 1998
The Case of the Real, Pote and Poets Press, 1998
Jennifer, Nominative Press Collective, 1997

Alan Sondheim - Miami cellphone (voicemail) 305-610-5620
Miami phone (no voicemail) 305-668-5303 email sondheim@panix.com
Home address: 4600 SW 67th Avenue, Apartment 252, Miami, FL, 33155
(This address is good through 4/15/2002.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CDROM Offering: Alan Sondheim : Collected and Newly-Released Work:

All of the following include video/text/sound (except Asteroids - only
video - and Turn/Cray - only sound); Archive 4.1 or later has the entire
Internet Text to date - over 4500 pages!

There are 7 cdroms for sale; price includes shipping costs. Any ONE cd-rom
for $ 15; TWO for $ 25; THREE for $ 31. FOUR for $37, $5 each for any over
FOUR. Special $53 for all eight!

What's Available:

Archive 4.1: This includes all the texts from 1994- present, a number of
older articles, several books, a great number of images, some short video,
etc. Archive is continuously updated. There is also sound-work and some
programming. I think of this as the "basic" cd-rom; if you have an earlier
copy, you might want to update.

Et: This is the most recent cd-rom, with almost all of the video/sound/
imagework that has been described on the lists - plus more. r- if not x-
rated. Much of this deals with the relation between sexuality and terror,
as well as fascinated/fetishization - with Azure Carter. Some of the most
intense pieces we've done.

Voyage: Finished before Et, a number of video and image works, as well as
sound/music pieces - with Azure Carter. Languor and exhibitionism on the
way out of New York.

Turn/Cray: Continuous/stringent machine soundwork, 56 minute .wav file.

Miami: Finished before moving to Florida, a number of sound, image, and
video pieces. Despair, existentialism, sex, power-land. With Azure Carter.

Parables: Dance, Foofwa d'Imobilite, texts and sound by Alan Sondheim,
Azure Carter, a series of short videos (plus text) taken from The Parables
of Nikuko. Between conceptual dance and body work / mesmeric movement.

Baal: Foofwa d'Imobilite, Azure Carter, Alan Sondheim, several videos of
sexuality, the problematic of ballet, and signs. r- or x- rated.

Asteroids: A number of short silent videoworks - camera moving through 3d
"asteroids" - no sound.

Special: All 8: $53. Please note there is some overlap (not much) among
the disks.

===================

Please send cash, money order, or check to:

Alan Sondheim
4600 SW 67 Avenue, Apartment 252
Miami, Florida, 33155


========================================

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