Artists Discover the Art of Crunching Numbers
By V.L. HENDRICKSON

Most artists want nothing to do with numbers, and they certainly don't want their work quantified in a spreadsheet. But several data pioneers are working to convince the city's art community that number-crunching isn't only a crucial tool—it's got sex appeal.

"There is mystery in data, anticipation, adventure, even sensory gratification," said Ian Moss, the research director of Fractured Atlas. "There's a whole world out there of numbers to explore, and we in the arts are just starting to map it out. To be involved in that effort is to feel like a pioneer, in a way..."

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The massive exhibition showcases the works of artists with a connection to region.
With more than 60 artists and five locations, the latest Pittsburgh Biennial is an elephant. And, as the old saying goes, "How do you eat an elephant? ... A chunk at a time!'

The halls and staircase are filled with art, too. A mural titled "Katabasis" by Chris Kardambikis of San Diego, Calif., on the first floor illustrates multiple worlds the artist has imagined as existing in and around our own. Pittsburgh artist Jacob Ciocci has filled the staircase with a mixed-media installation that is a distillation of images that can be found on the Internet -- still and moving.

At Blip Festival, the People are Almost as Cool as the Music

Leigh Alexander —At Blip Festival, the People are Almost as Cool as the MusicThe first thing I thought about this morning, as I opened my eyes, was that the cat trying to rouse me from my hung-over sleep sounded like a Game Boy.

The second thing is that I had a really, really good time at the opening show night of Blip Festival 2011 last night.

This year's Blip Festival was thrown at Eyebeam on New York City's West Side by a collective of chip musicians called 8bitpeoples, with help from NYC nonprofit The Tank.

New concepts and emerging technologies have always had a significant effect on art, a fact that became almost endemic in the twentieth century. Whether it’s the emergence of cinema, video, or the internet, technology has become increasingly integral to artistic production. The Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, a non-for-profit space in Chelsea, is dedicated to exploring the continuously evolving relationship of contemporary art and design to technology. Often presenting a heterogeneous and even dizzying array of works, this space is always a fun visit. Now through January 29, Eyebeam will be presenting X-lab, an open house lab that lets the public sneak a peek into what the center's residents and fellows are up to. Featuring the work of Aaron Meyers, Brooke Singer, and Jacob Ciocci and numerous others.

~ Yván A. Rosa

Project MUSE Journals Theatre Journal Volume 62, Number 4, December 2010

Review of Reid Farrington's Gin & "It." (review)

Rethinking curating

By: Charlotte Frost

One of the things that makes digital media so exciting is that they problematise many naturalised systems and spaces of communication.

To put it simply, they offer tremendous opportunity to rethink all manner of cultural exchange. This year, two important books have been published on interrelated aspects of this 'digital rethinking'. Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook's Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media addresses how curators and art audiences behave in light of digital/new media art, as well as how we can begin to conceptualise and work with these emergent behaviours.

As a founding member of the internationally renowned Paper Rad art collective, US-based electronic producer / multimedia artist Jacob Ciocci has developed a reputation as a creative powerhouse in his own right over the last decade or so... During the same period, he’s also maintained a steady presence amongst the US’s indie rave scene doing solo performances as ROTFLOL, and this self-explanatory-titled collection on Audio Dregs acts as a ‘best of’ of sorts, trawling back through ten years worth of cassettes, videos, animations, self-made CDRs and live recordings for its 24 tracks. In this case, Ciocci’s musical aesthetic certainly parallels the psychedelic eighties bent of his visual work, with the tracks here being composed in ASCII, before being recorded in realtime using vintage Casio keyboards and budget electronics. That said, it’s amazing just how much diversity and depth he’s able to wring out of his pallette and gamecore-centred sounds here.

An Interview with curator and CRUMB co-founder Sarah Cook on driving creativity
artengine blog : art and technological experimentation

"It’s as if you had swallowed some science-fiction pill that laid bare the arithmetical formulas underlying everyday perception."