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the MTAA-RR

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MTAA-RR » on-line art:

MTAA recommend that you visit the graphically interesting and contextually grounding MT Enterprises WorldWide to view our on-line art work. This section is a resource for critics, researchers and historians to find quick links to our on-line art work. We do allow comments, but please look at the work before you criticize it ;-)

1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate)

2004, web site with Flash

1 year performance video thumb
link to higher resolution image

1 year performance video continues MTAA’s series of Updates. Our Updates resound seminal performance art from the 60s and 70s in part by replacing human processes with computer processes.

1 year performance video updates Sam Hsieh’s One Year Performance 1978-1979 (aka Cage Piece).

When a viewer enters the piece she is presented with side-by-side videos of the artists trapped in identical cell-like rooms. The artists go about the mundane activities possible within a cell: in the morning they wake and breakfast; at around 1PM and 7PM they eat; sometimes they exercise; sometimes they surf the net; sometimes they sit and stare at the wall; they piss; at around midnight, they go to bed.

The viewer is meant to watch this activity for one year.

But, in the work we only mimic endurance; the videos are pre-taped clips edited at runtime via a computer program so that each viewer sees a different sequence. The audience can just close the browser and walk away. No one needs to suffer on this one; failure is built-in at the front end.

1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate) is a 2004 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. link to work |  permanent link to this post

Direct To Your Home Art Projects

1997-1998, web site, e-mail, artifacts

DYHAP is really just documentation of a net art work which MTAA conducted via email and postal mail from November 1997 to November 1998 (13 months).

This piece worked like this: Each month a Direct to Your Home Art Project was sent out by email to listservs (Rhizome, Fluxlist and American Express) as well as to the DYHAP mailing list. Each email contained instructions on how to fabricate and install artwork in ones own living space. In exchange for documentation of the installed artwork each collector of a DYHAP received an official signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity. link to work |  permanent link to this post

Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing

2003, web site; Flash, HTML, Javascript

Five Small Videos About Interruption And Disappearing are inspired by early video-based performance art work. MTAA were intrigued by the repetitive gestures and everyday actions in early video art performances. These Five Small Videos are MTAA’s update of the forms and themes of this earlier video work.

Commissioned by The Alternative Museum, Five Small Videos About Interruption and Disappearing has proven to be very popular and has been included in the Seoul Net & Film Festival 2003 (in the Interactive/Web Art section); exhibited at <Pause> (an on-line group exhibition presented by mobilegaze.org); was featured in a net art article in Parachute #113; and is included in the net art section of VideoZone2 — The 2nd International Video Art Biennial in Israel (opening 11/17/04). link to work |  permanent link to this post

Infinite Smile

2005, digital video loop

ismile.jpg
Infinite Smile is a digital video loop of MTAA smiling and blinking. The video is sped up 4x original speed.

This piece was originally created as an on-line art work to reward viewers who finished watching 1 year performance video for one year.

Subsequently it has been exhibited in various ways.

In 2005, as a two screen DVD installation at The 9th Annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under The Bridge Festival (as part of video_dumbo). Here are a couple of photos of the DUMBO installation: (one) (two).

In 2007, as a large-scale projection in the group show Character Reference at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Below, an image of the piece at Bryce Wolkowitz (click for a larger image).
iSmile_Wolkowitz_380x285.jpg link to work |  permanent link to this post

Manual Zoom Mirage (CC licensed image)

2003, bitmap and vector images

Technically not on-line art, this piece was created for a solo show at Rome Arts in Brooklyn, NY. The piece took the form of postcards and a large framed print installed in a custom standing frame.

We’ve placed creative commons-licensed images online in a variety of formats including Adobe Illustrator vector art (zip archive). link to work |  permanent link to this post

Our Political Work

2008, digital video with software

mtaa_opw_400x151.jpg
In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
— George Orwell

Continuing a series of computer-driven self-portraits, MTAA’s Our Political Work presents the artists in a never-ending state of screaming, yelling, waiting and sometimes laughing. Using 141 filmed moments, custom software randomly selects and joins video clips into a seemingly endless array of undignified action. Begun in 2007 and completed in 2008, Our Political Work creates an open-ended depiction of political discourse as Beckett-like action.

A 2008 commission of LX 2.0, a project of Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea and curated by Luis Silva. link to work |  permanent link to this post

Signature Series Canceled

1999, web site

MTAA described the Signature Series this way:
The MTAA Signature Series is an attempt to maximize mindshare in the online art market while maintaining the economics of scarcity on which the traditional art market depends.
Yes, but what is the Signature Series Canceled? link to work |  permanent link to this post

The School of Conceptual Clay

1999, web site

The SOCC’s mission statement says it all:
The goal of the School of Conceptual Clay is to promote the study and practice of conceptual clay.

Conceptual Clay was invented by M.River & T.Whid as a metaphorical activity and an open-ended collaborative performance commenting on the digitization of former analog practices and techniques.
We’re not really running the school any longer. link to work |  permanent link to this post

99 Steps To Contemporary Art In Your Bedroom

1999, web site & commercially printed poster

Not strictly a net art project, this piece was originally created for a curated print publication called “9/9 Revue d’Art Pratique,” but M.River built a web version.

It’s a text-heavy piece to say the least. English with french translation by Stéphane Argillet. link to work |  permanent link to this post

TIME!®

1997-2002, web sites, prints

This project is the very first net art work that MTAA ever made.

We actually created four versions of this work all linked below:

Buying Time: The Nostalgia-Free History Sale(1997)
Shudder. Did we really think that this was a web site?

TIME!® The Clearance Sale(1997)
Seems to be getting a little better…

TIME!®(1998)
This is the classic example archived at Rhizome’s ArtBase. It is also where The Simple Net Art Diagram made it’s first appearance.

Limited TIME!® Only(2002)
We did this version right after 9/11. It was nice simply having (basically) a design project which didn’t take much creativity. This version was included in the show Multiple Personalities at Haine’s Gallery in San Francisco curated by Amy Davilla. link to work |  permanent link to this post

Updates Series

2001-2004, web sites

We sometimes ‘update’ seminal process art from the 60s and 70s. We have three in the series thus far. link to work |  permanent link to this post

Visual—Text Art Venue (V-TAV)

1999, web site

What was this? Good question. It’s sort of exactly what it says it is. OK, it was an on-line gallery which had 3 or 4 shows. We suggest you go and check it out and find out for yourself. link to work |  permanent link to this post

vieweratstar67@yahoo.com
(the 3mb annexation)

2000, web site, Yahoo!

Best explained by the original proposal:
MTAA propose to extend the exhibition space of star67 gallery, brooklyn, by the amount of 3 megabytes of disk space on the servers of yahoo.com.
vieweratstar67@yahoo.com was great fun while it lasted, but sadly the piece was lost when someone changed the password. link to work |  permanent link to this post

Website Unseen
one hundred titles for art web sites that MTAA will build for $US 100.00 per web site

1999-2002, web sites, variable

We sometimes think that this piece is the best example of MTAA’s net art practice. It’s best to see the original offer then follow the links on the titles list. But we’ve included individual links to the projects below.

Website Unseen
This list is roughly in chronological order (earliest to latest). link to work |  permanent link to this post

1997 - 2006 M.River & T.Whid Art Associates. Some Rights Reserved. MTEWW.com is licensed under a Creative Commons License with the exception of Website Unseen titles which are covered by agreements with individual collectors and otherwise where noted.