artist: Radical Software Group (RSG)

"Carnivore"

Computer networks empower us to share information, but they also make it easier for governments and corporations to monitor our electronic communications. In the 1990s, the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used a digital wiretapping software application called Carnivore to surveil traffic flowing through the servers of Internet service providers. This technology enabled agents to read e-mail messages and eavesdrop on the chat-room conversations of citizens. In response to this surveillance, a team of artists calling themselves Radical Software Group, or RSG, developed CarnivorePE (PE signifies "Personal Edition). I agree with these artists that the government practicing such surveillance is a complete invasion of privacy and should be stopped.

artist: Mendi and Keith Obadike

"The Pink of Stealth"
As the Internet first gained popularity in the mid 1990s, some cultural theorists argued that it was part of a new kind of virtual space (sometimes called cyberspace) that we enter as disembodied subjects whose identities are disguisable. Our bodies are left behind along with our genders, races, and ethnicities. In this new environment, our flesh-and-blood bodies don't register because they aren't visible. If a teenage girl could disguise herself as a middle-aged man, or vice versa, the old rules of identity no longer exist. 
Other people argue that our embodied identities follow us onto the Internet, and that categories such as female, white, or hispanic are every bit as real online as off. 

I personally agree with the argument that cyberspace allows us to completely change or disguise our identities. 

artist: Olia Lialina

"My Boyfriend Came Back from the War"
This piece produces a compelling and emotionally powerful experience that is especially impressive for an early work of New Media since most people expect such an experience to come from older, more established media (film).
This piece of art tells the story of two lovers who reunite after a military conflict. The different fragments of dialogue convey a lot of difficulty that the couple has reconnecting. It seems as though the woman confesses to having an affair with a neighbor while her significant other was away at war. This piece of art caught my attention because I am very interested in the dynamics of relationships and this particular story is different than most because in most cases, the man cheats on the woman. I do not console cheating but if it has to happen, I think that it is good that women are finally not the only victims of cheating in relationships.

artist: Natalie Jeremijenko

"A-trees"
Natalie Jeremijenko creates works that force us to examine the problematic consequences of technologies like cloning and software. This particular piece of work allows us to witness the growth of a synthetic tree on a computer desktop. The tree is programmed to change gradually in size by more than the artists' programming. Every upward spurt reflects the actual level of carbon dioxide in the air in the microenvironment surrounding the computer, measured by a real-time carbon-dioxide meter. So her A-trees serve as monitors of actual air quality and, by extension, global warming. They call into question the fate of real trees in a world whose environment is increasingly impacted by humans, as if to suggest that one day the only trees left will be digital. 

Natalie uses the term "artificial life" Perhaps the idea of this "artificial life" is supposed to ask if A-trees grow and die in response to their environment, are they in fact alive? Jeremijenko combines the real and the virtual and makes me question my understanding of life and how we might work to preserve it.

artist: Ken Goldberg

"telegarden"
This piece of artwork raises questions related to what Ken Goldberg calls "telepistemology," or the study of the nature of knowledge gained through remote and mediated sources like the internet. After further reading, this artist makes me consider whether the garden really exists and makes me wonder whether people can actually trust that the users' actions have actually contributed to the growth of the plants represented on the telegarden Web site, or whether the entire art work is staged. 
Goldberg asserts that "media technology generally facilitates the suspension of disbelief. I'm trying to facilitate the resumption of disbelief." This quote took me aback at first but after some further thought, it made me realize what he was trying to say. People are so immune to interesting things thanks to technology and he is trying to bring back people's interest in unique things and concepts. Like James Elkins says in his article "Just Looking," many people just look at things without thinking or making themselves do so. This can relate this particular piece of artwork because Goldberg is attempting to change the fact that most people just look at things and instead make them think about it.

artist: Mary Flanagan

"domestic"

When I first looked at this piece of art I was unsure of what exactly it was supposed to be or represent. The fire at the bottom of the first half of the image makes me think that something burned down because in addition to the fire, there is the repeated word, "reconstruction." The bottom half, on the other hand, does not make very much sense to me. 

After further reading, I come to understand that "domestic" is a computer game. I also learn that it is based on Flanagan's experience of watching her house catch on fire when she was walking home as a child. This relates to what Steve Mithen says in his book: "The Prehistory of the Mind" as stated by Bart Rosier in his article, "what is Art?" Mithen defines art as images with symbolic meaning as a means of communication. Flanagan is trying to communicate something that happened to her through this piece of art which contains symbolic meanings that represent her memory. 

artist: Vuk Cosic

"ASCII History of Moving Images"

When I look at this piece of artwork, before reading about it, all I can note is that it seems to be digitally created and is probably a picture of a particular object or being but I can honestly not figure out what. I then find out, after reading about the artist and his work, that this project converts scenes from classic films and TV shows into short animations. I viewed the animated versions of these scenes and found it hard to depict what was going on. There was a lot of white flashes throughout the scene and it almost gave me a headache and I had a hard time following what was going on in the scene. However, that does not mean that this type of art is not interesting. As Kenda Buster and Paula Crawford say in one of our readings, "Art is at its best when it can be experienced. The experience of a complex work of art involves the perception of a complex structure of some kind." And that is exactly what this work of art is: an experience of complex art, involving complex structure. At first, I was confused because I did not know how to understand this artwork. But as Jery Saltz says in his article, "The Whole Ball of Wax," "people wrongly believe that art is about understanding, when, like almost everything else in the everyday world, art is about experience." 

artist: Shu Lea Cheang

"Brandon"

When I first observed this piece of artwork, I was slightly confused as to what exactly it was portraying but came up with the idea of gender-switching based on the text in the artwork: "she's a he," "swap," "exposure." After reading about it, it turns out that I was on the right track. In fact, this is a Web-based art work that explores the true story of Teena Brandon, a 21 year old woman who was raped and later killed for passing as a man in 1993. Understanding the background to this piece of work really helped me understand it and appreciate it more. Just like Paula Crawford and Kendall Buster point out in one of our readings, "a work of art can simply be read by what the viewer sees but signification in a work is also created by such things as the artist's stated intentions, or the context in which it is shown." Learning about the true story of Teena Brandon and then re-analyzing this piece of artwork allowed me to gain a greater appreciation for this piece. 

artist: Natalie Bookchin

"The Intruder"
When I first look at this piece of art I see a girl happily skipping along the street and falling into a pothole of some sort. But after reading about it i discover that it is a critical commentary on computer games and patriarchy. More specifically, it is based on a 1966 short story also titled "The Intruder" about prostitution, jealousy, and violence against women. It involves two brothers who fall in love with the same woman, share her, and then sell her. It ends with the woman's murder and the brothers' reconciliation.
By combining literature and computer games, Brooklin builds a bridge between art and culture. This relates to what Jerry Saltz states in his article, "The Whole Ball of Wax" when he says that the best art is ale to "mix the communicative function with the poetic, or in other words, to move viewers by giving them a complex experience, while also giving them information." That is pretty much what this piece of art is doing: it is telling a story while also trying to portray a message/information. 
It seems as though her critique is in the parallel between the violence faced by the woman in the short story and the violence and sexism found in most computer and video games. I personally applaud her for her strong stance in this area. I agree that video games are aimed at violence towards women and that there is also a lot of sexism involved and I think it is both creative and bold of her to express her disapproval through her work. I also find it interesting that most of her work is explicitly political. Again, I think that using art to send a political message is a great idea and a unique way to speak out against society.

artist: Heath Bunting and Kayle Brandon

"BorderXing"
At first glance, this piece seems to be a realistic painting or even a picture that is attempting to portray nature and humans in it. However, after further reading, it seems to be a representation or documentation of the artists moving illegally from country to country. This concept is very interesting to me and completely changes the way I see this piece of art. I would not normally think of this type of project as art but after reading "What is Art For?" by Waldemar Januszczak, in particular, the sentence that says, "there is a specific connection between a place and the art made for that place," I start to realize that although it is not what most people envision when the think of art, but it is still art nonetheless. 

artist: Jonah Brucker

When I first look at this piece of artwork, I see a gloomy, rainy day in which everyone comes prepared with either a bright red or bright blue umbrella. This could signify a bunch of different things but I personally took it as people staying optimistic even when the weather was gloomy. However, after reading into it, I realize that my prediction is completely off track. 

The umbrellas represent computers attempting to create a wireless connection and the colors indicate the connection status: red umbrellas represent computers that are trying to connect and the blue umbrellas represent the computers that already are connected. After knowing what this piece of art is really about, I personally think this is a very creative way to represent technological advancement (wireless connection) through illuminated umbrellas. As Kendall Buster and Paula Crawford point out in one of the readings, art can denote one thing and connote another. In this particular case, the denotation of this work is the use of umbrellas to protect people from the rain. The highlighted umbrellas as wireless connection is the connotative meaning of this work. 

As Buster and Crawford also say in one of our readings, "meaning can change as information emerges about the artist's life, earlier works, or intentions." In this case, learning about the artist's intentions completely changed the meaning of this piece of art and how I viewed it.