art.bit collection, June 21 - August 11, 2002 @ ICC

This is a page for the exhibition "Art.Bit Collection".
Japanese / English
home page at ICC

"Art.Bit Collection" Manifesto

In the art world, a work of art is called an "art piece." The word "piece" designates a thing that actually exists, but since software creations exist only as binary data, calling them an "art piece" seems wrong. Substituting "bit" for "piece," we have decided to call such a work an "art bit."

In the case of software, which is used as a medium, material, tool, and environment for art, it is necessary to know the conditions of the "art bit"; under the present circumstances, however, when the market is glutted with high-performance application software, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stretch the individual's imaginative powers. Some people have even become convinced that no new software is needed beyond what already exists. Software ought not to be simply a tool that allows us to imitate actual operations and rationalize routine work. We must delve down and discover new possibilities that are latent in software and experiment with them through trial and error as "art bits."

The present "Art.Bit Collection" exhibit brings together and displays works that explore software possibilities in this sense -- programming language (especially visual programming language and language environment software for computer music), network community (software available on the Internet for creating and exhibiting artwork), software for visualization for the World Wide Web, new application software, and interactive works. Although we cannot perhaps say that these art bits have as yet evolved into major works in this sense, we can say that each of them contains a "bit of art" that shows extraordinary creativity.

The "Art.Bit Collection" exhibit is a collection of software-based works full of "bits of art."

Date: June 21 (Friday) - August 11 (Sunday), 2002
Venue: ICC Gallery A, B
Hours: 10:00am-6:00pm (Admission until 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays, August 4 (Sunday)
Admission Fee: Adults 800 (600) Yen, University / High school
 students 600 (450) Yen, Junior high school / Primary school students Free
 *Rates shown in parentheses are for groups of more than 14 persons
Organizer: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
Curator: FUJIHATA Masaki (Media Artist / Professor, Tokyo National
 University of Fine Arts and Music) and ETO Kouichirou (Media Artist /
 Researcher, International Media Research Foundation)
Curatorial Support: SHIKATA Yukiko (Curator / Professor-in-special-contract,
 Tokyo Zokei University)
Cooperation: International Media Research Foundation /
 Department of Inter Media Art, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
Address: Tokyo Opera City Tower 4F, 3-20-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku,
 Tokyo, 163-1404 Japan
Access: 2 minutes walk from Hatsudai Station (East Exit) on the Keio New Line
Inquiries: Toll-free Telephone 0120-144199 (Domestic only)
Tel: +81-3-5353-0800 (International)
E-mail: query@ntticc.or.jp
URL: http://www.ntticc.or.jp/
URL for this exhibition: http://www.art-bit.jp/

art.bit works list

Visual Programming Environment  (7 works)
How can we create open ended Programming Environment for the end-user?
- AgentSheets, Alexander Repenning  (Mac, U.S.A. 1989)
- ToonTalk, Ken Kahn  (Win, U.S.A.)
- 3D-Visulan, Kakuya Yamamoto  (Win, Japan)
- PaneKit, Kuniaki Watanabe  (PlayStation, Japan 1999)
- MindRover, CogniToy  (Win, U.S.A. 2000)
- drawing blocks, Yumiko Tanaka  (Java, Win, Japan 2000)
- ColorFL, Satoru Sugihara (Linux, Japan 2002)

Media Programming Environment  (5 works)
Environment for generating sound and images.
Comuputer act as meta-media that combines several media.
- MAX/MSP, Miller Puckette and David Zicarelli  (Mac, France)
- GeoMaestro, Stephane Rollandin  (France 2000)
 on KeyKit, Tim Thompson  (Win, U.S.A.)
- OpenMusic  (Mac, France)
- nato, Netochka Nezvanova (MAX, Mac, nSk state 1999-2000)
- BigEye, Steim  (Mac, Netherland)

CommunityWare  (1 works)
Software for generating community.  Use computer to put their thought to outside.
- Linker, Graham Harwood  (Win, U.K.)

Virtual Environment  (3 works)
You can feel strange reality by virtual environment in computer.
- sodaplay, sodaconstructor, sodarace (projector(3screens), table) (Win, U.K.)
- Rogue, Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, Ken Arnold (UNIX, U.S.A. 1980)
 + Rog-O-Matic, Michael Mauldin, Andrew Appel, Guy Jacobson, Leonard Hamey (U.S.A. 1984)
- Sand, Kenichirou Shii (Win, Japan)

Web Browser historical view and alternatives (7 works)
You can see history and the future of Web Browser.
- WorldWideWeb.app, Tim Berners-Lee (NeXT, Switzerland 1990)
- xmosaic, Marc Andreesen and Eric Bina (UNIX, U.S.A. 1993)
- Netscape, Marc Andreesen and Eric Bina(UNIX, U.S.A. 1995)
- Amaya, W3C (Win)
- I/O/D 4: The Web Stalker, I/O/D (Mac, U.K. 1997)
- BurroughsWeb, Kouichirou Eto (HTML, Japan 2002)
- ResourceHanger+, doubleNegatives (Java, Win, Japan 2002)

Behind the Network  (5 works)
Visualize the streams of network and data on network.
You can realize there are many background behind the network.
- tcpdump, Van Jacobson  (UNIX, U.S.A. 1988)
- WebHopper, sensorium  (Java, Win, Japan, 1996)
- plaNet Former, doubleNegatives  (Win, Japan 2001)
- Carnivore, RSG  (Win, U.S.A. 2001)
- Tokyo Local Webscape, Satoru Sugihara  (Linux w/NVidia graphic card, Japan 2002)

NoiseWare - deconstructing desktop and application  (9 works)
Input noise into desktop and application.
They reconstruct your common sense about computer.
- OSS, JODI  (Mac)
- SOD, JODI  (Mac)
- CO.JP browser, JODI  (Win, 2002)
- Auto-Illustrator, Adrian Ward  (Mac, U.K. 2001)
- Autoshop, Adrian Ward  (Mac, U.K. 1999)
- TraceNoizer, LAN  (HTML, Switzerland 2001)
- DISCODER, exonemo  (Java, Win, Japan 1999)
- FMS, exonemo  (Win, Japan 2000)
- LivingWebBrowser, Kouichirou Eto  (Win, Japan 2002)
total: 39 works, (desk:38)

exhibition plan

Gallery A: (30 by 15 meter square)
There are over 35 works/installations will be show in a big/main gallery.
 * PC
 * a 17inch LCD Display
 * a Special pedestal with lighting system
 * Two chairs for audience

the lobby besides Galley A:
 - Web Browser history and alternative Web Browsers (7 works)

Galley B:
 - workshop: "Linker"
Kouichirou ETO, Media Artist, Researcher (mail: 2002 at eto.com)