Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    


After the State of the World closes, I’ll be devoting some attention
to jury duties for our electronic art festival in Turin, “Share
Festival.”  The theme for MMXX is “Riots: Here We Are.”

A rather apt and timely theme, I hope you’ll agree.  There’s still a
week or so to send in entries if you are into the production of
net.art, device art, machine art, code art, generative art and that
good-old-fashioned formerly-new media.

https://www.toshareproject.it/call-for-share-prize-xiii-edition-riots-here-we-
are/

And if you’re up for the big time of tech art, why not “Ars
Electronica”?  It’s got the “Golden Nica,” the Oscar of the tech art
world.  

******

Prix Ars Electronica 2020
Submit your entry now to the most traditional media art competition
in the world!

The following categories will be announced for the 2020 Prix Ars
Electronica:
Computer Animation, Digital Communities, Interactive Art + and u19 -
create your world. 

The winners will receive the prestigious Golden Nicas, prize money
of up to 10,000 euros per category and a prominent appearance at the
Ars Electronica Festival in Linz 
(9 to 13 September 2020).

You can find out how to submit or nominate your artistic project at
ars.electronica.art/prix! The submission deadline is March 2, 2020.
The participation is free of charge.

Since 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica has been held annually for
media artists from around the world. You’ll be able to find out
which Prix jurors the many artists will be able to present this year
and which projects have been submitted and awarded prizes on our Ars
Electronica Blog.

We are looking forward to your submission and wish you good luck!

Your Ars Electronica Team

*****

Every year I do this jury work, and really, the panoply of ingenuity
there always impressed me and raises my morale.  So many strange,
creative, inventive things from a some basement, some attic, some
home-made lab in the corner of whateverness.  It gives me a baseline
faith in the resilience of humanity.   Not that things are always
good —that’s too much to ask — but that they’re always interesting. 
  

    
It's been two weeks; this is when we normally end the conversation.
But it's a soft stop, the topic is open for more posts. Feel free to
continue.

Thanks to all who've contributed, from on or off the WELL. Hopefully
we're all gaining insight. It's been a bit bleak this year... the
pendulum's swung to a dark place. But we're here for each other, and
we can always hope...
  

    
That's lovely, Jon. Thanks for that thought.
  

    
(Blushing!)
  

    
Via email from George Mokray:

If you want to know how to save coral reefs, you shouldv  talk to
Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance
(http://globalcoral.org).  Tom uses Wolf Hilbertz' biorock
technology which should make Bruce Sterling happy as he uses the
idea in one of his novels.  Tom is also one of the leaders of the
geotherapy (NOT geoengineering) community.
  

    
I came late to reading this this year, and just want to thank Jon,
Bruce, and everyone who came in with some really substantial
questions and comments and perceptions.

The dark mood feels right to me, given the state of the world, and
any glimmer of reason to hope (as the post just before this is, as
well as Jon's) is greatly appreciated.
  

    
Thirty-three years of Boing Boing.  Nobody's perfect, and things
don't always go well, but there's a lot to be said for tenacity.  

*And the long-standing WELL, too, may it find favor among the gods;
when the WELL was a bulletin-board-system, I once found its server
and sat on it.

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/21/boing-boing-is-20-or-33-year.html

With any kind of luck, we'll be back next year.
  

    
Btw, what will historians call this age? 

The Anti-enlightenment? 

The Age of Fake?(from fake news to fake impeachment trails, etc)
  

    
I'm not so sure there will be historians all that much longer.
  

    

The Great Endarkenment
  

    
Or if we may be extremely lucky as well as extremely proactive, The
Small Endarkenment.

(great phrase, gans)
  

    
It did not originate with me, but I put it into a song:


Endarkened forces are clamping down
On us unconfirming souls
Waving flags and bashing "fags"
And burning truth like coal
Now, I don't know but I've been told
The naming rights have all been sold
Hell is hot and heaven's cold, and

It's gonna get worse before it gets better
It's gonna get worse before it gets better
It's gonna get worse before it gets better
But I know it's gonna get better
  

    
2020 is our 35th year as well.sf.ca.us, aka well.com .

Chinese New Year begins this weekend.  Wrap up your loose ends, pay
your bills.  The Year of the Metal Rat, the start of a 12 year metal
cycle.

Anything you’d like to opine about rats or metal?   
  

    
I envy you your gift for your gift for words, and your optimism.
  

    
Slip.
  

    
> and your optimism

"Hope is an obligation," as <mtheo> once said in a very different context.
  

    
Thank you, Gans, the Endarkening is right on target, hopefully not
the Great Endarkening....

Great lyrics, too, but I can't say I feel the optimism expressed the
last line. I suspect that's part artistic license. I often think
about Dylan's lyric, penned a few years ago: "it's not dark yet, but
it's getting there...".
  

    
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
  

    
Via email from Vasilios Koronakis:

Bravo, bravo Lena! (re <inkwell.vue.507.144>)