An Evening of Light and Sound

Hard to believe it’s been a decade since Christian Crumlish invited me to become part of a small-ish group of web-based artists and developers called antiweb (ironically, no web site to speak of). Mostly centered around a mailing list that has survived the ups and downs of the internet through the years, antiweb has become one of the few stable aspects of life online for me over the years, as well as a posse of online friends I always know I can turn to with tech questions and observations, confessions, ramblings, etc.

Because antiweb is scattered over the earth’s surface, only small sub-clusters of us have ever met face-to-face. Even though it’s a closed list, antiweb isn’t a clique; it’s loose, ragtag, sometimes seems barely to hang together at all. But I feel strangely close to almost everyone on the list, if only for the amount of time we’ve spent together.

To celebrate our 10th birthday, antiweb founder Malcolm Humes is throwing a Bay Area happening this Thursday night (July 28), public invited.

Hard to say exactly what the evening will become, but there’s some cool stuff planned (click Continue for details). I’m working on a 30-page digital comic mash-up including photography by Amy and me, recklessly integrated with text culled from the antiweb list. Will post the comic at birdhouse sometime after the event.

Hope to see some of you there!

GetOggz.com and Antiweb present
a free evening of light and sound
8pm at 21Grand.org in Oakland, California on Thursday July 28th

Featuring:

• An exhibit of LED lamps & sculptures with an interactive motion-triggered audio installation featuring a preview of Morphema.com’s color morphing LED lamps and toys.
• A performance by Theresa Wong on Matthew Sperry’s bicycle.
• On display: 30-page digital cut-up image/word comic by Scot Hacker w/antiweb excerpts
• The West Coast debut of “The Power and Mighty” straight out of Brokeland.
• Other fun stuff yet to be announced.

Antiweb is small private mailing list of web artists, poets and writers, now celebrating it’s 10th anniversary, that has collectively collaborated on a half-dozen books and various projects over the years. The Village Voice described Antiweb in 1996 as an “intentional community”. WIRED magazine described Antiweb in 1997 as “An influential online bohemian think-tank”…”forged out of dialogs among webmasters influenced by (William S.) Burroughsian thought.” The New York Times cited Antiweb in 1996 as “an underground e-mail list” that “came together last year to protect self-publishing artists on the Web from the tidal wave of major commercial efforts now flooding the Net.”  

Oggz guru Malcolm Humes operates GetOggz.com and is developing a new line of LED lamp products under the name Morphema. His work with LED light sculptures was inspired by Brian Eno’s installation at the Exploratorium in 1988. His interactive sound work uses motion triggered audio to create an environment of sound and poetry triggered by interaction in the space.

Scot Hacker hosts the decade-old Birdhouse Arts artists collective at birdhouse.org as well as the Archive of  Misheard Lyrics at kissthisguy.com, and runs a web and mail hosting service for artists, journalists, and activists (hosting.birdhouse.org).

Cellist Theresa Wong is an improviser and composer exploring a world of sound that embraces improvisation, her instrument, voice and the amplified bicycle. More on Theresa.

Christian Crumlish, if he is going to be listed here, is a web strategist at Extractable.com, co-founded Enterzone and Telegraph.nu, and is a charter member of the antiweb list. He co-edited Coffeehouse: /Writing from the Web/ with antiwebber Levi Asher in 1997. He blogs at You’re It, Radio Free Blogistan, and Personal Democracy Forum, among others. He is one half of the band /The Power and Mighty/.

Janan Young hosts one of the oldest poetry communities on the web, AlienFlower.org since 1995. She devotes time to her writing, to editing, and she corresponds with poets daily to encourage them to make a difference with their writing. Most recently, one of her poems (August 2005) will be published in a literacy curriculum developed by Dr. Jane Fell Greene, Ed.D., www.sopriswest.com to be used to help at-risk elementary students.

Other performances of poetry and music are also likely to occur.

21Grand is actually located at 416 25th St. Oakland, CA 94612. For directions please see: http://www.21grand.org/map.html