I have a twitter stream, but have it protected but want to share only the #keywords. Maybe one day there will be a semiporus privacy setting, which would be nice, but in the meantime…

#foct08 JimHendler new ways of teaching? should we try to bring childrens attention to focus, or ask better questions on how best to teach 7 minutes ago from TwitterFox

#foct08, Jim Hendler “we love disruptive technology as long as it isnt disrupting us” 10 minutes ago from TwitterFox

@Eingang, but how you know the people you know is related to what you know, if you are trusted, have reputation and skill. 17 minutes ago from TwitterFox in reply to Eingang

@sleepydog made hires through meeting over twitter in his company #foct08 20 minutes ago from TwitterFox in reply to sleepydog

#foct08 content, methods of delivery , and validation, how to get quality 25 minutes ago from TwitterFox

I want something that retweets # even though the rest of my updates are protected, useful at conferences 32 minutes ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 social networking brings me into a group that I care about… 34 minutes ago from TwitterFox

FOCT08 technology is complicated, and has social and political ramifications 34 minutes ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 social networking brings me into a group that I care about… 35 minutes ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 social networking brings me into a group that I care about…(think by @sleepydog) 36 minutes ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08, management of privacy, privacy as a threat vs privacy as an rethink….. 38 minutes ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 cultural blocks on use of social technologies in schools. shortsighted? about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 crackle on the phone psychosocialhuman ‘feel’ of digital technology about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 @josiefraser knows who i am quoting at the technology workshop,but i am not…..but there are about 10twitters here…… about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 but the portion that arent are multiply disadvantaged about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 digital divides are present even in the creative industries, but what about wider community? Many are socially networked. about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 is it possible to make maps of exciting possibilities. about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

#FOCT08 creating packages of overviews of what exciting is happening in New Media, then introducing then to new areas of expertise. about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

what is the future Orson Welles “War of the World” moment #FOCT08 about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

Technology workshop: who is “real” who “virtual” where doe the “work” happen #FOCT08 about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox

The public stream: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23foct08

Image by sctv via Flickr

Last Saturday, I attended a seminar at the informatics forum on art and science collaborations, or more specifically how the idea of dendrites has allowed artist/researcher Richard Brown and an engineer Professor Michael Kozicki (Arizona State University/Axon Technologies founder) to start talking.

So what is the discussion, the thread is dendrites that Richard Brown explores in his art work, and Michael Kozicki uses in developing disruptive technologies (like nanoscale valves, and massively bigger memory silicon chips).

It was a lively discussion, with that wariness evident, from the artist(you are going to steal my ideas, and not pay for them) and the industrialist(what is the use of art), why should i employ you?). There is that power play too, where the person that has the purse strings gets to call the shots. As a provocation, is there any other reason for artists to work in industry but to come up with novel ideas?

What are artists looking for? To influence technology? To critique it?

The talk was put on by the Informatics Forum and New Media Scotland.

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It was the culmination of their research, illustrated through how known artists create a revenue stream for themselves, such as those in the Recording or Design areas. The audience had artists from the recording, DJing, Vjing and writing areas. I think I was the only one representing New Media or Fine Art(correct me if I am wrong). Reason for the underrepresentation I think is this gritty friction around fine art and money. Professor Feng Li’s(the primary investigator) standard phrase is “Imagine that you could be successful as an artist and incredibly rich”. At previous workshops, some of the participants had a visceral reaction to this, and I can understand it. However, the interviews have brought about some understanding of each side, the suit and the tshirt.

David Parrish was there to explain how they are not so incongruous. You can buy his book Tshirts and Suits, or download for free. One of the main take home points, was that a smart entrepreneur makes a device that makes money even when the inventer is asleep. The problem with the arts, is that it doesn’t make itself, and if something happens to you, the artist, the work stops.

A lot of the ideas explained in the taxonomy made by Danielly Netto could be described as making communitiy, making limited eddtions and merchandising your one offs. Radiohead’s strategies were discussed and the use of creative commons was also brought up (great!). The idea is to control your IP, and give away what you want.

This ties in nicely with something that was sent to me recently, about ideas, and whether they should be pursued. (from http://coudal.com/newsletter/recent.php)

Here are the questions, all equally important:

1. Will we be able to make money? We’re a business. We have mortgages and tuitions to pay. Plus, if we don’t make some cash once in a while, how will we feed our habit of continually screwing around?

2. When we’re done, will we be proud of the work we’ve done? Slaving for months on a project only to not want to show it to anyone when you’re finished just plain sucks. No amount of money can make that feel better.

3. Can we learn a little something new along the way? Executing the project has to make us smarter and help satisfy our curiosity, which we think is our greatest asset.

For an artist, not all of these are as important, we are not used to a work making money so concentrate more on being proud of the work and learning along the way, at least for the time being.

Which probably leads me back to Hans Abbing, and his book on Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts (Amsterdam University Press, 2002)….but I will leave it there today.