Mark Amerika's remixthebook.com is now live

From a press release by Mark Amerika:

The remixthebook.com site is now live.



The remixthebook.com design team have really been working hard over the last few months putting this magnificent site together and I want to send a personal shout-out to Rick Silva, Erin Costello, Tom Zamir, Tammy Curry, Aaron Angello, and Will Luers for their hard work throughout the production process.

Here is a blurb about the book:

A model of contemporary remixing and a groundbreaking reflection on digital media

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remixthebook explores the mashup as a defining cultural activity in the digital age, tracing the art of the remix to previous forms of avant-garde and modernist art through mashups of deftly sampled phrases and ideas. Mark Amerika captures the unique and continually shifting digital moment in which we live and situates the remix as an art form and literary intervention.

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"Think of remixthebook as DJ Tool made from rhythms downloaded, ripped, mixed, spliced, diced, and burned into our collective hard drives, then re-uploaded. It's a piece of conceptual hardware that exists somewhere between how we experience information and how information aesthetics has transformed the human condition. It's that deep." — Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid

Tags: Mark Amerika, remixthebook, remixthebook.com, mashup, remix, writing, digital

remixthebook.com by Mark Amerika soon to launch

According to his twitter stream, Mark Amerika's forthcoming remixthebook.com Web site will be launching in the next week or two.

Meanwhile, this just out at Authoring Software:

UMP will publish Mark Amerika's remixthebook in September of 2011, and the print book will be accompanied by an extensive website with collaborative components.

"remixthebook is a hybrid publication and performance project that has both print and digital features," says Mark Amerika, whose work includes the seminal new media trilogy GRAMMATRON, PHON:E:ME, and FILMTEXT. "The print book is a series of remixed texts that mash-up contemporary art theory with personal narrative, poetry, comedy and the history of remix practices. It reads like a kind of performance art manifesto that attempts to challenge traditional scholarly discourse while maintaining an allegiance to intellectual writing."

Keywords: Mark Amerika, remixthebook, Authoring Software, hybrid publication,

Mark Amerika's video book trailer for "remixthebook"

The new video book trailer for Mark Amerika's remixthebook is out. Referred to as "a provocative textual performance that is at once a dazzling model of the literary remix and a state-of-the-art reflection on remix culture," the video includes beautiful images of scrolling text and nature shots mashed up with some kind of 3-D text apparatus and a soundtrack by Chad Mossholder that reminds me of Amerika's earlier sound experiments in FILMTEXT.

Given Amerika's long-held view that text, or creative and conceptual writing, i.e. language art, needs to be reconfigured for the digital fields of distribution, it should come as no surprise that here he attempts to capture "the unique and continually shifting digital moment in which we live and situates the remix as an art form and literary intervention." To coincide with the publication of remixthebook, Amerika will launch a companion website, remixthebook.com, to facilitate new ways of participating in remix culture. In this regard, the site will include work from an array of international artists and writers who will themselves create remixthebook mashups of their own, pushing the boundaries of art and literary culture further, beyond the current publishing paradigms.

According to YouTube, here's who is already involved in the project via the video book trailer:

Video Remix: Rick Silva
Audio: Chad Mossholder
Micro-Cam Footage: Mark McCoin
Voice: Mark Amerika

Metadata: Mark Amerika, remixthebook, video book trailer

It's Confirmed: Mark Amerika's new site design for markamerika.com

In our last post we relayed a very short email volley we had with Mark Amerika about a rumor we heard regarding his new web design for markamerika.com. Amerika responded to our initial inquiries by writing that "you'll have to wait and see. The beta-version will be up for a few days and then we'll send out a press release."

Well, that beta-version was just released yesterday and the new site design is a doozy. Amerika also released a press statement saying, "the main features of the new markamerika.com website are searchability, accessibility, relativity, and sociability. Visitors to the site now have easy access to Amerika's net art works, new media books, Twitter streams, Professor VJ blogs, and other electronic publications."

The site actually has all of that and more, including links to pre-order his forthcoming book, remixthebook, with the University of Minnesota Press.

Tags: Mark Amerika, markamerika.com, web design, Twitter

Mark Amerika's New Web Site?

Rumors have been circulating regarding Mark Amerika's new Web site so we decided to email him and ask what's up. A few email volleys later this is what we extracted:

AFKAMA ("artist formally known as mark amerika"): Are you releasing a new Web site soon?

Mark Amerika: Not really. Well, yes: a new design of markamerika.com

AFKAMA: What's new about it?

Mark Amerika: You'll have to wait and see. The beta-version will be up for a few days and then we'll send out a press release.

AFKAMA: Why a press release?

Mark Amerika: To drive more traffic to the site, of course.

AFKAMA: Any new artworks?

Mark Amerika: The new site will direct visitors to my next project, remixthebook, although I can't get into the details just yet.

AFKAMA: OK, we'll catch up with you later!

Categories: Mark Amerika, new Web site design

Mark Amerika on Glitch

Mark Amerika's recent post on "glitch aesthetics" points to his over ten year interest in intentionally hacking into software codes, visual codes, literary codes, etc.

Perhaps the most obvious example of Amerika's use or employment of The Glitch is in his CODEWORK series of VJ paintings. These are not really paintings per se, as Amerika uses digital video and VJ software as well as 5.1 surround sound to create something like an immersive synaesthetic experience. But Mark does refer to a lot of VJ-inspired video work as "painting" or in the tradition of painting. We think you can see it in his net art works too, especially FILMTEXT. Amerika employs unique handheld techniques with his recent feature-length works too and these unusual "gestures" also create glitch-like effects. See the remixes for an example.

Long live The Glitch!

Metadata; Mark Amerika, glitch, VJ, art

Mark Amerika Exhibiting with Amazing Local Artists in Dubai

We came across this radio interview with artists participating in the Contemporary Crosscurrents: Portraits and Electronic Arts exhibition Dubai. The show is curated by the ever-popular Streaming Museum directed by Nina Colosi and comes on the heels of another Streaming Museum event featuring Mark Amerika's work on stage at Juilliard at Lincoln Center in the new Willson Theater.

According to the PR, Contemporary Crosscurrents is the first-ever exhibition of electronic art in the Middle East. Perhaps what's most wild is that the work is appearing as a public art exhibition in one of those post-pomo designed shopping malls Dubai is noted for.

According to Nasser Rafi, Chief Executive Officer of Emaar Malls Group:

The digital art show is a unique exhibition that highlights the creative flourish of local and international artists, integrating the elements of modern technology. Bringing such innovative attractions to the Dubai Marina Mall underscores our commitment to provide new experiences for our visitors – something the residents of the Marina appreciate.

Mark Amerika's Immobilité remixes are part of the show along with work by Eduardo Kac, Sarah Lahti, John Simon, Janet Bellotto, and many others.

We only wish there was a web cam that would enable us to see it!

Keywords: Mark Amerika, Dubai, electronic art