a great introduction to floss software. digital artists handbook. check out processing.

This week in Web Art 1 we are watching a documentary about The Yes Men, a tactical media group that merges performance art with net.art to create challenging public spectacles that critique multi-national corporations and global financial institutions like the WTO. Of couse the timing here is brutal as we all watch with confusion as the global markets and economies take a tailspin. In a critically information based mediascape (to use arjun appadurai’s term) what are the connections between the increasing digital nature of global media, contemporary art practices, and demoratic distributions of power and knowledge? one answer is collaboration. this topic is dealt with by lawrence lessig in his book free-culture and his work with building the creative commons. Hopefully this inspires students and artist to get together more often, and not because this is some 60’s type call for love, but because the current global power formations have made it obvious. and also because chela sandoval has made it perfectly clear in her book methodology of the oppressed.