[spectre] read_me 2.3 results

Fri Jun 6 19:03:21 CEST 2003

for immediate release

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Read_Me 2.3 software art festival RESULTS

47 projects selected and featured
Read_Me 2.3 Reader is published

http://www.m-cult.org/read_me/
http://www.m-cult.org/read_me/reader.php

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In the year 2003, the Read_me festival (http://www.m-cult.org/read_me) was held for the second
time, and for the first time in Helsinki. A year has passed since the first Moscow 2002 edition
(http://www.macros-center.ru/read_me), and the festival has grown and germinated through
Runme.org (http://runme.org) - the online software art repository it is now based on.

The idea of Read_Me 2.3 is to test an alternative festival model, especially since the subject of
the festival is software art, a realm where people with artists' self-identities coexist with
programmers whose views on the process of creation, distribution and even the very meaning of
their work can be dramatically different from those of the artists.

The current shape and organization of Read_Me is the result of a number of discussions and
analyses concerning the traditional schemes international media art festivals are based on, as
well as the organizational forms of open source developers communities.
Art festivals as widely accepted forms are often compromised by a lack of transparency in
submission and evaluation processes, which prevents interesting authors from submitting their
projects and generates quite problematic winners. Open source communities are much more
democratic, but have their own drawbacks: they focus on functionality and pragmatic usefulness,
thus sometimes leaving out interesting projects seen as unnecessary in these contexts.

In order to keep the advantages and avoid the disadvantages of the two realms a few steps have
been taken. An open, moderated software art repository Runme.org (http://runme.org) has been
developed and put up on the Net.
The web-site was developed creatively and in an excitingly short period of time by Alex McLean.
Amy Alexander participated largely in the testing, development and realization of the solutions
along with Alexei Shulgin and Olga Goriunova. The group of concept developers also included Pit
Schultz, Florian Cramer, Matthew Fuller, The Yes Men, and Thomax Kaulmann.

The first Read_me 1.2 was also based on an online database where all the entered projects were
stored, but the database was closed for new submissions after a pre-arranged deadline. The second
Read_me 2.3 is based on a database functioning parallel to and independent from the off-line
festival. Projects entered into Runme.org before a certain date were considered as entries for
the festival, but the submission of the works was not closed as the database was kept running on
a permanent basis.

Read_Me 2.3 has abandoned the monetary prize format, but has retained other features of the
festival: calls for submissions, an off-line event with invited participants, a book, etc.

Amy Alexander, Florian Cramer, Olga Goriunova, Matthew Fuller, Alex McLean, Alexei Shulgin,
and The Yes Men have reviewed the most interesting in their opinion submitted projects.
These projects were featured without ranking in order to avoid giving preference to one approach
over another.

The new experimental practice has yielded some unusual results. Since Runme.org was open for
submissions from everyone, and its developers have uploaded found projects and invited many
people to submit their works; the number of works uploaded onto Runme.org during the one and a
half month period from the launch to the festival deadline, reached 150, including a large number
of interesting works. That is why there were 47 works selected and featured by experts, with
other works to be reviewed later. This quite unexpected result of the experiment caused some
difficulties in the presentation of all the featured works at the festival, but was also very
positive and significant.

...
(full version of the text is published in the Read_Me 2.3 Reader
(http://www.m-cult.org/read_me/reader.php) and
is available at http://www.m-cult.org/read_me/report.htm)

>47 featuring texts are published in the Read_Me 2.3 Reader and
>on Runme.org web-site (http://runme.org/feature)

AND the featured projects ARE

>Category: Algorithmic Appreciation

Duff's Device
By Tom Duff
http://runme.org/project/+duffsdevice/

>Category: Artificial Intelligence

AARON
By Harold Cohen
http://runme.org/project/+aaron/

connoisseur 
By gabor papp
http://runme.org/project/+connoisseur/

>Category: Artistic Tool

BitmapSequencer
By Tom Betts
http://runme.org/project/+BitmapSequencer/

Connector
By ixi-software
http://runme.org/project/+Connector/

>Category: Bots and Agents

Gogolchat
By jimpunk & christophe bruno
http://runme.org/project/+gogolchat/

Unmovie
By Ax. Heide, Onesandzeros, Ph. Pocock, Gr. Stehle
http://runme.org/project/+Unmovie/

>Category: Browser Art

Babel
By Simon Biggs
http://runme.org/project/+Babel/

ZNC Browser
By Peter Luining
http://runme.org/project/+ZNC/

>Category: Code Art

Jabberwocky 
By Eric Andreychek
http://runme.org/project/+jabberwocky/

London.pl by William Blake 
By Graham Harwood
http://runme.org/project/+londonpl/

Julu 
By Alan Sondheim
http://runme.org/project/+sondheimjulu/

"Re ___________________________(ad.htm" 
http://runme.org/project/+mezangelle/
and "pro][tean][.lapsing.txts"
http://runme.org/project/+netwurker/
by mez

>Category: Conceptual Software

Composition 1961 
By La Monte Young
http://runme.org/project/+monteyoung1/

.Walk 
By socialfiction.org
http://runme.org/project/+dot-walk/

>Category: Data Transformation

Video Killed the Radio Star
By Jonathan Harel
http://runme.org/project/+videokilled/

>Category: Digital Aesthetics Research and Development

os_anm
By slateford
http://runme.org/project/+osanm/

>Category: Digital Folk and Artisanship

discomus.exe
By Anonymous
http://runme.org/project/+discomus/

DOS pseudo-viruses collection 
By Various artists
http://runme.org/project/+dosvir/

Face #7
By Dave Fischer
http://runme.org/project/+face7/

Google Groups Art
By Paul, Tim Flaherty, Nathan McCoy, Stuart Langridge
http://runme.org/project/+googleart/

>Category: Existing Software Manipulations

Dictionaraoke
By Snoogles
http://runme.org/project/+dictionaraoke/

>Category: Games

RETROYOU R/C STORY : RETROYOU R/C [paradise] [FCK THE GRAVITY CODE] [FRAG] class
By joan leandre
http://runme.org/project/+SOFTSFRAGILE/

SPS
By (Karl-)Robert Ek
http://runme.org/project/+spssps/

>Category: Generative Art

n_Gen Design Machine 
By Move Design
http://runme.org/project/+n-Gen/

>Category: Hardware Transformation

Tempest for Eliza
By Erik Thiele
http://runme.org/project/+tempest/

>Category: Installation-based

God's Eye
By Sintron
http://www.runme.org/project/+godseye/

>Category: Institutional Critique

Rotten flesh
By Jeff Epler
http://runme.org/project/+rottenflesh/

>Category: Political and Activist Software

DeArt - DeCSS Art Contest (et al)
By Tom Vogt and Various Authors
http://runme.org/project/+deart/

Homeland Security Threat Monitor
By Greg Hewgill 
http://runme.org/project/+threatmonitor/

The Injunktion Generator
By ubermorgen.com
http://runme.org/project/+ipnic/

marchtowar.com
By marchtowar.com
http://runme.org/project/+marchtowar/

Pngreader
By textz.com / Project Gnutenberg
http://runme.org/project/+pngreader/

SuPerVillainizer - Conspiracy Client
By LAN
http://runme.org/project/+supervillainizer/

Various CueCat Hacks
By Various Authors
http://runme.org/project/+cuecathacks/

Walser.php
By textz.com / Project Gnutenberg
http://runme.org/project/+walserphp/

>Category: Software Cultures

Sweetcode.org
By Dan Egnor
http://runme.org/project/+sweetcode/

>Category: System Dysfunctionality

DOGS
By Sintron
http://runme.org/project/+dogs/

forkbomb 
by jaromil
http://runme.org/project/+forkbombsh/

MacMag Virus
Computer Graphics Conspiracy / Artemus Barnoz (Richard Brandow) &
Boris Wanowitch 
http://runme.org/project/+macmagvirus/

>Category: Text Manipulation

Bible (alphabetical order)
By Rory Macbeth 
http://runme.org/project/+bibalph/

Dasher
By David MacKay, Inference Group, Cavendish Laboratory
http://runme.org/project/+dasher/

Kraut v.0.9
By John Sparks
http://runme.org/project/+Kraut/

Postmodernism Generator
By Andrew C. Bulhak
http://runme.org/project/+postmodgen/

Travesty
By Hugh Kenner and Joseph P. O'Rourke
http://runme.org/project/+travesty/