[spectre] Free Art - What is the BIG SHEEP...?

[saij netart]

ATTENTION:!

BIG SHEEP, A NEW BLOG IS OPENED AT:

http://bigsheep.blogspot.com/ or at http://arteonline.arq.br/sheep/

Sheep's Parade I / Sheep's Parade II, the Big Sheep

1- Background:

The Project Sheep's Parade was launched in March 2005 through a funny call
which announced the "Fall and Spring Sheep's Parade", an allusion to the
collections of feminine fashion that are lauched to each new season. That
because the parade was related to the new series of collaborative reviews -
"Electric Green Sheep" - a Museum of the Essential and Beyond That 2005
activity which would analyse the web.art done by three women from three
different regions of the Earth: France, USA and Chile. The title "Electric
Green Sheep" was a reference to the work of the first artist analysed - the
french artist Isabel Saij and to Internet and its electric green. To show
those wonderful women / sheep that come standing out by the active
participation in cyberspace and to confirm that technology also is a woman's
space nowadays is our intention with these review series - 2005.

The first invitation to Shep's Parade was funny: Send your sheep image,
drawing, painting, photo, animation - any kind of sheep: Dolly ( coming back
to clonning...), white, fashion, shock pink, electric green, what sheep you
imagine, even the famous black sheep will be welcome!

The sheeps deadline will be May 15 th 2005. Send how many sheeps you want,
we are looking forward to see the Museum of the Essential and Beyond That
invaded by a sheep's flock !!!!!

They sheep were arriving, at first funny sheep the first flock to arrive was
the colorful flock of the Brazilian and carioca artist Paulo Villela, which
deserved a comment by Muriel Frega (Argentina): "- Y las de Paulo son
señoras en la peluquería, graciosísimas!" ( Paulo Villela's sheep are madams
at the hair - dresser, amusing!)

Everything is always perfect in the virtual cities or museums found on the
Internet, but the Museum's space does not work that way. Instead, its
operations aim at fulfilling the dictates of the principle of reality. For
example, the Summer's and Winter Festival is finishing today, with a delay
of about 15 days! The reason? Well it is not easy to manage a museum of this
size but lately, as you certainly know, the museum is being invaded by
sheeps' flocks (http://arteonline.arq.br/sheep ), and during the Easter's
holiday the sheep ran away from their gallery and spreading theirselves by
all the museum. It was difficult to control and to place to their own
location such sheep's' quantity, for you have an idea, the "330 º sheep"
that Rob Myers sent us, insisted on form a halo around the museum... But
finally, it seems that everything came back to calm, then you have here the
complete Festival (http://arteonline.arq.br, go down by the scrollbar until
the link or go direct to http://arteonline.arq.br/festival ).

But suddenly the parade started to change the tone, the first sign of this
change was "The Sacrificial Lamb" by Colino and Babel, that revealed in a
wise and ironical way and with lots of black humor that all sheep have a
defect. Just after Tamara Lai (Bélgica), sent us her sheep, which was an
answer to the "Altar" I built to  her Project Sacrifier le Sacrifice
sacrificing 2005. In this "Altar" I ask in a funny way:

- How many pixels I sacrifice before finish a web.art work? Is this the
web.artist craft or a sacrifice?

The image sent by Tamara Lai shows the image of an innocent little lamb
being retreat from a computer screen in order to be sacrificed - devoured
(?) by the web.artist (?), well maybe it is much more than this ... in fact
the text that accompanies the work contrasts terribly with the innocent
image.

Then Isabel Saij sent her serious and political sheep collection that was
analysed in details in the first collaborative review 2005. In that review
also was anlysed the flock done by Edward Picot (UK), which also burrow in
serious political subjects. So the Sheep's Parade that had started as a joke
became something much more serious. And then Louise Desrenards (France) sent
a comment to the lists nettime-fr -raw and nettime-fr:

"Lorsque Regina depuis le Brésil a lancé l'appel de mai pour le défilé
desmoutons "Sheep's Parade", n'était-elle pas visionnaire du mouton noir et
du mouton du Nonsocialiste, mais aussi du Non européen, car le mouton
d'autrepart est devenu celui du Non divers de la gauche et pour dire l'appel
quenous soyons les plus nombreux possibles ? C'est le mouvement de Mai 2005
"!

It is just because the black sheep has become in France a kind of symbol to
the "left" NO in the countersign - for a constitutional treaty for Europe -
on May 29th 2005... So that Sheep's Parade is now a Historical Parade !

Well, after all of this, there is not how to interrupt that sheep's
triumphant parade, which grew so much and acquired such different functions
from those that have been proposed in our release.

My most graceful thanks to all the artists that have participated in its
first edition, contributing to its success:

ALEXANDRE VENERA - ANGELICA CHIO - ASTRÉA EL-JAICK & RAYMUNDO AMADO
GONÇALVES - CARLOS RAMIREZ - COLINO / BABEL - CRISTINA ORENSZTAJN - DANIELLE
RICCIARDI - DÉA JUNQUEIRA - EDWARD PICOT - FRED FOREST - ISABEL ARANDA -
YTO - ISABEL SAIJ - JOÃO PEDRO - JOESÉR ALVAREZ - JUDSON PLASMA STUDII - LIA
BELART - LISA HUTTON - LOUISE DESRENARDS - MIGUEL JIMENEZ - MURIEL FREGA -
PAULO VILLELA - PAULO VILLELA & REGINA PINTO - REGINA CÉLIA PINTO - ROB
MYERS - TAMARA LAI

I am sure that you would like to know that the project continues, now it is
called "Sheep's Parade II - the Big Sheep."

2- The New Project:

What is the "Big Sheep" ?

It is a proposal of cloning. Every 15 days we will be commenting two of the
first project flocks / sheep and at the same time mixing their "DNA"
visually. Also a image / clone of them will be available on the "blog" to be
copied and changed for who want and wish to participate of the Big Sheep.
This mutant sheep or flock should be sent to arteonline at arteonline.arq.br.
All the mutant sheep will form the "Big Sheep", which will be exhibited
permanently at the Museum of the Essential and That' s Gallery Cloning and
WEB.

With that project will be giving force to the Free Art:

"Free Art license / Copyleft Attitude

With this Free Art License, you are authorised to copy, distribute and
freely transform the work of art while respecting the rights of the
originator. Far from ignoring the author's rights, this license recognises
them and protects them. It reformulates their principle while making it
possible for the public to make creative use of the works of art. Whereas
current literary and artistic property rights result in restriction of the
public's access to works of art, the goal of the Free Art License is to
encourage such access.

The intention is to make work accessible and to authorise the use of its
resources by the greatest number of people: to use it in order to increase
its use, to create new conditions for creation in order to multiply the
possibilities of creation, while respecting the originators in according
them recognition and defending their moral rights. In fact, with the arrival
of the digital age, the invention of the Internet and free software, a new
approach to creation and production has made its appearance.
It also encourages a continuation of the process of experimentation
undertaken by many contemporary artists. Knowledge and creativity are
resources which, to be true to themselves, must remain free, i.e. remain a
fundamental search which is not directly related to a concrete application.
Creating means discovering the unknown, means inventing a reality without
any heed to realism. Thus, the object(ive) of art is not equivalent to the
finished and defined art object. This is the basic aim of this Free Art
License: to promote and protect artistic practice freed from the rules of
the market economy."

Much more at: Free Art (http://artlibre.org)

The last edition of the "Big Sheep" will be registered in Free Art site and
so that it can be used indefinitely, for who wants, always respecting
creators' rights.

Regina Célia Pinto (Author)

http://arteonline.arq.br
http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm
http://bigsheep.blogspot.com (Free Art - The Big Sheep! Big What?)

Isabel Saij (Co-author)

http://www.saij-netart.net
http://www.saij-copyleft.net
http://www.bibiche.net
http://www.digressions.net
http://www.saij-photos.net
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/isabelsaij-net
http://bigsheep.blogspot.com (Free Art - The Big Sheep! Big What?)