monographic room: MEZ [Mary-Anne Breeze]
"Mez does for code poetry as jodi and Vuk Cosic have done for
ASCII Art: Turning a great, but naively executed concept into
something brilliant, paving the ground for a whole generation of
digital artists."
(Florian Cramer).
The impact of her unique code/net.wurks [constructed via her pioneering net.language " mezangelle"] has been equated with the work of Shakespeare, James Joyce, Emily Dickinson, and Larry Wall.
Mez has exhibited extensively
since the early 90s [eg Wollongong World Women Online 1995, CTHEORY's
Digital Dirt, ISEA 1997 Chicago USA, ARS Electronica 1997, The
Metropolitan Museum Tokyo Japan 1999, SIGGRAPH 1999 & 2000,
_Under_Score_ @ The Brooklyn Academy of Music USA 2001, +playengines+
Melbourne Australia 2003, p0es1s Berlin Germany 2004, Dissention
Convention @ Postmaster Gallery New York USA 2004, Arte Nuevo
InteractivA Yucatan Mexico 2005 + in Radical Software @ Turin Italy
2006.
Her awards include the 2001 VIF Prize [Germany], the JavaMuseum
Artist Of The Year 2001 [Germany], 2002 Newcastle New Media Poetry
Prize [Australia] + 2006 Artifical A.Gender Online Exhibition
Competition [Australia] (highly commended). She was also a finalist
for the 2001 Electronic Literature Organizations Fiction Award [USA],
2002 READ_ME Artistic Software Award [Russia] and the Ngara New Media
Poetry Prize 2004 [Australia].
Artist's Website: http://hotkey.net.au/~netwurker/
For more biographical informations visit http://hotkey.net.au/~netwurker/resume2.htm
INTERVIEW WITH THE JURY:
Tatiana Bazzichelli. In which way programming is connected to art for you?
MEZ [Mary Anne-Breeze]. in multi_[8-bit m]angled ways..... these include a strong underlying symbol use of programmic architecture [ie shell based emulation + a strategic stripping of conventions associated with actual code construction] within a soft.programming/social/poetic-engineering perspective.
Domenico Quaranta. Is the " mezangelle" a static language or is it in evolution? And, if it changes, how does it change? Which are its influences and what does it nurish?
MEZ.
my " mezangelle" style of writing/textual
construction [that has at its base email
dialogues and network exchanges] underpins all my
net.artwork, even the more image intensive
versions....the language is definetly malleable
via the fluctuation of the surrounding net.work
components that create the building_blocks of the
wurk itself + is constantly evolving. the format
initialized from a series of emailed
collaborative pieces carried out with m@ on the
7-11 mailing list from 96 onwards.
At the time, I
was into switching avatarian cloaks [the most
regular being 'ms post modemism'] which is
another defining criteria of my net.artwurk
[" net.wurks"]. my particular 'angle' was to take
various information text tracts and " mangle" them
through free/multi-word associative techniques
and repost them-hence the term, mezangelle. this
technique has developed since, with computer code
conventions and regular chat/email iconographs
contributing to its formulation.
....my language use is more a [crucial]
by-product of responding to data fluctuations
swirling thru the niche of the net which i
inhabit.....strands of reoccurring infomatics, or
occurrences involving surrounding
entities......the selection of incidents and
stylistics that inform mezangelle vary according
to which programmer languages|net.scripting
formulas|creative influences i'm
manipulating|absorbing at that time. most people
who are exposed to these wurks don't have a clue
about this underlying format|structure, which is
more than ok as i try to cater for englishophiles
as well in that the english component is
decipherable to the point of regular poetic comprehension.
TB. Being a woman, how influenced your expression using technology?
MEZ. a good question.....as i tend 2 think of myself as gender-non specific [in the sense that i tend 2 view my personality less through labels + more reaction/ive based; ie how i systematically react 2 contextual cues] i suppose i don't really tend 2 view my gender as a direct/primary influence.....i fought for many years 2 b viewed as a netwurker devoid of any geophysically-distingushing characteristics. i also rate high on the androgyny scale in terms of how i present myself online; there r, however, various threads prominent in my wurk[s] that manifest as feminist.
DQ. What the Net is for Mez? And what Mez is for the Net?
MEZ. ...u can take the ][mez][ out_of the network, but u can't take the netwurk out of the mez :)....
TB. What does hacking means for you?
MEZ. [mez version of] hacking = a combination of social + reverse engineering.....a method of revising/rewriting/rewiring wot's expected/formulated as [accepted|able] structure/paradigm/knowledge trajectories.
DQ. As _ID.xorcism_ demonstrates, your work is esthetically anchored to a nineties' Web, vernacular and a little bit cyberpunk. What's the sense in re-proposing this kind of esthetic today, in the blog's and folkonomies' age?
MEZ.
..... i sense the presence of delicious pockets
of potentiality in many elements of the new
folksonomy type of networked engagement, mostly
by those groups/persons who seem keen 2 let new
types of net.wurk formulations [ie via the Social
Software/Semantic Web] flower into something that
may eclipse current net/web function[ing] [ie
search-based monolopy of directed infomatics
morphing towards a dispersed/inclusive
user-directed info_metamatic, constructed through
social tagging/flagging ie true use of the rhizomatic paradigm].
those [flickr/rss/del.icio.us/wiki/blogs etc]
users who seek to expand
communicative/data_driven interactions allow for
a type of server_sided remixing of previously
static/mono_based organisational _fragmentations
that now can blend effortlessly into everyday
users/usage [think of information absorption via
collusion rather than via the hierarchical].
TB. Do you think there are different ways to do programming (and hacking) >related to gender prespective?
MEZ. i do; you'd have 2 really address my subconscious 2 get 2 the real answer here tho i suspect:) seriously, there are different ways 2 formulate hacking or social engineering or code construction via any number of categorisations. i do perceive a latent danger in any symbolic branding of net.wurked projects via various sub-categories, as these labels can then become so infused/embedded within the obvious thematic framework that the work itself becomes a type of typified mouthpiece 4 issue-based agendas. i much prefer 2 construct the wurks + if a perspective is obvious within the wurk's layering then so be it; i don't ever set out with a pre-set notion of creation with a rigid theme in mind.
TB. Do you think programming is a way to seduce?
MEZ. it depends in wot sense ur using the term programming....in a strict formalist sense, probably no. in a looser/broader sense, definitely. source code is consistently shifted/stolen/redefined [debugged] or molded/rewritten/manipulated [in my case] 2 exist between concretely defineable/functional states [think: obfuscated code]; compiled beyond + shifted towards a poetic_programming flesh/reality fusion.
Links:
http://hotkey.net.au/~netwurker/
http://netwurker.livejournal.com/
http://laudanum.net/cgi-bin/media.cgi?action=display&id=953755917
http://laudanum.net/cgi-bin/media.cgi?action=display&id=993982495
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/electropoetics/net.writing
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=postid;cc=postid;q1=Spring%202004;rgn=main;view=text;idno=pid9999.0004.107
http://www.oregonlitrev.org/v1n1/OLR-mez.htm
http://www.oregonlitrev.org/v1n1/OLR-lacook.htm
http://wrt.ucr.edu/wordpress/2005/11/21/web-statistics-poem-generator/#more-345
http://www.realtimearts.net/rt44/mez.html
