The Rhizome Staff Blog RSS

#DigitalArchivesDay: Anti-Aliasing Arcangel

Ben Fino-Radin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:24:26 -0500

Today is the first official Digital Archives Day. All day, archivists and conservators working in digital archives of all kinds will be sharing their work under the #DigitalArchivesDay hashtag, and blogging at dayofdigitalarchives.blogspot.com

I wanted to take a moment today to briefly talk about an innovation in digital imaging and computing that has become a frustation to many artists that have been experimenting with the web since the early years: Anti-aliasing. Put simply, anti-aliasing is a method of image processing that uses interpolation, to construct "new data points within the range of a discrete set of known data points." This is a function of digital signal processing that has many many important applications, from helping typefaces look good on screen, to making images not look odd when scaled down. The use of anti-aliasing that we are talking about here though, is quite specific: the display of resized digital images and video in web browsers. To illustrate how anti-aliasing has affected an era of web content, we will look at Cory Arcangel's "Data Diaries."

Data Diaries on Turbulence.org

In 2002, when Arcangel created "Data Diaries," if one were set the size of an image or video embedded in a web page larger than it's actual size, the browser would use nearest neighbor interpolation to display the image. In other words – if one were to embed a 50 x 50 px image or video as 100 x 100 px, each pixel would appear to double in size. This default form of nearest neighbor interpolation was exploited to aesthetic ends by many early net artists, including Cory. When Cory made Data Diaries, he rendered the original videos at the dimension of 50 x 25 px - so tiny! He embedded these videos at dimensions of 500 x 266 px using the default/inherent nearest neighbor interpolation to produce the blocky pixelated color streams.

Since 2002, browsers have adopted newer interpolation strategies (either bilinear, or bicubic) for scaling digital images and video. This form of interpolation attempts to smooth or average pixels, rather than simply appearing to enlarge them.

Above-top: Arcangel's video as it is currently affected by anti-aliasing; Above-bottom: video rendered at 500px with nearest neighbor interpolation

This case is a clear example of how the strategically unconventional technical practices of artists can create situations where their work is entirely subverted by something that is far beyond their control. I have created renders of Cory's videos that are exactly 500 x 266 px scaled using video software that allows for nearest neighbor interpolation. Embedding these videos in place of the originals allows for the work to be seen as it originally appeared in 2002. While this is a practical means to aesthetic ends, the elegance of exploiting the inherent quality of a piece software is eliminated. Short of developing an alternative browser that uses nearest neighbor interpolation, it is questionable if this original underlying strategy could be maintained.

Intern Roundup part 2 of 3

Zoë Salditch — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:30:34 -0500

For part two of our intern roundup, we would like to introduce you to another new member of the team: Ross Leonardy. Ross is studying Fashion Design at Parsons, and is filling the crucial role of general intern. Ross supports day to day operations at Rhizome headquarters, doing everything from conducting research to helping out with events to organizing to photo editing. Let's hear it for the general intern - Welcome, Ross!

Intern Roundup part 1 of 3

Ben Fino-Radin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:10:06 -0500

We've recently had some additions to the Rhizome team - I'd like to introduce you to Rhizome's newest intern: Thor Shannon. Thor is an undergraduate student studying art history at NYU. Over the course of the next few months, he will be helping to catalog the ArtBase - a process of improving the quality of our metadata, deepening the level of description, and making records more accurate and searchable. This significant work is not easy, and we are so glad to have Thor helping us out. Welcome, Thor!

The Physical Archive

Zoë Salditch — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:00:00 -0500

Last Thursday, Ben and I took a field trip to check out Rhizome's physical archive. Tara Hart, the New Museum's Digital Archivist, showed us where the Rhizome files are stored in the museum's archive located next door at 231. We had about an hour before we needed to get back to work, so we took couple of boxes and dug right in. This was fun departure from the usual day to day activities around the office. Here are some gems we found from our trip:

In a binder labeled "Rhizome Ads", a record of advertisements from various art and technology publications.

(from Leonardo, Vol. 33 Number 2, 2000)

I love the selling points here. Starrynight search interface -- Amazing!

We also found a bunch of folders labeled by month and year which held articles about various artists involved with Rhizome, new media art calls, opening invitations and other ephemera. Flipping through, I came across this great hand written postcard from Mouchette.

(Found in a folder labeled October 2001)

In another folder, I found this Xeroxed announcement for Cory Arcangel's Whitney Artport commission.

(circa 2002)

There are over twenty-something boxes to go through, who knows what we'll find next. I promise to keep you updated!

Update From the ArtBase

Ben Fino-Radin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:56:47 -0500

For my maiden post on the Rhizome staff blog, I’d like to highlight some recent developments and changes in the ArtBase. First and foremost, it is my pleasure to announce that Rhizome is a new member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance. This consortium devoted to the longevity of digital materials consists of a diverse range of institutions, from non-profit organizations such as the Internet Archive, and ArtSTOR, to academic libraries and research institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, Emory University Libraries, and Harvard University. We could not be more pleased, and look forward to complementing our own research with the aggregate experience of the more than 80 partner institutions.

Next up on the agenda: today we are launching a new set of featured works in the ArtBase, including artists Vuk Cosic, Kristen Lucas, Mouchette, Eryk Salvaggio, and Kendal Bruns. While perusing these featured works, you may notice a new little icon, next to the year of the work’s creation. This little blue icon indicates that we have an archival copy of the work you are viewing. If you see this icon displayed on an ArtBase record, you can rest assured that as time passes, the work’s longevity and your ability to access it is ensured. From link rot, to digital obsolescence, we’ve got it under control. We are hard at work transitioning the entire collection to archival standards, but until we do some entries will still have the following red icon, indicating that we have yet to create a stable archival copy of this work:

The ArtBase team has been hard at work with some very exciting projects involving the restoration of classic pieces of net art – some of which have been inaccessible for years. We will be releasing more details on the progress of the ArtBase preservation initiative soon – stay tuned for an upcoming announcement of an October event we will be presenting for New York Archives week.

Rhizome at ISEA 2011

Nick Hasty — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:00:00 -0500

Hi all,

I'll be participating on the panel New Media Archives, New Intelligent Ambiances at ISEA 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey this Thursday, September 15th. I'll be speaking on my work overhauling the ArtBase and Rhizome's archival practices. I'll also be presenting Ben Fino-Radin's paper Digital Preservation Practices and the Rhizome ArtBase.

As well, staff writer Ceci Moss will be presenting a paper entitled “Viral Not Virus: Alan Liu’s “Viral Aesthetics” Reconsidered” at The Matter with Media, Saturday, 17 September. That same day, she'll also perform a sound composition using recordings of the human voice found on the web during the conference as part of the performance panel, Soundwwwalk.

If you're in Istanbul, be sure to checkout our panels and say hello.

Introducing the Rhizome Staff Blog

Nick Hasty — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:09:17 -0500

I'm pleased to introduce the Rhizome Staff Blog. This will be the channel for the Rhizome staff to communicate what's going on here at Rhizome HQ. We'll be posting about updates on the website, such as new features and scheduled maintenance, and what each staff member is up to, including current projects and research interests.

http://rhizome.org/staffblog/

So on that note, I'm pleased to make two announcements:

1) A new, much needed "about" page for the ArtBase
We've been working hard behind the scenes to turn the ArtBase into the leading archive of digital art, and we want to provide more context about the ArtBase as a whole. The About page contains information on our mission, our philosophy, our archival process, and links to documents written about the ArtBase and archiving digital art.

http://rhizome.org/artbase/about/

2) Beta no more!
The new site has been running pretty smoothly for a while now, and I feel like we're safe to remove the Beta label from the site. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback and help so far. Onward and upward!

We'll be posting new entries to the Staff Blog about once a week, and you can expect to hear from all of us in due time.