Mark Amerika
Encyclopedia
Mark Amerika is an American artist and author.
. After publishing two cult-novels, The Kafka Chronicles and Sexual Blood, he turned his energy towards net art. His goal is to expand the concept of writing so that it includes writing in and with new media technologies. He is the founder of the Alt-X Online Network, one of the oldest online art and literary networks. Originally founded as a Gopher site by Amerika in late 1992, it features the art, fiction, poetry, and critical theory of over 500 international contributors. In 1993, Amerika published the widely translated Avant Pop
Manifesto on Alt-X.
Amerika is also the creator of GRAMMATRON, "a virtual writing machine that translates your experience for you as you experience it." The experiential aspects of hypertext
fiction were thoroughly investigated in GRAMMATRON. GRAMMATRON was the first of three major net art works that Amerika created over a decade of pioneering new media forms. The second work in the net art trilogy is PHON:E:ME, an mp3 concept album with hyper:liner:notes that premiered as a newly commissioned artwork at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Whereas GRAMMATRON explored the nature of multilinear narrative in cyberpace, PHON:E:ME looked back at the influence of conceptual art on new media culture. The work deals with the interrelationship between writing, sound, and hypermedia narrative, and features Amerika's unique vocals (he was the former lead vocalist for the now defunct art-rock band, Dogma Hum). The final work in the new media trilogy is FILMTEXT which premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London as part of Amerika's HOW TO BE AN INTERNET ARTIST retrospective, the first-ever European net art retrospective (Amerika's "Avant-Pop: The Stories of Mark Amerika" net art retrospective in Tokyo, was the first net art retrospective in art history). FILMTEXT is an exploration into digital narrative across new media platforms and incorporates a Flash art website, an mp3 concept album, an experimental artist ebook, and a series of live audio-visual performances. These live performances eventually morphed into Amerika's international tour as "VJ Persona."
Amerika's major collection of artist writings from 1993-2005 is entitled META/DATA: A Digital Poetics (The MIT Press/Leonardo Books).
His latest work is a series of feature-length "Foreign Films" made in various media formats including HDV and mobile phone video. The first of the series is entitled "My Autoerotic Muse" and the second is entitled "Immobilité". A solo exhibition of "Immobilité" premiered at the Chelsea Art Museum's Project Room for New Media in April/May 2009. "Immobilité" was featured at the Tate museum website as part of their Intermedia program.
On October 22, 2009, UNREALTIME, a comprehensive retrospective exhibition of Amerika's diverse portfolio of artworks, opened at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece. The show ended on January 10, 2010.
Amerika is a Professor of Art and Art History
at the University of Colorado at Boulder
.
in London
, the Media Arts Plaza in Tokyo
, Ciberart Bilbao, FILE (Electronic Language International Festival
) in São Paulo
, and most recently the National Museum of Contmporary Art in Athens. He has received art commissions from venues such as the Walker Art Center
, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
, IBM
, Sony PlayStation
, and the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts in Tokyo. His net art work PHON:E:ME was nominated for a Webby Award in 1999. Amerika has delivered many keynote addresss at a variety of interdisciplinary conferences and festivals including the "Disrupting Narratives" symposium at Tate Modern, the "Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference" in Vancouver, Digital Art and Culture in Bergen, Norway, Ciber@rt Bilbao, the "Buddhism and New Media" conference at Dongguk University in Seoul, Transmediale 2001 in Berlin, and the UNESCO-sponsored WSIS Summit on "ICT and Creativity" in Vienna.
Career
Amerika received his MFA from Brown UniversityBrown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. After publishing two cult-novels, The Kafka Chronicles and Sexual Blood, he turned his energy towards net art. His goal is to expand the concept of writing so that it includes writing in and with new media technologies. He is the founder of the Alt-X Online Network, one of the oldest online art and literary networks. Originally founded as a Gopher site by Amerika in late 1992, it features the art, fiction, poetry, and critical theory of over 500 international contributors. In 1993, Amerika published the widely translated Avant Pop
Avantpop
Avantpop is an American artistic movement which derived from postmodernism in the 1990s.According to its proponents, among which there are literary critic Larry McCaffery and writer Mark Amerika, Avantpop is characterized by the use of materials coming from the mass media , that are mostly...
Manifesto on Alt-X.
Amerika is also the creator of GRAMMATRON, "a virtual writing machine that translates your experience for you as you experience it." The experiential aspects of hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
fiction were thoroughly investigated in GRAMMATRON. GRAMMATRON was the first of three major net art works that Amerika created over a decade of pioneering new media forms. The second work in the net art trilogy is PHON:E:ME, an mp3 concept album with hyper:liner:notes that premiered as a newly commissioned artwork at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Whereas GRAMMATRON explored the nature of multilinear narrative in cyberpace, PHON:E:ME looked back at the influence of conceptual art on new media culture. The work deals with the interrelationship between writing, sound, and hypermedia narrative, and features Amerika's unique vocals (he was the former lead vocalist for the now defunct art-rock band, Dogma Hum). The final work in the new media trilogy is FILMTEXT which premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London as part of Amerika's HOW TO BE AN INTERNET ARTIST retrospective, the first-ever European net art retrospective (Amerika's "Avant-Pop: The Stories of Mark Amerika" net art retrospective in Tokyo, was the first net art retrospective in art history). FILMTEXT is an exploration into digital narrative across new media platforms and incorporates a Flash art website, an mp3 concept album, an experimental artist ebook, and a series of live audio-visual performances. These live performances eventually morphed into Amerika's international tour as "VJ Persona."
Amerika's major collection of artist writings from 1993-2005 is entitled META/DATA: A Digital Poetics (The MIT Press/Leonardo Books).
His latest work is a series of feature-length "Foreign Films" made in various media formats including HDV and mobile phone video. The first of the series is entitled "My Autoerotic Muse" and the second is entitled "Immobilité". A solo exhibition of "Immobilité" premiered at the Chelsea Art Museum's Project Room for New Media in April/May 2009. "Immobilité" was featured at the Tate museum website as part of their Intermedia program.
On October 22, 2009, UNREALTIME, a comprehensive retrospective exhibition of Amerika's diverse portfolio of artworks, opened at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece. The show ended on January 10, 2010.
Amerika is a Professor of Art and Art History
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
at the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
.
Awards and honors
Amerika has been named a "Time Magazine 100 Innovator," and his digital artwork has been shown at museums around the world, including five major retrospectives, one each at the Institute of Contemporary ArtsInstitute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the Media Arts Plaza in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Ciberart Bilbao, FILE (Electronic Language International Festival
Electronic Language International Festival
FILE - Electronic Language International Festival is a New media art festival that usually takes place in three different cities of Brazil: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre and it has also participated in others events around the world...
) in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, and most recently the National Museum of Contmporary Art in Athens. He has received art commissions from venues such as the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts is a contemporary visual and performance arts venue located in Perth, Western Australia.-History:...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Sony PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, and the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts in Tokyo. His net art work PHON:E:ME was nominated for a Webby Award in 1999. Amerika has delivered many keynote addresss at a variety of interdisciplinary conferences and festivals including the "Disrupting Narratives" symposium at Tate Modern, the "Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference" in Vancouver, Digital Art and Culture in Bergen, Norway, Ciber@rt Bilbao, the "Buddhism and New Media" conference at Dongguk University in Seoul, Transmediale 2001 in Berlin, and the UNESCO-sponsored WSIS Summit on "ICT and Creativity" in Vienna.
External links
- Personal website
- Alt-X Online Network
- GRAMMATRON
- PHON:E:ME
- FILMTEXT
- META/DATA: A Digital Poetics
- Immobilité
- Amerika's "Professor VJ" blog
- UNREALTIME: Amerika's retrospective at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece
- DJRABBI
- Video Interview at Tate Britain (2008)
- Interview with Mark Amerika at Interview magazine (2009)
- Interview with Mark Amerika on Word Riot (2008)
- Archive of keynote address at Tate Modern (2007)
- Time Magazine 100 Innovator (2001)
- Interview with Amerika at 3ammagazine.com (2001)
- Interview (1995)
- OK Texts