Rhizome (art)

Rhizome's Mission Statement:

"Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Through open platforms for exchange and collaboration, our website serves to encourage and expand the communities around these practices. Our programs, many of which happen online, include commissions, exhibitions, events, discussion, archives and portfolios. We support artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic and political implications of new tools and media. Our organizational voice draws attention to artists, their work, their perspectives and the complex interrelationships between technology, art and culture."

History

Mark Tribe founded Rhizome as an email list for about 100 people in 1996 while living in Berlin. ["Digital Artworks that Play Against Expectations", New York Times, September 30, 2002.] In August 1996, Rhizome launched a website, which was receiving about 23,000 hits per month by April 1998. [http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/artsatlarge/02artsatlarge.html "Art Site Takes Plunge Into Not-for-Profitability"] ] Originally a for-profit business, Rhizome applied for nonprofit status in 1998, switching to the domain-name suffix ".org."

Rhizome established an online archive called the [http://rhizome.org/art ArtBase] in 1999. [ [http://www.eai.org/resourceguide/exhibition/computer/rhizome/artbase.html Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) ] ] The ArtBase was initially conceived exclusively as a database of net art works. Today, the scope of the ArtBase has expanded to include other forms of art engaged with technology, including games, software, and interdisciplinary projects with online elements. The works are submitted by the artists themselves. Only works considered to be of potential historical significance are included. [ [http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/5407/10410128801Rhizome_ArtBase_White_Paper.doc/Rhizome%2BArtBase%2BWhite%2BPaper.doc Preserving the Rhizome Artbase] ]

In 2003, Rhizome affiliated with the New Museum, who opened the doors to its new, spectacular location on 235 Bowery, at Prince Street in December 2007. ["New Museum Joins Forces with Artists' Web Site," "New York Times", September 30, 2003] Today, Rhizome's programs include [http://rhizome.org/events events] , [http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition exhibitions] at the New Museum and elsewhere, an active website, and an archive of more than 2000 new media artworks.

Rhizome Commissions Program

Founded in 2001 to support artists working with technology, the Rhizome Commissions Program has awarded fifty-four commissions to-date. Projects realized through the Program represent some of the forward-thinking and innovative works of media and internet-based art.

In 2008, Rhizome expanded the scope of the commissions from strictly Internet-based art to the broad range of forms and practices that fall under the category of new media art. This includes projects that creatively engage new and networked technologies or reflect on the impact of these tools and media. With this expanded format, commissioned works can take the final form of online works, performance, video, installation or sound art. Projects can be made for the context of the gallery, the public, the web or networked devices.

ArtBase

Founded in 1999, the Rhizome ArtBase is an online archive of new media art containing some 2110 art works, and growing. The ArtBase encompasses a vast range of projects by artists all over the world that employ materials including software, code, websites, moving image, games and browsers to aesthetic and critical ends. Submissions to the ArtBase are reviewed by the curatorial staff on a monthly basis.

The ArtBase system of classification consists of terms that artists assign to their work. Artists choose from Rhizome's vocabulary of new media terms as well as adding their own terms. When new terms reach a certain level of popularity they become part of Rhizome's vocabulary.

Rhizome also supports Creative Commons licenses. Rhizome's hope is that through the use of these licenses, artists will have greater access to each others' work in furtherance of their goals.

Notable Exhibitions

Montage: Unmonumental Online

* [http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/montage/statement.php Exhibition Statement]
* [http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/montage/index.php Exhibition] with work by artists Michael Bell-Smith, William Boling, John Michael Boling, Charles Broskoski, Jessica Ciocci, Petra Cortright, Chris Coy, Cao Fei, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, Nina Katchadourian, Oliver Laric, Olia Lialina, Guthrie Lonergan, and Paul Slocum.
*Curated by Lauren Cornell, Executive Director for Rhizome and Marisa Olsen, Curator-at-large for Rhizome.

Time Shares

*Time Shares is a series of online exhibitions dedicated to exploring the diversity of contemporary art based on the internet.
* [http://rhizome.org/events/timeshares/ Time Shares]

The Gif Show

* [http://rhizome.org/events/gifshow/ Exhibition] with work by Cory Arcangel, Peter Baldes, Michael Bell-Smith, Jimpunk, Olia Lialina, Abe Linkoln, Guthrie Lonergan, Lovid, Tom Moody, Paper Rad, Paul Slocum, and Matt Smear (aka 893/umeancompetitor).
*Curated by Rhizome editor and curator-at-large Marisa Olsen.

ArtBase 101

* [http://rhizome.org/art/exhibition/artbase101/ Exhibition] presents 40 selections from Rhizome's online archive of new media art, ArtBase.
*Works are grouped by 10 themes: dirt style, net cinema, games, e-commerce, data visualization and databases, online celebrity, public space, software, cyberfeminism, and early net.art.

References

External links

* [http://www.rhizome.org/ Official website]
* [http://rhizome.org/commissions/ Rhizome Commissions]
* [http://rhizome.org/art ArtBase]