Press Release
April 4, 2003

NJIT New Media Performance Series 2003

For the fourth consecutive year a New Media Performance Series takes place in April at NJIT. On four consecutive Tuesdays, series curator and Newark Review Editor Prof. Chris Funkhouser has arranged for world renowned artists and pioneers in the craft of digital poetry to make public presentations at the Jim Wise Theater (Kupfrian Hall) on the NJIT campus in Newark.

On April 8 at 4 p.m. Richard Kostelanetz will present examples of his videopoetry. Kostelanetz is a writer, artist, critic, and editor of the avant-garde who is productive in many fields. In 1971, employing a radically formalist approach, Kostelanetz produced the novel In the Beginning, which consists of the alphabet, in single- and double-letter combinations, unfolding over 30 pages. Kostelanetz's nonfiction work The End of Intelligent Writing: Literary Politics in America (1974) charged the New York literary and publishing establishment with inhibiting the publishing and promotion of works by innovative younger authors. His "visual poetry" consists of arrangements of words on a page, using such devices as linking language and sequence, punning, alliteration, parallelism, constructivism, and minimalism. Among his other works are Recyclings: A Literary Autobiography (1974, 1984), Politics in the African-American Novel (1991), Published Encomia, 1967-91 (1991), and On Innovative Art(ist)s (1992). His films include A Berlin Lost (1984) and Berlin Sche-Einena Jother (1988), both with Martin Koerber. Kostelanetz issued many recordings and audiocassettes on his own label and edited works on musicians such as B.B. King, John Cage, and Philip Glass. His A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes was published in 1999.

On April 15 at 1 p.m. Miekal And will present his interactive work. And is a longtime DIY cultural anarchist & the creator of an infoplex worth of visual-verbal lit, audio-art, performance ritual & hypermedia for the Macintosh, all distributed by Xexoxial Editions. His recent work has focused on activating online collaborative workspaces where writers & media artists can create collective digital works in a real time environment. Since 1991, he has made his home at Dreamtime Village, a hypermedia / permaculture village project, located in the driftless bioregion of southwestern Wisconsin. And devotes much time to creating edible wilderness indoors & out, growing such things as figs, citrus, cherries, grapes & chestnuts. 1998 marked the creation of THE DRIFTLESS GROTTO OF WEST LIMA, a permanent public grotto/park/installation which when finished will feature a bird-operated time machine in a 25 ft blue glass tower.

On April 22 at 1 p.m, Wilton Azevedo will make a presentation about his “Interpoetry.” Azevedo, from the city of São Paulo, Brazil,is a plastic artist, and graphic designer. He made the first exhibition of computer painting in São Paulo, in 1988. He is author of O que é Design (What is Design), Os Signos do Design (The Signs of Design), and Criografia: A Escritura da Imagem Congelada (Cryography: the Scripture of Frozen Image). He is a advisor professor of Post-Graduation Program in Education, Art and Culture of the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (Presbyterian University Mackenzie). He published the CD-ROM Interpoesia: Poesia Hipermídia Interativa (Interpoetry: interactive hypermedia poetry), a work by him and Philadelpho Menezes, his friend, colleague and art partner. This cd-rom was awarded the Sérgio Mota award of culture in the year of 2000. He is developing a new CD-ROM, titled Looppoesia: A Poética da Mesmice (Looppoetry: The Poetics of the Sameness), a posthumous tribute to his beloved friend and art partner for many years and a continuation of the interpoetry as an esthetic concept and a new media poetry.

On April 29 at 1 p.m., another Brazilian artist, Giselle Beiguelman will present her award-winning cyberpoetry. Beiguelman is a new media artist and multimedia essayist who teaches Digital Culture at the Graduation Program in Communication and Semiotics of PUC-SP (São Paulo, Brazil). Editor of “novo mundo” (new world) section of the cultural magazine Trópico, her work includes The Book after the Book, 1999 and Content = No Cache, 2000, nominated for the Trace/ Alt-X New Media Competition. She has made art for mobile phones (Wop Art, 2001), and art involving public-access and internet-streaming for electronic billboards like Leste o Leste? and Egoscópio (2002), released by The New York Times, among others. Beiguelman's work appears in important anthologies and guides devoted to digital arts including Yale University Library Research Guide for Mass Media and Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology (S. Wilson, MIT Press, 2001). Her work has been presented in many international congresses, conferences and venues.

For event locations or more information, see the New Media Performance Series website or email Prof. Chris Funkhouser, funkhouser@adm.njit.edu.