Media Lounge computer pods house five new net artworks by this year’s Rhizome Commissioning Program recipients: Christopher Fahey, the Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA), Lisa Jevbratt, John Klima, and Nungu.

Launched in November 2001, the Commissioning Program provides financial support to artists for the creation of innovative new media works that respond to developments in technology while examining their cultural impact. The selection was made from a total of 135 submissions received in response to an open call by a panel of five distinguished jurors in the area of new media-Steve Dietz of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Alex Galloway of Rhizome.org, Ken Goldberg of the University of California, Berkeley, Christiane Paul of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Mark Tribe of Rhizome.org. The recipients were invited to choose one of two tracks: alt.interface-proposals for “alternative” user interfaces for accessing Rhizome.org’s online archives-and Tactical Response-projects addressing the current global political climate, particularly related to the events of September 11, 2001.

Experimenting with new ideas in computer art, design, and gaming, Christopher Fahey’s Rhizomebot uses instant messenger channels to provide access to Rhizome.org’s ArtBase archive of new media art works. Maptivist 2.0, created by the Institute for Applied Autonomy, is a mapping application that enables political activists to use wireless Internet devices to share information about surveillance and other police activities in real time. IAA was founded as a research and development organization whose mission is to examine social structures that affect self-determination, to create cultural artifacts that address these phenomena, and to develop technologies that serve social and human needs. For her project Troika, Lisa Jevbratt reduces each item in the Rhizome archives to one pixel. Each artwork or text on the Rhizome site remains accessible by clicking on the pixel, the color of which is determined by keywords associated with the original object as well as the people who have requested it. Working primarily with the Internet, Jevbratt’s work often rearticulates the formal devices used to access data via the Web and the Internet’s role as a public forum. John Klima’s Context Breeder employs genetic algorithms to create a 3-D animation with which visitors can access the projects in Rhizome.org’s ArtBase. Exploring forms of “hypercontrol” made possible through communication and information technology networks, Nungu’s Telematic Surveillance investigates the logic and aesthetics of these systems in contemporary societies. Nungu is a fluid collective of media artists who collaborate to create net art.