implicit art

Howdy all. If you remember, early last year I developed a new WordPress theme as part of the launch of SAartsEmerging.org - promoting and critiquing emerging South African artists. That site is now maintained by Bronwyn Lace and Rat Western, and you should keep an eye out for upcoming changes.

Given the popularity of this theme, I’ve decided to release a new, widget-compatible version, and you can expect all future releases to be maintained from this site. I believe the most beneficial aspect of this 2-column design is its easy customization. The zip file includes:

• new design, with different sidebars for posts, pages and single posts - these are now customizable using WordPress’ built-in widgets
• header and footer images using a detail of Nathaniel Stern’s Compressionist work
• layered Photoshop file to put in your own image; includes gradient, curved edges and “pre-cut” slices (and instructions)

Download the zip file. (open source CC/GPL)

As you can see, this blog now also uses the new artsemerging theme (with a “widgetized” sidebar - note that all changes happened in the WP interface - I needed no code in any of the php files to customize this), and this coincides with the announcement of some upcoming changes around here — as I concentrate on my PhD research and writing over the next year, blogging will again pick up pace, mostly concentrating on thoughts and works related to my dissertation topic. You’ll see texts (rants?) that intersect between performance studies, art, embodiment and technology, and eventually a re-design of this whole site to match my thesis (this, over the next 4-5 months). In the meanwhile, note that “nathaniel and the non-aggressive” is no more, and this blog is henceforth to be known as “implicit art.” Enjoy the theme, and the blog, and please let me know if you encounter any problems, in the comments section.

More soon!

(PS Technorati Wordpress and Theme)

No sh!t. Tomorrow, the NAN blog is three years old! As I write this, we are at “1,010 posts and 393 comments, contained within 25 categories.” On February 20th, 2003, I started using blogger in a frame on the front page of this (back then, a very different) site, to say, in my very first post:

So, I decided to take a leaf out of the books of josh and jonah and start a weblog on my site. This is the first week of the class I’m lecturing at MCAD, and things are looking good so far. In other news, odys, Nathaniel, hektor, x goes up in Cape Town on Saturday and [odys]elicit has been selected as an exhibition piece for The Chiangmai First New Media Art Festival [note: used to link, but now dead], Thailand. More to come…

Funny, Josh never really updated his blog (like, three times in 3 years) and Jonah, at that point, really just used it for news in a pop-up (and later down the road started the awesome Coin-Op blog, tho this has taken a back seat to his other great writings for more popular web sites). But hey, I didn’t know, and wanted to join (what I perceived to be) the cool club! Art Fag City says that, “2004 saw the rise of blogs in popular mainstream media, but the art community has started to see this medium explode only recently,” and MTAA-RR also only celebrated its 3rd b-day this month, so I am Mos Def an Innovator (early 2003! do I get double points for being in SA, and kind of still being the only art blogger?) and am undoubtedly in good company. (Shout out to Tim - the ‘T’ in MTAA - wazzup?) I win. W00+.

Some highlights of blogging here have been, I think:

• Kaganof as a one-year guest, now into his own spin-off: Kagablog
• Wordpress upgrade (thanks, Jonah!), and I have since designed 3 Open Source - GPL - Wordpress 2.0 themes:
  • NAN
  • stuttering
  • artsemerging - UPDATED 30 August 2007, now widget-compatible!
• Guest blogging (the very first!) on networked_performance
• Ripping off Lawrence Lessig (and him saying he liked it!) on the Blogging the Commons panel at the commons sense conference
• More recently, re-blogs at (just some samples) rhizome, networked_performance and rssjockey, features on DVblog
• contacts from (and upcoming features in) MacFormat, NYarts, Cimaise Art & Architecture and Metropol
• the launches of SAartsEmerging, @Joburg and The Upgrade! Johannesburg
• Live Kebble and KKNK coverage
• The announcement of my baby - we now know is a girl - due 24 May
• And so much more I’m sure I’m missing, so feel free to post your favorites in the comments below. I’m expecting my current guest bloggers - not Kaganof - to feel insulted that they are not mentioned, and am hoping that this may influence them to participate more, and not less….

Not bad for a three year run, and as I said in the very first post, More to come….

It’s that time again!

Yes, a new version of Wordpress is out, and so nathaniel has to put his 2 cents in.

First question: should i upgrade?

Well, that depends.

Truth is that most of the changes have happened on the back end - stuff “under the hood” so to speak, so that the blog itself, for the most part, won’t look very different. There’s a new interface that works pretty much the same way (tho a lot prettier), but a few nice add-ins. For example, you can now have WYSIWYG / rich editing, like blogger. You can preview in the actual page, as a frame, and you can add new categories on the fly, while posting. The database backup plug-in is pre-installed (tho I don’t see how to re-import it afterwards!), and most useful for group blogs, there are different “roles” for different users with varying privileges - pre-made, or make your own.

More on asymptomatic’s full new feature list, including thumbnails of themes, amongst a few others. There are a couple of minor bugs still, so take a look at this list if you are bit scared. Generally, if you find one or two that piss you off while working, you can find a workaround at that link. I only found one that did as such, and it took 5 mins to fix.

The big thing, and Owen Winkler (aka ringmaster) from the above-linked blog mentions this, is that a lot of the functions bases have changed - been simplified, modularized or moved to places where they make more sense. On the one hand, this makes things much more interesting for potential new plug-ins bound to come out in the next few months. On the other hand, if you have a few plug-ins you’ve come to rely on a bit (such as wp-email and spell-check, in my case), make sure they will work by cross-referencing it against this list.

Themes should still work just fine, tho check back to where you got them from soon, to see if they now come with thumbnails (all my themes, including the new artsemerging theme - update 30 august 2007, now widget compatible!, are 2.0 ready, with images).

All in all, my advice is that unless you are starting a brand new site, or are sure your plugins work or are ok without them for a bit, wait on the upgrade. The bugs are easy enough to deal with, and we should have a minor fix in the next few weeks, but I think you’ll want some catch-up, non-Christmas time to let plug-in makers and editors get their code functioning properly with the new base. One of two things will definitely happen by mid-February: either you will see a new plugin that makes it worth the upgrade, or all the plug-ins you already use will be ready to go…. I’m giving spell-check and wp-email till mid-jan, then I can’t wait anymore :)

NEW! all the below, and widget compatible! Go here.

Today, we ’soft-launch’ SAartsEmerging, a site dedicated to featuring emerging, contemporary artists in South Africa. To help promote it, we’re releasing our new Wordpress 2.0 compatible theme! Please leave any bugs, comments or questions on this post. Conversely, you can email the designer.

Instructions, features and download on this page: artsemerging Wordpress 2.0 theme.

Also note that my NAN and stuttering themes have also been updated for Wordpress 2.0 (to be released very soon!).

Technorati Wordpress and Theme

Per some requests and tips, my two themes for wordpress are now better than ever! The weird interface in admin is gone in all browsers and compatible with all FTP apps, and I’ve also separated out the files so as to be compatible with any add-ons or plug-ins, such as wp-email or the theme switcher.

You can get them / check them out at:

stuttering
NAN

(PS Technorati Wordpress and Theme)

stuttering 1.5 is completely compatible with wordpress 2.0! the new version (stuttering 2.0, dec 24, 2005) merely includes a thumbnail image for the new presentation area in wordpress

lots of bug fixes on latest version, updated 6 april 2005!

So, I’ve taken some advice and calls for help with the last theme I developed (for this blog), and went ahead and designed another one, loosely based on it. (procrastination….) Free as in beer! Hope you like it. Installation is super easy (standard drop-in theme), and I even put in instructions for graphic changes (top) and blog title size changes (or even how to make the whole top graphic a link, if you want to use a non web-safe font in your image).

The top is an include, so if savvy, you can go in and do as you see fit (menu, perhaps?). Any questions? Comment or contact.

click for larger image

Be sure your ftp application is set to “text” or “ascii” or “automatic” when you upload! Otherwise, it gets all weird looking in the admin panel….

stuttering zip file

Say you like me. Go on. Say it.

(PS Technorati Wordpress and Theme)

I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who have already downloaded and/or made changes to my theme - note that these changes are only to the index.php file, so you may use your updated CSS files - and graphic.php and graphic.jpg files - as you see fit. It seems there was a minor bug in the index.php file, where it needed “next page” and “previous page” links in its categories and heavy months. I’ve also added this to the main index page, for the people who pop in and just want to keep reading back in time. While I was at it, I added a little feature that now lists the number of posts to any category next to its link in the menu. And finally, I added in support for if you use wordpress’ new feature to make pages! These should get listed just above the search bar in the menu.

Thanks to wordpress support for the help!

As always, download the theme from this post.

Vote for me here

OK, so, admittedly, I didn’t even know these existed; I also find it ironic that today, of all days, I decided to post stuff about American politics. However, it seems that I, or rather this blog, have been nominated in two of 13 categories for the south african blog awards!

How cool is that? Somebody had to nominate me, and all, and I made it to the top ten w/o even knowing it!

they like me, they really like me

I’m in the Best SA lifestyle blog category, and the Best design for a blog category. (And note that now, you can download this great design for your own blog. Get the NAN theme for Wordpress here)

And if it wasn’t for gabbahead, and his comment on my page (and my follow through his links), I wouldn’t even know! Thanks, man.

Anyway, there are a bunch of really cool blogs listed, and some I hadn’t even known about (I have a lot of reading to do over the next few days) - rock on with SA blog culture! Do some of you guys want to be my friend? I’m a lot cooler than I, um, I’m a lot cooler than, um, no I’m not… but still.

If you are reading this, take 5 mins:

Vote for me here

NAN 1.5 is completely compatible with wordpress 2.0! the new version (NAN 2.0, dec 24, 2005) merely includes a thumbnail image for the new presentation area in wordpress

Note that I have discontinued the yellow version of the NAN theme, as it was not very popular; in fact, although it was the original color, even I stopped using it ;)

lots of bug fixes on latest version, updated 6 april 2005!

Well it’s the 2nd birthday for the nathaniel and the non-aggressive blog, and I thought I’d give a little gift to my dedicated readers (if I have any of those).

The new, improved and free NAN theme! New! also check out my latest theme: stuttering

That’s right! Now you, too can make a blog that looks just like (er, something like) this. It’s download-able, with easy instructions on how to insert your own image or menu up top (instead of my own flash menu), and in two colors: the original yellow (as displayed here), and white. It looks good on all browsers (i know of), and all you need is Wordpress 1.5 installed, and access to your server.

The white looks just like this blog, but if you want images, try something like this:

click for larger image

Of course, you could go in and change colors yourself, and adapt the stylesheet as you see fit, but I wanted to make this REALLY easy for non-coders, too. All these folks really need to do is make an image to overwrite the default banner (up top - put the name of your blog in it), then plop the whole NAN folder into your own themes folder (located in wp-content), and turn it on.

Advanced coders: the top graphic is an include, so if you want a menu like mine, all you have to do is open up one php file and paste in a working menu, as you see fit!

Instructions are included in the download (~30kb each). Be sure your ftp application is set to “text” or “ascii” or “automatic” when you upload! Otherwise, it gets all weird looking in the admin panel….

NAN zip file

Enjoy, and happy birthday NAN!

(PS - please leave comments and/or contact me with bugs, queries or suggestions!)
(PPS Technorati Wordpress and Theme)