implicit art

Just got back from 5 days on safari in The Kruger Park. We saw 4 of "the
big five" in the wild (note: the big 5 are rhino – which we did not see –
buffalo, lion, leopard and elephant), amongst many other beautiful creatures (I
LOVE birds of prey!). The two highlights, for me, were watching a leopard chomping
down on its recent kill up in a tree (impala), and a herd of elephants cooling
off in a mud pool (this one baby ‘phant kept purposely plopping over on its side
to splash its mother).

On my return, I see that Bill Bradley has endorsed Howard Dean (good move), calling the Dean campaign "one of the best things to happen to American democracy in decades." Rock!

The strangefruits — art
& design portal has a new update, just in time for the coming semester! I
should also remind all of you out in webland that net.art:
online interventions, the new class I am distance teaching for the Minneapolis
College of Art and Design begins in mid-February! The description is as follows:
The web is used to conduct business, promote professionals, students and artists, and as an art medium itself. Through research, discussion and experimentation, this class will cover the benefits, shortcomings, history and production of internet-specific art. Our main focus will be to push the envelope in this quickly-settling medium, in order to create online and/or networked interventionist spaces – artworks with the power to engage viewers in dialogue, transform their perceptions of relevant concepts. The term will see us through three full, grant-ready proposals, complete with sketches and proof of concept pages; one of these proposals will be completed as your final project. Note that although they are not required, collaborative projects between students in this class will be enthusiastically encouraged – there is a lot of work involved in this process. Enrolled students must be fluent with their own computer and the Internet. Experience with HTML, FTP software, image scanning and web page formatting are also required. There will be resources and tech support for advanced HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Flash, Digital Video and Shockwave (Director and Lingo) as required for your proposals, but if you are not comfortable with at least one of these technologies, it is recommended you first take the “portfolio.net” course, or an equivalent, which has more focus on web formatting techniques. MCAD will provide each student with a web account for the duration of the course.
Registration is now open
for all interested parties. It’s gonna be fab!

Last thing: wanna see an impressive site that one of my students produced in my
other class, "portfolio.net," last semester? Check out Calvin Buchanan’s
designisdelicious.com.