Signal to Code

The book arts expanded into virtual form with digital graphics and interactive software. From digital books to interactive art on CD-ROM, the physical collections of the Goldsen Archive complement the illuminated manuscripts, early modern printed books, and book arts in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. The top shelf celebrates one of Goldsen’s initial collaborators, the Anarchive Project of the University of Paris 1, directed by Professor Anne-Marie Duguet, an innovative integration of the traditional catalogue raisonné of living media artists with interactive platforms of new media art. The middle shelf exhibits diverse approaches to blending traditional book art forms with digital and interactive systems. On the bottom shelf are books integrating print and media, surrounded by artistic case covers of some CD-ROM art titles available on the adjacent iMacs and featured initially in the exhibition, Contact Zones: The Art of CD-ROM, hosted by the Cornell Library in 1999. Of special note is Vivaria.net’s collaboration with the monkeys Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe, and Rowan to type out by chance variants of the complete works of Shakespeare as they interacted with keyboards left in their zoological environment.

Beginning with holdings from Contact Zones, the Goldsen archive maintains one of the largest international archives of art on CD-ROM. In 2014, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Goldsen a $300,000 Preservation and Access Grant to conduct research on continued access to CD-ROMs threatened with extinction by obsolete computers and software.

Fujiko Nakaya, Fog, Anarchive 5, Anarchive Paris, 2015. Private collection.

Thierry Kuntzel, Title TK, Anarchive 3, Musée des Beaux-arts de Nantes, 2006.

Michael Snow, Digital Snow, Anarchive 2, Daniel Langlois Foundation, 2002.

Made available in 2012 as an online version by Anne-Marie Duguet and the Daniel Langlois Foundation.

Antoni Muntadas, Media Architecture Installations, Anarchive 1, University of Paris 1, Centre Georges Pompidou, ZKM, 1999.

Jody Zellen, 4 digital artist books associated with Zellen’s Ghost City net.art project. Rockefeller Foundation New Media Fellowships Collection.

Simon Biggs, Book of Shadows, CD-ROM artwork, Electric Art 1, Ellipsis London Limited, 1996.

John Grayson and David Wall, Fig Trees, DVD and book of opera, Oakville Galleries, Ontario, Canada, 2003.

Tal Halpern, Le Nouveau Western, CD-ROM artwork, 2005.

Note that this book and CD-ROM artwork premiered on turbulence.org in web-delivery format. The Rose Goldsen Archive is the offline repository for the turbulence.org archives; select works may be experienced at the net.art display in this exhibit.

Paul Chan, “Was Lacan Wrong?” from book of font studies, 2002. Rockefeller Foundation New Media Fellowships Collection.

Artintact 5: CD-ROM Magazine of Interactive Art, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1999.

5 volume series of artworks on CD-ROM packaged with a book of critical essays on the works.

Grace Quintanilla, ViceVersa, CD-ROM artwork, Mexico, 1998. Gift of the artist for the exhibition, Contact Zones: the Art of CD-ROM.

Grace Quintanilla, Naci Mujer/Born a Woman, DVD documentation of media artwork, Mexico, 2003. Gift of the artist.

Reginald Woolery, World Wide Web / Million Man March (WWW/MMM), 1998. Gift of the artist for the exhibition, Contact Zones: the Art of CD-ROM.

Norie Neumark, Shock in the Ear, CD-ROM artwork, 1997.

Gift of the artist for the exhibition, Contact Zones: the Art of CD-ROM.Featured as a prototype for the Goldsen 2013-2015 National Endowment for the Humanities $300,000 Preservation and Access Grant, Preserving and Emulating Digital Art Objects.

Suzanne Treister, . . . No Other Symptoms: Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky, CD-ROM artwork and book. Black Dog Publishing Limited, London, 1999 (2 items). Gift of the artist for the exhibition, Contact Zones: the Art of CD-ROM.

Vivaria.net (with Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe, Rowan), Notes Toward the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Book produced to document installation in zoo. Project by Vivaria.net, 2002. Gift of the artists.