We discuss with Arcangel Constantini the evolution of his HTML wrestling matches called Infomera. We also discuss the pros and cons of being a net-artist and curator in Mexico City. Through his promotion and support for Latin American digital art and culture he has proven that you can make something from immaterial ones and zeros...

An essay on the experience of Infomera aka HTML wrestling written in two parts by the editor of petiteMort, a.k.a. Muserna...

I first saw her work in the pages of Wired magazine of all places. Her 2004 work disCONNEXION was series of photos taken of mostly American garbage dump sites in south-eastern China. This interview outlines a path from her humble beginging in China, to the west, and then back, where she lives and works today...

They say Taiwan has the largest species of exotic flowers in Asia. Well the same can be said about it's music scene which we explored last spring on the Isla Formosa [Portugese: beautiful island]. As an mini-sampler we chose three bands:
Bad Daughter (WWR), Nipples (WWR), Natural Q (A Good Day).

I'm always fascinated by artists who move between music making and art making, especially those who are able to do it with such fluidity. Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Ex-Black Dice and the sole member of Soft Circle, is one of them.

Click to enter Bureaux, The Editors' Blog at petiteMort.org. http://bureaux.petitemort.org

Unfortunately, we will not be covering the East River Music Project festival in 2005, but we will still maintain our diary from 2004. To see this archive just click on the banner above...

Something from Nothing
Turning ephemeral digital art into something people can grasp is a task which might seem daunting but when we interviewed Artist/Currator Arcangel Constantini in Ephemeral Angel, we realized it was no sweat for him as long as he stayed committed to it. To his benefit, he was able to take nothing and turn it into something quiet successful in one of the most densely populated cities in the world. From the Museo Rufino Tamayo to the various public spaces all over the city, Arcangel has been busy currating the work of mostly Latin American Net-Artists. In 2000 I even bumped into him at a Plaza in Barcelona as he projected an open server project onto one of the buildings near by. His promotion and support for digital art and culture, which includes an admirable list of exhibitions, performances, and lectures that would have no other offline outlet, has proven that you can make something from immaterial ones and zeros, i.e. nothing. Without his support there would be no voice for a net-artist, at-least not Latin American Net-Artist. Along with discussing how he has managed to orchestrate all of this, we discussed his other personal projects, that involve a sort of injecting digital culture into the curious either via the web or installations. I was lucky to have been able to participate twice in his Infomera Wrestling Matches, one online and the other in an actual wrestling ring. Code Warriors is a brief essay recounting those two memorable events.

Next, we jump fro Mexico to another equally populous city half way around the world. In Beijing, Thomas Chen sat down with photographer DanWen Xing for a little bit of Trash Talk. From the outside the trash appears to be nothing of importance but actually it's a valueable source of income for the people who mine it for the recyclable materials that maybe be burried inside. It also paints a political portrait of the international policies on land fills.

For our in depth music interview we spoke with Matmos, two musicians who really can make something from nothing, and that nothing is usually anything that comes in their direction, literally. Like for example the wild rat they used in their latest album. In Jamming-out to Rat Ritmos we discuss their special knack for tapping into the musical spirits of antique instruments and in one performance they tap into visitor of the museum, amonst other things.

Sometimes what seems like nothing is actually a lot of little somethings, such is the case in Utilikty Fog: The Nebulous Emergence of Nano-Art, artist Brad Hampton reports from the nano-world about the artist who are working in these tiny environments as well as investigation the origins of this nano-chatter.

Finally, in our latest installment of Guitars, Vocals, Drums, Etc. we interviewed 3 indie bands from Taiwan on a trip out to that island last summer. We really didn't expect to come in contact with such a vibrant indie music scene, but with the hospitality we encountered, we were led straight to it. It just serves to underline the fact that your most inspirational encounters usually happen when you least excepted it. And that was really tapped into something from just a few nights in Taipei. -AS

The Man with a Million Masks...

"Despite wearing a different mask every time he wrestled,
he could still be singled out by this habit alone."
-from Code Warriors, and essay on HTML Wretling

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