Saturday, October 29, 2005
German Expressionism
OK, I know this doesn't have much to do with new media art, but I really thought this essay on German Expressionism was interesting. It was this architecture movement that focused on subjective emotions and organic responses, not just strict (objective) formalism. It almost sounds like the kind of architecture that social networking sites encourage--you know, where you divulge all of your personal experiences and feelings, and where you link to together people and interests based on fluid intuitions rather than structural rules. The German Expressionists were really into mysticism and "spiritual unity"--sites like MySpace (perhaps a "social unity") are similarly idealistic, as they encourage a community united under the structural possibilities of the Internet. The architects were also interested in the latest technologies and design.
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"The doer is merely a fiction added to the deed . . . the deed is everything." --Friedrich Nietzsche
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“Iain” (Idyllic Architecture and Information Networks)
WARNING: We are a group of new media art students interested in the transposition of physical, informational and social architecture. In December 2005, we created a series of profiles on the social networking site MySpace for members of The Glass Chain, a group of German architects who envisioned an ideal society that would be united by a new model of physical and community architecture. Their use of a cryptic language, adoption of pseudonyms, and the exchange of words and pictures among a set of members are aspects that resonate with the structure of Internet communities like MySpace. The Glass Chain “friends” interacted in the MySpace network for a number of weeks, and may be continuing to do so at this time.
The Glass Chain “impersonators” are only one possible intervention of this kind. We encourage you to create your own fake profiles of intellectual interest, infiltrate the social spaces of the Internet, and help re-imagine its architecture. The Glass Chain is a communal project; you may participate, in addition, by adopting their identities:
gmail accounts for the architects:
bruno.taut@gmail.com
max.taut@gmail.com
walter.a.gropius@gmail.com
hermann.finsterlin@gmail.com
adolf.behne@gmail.com
wenzel.hablik@gmail.com
carl.krayl@gmail.com
paul.goesch@gmail.com
hans.luckhardt@gmail.com
wassili.luckhardt@gmail.com
glassfan69@gmail.com (glass groupie)
The password for all MySpace profiles is "myspace1"
The password for all Gmail accounts is "myspace"
The login name and password for this blog is "glasschain" and "myspace1" respectively.
