Edited by Robert Atkins, Media Arts Editor

Chatterbook
Chat — as in idle gossip and small talk — gets a bad rap. But in its new issue, M/C, a journal of media and culture, offers a fascinating survey of the function, context and operation of this insufficiently studied genre of communication. Analyses of offline chat include a computer help-line call and the intercultural potential for miscommunication when a male Chinese academic invites an Australian coed to a party. The scholars also take on computer-mediated chatting, from the problems of e-mail to gender-bending in online chat rooms. From M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture
Media Metropolis
"media_city seoul 2000" is a huge international event devoted to the convergence of contemporary art and technology. In four parts, the show features work from 229 (!) artists. The "City Vision" section features the contributions by 26 artists, architects and filmmakers to electronic billboards throughout the city; 24 artists and teams produced the show's "Subway Project." The Seoul Metropolitan Museum hosts "Digital Alice," devoted to educational programs for kids, and "Media Art 2000," a primer of video and digital art of the past 25 years, including such media art celebs as Laurie Anderson and Nam June Paik. Through Oct. 31. From media_city seoul
Info Inconsolable
"Tragic Data," the nifty title of this exhibition of mostly digital art, represents what its London organizers call "the tragic descent from poetic representation to the emotional baldness of unadulterated data." The work from this international roster of nine artists and teams encompasses Matthew Fuller's inquiry into the machinations of Microsoft Word, the anti-corporate maneuvers of the art mutual fund RTMark, and the byte-like chain-mail sculptures of Philippe Bradshaw. It's a reminder that we live in a coded world constructed from information of often dubious value. From Sept. 19 to Oct. 15 at the Lux Gallery, 2-4 Hoxton Square, London. From Lux Centre
Cubist Tomatoes
Dolly, the mediagenic cloned sheep, already seems like a dinosaur. Now we must face the new implications. For the past two years, Creative Time, a public-art-producing organization based in New York City, has facilitated discussions between artists and scientists about media-dominated "public" issues such as genetic research. Last June, Creative Time began distributing artist-designed paper coffee cups, including ones emblazoned with Larry Miller's slogan "Copyright Your DNA," to coffee shops and espresso bars. This month the organization has produced artist-designed billboards to complement the Exit Art exhibition "Paradise Now: Creating the Genetic Revolution". Nancy Burson's billboard shows five snapshot-like photos of a single woman morphing through five races. Haluk Akakce's digital video still presents a double helix spiraling to earth, suggesting, in the artist's words, "a new organic relationship between man and nature." Alexis Rockman's engaging painting is chockablock with images of life on the (future) farm: Chickens with six wings, square tomatoes and the like. Cubism for the 21st century? From Creative Time
Moon(lighting) In June
Bill Ivey, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. federal arts agency, reported some dispiriting news at the June convention of the National Association of Artists' Organizations. "Artists earn 12 to 23 percent less than is average for other professionals, and as many as 80 percent of artists report holding second jobs at some time during the years." These figures are from a forthcoming NEA research division report, "More Than Once in a Blue Moon: Multiple Jobholdings by American Artists." Ivey advocated the reinstatement of federal funding for individual artists, but his remarks were entirely ignored by the mainstream media, according to an NEA source. From NEA
Digital Consciousness
We used to think of memorials as physical things that derived much of their meaning from their actual location. But the Internet has changed all that. "A Virtual Memorial," a German media-art project, is an online site intended to engage the Really Big Questions that the mass media handle so ineffectually. The site explores our individual and collective responsibilities, for instance, for everything ranging from the Holocaust to the disappeared in Argentina, from homelessness to AIDS. Artists' projects can be housed or linked here, and open exchange is promoted through a planned forum. As the site's founders remind us, the heart of a computer is memory. From A Virtual Memorial
The New Art Order
While culture-jamming artists such as RTMark have infiltrated the corporate realm, NATOarts will convince some viewers that they have actually been adopted by the international military order. NATOarts states that it was founded last year by NATO, on the organization's 50th anniversary, and is governed by a board of directors representing each of the 19 NATO member states. Its "retrospective" consists of conceptualist investigations of Danube River pollution, a NATOarts uniform competition and several sound works. NATOarts describes its purpose as the promotion of "global security and stability through the exhibition of works of conceptual art." It's a far cry from Picasso's declaration that art is war. "NATOarts: A Retrospective" is up Sept. 14 through Nov. 14 at 6 Hubert Street in New York City. From NATOarts

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"Sex, Lies, and Politics: Cartoonists Shooting from the Hip," Sept. 17-October 29 at the Puffin Cultural Forum, 20 East Oakdene Ave., Teaneck, N.J. 07666-411. Call (201) 836-8923 or e-mail puffinmail @mindspring.com.