ABOUT: CRITICALARTWARE

from 2002 - 2007 criticalartware was a collaborative group of artist-programmers-hackers based in Chicago. our [application/platform/concern] was compiled at the turn of the twenty first century to address hyperthreaded hystories + [software-as-art/art-as-software]. we were interested in the [connections/ruptures/dislocations] between early moments of Artware or Software Art and other instruction set oriented approaches to {conceptual|code}-based artmaking such as Fluxus, Conceptualism, early Video Art, etc... By drawing [parallels/paths] between the [concepts/discourses] of these early moments, we critically questioned + [re]connected the current context to rightful unruley pasts in a multitude of [personal/subjective] hyperthreaded [her/hi/hy]stories.

we interviewed people who are active in these areas + can speak to their personal experiences of these developments. we have interviewed people such as Kate Horsfield, low-fi, Sherry Miller Hocking, Peter Luining, Dan Sandin, Josh Goldberg, Jane Veeder, Josh Kit Clayton, Tom Betts, Golan Levin, Olga Goriunova, Alexei Shulgin, matthew fuller, Rene Beekman, Joe Gilmore, Simon Yuill, Sergey Teterin, LoVid, JODI, FM3, Netochka Nezvanova, etc... + have already or will soon distribute those interviews (in various formats) freely online as shared cultural resources.

we also individually + collaboratively developed Artware to facilitate discourse + interconnect these communities + conversations. our Artware development activities included CHASSIS (by jake elliott + tamas kemenczy) @ NOTACON/BLOCKPARTY! 2007; Hyperyarn @ HARDcoded, (A) 4WB1t5 micro.Fest Mexico City + ISEA 2006; My Soul Seeks Nato; bbs.criticalartware.net; BLIT:SCREEN (as initiated by jake elliott) introduced @ Hack The Knowledge Lab; the satromizer + statementMaker (by bensyverson); hello.world @ Heaven Gallery; the criticalartware BBS (by jake elliott + tamas kemenczy), BOBCAT + txtile (by tamas kemenczy) + likn (by bensyverson), a revision + expansion of liken + the relationmatrix.

criticalartware's formation in 2002 was deeply informed by the Radical Software [publication/platform/project] (by the Raindance Corporation). criticalartware co-founders (jonCates, Blithe Riley, Christian Ryan, jon.satrom + bensyverson) met in jonCates' Radical Software/Critical Artware course in the Film, Video & New Media Department @ The School of the Art Institute in Chicago + then continued the conversation begun in the course, expanding this conversation into the criticalartware project. Since 2002, criticalartware has involved collaborative artist-developers Aaron Baumle, Morgan Higby-Flowers, Nick Hornby, Joey Lindsey, Brendan Pete, Dan Romano, Noah Shibley, Gogo Bernhard, Matt Dennewitz, jake elliot, tamas kemenczy, Emily Kuehn, Nicholas O'Brien, Marisa Plumb, bensyverson + Nina Wenhart + jonCates.