Crossover Storms 'Next Big Things'

The purported death knell of Silicon Alley may drone on in some dusty old media sectors (not here though!), but the folks involved with the Crossover project at New York's Web Lab don't seem to notice or care for that matter.

Maybe it's because they're too busy pulling mental Gs on their current brainstorm, one that has the likes of the Sundance Institute and Rockefeller Foundation behind it, and AOL Time Warner eyeing the results for possible new media products.

The Crossover project is an extension of Web Lab, the New York-based, non-profit think tank devoted to developing digital and interactive media (beyond Web sites thank you). With the growth of broadband access as a backdrop, Crossover is now planning part two of a three-phase creative project devoted to building new forms of interactivity, such as true interactive television applications or even story telling and programming inspired by RPGs (role playing games).

The first phase of the project, Studio A, brought a group of accomplished writers, performance artists, film makers, Web designers and screenwriters, (42 in all), to the famed White Oak Plantation in Florida during February (the home of Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project).

The relaxed setting gave the group some time to discuss the history of media development as part of the forward thinking process, said Marc Weiss, the executive director of the Web Lab who also heads up the Crossover project.

For example, "if you look at the emergence of film, it came from photo plays. It took more than 20 years to develop what we now call the language of filmmaking," said Weiss, who also created PBS's P.O.V. program.

Now, story tellers fluent in film language are mixing it up with 3D game developers, Web designers, even performance artists as they brainstorm new, digital and interactive ways of telling stories.

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Phase two of the project is coming up this summer. Studio B will take five or ten new projects and bring them into fully developed "treatments" -- detailed descriptions of both project form and content -- with as many prototype new media elements as possible within the limits of time and resources, the organizers said.

After Studio B comes the final phase: production. Weiss said that's the ultimate goal, to get the projects funded and produced.

Some of those involved: Jorge Aguirre, a New York based filmmaker who wrote and directed "Pancho's Revenge," broadcast on WNET/Thirteen and featured at the Guggenheim, the Smithsonian Institute; novelist, screenwriter, and filmmaker Henry Bean, whose movie, "The Believers" slated for broadcast on cable channel ShowTime and a showing at New York's Angelika Theater on May 17th; and Brian Clark, president of GMD Studio, and a producer for ReveNews.

Incidentally, the Crossover initiative is being produced in association with a Core Advisory Group comprised of the Sundance Institute, the Director's Guild of America and the Banff New Media Institute. Members of the Advisory Committee include directors Allison Anders, David Lynch and John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch") and GameLab founder and CEO Eric Zimmerman.

A number of projects have a strong TV component, which may explain why people involved say AOL Time Warner has its ear to the ground on this one -- and checkbook at the ready --for any commercial applications that could arise from their work.

Speaking of Deep Thinkers

Writer and Internet technologies consultant Clay Shirky is launching an e-mail newsletter/discussion list. The OpenP2P.com columnist for the O'Reilly Network announced that the list will include a mix of essays on networks, economics and culture, including stuff he's written for other outlets and some reader commentary "re-printed only with permission, of course." Low volume too: about twice-monthly frequency. If you're interested, you can send mail to: nec-request@shirky.com with "subscribe" in the subject line, or just go to http://shirky.com/nec.html.

Mile Wide and Inch Deep? Whitney Biennial

The Whitney Museum's 2002 Biennial in New York hasn't actually garnered rosy reviews since it launched in March. The New Yorker called it "busy but extraordinarily bland." The New York Times' Roberta Smith wrote: "the latest version of this major showcase of American art is also bleak, pious, naive, monotonous, isolated and isolating."

My .02 worth: Although Forcefield's darkened-room of a diorama featuring mannequin-aliens making buzzing noises gets my vote for the silliest piece (inane is how the Times described it), don't overlook the digital art presentations. They are among the most thought-provoking displays in the show, which runs until May 26th.

One that got a spate of traffic during my visit was http://www.theyrule.net, a creation of maps that "aims to make some of the relationships of the elite of the US ruling class visible."

Mark Napier's 1999 cross-content browser called Riot, is there too, a "melting pot" software program inspired by the culture clashes that hit the Lower East Side when the gritty neighborhood suddenly became fashionable to young professionals.

The digital art, of course, is easily viewed at http://whitney.org/artport. But if you can get there, it's worth the trip; if the biennial displays don't inspire, there's always the fourth floor where modern day classics in post-Impressionism, Realism and Cubism paintings await.

Blur, Take Two

A biannual seminar exploring new creative practices of new technologies is about to launch at The New School.

BLUR 02 | Power at Play in Digital Art and Culture, is billed as a gathering of internationally diverse artists, technologists, and cultural theorists who will take part in two days of private think-tank sessions, and two evenings of public performance/presentation, which will be Web cast. More info at: http://www.nsu.newschool.edu/blur

From the "Alley is Dead, Long Live the Alley" File:

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of The New York Times, was a panelist this week at a special "Reuters Forum" panel discussion at Reuter's Times Square Headquarters. The title: "Doing Business in an Uncertain World." It also featured Raghida Dergham, a senior correspondent for London-based Al-Hayat, an independent Arabic daily newspaper; Thomas Glocer, the CEO of Reuters Group PLC (and the first Yank to head up the 150-year-old British institution); Geoffrey Wharton, a managing director for the World Trade Center and now of the redevelopment side of things.

The panel garnered a lot of heated agreement mostly about the need to beef up security, especially among prominent media companies headquartered in midtown.

Afterwards, I went up to Sulzberger to compliment his lively and interesting contribution to the discussion. Then I asked him: "Do you think Silicon Alley dead?"

No, no, no, he responded, brushing his hand to one side. "It's just in a cycle. It will come back."

So I asked him: "Then why does the New York Times like to print 'Alley is Dead' themed stories? Is it coming from the 'old media' side of the house?"

Sulzberger responded: "Don't say that, don't say that," and then explained how important the new digital media strategy is to the publishing behemoth's growth strategy -- and how hard the company is working at incorporating the two sides. Could the old media/new media sides of the NYT House be finally getting along?

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