Interminable, relentless sequence of imagery

July 31, 2003 1:53 AM

The 12hr-ISBN-JPEG Projectbegan on December 30^th, 1994, a 'round-the-clock posting of sequenced hypermodern imagery by Brad Brace, which are simultaneously posted to FTP sites, mailing lists, and Usenet's alt.12hr newsgroup. The basic structure of the project has been over twenty-four years in the making. While the specific sequence of photographs has been presently orchestrated for more than 12 years' worth of 12-hour postings! (Mirrors: 1, 2, & 3) [via waxy]
posted by riffola (11 comments total)

I'm trying to work this out, but I'm not getting too far - is the project still active? Is there an archive of all the images, or is What we see what we get? A lot of the "mirrors" don't seem to be letting the public in anymore.
posted by Jimbob at 5:29 AM on July 31, 2003

What I see looks like an outtake from The Blair Witch Project.
posted by grabbingsand at 5:59 AM on July 31, 2003

I've talked to Brad, and even he doesn't keep an archive of all his images. In an attempt to preserve his work, I'm in the process of putting an archive together. There's 18 recent images here, and I have another 600 or so older ones I haven't uploaded to my server yet.
posted by waxpancake at 6:17 AM on July 31, 2003

i stumbled across this a few years ago..i've never really understood it but i like the images
posted by eastlakestandard at 6:35 AM on July 31, 2003

I'm a little confused by this. Without an archive, what's the point of even mentioning that this has been going on since 1994? (That's a rhetorical question, riffola). If there's no accumulated "meaning" that can be experienced by reviewing the pictures, it doesn't matter whether he's been posting for eight-plus years or posting since last week. The experience of seeing a (any?) new picture every twelve hours is the meaning, not any real or implied connection between the images.

Presumably I can find out for myself by watching the images for some period of time, but I'll ask anyway: is there some accumulated meaning to the pictures or is this just "I post a picture to Usenet every twelve hours"? I'm significantly more impressed if it's the former, to say the least...
posted by JollyWanker at 6:59 AM on July 31, 2003

Thanks waxy for stepping in to create an online archive. I should've linked the budding archive in the main post, it was sloppy on my part, sorry.

I couldn't find any connection between the images, but I think it might be one of those things where you'd find a real or implied connection if you try looking for it, but it can also be experienced as is. I guess that's why it's (hyper)modern art.
posted by riffola at 7:18 AM on July 31, 2003

I've been reading over this for the past 10 minutes, and I've got to admit that I don't know what the hell this is. I've seen some blurry black and white pictures and, apparently, there's an ISBN involved. Something about 24 years, FTP sites, and "sequenced hypermodern imagery," whatever that is.

Could somebody enlighten me?
posted by waldo at 8:12 AM on July 31, 2003

'round-the-clock posting of sequenced hypermodern imagery

... do what now ?
posted by wfrgms at 9:11 AM on July 31, 2003

Bloody chess geeks...
posted by i_cola at 11:33 AM on July 31, 2003

There's now about 780 photos in the partial archive.
posted by waxpancake at 3:09 PM on July 31, 2003

I haven't figured this out either, but I like it because (a) I love the net in concept as much as I do in content (I have difficulty explaining this, but it started when I discovered BBSs in 1983) and (b) it's been going for so long (I was so sad when the original coffee pot cam went down). I like the randomness of the images, too.

What I don't like is the lack of dates/times of original posting on each picture. I'd like to know if I'm looking at something from 1995. Maybe the not-knowing is partly the point. Am I missing something? (Like dates/times?)
posted by swerve at 8:52 PM on July 31, 2003