Alan Sondheim is an American poet, critic, musician, artist, and theorist of cyberspace.
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Alan Sondheim was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from Brown University. He lives with his partner, Azure Carter, in Brooklyn, New York.
Sondheim's books include the anthology Being on Line: Net Subjectivity (Lusitania, 1996), Disorders of the Real (Station Hill, 1988), .echo (alt-X digital arts, 2001), Vel (Blazevox, 2004-5), Sophia (Writers Forum, 2004) and The Wayward (Salt Publishing, 2004), as well as numerous other chapbooks, ebooks, and articles. Sondheim has long been associated with the Trace online writing community, and was their second virtual-writer-in-residence. His video and filmwork have been widely shown.
Sondheim co-moderates several email lists, including Cybermind, Cyberculture and Wryting. Since 1994, he has been working on the "Internet Text," a continuous meditation on philosophy, psychology, language, body, and virtuality. His artwork can also be found within Second Life.
Sondheim is the developer of the concept of codework,[1] wherein computer code itself becomes a medium for artistic expression.
As of mid-2009, Sondheim is working on a book examining the phenomenology and foundations of the analog and digital, and another on developing an aesthetics of virtual realities and avatars. His current areas of exploration include: the aesthetics of virtual environments and installations; mapping techniques using motion capture and 3D laser scanners; Buddhist philosophy and its relation to avatars and online environments; and experimental choreography.[2]
The Internet Text can be seen as Sondheim's major work, and was included in the first Electronic Literature Collection. Posted online since 1994, it is both an aggregate of Sondheim's writings and a "continuous meditation on cyberspace." The works are distributed on several email lists and gathered on Sondheim's website. The significance of The Internet Text is as a document or residue of Sondheim diverse writings and performances, and also as a philosophical reflection on computer mediated communication and online culture.
Alan Sondheim/Ritual All 770 - The Songs (Riverboat 03) USA 1967 /reissue Fire Museum Records (FMR04) USA 2005
Alan Sondheim - Ritual-All-7-70 (ESP 1048) USA 1967
Alan Sondheim - T'Other Little Tune (ESP 1082) USA 1968
Alan Sondheim - Ski/nn (Fire Museum Records FMR 07) USA 2006
Alan Sondheim - Fifty-Six (Qbico 056) Italy 2006
Alan Sondheim - Boojum (Majmua Music MM 9) USA 2008