RaD Man
Encyclopedia
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
RaD Man, is an American computer artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
. He works in the field of ANSI art
ANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
, a method of creating art using a limited set of text characters and color escape codes
ANSI escape code
ANSI escape sequences are characters embedded in the text used to control formatting, color, and other output options on video text terminals. Almost all terminal emulators designed to show text output from a remote computer, and to show text output from local software, interpret at least some of...
based loosely on the relevant ANSI
Ansi
Ansi is a village in Kaarma Parish, Saare County, on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia....
standard (X3.64
ANSI escape code
ANSI escape sequences are characters embedded in the text used to control formatting, color, and other output options on video text terminals. Almost all terminal emulators designed to show text output from a remote computer, and to show text output from local software, interpret at least some of...
: Control Sequences
Escape sequence
An escape sequence is a series of characters used to change the state of computers and their attached peripheral devices. These are also known as control sequences, reflecting their use in device control. Some control sequences are special characters that always have the same meaning...
for Video Terminal
Computer terminal
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system...
s and Peripheral
Peripheral
A peripheral is a device attached to a host computer, but not part of it, and is more or less dependent on the host. It expands the host's capabilities, but does not form part of the core computer architecture....
s).
RaD Man was initially involved in the Aces of ANSI Art
Aces of ANSI Art
Aces of ANSI Art was the first group of artists specifically organized for the purposes of creating and distributing ANSI art...
(AAA), an organization which created ANSI artwork for a number of computer bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s in the late 1980s. With others, he created the "ANSI Creators in Demand" group (also known as ACiD
ACiD Productions
ACiD Productions is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development...
).
Starting in 1990, ACiD released artwork on an ad-hoc network of BBSes, updating a collection of art known as the ACiD Acquisition by sending a compressed
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
file of all the completed work up to that time. By 1992, the increasing file size made this process impractical, and this led to the development of the artpack
Artpack
An artpack is an archive of computer artwork which is distributed in a compressed format such as ZIP or RAR.While most artpacks today contain either ANSI and ASCII art or hirez VGA, they may also include a combination of RIPscrip art, tracked or otherwise digital music, poetry and editorials, 3D...
, where groups of artists (including ACiD) would upload monthly update packages instead.
In 1996, RaD Man founded the ACiD Artpacks Archive to collect the artpacks created by the hundreds of groups that followed in ACiD's footsteps. This collection eventually was transferred to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
as Dark Domain in 2004.
Since 2002, RaD Man has worked as a historian and spokesperson for the artscene
Computer art scene
The phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short, refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.-Early computer art:...
, collecting information and interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
s with the artists involved, and creating reports and presentations on the lineage
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of computer art. Some of this work includes The ARTS, a talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
show which discusses the many different facets of the creative computer underground
Computer art scene
The phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short, refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.-Early computer art:...
scenes and the Pilgrimage 2004 demoparty
Demoscene
The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer...
. http://pilgrimage.scene.org/2004/
In 2006, RaD Man became a member of cDc's
Cult of the Dead Cow
Cult of the Dead Cow, also known as cDc or cDc Communications, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. The group maintains a weblog on its site, also titled "Cult of the Dead Cow"...
Ninja Strike Force.http://www.cultdeadcow.com/archives/2006/06/brand_new_nsfer_hawt.php3
In 2007, he co-founded Blockparty
Blockparty
Blockparty is a demoparty held in the United States. It was founded in 2007 by Jason Scott and Christian "RaD Man" Wirth. From its founding onward, it has partnered with Notacon in Cleveland, Ohio...
, a North American demoparty
Demoparty
A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. A typical demoparty is a non-stop event lasting over a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time to socialize. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are...
. For their first three years, they have paired up with Notacon
Notacon
Notacon is an art and technology conference which takes place annually in Cleveland, Ohio. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancement Conference, however use of this was mostly dropped after the first year...
which takes place annually in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. This collaborative effort allowed the fledgling party to utilize the existing support structure of an established conference.
In November 2009, ANSI art group Blocktronics paid tribute to RaD Man and his contributions to the ANSI art scene by releasing an Artpack called Codename Chris Wirth.
Interviews
- 1992 - RaD Man interviews Ian Davis, author of TheDraw ANSI editor
- 1992 - NOT! magazine interview with RaD Man
- 1994 - Corruption magazine interview with RaD Man
- 1994 - Distorted magazine interview with RaD Man
- 1995 - Jonas magazine interview with RaD Man
- 1996 - Beyond the Horizon interview with RaD Man
- 1997 - Acrylic magazine interview with RaD Man (reprint) .ANS version (original)
- 1998 - Woezine magazine interview with RaD Man
- 1999 - Acheron.org interview with RaD Man
- 2002 - Interview with RaD Man for the independent documentary film, BBS: The DocumentaryBBS: The DocumentaryBBS: The Documentary is a 3-disc, 8-episode documentary about the subculture born from the creation of the bulletin board system filmed by computer historian Jason Scott Sadofsky of textfiles.com....
- 2003 - iCE.org interview with RaD Man
- 2004 - Tsifra magazine interview with RaD Man (translated in both EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and RussianRussian languageRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
) - 2004 - 3dluvr.com interview with RaD Man and Legalize concerning Pilgrimage 2004 and the state of the scene
- 2007 - Hugi Magazine interview with RaD Man and Jason Scott concerning Blockparty 2007
Speeches
- 2004 - "The Art of Textmode" at Assembly 2004, August 5, 2004 - August 8, 2004
- 2004 - Jason Scott and RaD Man (ACiD) - 100 Years of the Computer Art Scene Presented at NotaconNotaconNotacon is an art and technology conference which takes place annually in Cleveland, Ohio. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancement Conference, however use of this was mostly dropped after the first year...
1, April, 2004 - 2005 - Steering an Art Collective at NotaconNotaconNotacon is an art and technology conference which takes place annually in Cleveland, Ohio. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancement Conference, however use of this was mostly dropped after the first year...
- 2005 - ASCII the Art of Textmode at the deviantArt Summit
- 2007 - T506 - Self Publishing in the Underground at DefConDEFCONA defense readiness condition is an alert posture used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness for the U.S...
15, August 4, 2007
Miscellaneous
- RaD Man article by enwhysea hosted on Everything2Everything2Everything2, Everything2, or E2 for short is a collaborative Web-based community consisting of a database of interlinked user-submitted written material. E2 is moderated for quality, but has no formal policy on subject matter...
- Blockparty