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ORIGINS/BACKGROUND:

The name FELIX was inspired by the original 1920s TV hero, Felix the Cat, whose image was one of the first transmitted publically. Felix was transmitted by technical pioneers and amateur inventors working independently and testing the limits of their medium. Those early days of "pre-television" represent the spirit of what we envision FELIX to be: one of sharing ideas, tools and technology and of always redefining the nature of the medium. We call upon this mascot, Felix, to be an emblem to us, guiding us through this time of experimentation and exchange.

STAFF:

FELIX Editor, Kathy High
Standby Executive Director, Maria Venuto
Publisher, Kathy High/ The Standby Program, Inc.

Web Designer, Christa Erickson

Print Designers:
Diane Bertolo (Vol. 1, and Vol. 2, No. 1)
Diane Bonder (Vol. 2, No. 2 and Vol. 2, No. 3)

FUNDERS:

Funding for FELIX was provided in part from The New York State Council on the Arts, and in the past has been funded by The National Endowment for the Arts, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Fideicomiso, PAC and by generous donations from our subscribers. Web space was donated by EMEDIA Arts at SUNY, Stony Brook and the Art and Theatre Arts Depts.

PUBLISHING:

FELIX (print) is published by The Standby Program, Inc., 135 W 26th Street 12th Floor New York, NY 10001-6833, USA. Office phone for ordering information: Tel: (212) 206-7858 Fax: (212) 206-7884.

FELIX (print) is distributed by: Autonomedia, publishers of Semiotext(e), 55 South 11th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 USA.

HISTORY:

FELIX, A Journal of Media Arts and Communication, founded in 1991, is a journal which fills a void in the media arts field, encouraging discourse and exchange from within the electronic arts community, analyzing current politics, funding situations and questions of aesthetics. FELIX responds to current issues and presents an open forum for artists and independent makers to converse and redefine their work. FELIX is a journal for video producers, the only U.S. journal directing itself specifically to the media arts community.

The Standby Program along with media artist Kathy High (Editor) have created and published to date SIX issues of FELIX. (FELIX is published irregularly.) Each issue has been developed around a theme. FELIX 's Vol. 1, No. 1: Censoring the Media, examining issues of censorship and its impact on the media community; Vol. 1, No. 2: Shot/Reverse Shot/A Cross-Circuit Videologue, co-edited with Shu Lea Cheang, was a series of written dialogues among video makers around questions of identity in relation to ethnicity and gender; and Vol. 1, No. 3: PostLiterate, guest edited by Marshall Reese, examines the development of new technologies and their impact on our relationship to the written word). In 1995 The Standby Program and Kathy High published a double issue of FELIX, Vol. 2, No. 1: Landscape(s) edited with Liss Platt and dedicated to exploring issues of landscape and place, boundaries and territories, sites and mapping. In 2000, FELIX 's Vol. 2, #2: Voyeurism, co-edited with Maria Venuto, Lisa Steele+Kim Tomczak, and Nayan Shah, looks at our obsession with looking -- the pleasures and risks. Just released in May 2003, FELIX 's Vol. 2, #3: RISK/RIESGO is the first bilingual issue which provides a resource to both Mexican and U.S. artists for discussion of works and working strategies. Questions posed include: What makes work/life/art risky business? What is the gamble? Where is the dare, the hazard, the danger?

This publication holds a very specific and unique spot in the media arts community as there is no other journal critically addressing the state of media art and independent video as viewed by artists themselves. The combination of artist pages, producer-written articles (often presented in the form of a conversation between makers), the diversity of artists and controversial issues represented have made this journal a collectible (MoMA, NYC, has recently bought a collection for their permanent library). University professors are using FELIX in their classes, saying that it is the only publication available addressing current issues for media makers (used in universities such as Princeton, Brown, NYU, Chicago Art Institute, UCSD and others). The journal helps to promote artists' careers and give more exposure to producers to a wider arena of readers. FELIX furthers the development of alternative mediamaking while educating an old and new audience to the potentials of the media arts.

FELIX has been eagerly received by people in the media arts community and outside of it. It was nominated as one of the best new titles in the Fourth Utne Reader Alternative Press Awards. Magazines such as Factsheet Five, Utne Reader, Mediamatic and Variant have reviewed it favorably. FELIX is distributed nationwide and abroad by Autonomedia, which also distributes the prestigious Semiotext(e) among other publications, and also by D.A.P. FELIX is 7"x 10" in size, with a page count of around 300, perfect bound, has a two color cover and a print run of 2500. With a unique style, striking graphic design (thanks to designers Diane Bertolo and Diane Bonder), and lots of visuals (each issue has at least 100 b&w photo reproductions), FELIX has become the "book art" of the media arts community.