Information on UnderWorld Industries

UWI maintains a mail list [archives] as well. This is a low-volume, outgoing only email list. Occasionally, brief updates on UWI activities will be sent out to this list. It is not a two-way conferencing email list, like a listserv, so it won't hassle you much. To join, just contact me stating you would like to join. (The list is manually maintained, so you don't have to use any special syntax.)

Overview of UWI, from document UWIRULES.001 (001.001):

 ``UnderWorld Industries (UWI) is to serve as a common name and reference
   for all locations ("nodes") that wish to share information with other
   UWI nodes.  UWI is not a business, corporation, or entity.  Each UWI
   node can be as different as it pleases, as long as it agrees (or at
   least tries) to adhere to the fundamental "purposes" described below.

   UWI exists, in simplest terms, to spread information and encourage free
   thinking.  Other than this loose guideline, each UWI node can carry on
   with its own "business".  The rest of this document lays out some
   guidelines which each UWI will hopefully follow to make the exchange of
   information somewhat standardized.''

A summary of the current UWI nodes and their interests/projects is given below. To contact a specific node, first contact the primary node [UWI001; address is given below] and your request will be forwarded to the node(s) in question.

For "end-product information", please check out the UWI on-line catalogue, available here, or from the Web's Edge home page.

NODE UWI001 ("Primary node") -- ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, USA
Involved mostly with independent publishing. Currently publishes two zines: Lunatic Fringe (on high-technology) and The Scene (comic). Also involved in "experimental" high-tech arts, such as computer video and animation. Starting publication of S.O.C., a electronic journal of art and textual submissions (amateur and professional). Trying to think of something creative to play on community access cable channel (submit submit submit!). 

   * UWI001                            * Email: jon.van.oast@med.umich.edu
   * P.O. Box 4060                     * Fax: +313.936.1951
   * Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4060 USA      * FTP: 141.214.4.135 (anonymous)

NODE UWI002 -- GRAHAMSTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Heavily involved in comics and graphic arts. Produces Frontal Lobotomy comic. Has graphic artists as resource. Also has contacts with local alternative bands.

NODE UWI004 -- CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA
Access to music, art, and literature around local scene. Working on producing cyberpunk-type zine.

NODE UWI005 -- CLEVELAND, OHIO, USA
Group name: The Confederacy. The Confederacy has many contacts in the Cleveland area. One of the current projects involves publication of the book Technophilia.

NODE UWI006 -- OMAHA, NEBRASKA, USA
Group: Uprise Productions. Uprise is Ed Stastny: graphic-art, networking and writing machinism. Ed works on several hard and soft publications, including: SOUND News and Arts, The Omaha Reader, DIATRIBE, Honked On Syphonics and UNO Gateway. Ed also manages the OTIS art-gallery and many of it's offshoot SYNERGY collaborative projects.

NODE UWI007 -- WINDSOR, ONTARIO, CANADA
Creates and distributes local/other independent publications ranging from small zines to comics to art books. Involved with video projects and local alternative radio show.

NODE UWI008 -- COLUMBUS, OHIO, USA
Group Name: The Evolution Control Committee. Primarily a band: performance, cassettes (a lot by mail). Technology in the arts: electronics, desktop publishing, audio sampling, computer networking. Large library of "thrift-store media" (strange old records and tapes; good sample sources... more than 1,500 records). Coordinater of experimental performances at the Acme Art Company's Cafe Ashtray, a weekly performance venue. Member of the AMAM, a locally-based effort to tie music performance contacts in neighboring cities together via computer network. Long-standing ties with the now-defunct college station, WOSR. Some video work. Contact us!

NODE UWI009 -- SZEGED, HUNGARY
Group: EastEdge Cyberart&tech Fiction writers, zine editors, composers (MOD, MIDI and live performance), gfxmen, coderz, neurobiologist, psychologist possibility of printing, typographic capacity.

NODE UWI011 -- CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Groups: The Durex Blender Corporation / Phn0rd (Connections: The Church of the Holy Tire Iron, Cult of the Dead Cow, Restricted Data Transmissions (RDT), Campus Crusade for Cthulhu) The Durex Blender Corporation is a "non-product company" with its roots in the computer underground. Started as a parody of the corporate world and as a textfile group along the lines of the cDc, the DBC has grown and evolved to encompass a much wider range of activities... From textfiles and cyberculture, to zines and multimedia, to propaganda and discordianism.
Phn0rd is a registered student organization at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, formed by members of the DBC in an effort to bring the fringe closer to legitimacy and to laugh at the novelty of a state-funded group that supports the computer underground and its brethren. In addition to running a large mailing list, Phn0rd sponsors speakers and local bands, supports civil rights and the first amendment, and endorses Mondoperplexion.

NODE UWI012 -- PRINCETON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Has connections to whistleblower activities, programmer in C / 80x86 assembly / Modula2 / Modula3 / Pascal / unix csh scripts. Plus has access to laser printers, photocopiers, maillist creation, and many tfile bbs' in the area. Also very knowledgable in the area of virtual reality development, and am a pretty good graphics programmer.

NODE UWI013 -- PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
Software and programming (unix, pc, mac) resources, specializing in communications and security issues. Aural and visual art resources, including composition, computer music consulting & programming, image manipulation and generation.

NODE UWI014 -- PORTLAND, OREGON, USA
Sound Design, Graphic Design, Video Production, Desktop Publishing, Computer Programming. Access to: Artists, Writers, Musicians, Bands, Zines, General Weirdness. More!

NODE UWI023 -- EREHWON, IOWA, USA
Viral Communications ("We spread like the plague.") is an independent label/press dedicated to exploratory works in sound, visual, and literary art. Many contacts in Ann Arbor and Detroit poetry scene, local music scene. Contact with student radio station in Ann Arbor, involved with live sound engineering, recording, postal networking, and production and distribution of experimental audio and print media.

NODE UWI111 -- CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA
ideaLABS is a multiple media production house. We specialize in artistic construction and expression through audio, video and visual design. We also focus on the ergonomic development of computer software and their associated graphical user interfaces.
Our philosophy is to provide an integration of quality services, comfortable environments, and professional tools at a low cost. We want to allow for the creative experimentation and unrestrained expression that is usually attached to large budget productions.
The goal of ideaLABS is to incorporate five divisions, or labs, each concentrating on a particular element found within multiple media, yet interacting with each other.

NODE UWI??? -- ANYTOWN, ANYCOUNTRY, ANYPLANET
UWI is always looking for interested parties. We are open to ANYTHING, and encourage "experimental", "avant garde", "weird", etc. projects. UWI is VERY low-pressure (for you procrastinators). UWI is what YOU make of it. The only underlying theme is "creativity and free thinking" -- if there really is a theme at all...
Contact UWI001, or see UWIRULES.001, for more information.