[Nettime-bold] Re: Re: Re: <nettime> Re: Re: net art history

[Cornelia Sollfrank <cornelia@snafu.de>]

hi all,

it is interesting to see what issues trigger response and create a discussion on this mailing list. i have to say that i am very pleased to see that it is art. (that the discussion mainly refers to /net.art resp. it's /death is very limited und little productive.) some years ago nettime was accused of being a hostile environment for artists/art discussions. this was the reason why most of them/us left at a certain point and opened their own list/network/environment. 

now it has become an issue to reflect upon what actually has happenend in this field in the last years. and this discussion takes place on, amongst other venues, (verified) nettime, again. obviuosly, this is still/again a platform where enough people gather who did not give up, resign, and stop thinking and acting, although we all have learned the lesson meanwhile: the net would not change the world in the way we had wanted to, in the opposite! and, of minor relevance, the net would not change the fundamentally profit-driven and corrupt art system.   

i am not sure if net art(ists) ever had 'promised' such a thing, or if it more had been a wishful projection. anyway, there was/is an enormous subversive potential in the net which untermined/s art-system-parameters as (identifieable)(individual) authorship, (finalised) piece of work, white cube-ism, purchaseability etc. there are/have been various (serious/playful) ways to handle this potential. 

but even these individuals who have connected to the art system with their names, pieces of work, museum/gallery presentations and sales (very few) are confronted with the fact that, so far, no adequate ways of presentation could have been developed for the white cube, and that the selling of pure data (what 'net art pieces' mostly are) leaves the art market quite helpless. this gives evidence for the subbornness which lies in the artistic use of the medium. the fact that some high-end works have been commissioned by museums, or that serious efforts are being made to collect net based works does not mean at all, that net art per se could have been integerated into the system. 

but this is also the reason why net based art has been developed further, in more art system adequate formats, as there are various kinds of installations, starting with sculptural "browers", going to pleasing/colorful data projections, and a range of re-materialisations of data. this is probably the most promising (and, of course, a very boring) way to become a professional 'net artist'.

i also agree with pit's elaborations in many points. i.e that we generally underestimate the value of the net-based works, and that their relevance has to be seen within their historical framework. 

now is now, and not net.art. but even if it has no name what is happening, and even if the general implementation of 'a new art form' did not take place, there is endless ways to go on with resistant and subborn, political and aestehtic practices. the informational sphere is still quite unprotected, and we have powerful tools. ..."continue working in the spirit..." 

best, c.



 





::::::::::::::"A smart artist makes the machine do the work":::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::: _____________________________:::::::::::net.art generator:::::::
:::::::::::::: http://www.obn.org/generator::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 Cornelia Sollfrank  |  Duncan of Jordanstone University |  Dundee |  Scotland 



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