Re: Syndicate: SEAFair webTV + pictures

["intim@" <igor.stromajer@guest.arnes.si>]

inside reference: 
http://www.v2.nl/mail/v2east/1120.html 

outside reference:  
http://www.factory.org/nettime/archive/2169.html 


well,

first i didn't want to go into it because i can hardly see myself as a
curator, an expert or new media theorist knowing how to deal with net
art presentations and/or exhibitions set-ups, but as an artist devoted
to intimate artistic communication i do agree that placing the
computer monitors on the pedestals as we would have some sculptures to
show is problematic and there certainly are other ways to present net
art projects and cd-roms in a gallery (or somewhere else). one of the
appropriate ways seems to be the one you described in your report from
nyc.

for the kind of exhibition you are talking about one needs a lot of
equipment (chairs, headphones, a lot of space [to present 14 net art
projects, 5 cd-roms and 1 net-linked installation] and all the artists
present in the exhibition room/s) so i think that the organisers in
skopje (it was the same last year) simply didn't have all of this.

there was another big exhibition of one macedonian painter in 
the museum of contemporary arts going on simultaneously - which was
good and bad at the same time (more visitors, but the visitors of the
painter's exhibition somehow didn't know what to do with all the
computers in the museum) so there wasn't enough space to do it.

for me the biggest problem was the absence of the artists selected for
the festival. and of course for your type of the exhibition you need
all the artists present (for one week). last year (SEAFair97
<http://www.soros.org.mk/scca/seafair/>) most of the artists (maybe
all) were present in skopje. this year (SEAFair98)  - if you just look
at the "www section" - there were only two: jaka zeleznikar and me
(both from slovenia) because the organisers couldn't pay all the costs
(there were some exemptions made with a help of the OSI/SCCA cultural
link, but anyway). i understand the financial situation but this is
certainly not good for the festival and it's future editions. so: it
was impossible to organise those intimate (one to one) artistic
presentation of the works (you are talking about). but it would be
great! 

last year there were at least authors' presentations of the selected
net art projects in a special hall with the projector and other
equipment (well, almost everybody were present in skopje); but this
year none of the selected net art projects was presented by the author
- it was not in the programme. there were of course other
presentations and lectures (i hope someone will write the report).

it would certainly be very good if the organisers of such events (i'm
not talking about SEAFair only) would consider this problem and would
think about other ways to exhibit net art projects. it is true that
placing the object on a pedestal transforms the work into an object
and materialise it and this is not the form the artist had in mind
when she/he was creating it. unfortunately it was the same on many net
art festivals in europe i visited in the last two years.

the problem also present in skopje was that the organisers had to deal
very much with organising the syndicate junction meeting and they put
the festival a little beside (as if the syndicate meeting would be the
main event of the festival, which was not - so the meeting became
public which was not the intention of the syndicalists; but inke will
probably say more about it / i'm not qualified to analyse this) -
again one of the reasons why the "intimate presentations" weren't
possible. 

maybe the curators of various net art festivals all around the world
will think about it. and i think your suggestion is excellent and the
artists have to help the curators and organisers with some 
individual ideas and proposals. net art is a very intimate, sensitive 
and subjection art so maybe the works should be presented very
individually depending of the content and the form they use.

in a way timothy druckery (usa) talked about it in his skopje lecture 
(title: "soft targets: diabolic invisibility and interference") when 
he mentioned institutions like moma wanting to exhibit 
significant net art works inside the museum space (computers on 
pedestals...) and not thinking about the specifics of net art.

maybe the art.teleportacia gallery <http://art.teleportacia.org> (if 
it's further developed) could be used as the model for net art 
exhibitions.

virtual should stay virtual.


and regarding to your question in your 'screens and memes' post on
nettime:

> The image of an anonymous viewer sitting down with headphones on,
> watching the flickering images on the screen in front of her, is
> forever burned into my mind..... Is it isolation we are re-creating?
> Or Intimacy?

my answer is: intimacy, of course. it can not be isolation because the
viewer wasn't alone, isolated - she/he was interacting with the
particular artistic project in a way the project and the author
suggested her/him - if i have the correct picture from ncy exhibition
in my head. so: communication with the interactive artistic project
(like net art, cd-rom etc.) is the highest and the most intensive
artistic intimacy ever created (or: ever available).


igor


intim@ virtual base - creative intimate lab
http://www2.arnes.si/~ljintima2
+386 (0)41 703291
icq 19808618