[syndicate] Andrej Tisma: Web.Art's Nature

[Claudia Westermann]

Hi you all,

I think this is actually quite interesting.

>     Web.art works are created
>exclusively for the Internet, for its language and technical capacities,
>and they address solely the users of this world wide computer network.

so what happens if one places a computer in a museum ?
it is kind of context change, or is it not?

>Therefore, not only are they created in the language of the network, but
>are the most comprehensible and  most effective in that environment and
>communicable by network distribution and presentation, i.e. through computer
>monitors and speakers. It is the configuration in which those works are
>at their most natural and in which they facilitate an active attitude of 
>the viewers during reception.

so is it important, that these works are found by the user like any other 
web page ?
because if, this might contradict the art data base idea, not so sure about 
this.

>      In fact, one of the
>common characteristics of web.art works is its interactive nature, which
>means that the viewer becomes an 'accessory' to their creation. He chooses
>the paths and links he will take to move through the work, he is often
>in a position to build into the work his own text or visual or other contents,
>as a kind of commentary or an essential element of work, or to activate
>numerous elements of the work: picture, sound, animated and video fragments,
>thereby developing his appreciation of the work through an active experience.
>The web.art works, as we said, most frequently take their final form thanks
>to the viewer's activity, and since they are open in character, they 
>continuously
>acquire new forms. As opposed to the up-to-now dominant art forms, in which
>the artist presents to the viewer a ready-made work, of certain form and
>dimension, a web.art work may further develop in an unpredictable direction,
>being totally unlimited in time and space.

are you referring here also to the fact that the work might be further 
developped by the artist and what one can explore as a user at one moment 
might be an intermediate state of a work.
so, what, if one archives these different states ? if an artist developpes 
a work further and it's meant like this....
so changing further and further not only by the users view but also because 
the artist is developping the work...
perhaps then the work is not menat to be archived ?

>      This brings us to a
>second essential characteristic of web.art - its hyperdimensionality. Namely,
>a work that is unlimited in time and space, just because of its openness
>and interactive participation of its user in its shaping, cannot be framed
>by dimensions. Works develop in many directions, thanks to numerous web
>page connecting links and numerous information such as images, texts, sounds
>and animations which induce the user to move through the works and to complete
>them. Often the user, usually a computer fan and web-artist himself, devises
>entirely unexpected paths and solutions, thus building his own creativity
>into the 'given' framework, surprising the original creator of the web-work
>himself. In this way, we perceive the web.art as a constant exchange going
>on among creative people round the world, their cooperation and mutually
>complementary work aimed at the creation of an art network,

ok I think this is important, the different works not only exist in a 
context of other
web pages ( commercials, companys etc... ) but also are referring to other 
art works,
so yes maybe this way building up a net in the net

>ultimately
>leading to a global spiritualization of mankind. Because, computer art and
>communication, due to its evasive electronic nature and immateriality
>of the media, is the closest to the spiritual categories of mankind.
>    We have thus come to the third common characteristic of web.art
>- immateriality. As a matterof fact, a web.work does not exist in real space
>and material form, but only as a digital code on a computer disc. It can be
>perceived only on a monitor, in the form of thousands of glimmering pixels
>and sounds. A web.work is thus an evanescent visualization of the creators
>and user's ideas, a reflection of their minds' impulses and a reaction to
>sensual irritations, always remaining immaterial, intangible and predominantly
>mental.
>      In a way, digital art
>is a realization of the strivings in the 1960's modern art movement, 
>coinciding
>with the appearance of ideas concerning dematerialization of  art object
>and transition of creative art work into the mental sphere, which was best
>reflected in the appearance of conceptual art. This art movement also 
>coincided
>with artists' efforts to create a multiplied, modular, democratic, 
>non-commercial
>and planetary art, the characteristics of which are multimediality, process,
>interaction and telecommunicability - precisely what the Internet has made
>possible.
>      In this connection,
>there is an apparent similarity between the Internet and web.art concept
>and principle and some earlier forms of  communicative art such as mail-art
>in the early 60's and network art in the 80's. Having sprung from Fluxus
>and conceptual art, mail art was based on international communication among
>artists, who exchanged ideas, art works and cooperation projects. The 
>appearance
>of this art movement is associated with the American pop artist Ray Johnson,
>founder of the New York Correspondence School of Art in 1962, which, at
>the beginning, involved the exchange of art works by mail among about a
>hundred artists from New York, later to become more international in 
>character.
>In Europe, this kind of exchange art is associated with the work of artists
>gathered around the French movement New Realism, also in the early 60's,
>two members of which, Ives Klein and Ben Vautier, were known for their 
>activities
>supporting the exchange of art works by mail. Not only did authors 
>distribute their
>works throughout the world, finding new poetics in the
>process - which very much looks like the essence of present-day Internet
>- rather,  works of art were being created in an interaction of artists,
>by adding their own individual subject-matter to a certain matrix; in this
>way, numerous international art projects, exhibitions and publications
>were realized.
>      Indeed, it was typical
>of mail-art, and later of the network movement, that the majority of works
>were created as a reaction to received works, or artists launched projects
>with a defined subject to which hundreds of others addressed their 
>contributions,
>from their own viewpoints, and applying techniques they were accustomed
>to. Ever since the early 60's there were projects where intervention was
>requested on an original that was sent - either by each artist on his own
>copy, or by more artists on one and the same original which was circulated
>through the network. Clearly, these are the characteristics of interactive
>art, such as the present-day web.art.

there is not so much of collaboration in the the web art circles actually, 
seems to me,
well there are some doing this, but most of what one can see today is 
rather done
in a traditional way ... one artist in a studio ...
Am I wrong with this ? So actually the question i would ask. Is this web art ?
or perhaps it's web art but not net art ?

and then the next would be:
is it perhaps possible to archive web art ( museum style ), but not net art ?

>      Multiplication of matrixes
>and originals, on which interventions by the participants were called for,
>leads us to a conclusion that mail art and network communication were 
>characterized
>by hyperdimensionality as well, where collective work was created on a
>global scale, without spatial and time limitations, in an open process,
>with entirely unpredictable results. Also, the international communication
>among artists, based on the exchange of ideas, gave the mail-art and network
>a predominantly mental character.
>      Within the mail-art
>exchange, there was a worldwide circulation of texts, images, collages,
>audio and video tapes whereby a desire for a multimedial character of art
>was achieved. Soon, phone-art and fax-art came into being as part of the
>mail-art, and it brings us quite close to the Internet as a field of 
>international
>creation and communication.
>      The concept of network,
>the artist's becoming part of the network, typical of the early 80's all
>over the world, as a logical continuation of mail-art, was aimed at gathering
>a large number of artists around joint international projects, initiating
>discussions about the essence of this movement, cooperation on live actions
>and performances, and publication of joint books, fanzines and anthologies.
>Such were, for instance, the Decentralized Networker Congresses in 1986
>and 1992, which took place, as the name says, at the same time at many
>different places all over the world, with several hundred participants,
>who sent their ideas and conclusions to one center, to be published and
>further distributed. All this irresistibly reminds one of the present-day
>mailing lists and discussion groups on the Internet.
>      Some of the most important
>and most active mail artists and networkers indeed provided a bridge to
>the Internet, having started their activities in this medium as early as
>mid 80's, which was obviously just a continuation of their previous way
>of communication. So, for example, Ruud Janssen (the Netherlands) launched
>a bulletin called 'TAM' which could be read through modem as early as 1986.
>In the same year, Charles Francois (Belgium) foresees in his computer 
>communication
>an 'electronic tourism' in the future, and an American, Chuck Welch has
>been active on the Internet since 1991 with his fellow-countrymen Honoria
>and Mark Bloch, particularly in 1992, during the Decentralized Networker
>Congress.
>      In January 1994, Welch
>issued the first electronic mail-art fanzine 'Netshaker On-line', and in
>1995 launched an Internet campaign called 'Telenetlink', in which he invited
>the former mail artists and networkers to join the Internet. Today, all
>of them and hundreds of other networkers have their web-sites, Janssen
>is in charge of a sizable cyber-magazine and Welch of the Electronic Mail-Art
>Museum. Similar museums on the Internet already exist in Hungary (Gyorgy
>Galantai's "Artpool" ), in Italy ("Mail-Art Gallery and Museum") and in 
>Japan ("Sora").
>In this way, mail-art and network movement have naturally flowed into the 
>Internet,
>rightfully taking the credit as being the predecessors of this global 
>phenomenon of
>human civilization.

so the net art was mainly presented in web-magazines .... I can understand 
this.
you make a selection for a certain issue. and you have the possibility to 
do issues on differetn subjects for example. so each issue again also tells 
something about the time it is released, what people think of,
even when it presents works, which might be a lot older.
So but I think that the important point about this is, that a selection 
takes place for a certain time period,
even if this magazine issue is available also later ( in an archive of 
issues ) it is quite clear, that the works are presented in the context of 
this issue and its time. And this 'prevents' that a work is presented in a 
way, that the viewer would think it is 'neutral'. Because this is actually 
what I would question, concerning the art data base...
some try to be neutral and I think it is not possible, even dangerous for 
the works. So if a collection or selection takes place, I would feel much 
more comfortable, if I knew, the work is set in a clear context.
( a magazine issue on a certain subject for example )
Putting light on some characteristics of the work this way but not limiting 
it. ( because it does not try to be neutral )

>      The present Internet
>is a dream of the world-without-boundaries come true, where there are no
>geographic or time distances. Just like once for mail-artists and networkers,
>there are no racial, national or ideological barriers for today's web-artists.
>A dream of the global work of art, simultaneously and permanently available
>to the entire population of the planet is coming true. This form of art 
>has managed,
>thanks to an increasing number of the Internet users, to become a part of 
>everyday life,
>thus in the best way carrying out a mission of changing the awareness of 
>mankind -
>something the artists working in traditional media could only dream of.
>Translated by:
>Gordana Perc
>
>-- ANDREJ TISMA is Novi Sad (Yugoslavia)  based artist, art critic and 
>curator. Since the
>early '70s mail-artist and networker. Founder of The Institute for 
>the  Spreading of Love (1991) and Embargo Art
>campaign (1992). HOMEPAGE: http://members.tripod.com/~aaart/index.html 
>--  ANDREJ TISMA is Novi Sad
>(Yugoslavia) based artist, art critic and curator. Since the early 
>'70s  mail-artist and networker. Founder of The Institute
>for the Spreading of Love (1991) and Embargo Art campaign (1992).


would actually be great, if some more people would say something.

Anna, what do you think. Maybe you've thought this subject already further.

kindly
claudia