_Net & Codeworkers Inc[ubation]_

[anna balint]

.
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/incubation/gallery.cfm

GALLERY

_Net & Codeworkers Inc[ubation]_
Curated by Mez

At Incubation 2000, Mark Amerika curated the Ink.Ubation 
Salon, a gallery of work from a wide variety of new media writers 
experimenting with the Internet. This year the gallery is curated 
by Mez, whose pioneering net.language ‘mezangelle’ has intrigued 
readers online since the early 90s. In her introduction to this 
selection of works chosen specifically for the web, Mez explains 
why codework can only be fully experienced in a non-physical space 
                . . .
There have been extensive [and exhaustive] efforts 
made by the technologically-inclined to use the Internet as a
vehicle for the gestation and manifestation of art-oriented practices. 
However, in a disappointing truncated space and time, many of 
the artistic potentialities of this [reticulation] technology 
have crystallized around conventional lines, with practitioners 
progressing along allegedly _fresh_ artistic trajectories which, 
in actuality, are still dependent on derivative templates. These 
templates have been predicated on the linear, on traditional unitary 
publishing models and the structural/physical nature of the plastic 
arts.

Thankfully, not all creators engulfed in net dynamics 
are determined to expressively seep back into the quagmire of 
historically [and academically] ratified/reiterative formats and 
stylistics. Some still perceive [and participate in] the network 
via a tapestry of deformation/communication potentials. These 
entities [as they cannot always be adequately defined in a 
geophysical, visceral sense] shift & pulse data via infinite 
network variations. These _artists_ [or net/code.workers] 
revel in the fabric of connection modes and core elements that 
represent the actualities of the net in all its functional glory. 
The code/net.workers selected for inclusion here engage in 
production of [artistic] output that employs and mirrors the very 
blueprinted mechanisms of the net itself.

Net.workers such as solipsis, gashgirl/doll yoko,
a u t u m n - f r e q u e n c y, alan sondheim, + lo_y + and indecoress 
are represented here by works that evoke/employ the net[work] 
for its structural/data packaging and dispersal possibilities. 
These works have been electronically hunted-&-gathered from 
email lists, [we]blogs and MOOs. They primarily reside in unconventional 
display states that are sheared from regular representation models; 
they are mostly accessible via search-engines, in mailing list 
archives, in blogs, or on hard-drives. In short, these works fundamentally 
exist in echos and [band]widths of a projected space. They are 
not designed to concretely reflect economic, narrative, linear, 
or even [traditional] artistic value. Their creators are more 
reflective in relation to the nodes/strands inherent in network 
dissemination, and incorporate net conventions and multivalencies 
in order to fabricate works that conflate informational/contextual 
manipulation [eg via infofictionalised texts/personas via various 
email lists].

The selected code.worker projects are also concerned 
with the warping of computer language/systems into referential, 
aesthetic or conceptual compositions that are replicated/sequenced 
in burgeoning incremental waves, resulting in the weave & 
flow of accented and disruptive code-emulations. Some are web-based, 
some are post-game [mangled] patches, and some are caught in net-based 
circulation and avatar adoption[s]. JODI, joe keenan, Integer/Netochka 
Nezvanova, ted warnell, and brian lennon rewrite the underlying 
notion[s] of code as functional/accessible via blatant infrastructural 
rewiring that encourages the redirection of an absorbers [ie interactors] 
typical meaning gaze/gauge.

Of course, the separation of the exhibited works 
into the aforementioned categories [code.work + net.work] is a 
highly artificial [curatorially-induced] act. There are considerable 
semantic slidings/interchanges involved here, shifting signifiers 
and false dichotomies resulting from the notion that conferences 
[such as Incubation 2] may be devoted to the display/analysis 
of _all things net_, but have as their manifest presentation-interface 
a dependency on physical platforms that acts to negate the contextual 
nuances of the network. This reliance on channeling the discussion 
of works [that are indigenous to the network] through physical, 
realtime, flesh_ presenters acts to trap the information into 
culturally-negotiable/manageable assimilation packets. The dataflow 
is rigid here, compartmentalized and frozen. The emphasis 
on this physical steerage of data revokes the pliability of these 
projects, and leaves the code/net.work[ers] floating in a correspondingly 
amputated reality/limboesque strata-zone. For this I must apologize, 
and suggest - as a workable antidote - a thorough search-immersion 
of all things net/code.work oriented.
.           .    ....         .....
        net.wurker][mez][
                  ./.              
    www.hotkey.net.au/~netwurker
.... .                  .???  .......