> From: Mark River <
mriver102@yahoo.com>
> Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: Some random thoughts on the state of the art...
>
> Some random thoughts on the state of the art...
> 2. Along or against this trend, new works are being
> made using what Cory Archangel may have coined "Dirt
> Style Design" or Low-Fi net art. These works look back
> to the "Heroic Period" of Net.art as well as the pop
> home pages of the net.
> The reason for the post is that for the last year or
> so I have felt net art has been in a holding pattern.
> Great art works are being made and attention is
> finally being given, but I miss the time of
> experimentation. Thoughts 1,2 and 3 have let me know
> that net art might change again as all art can.
> From: Daniel Young <
young@newzoid.com>
> Exploring The Uses of the Medium vs. Exploring The Nature of the Medium
>
> I fully agree with Mr. Salvaggio's statement that it is time for "an
> exploration of what can be said with the medium more so than exploring what
> the medium is" and "now that we have figured out how to mix paints it's only
> natural to start looking at what we can say with them."
>
> I wouldn't call this impending focus on content or meaning a "wave." For me
> the communicative or functional use of a medium is more like the full body of
> water out of which the first wave of exploration comes. I hope the uses of the
> medium will remain the main focus of artists for all time.
I guess it is the lot of all artists at all times to both look back at a
golden (heroic?) age, while simultaneously believing that the golden age is
now.
I guess it is also always incumbent upon us to have short memories.
I would like to quote you from the intro. to a book called 'Art +
Telecommunication' published in 1984:
'This publication is intended to indicate some aspects - and possibilities -
of the use of modern telecommunications technology by artists and
artist-theoreticians, who have taken part in or organised artists
telecommunications projects. The illustrations document recent activities
and projects using simple, cheap and accessible telecommunications hardware
and systems. Such telecommunications events do not, unlike other kinds of
artwork, originate from a solitary artist but grow from what Roy Ascott
calls a "dispersed authorship". Such authorship is only possible through the
use of "interactive systems".
Artists, while fully concious of their situation - and of that of all other
private users of electronic systems - still consider it a part of their task
to research, analyse and formulate a critique of the "electronic space"
created by these media, and to at least try to infiltrate, however
fugitively, some other content and meaning than that for which they have
been designed and developed. The artist also reserves the right to abandon
this space as a place for art activity, after they have examined it and its
implications, by their own methods and to their own satisfaction.
A glance at the aspects of telecommunications that the artists in this
publication find interesting - interactivity, accessibility, collective
working, breaking down of hierarchies, decentralisation - should make it
clear that we are dealing here with something more important than a few naiv
technology freaks who have found themselves a new toy.'
So, I would just say get out there and boogie. There never was a heroic age.
There is just a continuum. Nothing comes from nothing.
Cheers, Ivan
--
Ivan Pope
ivan@ivanpope.comhttp://www.ivanpope.comhttp://www.tochki-inc.com"Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death"
Hunter S. Thompson