Re: <nettime> Re: Re: net art history

[murphy@thing.net]

On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, olia lialina wrote:

> But don't you see that net art and net artists changed the
> landscape of contemporary art? Now, art institutions have to
> learn to act as nodes (not as a center). And they do. 

Can't see that has happened much from my perch here in NYC. Maybe in
Europe that's true. Certainly the Guggenheim is becomming more nodal, but
that doesn't have much to do with net art. More like global conquest. 

Funny, though, just before your message came through on nettime I'd sent a
proposal off to the director of an art center suggesting he think of his
institution as a node in a global network. I assumed he'd know what I
meant so maybe there has been some change.

The ZKM net_condition catalogue hit all the bookstores here this weekend,
piles of them at each so MIT Press must expect it to be a big seller. Too
bad the text is so hard to read. It looks like all the other "web design"
books that have come out the past few years. Still, it does make "art and
global media" a topic people pay attention to.

 
> And it's a pity that net art critics who have been working
> in the field since the heroic days have reduced their
> activity to interviews. Or hurrying and competing to be the
> first to announce death and failure. ASCII Paparazzi.

There's been interest in the "archaic days" lately, the period pre-1994
stretching back to the dawn of humankind. Carl Leoffler's death the other
day reminded me that his ArtCon newsgroup was one of my first contacts
with other artists on the net. I think both Heath Bunting and Brad Brace
were there.
 
> I can already see the development, innovation and result.
> We'll get a bunch of experts from Colorado writing
> necrologues.

I think John Hopkins teaches at Boulder off and on. Universities are
looking for ways to cash in on digital art. Amerika's use of the phrase
"innovative ciriculum" is a dead giveaway. That's biz talk, not art talk.
Art students all want to make Jurrasic Park these days.

Rob

Robbin Murphy
Development Director
THE THING NYC

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