Through the Looking Glass is an
exhibition of exploration. In an age of emergent digital technologies
like wireless networks and the Internet, our monitors and information
devices are set before us like analogues of Carroll's mirror, beckoning
us to explore the world on the other side. And, once inside, will we be
confronted with a phantasmagorical land of wonders, or a terrain we never
expected, such as the Brothers Wachowski's film, The Matrix. In looking
at the landscape of technological art, TTLG attempts to explore the
global digital scene, examine its questions of engagement and access, and
capture a snapshot of the digital arts at the turn of the third
millennium. When assembling this exhibition, I considered these issues in
regards to a focus on personal, local, and global perspectives. In this
way, TTLG is much like a fractal in which we can continuously burrow
deeper into the rabbit hole. The surroundings may look similar, but
something just a little 'different' turns up just around the
corner.
When TTLG was first proposed, it was merely a two-man show of digital
print. In discussing the possibilities with the art center's staff, it
seemed to me that the potential for a much more encompassing show of work
was at hand and the call for works went out on the international scene
through the Internet. The response was overwhelming, as over 200 artists
submitted works to the exhibit. Even at the point of the call for works,
TTLG was envisioned as much more tightly focused show. But, in
considering the theme as framed by the show's title, it seemed fitting
that as the Internet has expanded at near-geometric rates, the criteria
for the show should expand as well. An exhibition of diverse works, a
tour of the world's static, electronic, and critical work on the digital
medium; TTLG is atrip through the digital domain to examine how many
artists are traversing it themselves in theory and practice.
Although there have been exhibitions including various forms of
electronic art in Northeast Ohio in the past few years, and even a couple
which have focused on the digital medium, none have attempted to address
the physical, virtual and textual investigations of electronic art in
such a broad scope. In so doing, TTLG also creates a media resource for
visitors interested in a focused snapshot of digital art practice, and in
this way I am very pleased in the way the show has shaped itself.
From a global perspective, TTLG probes the question as to whether the
World Wide Net is truly worldwide. How deep has the globe been saturated
by digital technology? Where are artists most engaged with technological
art? What are the issues of politics, access, and language that limit the
McLuhanist vision of one world under the Net? Well, this is an article
unto itself, but it was not surprising that language, politics, and
socioeconomic factors limited the response I received from the Middle
East, South America, Asia, and especially Africa. There is a certain
myopia that technology places upon the First World that English is the
lingua franca, and that the world itself by default should have universal
access to the Internet at the year 2000. As revealed by the entries
received, such is not the case, but certain areas, like Eastern Europe,
were startling in the vibrant nature of their involvement in the digital
arts.
This mix of global scope with localized involvement shaped some of my
criteria for inclusion within the exhibition. For example, some of the
work from Japan and Eastern Europe surprised me in its diversity in
thought if not technique, challenged me to rethink my own views as to
what constitutes art in regards to technology, especially the Internet.
So, in response to this personal experience of reviewing these works, I
once again broadened my criteria. This widening of criteria was done so
that the visitor to this site (and the gallery), can consider the
cultural matrix which created some of these works and contemplate how
these issues of locality construct the basis of art, both traditional and
electronic.
The practice of digital art, whether in the exploding area of Internet
art or in print, video, installation, or other genres, fills me
with a sense of excitement and foreboding when considering the narratives
of commerce, technological determinism/elitism, and acceptance (of the
genre). The press release mentioned that Internet art is one of the new
'hot' areas of collecting, but are we not back to Warhol in its
reproducibility? Also, in the highly capitalistic era of the turn of the
millennium, we are confronted with the materialist issues of digital art
and the funding for an ephemeral medium. Perhaps these models of funding
are being rendered obsolete as technology is rendering itself obsolete
every year, and maybe genres like Internet art are more like performance
than painting, but this too is a subject for another essay.
The acceptance of any technology over a period of time gradually assures
its ubiquity. The fact that electricity has been a commodity for slightly
more of a century does not erase the assumption by many that since it has
been part of our lives since birth, it has always been here. The same
will probably become true of the computer, as there are already two
generations that have not known a world without them. However, I wonder
about the issues of control and expression that such a process might
evoke. For example, will Internet art always be limited to Netscape and
Microsoft browsers, should electronic art center on the computer, and is
technological art always electronic in nature? We are in danger as
curators, artists, and patrons of making these blanket assumptions as
Western Society forges on into the Digital Age, and to do so would sadly
limit our possibility for communication and expression. But, as virtual
reality pioneer Jaron Lanier once said, "The mindset that wins is
usually the one with the highest 'coolness' factor", It will be
interesting to see what we will consider 'cool', and who might define
those cultural standards for us.
Through the Looking Glass, is an exciting and sobering show. It showcases
a wide spectrum of work in a dizzying array of media. TTLG is heartening
in that it shows the burgeoning field of electronic art as a rich field
of artistic inquiry that is only in its adolescence, and has far to go.
However, it also shows the myopia of technology as it often fails to
consider cultures outside the reach of the wires. So, in many respects,
TTLG is the rabbit hole that begs for your entry. But it also asks you to
question who owns the dirt the hole burrows into, how deep the hole
actually goes, and who is allowed to go down the hole itself. It calls us
to question the role of technology itself in the arts, and whether
technology is only a reflection of the human condition, a glass through
which we peer darkly at ourselves.