[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> net?art survey

[david turgeon <david.t@steam.ca>]

>So which is it?
>     netart
>     net.art
>     net-art
>     net art

basically the question is: what meaning does punctuation have?  a dot used 
to mean something purely utilitarian such as "this sentence stops" or "this 
is an abbreviation".  OO programming, & internet addressing, use dots in 
new contexts (they denote a hierarchy), so it doesn't seem so unusual to 
call something "net.art" although using periods is a "wrong" way to form a 
neologism.  in this sense "net-art" is more correct but it is (to me) far 
more awkward (& perhaps inaccurate because of its obsolescence) than "net 
art" or "netart" which both seem more flexible.

another interesting aspect of the use of the dot in "net.art" is that it 
somehow turns the internet naming hierarchy on its head.  a correct 
internet address should be "art.net", so "net.art" gives the feeling that 
it's the network that runs through art rather than the other way 
around.  on the other hand, if we follow OO conventions, we get the method 
"art" as an element of the object "net", which is more cynical than the 
previous interpretation.  on the other hand, it implies that "art" would 
exist in other contexts: kitchen.art, computer.art, land.art...  it posits 
"art" as a transient property of everything.

perhaps the period is eventually going to replace the hyphen in our 
vocabulary.  stranger things have happened.  we can also think of a 
language where words can be lumped together with dots, as with OO 
programming, but i'll leave that to the scholars out there.

with all that being said, personally i have a fondness for the variety of 
spellings, & i would find it a waste to make one of them "official."

have a nice day
~ david

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