Michael van Eeden on 28 Jul 2000 14:39:44 -0000 |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
<nettime> Interactive artwork in Dutch tunnel back on-line after 14 months in the dark! |
Interactive artwork in Dutch tunnel back on-line after 14 months in the dark! On 1 May 1999, local councillors in the town of Leidschendam effectively pulled the plug on the controversial Tunnel Journal artwork. They refused to pay the power company until steps were taken to stop uncensored messages reaching the Tunnel Journalšs electronic message board direct from the Internet. The artwork was plunged into darkness only 6 weeks after it narrowly failed to win the prestigious Rotterdam Design Prize, enjoying extensive press coverage in the process. The New York Times praised the free-speech access to the tunnel's 'light journal' which set it apart from its sanitised counterparts in the Big Apple. But on Thursday, 20 July 2000, after a lengthy censorship battle, the Tunnel Journal sprang to life again. The revamped Tunnel Website, an integral part of the project, was back on-line on Tuesday, 25 July 2000, allowing virtual visitors to once again transmit their very own messages to the display that forms the centrepiece of the artwork. The address is: http://www.factory.org/tunnel. A brand new feature of the site is the DYNAMIC FILTER which allows visitors to ban words from the electronic display for a limited period. The 'dirty' words that appeared on the Tunnel Journal after its initial opening got the local councillors at Leidschendam so worked up that they launched legal proceedings to determine the "limits of public art". They took artist Hans Muller to court, demanding that a filter be put in place banning a fixed list of offensive terms from being displayed on the Tunnel Journal. Appalled by this attempt at censorship, Mr Muller and Zwarts & Jansma Architects, the designers of the tunnel, suggested a dynamic filter which would enable visitors to the Tunnel Website to decide for themselves which words should be banned from the Tunnel Journalšs electronic display. The judge refrained from making a final ruling in the case, and suggested that the two sides should first try to hammer out a compromise. Leidschendamšs local councillors then initiated their own investigation that dragged on for over a year, before eventually going along with the artist and designers' initial proposal. All this time the power supply to the Tunnel Journal remained dead. Now that the interactive Tunnel Journal has been reborn, the makers are doing more than just celebrating. The creative minds behind the Tunnel Journal Website are now hard at work on a 'sister site' entitled De Dikke Muller (Dutch only folks! Translates roughly as Mr Muller's Big Fat Dictionary), detailing all the words that have been banished from public view in the tunnel. Regards from the coolest tunnel in the Netherlands! Let there be light! # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net