Robert Adrian on Sun, 18 May 1997 04:49:23 +0200 (MET DST)


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<nettime> Re: ... net.art thread analyses


Josephine Bosma wrote:
>..... he (Robert Adrian) writes that I compared
>net.art to radio. Never did I compare net.art to radio,
>I see no reason at all to do so.
>I compared a certain type of net.art, practiced by mostly
>artists from the notorious 'net.art-group', to performance
>art and mail art, and I did this only and with care to satisfy
>a need that seemed to exist to find some kind of handhold while
>trying to discuss this art.

R.A. replies:
I did not mean to imply that you believed that "net.art" should be
compared to radio. I merely wanted to point out that, in examining
the texts that make up the net.art thread, I found that almost every
"ism" and techniqueof 20th century art was mentioned by one
contributor or other in an effort to find some way to locate 'artists'
use of telecomm media' (or net.art) to other kinds of art practice.
I personally feel that radio (and especially the "early days") is
very important in understanding how technologies can change
cultures - and you were the only contributor to mention it.

But my point was not to enumerate the various art influences
and traditions leading to net.art but to show that "art in the
telecommunications media" is composed equally of all the methods
and practices of 20th century art and is not a linear development
from any particular tradition or style. This kind of art practice
should not be seen as a result of the 20th c. art traditions but as
the fulfillment of them.
--------
The medium that was not mentioned in  all these texts is the most
important ... the telephone!  Without the telephone none of this
would be possible.
But it did not seem the right time to introduce a new theme to the
net.art "thread" in the process of an interim summing-up.

But as Josephine says:
> Life goes on after zkp, right?

Lets talk about it later ....

bob


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