[nettime-lat] Net Art World 1.0

["Eduardo Navas" <eduardo@navasse.net>]

 Aqui presento un nuevo proyecto en la red  que es parte de el Bienal de nuevos medios en MACAY:

Net Art World 1.0: http://www.navasse.net/netartworld


Lo mando antes que el festival comience oficialmente porque no será posible para mi anunciarlo despues de hoy.

Abajo de este mensaje encontraran una contexto para mejor entender el proyecto.  Cuando tenga tiempo quiza pueda traducirlo al español, pero por ahora se presenta en Inglés.

Espero lo disfruten.  

Muchas gracias,

Eduardo Navas
http://www.navasse.net

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The Global Context of Net-Art.

The online project Net Art World 1.0 was developed for The InteractivA 2003 New Media Biennale taking place at MACAY in Merida, Yucatan. The piece deliberately focuses on globalization because InteractivA features international artists with bilingual and/or multicultural backgrounds. As I did research for the project, it became reasonable to create a net piece which provided access to a large number of net-artist websites that were not necessarily part of the exhibition and juxtapose these with all the flags, countries and territories of the World. The result is an art work aiming to expose the complexities that the term globalization imposes on diverse cultures. 

All of the information comes from popular websites. The country maps were accessed at The 2002 World Factbook, the country flags were taken from The World Flag Database, and the artist links were accessed at the 2003 Net Art Links website. This approach seemed to be the most reasonable because it uses pre-existing resources that hold a certain cultural authority. This also enabled me to take on the role of compiler, choosing the online resources based on their reliability and popularity, which is not different from how the average person may surf the web. The approach as a compiler also exposes the many roles net-practitioners take when functioning in the community, which are of artists, curators, writers, and administrators.

This project consists of four framesets, functioning as follows:

á         The main area presents a net-artist selected at random from a list created by Dr. Reinhold Grether.

á         The top-right frame presents a country flag selected at random from a database. This flag links to a series of images on Google related to the country the flag represents.

á         The middle-right frame presents a country map at random. This map links to statistical information about a country. Please note that the country map does not correspond with the flag. This is done to present the complexity of nationalism, patriotism and colonialism that has developed due to globalization. 

á         The bottom-right frame presents an image selected at random from a series of images that were accessed on Google when searching the term "Globalization."

Net Art World 1.0 was created to examine the state of net-art in 2003, which is why the links throughout the project are not dynamically updated as the information changes on the net. This approach was chosen in order to point to the period in new media history from June to September of 2003. After this time, the links may become broken and/or the actual resources become updated with new information; this way, the piece becomes time specific. Anyone interested in accessing the latest information can always go to the resource page and choose particular links for the latest updates.

In order to better understand Net Art World 1.0, it is important to note some events in the recent and not so recent past. An important event that points to a transition in new media is Rhizome's decision to become a resource with an annual membership; which could be taken as a sign of a more institutionalized and perhaps even commercialized state of net-art; around this time many alternative resources developed around the web as well. [1] Also, reconsidering the efficiency of mailing lists, along with the rapid growth of weblogs, are definite signs that the net community is entering a new stage of development.[2] Another sign of change that has been developing for sometime now is net-art being part of major museum exhibitions; some examples are the Whitney and Venice Biennales which have included net-art in their surveys--as well as Documenta 11 which had a major emphasis on new media.[3] Ironically, all of the above developments are followed by a currently slow economy around the world. This is also the time when a new generation of net-artists is coming on board with hopes of becoming successful practitioners, similar to previous generations in the art world at large. This may be, in part, due to the fact that new media is now taught in universities around the world; and this has led early net-artists like Vuc Cosic to call what the students produce "net-art mannerisms." This is a far cry from the mid-nineties when only a few artists were working online and strategically displacing the labeling of their practice.[4] Net-art developed after a late postmodern period when art practices were influenced by poststructural theories. It is impossible to give a decent account in this short contextualization of what the term "postmodern" means, but two particular thinkers associated with postmodernism are worth noting for their extreme positions. While the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard came to entertain grand narratives as problematic and considered the world to be reaching a high pluralist state,[5] Jurgen Habermas claimed that the project of modernity had not been completed because such a project is split into three separate cultural areas: science, morality and art. [6] Also, Post-Colonialism can be considered part of the postmodern discourse as well, as it has been questioned along with poststructural writings--most recently by writers Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, who have revisited Marx with an interdisciplinary approach to better understand globalization.[7] These among other theories are now affecting the contextualization of net-art.

In spite of all the events noted, and the multi-faceted theories affecting the current state of cultural production, what is clear is that people have always strived to progress. This has never stopped being true, even during postmodern times. And with all of the above in mind, Net Art World 1.0 was developed to expose the many layers that run behind net-art practice. In a way, the project brings together two aspects in art making that have been in conflict since Kant wrote his Critique of Judgment.[8] Net Art World 1.0 presents the object of contemplation, which according to Kant should be considered with disinterest, functioning in a political context that, if acknowledged, would question the principles supporting the ability to pass a true judgment of taste. With this, two extreme positions in art practice are challenged: the privileged position of disinterest and the position aiming to develop a more democratic state of production by questioning the privileged position. This is done in order to push both ideological camps into a productive state of education, while knowing that the two areas crossover in multiple ways--which is why art practice has become extremely slippery. Net Art World 1.0 was designed to create global awareness, as I believe that only by deconstructing such tensions, only by placing them next to each other, can culture move on to a new state of development. Global awareness is not a luxury but a necessity, and Net Art World 1.0 was developed as a resource where people can enjoy net-art and learn something about the world simultaneously.



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[1] This transition happened between November and January of 2003. Rhizome received heavy criticism from the net-art community at large. Some of this criticism can be found at http://www.nettime.org. Threads worth reading to better understand the complexity of the matter are: http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0301/msg00059.html, http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0301/msg00089.html, and http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0301/msg00131.html 

[2] Google buying Blogger is perhaps the most noted event bringing mass popularity to blogging: http://blogger.com/about/blogger_google_faq.pyra. Since this merge, several blogs have been launched. 

[3] Documenta 11: http://www.documenta.de/documenta_blau.html, Venice Biennale: http://www.documenta.de/documenta_blau.html, Whitney Biennale: http://artport.whitney.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions.shtml. 

[4] Josephine Bosma, "The Dot on a Velvet Pillow -- Net.Art Nostalgia and Net Art Today" June 20, 2003 (March 03, 2003). http://www.student.uib.no/~stud2081/utstilling/bosma.htm. 

[5] Jean-François Lyotard, "The Nature of the Social Bond," The Postmodern Condition, (Minneapolis: Minnesota, 1984), 11-14. In these particular pages Jean-Francois Lyotard dismisses grand-narratives including Marxism, and claims the way for little narratives. Lyotard is used as an example of postmodernism because of his extreme position--especially against Jurgen Habermas. The two philosophers have been compared by scholars in order to better understand what the term postmodern might mean. See: Emilia Steuerman, "Habermas vs. Lyotard? Modernity vs. Postmodernity," Judging Lyotard, ed. Andrew Benjamin (New York: Routledge, 1992) 99-118. 

[6] Jurgen Habermas, "An Incomplete Project," The Anti-Aesthetic, ed. Hal Foster (New York: The New Press, 1983), 3-15. In this short essay, which is an acceptance speech for the Theodor Adorno Prize from the city of Frankfurt, Habermas focuses on three cultural areas; which, when stepping away from art and looking at culture at large, form the project of modernity; these areas are science, morality, and art. Habermas proposes that the project of modernity has not been reached because the three particular areas need to work together, but due to the development of specialized fields of practice brought by the 20th Century, the project was split into the three aforementioned areas. In this way, Habermas is still holding on to the narratives of emancipation and speculation that Lyotard overtly dismissed as mentioned in footnote 5.

[7] Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, "Symptoms of Passage," Empire, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 2000) 137-156. These particular pages are the most relevant to the idea of the postmodern as discussed in terms of Habermas and Lyotard.

[8] Immanuel Kant, "Part One, Critique of the Aesthetical Judgment," Critique of Judgment, (New York: Hafner, 1951) 37-82. The approach taken to develop Net Art World 1.0 is influenced by the work of Marcel Duchamp. Like Duchamp, I have taken everyday objects, in my case sources from the internet, and recontextualized these as art. This creates a slippery bridge between the space of aesthetics and the everyday world. See: Thierry de Duve, "Kant after Duchamp," Kant after Duchamp, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1996) 283-325.

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