Thinking about the people who go to the 'Upgrade' in NY, and people I know
showing on Turbulence, etc., its curious that altho many are into
databases/networking, few create works for the Internet. Even those that do,
its only one of several directions they use to make works.
Take one type of Netart, where the Internet is used as a global database.
The first I know of was 2D>3D for Port, 1997. People typed in urls and the
program converted webpages to 3D. It did this based on the html, plugins
found, as well as keyword searches, text length, color and images used. More
famous are Shredder and Netomat. However, I've seen several Shredders since
and none excite me. To do this well now I think you need to be specialized,
for example Golan Levin's The Secret Life of Numbers, on Turbulence, which
looks at the popularity of numbers on the net, its a brilliant piece.
Over the next 5-10 years convergence will happen. There will be no clear
boundary between video, sound and new media. Already Martin and I are
planning 4 projects using interactive video for multiple modes of
distribution, its great fun and barely explored.
Current Netart making will become a niche, just like art using game boys.
The nature of computing will change, slowly, over the next 20 years, by
which time mice and keyboards will be quaint.
Over 50 years museums will change. They will no longer be repositories for
artefacts. Like the Turner Prize shows at the Tate, they will be light
projections, temporary installations or cumulative assemblies. Or like the
Tate Modern, in whose galleries the curators create tableaus based on
personal themes. Or the Whitney Biennial where different ways of creating
will be shown, not always linked to artmaking directly. People will browse
museums in social interactions similar to Ikea. At the end they can take
home a manifestation of current cultural ideas. At this time, netart and
museum practice will converge, and their grandchildren will be the mechanism
for cultural production.
Marek.
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyrean/empyre