Re: [-empyre-] Appealing to the Archive

["luke" <lduncalfe@eml.cc>]

Hi Charlotte

Lovely post :).  The effects of historicisation on net art is a fairly
interesting thing to feel witness to as the process has taken hold. But what
happens if you were to disagree with the way that the present has been
compiled? And what if there were hidden meta-threads of historical narratives
that only would become visible under the light of future preoccupations, but
_are_ actually present now?

I'm trying to write this so as to not sound like a positivist (although I hope
optimism is still ok). I've recently found myself trying to look forward to how
the effects of openly accessible web-based archives will affect the narrative
of net art history. All art is archived to certain degrees, though these
archives (collections) are selectively representational of the bias' at the
time. So analysis and discussion of the genre is derived from these highly
refined _versions_ of what was considered worth it, and the compilation of a
story to explain the movements of ideas through time are formed early and then
often repeated. Even subsequent re-reading of history is shaded by what was
saved. [apologies if that's all complete bullshit].

This arguably would take place amongst the archives of the net also - with bias
(human or bot) being given to those works and people who had the bias and
importance with them now. But => the accessibility and wide-ranging horizontal
harvesting opens the potential for viewing our history in uniquely non-linear
ways, the availability of this not limited to those who have access to the
backrooms of museums, but to a fresher who wants to learn about their cultural
heritage. Something that Charlotte stressed was the "historie(S)" of net art.
I'm wondering if this could be the first opportunity for the (S) to be
meaningfully represented in the initial historical narrative - hidden now, but
unbiasedly archived, invisible meta themes are included in the round up. Again,
just the idea of individual non-linear historical narratives, compiled at
run-time as the viewer views itself would be valuable. What would happen if
people could make sense of net art history with independence?

Luke



http://www.pipedreams.net.nz/
http://www.window.auckland.ac.nz/
lduncalfe@eml.cc




| (although all have their place in the historie(S) of net art), but rather
| the impact of such ephemeral work (yes I know there have been others) on our
| understanding both of what constitutes art, but more importantly, what
| constitutes art history in that art history has for centuries (give or take
| more recent interventionist work) been characterised by a reliance on old

| I would be really interested (and I know by asking for replies I probably
| wont get any :-( in people's thoughts on/examples of artworks that redefine
| the way we understand archiving or art history, or even examples of artworks
| whose supporting paraphernalia/documentation became the sole focus of their
| existence, or anyone's abstract thoughts on what an un-archive might do to
| art history as a whole.