[-empyre-] networked art & the Netopticon

[Jon Thomson]

Marc,

Thanks for your further comments (no furtherfield pun intended)

> So, would you say that you are 'consciously' engaged in holding out a mirror image of the netopticon?
Not exactly, well maybe we are but that's not exactly our intention.  We'd stick with the notion that we are trying to materialise the panoptic properties of our global communications networks as just one aspect to a whole dialogical exchange ongoing in contemporary art practice (well some parts  of it).  We think it's important not to forget that the netopticon is public as a rule and not as the exception and find it interesting to explore its performative dimensions for all that's good and bad about that.  We do also believe in the idea of resistance or noise as being a potential property of an artwork and that if you can lodge an artwork into the continuum of humanity for longer than the briefest of moments, then maybe its political usefulness can magnify over time in the hands of communities of artists, curators, (certain types of) collectors and critical thinkers and its ensuing audience-participants.  We're strong advocates of (to quote you from earlier this week) "small human-scale initiatives which include individuals and groups, according to their own needs and shared resources".

best
jon & alison