Notes for Discussion - Net Strategies

Introduction to net.art - Natalie Bookchin

"The utopian aim of closing the ever widening gap between art and everyday life, perhaps, for the first time, was achieved and became a real, everyday and even routine practice."

This toungue-in-cheeck canonization of net.art by Natalie Bookchin nostalgically describes some of the utopian aspirations that artists embraced during the early days of net art (1994 - 1999). By 1999, many felt that net.art was dead and must be put to rest.

Some of the early works that inspired these aspirations were:

The World's First Collaborative Sentence by Douglas Davis

The File Room by Antonio Montadas

Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Eduardo Kac

Telegarden by Ken Goldberg

Interview with Heath Bunting : Street Artist, Political Net Artist or Playful Trickster? - Josephine Bosma

Technologies to the People by Daniel Garcia Andujar and Heath Bunting

Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible by Heath Bunting

Art/politics in the Online Universe - Peter Weibel

By 1999-2000, leading art institutions such as the Walker Art Center, SF Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and ZKM (Center for Art and Media) had embraced the medium and were presenting ground-breaking exhibitions.

"Therefore, the exhibition is not entitled net.art, but net_condition as it discusses the social conditions, enforced by the Net, as well as the conditions, which the Net enforces upon society and art." – Peter Weibel

One of those was Net_Condition at ZKM, in which "Introduction to net.art" was presented. The introductory essay describes, "In this rich field of opportunities, utopian and emancipatory hopes re-appear on stage; equality of chances, world citizenship, participation without borders are regarded as technically doable and are promoted by private communities, while the global players in the commercial world go for their goals with the very same technical means."

Museum Director and exhibition curator Peter Weibel declared the following:

"The socially revolutionary utopias of the historic avant-garde, movements of enlightenment, such as freedom of contract, equal opportunities and intercultural emancipation are now to be implemented by technology." He goes on to say, "The global Net is the driving force behind a radical economical, social and cultural revolution at the beginning of the next millennium."

The projects of Net_Condition looked at very conditions of society, politics, art, etc., being transformed by the net and its emerging forms of expressions. These projects included:

Telematic Manifesto, organized by Randall Packer with the participation of net art curators, artists, and theorists.

FuckU-FuckMe(tm) by Alexei Shulgin

Empire 24/7 by Wolfgang Staehle of the Thing

Net.Institute by Luther Blissett (net.institute manifesto)