The WebSite of documenta x
Ten Netart projects and an elaborate website are features of the documenta X, in a program curated by Simon Lamunière, a media art specialist, artist, and curator at the cultural center SaintGervais in Geneva. As an environment for artists artwork, Lamunière has designed a sleek web platform, navigated in frames by icon, not only for the housekeeping duties like information and where to stay in Kassel, but also for linking and interlining the artists of the main exhibition, the special programs, and the Internet art selection. Using frames does not allow all to view correctly, but once you are in the right version of Netscape, with the appropriate computer, the design of the site becomes familiar the second or third time through it, and the (at first) annoying icons become quick visual links to the desired destination. They work.
To present Netart, for the first time at the documenta, was a decision of its controversial curator, Catherine David. It extends her definition of Parcours, of breaking down the art elite and extending ideas to a mass, the great international public. Internet takes this point to its furthest limits: no limits. Still, in the context of this world class exhibition, the Internet can be seen as a confusing part of the exhibition, largely because the definition of the category itself is not clearly defined, even by the artists who make it.
The Internet defies and disrupts many of the accepted and understood principles that experimental art has embraced during the past 50 years. Now is perhaps the phase transitional point, where surfaces and points of reference can be re-defined and experienced anew. Eva Wohlgemuth, one of the Netartists (Moving Places with Andreas Baumann) says about the selection, "..it is not about high-end art...it is a cool message". That is quite an achievement to pull-off, a 'cool' Internet show culled from the context of more than one million crass, commercial paint-by-pixel websites, accessible to every Internet customer with a browser. Even television established territory for the educational, non commercial distribution of information, and found excellent technical possibilities for high definition and large screen projections. Now, however, this new category for art challenges everyone.
At the dX, this special curatorial view of art on the Internet is tucked behind the cafe in the Documenta Halle. It is not a neutral space, but rather a clean designer space that sports chroma-key blue walls created by Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig, and an uncomfortable looking pink surfing lounge by Franz West, both look completely out of place and are useless elements (but unalterable as art pieces themselves). A careful and personal selection by Lamunière, it is also very popular! Each of the ten works (or projects as Net Artists usually refer to them) has it's own table, with two terminals for viewing. Each terminal is proprietary, and no other Internet site may be selected. This means that links were terminated for the works (except in the case of two works which required live connectivity). A point of real concern to the 'Net' community, the blocking off of the Internet was seen as a total disregard for the unique environment that all artists realize once they are online, the 'network'.
What makes this exhibition quite unusual, is the debate, an online forum for discussion, where the curators and artists can be addressed by the public, and/or by each other. Anybody can join in. In this forum, Jodi replied (Wed, 9 Jul 1997) states that:
The net.room simulates an office; with office-tables, office-chairs, office-desk furniture, all organised 'just like at the office'. This office-setting was 'specially created for the presentation of 9 [sic] artist's net.projects in documenta X. It's an unnecessary confusing symbolical construct, build without consultation of the artists. Net.projects don't need such metaphors when presented in real-space exhibits, as tv-monitors don't need a home-decor around them for viewing video. The office-cliché also sucks because it gives a false group-label to artists whom only thing in common is their use of the net, and categorises them, in opposition to the rest of the exhibit, by technique.
Jodi
Lamunière wrote (Thu, 10 Jul 1997 ) -the next day-in response to the installation problem:
As we spoke about this (specially with jodi) in Kassel, I knew the problem and the risks to create a web situation, apart from the rest. I insisted on having an independant web situation to avoid curatorial conflict between Catherine David and me. If I had wished 10 different specific spaces for the 10 projects on the site, probably none would be in Kassel. I feel very empiric, and fatalist. I know in five or ten years such pieces will be handled in another way (specially by the artists themselves. This was the very first an obligatory way, to open and reveal such problems. Not hide them, nor be kicked out, just start to give tracks.S.Lamuniére
According to Lamunière, his selection is about art and not about 'Internet', a point to remember when looking at the sites. By cutting off links, dX eliminated the problem of day-long surfers, a point of agreement on which the curators, the artists and the public find reasonable. The fact that each artwork was available on two private workstations gave almost everyone a chance to sit down and try at least one work. It was fast loading (coming from a local server) and comfortable enough. The great importance was surely focused on the individual work, but essentially contradicted the intricate system of 'connections' that the most artists websites offer, and the unique 'community' that builds around this open system.
Catherine David, early in the online debate (Fri, 20 Jun 1997), replies to this 'crisis' situation in art by writing:
In art the object is undergoing a crisis. There are increasing doubts as to whether artistic expression really seeks a bounded, three-dimensional form, displayable within the classical presentation framework of the "white cube" and perceivable by the beholder in a frontal encounter (subject-object). In the virtual space formed by Internet this crisis is particularly evident. The works or the artists evolve according to the specific characteristics of the medium and as a rule are therefore processual, interactive projects, neither hierarchically nor linearly structured. But it is the idea which is decisive, not the technological complexity.
Catherine David
The Netart section of documenta is complex. The fact that a couple of works in the 'big show' also involve Internet (Crandall and Peljhan) is a bit confusing at first. But, when looking at the website, we see a clearer organization. Several of the Netart works were commissioned, including Equator, Without addresses, and Up to 625. Muntadas work is the only project that requires a network of people, not only for it to function but for it to exist. In On Translation, one sentence is passed from country to country -around the world- being translated at each stop (and uploaded to the Net, along with all the background correspondence). Each of the projects for dX has some unique aspect to it, and like the overall selection of Catherine David, it is a personal selection.
What I miss most is a reflection on Net Culture, and the voices of female artists (both women are represented in work that is a partnership with a man). The issues and policies surrounding the Internet, and the new language it is establishing internationally, the open system it promises to women and ethnic minorities points to an important cultural shift of thinking. It is clear that not all artists who use the Net will address these issues, however many do, and gravitate to the Internet because of its provocative context.
Here is the outline of the online art at dX: Each 'icon' and section has projects and texts,
~ (double stacked)
_Surfaces and Territories_ are about: " the representation (here) on your screen of things coming from elsewhere." The selection includes projects:
- Equator by Huber, Pocock, Noll and Wenz
- Without addresses by Blank and Jeron
- unendlich, fast... by Holger Friese
- Location Sculpture System by Wohlgemuth and Baumann
- jodi.org by Heemskerk and Paesmans
/ _In & Out_
The texts and projects from _In & Out_ all deal with a feeling of a (dis)located presence.
Projects include:
- l.o.s.t. by Hervé Graumann,
- suspension by Jordan Crandall & Marek Walczak (installation in the documenta hall gallery, curated by C. David)
- Makrolab by Marko Peljhan(installation and off-site specific project curated by C. David)
ö _Groups & Interpretation
"It is not only the personal propagation of ideas that is gathered here in _Groups & Interpretation _, but the simultaneous shared genesis of ideas and synergies. Small groups form large communities." Projects:
- On Translation by Muntadas
- __beware_ by Johan Grimonprez & Hermann Asselberghs (a web work, the * artists have a video-film in the main exhibition, curated by C. David)
# - _Cities & Networks_
The city as metaphor, in relation to networks. The curators ask, "Does it really make sense, and what are the other systems to comprehend this domain?" _Cities & Networks_ show "...ways to comprehend different types of representation." Projects include:
- Metronet by Martin Kippenberger,
- Up to 625 by Matt Mullican,
- Visitors Guide to London by Heath Bunting
Ø - more
This icon connects the net surfer to other selected projects, by the dX artists. It is the closest to reconciling the issue of social spaces, and connectivity, in the sense of the political liaisons that are created in the Networked world. It is a very limited link list.
> standards
This selection is like an all-stars list, giving references for other web art domains, events in the recent past (it is not an information source for upcoming or events in progress), and a few institutions that support web art. It is a good start for the novice surfer looking for Art online.