[iDC] Off Topic: Defining networked art

Sun Dec 19 14:44:43 UTC 2010

Good point Aharon.

might be  a good idea to start doing a search for locative media (art) as
well... and see how it connects/relates to the notion of networked art

Dale Hudson and Patricia Zimmerman have some work about Locative media where
they talk about the
spatio-temporal reconfiguring that that reflects...

    Hudson, D., & Zimmermann, P. R. (2009). TAKING THINGS APART: LOCATIVE
MEDIA, MIGRATORY ARCHIVES, AND MICROPUBLICS. *Afterimage*, 36(4), 15-19.

also - I dont know how many of you are also on the Air-l list proc - but
recently there was an exchange about MMORPGS and Virtual worlds and
someone fwded a link to a thesis that does an interesting critique that in
my reading dislodges the ever continuing binary of virtual and real in the
way that we articulate our research projects... (see
http://info.tse.fi/julkaisut/vk/Ae11_2009.pdf )

r

On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 7:02 PM, <aha at aharonic.net> wrote:

> Hi Heidi and all,
>
> I do, like Brian, think you are researching a very very interesting
> subject.
>
> However reading through the posts a question came up. Can it be that
> the very interesting struggles/questions you are having are precisely
> because art you refer to resists definitions based on materiality,
> media, concepts, political stance, locality, etc..?
>
> All the best!
>
> Aharon
> xx
>
>
>
> Quoting Heidi May <mayh at ecuad.ca>:
>
> > Armin,
> >
> > Thanks for your thoughts. I will have to read over your links and
> > think more about all of this. I really appreciate your input.
> >
> > For now though, I do want to clarify that I don't intend to take a
> > technology-neutral view of networks, I just don't want to over-
> > emphasize the technology of the networks. And in order to do, I feel
> > that certain theories of being (ie. Jean-Luc Nancy) might better
> > inform a fuller and broader understanding of the notion of network and
> > network culture. I'm also influenced by Kazys Varnelis's writing "The
> > Immediated Now: Network Culture and the Poetics of Reality"
> >
> http://varnelis.networkedbook.org/the-immediated-now-network-culture-and-the-poetics-of-reality/
> >
> > I am now wondering if there was something in what I wrote that gave
> > you that impression (I will have to examine that more, maybe there is
> > something I don't see in how I am communicating my interests). It
> > could be that I didn't clearly express what I perhaps take for granted
> > with my work, in that this is a critical inquiry into the role
> > technology plays in our lives. For me, it is quite obvious what the
> > advantages are and I think people see this quite clearly, and perhaps
> > they see clearly the strong disadvantages. However, I'm interested in
> > exploring the complexity and what is not made visible. Yes, in some
> > cases, this may be the abstract qualities and the symbolic exchanges
> > and the potential for learning. But...the theories of learning I refer
> > to discuss how we often actually learn through conflict and
> > difference, through situations of tension.
> >
> > "Similar to see mail art as a predecessor for net art is all well in a
> > certain sense but in another way it is a bit misleading. networks are
> > now near ubiquituous, you have them on your phone and on your
> > computer, you have them even in quite remote areas. networks and
> > computation are still the major driving engine of economic growth -
> > which is something you cant say of the postal networks of the
> > 1960s-70s."
> > -- Yes, I'm glad you are pointing these things out as it is keeping me
> > in check with the complexity of my research.
> >
> > "Now those net-entrepreneurs still understand the net much better than
> > many artists and theorists which is unfortunate because what they are
> > planning is both admirably smart and really evil and goes on unchecked
> > if people like us focus on producing beautiful ideas on the symbolic
> > layer alone. Castells made a big effort to understand the net but his
> > assessment is too optimistic and he fetishises the network form, so in
> > the end he is deterministic."
> > -- I definitely don't want to rely on Castells, or any one theorist.
> > So, I'm wondering if there is anything you feel, based on your
> > experience with thinking about all of this, that artists and educators
> > of artists should be doing in this area (in the ideal situation of
> > course). Speaking as an artist educator, how should we be
> > incorporating this subject matter into the projects we assign to art
> > students at universities and colleges? How can we push artists and
> > theorists forward to participate more with understandings of the net?
> > Do you see ANY value at all in revisiting pre-digital network
> > practices and perhaps extending some of that thinking/working into
> > explorations of current networks, and the relationships that transpire
> > and exit with/in the networks? Is philosophical thinking of us AS the
> > network helpful in any way and, if so, how can we integrate this into
> > art education?
> >
> > Things to think about if you have the time....and hopefully you do!
> >
> > Heidi
> >
> > On 16-Dec-10, at 11:30 PM, Armin Medosch wrote:
> >
> >> Heidi,
> >>
> >> I think a similar approach to yours was tried by Simon Pope when he
> >> curated the travelling exhibition Art for Networks in 2002. You can
> >> find
> >> a review here: http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/67732
> >> It has been quite a while ago and I don't want to misrepresent Simon's
> >> views (you can find an interview here where he explains his intentions
> >> http://sites.google.com/site/ambulantscience/Index/texts)
> >> but as far as I understood he wanted to establish a richer and
> >> technology neutral understanding of networks; this at a time just a
> >> few
> >> years after some artists who were seen at the time to be leading
> >> net.artists had very publicly resigned.
> >>
> >> In my catalogue contribution I consciously focused on wrieless free
> >> community networks to highlight the physicality and reality of
> >> networks
> >> and that building networks _can_ be concomitant with building
> >> communities (which is very different from saying that networks foster
> >> communities which was one of the tropes of the 1990s).
> >>
> >> The problem with a technology-neutral view of networks and
> >> highlighting
> >> just the processes and communications is that you are engaging only
> >> with
> >> one specific layer, the top layer of symbolic exchanges and human
> >> understandable meanings. Below that however are several other layers
> >> which shape those communications insofar as they make possible certain
> >> things and disallow others. By ignoring all those layers they become a
> >> technological subconsious, a repressed which will return, demand its
> >> right to be recognised. It is like you want to talk about the beauty
> >> of
> >> mobility culture, i.e. cars without acknowledging that they are a
> >> disaster for the environment in quite many ways.
> >>
> >> Similar to see mail art as a predecessor for net art is all well in a
> >> certain sense but in another way it is a bit misleading. networks are
> >> now near ubiquituous, you have them on your phone and on your
> >> computer,
> >> you have them even in quite remote areas. networks and computation are
> >> still the major driving engine of economic growth - which is something
> >> you cant say of the postal networks of the 1960s-70s. For instance,
> >> reading an article on Google recently in the FT the author pointed out
> >> how it was Google's strategy to use the mobile phone operating system
> >> Android to also get into people's homes, to become part of the
> >> infrastructure of networked households. Now that's a viral strategy
> >> which is absolutely really stunning as it is based on a dialectics
> >> between being very small, very viral, just a piece of software, a
> >> widget
> >> voluntarily installed by people on their own phones, and this being
> >> brought together at the back end in giant data warehouses which
> >> harvest
> >> ever more knowledge about people and their relationships.
> >>
> >> Now those net-entrepreneurs still understand the net much better than
> >> any artists and theorists which is unfortunate because what they are
> >> planning is both admirably smart and really evil and goes on unchecked
> >> if people like us focus on producing beautiful ideas on the symbolic
> >> layer alone. Castells made a big effort to understand the net but his
> >> assessment is too optimistic and he fetishises the network form, so in
> >> the end he is deterministic. Maybe the question will soon be how we
> >> defend ourselves against networks, you know, skynet and all that ;-)
> >>
> >> regards
> >> Armin
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, 2010-12-15 at 22:18 -0800, Heidi May wrote:
> >>> What is network and/ or networked art?
> >>> The main question is quite simple, but as you will see I have been
> >>> delving into philosophy and art history to get to a better
> >>> understanding of the meaning of "network" in art:
> >>>
> >>> For the past several months I have been thinking deeply about this. I
> >>>
> >>> spent the summer working on comprehensive exam papers for my current
> >>> PhD program, in which I defined for myself a definition of networked
> >>> art that I felt was perhaps a challenge to the mainstream notion of
> >>> “network”. Without getting too much into the literature I based this
> >>> on (ie. Jean-Luc Nancy), I argued that by using the word network, the
> >>>
> >>> Internet itself is predominant over any other associations we might
> >>> have (see Sack, 2007 on “network aesthetics”) and that if artist
> >>> educators focus more on what emerges within the relations and
> >>> processes of a network, such as with Internet art, then we can
> >>> perhaps
> >>> gain new understandings of network culture that reflect more the
> >>> sociocultural aspects as opposed to just the technological aspects. I
> >>>
> >>> refer to Fluxus practices, most specifically mail art, and the ideas
> >>> explored by George Maciunas and Robert Filliou, connecting this to
> >>> later relational art and participatory art practices. My interests
> >>> pertain to aspects of what I am calling “relational learning,” thus I
> >>>
> >>> see these networked forms of art to be significant...yet not just in
> >>> terms of individuals collaborating, but most importantly on the
> >>> emergent knowledge that occurs in these processes.
> >>>
> >>> Within my recent writing, I suggest that we need to expand our
> >>> understanding of networked art in order to obtain new understandings
> >>> of network culture. I have been defining “networked art” as the
> >>> following:
> >>>
> >>> “...practices not based on art objects, nor digital instruments, but
> >>> on the relationships and processes that occur between individuals
> >>> (Bazzichelli, 2008; Kimbell, 2006; Saper, 2001)....Networked art,
> >>> sometimes described as participation art (Frieling, Pellico, &
> >>> Zimbardo, 2008), consists of multiple connections made through
> >>> generative processes, often, but not always, incorporating digital
> >>> technology. In many cases, the production and dissemination processes
> >>>
> >>> become the artwork itself.”
> >>>
> >>> “....New understandings of network culture may require us to
> >>> understand that technology enables social and economic activities, as
> >>>
> >>> opposed to something that determines society (Castells, 2001). This
> >>> research will examine how art addresses aspects of network culture,
> >>> in
> >>> terms of it being a sociocultural shift that is not limited to
> >>> digital
> >>> technology (Varnelis, 2008)...By employing a broader understanding of
> >>>
> >>> the notion of network within analysis of networked art, this research
> >>>
> >>> aims to provide deeper understandings of network culture...”
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> But after sitting with these ideas for awhile now and being
> >>> confronted
> >>> with needing to write a research proposal, I’m in the doubting phase
> >>> that I think all graduate students go through. Is it really possible
> >>> to use the term “networked art” in the way I would like to without it
> >>>
> >>> immediately conjuring up digital practices alone? (even though I
> >>> acknowledge this in my argument) Am I just confusing things by saying
> >>>
> >>> that I am indeed interested in Internet art practices but only
> >>> aspects
> >>> I have defined above, and particularly in cases of artists who
> >>> are interdisciplinary vs. strictly “digital”? Do people think about
> >>> the differences between “network art” and networked art” the same way
> >>>
> >>> they might have distinguished between “net art” and “net.art”? In my
> >>> writing, I opted to go with “networked” over “network” because there
> >>> is more emphasis on being within a process (verb. vs. noun), but now
> >>> I’m starting to regret that, thinking that “networked” might clearly
> >>> imply dependence on an electronic system whereas a “network” might
> >>> allow for more human connection. (For those who are familiar....I am
> >>> a
> >>> bit torn between Craig Saper’s (2001) use of the term “networked art”
> >>>
> >>> and Tom Corby’s (2006) use of the term “network art”)
> >>>
> >>> To make matters somewhat worse, I've been told by someone I respect
> >>> in
> >>> this area that the notion of "network" is not heavily dependent on
> >>> "internet," considering the long history of network associations
> >>> before the internet. But this is someone who is quite knowledgeable
> >>> of
> >>> network notions in academia and English literature, and I question if
> >>>
> >>> those outside of academia feel the same way today. Speaking as an
> >>> artist who teaching art at universities and college, I feel that
> >>> "networked art" is immediately associated with digital and new media.
> >>>
> >>> Thoughts? Opinions?
> >>>
> >>> thanks,
> >>>
> >>> Heidi May
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ..................
> >>> HEIDI MAY
> >>> http://heidimay.ca
> >>> http://postself.wordpress.com
> >>> http://heidimay.wordpress.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Instructor, Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
> >>> http://www.ecuad.ca/people/profile/14163
> >>> PhD student, University of British Columbia. http://edcp.educ.ubc.ca/
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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-- 
Radhika Gajjala
Director, American Culture Studies
Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies
101 East Hall
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH  43403

http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
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