The Global Context of Net-Art.

Please note: this document contains an addendum at the end of the text as of July 20, 2003 (Net Art World was officially launched on July 1, 2003). This adjustment was made because it was brought to my attention that the reasons for using Google and The World Factbook are not clear enough in the main text. Please read the end note for more details.

The online project Net Art World 1.0 was developed for The InteractivA 2003 New Media Biennale taking place at MACAY in Merida, Yucatan. The piece deliberately focuses on globalization because InteractivA features international artists with bilingual and/or multicultural backgrounds. As I did research for the project, it became reasonable to create a net piece which provided access to a large number of net-artist websites that were not necessarily part of the exhibition and juxtapose these with all the flags, countries and territories of the World. The result is an art work aiming to expose the complexities that the term globalization imposes on diverse cultures.

All of the information comes from popular websites. The country maps were accessed at The 2002 World Factbook, the country flags were taken from The World Flag Database, and the artist links were accessed at the 2003 Net Art Links website. This approach seemed to be the most reasonable because it uses pre-existing resources that hold a certain cultural authority. This also enabled me to take on the role of compiler, choosing the online resources based on their reliability and popularity, which is not different from how the average person may surf the web. The approach as a compiler also exposes the many roles net-practitioners take when functioning in the community, which are of artists, curators, writers, and administrators.

This project consists of four framesets, functioning as follows:

á         The main area presents a net-artist selected at random from a list created by Dr. Reinhold Grether.

á         The top-right frame presents a country flag selected at random from a database. This flag links to a series of images on Google related to the country the flag represents.

á         The middle-right frame presents a country map at random. This map links to statistical information about a country. Please note that the country map does not correspond with the flag. This is done to present the complexity of nationalism, patriotism and colonialism that has developed due to globalization.

á         The bottom-right frame presents an image selected at random from a series of images that were accessed on Google when searching the term "Globalization."

Net Art World 1.0 was created to examine the state of net-art in 2003, which is why the links throughout the project are not dynamically updated as the information changes on the net. This approach was chosen in order to point to the period in new media history from June to September of 2003. After this time, the links may become broken and/or the actual resources become updated with new information; this way, the piece becomes time specific. Anyone interested in accessing the latest information can always go to the resource page and choose particular links for the latest updates.

In order to better understand Net Art World 1.0, it is important to note some events in the recent and not so recent past. An important event that points to a transition in new media is Rhizome's decision to become a resource with an annual membership; which could be taken as a sign of a more institutionalized and perhaps even commercialized state of net-art; around this time many alternative resources developed around the web as well. [1] Also, reconsidering the efficiency of mailing lists, along with the rapid growth of weblogs, are definite signs that the net community is entering a new stage of development.[2] Another sign of change that has been developing for sometime now is net-art being part of major museum exhibitions; some examples are the Whitney and Venice Biennales which have included net-art in their surveys--as well as Documenta 11 which had a major emphasis on new media.[3] Ironically, all of the above developments are followed by a currently slow economy around the world. This is also the time when a new generation of net-artists is coming on board with hopes of becoming successful practitioners, similar to previous generations in the art world at large. This may be, in part, due to the fact that new media is now taught in universities around the world; and this has led early net-artists like Vuc Cosic to call what the students produce "net-art mannerisms." This is a far cry from the mid-nineties when only a few artists were working online and strategically displacing the labeling of their practice.[4] Net-art developed after a late postmodern period when art practices were influenced by poststructural theories. It is impossible to give a decent account in this short contextualization of what the term "postmodern" means, but two particular thinkers associated with postmodernism are worth noting for their extreme positions. While the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard came to entertain grand narratives as problematic and considered the world to be reaching a high pluralist state,[5] Jurgen Habermas claimed that the project of modernity had not been completed because such a project is split into three separate cultural areas: science, morality and art. [6] Also, Post-Colonialism can be considered part of the postmodern discourse as well, as it has been questioned along with poststructural writings--most recently by writers Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, who have revisited Marx with an interdisciplinary approach to better understand globalization.[7] These among other theories are now affecting the contextualization of net-art.

In spite of all the events noted, and the multi-faceted theories affecting the current state of cultural production, what is clear is that people have always strived to progress. This has never stopped being true, even during postmodern times. And with all of the above in mind, Net Art World 1.0 was developed to expose the many layers that run behind net-art practice. In a way, the project brings together two aspects in art making that have been in conflict since Kant wrote his Critique of Judgment.[8] Net Art World 1.0 presents the object of contemplation, which according to Kant should be considered with disinterest, functioning in a political context that, if acknowledged, would question the principles supporting the ability to pass a true judgment of taste. With this, two extreme positions in art practice are challenged: the privileged position of disinterest and the position aiming to develop a more democratic state of production by questioning the privileged position. This is done in order to push both ideological camps into a productive state of education, while knowing that the two areas crossover in multiple ways--which is why art practice has become extremely slippery. Net Art World 1.0 was designed to create global awareness, as I believe that only by deconstructing such tensions, only by placing them next to each other, can culture move on to a new state of development. Global awareness is not a luxury but a necessity, and Net Art World 1.0 was developed as a resource where people can enjoy net-art and learn something about the world simultaneously.

Addendum: Google and the World Factbook were used as primary sources for Net Art World 1.0 because these are the most popular websites on the Internet providing consistent global information. Their popularity also implies that both sources dominate the flow of knowledge throughout the Internet; and because of this, Net Art World 1.0 is dependent on biased material. I would like to clarify that I do not aim to present an objective state of net art, but quite the contrary -- I aim to show that the Internet is based on political and overtly interested modes of operation that influence, just like previous media, the way people understand their roles in their local communities as well as the rest of the world. As it is well known, Google has a very complex algorithm that is far from objective; and as this has become common knowledge, the world has also become very dependent on the search engine on an everyday basis. Net Art World 1.0 was developed to show how political control of information affects the possibilities for open access. The project aims to expose the limitations of open source that are now in place thanks to the technology which at one point seemed like the answer for a more democratic state of affairs. It would be ironic to deny that quite the opposite is happening.