Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/I got a plan/Cyber Art - Anna Couey

Text File | 1993-09-01 | 13KB | 290 lines

Cyber Art: The Art of Communication Systems

Copyright (c) 1991 Anna Couey
[e-mail]

        This article appeared in Volume 1, Number 4, (July 1991)
        of Matrix News, the monthly newsletter of
        Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS).
        It is copyright by its author.  For further information,
        please contact the author or MIDS:
                Matrix News
                Matrix Information & Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS)
                [e-mail]
                [phone]
                fax: [phone]
                1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 500W
                Austin, TX 78723
                U.S.A.

Abstract

Artists are using computer networks, and it is impacting not
only  their methods of dialogue and distribution, but their creative
process and aesthetic output. In the cyberspace of computer
networks, still so pervasively ASCII and ANSI, art works are
not necessarily about visual images but instead communications
-- many investigate interactivity, collaboration, interface,
connectivity, and the relationship between artist, art work,
and viewer.

An Introduction to Cyber Art

Cyberspace is computer generated space that humans can enter
and therein interact, and cyber art is art created and existing
within cyberspace. Granting computer networks their due status
as operational cyberspace, cyber art then includes the art formed
via computer networks. In contrast to what is often termed computer
art, computer graphic prints hung on gallery walls, cyber art
is characterized by its lack of physicality and its experimentation
with forms of communication. Rather than being static objects,
cyber art works can be more accurately termed creative communication
systems.

Like mass media, the development of Western art has followed
a hierarchical communications model -- an artist creates a work,
an individual expression, that disseminates meaning to a public,
just as mass media communicates a selective version of the state
of the world to a vast populace. In both cases, dissemination
of ideas is one-way. Artists working with telecommunication systems
are experimenting with another paradigm for cultural production
-- that of public participation in cultural activity.

Interactive Art Communications

Artists began to employ satellite networks and slow scan television
as elements for communication sculptures in the late 70s. These
works involved geographically dispersed artists linked via networks
or phone lines to exchange art works as communication or to directly
interact in a shared synchronous electronic space.  Though images
were exchanged in some of these works, the artistic emphasis
was on the form that emerged from many to many communications
rather than the aesthetics of the individual images. An essential
characteristic of telematic activity is interactivity, explored
by artists as reciprocal or collaborative communications.

Perhaps the most well-known of the early telecommunication art
events is "Hole in Space," a project organized by Kit Galloway
and Sherrie Rabinowitz (founders of the Electronic Cafe) in 1980,
which consisted of monitors and cameras installed in two storefronts
-- one in Los Angeles and one in New York City -- that were linked
via satellite, enabling passersby to interact with pedestrians
across the country. "Hole in Space" investigated what Kit Galloway
calls "a new way of being in the world" -- what could also now
be described as inhabiting cyberspace, in which cyberspace is
an electronic place defined by communications exchanged amongst
individuals on all sides of the media.

The first international artists' computer network, ARTEX, started
in 1980. It was organized by Robert Adrian X, and carried by
I.P. Sharp Associates international timesharing network. Essentially
an ASCII e-mail system, ARTEX facilitated a number of telematic
art events during the 1980s that investigated the collaborative
making of text-based works, such as: La Plissure du Texte (The
Pleating of the Text), the collaborative writing of a fairy tale,
produced by nodes of artists in Europe, Canada, the United States
and Australia, organized by Roy Ascott; and Planetary Network,
in which internationally located nodes of artists sent "news"
to each other and to a central exhibition node in Venice, Italy.

In 1986, the Art Com Electronic Network* began operations as
the ACEN conference on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL).
The WELL is a BBS system; its administration allowed us to design
our own interface and program a branching system to access online
art publications, art information, and art works that are computer
programs. Like ARTEX, ACEN is a host for international art networking
events. Unlike its precursors however, ACEN is durational rather
than event-based, and its user community includes computer programmers,
futurists, sysops, writers, lawyers...in addition to artists.
These characteristics have resulted in art works that include
in their conception a diverse audience as co-creators, art as
a process of group interactions, art as the construction and
evolution of links amongst communities that are culturally and
or professionally diverse. Some examples:

Bad Information Base, produced by Judy Malloy was initiated as
a bulletin board topic which invited users to contribute wrong,
bad, silly, subject to misinterpretation information. Contributions
have been programmed into an online database of bad information.

Das Casino, initiated by Carl Eugene Loeffler and Fred Truck,
began as a bulletin board topic for virtual roulette. A random
number generator determined the winning bets. Das Casino evolved
into collaborative theatre as participants developed characters
for themselves and described events which took place in Das Casino.

In the Heart of the Machine, conceived by Dromos Editions, an
electronic novel that is continually in progress -- current chapters
are posted online, along with an invitation to the reader to
send in their biography to be used to create characters for subsequent
chapters.

Virtual Cultures, an open invitation virtual panel I organized,
in which WELL and USENET users contributed their thoughts about
evolving virtual cultures, presented to offline readers at Cyberthon.
An interesting side result was the crosslinking of the conference
topic on the WELL -- from ACEN to Virtual Reality to Bio Info.

Art Networks As Cultural Communication Systems

For artists developing computer networks, the art work is the
process and structure of building communities, of developing
relationships between diverse groups. They are involved in expanding
perpetual and affordable access between international cultural
communities, and encouraging cultural groups to get online. They
are also developing links between diverse online communities.
Recent projects include: alt.artcom and rec.arts.fine, two internationally
distributed USENET newsgroups created respectively by ACEN and
MATRIX Artists Network*, an artists' BBS in Toronto, to facilitate
communications with internationally-based users. Artists nets
located and in construction in various countries are developing
mechanisms for automatic data exchanges.  Planet Communications
is a project to be initiated this year by ACEN, with open participation,
to develop a means for online ASCII communications to be understood
across language barriers.  Simultaneously, some culturally disenfranchised
communities are using computer networks for cultural empowerment.
One example is Native American tribes in Montana, who in collaboration
with Dave Hughes and the Big Sky Telegraph are creating and distributing
their NAPLPS artworks via the Russell Country BBS, and linking
their tribes for communication exchanges.

Cyber Cultural Futures

Communications technology appears to be constantly evolving in
the direction of increased interactivity and multimedia, while
rudimentary social and cultural applications are still forming,
and not necessarily slated for horizontal public participation.
Competing with the interactive public "nature" of BBS and networks
are sticky issues like: Who pays cost of access? Will participatory
media be participatory only to those who can afford it? Ownership
and freedom of speech on privately run nets -- domestic interpretation
of civil rights legislation applied to cyberspace. Jurisdiction.
International communication regulations, international politics.
Varying levels of technology. Some artists have envisioned a
public cyberspace in which individuals of varying cultures and
interests collectively and continually evolve new realities.
Perhaps the most significant cyber art work of this century will
be the development of interactive communication systems that
are globally and socially inclusive and diverse -- a collaborative
cross-community and cross-cultural project.

Accessing Online Art

Here are some networks and BBS' that feature access and/or participation
in online artworks:

Art Com Electronic Network1

Currently features a newsstand of online art periodicals; an
Electronic Art Gallery of interactive works programmed by artists;
a Graphic Art Gallery of downloadable graphics by artists; an
Electronic Mall with an art bookstore, art video store, and art
software store; art information bases; and bulletin boards. The
bulletin boards include discussions on a variety of art and technology
topics, as well as collaborative art projects. The Art Com Electronic
Network is located on the WELL, and also operates alt.artcom,
an internationally distributed USENET newsgroup.  Access: WELL,
415.332.6106 (modem), US$10/month US$2/hour (long range carriers
such as Compuserve Packet Network and PC Pursuit are additional).
Once on the WELL, enter:

g acen

at the OK: prompt.

USENET: readnews alt.artcom.

E-mail: [e-mail]

or

[e-mail]

if your system doesn't receive alt.artcom.



Matrix Artists Network BBS1,2

A project of Inter/Access, Matrix Artists Network BBS is based
in Toronto, and features art periodicals from Canada, Australia
and the U.S., information about artists' organizations and events,
an art gallery, Matrix users toolbox, BBS discussions, and USENET
newsgroups of particular interest to artists. Other than the
long distance phone charges if you're not in Toronto, MATRIX
ARTISTS NETWORK BBS is free. To access: 416.535.7598 (8N1).

Russell Country BBS

Features "share art" works created by Native American tribes
in Montana using NAPLPS. The system includes a downloadable shareware
NAPLPS terminal program so that users can view the art online.
You are encouraged contribute $25 to the BBS if you download
and keep the art frames. To access: 406.423.5433.

Publications

The best resources for current art networking projects, theory,
and discussions are the bulletin boards on the art networks.
However, the following publications are excellent resources for
an overview of cyber art activity.

ART COM Magazine

Electronically published and distributed monthly periodical on
the interface of contemporary art and new communications technologies.
Each issue is guest edited by artists. Projects and themes include:
collaborative narrative, computer art networking, interactive
fiction, cyborganics and robotics, art engines, ISDN and art,
intelligent art, cyber art activism, social paradigms of computer
networks. Accessible in ACEN's newsstand (current issue) and
acm (back issues) on the WELL; in alt.artcom on USENET. To receive
a free subscription or to guest edit an issue, contact: [e-mail].

Art + Telecommunications

Edited by Heidi Grundmann, Western Front/BLIX, ISBN: 0-920974-082
Published in 1984, now virtually out of print. Essays by practitioners
on early history of artists' use of telecommunications, includes
projects, theory, visions, and substantial photo documentation.

The Computer Revolution and the Arts

Edited by Richard Loveless, University of South Florida Press.
Essays by artists, theorists on the impact of computers on artistic
and cultural activity. In particular, essays by Howard Rheingold
and Gene Youngblood address computer networking and the arts.

Connectivity: Art & Interactive Telecommunications

Edited by Roy Ascott & Carl Eugene Loeffler, LEONARDO Vol. 24(2),
Pergamon Press. ISBN: 0-08-041015-4. Published in 1991, the most
comprehensive publication in print for art networking activity.
Contains theoretical essays, project descriptions, book reviews
by art networkers internationally.

The books are available from Contemporary Arts Press Distribution,
P.O. Box 193123 Rincon Center, San Francisco, CA 941193123, USA;
tel: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail] or [e-mail].

Anna Couey ([e-mail]) is an artist, editor, and
co-host of the Art Com Electronic Network.



Notes:

1. A number of artists come to computer networking from an activity
referred to as correspondence art, or mail art, which involves
the exchange of art through the postal system. Their offline
but internationally dispersed community is termed: The Eternal
Network. It is in the artistic interpretation of network as interactivity
and collaboration, rather than its technical meaning, that explains
the use of the term in the names of some artists' BBS projects.)

2. No relationship to Matrix Information and Directory Services.