Internet and Its Criticism
In this essay, I will use two approaches to discuss how the rise of Internet changes functions and values of art and serve as a more democratic medium for public discussion. The first approach is theoretical-based and some scholars who have profound discussion on the issue will be introduced. The second approach will be a more personal one or to say, practical-based, in which I will discuss my experience of one Hong Kong social events, namely the Queen Pier Protect, with photos taken by me, so as to act as an example of how individuals (here is I ) engage the social discussion via Internet. This theory-and-practice approach, not merely allows me to observe and to analyze the visual culture generated by the digital media, but also enables me to engage the social situation that I live in and act as a starting point for my social intervention by using digital media.
Part One –Theoretical Research
In this part, two dimensions of the Internet will be discussed. First, in terms of artistic domain, I will explore the essence of net art. Second, with regard to social and political function of Internet uses, I will discuss the Online Activism.
(1) Net Art
Since net art has such a wide range of definition I will focus on giving different examples of Internet art, rather than just defining what net art is.
Moreover, in order to understand the early work of net art more comprehensively without bias, I will suggest we should NOT analyze those works from the standard of today. Because some may say those early work are outdated for today standard, but at their time, say ten or twenty years ago, those works are really avant-garde. Please be fair to the artists and to the history.
Before introducing some works of the net art, I would like to give a brief definition of net art. According to Wikipedia, “net.art means art that uses the internet as its medium and that cannot be experienced in any other way”[1]. For example, many famous early net art projects “took place” via the internet. The word “took place” included the whole creating process of those net art movements, from production, distribution to exhibition. This point will be explained in the following sections.
Just remind that the early use of Internet was for the military use and academic purpose, and now are mainly for commercial and domestic use.
Net art and Early Competition
Firstly, I will introduce some awarding works in net art competitions because competitions are very useful to show the characteristics of net art as well as its unique aesthetics such as how to value it. However, unfortunately, I found that most of the information of the early net art competitions are not available on the Internet, with few that just leave the application form and instruction of those competitions on their webs, like the “First International Form Art Competition 1997“ (please see http://www.c3.hu/collection/form/competition.html ).
Luckily, at last I have found that one of the most early competition called “art on the net 1995” (http://netarts.org/mcmogatk/1995/), it still exists with the works of the competition. But the web lacks the description of the works and thus we can just look at the works without any explanation that help us to understand and appreciate those works.
Joseph Sqiuer and his homepage
Then I have chosen a net artist called Joseph Squier in this competition, and I have found his info on his web (http://theplace.walkerart.org/ ). When we click into his web, we can see his “prolog” of the web, which is completely echoed with the pursuit of the net art movement I have mentioned before. He wrote, “You happen to be here {that is Internet}. Not somewhere else”[2]. In this web, there is an option called urban diary and it is very interesting and interactive. Online users can have interaction with it, such as clicking the folded paper and then it will be open. And in the certain page of the urban diary, visitors may see the interesting traditional Chinese calendar with English description. To certain extent, it is like a visual diary on net, similar to the xange that we widely use today. But, he created it at the year of 1994, more than 10 years before, and thus it is really how avant-garde at the time.
ASCII artwork and Christopher Johnson
As Christopher Johnson explains, “ASCII artwork is artwork that is created without using graphics at all and it is limited to the symbols and characters that you have available to you on your computer keyboard”[3]. Remind that Chris is not an ASCII Artist, as he mentioned in his web (http://chris.com/ascii/). This is just the entire collection of the ASCII Art. In this collection, we can look at some of the work and try to find out how unique it is, such as the category of “naked ladies”.
Then, what’s the point or value of the ASCII Art? For me, ASCII Art is a good illustration of how internet can be a medium, like other art form say painting and sculpture? In order to make it easy to understand, we can make an analogy between ASCII Art and painting. For ASCII Art, its medium or basic form is any characters and symbols available on the keyboard; while the basic element of painting are lines and colours painted by oil brush or colour pen on paper or on canvas. In other words, ASCII Art explores the characteristic of every single symbol and character available on the keyboard.
For example, the characteristics of capital “A” is its curvature form and its highly packed shape, and therefore the capital “A” character is usually used as shading and present the curve part of an object depicted. The “naked ladies” is an good example.
Online Collective Art Project and Olia Lialina
One of the most well-known early net art collaboration project is called “my boyfriend came back from war”. I will use this example to illustrate the unique creative process of net art, that is, all the process of production/distribution/exhibition are all took place on Internet, as I mention at the beginning. It is a great example of online art project. The net artist Olia Lialina initiated the work of net art “my boyfriend came back from war” (http://myboyfriendcamebackfromth.ewar.ru/) in response to war, and then this work stimulated other net artists to joined and create their net art with same title. From this online art project, we can see how powerful and influential net art is in the political use. In this regard, it is a perfect illustration of approaching “Internet as a medium in its own right or as a new kind of space in which to intervene artisticsally”, instead of merely using Internet as “a way of disseminating documentation of work made in other media (e.g. by putting a portfolio of scanned photographs on the Web)”[4].
In the article of Art in the age of digital distribution, it comments Olia Lialina’s my boyfriend came back from war that allow visitors to “click through a series of frames on a web page to reveal images and fragments of text; although the elements of the story never change, the way the story unfolds is determined by each visitor’s own actions”[5]. This reveals the interactive dimension of the net art and the blurring relationship between the authorship and audience.
Analogy with other art movement
In the article of Art in the age of digital distribution, it makes several analogy of net art with other art movements, such as Dadaism and Conceptual art. It suggests, “…Dadaists played with the photographic imagery and typography of magazine and newspapers; Jodi.org [an example of net art] changed the way many people think about the Internet, demonstrating that it didn’t just provides a new way to publish information, it could also be an art medium like oil painting, photography, or video”[6]. Moreover, it further comments, “much as Dada was in part a reaction to the industrialization of warfare and the mechanical reproduction of texts and images, New Media Art [not to mention net art] can be seen as a response to the information technology revolution and the digitization of cultural forms”[7]. Similar to Conceptual art, the article suggests net art is more conceptual in nature, in the sense that it emphasizes on ideas rather than the object itself[8].
(2) Internet and Online Activism
According to Wikipedia, “Online activism (also known as electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, and online organizing) is the use of communication technologies such as email, website, and podcastfor various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and deliver a message to a large audience”[9].
The functions and characteristics of Online Activism will be highlighted.
The first is the nature of highly networking and collectivity. According to Wikipedia, “on [online activist organizations] websites they include links to each other and co-ordinate internationally for global days of action and awareness raising activities; by networking with other activist groups, organisations can maximise the audience for its message, and also they can exchange information with each other in the effort to keep abreast of activities being organized globally”[10].
Secondly, the online activism is regarded as closely related to the anti-globalization movement. As Wikipedia suggests, “The anti-globalisation movement uses the internet to communicate with activists and to organise international protests, and anti-globalisation movement also uses the internet to organize meetings such as the world social forum”[11].
Thirdly, the practice of culture jamming is considered as largely associated with online activism. According to Wekipedia, “culture jamming is the act of using the existing mass media to deconstruct and criticise the media itself using the same communication methods; culture jamming has proved to be an effective and imaginative form of protest, part of the appeal of online activism is that it incorporates a creative aspect to protest”[12].
Fourthly, the online activism can be seen as an alternative media, as opposed to the overwhelming main stream mass media. As Wikipedia further puts it, “the role of online activism in the contemporary political scene is extremely important, since it provides an easy way for citizens to become involved in politics from a community to a global level”[13]. In the Part Two, I will discuss my experience of one Hong Kong social event, namely the Queen Pier Protect with both photos taken by me, so as to act as an example of how individuals (here is I ) to engage the online activism (or simply, social discussion) via the Internet.
Online Activism and its criticism
However, it is also important to notice the shortcomings of Online Activism.
Firstly, online activism may marginalize certain groups of minorities (e.g. the elder) because those minorities lack resources (e.g. computer) and knowledge to access to the online discussion[14] . This situation will most likely happen in the developing countries. It is also one of the most controversial issues of the Digital Divide.
Secondly, Online Activism may give rise to destruction of social consensus. As Cass Sunstein claims, “online political discussions lead to fragmentation and polarization rather than consensus, because the same medium that lets people access a large number of news sources also lets them pinpoint the ones they agree with and ignore the rest; it can increase acrimony, increase extremism and make mutual understanding more difficult.”[15].
Part Two – Practical Documentation
Queen Pier Protect and My visual diary
(P.S. In order to have best quality and availability of the photos of the performance art event, please access to my blog of http://cliffnnetart.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html )
In response to the controversial current issue of Queer Pier Protect, Asian People’s Theatre Festival Society had organized an performance art event at the site of Queen Pier on 14Oct07. The performance artists from different countries made their performance at the location just near the queer pier (which has been isolated by blocking) and in front of the
As I have attended the event, I would like to introduce some of the performance and reveal the underlying messages behind those performances.
Performance Art One and Picnic in Public Space
This performance intentionally "hijacked" the public space. The performance artists used chalks to write on the floor of the public space. Some of the words were "picnic in the public space". They were eating, playing music, sleep and etc in the site, in order to challenge the "over-authority" of Hong Kong Government, with regard to Public Space. I have asked those artists why the colour tone of their decoration were mainly white, and they replied that the use of white colour implied the colour (or maybe variety and richness) of the public space is fading, losing its colour. That maybe helps to show how they react to the demolishment of queen pier.
Performance art Two and City of sickness
This performance artist explained that his choice of the use of medical materials showed his mental condition to the city he belongs to. He feels SICK of
Performance Art Three and Brain-washing writing
This group of performance artists (Project 226) used seven different color pens to write some repeated naive sentences (i.e. I will never do something you don't like again, I will obey all your instruction from now on), as if we were in childhood being punished to copy writing something many times because we have done something wrong. This performance expressed the asymmetrical distribution of power---between the over-power authority (say police power) and passive citizens.
Performance art Four and Stock as Ass
This performance is called "the stock market". Reminded that the Cantonese pronunciation of the word "stock" is similar to the body part of the "ass", and thus this performance artist played with this language confusion (he fed something into his ass) , in order to parody the stock market, as well as maybe the economic crisis of 1997.
Performance art Five and the choice of using material
This artist tried to use glue to cover (or "erase) the symbol of the Hong Kong Police, so as to criticize the over-power of the power force. I have also asked them why they chose to use certain kind of material (say, here is the material of glue, and others include washing powder water, soil, chalk and etc), they replied that their main concern about the material used was whether the material will be easily cleaned and the site can be easily be recovered. For example, when the material glue gets dry, it will become invisible and transparent, and thus the performance itself will not affect the physical appearance of the site after the show, and more importantly, the police then will not have evidence to charge those performance artists.
One more example of the amazing use of material is the use of water. One artist used water to write the Chinese word "拆"("demolish" in English) on the wall of Hong Kong City Hall, in where supposingly it is too grand and too exposing to write sometime on it. However, since he understood the powerful characteristic of water---visible and then invisible, any authority can never catch him regarding to any kind of law. How clever are the artists in the use of materials!
Performance art Six and the City under water
This performance is quite poetic. The artist explained that a city called "奉" was flood and now is under water because of the Three Gorges Dam Project in China. In response to this history, the artist destroyed a little part of the road and put a bowl of water on it, and let the audience lay on the road and listen to the water as well as the city under the water.
During the performance (to be more concrete, at the time the audience listen to water), a taxi drove towards the performance site and almost hit the bowl of water. At the moment, one other artist stepped in front of the bowl of water, used his organic body to protect the artwork from the taxi. What I can see is the space politic between human body and social transportation.
Performance art Seven and exhibition value as making visible
This performance is a good example to illustrate the concept of "exhibition value"(or simply, drawing attention from mass audience), which is one of the key characteristics of the performance art, to my understanding. You can see this artist was just performing some daily movements, say eating in the public space with no different from those domestic helpers who enjoy their weekend in the public space (maybe the only essential difference is that he has naked his upper body and bare feet and he is an artist). However, he has drawn lots of attention from the mass audience as well as mass media. The high exhibition value of performance art can be distinctive feature, as opposed to the small audience group of performing arts (usually at theatre which limit the number of audience).
[2] Joseph Squier, <http://theplace.walkerart.org/>
[3] Christopher Johnson, <http://chris.com/ascii/>
[4] Art in the age of digital distribution, pp.11
[5] Art in the age of digital distribution, pp.13
[6] Art in the age of digital distribution, pp.6
[7] Art in the age of digital distribution, pp.8
[8] Art in the age of digital distribution, pp.8
[9] Wikipedia
2 comments:
Your discourse has enraptured me.
I am currently working to reframe my landmark work in the face of contemporary society.
Please visit http://www.myspace.com/theghostofwalterbenjamin for such explorations.
May I quote parts this tract in a possible future treatise, my friend? More than ample accreditation will be afforded you.
If not this, perhaps a "virtual" camaraderie is in store.
Regards,
W.B.
haha. oh boy.
some links of interest for you...
http://www.artintheage.com
blogpost about a Duchamp Winery/Performance art space....
http://www.artintheage.com/blog/the_readymade_winery/
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