Distributed Systems

Overview

Internet art or other forms of art involving distributed systems (GPS, mobiles, radio, wecasting) render the traditional art distribution systems and markets obsolete, yet at the same time, they can be incorporated into these settings.   Internet provides a platform for discussing, presenting and archiving of art, including new media art.   Internet can be seen as an emodiment of Constant's 'concrete dream' and a model for the museum of the future, a museum structured on transcience.   It also acts as an extended studio.   Whereas video art provided a new way of production and presentation, Internet is equally a broadcasting medium and as such provides an opportunity for distribution. It is inherently a collective system, and as observed by Lev Manovich, it materializes social networks.  

During the 80s when Cyberfeminism was at its height, the Internet was celebrated by writers such as Sadie Plant as a utopian space - a site of liberation where an identity could be forged independent of the gendered body.   The nature of connectivity made available via Internet now, does not escape questioning.   For example, the question of access undermines Internet's claim to being an egallitarian and democratising tool potentially utilised by anyone.   At the same time it has been used successfully by communities, as in the case of net activism by the Zapatista, to bring about political change. Andreas Brockman examined the politics of Cyberspace networks in terms of topology of agency. Regardless of its perceived autonomy, Networks are part of infrastructure, and as such subject to set protocols. As a presentation mode it allows for global coverage.

Roy Ascott, Don Forsta, Annette Bergerow , Douglas Davies,   Bill Bartlett, Gene Youngblood, David Ross, Kit Galloway & Sherry Rabinowicz, Robert Adrian, Knowbotic Research, Marko Peljhan and Carsten Nicolai, Ulrike Gabriel, Atau Tanaka , Critical Art Ensamble , Jodi.org, Paul Vanouse , Kate Rich , Bureau of Inverse Technology , Christof Migone , Wayne Clements , we make money not art , deviantArt

Primary Reading

Net_condition

Broeckmann , Andreas Notes about Art Production and Collaboration in the Age of Post-Media

Baudrillard, Jean 1998 The Ecstasy of Communication , Semiotexte, The MIT Press, synopsis

More

Broeckmann, Andreas 1998 Networked Agencies

Ascott, Roy 1983 Art and Telematics In Grundmann, Heidi (ed)   1984 Art Telecommunication   Vancouver, A Western Front Publication, Canada & BLIX, Wien, Austria,

Sadie Plant 1997 Zeros + Ones : Digital Women + the New Technoculture , Doubleday, NY

Chandler, Annmarie & Neumark, Norie (eds) 2006 At a Distance.   Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, The MIT Press synopsis

Basualdo, Carlos (et al) Dark matter into light: a round-table discussion, Art Journal, Fall 2005

Hobbes' internet Timeline at Media/culture.org.au

Web Stalker   browser that dissects web masters and demystifies art as a site of economic & political interests

McLuhan, Marshall 1992 Global Village: Transformations in world life and media in the 21st century , Oxford University Press, NY

Dion, Dennis 2006 Policing the Convergence of Virtual and Material Worlds , ctheory

Calcutt, A 1999 White Noise: An A-Z of the Contradictions in Cuberculture , MacMillan Press, London

Assemblage. The Women's New Media Gallery

Neumark, Norie Introduction: Relays, Delays, and Distance Art/Activism in Chandler, Annmarie & Neumark, Norie (eds) 2006 At a Distance.   Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet , The MIT Press

Blais, Joline & Ippolito, Jon 2006 At the Edge of Art, Thames & Hudson, London

Baumgartel, Tilman Net Art: On the History of Artistic Work with Telecommunications Media in Weibel, Peter & Druckery, Timothy 2001 net_condition_art and global media , MIT Press, Cambrigde, Mass.

Galloway, Alexander R 2006 Protocol. How Control Exists after decentralization , MIT Press

Druckrey, Timothy 1994 Iterations , MIT Press synopsis