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Cultural Exchange via Internet - Opportunities and Strategies Forum of the House of World Cultures, Berlin |
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Insights into the Debate: 10 May - 7 July 1999 Access to the quoted postings Members of the mailing list: with a click on the annotations you open an email-window with the respective command (Message-ID) for retrieving the quoted contribution. Immediately after sending the message you will receive the text via email. If you are not a member of the list, this doesn't work, unfortunately. But there is a way to access the email archives to read and search by keywords. To subscribe: see modalities - or send an email to join-forum1@hkw.kbx.de. During the time period covered by this summary, a total of 45 contributions from 26 authors were received. Following are some of the topics addressed: Net-Art / Art on the Net Referring to previous postings from Pedro Meyer, Kim Machan and others, Pat Binder asked 1) for criteria for Net-art, thereby triggering a lengthy discussion. She is presently concerned with this topic especially in relation to an Internet-art project about poetry written by women in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, a project which she is currently developing and describes in her contribution. Michael Thoss 2), head of the fine arts department at the House of World Cultures, stressed that the Forum had already provided the HWC with much motivation, and that now thought would be given to how it could be more strongly integrated into daily work. He announced an Internet project which his department is planning, which will go along with an exhibition of African photographers (January - March 2000). In closing, Thoss asked in regard to Net-art and the suggestion of an Internet exhibition: "If for net-art the medium becomes material, how to present artists working with (traditional or not) materials defining very specifically their cultural spaces? How to reinvent the aura of these art-works on the screen?" One of Héctor Zetina's 3) comment on this topic was among others: "I think the media artists of the future who will work an individual style of art, like painting or photography today, have to be inventors of their own electronic tools. This, will give them the total control of their discipline and steal some of the control who have today the international software industry ..." Here, Pat Binder 4) brought up the example of the group Mongrel [http://www.mongrel.org.uk/]. "For their socially engaged art works (they) manipulate whatever technological tool..., reverting software talk and marketing formula into provocative statements, that challenge everyone's unconfessed prejudice." Mario García Torres 5) responded directly to Binder's listing of possible aspects of Net-art 1). To her question, "why not hybrid forms which could also include more 'traditional' artworks?" he replied: "net.art is net.art. We do not need to mix the nature of art objects, then we won't have hybrids, misunderstandings or have to 'reinvent the aura of these art-works on the screen' as Michael Thoss said." This perception was too purist for Binder 6): "I prefer hybrids, misunderstandings, transcultural interpretations, or whatever mutant an artist is capable of creating, rather than sticking to the purism of the technological gurus that decided to give Linux the Prix Ars Electronica in the category .net! ... Even though the jury justifies this by saying that the programming code could be regarded as a 'art', this really tells the capitulation to technology and the dismissing of 'content', intention, and all those mysterious elements that make up the 'aura' of an art work, even on the screen." Cristina Jadick 7) agreed with her. All of the criteria Binder named should come into question. Although she also values Mario García Torres' comments, Jadick asks herself, "I'm wondering if we should even stick 'internet art' with a definition yet. It is a young art form and is still defining itself. ... I believe there is leeway in the everchanging internet art spectrum to accomodate technical specificity on the one extreme and the free-wheeling experimentation that leads to hard-to-define hybrid forms on the other end ..." Charity Ellis 8) supported this, in that she compared the development of the medium Internet with the early period of film-making. In a later posting, Pat Binder added 9): "... But even if we would agree on a rigorous perspective for net.art - for which the net is a sufficient and necessary condition of viewing/experiencing and participating (Steve Dietz) and for which the piece should be a configuration that can be developed by other people -, I think artistical intention must be a prerequisite ..." Olu Oguibe 10) , on the other hand, stated: "is it not perhaps a reverse kind of puritanism for us to dismiss linux as non-art because we presume that it has no 'artistic intent', whatever that may mean? does the very act of submitting linux for the ars electronica prize [an art award] not sufficiently constitute or at least indicate artistic intent in same manner that duchamp's submission of the inverted urinal to the annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1915, forever turned the object into art?" If this had been the case, one could completely agree with Oguibe. However, his argumentation stems from a false assumption. The following answer came from Ars Electronica regarding an inquiry by Gerhard Haupt (moderator of this Forum): "Linux was not entered by anyone into the competition. Since the .net category is an open category (that means, that works that have not entered the competition can also be awarded with a prize) the decision for Linux was the product of a discussion between the jury members that lasted for hours." On this topic, Juan José Díaz Infante 11) wrote (without knowledge of the information from Ars Electronica quoted above): "I think we should take an attitude of 'back to the basics' sort of approach. First it has to be art ART ART ART. ... The linux award is a terrible aberration. The simple fact that so many explanations have to be drawn it only brings to mind the frase of McLuhan 'even the mud can give the sensation of depth'. No poetry content, no art..." Internet Exhibition The continued interest in organizing an Internet exhibition was repeatedly confirmed. Thereby, it was also regretted that Britta Erickson had pulled out of a further discussion of the idea which she had originally represented with such enthusiasm. Regarding Erickson's draft of her concept, Cristina Jadick 7) wrote: "... I didn't think there was anything particularly wrong with the parameters she proposed for the first exhibition by way of thematic guidelines. Her proposed limits were simply one specific perspective from which to depart on an exploration of and experimentation with internet art as a medium." Pat Binder 9) reminded everyone that some time ago, Leandro Katz 12) had written: "perhaps ... this forum IS the Exhibition." She added: "The way I see this working is through postings from forum's members, introducing art projects of their interest, with a personal comment telling WHY they find them relevant to our forum. In this way we could establish 'if there is the ART out there' [Pedro Meyer 13)], we could draw the attention to art projects that may be little known, and maybe we could even orchestrate a collective curatorial process." Josette Balsa 14) offered to find digital art in Hong Kong, and to put artists working in this field in touch with our Forum. One of her statements with regard to the exhibition was: "The works I have seen so far are more mail art through the Net than art using the Net as a creative tool and process. I think organizing an exhibition on the Net needs a curatorial reflexion and I am expecting answers from the Forum." Aboriginal Art / "Genuine" Art Damien Coghlan 15) introduced the enterprise Aboriginal Australia Pty Ltd and its website [http://www.aboriginalaustralia.com.au/home.htm]. One of its most important goals is to promote the understanding and the appreciation of the Aboriginal people and their cultures, as well as to support the work of native Australian communities and businesses by providing marketing and e-commerce services. This posting followed an intensive debate, which was not only about "genuine" indigenous art (in Australia and elsewhere), but also a number of fundamental questions regarding both historical and contemporary cultural processes. The majority of authors supported their arguments with examples from cultures in specific countries which, unfortunately, can barely be touched upon in the following excerpts. Here is a brief summary of this discussion: In her first posting on this topic, Josette Balsa 16) criticized the change in the basic attitude of Aboriginal artists who work for the international art market. "For instance, the ephemeral sand works or the paintings on barks are now made with acrylic on canvas, to be sold to collector and art amateurs. What was deeply religious and ritualistic is becoming more and more commercial. In every country where tribal cultures have survived ... the conflicts between indigenous and invader tend towards a process of acculturation and the disappearing of 'primitive' cultures." Jenny Millea 17), publisher of Australia's Cultural Network [http://www.acn.net.au/], questioned the term "genuine". "If it's done by an Aboriginal and is part of their dreaming but is on canvas and made for a commercial market, does that then make it less 'genuine'? Does commercialism preclude religious and ritualistic meanings? It seems to me that this is another example of a situation where Western views of what is art and what is not and what it means are being imposed on the indigenous culture." Olu Oguibe 18) vehemently stated his opposition to measuring cultures with double standards. Whereas on the one hand, changes are an expression of development, the same in other cultures is seen as a loss. "... any would consider it a mark of genius that young European artists in Paris at the turn of the century copied African and Oceanic art and in the process effected a major departure from their own art traditions, only to serve us horse-shit about how sad it is when any such transformations happen with other cultures..." Oguibe stated further: "When anyone speaks of 'genuine' indigenous art, they effectively set up a dichotomy between the genuine and its opposite, the 'fake' or 'inauthentic'... There is no doubt that indigenous peoples have produced some of Australia's most powerful artists today: Rover Thomas, Jimmy Pike, the late Lin Onus and Emily Kngwerere, among the older artists; Gordon Bennett, Destiny Deacon, Fiona Foley and Tracey Moffatt, among the younger. These artists have a deserved place in the narrative of great art in the late 20th century, and they are not painting with dyes on bark ..." According to Britta Erickson's 19) point of view, when cultures take on the idea that fast change is a positive power, it can have destructive effects. The "mystical power" and the "meditative qualities" of Aboriginal art can be attributed to the fact that it developed slowly. "Change is OK, but let's recognize the source of that change. Artists have the right to make choices, but ... those choices are not completely self-initiated." Josette Balsa 20) finally granted that Aboriginal art can make use of modern means. "If the values of a culture are preserved, why not. If new forms of art emerge of the fusion of two cultures, great! ... But it would be a loss to erase the fundamental value of a tribal culture." In a further posting Josette Balsa 21) wrote, among other things, about the concept of "Anthropophagy" in Brazilian art. "In Brazil, the act of consuming the 'other', mainly when he is the 'invader', is part of the normal evolving cultural process ... Brazilians have a deep, peculiar sense of humour and they deal with foreign input digesting it, and creating a Brazilian culture with roots in the three ethnic groups, Indian, African and European ... with addition of everything they can capture from everywhere else." Olu Oguibe 22) stated that "it is not a truth of fact that indigenous Australian art evolved any slower than that of any other culture before the 20th century. Until the invention of acrylics in America at mid-century, most Western artists painted with the same material that Cimabue and others introduced at the beginning of the millenium. Renaissance sculptors worked in same manner and material as the ancient Greeks, albeit within an ideological framework. And the thematic traditions of focus on the figuration of mythic and historical narratives, or the principles of vice and virtue, nary changed." ... "Which brings us to the other point, namely, that the 'mystic' quality ascribed to indigenous forms, quite often, is fabricated outside of those cultures, and then projected on them, in same manner that all like stereotypes are manufactured and ascribed ... It is questionable, then, to speak of a correlation between an uncertain 'mysticism' and an equally uncertain claim of slow evolution in indigenous art. A good deal [not all] of indigenous Australian art, like African art, is conceptual. This means that the form itself is secondary to its symbolic purposes, and the processes and events within which it is only a part. If the essence is in the process, therefore, and not so much in the form, then it is quite logical to see that that process can be replicated irrespective of material. It is for this reason that the Yoruba of Nigeria use commercially available, made-in-china plastic dolls for their cult of twins, and so without any of the sniveling foolishness of outsiders who barely understand it." Cynthia Beth Rubin 23) did not agree with how Britta Erickson had used the expression "Euroamerica". "North Americans as a whole (those in power and not) have a very different approach to cultural migration and mixing than Europeans, perhaps because of the obvious difference in numbers of immigrants. The impulse to link American culture so completely to European culture reveals an assumption that the historically dominant influence is the only influence, and negates the important influences of many other cultural groups on current American culture." Britta Erickson 24) replied to Oguibe, that he should be careful not to read meanings into her statements that lose touch with what she really meant and insisted: "... no-one can convince me that a switch to a culture of rapid change isn't detrimental to a culture that doesn't have a chance to evolve into it at its own speed." Ricardo Basbaum 25) began his posting with deepening explanations of "Anthropofagia" (Anthropophagy), which was also the main subject of the latest São Paulo International Biennale (1998). Fundamentally, what stands behind this expression is a discussion about what actually constitutes "Brazilian art". Similarly, in the majority of countries/cultures "outside of Europe-USA axis", it has been discussed how "the changes in Modern Western Culture" can be assimilated, and yet "a different and innovative (culture)" could be produced. One of his conclusions was that: "... the only way of understanding any cultural singularity as such is to promote its confrontation with its alterity. But after that, obviously, it has already lost its 'purity', and 'hybridization' begins. It is urgent to start considering that to 'hybridize', to mix with the other, to open to contamination towards alterity, is a true art in itself. For me, hybridization neither kills difference nor eliminates singularity: as a strategy, it avoids keeping fixed, idealistic and never changing 'essences' which are scared to be touched by 'others'." In relation to the discussion in general, Basbaum wrote: "... what has been under discussion here is the word 'art' as a 'trap'. We keep using it all the time, thinking we are saying the same, but all the time we have to 'adjectivate'/qualify it: 'australian' art, 'brazilian' art, 'western' art, 'african' art, 'indigenous' art, 'aboriginal' art, and so on. The word 'art' is truly 'polissemic' (i.e. plurality of meanings), but we always speak of it as we were refering to the same things/problems/objects - but we are not. I consider 'art' as a technology of the thought, a means to deal with and to produce reality. European-American art tradition has reinforced 'art' as a powerfull cultural tool, which informs us with the ability even to intervene into different cultural constructions. Western 'art' concept has proved to be able to incorporate every culture into it and to mutate and replicate again and again, according to particular interests. Why not to think reversely? Why not to consider the non-western cultures taking advantage of the same conceptual tools 'art' can provide (art as a technology of the thought) and then succeeding in 're-engineering' the concept of art to produce great things never seen before?" Finally, Damien Coghlan 26) once again took the floor. He added a few points about cultural diversity and to the cultural context of the Aboriginals, in order to underscore the statements made in his first posting. Projects, Events, Exhibitions Once again, diverse invitations, information, requests for support and comments and reactions to projects, events and exhibitions were received. Here is a listing in chronological order of their postings: • Partha Pratim Sarker 27) introduced Drik Multimedia [http://www.drik.net], a picture library coordinated by him in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is one of the pioneers in introducing information technology into that country. • From the perspective of an involved artist, Folake Shoga 28) once again addressed the exhibition Afromedi@rt and the confrontation regarding it 29) between Olu Oguibe and Davis O. Nejo. It is to be hoped that her statements on "Black art" and about curatorial practice in this field will be picked up and discussed anew in the further course of the Forum. • In relation to the repeatedly addressed Internet exhibition, Davis O. Nejo 30) presented his "Internet Atelier" [http://www.t0.or.at/~ccc , click "news 99"], an "art project whereby African artists and artists who work on Africa related themes are invited to create art works in a virtual space " • Anahí Cáceres 31) from Buenos Aires, Director of ArteUna [http://www.arteuna.com], sent an invitation including project description for the "1st Festival and Digital Art competition on arteuna.com". • Hans Braumüller 32) repeated the call for participation in "Crosses of The Earth - Homage To Indigenous People" [http://www.crosses.net/2000], an exhibition with a Net project, in Chile in January 2000. • Tilman Baumgärtel 33) sent the press information for the conference "Wizards of OS #1 - Open Sources and Free Software" July 16 - 17, 1999, House of World Cultures, Berlin. [http://www.mikro.org/wos] • Martín García 34) announced "The Manifest of the Macaw, Amazon", an event that is a mixture of art, literature and photography, which he presents at several locations in northern Europe and on the Internet. [http://www.macawart.de] • There was an exchange between Josette Balsa 35) and Britta Erickson 36) about the participation of Chinese artists in the last two São Paulo International Biennale and the current Venice Biennial, as well as in other exhibitions. • Catherine McGovern 37), a web artist from Montréal, sent preview information on the IIC Pre-Conference "Converging Responsibility: Broadcasting and the Internet in Developing Countries", September 4 - 5, 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia [http://www.comunica.org/kl/]. It will be organized by the International Institute of Communications (IIC), whose yearly conference will take place from September 7 - 9, also in Kuala Lumpur. The theme is "Emerging Knowledge Society - Commerce, Culture and Communities in Cyberspace". [http://www.iicom.org/services/conferences/kl99/index.htm] • Thanks to a scholarship from the Media Centre d'Art i Disseny (MECAD), Sabadell, Barcelona, Ricardo Iglesias 38) is currently working on the Internet art project "References", for which he is looking for support (hosting in various cities). • Arafat Al-Naim 39) , from the Graphic Art Department at the National Art Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, invited participation in the "Relief Printmaking Research Project". This project deals with creating new technical and artistic achievements in the field of contemporary relief printmaking. [http://www.prontomail.com/Prontomail/users/arafat] Summary: Gerhard Haupt |
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Forum of the House of World Cultures, Berlin, on the use of Internet in the cultural exchange with and between Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. 1998 / 2000 Project direction: Gerhard Haupt - haupt@uinic.de |
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