Net Art's Broadening Niche

Afterimage, May, 2001 by Berin Golonu

The technical difficulties encountered in the display of Net-based media are just part of the vexations that plague curators as they attempt to incorporate this work into a gallery setting. Many of the smaller museums and cultural institutions are not properly equipped with the right tools or the expertise necessary to host this kind of work, choosing not to show it altogether. Others who are trying to position themselves as the forerunners in chronicling the intersection of art and technology are concerned with trying to create the ideal environment for the display of work that lives on-line. But the technical glitches that viewers continue to encounter when interacting with networked art proves that there is still a long way to go in creating the ideal display conditions for this work. At a recent symposium at the San Francisco Art Institute titled "Digital Dialogues: Curating Byte-Based Art," Dietz, Benjamin Weil, curator of new media art at SFMOMA and Christiane Paul, curator of "Data Dynamics" at the Wh itney, offered answers to these questions and discussed other ideological conflicts surrounding the display of what they termed "byte-based" art.

How to properly display Net-based work without forsaking its unique characteristics and altering the artist's original motives for creating it is a main concern for curators as they attempt to introduce Net art to new audiences and preserve it for subsequent generations. Such inquiries were first addressed in a definitive exhibition of Net media titled "Net_Condition," organized by ZKM media in 1999. [2] Judging by head curator Peter Weibel's introductory statement, "Net art is the driving force, which is the most radical in transforming the closed system of the aesthetic object of modem art into the open system of post-modern (or second modern) fields of action," the curators were attempting to examine--some would say exploit--Net art's progressive potential.

Ironically, the characteristics of Net art that Weibel lauded were the same ones that rendered the display methods of the exhibition unsuccessful. This was one of the first exhibitions that attempted to introduce the Net space into the museum, in an environment equipped with computers, T1 connections and couches. According to Weil, one of the show's curators, the show's display methods were a flat-out failure. "To present this work in a gallery space, with the mouse pads functioning as wall labels, simply didn't work," Weil admitted. Weil applied the lessons learned from "Net_Condition" to the next exhibition he curated, the Web component of SFMOMA's "010101: Art in Technological Times." The Web site for this exhibition, which was launched January 1, 2001, contains five Internet-based projects commissioned by SFMOMA. It was decided that Web commissions should be kept on-line for viewers to access from any remote location, and that computer kiosks with access to the projects would not be situated within the g alleries.

However, SFMOMA's curators still needed to create a contextual framework for the Web commissions on-line in a way that somehow positioned them within the grandiosity of the museum. The solution came from San Francisco-based design firm Perimetre-Flux in the form of an elaborate Web site in which to encase the projects. The "010101" site, which can be accessed through the SFMOMA's regular Web site [3] as well as through exhibition sponsor Intel's ArtMuseum.Net, [4] is a striking and complex contextual frame indeed. First off, the user has to invest a good amount of time to download the plug-ins and the software necessary to view the on-line projects. Secondly, the commissioned pieces are well hidden inside a graphically sophisticated interface that the user must navigate by accessing complicated pop-up menus in an effort to find where the pieces live. Fine for those who like puzzle gaines--not so ideal for those looking to engage with the projects in a snap.