Robert Atkins on Wed, 3 May 2000 21:12:18 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> File Room Back Online |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ken Jordan 212-246-0202, x3021; ken@mediachannel.org "THE FILE ROOM," A PIONEERING DIGITAL ARTWORK ABOUT CENSORSHIP, IS BACK ON-LINE VIA MEDIACHANNEL.ORG One of the earliest and most impressive examples of online media art is New York-based artist Antoni Muntadas's "File Room". Debuting in 1994, this interactive archive of two millennia of social and cultural censorship chronicles hundreds of cases of perceived censorship, sometimes, but not always, covered in the media or other public forums. It invokes questions about the character of censorship itself and offers a repository, or hidden history, of thwarted personal and communal expression. Any visitor to "The File Room" may add new cases of censorship to the database by filling out a simple online form. Or search the site by geography, subject matter, medium or time period. The result is a powerful experience that makes real the insidious nature and effects of censorship. It can be seen on-line at http://www.thefileroom.org "MediaChannel.org is delighted to present and host 'The File Room,' said Robert Atkins, the site's Media Arts editor. "We see it as the anchor of our Media Arts section, and a perceptive critique of the 'consciousness industry.' This celebrated artwork was one of the first on the World Wide Web, back in the days of Mosaic." Derived from a personal experience in which Muntadas's artwork was censored, "The File Room" is one of the artist's many works addressing power relations within society. It was developed as a project of Randolph Street Gallery (a non-profit art space) in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Art and Design. Following its debut as both a physical installation and virtual artwork at the Chicago Cultural Center on May 20, 1994, When Randolph Street Gallery closed in 1998, Muntadas began considering other online venues for it. Unlike conventional artworks, an interactive, ever-growing project like "The File Room," demands computer server space and upkeep. After many discussions with museums, Muntadas selected The Media Channel as a kind of experiment. "Since contemporary work is not always relevant to museums" he observed "It is important to create a new context for it on the Net." The return of "The File Room" to the Web was made possible by support from The Rockefeller Foundation. The University of Illinois and Randolph Street Gallery provided support for the initial realization of the project. Robert Atkins voice: 212.662.2961 fax: 212.222.4524 email: robertatkins@earthlink.net # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net