Lorenzo Taiuti on Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:55:57 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Hardt & Negri "Counseling the aristocrats" [2x] |
Table of Contents: Re: <nettime> Hardt & Negri "Counseling the aristocrats" "Lorenzo Taiuti" <md3169@mclink.it> <nettime> Hardt & Negri "Counseling the aristocrats"-The ideal-website "Lorenzo Taiuti" <md3169@mclink.it> ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:50:22 +0200 From: "Lorenzo Taiuti" <md3169@mclink.it> Subject: Re: <nettime> Hardt & Negri "Counseling the aristocrats" Ciao Miltos i like very much this thing about what you said: "unvisited and unfriendly territories, which are gradually transformed into a domestic landscape. From the Alps to the Japanese garden, this is the scenario: the illusory promise of order and system. " But i would like to know more about what you think. Don't send me to your website. I know it. Tell me more. More precise ideas. More "real things" you expect from the web. You come from a visual art experience. What's different? Lorenzo Taiuti - ----- Original Message ----- From: "m" <m@manetas.com> To: "Lorenzo Taiuti" <md3169@mclink.it> Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 4:16 PM Subject: Re: <nettime> Hardt & Negri "Counseling the aristocrats" > > But the problem remains the same. > > Cannot we find new and fresher instruments of thought? > > Was it not said (over and over again) that the "Web" would produce a > > different feeling and production of ideas? > > Lorenzo > > > Yes, Neen is what you are asking for... > > read the text I just finished re-writing. Neen is not exactly about social > theory but it can be expanded. Maybe you can do that. > > Best > > Miltos Manetas > > Websites is the art of our times > Miltos Manetas > > > > > > > > Websites are today's most radical and important art objects. > > > > Because Internet is not just another "media", as the Old Media insists, but > mostly a "space", similar to the American Continent immediately after it has > been discovered - anything that can be found on the Web, has a physical > presence. It occupies real estate. To encounter a logo, a picture or an > animation in the Internet, is a totally different experience than to find > the same stuff in a magazine or on the television. > > > > "Things" in the Internet exist in a specific location. While in magazines > and on TV contents are mostly bullets of information, online they constitute > a body: they are parts of a new genre. They are Web Entities. These > "creatures" are sometimes a mix of humans and software (think of Google), > but sometimes are made by information only - such as in the case of > > Googlism.com, a website able to make a portrait of anything by collecting > descriptions about that subject from Google itself (1). > > > > Most Web Entities are social entities. They get in touch and they advertise > their existence to each other. Similar to human beings, they evaluate, > criticize, "link" to each other, and ultimately, they develop a "taste". > > > > Bob Dobbs (a friend of McLuhan) said: "advertising is communication between > machines". He also suggested that machines came alive in 1967 and that "now > they are in an angelic state". According to him, "advertising is > communication between angels". > > > > Well, some of these Web Entities - or shall we simply call them "Angels"? > communicate already in a "pretty" way. As a result, a new type of "Art", or > better, what- may-become -Art later, can be found in certain websites. But > where exactly? > > > > > > The Telic spirit. > > > > The Web is nothing more and nothing less than what the World has always > been: unvisited and unfriendly territories, which are gradually transformed > into a domestic landscape. From the Alps to the Japanese garden, this is the > scenario: the illusory promise of order and system. But still, the simple > rocks and sand in the well-arranged composition of a Japanese garden, for a > better-trained intellect, are black holes and chaos. The Web came from this > chaos; in a certain way, it came directly out of the Trojan Horse, described > in Homer's Iliad, and now we are Ulysses lost in the ocean all over again. > But we are not traveling alone: there is a special spirit that helps us > navigate and that is the spirit of Telic. > > > > Telic is our relationship with the tools that help us to design the World > and to see things in a perspective. It is in mobile phones, computers but > even in the way our houses and clothes are made. Our times are Telic. > > > > Telic means "something directed or tending towards a goal or purpose; > "purposeful". For example "I am driving my car to Los Angeles" is a Telic > statement. "I am driving my car " is not. Telos, in Greek, means "the end" > or "the purpose". Telic, firmly believes that it is Telic. (You may never > arrive to Los Angeles; you may crash on a tree or something). Telic is super > creative, often in a paranoid way. It is serious. It wants to explain every > little detail. It will submit footnotes and references. It is "open source" > and it accepts updates from anyone. Telic doesn't have a taste; it can be as > ugly as an IBM computer. > > > > Telic authors and artists have usually jobs in the tech industry, or they > teach in Universities. They survive thanks to the grants that other Telic > people are managing and they avoid the Art World, which in return also > ignores them. > > But Telic shapes the World. As J.G Ballard wrote: "Science and technology > multiply around us. To an increasing extend they dictate the languages in > which we speak and think. Either we use those languages or we remain mute". > > > > Telic is making sense from these languages but then again, do we really want > to make sense? Why shall we be so domesticated and so productive? Why does > our "design" sometimes become so irrelevant that even the most boring > companies are comfortable to sponsor it and use it as their banner? > > After all, we all know how frustrating a trip in the Internet can be. It > easily can feel like a flea market with people offering you stuff in every > corner, a nightmare, complete with the occasional buffoons who are providing > vulgar entertainment with their "funny" websites. And when it comes to > creativity, all you can usually find is all same style designers: the Martha > Stewarts of the Net. > > > > You wish there is somewhere a secret society; some people who know how to > give to you the feelings directly, and who will keep you thinking, even > after you'll quit browsing. You wish there were some websites, which will > offer the metaphysical suspense of a painting. You wish of Neen. > > > > > > Neen is a frame of Mind. > > > > "I actually know for sure that there are scenes on the Internet that nobody > knows about and nobody cares about, and within those milieus, very > specialized sensibilities are evolving". (William Gibson, 2003)(2) > > > > Neen is the crazy little brother of Telic. Invented by the Branding Company > > Lexicon, the creators of Pentium, Powerbook and hundreds of other brand > names, it owns its existence in the realization that certain ideas or > animations, certain sounds, words or behaviors are indeed Neen. It was a > group of people from all around the planet who started talk about Neen > around 2001. These people eventually met, some online and some in the real > world and start exchanging their experience. A new art movement has been > born, the first of the 21 Century. But still, Neen is mostly a concept and > as such it has it's own life, which is independent from the activity of > people who practice it. > > > > A person who thinks about Neen is a Neenster, while who actually does Neen > is a Neenstar. What a Neenstar does may seem sometimes silly but only > because it is easy and amazing. A Neenstar is not trying to make sense; > he/she doesn't suffer from any stress of production and doesn't respect a > pattern. The dream of a Neenstar is to become a special Icon - but not the > type of icon you usually find in the glossies. A Neenstar starts his career > by becoming the Icon of his own imagination. Then, he projects that Icon to > the outside as if it is a fact. > > Identity is not a priority for a Neenstar, but one will fetishize oneself > anyway and use that as a style: it's a fast way to produce content. But in > contrast with contemporary artists, a Neenstar will change identities often, > according to the situations: Neen is ultimately a state of mind. People such > as Lucio Fontana, who were doing painting by simply slashing a canvas, were > Neen before Neen. > > > > Because the Internet is the best place to exercise your inertia, Neenstars > spend a lot of time online. They are Friends of the information and not > Users as the Telic people are. The word "cute", which has a dubious > reputation in the West, while it is very respected in Asia, describes most > of the times a Neen piece. But it's also Military Cute, Comme des Garçons > for your brains. > > > > Neenstars are obsessed with names. They will run a search in the Internet to > see if the domain with a new name they envisioned is available. If it is, > they will register it. Immediately after, they'll do something fresh and > they'll put it online: it will not be your father's website with the usual > links, info and stuff - it will be something minimal, strange, romantique. > > Neenstars will let the webpage to be what we are looking for on the > Internet: something never seen before, a new art object. > > > > > > "It's really interesting... (Is it Jeffrey?)" > > > > > > "Contemporary Art", the art of the past century, was based mostly on the > following principle: "if you put something in an empty room, it seems > strange and significant". > > A variation of that was: "if you take something out of its context, it seems > strange and significant". > > Another was: "if you change the scale of something, it will seem strange and > significant", and a last one: "if you multiply something it also becomes > strange and significant". But after 80 years of different combinations for > any kind of objects inside the hopelessly empty spaces of our art > institutions, nothing seems really interesting. We see clearly now, that the > supposed "art" is simply a bunch of trash, just some products bought in a > mall or a photo illustration. > > > > Outside of the Internet, there's no glory. > > > > Non-Internet artists are just some freelance employees of other employees > (the curators of the exhibitions). To work for somebody else is not > necessarily a bad thing, that's after all how beautiful religious pictures > have been produced in the past. The problem starts instead, when your > commissioner doesn't have a clue of what he/she wants from you. > > > > Most art curators and people who commission art today, never really ask for > anything specific from the artists that they choose. They want a "story" and > the artists are required to provide it: they have to show yet for another > time what they (the artists) are already known for. It's an International > loop and exhibitions in fact are identity control tests. Institutions bestow > curators with confidence and power. They are not suppose to look for any > unseen objects but for some evidence of human expression, which they will > bring back to their commissioners, as a well-trained dog would do with its > ball. > > They are just sampling stories... > > No wonder then, that any top level art exhibitions such as the Whitney > Biennial, the Documenta in Kassel, the Manifesta and the Venice Biennial, > all look alike, and look like Graduation Day for students of anthropology. > In these "shows", any realistic representation could as well be used as an > illustration for the National Geographic, while any abstract piece becomes > mere decoration. > > > > The Art World is relaxed and open to anything, because it knows that nothing > peculiar will ever happen. Even if the gallery is left empty, the public > will search for the label with the name of the artist who did the "work" and > it will be satisfied in one way or another. Balloons, beds, chickens. Real > Space has lost its emptiness. > > > > But in the Internet, where space is created by software and random > imagination, an empty webpage is really empty. People and Web Entities > ("Angels"), can still invent unpredictable objects to put there. > > > > > > "Collectors" > > > > Because Art is ultimately the power to put a form in the chaos, anyone who > is busy with forms and concepts is an artist. That today includes > "curators", "gallerists", "museum people" and even "collectors". They are > all artists, most of them bad, but artists. > > A "collector" however also does also another job. Because he is a man with > property, he decides what should survive. That's his artistic media after > all: the power of keeping a piece into existence. Never this power has been > more significant, than for a collector of websites. > > > > Very few people yet are cool enough to collect websites. It requires > intuition and courage. It is similar to the purchase of an apartment in a > ghetto area of Harlem. You need to take the risks. Anybody instead can walk > into a Gagosian gallery and buy some contemporary art. It's as easy as > buying designer clothes: the House which sells the product guarantees its > value and you get what you pay for: a giant certificate of authenticity with > some picture on the front. > > When you buy "Contemporary Art", you buy a copy of what belongs already in a > Museum, because contemporary art museums are made specifically for this type > of art and will eventually host anything produced by the major galleries. > > > > It's an industry of memorabilia. Collecting in this case is not an > adventure, but a banal experience, something like opening yet another > Savings Account. Larry Gagosian in fact, refers with surprising sincerity to > his collectors as "customers". It is ok of course to be a customer, but it > is far more interesting to be a collector of websites. > > > > The collector of a website has total control on the pieces he owns, because > the art in a website is not the animation or the code, or the pictures that > the website contains, but the experience of all the above in a unique place > somewhere in the cyberspace, under a unique name. What a collector of > websites acquires, is a contract that passes to him the ownership of the web > domain - the place where the work actually exists. If he decides one day to > not pay the hosting fee, the work will disappear. You can burn a painting > but its photograph will always permit people to reproduce it. It's not the > same with the website though. The name of the website will return to the > pool of the available domain names. The whole piece will expire, as if it > has never existed. > > > > Collecting a website, is a trip to a secret Villa. If a collector decides to > keep this experience just to himself, he may put a password on the page and > nobody will be able to access it. He will lock the Villa and keep the art a > secret and that is ok. But if he will decide to let the piece available for > viewing to the public, he will experience the feelings of the ultimate > property. You are the owner of art that all can enjoy but only you own. In a > time where anyone can buy anything, the only really glamorous collecting is > the collecting of websites and other digital objects. The pieces which are > not considered art yet but will be art later. > > > > > > To be continued > > > > > > Miltos Manetas is an artist who lives in New York and Paris. > > > > Reference: > > (1). Googlism for: miltos manetas > > miltos manetas is the net > miltos manetas is best known in > miltos manetas is lying on a brown psychoanalyst's couch that constitutes > the only colorful furniture in the entire white and gray loft that he > inhabits with > miltos manetas is an artist > miltos manetas is similar > miltos manetas is known for his paintings of computer hardware and > vibracolor prints > miltos manetas is one of the artists who addresses these mixed messages > miltos manetas is a greek artist who works and lives between los angeles and > new york city > miltos manetas is not an evil force magdalena sawon > miltos manetas is a ny/la > miltos manetas is an artist whose paintings mostly explore the realm of > computers > > > > (2) William Gibson interviewed by Eric S. Elkins. > > http://www.ugo.com/channels/freestyle/features/williamgibson > > > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:53:56 +0200 From: "Lorenzo Taiuti" <md3169@mclink.it> Subject: <nettime> Hardt & Negri "Counseling the aristocrats"-The ideal-website Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Caro Manetas i know your website and i understand ( and like) your idea of a "website as ideal place". (is that correct?) But tell me more about it. More precise things. Ciao Lorenzo Taiuti # 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