calin: hello everybody

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Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 13:57:18 +0100
To: nettime-l@desk.nl
From: calin <calin@euronet.nl>
Subject: hello everybody

While an art school student (and that was ages ago) I was struck by the
impassionate and so obviously sterile debate between the members of the
art history department and those from the "practical" disciplines,
concerning the hierarchical relation between Art and its theory. 

I wouldn't get back to this common place consolidated during the
Renaissance, (on whose resistance as a mental refuge I already wrote
sometime ago on this list), if the recently decided Ars Electronica net
prize wouldn't have stirred up a kindoffa simmilar nervousness. 

If I totally aggree that art can be crashingly boring, so is the
assumption that software per se can be otherwise - except for a small
circle of initiated people. 

More than that, the beauty of software - which is a reality that I
wouldn't dare question - is getting old extremely fast when made available
only via utilitarian functions. A smart house or a robot can give me magic
as far as I will not get used to them. But they should be built precisely
for the purpose of being used. 

While if the magic is generated just for its own sake, both the hidden
part (software) and the obvious part (the art, I'm afraid) will support
each other's survival. People need magic, and if it is called art or
anything else - they will still look for it. But to think that there is a
top-down relation in the magic production mechanism is at the best a proof
of the fact that our IT culture and understanding are still in a juvenile
stage. 

If passing through Venice this summer, have a look at the work of Csorgo
Attilla, one of the artists from the Hungarian Pavilion in the Giardini.
The magic of his work is a good example for my above statement: it comes
from the extreme simplicity of both the visual and technical aspects of
the discourse, which makes obvious the techne just in order to let the
bewilderment free. 

Calin Dan

Rozengracht 105/D4
NL 1016 LV Amsterdam
t: + 31 (0)20 770 1432
f: + 31 (0)20 623 7760
calin@euronet.nl

http://www.v2.nl/v2-lab/hd