Re: <nettime> Two recent blog posts: Google-Art & Egypt

[Goran Maric <goranmaric58@hotmail.com>]

Sascha,

I read your comment, and was inclined to response by your sincere
concern regarding digital nature, coldness of JPEG, of actual works
that one might see On-LIne, in relation to the real life experience.
One and above all, the real time experience, physical face to
face interaction with any art work, will never be replaced by any
reproduction of the that experience, unless this reproduction in
itself is an artwork. It is an unfortunate reality of art. Many
artworks, discussions, writings have been done in this regard. I
believe that recreating a 3D is done in that regard to make it
accessible as much as possible though an indirect contact to an
artwork.

I am an artist and this has been a very serious issue, accessibility
and the role and relation between an artwork, viewer, and society.
For that reason I have utilized digital technology, and the Internet
as one of the main tools for art making because it provides an
inexpensive production, and accessibility on the wide range, WWW.

To conclude, when the materiality and logic of a new technology
becomes part of the artwork, its physical materiality, then it can be
considered that this technology was used to its full extent. I post a
link where you can find what I and my collaborator have done in this
regard, as the member of our art group, BESKONISTe'. Also would like
to share it with <nettime> world.



http://www.gmaric.com/gallery/beskoniste.html
(here one can find the explanation of what it is)

http://www.beskoniste.com/

Also, if you like to go to museum, keep doing it, for the most
of the work to be found there is made to be experience through a
physical presence of the viewer and the artwork. As of this moment
I do not want to engage in a critical discourse in regard to the
social roles of museum and or galleries, but rather to answer to
your concern, though I encourage that discussion to be done whenever
possible. Most of digital imagery you see through the museums', and
galleries databases are what they are, a database of the work that a
particular institution, or an individual own and or posses. Use it to
get familiar with an artwork, and if something sparks a particular
interest then engage in a more thorough research in regard to the art
and or artist. Most of them have personal web sites, contemporary
ones. And maybe one day you might be able to see that particular work.

And also I encourage you to learn and read about art as much as
possible... This place, <nettime>, can be quite a good resource in
this direction.



In regard to Egypt, my heart is with those people... In this regard, I
would like to make an analogy between art and democracy. Last night,
i watched at the Documentary channel story about Graffiti artist
throughout the world, South Aftrica, South America, Europe, and
neighborhoods, here, in the USA.

One might ask why am I putting it here, and how a graffiti art
can have any correlation with people's inclination throughout the
world to bring democracy to their countries. Well, when I saw the
difference between the graffiti art in South America, how those
artists approaches to graffiti art due to theirs social connotation
differ from the artist in the USA, I realized that people are doing
the same practice, really great, great works, yet they seem to be
quite different in regard to each other, for guys in Brazil have
somewhat different approaches, experiences and due to this their works
developed in the way suites their DNA best. That is the beauty of
diversity, though all of them are engaged in doing and making an exact
thing, Art, in more particular, Graffiti.

Now it is the same with democracy. It is really amazing to see how
the people of the world are trying to get rid of the tyrants in their
countries, and then build democratic societies. But those democratic
societies they want to build in the images of their own socio-economic
cultural experiences, and not in the exact image of the USA idea of
what democracy is. It all remind me of how Stalin was insisting that
world socialist revolutions should behave in a very strong accordance
with USSR,as a matter of fact, in exact matter as they would be
instructed by the USSR. I am coming from the Former Yugoslavia, and it
was Tito said NO to Stalin. But if there were not the US, who knows
how it would turn. Because of this independence of Tito's decision to
develop socialism in the images the people of the former Yugoslavia
wanted and not Stalin, a harsh economic sanctions have been exposed on
a small by WWII devastated country. Today, I do not see difference in
behavior of the US. The difficulty is that Stalin is replaced with a
quite vague image of the "democratic" system, in the pretty images of
Kennedy, Carter, Clinton or Obama, or in the images of even harsher
faces, Reagan and both Bush, which have been used to hide the interest
of few wealthy oligarchs.

While I am writing this I am not sure what is really going on over    
there, in Egypt. I see people slowly being pushed on one side by the  
forces of tyrants who are fighting back by counter-demonstrations     
implanted with military and or police powers, and on the other side   
is an even worse force, the force of this disgustingly hypocritical   
attitude of the USA government, and the Western Europe allies who     
are stating that Arab people are not capable of creating democratic   
societies. I believe I just read a post here, at <nettime> in         
this regard, I believe this came in a statement of a participant,     
Amr Bargisi and his article, "Egypt Doesn't Have a Democratic       
Culture" in a Symposium: "Where Should Egypt Go From Here"     
- by no other than The Wall Street Journal. Also it is interesting    
to read this Francis Fukuyama'sline, "Liberals Had Better Get      
Organized." I am wondering who those liberals are he is referring   
to?                                                                   

Now why it is important to ask this question. In an article in the
Guardina, Slavoj Zizek wrote "Why fear the Arab revolutionary
spirit" he attacked liberals, "The western liberal reaction to
the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia frequently shows hypocrisy and
cynicism" and while I was reading the responses in the Guardian
people would always ask whom do you, Zizek in particular, relate to
as liberals. Could Zizek be more specific? Are those liberals he is
referring the very same one Fukuyama is talking about? Well seeing
this WSJ Symposium, I could say that Zizek was more than right.

Anyhow to conclude with a paradox or not, (sorry but I've been living
in the US for 13 years now) you judge, the only leader that publicly
says it is time that Mubarak leaves is Turkey's PM, Erdogan.


Regards,

gORAN

  



> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 11:28:04 -0500
> From: sascha@sascha.com
> To: nettime-l@kein.org
> Subject: <nettime> Two recent blog posts: Google-Art & Egypt





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