Re: Syndicate: "why & how" to exhibit net art?

[melinda jørgensen <melinda@subtle.net>]

this is a more personal response from the "south" rather than the "east" or
"west " perspective to the general net.art discussuion which i find
particularly relavent..

it often feels to me that the practice of net.art is a community service
that net.artists provide, while either burning themselves out earning an
alternate income or living in a tragic electronic version of attic poverty,
and the main issue regarding exhibiting net.art is unencubmered payment for
artists.

Why should net.artists bother putting work in net.shows when they are not
getting any income from it?  for the love of it? so you are accessable to
new audiences? so the CV gets bigger? on egalitarian principle? I have
chosen to workonline because its the nervous system of our planet, however
I only get paid  if my net.work is shown on a moniter or data projected
within a gallery context. no matter how many fancy web shows i can put on
my CV, or if my freely available work is used for teaching in universities,
or written about internationally, i dont recieve any financial benifit. i
can feel flattered, but it doenst pay my isp account.

 Therefore i must fleshily speak for my work,  (as apparently net.art is
valueless if it speaks for itself) and write of my work, creating an even
greater information glut in our gluttonous age. the other alternatives
..endless self promotion...gambling that a  government committee likes my
sales pitch for financial support, or a friendly art jury awards me a prize
for fitting into their adgenda.  I'd like to see painters having to stand
up next to thier flat rectangular things explaining them to viewers in
galleries before they recieved token payment.

>the net artist should demand the same treatment
Last year i gave a paper about my work and virtual identity at a glamorous
academic and media industry conference. i was attached to a university at
the time and they paid the substantial registration fee, i paid all other
costs.  My paper was published online and in print, but payment wasn't an
option..presentation and publication was situated  generally as  one of
thoes "opportunities" to which we as net.artists are passively positioned -
-to have a choice to demand payment implies at least two alternatives which
have equal value. Frequently it is either do it for free; or piss off
cause there are 10 people eagerly standing behind you who will. There is no
unity, no security.. strike and starve, or work for free and still starve
but  maybe you'll get something later. This isnt choice.

there arent large individual or instutional patrons in this isolated island
enonomy i live in, and government support, although it has its problems,
enables net.art  to survive. ive been lucky this year with grants and have
gotten to go to polar and meet some of you, and have my next site
supported. But this is not consistant income from what is my job, ie
net.artist, which i believe is a necessary profession in our global virtual
society, which deserves to have a liveable income just like any other
professsion.

Artists initiatives and  independent curators who circumvent the dominance
of govt and institution and resource money from somewhere (what a great
talent to have!) to pay net.artists for net only shows are the only "free"
future of net.art and deserve to be supported, and of course they will
learn as they go, and of course some of them will have no idea what they
are involved with, but i hope the better informed will survive and succeed.
and we will all benifit.

melinda jorgensen/rackham


 melinda  jørgensen
   www.subtle.net