Is cyber space the new public art space?

-- Giovanna Lucy Inserra (fina@melbpc.org.au), April 12, 1998

Answers

Who said it has to be either or? Why not put the cyberart in the public space as an element of public art? That is what we are trying to do with the NY WWW Fair (www.100.org). Come visit and see.

Why not help artists to enlighten their neighbors that if there is no truly public space, both art and social life will begin to wither and die like plants without light? Do you know that the Mayor of this city, New York, this very day, declared that all 400 of the community gardens will be taken over and closed down? Exhibit B: Even though there is a 2 Billion dollar surplus, the funding for 450 small arts groups is being cut in half (While the largest only get cut by 20%). Small is erasable. Mere people are expendable...only institutions can survive. Like bloody hell.

It is time for us to be as creative in our politics as we are in our art or our lives. Old solutions drown and dilute. Let's not piss away this world on the odd chance that it's the only one we'll ever have. We have the tools now to energize a new community of caring and effective agents for change of the kind that liberates the life forces and preserves the hard-fought-for values that truly matter. Art=generosity of spirit. Outlaw greed or suffer the consequences.

-- steve stollman (stollman@echonyc.com), May 01, 1998.

No

-- hartanto (hhartanto@yahoo.com), May 06, 1998.

Cyber space is a public space. It can be a place for public art in many ways. One example is given in a recent project of mine - "Mi Casa es Tu Casa/My House is Your House" a networked virtual reality between the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City and the Children's Museum of San Diego. You can get an overview of the project at: http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~sheldon/micasa.html

-- Sheldon Brown (sgbrown@ucsd.edu), July 17, 1998.

To ask "is cyber space the new public art space" is not the real issue. To even phrase this question as to infer that public art must exist in either the physical or digital world limits the discussion and narrows the scope of possibilities. The question should be "how can we take public art to the web and make it work."

The most successful public art projects have two things in common: (1) the project's sensitivity to the community and (2) the artist's use of the location as an integral part of the project's content. On average, the majority of public art on the web hasn't fully divorced itself from traditional structures (books, 'zines, drawing, collage, etc.). Likewise, other than for the sake of novelty, most public art on the web could easily exists in these traditional structures with minimal deterioration of the artist's intent.

When a new medium is developed, the knee-jerk reaction is to blindly adapt the old methods for use with the new medium. Habitually, we "play it safe": experimenting with comfortable modes of production until we are adept enough to begin pushing the medium's possibilities. This is fine, up to a point. However, there comes a time when the medium must be explored critically. We must stand back and objectively assess the role of public art in the context of the www. Until this is accomplished, public art on the web will remain, at best, a way to document traditional projects. At worst, it will be perceived as a gimmick.

Jon Lapointe Los Angeles, CA

-- Jon Lapointe (sanjobananjo@earthlink.net), August 09, 1998.

Yes, we believe that this space is the new art space. You are here reading this, I rest my case.

We are three contextual artists ones got a willy the other two haven't. We believe that the internet is "the new punk rock - any one can do it!" - Spermchaser, Bristol, England 1998.

This is a load of tree huggin' hippy crap, fat ass! - Cartman 1998.

-- Jessamine Houston (jess_houston@btinternet.com), September 29, 1998.

Yes, cyber space is a new public art space, but it is not geographical or visual space, it is a new type of 'non' space which suggests a new possibility for public art. The internet needs to be accessible to more people before it can be considered public.

-- Hayley Dagg (EDAGGHS@cc.curtin.ed.au), November 03, 1998.

I think that the question takes it for granted that there are separations between public and private spaces and also separations between art and something that would be 'not art'. My thoughts are that everything is art. Art is everywhere.Asfar as I know space is everywhere I dont know how to make the separations. My other thought on this question is - If the answer turned out to be no would art in cyberspace cease to exist? I think the question really is will art in Cyberspace be validated by those with the power to define reallity?

-- laura carey (robert.rocknroll@mail.cybase.co.uk), April 15, 1999.

I wonder if someone asked this question when the radio was invented? And or film? The difference here lies in the democratic potential of cyberspace.. Millions of people have access to participate and speak equally. So far it is the most public of all spaces.. Adding a welcome dimension to the possibility of an international participatory public art forum..

-- lyn fatalo (lfatalo@aol.com), August 09, 1999.

http://www.geocities.com/experimentsinart/freedom.html

-- marcus telling (kennedyatsea@hotmail.com), March 06, 2000.

Magnificent! Mysterious! A Masterpiece! Don't miss this rare opportunity to enter Zlobecsports's world where its masterful blending of realism and symbolism exerts a grip as powerful today as it did when first performed. This may be your only chance to encounter Zlobecsport's haunting classic. www.zlobecsport-amateurs.com

-- ZlobecsportAMATEURS (zlobecsportamateurs@netlane.com), October 13, 2001.

visit:http://www.technion.ac.il/~ravi/

-- avi rosen (avi@siglab.technion.ac.il), March 14, 2002.