THE SHADOW OF THE NETS |
EXHIBITING WITHIN THE NET Out of a chaos of arguments and conjectures about the future, the
subject of the nets - especially Internet - continues to open up a whole
new set of multiple perspectives and, at the same time, to arouse criticism.
Next to the growing enthusiasm rising from a now tangible union between
net connectivity and virtual reality (VRML, Shockwave, Real Audio, etc.),
together with the enormous interest which the nets continue to draw from
the scientific community, thanks to the growing opportunities of research
synergies and social applications, we are currently witnessing - no use
denying it - a situation of increasing concern: overloads of indiscriminate
information, possible psychological disturbances and paradoxical expectations
of blackouts are but a few of the most frequent reasons of doubt.It is very
hard, even for those who insist on the creative and communicative aspects
of the net, to ignore such alarming derivatives as viruses, acts of piracy,
repressive and censorial actions by the governments, misuses by a more or
less organized criminality. THE ARTISTIC APPROACH In the light of the above, the seminar aims at inserting a few probes into the intangible but nevertheless real territories of the nets, including some metaphorical shadows which stems from them and often elude analysis. The perspective, as in the tradition of all the work done by the people who have gathered around the ARSLAB project in this last decade of the XXth Century (from the exhibitions of "ARSLAB 1 - Methods and Emotions", Mole Antonelliana, Turin, 1992, and "ARSLAB 2 - The Senses of the Virtual", Promotrice Belle Arti, Turin, 1995, to the seminars - once again in Turin - "Artistic intuition and artificial environment" and "The new artificial reality", Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, 1993 and 1995) is that of artistic experimentation, of crossings of boundaries between languages, of interchanges of reference systems and metaphors. Once again, as it has often happened with artistic experimentation, different works, projects and theoretical considerations will help to trigger off the question whether art, from visual art to music and literature, is able to send off forewarning signals, possible solutions, chances of progress. Is the connective system of the nets, with its lights and shadows, really producing an epistemological fracture before our "traditional" expressive languages? Which are the actual tangible accomplishments offered us by artists, considered in a wide sense, who work in the net or who in any case put connectivity among their principal objectives? THE SYMPOSIUM During the seminar, various artistic experiences will be presented
and, from his "Netville"
outpost, Giorgio Vaccarino will outline some examples of these increasingly
flowing texts and connecting "landscapes": "if the traditional
forms of urban elements are more and more loosing their capability of being
recognized, the cities should, as soon as possible, offer accesses to the
virtual world, through the sites which are traditionally aimed to the urban
communication; monuments and places must become the plastic interfaces
with the numerical space". This symposium will include a few preliminary meetings: THE RESEARCH On the whole, the survey promoted by the ARSLAB Project Committee
and the other events mentioned up to now, are all part of a wide research
promoted by the ARSLAB Committee in view of the next exhibition, which should
take place in Turin in 1998. One of the first outlines of the research,
of which the meeting in Paris on the 19th of October 1996 at the Cité
(La Villette) represents a preliminary stage, proposes at the opening phase
three main leads: the codes, the interfaces and the rizomatic paths in art.
The symposium "The Shadow of the Nets" is supported by the the Cultural Council of the City of Turin. Production: Arslab Project Committee, Turin. Contribution to the Symposium: Technical and service collaboration: Information about Arslab 3 project: With theArsLab Committee are collaborating: |