Re: <nettime> *korporat fasc!zt net art questionnaire!*

[Joel Westerberg <tux@powerbase-alpha.com>]

> 1) How do you currently support you net art practice?

I work on my netart project (Powerbase Alpha) with a friend. We spend a 
lot of our spare time developing our net art vehicle.

> 2) Do you believe that commercialisation is having an adverse effect 
> on net art?

No, commercialisation is cool. It works in the same way as state money
(or any other funding for that matter). Commercial interests arent
necessary bad or unjust, sure they have their quirks, but it's no worse
than other interests.

> - If so, what are the determining characteristics of net art that are
>  being compromised?

The agenda of the corporation (and in the case of state funding: the
state) is reflected in the work of art as percieved by the viewer
(consciously and unconsciously). This happens all the time, however. A
trick to get away from this compromisation is run your own show. Net.art
can be done with very little means, lots of unpaid work, devotion and
the exhibition can be open 24/7. Unpaid net.art can have other agendas,
which can be more interesting than established net.art (athough the
agendas are often as boring and prefabricated as the commercial/state
ones).

> 3) Is there something like a discrete net art object which can be 
> bought or sold?

... hm. The computer to view it perhaps. a lot of my friends don't have
computers, and can't afford them (or afford to cut down on other
expenses like drinks and such things) so they live without net.art. It
could be possible to sell a computer, preset to view a particular work
of net.art as a net.art object.

> 4) Does the sale of a piece of net art necessarily alter the work in 
> and of itself?

No, not unless it is taken down from the web, or that the sale get's a
lot of (bad/positive) attention.

> 5) Do you believe that institutions should get involved in the 
> preservation of "classic' net art works?

Why not? It is a librarians nightmare to archive a changing web, but I
think that it is good that people collect and organise history. A part
of the charm of preserving net art works could be to keep them at the
original location, but backing them to archive safe media. Producing
anthology CD-ROMs is another approach that I welcome.

> 6) Is obsolescence an inherent characteristic of net art?

???

> 7) To your knowledge, what is the highest price ever fetched for a 
> piece of net art? What was the artwork in question?

I have never heard of sold net art until a friend bought access to  
hell.com.

> 8) How do you see the privatisation of the Internet affecting net art?

A lot of cheesy labour-intense graphic artworks is getting more and more
attention. It's starting to look like Hollywood! Just because it cost a
lot, and very talented graphics people worked their asses off in a
sweatshop doesn't mean it's good (or relevant) art.

> 9) Do you consider the Internet to be a public or private sphere?

The internet is the void. You put out endless of time into it and
sometimes cool stuff comes out of it. I don't think I can apply a
public/private approach to the net, I'm not sure it's domestisised
enough to be public or private, yet.

> 10) How does your answer to question 9 influence your opinions about the
> State's responsibility toward funding net art?

The state should support net art to create it's art sphere on the net,
but other spheres will exist... the battle is between which does get
the most attention (i.e. which one becomes a working human environment
where people define part of their reality and interact).

> 11) How important has the Open Foundation's patronage been to net art's
> development?

???

best,

-joel
-- 

 [========--------------------------=========]
 |   Joel Westerberg                         |
 |   Art Director                            |
 |   Powerbase Alpha Productions             |
 |   http://www.powerbase-alpha.com          |
 [========--------------------------=========]

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