Is precedent important?

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Virtual Street Corners

From the home page of Virtual Street Corners, a public art project by John Ewing with Boston Cyberarts & the Knight Foundation

This project looks great, and I’m excited to see it, but I do hope that by launch time there is at least some acknowledgment of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz’s pioneering Hole In Space (1980) project between LA and New York, which informed their LA Olympics original Electronic Cafe (1984), which had some of the same explicit goals of creating virtual discourse and sociability between geographically divided neighborhoods.

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Hole In Space, 1980. Via Media Art Net.

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Hole In Space, 1980. Via Media Art Net.

Maybe I’m wrong to want this acknowledgment. I’m ambivalent about artists having to be art historians. It’s not their job, even though most I know are incredibly knowledgeable about the history of their practice. I also don’t believe that “first” is synonymous with “better” or that no one else should use scrolling, LED text because Jenny Holzer has. But Kit and Sherrie have 30 years of remarkable experience thinking about and putting into practice some of the same goals and challenges as Virtual Street Corners, which I hope the creators have learned from.

Robert Adrian X shares Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

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Nam June Paik Art Center (under construction). Photo S. Dietz

Nam June Paik Art Center (under construction). Photo S. Dietz

As much as I complain about the non-intersection of the so-called contemporary art world and the art formerly known as new media world, recently a prestigious international jury consisting of Hank Bull, executive director of Center A in Vancouver; Doryun Chong, associate curator at The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Udo Kittelman, director of the National Galleries, Berlin; Tetsuo Kogawa, artist and professor at Keizai University, Tokyo; and Barbara Vanderlinden, Belgian curator and author,  selected media pioneer Robert Adrian X to split the $50,000 Nam June Paik Art Center  Award with Eun-me Ahn, Ceal Floyer and Seung-taek Lee.

Robert Adrian and Otto Mittmannsgruber coordinating fax and telephone exchange with Vienna. The World in 24 Hours.

Robert Adrian and Otto Mittmannsgruber coordinating fax and telephone exchange with Vienna. The World in 24 Hours.

Adrian participated in what was arguably the first telematic art conference, Artists’ Use of Telecom (1980) (as did Hank Bull), helped organize and support ARTEX (1980-90) the Artists’ Electronic Exchange Project, organized The World in 24 Hours at Ars Electronica (1982), helped organize and support Planetary Network, a telecommunications project for the Venice Biennale XLII (1986), among many, many other projects.

Congratulations to Robert! And the Nam June Pak Art Center.

Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

Call for Art Exploring Real-Time Connectedness

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Call for Proposals: “Live Bits”

Ars Electronica invites artists and scientists to submit proposals for new and novel ways to connect, in real time, people to people and people to environments in different physical locations. The goal is to expand and explore meaningful exchanges between remote groups of people.

The one essential requirement for all proposals is “live bits:” real-time digital information via any network, of any viable quantity, and in any modality. In addition to symmetrical two-way communication, asymmetrical two-way communication and even one-way communication will be considered as long as a live component is present. “Fresh” and “canned” bits, as well as physically transported objects, may also be incorporated.

We will award up to 20 commissions of 10,000 EUR each. But you must act quickly and we will reciprocate.

Deadline for submission is 31 October 2008

Notification of recipients will be 30 November 2008.

The commissions must be completed by June 2009, for inclusion in “80+1: A Journey Around the World,” an 80(+1) day event in the Linz Main Square and the Ars Electronica Centre, 18 June – 6 September 2009, for Linz09, European Capital of Culture.

Full details here.