Dear all
Sorry I didn't read all your messages since one week, because of hectic days and a lot of current work, but while reading the subject and topic, maybe you could be interest in this : http://thing.nujus.net/
just an introduction :
I wrote this brief history after Summer'07 until Jan'08 because I pointed out we missed a "history" of The Thing, specially in France. I began some short investigations by probing my own archives but this requires now a serious exploration and edition. I stopped this article because of time's lack, but I began some online interviews with Wolfgang, Gh, Blackhawk... and asked for corrections.
The wiki thing.nujus.net is a basic one but sufficient for sharing edition. My idea is to propose you to share this publication and to add articles concerning The Thing. The process can be simple: only one psw for all thingists.... I can update the wiki system in order to have more features such as comments on articles, etc. It's hosted on nujus.net maintained by Gh and Peter Sinclair, and I guess Gh can do a nujus.net presentation (http://nujus.net/) on this list.
My two cents, briefly, concerning past, present, future TT :
- to publish online archives of The Thing (the main website - articles, forums, etc.), and all the projects hosted on the servers) is more a work for archivists and specialists of net-art conservation. I guess that, after Summer'07, most of TT artists continued online works and had found another hosting server (that was my case). I know that some organizations are very interested in net- art archive, in a scientific framework (such as for instance, Fondation Langlois and DOCAM in Montreal, etc. Wolfgang has got contacts with some of them in Germany and Austria).
- the public access to TT archives is very important for art fields, practices and research. We can't work without memory, even if the used medium is electronic and networked. The TT period ('91 to '07) corresponded mainly to static edition (websites, forums), and the current evolution goes since '00 to realtime activities and practices (but remember the Empire webcam by WS). For instance, my research and art domain concerns streaming, flux and Internet auditoriums (see Locus Sonus, http://locusonus.org/ and other projects I initiated : Collective JukeBox, nocinema.org, sobralasolas.org, picnic, etc.). The question of archive (or of recording/documentation) is at the core (even if we decide to avoid the question, it's still these), because we join also other art questions present for instance in the beginning of the XXth century (performances, radio, etc.), or in the 60s (live processes, etc.), or finally in the 80s/90s (live programming, intermedia, etc.). The Internet is a very nascent medium, and it's not disconnected from art history.
- Concerning the now, the questions about critical spaces, online spaces for experimentation, etc. have moved since the TT period. The context is not the same. But these questions remain with little shifts because current techniques permit more appropriation and "tuning" than ten or twenty years ago. But the development of critical spaces is still required, maybe more today than yesterday.
- The question of future TT is based, on my viewpoint, on questions concerning collective dynamics. TT was based on the practice of a community, even if this one wasn't orthodox. Does this (these) practice(s) is(are) today alive and pertinent ? What new collective forms and protocols can be common today ? A server ? a very large bandwith ? an activity map ? a common tag thru web 2.0, 3.0, etc. ? ...
So here are so brief notes, written on-the-fly but I promise, I'll read and post some feedbacks in reaction to your messages.... maybe I'll be able to develop in a next post, some ideas and sentences I swiftly wrote into this message...
And sorry for poor english...
best Jerome
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