[artinfo] Net Art and After

[art-agenda]

Spike Art Quarterly
Issue 49 

Net Art and After

"Anxiety" is set against "Banality" in a 2007 
work by artist Guthrie Lonergan, where "Net Art 
1.0" is opposed to a nascent post-internet. 
Mapping the shift from the hacker ethos of the 
90s to the social-media art of today to the 
blockchain utopias of the coming nerd reich, this 
issue of Spike revisits the dreams of a different 
(art) world and charts the entanglements of art 
and technology since the internet went public 
nearly 30 years ago.

In a collaborative look back at 90s net.art 
titled "The First Life of Net Art," UBERMORGEN, 
JODI, Vuk åosiç, and Olia Lialina respond to four 
theses about net.art by Italian curator and 
critic Domenico Quaranta, offering an embedded 
view of artists' first engagement with the 
internet. They consider whether net.art was the 
last avant-garde, recall their exhilaration at 
being "the first to run in the snow," and explain 
the circumstances of net.art's so-called death. 
JODI gets the last word: "Ne.ARt has_the 
Emo&MindPOWWWer=- FOREVER//WRONG=STRONG 
/EERRR >>>?????"
http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/articles/netart

In " A Cyber Memorial," Claire L. Evans writes 
about Shu Lea Cheang's groundbreaking Brandon, a 
1998 web commission by the Guggenheim.
http://brandon.guggenheim.org  Memorialising a 
murdered 22-year-old trans man, a nonlinear 
narrative of gender, violence and technology 
unfolds in pop-ups, livestreamed conferences, and 
chat rooms. The 1990s are also at the center of 
an interview with Konrad Becker by Felix Stalder 
about the Vienna-based digital culture platform 
Public Netbase, and the starting point for a 
roundtable discussion with Tilman Baumgärtel, 
Josephine Bosma, and Stephan Schwingeler, which 
brings us into the present with a critical glance 
at the Berlin Biennial and the potential of 
hacker and maker culture today. In "The Second 
Life of Net Art," Melissa Gronlund takes 90s net 
art as a foil to critically examine post-internet 
art and the problems it faces navigating the art 
world's systemic bias towards the unique work.
http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/articles/one-work-0

In an expansive interview, Richard Birkett talks 
to Hilary Lloyd about her theatrical use of 
Unicol mounts, the turn to digital animations in 
her recent work, and the erotics of projected 
light. Katharine Stout writes on ideas of 
flatness and juxtaposition in the work of Guan 
Xiao. Looking at how technology carries the seeds 
of the conflicts of the future, Ben Vickers 
writes on the hard fork of the DAO and other 
consequences of the "world computer" Ethereum. 
Harry Burke writes on his hopes for an expanded 
digital publishing that transcends the confines 
of the printed book. Andrew Berardini meditates 
on humankind's first encounters with technology. 
And Sarah Thornton sends a postcard from Silicon 
Valley.

In the "Questions" rubric, Harm van den Dorpel 
gives us his take on the future of the internet, 
while Peter Weibel talks about how technology is 
changing the museum and Julia Stoschek explains 
the challenges of exhibiting digital art. Brian 
Holmes gives some pointers to how 7 billion 
interconnected bodies can resolve an endless 
crisis.

Also: Constant Dullaart explains what he admires 
about the KLF, Borna Sammak, Suzanne Treister, 
Alexandra Leykauf, and Pilvi Takala. Yongwoo Lee, 
Director of the Shanghai Himalayas Museum, writes 
on Yang Fudong's film The Light That I Feel 
(2014) as this issue's "Curator's Key." Plus: for 
the column "The End Is Night," Natasha Stagg 
writes on the love lost between fame and 
friendship at the Cafeteria in New York.

In the "Views" section, Chris Sharp responds to 
the Berlin Biennial; Joanna Fiduccia writes on 
the shock of seeing Five Car Stud in "Ed and 
Nancy Kienholz" at the Fondazione Prada, and 
there's further coverage of the most important 
exhibitions in Vienna, Graz, Munich, Berlin, St. 
Gallen, Zurich, Paris, Antwerp, New York, and Los 
Angeles.

Plus an image portfolio with contributions by 
Thomas Ruff, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Kathleen 
Daniel, Eva Grubinger, and Julien Ceccaldi.

http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/issue/49-autumn-2016

The next issue of Spike will be out in December. 
In the meantime, we hope you'll give us an okay 
American President, even if you're an 
accelerationist.