Information
Technology
Descriptions & Essays
Net-Project
The "Telematic Manifesto" is a participatory, collectively-generated Net Document that articulates a vision for the future of Telematic Art as a socio-cultural force in the 21st century. This project investigates Telematic Art as the synthesis of art, culture, and global telecommunications, and its promise for a revitalized artistic expression resulting from an inherent interconnectedness catalyzing aesthetic, technological, philosophical, and cultural transformation.
The "Telematic Manifesto" recontextualizes the ideologies and ambitions of aborted avant-garde movements whose efforts to bring about artistic, cultural, and political change through collective action - from the Italian Futurists to the Surrealists, from the International Faction of Constructivists to Fluxus - lay dormant as unfinished business at the close of the Century.
History has also shown that the evolution of computer science has tended towards collective action: the dream of a free exchange of information and new forms of human and technological collaboration. From Norbert Wiener's seminal theories on the science of "Cybernetics" to J.C.R. Licklider's research in "Man-Computer Symbiosis," to Douglas Engelbart's creation of a networked information space designed for the "Augmentation of Human Intellect" that would "Boost the Collective IQ," these visionary scientists laid the groundwork for an emerging medium that is now transforming every aspect of human expression.
In an effort to define and engage these artistic, scientific, and cultural forces of change, the "Telematic Manifesto" serves as a conceptual framework articulating the collective, cross-disciplinary ideologies of a group of artists, theorists, critics, curators and scientists at the transition into the Millennium.
Throughout the ZKM Net_Condition exhibition, an email list and threaded discussion introduced a series of themes intended to frame historical, philosophical, technical and aesthetic issues surrounding Net Art. The email dialogue was uploaded daily into an automatized writing space/bulletin board viewable by exhibition visitors on the Web.
The resultant texts have been organized, archived and published as the "Telematic Manifesto," a hypertextual, Web-based Net Document that provides a Millennial record and collective statement proclaiming the future implications of Telematic Art: its transformative properties, aesthetic issues, virtualizing forces, historical significance, and potential for generating a new artistic sociopolitical ethic in the broad context of a rapidly evolving networked culture. (source: http://telematic.walkerart.org/datasphere/packer_index.html)
Literature
Exhibitions & Events