Agricola de Cologne

Netart

Art on the Net – 2001-2002-2003
Machita City Museum of Graphic Arts Tokyo


The Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts

About the “Art on the Net” project

The Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Tokyo (MCMOGATK) locates on the outskirts of Tokyo megalopolis. Its collection consists of 16000 of printed artworks from western and eastern world.

The Museum is also notorious for its art festival on the Internet. It has been steering “Art on the Net,” a project using the Internet as a space for artistic expression. Since 1995, this project has been calling on artists around the world to think together what the relationship between the Internet and art could be. On the seventh year in 2002, under the theme “9.11,” we were able to see artists from 20countries taking part in the project. In the past seven years, technology and theme used for the project represented the changes and developments of the relationship between the art and the Internet.

Art on the Net 2001


Art on the Net 2002



Art on the Net 2003

*Art Of Torture – Art against Torture – NCCA Kaliningrad (Russia)
Seconds: Forever 2001

ART OF TORTURES AND EXECUTIONS – ART AGAINST TORTURES AND EXECUTIONS

THE CONCEPT

The project “ART OF TORTURES AND EXECUTIONS – ART AGAINST TORTURES AND EXECUTIONS” represents the open social network art communication on the given problem exhibited and realised in different forms of human activity

Open
Free access of the participants in the project despite of the active invitation of separate persons. Besides the openness is considered by the network nature of the project, large format and medial level of the subject.

Social
The “sociality” is dictated by the actual problematic level of real life in notifying the phenomenon of tortures and execution. Strengthening of contrast in the world between polar anthropogenous formations occurs with larger acceleration, increasing a gap between them. On one pole there exists functional-mechanised technogenious type of a human being, on the other one – practically not even changed for elapsed millenniums the primitive societies. The space between them is occupied by a great deal of ethno-confessional groups; among the number of general factors unifying them the most significant and expressive ones are attributive-ritualised tortures and execution.

The social aspects may include the verifying result received on the final stage of the project as statistically representation information about social-cultural human activity on the concrete item.

Besides the conflict dual stand of the man as entities reasonable (Homo Sapience) is trusted to the basis of the project. On the one hand is the center of cruelty, it is most refined “machine” of violence and destruction; with another – is an institute of the law and protection, engaging problems of an ecology and preservation.

Network
Network – is the most friendly intermedial communicative shape of relationships and connections. In connection with the off-the-shelf delivery devices of the information, the mobility of obtaining of news, total propagation of networks on a civilized world are augmented of involving by the mass audience in possession of having the information (knowledge). And, simultaneously, there is an alignment of the privileges of the State in inviolability, obtaining, forwarding and broadcasting of the information.

Art
According to the definition the institutionalized Center for Contemporary Art initializing and bringing the given project to the society deals with art. Defining the project as art but not multicultural one and inviting to participate all creative and intellectual persons and collectives that are able to make art-reflection on the given problem actual in different spheres of the society, the author of the project is a field receptor and consequently the environment begins to react on it realizing in a form of art events. Locally artistic implementation of the topic in the supposed borders may vary, clone, mutate, dissolve and concretize in local discourse space.

“Tortures and executions”
It is senseless to philosophize by concept of violence as a category, the presence of which one is total in material life by virtue of natural or, if it is necessary, godhead–devilish origin.
The urgency for society gains a phenomenon of the truly and extremely human invention of contextually-applied violence. Practicing, the most advanced professional hangman, are in step with technical advance, innovating the means and methods, reaching thus of perfection and efficiency in the process of tortures, and frequently and highest humanity, killing without excruciating and pain. Those are the dialectics of infiltration of technical advance in the most private and intimate fields of human or antihuman activity.

“Art of tortures and execution”
The subject of aggression and violence in the field of art can be attributed to a general place, to the main stream of the today’s art scene. The subject of aggression and violence in the field of art can be attributed to a general place, to the main stream of the today’s art scene. Only lazy one has not cut to itself veins publicly, or – it is even better – to the partner on the workshop. On the traditionally worn out problem: “Where is boundary between art and life?”, today even “not advanced” one, not at all intellectual responds: “Everywhere and anywhere” or “Where we’ll marked it, there also will be”.

“Art against tortures and execution”
Promoting the given subjects in public artistic consciousness the curators of the project again and again urge the participants of event to interpret design idea and through the creativity to call a public resonance in society against violence of anthropogenous origin.



Art on the net


There are different definitions what “netart” might be, the most plausible one is related to two aspects – art and net (net = Internet – net=network). For Agricola de Cologne netart has its right to exist only when the piece of art is based on Internet specific technology to be used therefore only when it is located on the net. The Internet means public space for them who have access to the net, and the work is accessible for free, in terms of without payment and/or password. Netart, however does not mean, that an artist has to be restricted to one certain topic – the Internet and related issues, including certain dogmatic ideologies. One has to consider the entire spectrum of art on the net, in order to find out, how artists find their individual use of art and the net.
But in the year 2020, exactly this is not possible any longer for different reasons. Many of the artists active during the years 1998-2008 are not active any longer and not only the artists, but also their works vanished without any trace, but also all instances hosting such artworks and therefore also the hosted artworkes vanished from the net.

The failure of netart – the failure of technology

Additionally not only the artists and/or their art works vanished, but also the technology/software/plugins used at a certain time vanished due to the technological progress, software/browsers became obsolete and were replaced by mostly new, mostly incompatible applications. An artist using these technologies had to keep himself updated continuesly – offering new chances, but also disadvantages. Therefore, it would be better to discontinue using the term “netart”, at all.

One crucial point of the technololy based art form “netart” is the technology, as such, or more precisely the fact, that especially the popular technology (software) was provided by commercial companies following their own commercial/monetary success and development, whiLe on the other hand all attempts failed to replace the commercial applications through a licence-free technology.
There was the contraction between the conceptual ideas and the reality.

Artists creating art on the net were preferably using the software – Shockwave and Flash by Macromedia – until this software company and its software development was taken over by the competitor and software giant ADOBE, resulting the slow decline of this multi-media software, until both software applications/their support were discontinued after 2018.

Concerning his comprehinsive individual work, Agricola de Cologne created for the net, all is executed in Flash by Macromedia and therefore no work can be longer reviewed on the net. This is particularly good for the interactive works, but also for other ones developed in a linerar way like videos. However Agricola de Cologne Flash videos, mostly were non-linear programmed. For those linear works it was simple to convert them into current technologies like video mp4, all other non-linear developed works are affected from the art overkill ADOBE decided for.

All works however can be displayed and exhibited offline, but then they loose their status to be “netart”, because it is no more than a simulation, but the artwork itself is still existing, and therefore the previously used terminology “netart” is obsolete, as well, and one would better speak simply of multimedia works.

But Agricola de Cologne, respectively his virtual existence, has to be considered as netart, in so far his entire work as it is manifesting itself online, is representing “netart”.
All major projects are listed on http://agricola-de.cologne/projects/

This section, however, incorporates primarily the smaller interactive and streaming netart pieces, which were mostly realized in the framework of larger project environments like “A Virtual Memorial” , for instance.

Following recourses include also smaller netart works
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Videography – list of all created and produced videos – incorporates most smaller linear works & videos

List of works and the venues of screenings/presentations

Netart (2001-2007)
The net based works – created during this period were programmed in Flash – are taken from the net and remain in quarantine, however, they can be presented in physical space in their original state on request.

2007
Bareback – serial DIScharge (streaming)

2006
Home so near, Home so far – a meditation from Mapuche land (Streaming)

2005
Message from behind a Wall (streaming)
Family Portrait

2004
138 seconds of peace? (streaming)
Truth- Paradise found (streaming)
Inability of Being Nude (interactive)

2003
dreamtime:: (interactive)
en [code] ed (interactive)

2002
Italian Silence (interactive)
9.11. – The Triple Method (interactive)
Close Encounters (streaming)
Beyond all media (interactive)
TRUE LIES (streaming)
Urban.early sunday morning_raw (streaming)
]and_scape[ – interactive moving picture
My Pocket Camera (interactive)
Mother and Child Convention (interactive)
UP (interactive)

2001
Hans a true story (interactive)
Never wake up (streaming)
Transience – an atonal composition (interactive)
Watch: Seconds: Forever (streaming)
Identity of Colour (streaming)
Compressed Affair (interactive)
Redirection 1944 (streaming)
No individuality (streaming)
Karposi Park (streaming)