DIGITAL STUDIES: BEING IN CYBERSPACE (1997)
At one point, Amerika remembers thinking "if they
won't do it, maybe we should," followed by another
thought that "there's no reason for them to do
it, since we are already doing it anyway." Who
is they/them? The institutional art world, of course.
When Amerika had the idea of an online exhibition featuring
only net art, that is, work created specifically for
this new medium, he figured it would a) be easy and
b) by being easy, create a model that would essentially
make it clear that exhibiting net art fundamentally
challenges what an institutional exhibition context
is all about. Rhizome provocateur Alex Galloway agreed
to co-curate the show with Amerika for Alt-X, and "Digital
Studies: Being In Cyberspace" was born. Issues
they addressed include "What is net art?",
"How can one experience this work in an online-only
exhibition context?" and "What is a digital
object?" Within two and half years, net art would
be featured in major museum spaces including the Whitney
Biennial. |
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