March 1994, the exhibition “Nr. 36 Passage de Venus, expedition hollandaise pour Réunion” was held in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, a museum generally known as a natural history museum. The museum is typified by a certain intimacy: to view the exhibits, curtains must be pushed aside and later closed again. The intimacy is reflected in the details of the captions, which capture the spirit of the museum staff who have examined, described, and categorised the exhibits.
Passage de Venus, Expedition Hollandaise pour Réunion
The exhibition Nr. 36 Passage de Venus, imitates and exaggerates this love of detail and the intimate character of the museum. The hierarchy, however, is reversed: the material is not sought in the museum’s prize exhibits such as the electrostatic generator and the drawings of the old masters but rather in the very smallest of objects: in the captions and the cards. The museum has been transformed into a décor.
Ne cherchez pas à distinguer le vrai du faux
The reader is further perplexed by the texts which are too poetic, too intimate and sometimes too shocking to be ‘real’ museum cards, thereby questioning the objectivity and reliability of the authentic cards. In highlighting the linguistic aspect, a thread is woven through the museum. Where today museum cards strive towards a certain objectivity, entirely obscuring the identity of the author, this exhibition underlines the strictly personal and emotional character of a message.
MINI SYMPOSIUM NEoN Festival November 9, 2018 at 11:30 am – 4:30 pm Victoria and Albert Museum, Dundee Scotland With Martine Neddam, Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, Simon Meek and Daniel Herron
The mini symposium offers an opportunity for artists, academics, critics, theorists and practitioners to reflect on the current state of digital and new media art, and the wider theme of the festival. NEoN welcomes Tale of Tales to discuss their first videogame: The Endless Forest, a virtual world where people enjoy each other’s company regardless of language, status, age, gender or ethnicity, and Simon Meek, founder of The Secret Experiment, who is V&A Dundee’s first Designer in Residence and will share thoughts on his practice as a mixed-media storyteller. Chaired by Professor Sarah Cook (University of Glasgow).
About the Artists
Martine Neddam (NL) – is a native of France resident in Amsterdam since 1994, is an artist, research scientist and professor. She has been working with virtual characters since 1996, the first and most famous being Mouchette, a fictive thirteen-year-old, one of the earliest examples of Net Art.
Tale of Tales (BE) – Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn met online in the romantic age of cyberspace. Separated by an ocean they created applications that allowed them to touch among the wires. Samyn and Harvey are currently remaking The Endless Forest so that it can live another decade and provide a new generation of players with a joyful haven in cyberspace.
Simon Meek (UK) – V&A Dundee’s first Designer in Residence, mixed-media storyteller and founder and creative director of The Secret Experiment: videogame development studio and label of meaningful distractions. His most recent work, Beckett, is an abstract retelling of a missing person’s case where the investigator finds himself caught between the life he once had and that which he now lives.
Daniel Herron (UK) – Daniel’s research interests lie in how technology can positively impact life experiences, and his PhD work specifically focuses on how technology can support people in managing their digital things after a romantic relationship break up.
How to Do Art With Networks Thursday 26 November 2015 — 13:00 – 17:30 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Gym, Amsterdam A one-day-open market with workshops, lectures and performances
How To Do Art With Networks was a one-day-open market with workshops, lectures and performances that explored how networks are art. Curated by Annet Dekker, the event was built-up around artist Martine Neddam’s research for LAPS, the Research Institute for Art in Public Space of the Rietveld Academie. Several existing net-art-works served as catalysts allowing the public-participants an opportunity to share experiences and to experiment with platforms, tools, and media. Guest practitioners were Robert Sakrowski, Katrina Sluis, Anne Roquigny, Martine Neddam, Michael Murtaugh and Aymeric Mansoux.
Networks operate: they are decentralised and create connections. As such, their organisational structure distinguishes itself from the classic hierarchical systems. In line with this “How To Do Art With Networks” reconsidered the conventional form of the conference format and instead created the event as a “one-day-open market”. The venue was set-up as a workshop space. At different tables, participants could experiment with a variety of online tools developed by artists and curators. The audience was invited to examine these art-net-works and share their experiences with the artists and programmers. The research approach was to gain knowledge by doing. Art-in-networks were tested, new solutions were found and blind spots were identified. The open format leads to a wide range of questions, including: What are relevant practices for collaborative authorship? How can one maintain all the different elements within a net-art-work (archive, user interface, code, moderation, etc.)? On different levels, the event prepared the ground for further developments for art within networks.
The Research Institute for Art and Public Space (LAPS) generously supported the event and lector Jeroen Boomgaard added that the methodology of doing research together was an interesting format for research within an art school. One of the main benefits is that such a model offers engaged participation in the artistic process, a component of the work that usually remains invisible. On another level the conference contributed to the artistic research of LAPS, a research platform of the Rietveld that examines the role of art and design in the public domain. Art that uses the network as a medium is an interesting addition. Networked systems and online communities have become essential elements within our public space,
“How To Do Art With Networks” was organised to celebrate the launch of “MyDesktopLife”, a web-editing project initiated by artist Martine Neddam. It was Neddam’s aim to not only share the tool with others, but also to present it along side as part of a network of artists that were also interested in sharing their tools. The selected projects could all be seen as art-in-networks.
In the introduction to the event, a network was described as “linked structures and distribution systems that connect traces, projects and people”. As such these net-art-works function as online tools and the audience is not only invited to interact with the different artworks, but to use the tools for their own purposes and give suggestions for further developments. Most of these tools are available for free on the Web.
The following projects were presented: -Michael Murtaugh, “Active Archive” (since 2006) -Harm van den Dorpel, “Delinear.info” (since 2015) -Martine Neddam, “MyDesktopLife” (since 2014) -Anne Roquigny, “WJ-S” (since 2005) -Robert Sakrowski, “Curating YouTube/Gridr” (1997, 2007)
Besides these projects, there were two lectures that addressed some of the topics around art-in-networks: -Aymeric Mansoux, “From code art brutalism to web apps: the strange dérive of networked art practices” -Katrina Sluis, “Image Exhaust: Pictures vs. Imaging Systems”
During “How To Do Art With Networks” the net-art-works were not only presented, but more importantly, they all acted as catalysts for exploring different perspectives and potentials for further development. The remainder of this report summarises some of the insightful reflections that were shared during the day.
Robert Sakrowski
Art historian and curator Robert Sakrowski traced the tradition of the grid as a form to work with a quantity of information and comparative viewings. To expand on the traditional concept of the grid, which is usually understood as a collection of static pictures, Swarovski developed a tool that applies the grid to moving images. The online tool “Gridr.org” makes it possible to browse through different screens at the same time. It offers opportunities to not only compare images, but also, to rethink narrative structures. “Gridr.org” can also be used in multiple contexts: curating, creating soundscapes, or live performances.
Katrina Sluis reflected on the functioning of art in networks in her presentation “Image Exhaust: Pictures vs. Imaging Systems”. From her experience as a curator at ThePhotographers‘ Gallery (London) she analysed the relationship between photography and fine art and in particular how the value of photography changed with the emergence of digital culture. With the merging of photography and the Web, the image was no longer unique and singular, but absorbed in a stream of data that is continuously circulating. This raised new questions about how to comprehend these ‘networked images’ and how to renegotiate our relationships with them. The network is an apparatus that connects people, inside and outside the gallery, but also on the Web. Sluis emphasised the importance of approaching the digital not only as a tool, but also as a knowledge system and culture.
Anne Roquigny and James Hudson
Media arts curator Anna Roquigny and programmer James Hudson presented the online tool “WJ-S”, which they described as “a mix of the Internet in real time”. Within a collaborative playlist multiple users can add and share their online content (by a simple drag and drop mechanism). The tool was created in order to translate individual or collective surfing towards a physical environment (gallery, conference, festival). This translation from the online towards the offline space turns browsing into a spectacle. Events were organised all over the world in collaboration with artists, curators and participants. All were invited to play and perform with this tool. These events were further used to inform participants on how to use the software and to share experiences in order to improve it.
Alternating workshops and lectures
The web-editing software “MyDesktopLife” originated from Martine Neddam’s artistic practice. Neddam is a pioneer of Net Art. She has experienced how personal creations on the Web are increasingly restricted by formats used in websites like Word Press and Facebook. The tool “MyDesktopLife” gives some freedom back to the users by offering possibilities for web editing, such as the creation of layered images and narrative structures within the browser. The prototype of “MyDesktopLife” was supported by a research grant from ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, in Karlsruhe). The next step is to share this tool, for which a content management system (CMS) has been made. Anyone can register, use the prototype and become part of the community, which in turn, will contribute to further developing the tool.
Artist Harm van den Dorpel is rethinking the structures of our (social) databases. “Delinear.info” breaks with the linear and chronological organisation of most social media platforms. Users can follow each other and and can expand upon each other’s thoughts. Again, the tool came about through van der Dorpel’s own artistic practice, as he could not find a suitable tool for storing his collection of images, ideas and texts. Jan Robert Leegte described “Delinear.info” as a “multi user image building site”. It is a live database, free and dynamic, and most importantly, connects different knowledge areas and people. In this way, it functions like an ecosystem. Within the database there is no distinction between content and navigation.
Michael Murtaugh is a member of Constant Art & Media in Brussels and co-initiator of their project “Active Archives”, which is a project that aims to create a free software platform to connect various (institutional) practices. Constant critically reflects on which software cultural institutions use and what implications that has, in terms of authorship, copyrights, etc. Murtaugh offered valuable reflections on online collaborations and how we can reclaim the tools we use such collaborations rely on. Among others he creates his own local networks with PirateBox. A PirateBox is a portable electronic device for storing information and for creating a wireless network that allows users who are connected to share files anonymously and locally. This device is disconnected from the Internet. For the conference Murtaugh created a hotspot with a dead drop interface, which could be used as an intranet within the Rietveld building.
Artist, musician and media researcher Aymeric Mansoux shared his reflections on the theme “How to do art with networks?” and suggested the rephrasing “How to do art within networks?”. He emphasised that networks are not only about “making” something, but also about the relationships between humans and non-humans, and about the power struggle between different rules. He then went on to examine how art was made within or outside existing systems. Artists have always been forced to develop their own systems, but is it possible to truly escape the existing ones? He took the manifesto of the art movement “Copyleft” as an example of how escaping a system is extremely difficult, especially since we do not have a relationship with one, but many systems.
“How To Do Art With Networks”is curated by Annet Dekker and co-organized by Martine Neddam. Production support was done by Sietske Roorda (LAPS). Alina Lupu and Vitya Glushchenko were responsible for all the designs.
“How To Do Art With Networks”has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Lectoraat Art & Public Space (LAPS).
Turkmenbashi Mon Amour is a filmic-composition of image, text and sound, which portrays the cult of personality built around the figure of Turkmenbashi in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. The piece is a response to a three-day visit by Neddam to Ashgabat during travels along the Silk Road.
Vimeo registration of the Flash work with japanese subtitles
The piece has a striking audio-visual structure. Photographs that Neddam took while in the city, documenting the many colossal monuments depicting Turkmenbashi, and which were erected during his presidency (from 1991 when Turkmenistan gained independence, to 2005, the year he passed away) serve as a theatrical stage, a background on which a non-linear dialogue between figures takes place.
Mouchette appears in all her naivety, addressing herself directly to Turkmenbashi declaring how she has fallen in love with the image of a God-like, yet human, father of the people (bashi means father) that is presented of Turkmenbashi throughout the city. Appearing on stage in turn in the form of these various representations, Turkmenbashi preaches to Mouchette of the many accomplishments he achieved throughout his presidency.
His proclamations take on a defensive tone in relation to a third figure, one that functions much like the chorus in Ancient Greek tragedy, a non-individualized voice that offers a commentary on the dramatic action. In this instance, the chorus fills in the image of Turkmenbashi with additional information such as how he banned political opposition and public media, gave dress “tips” that were to be taken as law, was a president whose government was steeped in corruption deals with foreign companies, and who spent much of the money made from the exportation of the country’s oil on the creation of monuments and splendor.
What the sound-scape brings to the composition of image and text is precisely a registration of the overall oppressive atmosphere palpable in the photographic images of monuments seen by no one, of the large boulevards driven on by no one, and of the empty hotels and luxury apartments, inhabited by no-one.
Only the figures of Mouchette and Turkmenbashi are seen on this barren colossal stage, where as Mouchette poignantly points-out, what they both share is how they exist purely in the form of representations, they are nothing else than fictive images.
Neddam eut l’idée de créer le Network de Mouchette ayant constaté que les internautes se servaient du nom ou de la personnalité de Mouchette de manière tout à fait inattendue, pour leur propres intentions. Tandis que le site de Mouchette se fait passer pour une innocente page personnelle, les outils interactifs mis à la disposition des membres du Network vont permettre d’introduire des tiers dans le jeu. in d’être le portrait d’un individu, le site est en réalité un masque, que les usagers s’approprient pour se présenter et ainsi communiquer entre eux.
Le Network de Mouchette met en oeuvre l’idée de l’Interface de Partage d’Identité qui permet aux internautes de partager une identité fabriquée, et d’échanger entre eux par l’entremise d’un personnage. De ce fait, Mouchette.net fonctionne comme un laboratoire qui ouvre un espace de renégociation collective des identités.
gauche, contribution de Stephanie, droite contribution de Lida
Ci-dessus, des pages créées par usagers du Network de Mouchette : Stephanie, ou Lida et qui furent intégrées au site de Mouchette.
Le Network de Mouchette met en oeuvre l’idée de l’Interface de Partage d’Identité qui permet aux internautes de partager une identité fabriquée, et d’échanger entre eux par l’entremise d’un personnage. De ce fait, Mouchette.net fonctionne comme un laboratoire qui ouvre un espace de renégociation collective des identités.
La plateforme du Network de Mouchette fut inaugurée lors d’un lancement officiel à New York en 2003, au cours de la résidence artistique de Neddam à Franklin Furnace. Dans la Postmasters Gallery, l’artiste supposé être l’auteur de Mouchette venait à la rencontre de ses fans en révélant son identité et ses intentions. Pour cet évènement, un bulle transparente gonflable conçue par l’artiste de New York Anakin Koenig à l’intérieur de la Postmasters Gallery accueillait les visiteurs, ceux-là même qui étaient venus pour s’approprier le site de Mouchette. Ainsi dans une cérémonie artistique fut lancée l’interface du Network de Mouchette. Voir “Inside Mouchette” at AKAirways.
Après plusieurs années de fonctionnement ou les membres ont crée des pages intégrées au site, l’interface est à présent, selon les dires de Neddam, un château qui se visite mais que l’on habite plus vraiment, car de nombreuse fonctionnalités ne sont plus en usage.
Cette expérience de partage d’identité en ligne inspirera Neddam pour la création des personnages virtuels suivants, David Still and XiaoQian.
Texte: Anik Fournier
Mouchette.net emerged after Neddam had observed unexpected turns in the use of Mouchette.org. Whereas Mouchette.org masquerades as an individual blog, its interactive narrative tools open up a site that extends beyond the me – you relation, to include a third party. Presenting itself as an individual portrait, the site is in reality a masque that users appropriate in order to communicate, and hence to present something about themselves.
Mouchette.net follows up on this idea of an identity-sharing interface that allows users to both communicate via a virtual persona and to share in the construction of its identity. In this manner, Mouchette.net functions as a big laboratory where a tertiary space is opened up and renegotiated collectively.
Left, Stephanie’s contribution, right Lida’s contribution
See here one of the pages created by online members, Stephanie, or Lidaand integrated as parts of Mouchette’s website.
This second platform was launched through an official ceremony in 2003 in New York. While Neddam was the invited artist at the Franklin Furnace residency and Postmasters Gallery, the supposed artist behind Mouchette.org came forth to meet their fans, reveal their identity, and talk about their motives and intentions. The event took place within an inflatable environment especially constructed with New York artist Anakin Koenig at Postmasters Gallery: see “Inside Mouchette” at AKAirways. Most importantly, the ceremony provided an opportunity for Mouchette to give the website away, leading to the creation of Mouchette.net. After functioning very successfully for several years, today Mouchette.net is described by Neddam as a castle that users can visit but in which they can no longer live, because many of the internet features used to construct the site are no longer operating properly. Mouchette.net lead to the creation by Neddam of the virtual persona of David Still and XiaoQian.
Text: Anik Fournier
“Marche sur moi” (Walk on me) is an installation designed for the cupola of the Municipal Museum in Arnhem. The installation is a floor of words and wall-mounted text plates, that enter into a dialogue with each other and with the receiver of the message.
Marche sur moi, ecrase-moi, salis-moi, souille-moi, encore, encore, encore….
The texts are anything but neutral, verging on the aggressive. In this sense, the floor and wall acquire almost personal characteristics. As spectator, you cannot avoid them, a feature which is reinforced because the texts are laid into the floor: the spectator enters into an almost physical involvement with the words.
Walk over me, step over me, stamp on me, crush me, dirty me, sully me, again, and again and again. And the walls say: “Me too, me too …”
Moi aussi, moi aussi…
Idea & realisation: Martine Neddam
Exhibition: February 29th to April 12th 1992
Sponsered and fabricated by: FORBO Krommenie
Collection: Arnhem Gemeente Museum
UIT Arnhem April 1992
Capture d’écran: le site web de Mouchette
“Mouchette.org Version 01”a été acquise par le Stedelijk Museum d’Amsterdam, Pays-Bas en décembre 2016.
David Still is an identity donor who offers his personality online to anybody who wants to be him.
A recent immigrant to Almere, Netherlands, 32 years of old, David Still works as an IT consultant for a small but expanding start-up business that specialises in communication systems. In his spare time David works on his own personal website where he offers the use of his identity to other people. David Still is both the artist and the artwork, a cyber-persona created by an artist who built his personality, chose his image and maintains his story. David has rapidly risen in popularity with the site attracting interest worldwide, from USA today to Zip-FM in Japan. Those who write to David play the game, not knowing which David will reply to their queries, as for example in the case of a New York Times reporter who approached him for an interview.
David Still
In May 2002, the F.A.A.Q (Frequently Asked and Answered Questions) was inaugurated. This self-reflective part of the site requires that visitors both ask and answer the questions, highlighting the fact that each visitor is indeed playing the role of David Still, and this has the authority to reply to other visitors’ pressing questions providing tauting responses. In March 2003, David Still had the opportunity to introduce his real life to his online existence. Hosted by the Cargo Gallery in Almere, in De Realiteit neighbourhood (home to David’s blue house), David Still celebrated his birthday, surrounded by family, friends and secret admirers. He was nominated for a Webby Award in 2003 and in 2004, he was the recipient of the CYNETart Award in 2004 at the CYNETart Festival in Dresden Germany.
View of the work on top of the building
La Scala was designed for the theatre De Meerse in Hoofddorp. The work was named after the famous theatre in Milan. The origin of this work lies in language.
“La Scala” literally means ladder: the object placed on the roof of the theatre is a ladder of words. But the French word for ladder, l’echelle, also means ‘scale’ – the proportions of a map. This meaning evokes an idea of perspective: things that become smaller, vanishing into infinity. So doing, the ladder has been distorted and the perspective lines disappearing into the vanishing point have been emphasised.
View from a distance
Idee & execution: Martine Neddam
Commissioned by: Gemeente Haarlemmermeer
Constructor: Neon Weka, Holland
Completed: 1993
Removed : 2013
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