Radical Diversity - the Confluence of Art and the Internet

The seminar will include a lecture, a break from 5:20 pm to 5:40 pm and a debate.

MTAA one year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate)(2004)

"We now see the fifth generation of artists who work with computer networks. Of these five generations four worked with the Internet, and one (the first) worked with forerunners of the Internet. Current, popular definitions of net art do not describe the plurality of approaches and methods these artists used and still use. They have become limiting obstacles that block our view of this wonderfully complex terrain of mixed conceptual and material art practices. Mainstream art discourse generally fails when assessing net art by confusing it with web art. At the basis of this misinterpretation lies a lack of knowledge of even the basics of new media.

In this lecture it is argued why we should not follow such temporary projections and misinterpretations. By escaping from the trap of fitting ourselves into any net art cliché we have the chance to re-evaluate both past and present art practices. This re-evaluation needs to include a proper interdisciplinary approach, which reaches beyond a purely literary, conceptual art criticism. "