So in a way you are very lucky,
like just last night you held an exhibition at the Laboratoria
Arte Alameda and now you are here at the Museo
Tamayo. It seems like a pretty good time and place
for digital art exhibitions. How does the government view ephemeral
exhibitions as compared to exhibitions of tangible art objects?
They are supportive. You can organize large exhibitions that provide
digital artists what they need and at the same time bring people
together. There is not much money in grants and commissions; most
of the works that we are exhibiting are work that has already
made. It’s just a type of mini-survey of what’s going
on. The CyberLounge
World, which I help organize, is part of the Museo
Tamayo. it’s a space for new media. We also do
a lot of promoting of the art in places like Cyber cafes in the
area. Net-Art cybercafes can also serve as space for our exhibitions
since people can also interact and view works online.
In Centro
+ Media, the inaugural exhibition at El Centro,
you mentioned there would be a battle between “old school
Net-Artist”, Can you define “old School Net-Art”?
[laughing] Well, first of all, it’s the kind of
Net-Art that I like, it uses GIF animations, HTML and JavaScript
– all using the browser languages as a tool of expression.
What do you think about other
web mediums like Flash?
I also like it. I don’t have anything against it, it’s
also a tool used for expression. If it is autonomous and you say
you have an intention then it’s valid.
But you prefer HTML?
[laughing] I love it! But I also like a lot of work done
in Flash and Director.
What do you think about the future
of net art?
Well, that’s a difficult question. The curatorial name of
the project here at the Cyberlounge in the Museo
Tamayo is called
Immerso like immerse,
to immerse yourself. It’s an utopian vision of what the
net could be in the future. We are just now experimenting with
how we can achieve that immersive lucidity in digital space, just
like when we are lucid in dream space, and to belong to a space
completely. My vision is that there will be no difference between
this reality and the reality we are going to experience in the
web. To achieve that it will have to have a more powerful impact.
In my work I like to distort these three spaces: the concrete,
digital, and mind space. This idea or vision
can also be compared to a lucid dream space. A lot of us strive
to be lucid in a digital context but it’s more difficult
today because you have various interface, like this monitor, but
we deal with it. When you are reading a book, the pages are an
interface to the story. You are looking at words on paper and
reading them, but that interface eventually disappears and suddenly
you are inside the situation. This also happens in the cinema,
were you lose the outside world. It also happens when you’re
online…
Very late at night sometimes
actually! When clicking link after link you become lost and don’t
know where the hell you are…
I’ve had that feeling. [laughing] With Infomera
and a lot of other websites. Those are the ones you fall in love
with.
Who are some of your favorite
net artists? And why?
I like the work of Brian
Makern. His work is really pushing it and is very intimate
and passionate. I like a lot of works of Muserna,
I really enjoy it because it is a very independent way of expression.
They are sort of wacky and has a fine art aspect -It’s not
just digital, it’s pure. Also one of the best experience
I had was with Hell.com.
Hell.com is a collective online piece, a collective
expression without boundaries. It doesn't have an origin, it’s
like a black dot in the space, it’s a space where things
just happen for a finite period of time or season - I was very
impressed. X
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