wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Globorama
berndlintermann 2008-Jun-26 18:38:00
Dear Mr. Levy, dear Participants of the World Wide Panorama,
in this discussion on the events related to "Globorama", I would now like to state my
opinion as an artist, curator, and director of a public museum. The debate that arose from
the presentation of works from the World Wide Panorama (WWP), both saddens and appalls
me extraordinarily. My whole life, I have fought together with many artists for the freedom
of art while encountering hostility and suffering privations. The developments brought
about by the Internet meant to us that our dream of "open access" was becoming true. I
trusted that all of us together are continuing the project of enlightenment, i.e. the
greatest possible access to knowledge and data, which the ZKM and many artists have
committed themselves to with absolute conviction.
As early as 1995, when I was the director of the Ars Electronica in Linz, I was among the
first to initiate a comprehensive event dealing with the issue of net culture. The event was
entitled "Welcome to the Wired World." From the title you can see that I welcomed net
culture as a portal for the acquisition of knowledge by everybody and as a platform for the
creativity of everybody. In 1999, my first exhibition as chairman of the ZKM was also a
net-related exhibition that was entitled "Net_Condition". MIT Press published an
accompanying catalogue, which was co-edited by Timothy Druckery. This book especially
stresses the democratic and sociopolitical aspects of the Net from the perspective of
enlightenment, of education. I see the Net as a grass-roots democracy that?under the
keyword "access" (see also the respective publication by Jeremy Rifkin, 2000)?promised
open, free access to those interested in art and those eager to learn without the usual
restrictions that we know from elitists systems. In that sense I have always tried at the
ZKM to make known to our audience the egalitarian options of the Net in the context of a
museum. An example for that is our current exhibition "YOU_ser: The Century of the
Consumer". Here we have established a citizens' gallery that honors the democratic
promise of photography. In a photo booth, everybody can take four passport photos of
him/herself, which, as digital images, are simultaneously displayed on five computer
monitors. The photo booth and the monitors are set up in the publicly accessible lobby of
the ZKM. Upon entering the museum, the visitors see their own portraits and those of
other visitors as a large-scale projection. Everybody can take a photo of him/herself,
everybody can see him/herself honored by a portrait in the museum. So there are not only
portraits of celebrities or portraits by famous artists of anonymous people, but every
citizen immediately obtains his/her right, i.e. his/her picture.
Following the concept of the exhibition "YOU_ser", the installation "Globorama" was set up
in ZKM's Media Theater, which is part of ZKM's lobby and therefore?free of charge?
accessible to everybody. Years of research in the field of panoramic projection technology
and a research grant of the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg enabled the ZKM to
conduct a public test: the test examined to what extend it is possible to provide the public
with access to the certain contents of the Net and databases in an exciting and
emancipatory way by means of net-based installations. A series of panorama projections
was realized in cooperation with artists such as Jean Michel Bruy?re or the Wooster Group.
"Globorama" deals with panorama works on the Net. Panorama images were chosen, since
on one's monitor at home, these can only be displayed in 2D. The idea was to point out to
the public that there is this wonderful present of panoramic works on the Net. Our artists
and developers saw it as their task to familiarize the citizens with the Net and its contents
by means of an artistic interface. It is the general mission of the ZKM to convey knowledge
at the frontline of research and to acquaint the general public with current artistic
practices of social importance. In doing so, the ZKM continuously provides a platform to
artists to present their works to the public. The ZKM considers it as its mission not only to
present well-known masterpieces by artists ranging from Pablo Picasso up to Mark
Rothko, but also to continuously draw attention to less well-known artists and to provide
them with a forum to present their work to the public?and this in a way that facilitates
the public's access to these works within a non-profit environment without causing the
artists any costs. This is how the idea emerged to present panoramic works in an
adequate, three-dimensional way as panoramic projections. By pointing to the individual
net artists, who publish panoramic images on the net, the artists and developers of the
ZKM intended to offer an optimum form of presentation. For that purpose, also a laser
pointer was developed that enables interactive access to the works of the panorama
artists. It was intended to make the WWP project visible in a prominent way. To achieve
this, technological innovations were used and the most current technologies can be
utilized. We also conducted an empiric survey among the visitors in order to?if the need
and the wish to do so should arise?to undertake improvements in the future. This is why
"Globorama" was tested for 10 days with pupils and young people in the context of an
event in Stuttgart, which aimed at sparking young people's interest in and enthusiasm for
technology, since young people do have higher expectations regarding digital
presentations than adults. This was by far more successful than expected. Is the ZKM now
to be punished for that?
All these efforts were undertaken as part of research activities carried out for the benefit of
net culture. Our aim would also have been to present this project at the Biennial of Seville,
which opens in October 2008, in order to acquaint a wide audience with the existence of a
database with panoramic works and their diversity. It now saddens me that already in the
development phase of the project "Globorama", the reactions of the WWP participants are
that intense?in a phase in which the technical basis is only just being created and can
only just be tested with the aim to provide artists with a platform of a quality as high as
possible. As the curator in charge, I can't inflict this dispute?and neither a dispute about
high fees?upon the organizers of the Biennial only just because I would like to integrate
net-based installations into the Biennial. I originally intended to also provide a platform
for artistic net-based projects in Seville, but now, I will refrain from that.
Following the current general discussions about the Net, I have to acknowledge that also
the Internet is mainly a big supermarket dominated by strong commercial interests. But
especially the artistic community has considered it its prime goal to counter this and to
defend the Net as an arena of open access and to not let the Net become a supermarket,
but to support the concept of the Net as an initiative of educational-political and artistic
matters. What it comes down to is not to leave the hegemony to the providers, but to
emancipate the user. User generated content is my aesthetic and museological goal.
This understanding of net culture as outlined above, i.e. that museums serve the aim of
spreading net culture and to communicate modern net culture to the general public
without making any material profit whatsoever in doing so and only for the benefit of art,
has met with great approval worldwide. The ZKM ranks among the few museums that also
possess comprehensive technological expertise for the discussion of net culture and for
the communication of the goals of the Net community.
If it should now turn out that other views should prevail over this perspective, I'd consider
this a severe setback?especially in view of the approval I have met so far. I thought that
the concepts of freedom, of scientific and artistic research were also especially rooted in
the Net. If this should not be the case, and if the educational work of a museum is to be
judged on a technical legal basis and not based on aspects of educational policies, then,
as consequence, I would have to drastically reduce my commitment to net culture. I would
have to give up ten years of hope, in which I have seen the Net as the "promised land" and
which have met with the approval of so many. In the future, I could then only consider
net-based projects in an extremely reduced way and resort to the safe mainstream, to
which everybody has already resorted.
The ZKM also considers it its mission to serve the protection of the artists. Off the beaten
tracks of the global mainstream exhibitions that present again and again only a few very
well known artists, that are placed well at the market, the ZKM set it as its target to also
present less known and also forgotten and marginalized artists. This concerns, on the one
hand, historic artists, such as Ruth Vollmer and Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), two Jewish
artists who emigrated from Germany and who had to continue their work in the USA and
Venezuela. The exhibitions and catalogues on these two artists led to the fact that they
were also rediscovered and honored elsewhere, as, for example, in the context of the last
Documenta. At present, we are presenting almost forgotten Italian material painting, the
experiments of which were seminal for the development of Robert Rauschenberg and of
the post-war art in the USA. But ZKM's aim also includes current artists and current forms
of art, for which the ZKM has very often been able to initiate the start of an international
career. So, Olafur Eliasson had his first comprehensive exhibition at the ZKM (with an
accompanying publication by MIT Press). And the ZKM is, indeed, not only a museum of all
genres and media of art, a museum of the time-based arts, but also a place for research
and development, where many artists-in-residence can realize and present works. In this
context, the ZKM again and again ventures into uncharted territory and thus into
unforeseeable situations.
As a last point, I would like to mention some thoughts on the field of aesthetics. So far,
the artistic option to draw on elements of other creations in one's own creation was
considered the essential achievement of the 20th century. The essence of the collage from
Cubism up to Dada was to bring together content from other sources by making it part of
a new art work. Also the Surrealists, as, for example, Max Ernst, used images and writings
from popular culture in order to produce new works. What Pop Art?from Rauschenberg
up to Warhol?did was to make use of the images of mass culture by means of the screen
printing technique. At the end of the 20th century, this method, as you know, led to
Appropriation Art, from artists such as Richard Prince up to Cindy Sherman, and Sherrie
Levine. It is in no case my intention to characterize "Globorama" as Appropriation Art, but
only to point out with this example that, with a strict application of copyrights, important
developments in 20th century art would not have been possible and that these art forms
would not exist. But, surprisingly, there this issue was never raised, since it obviously
concerned the elitist media of painting and graphics. Therefore, it would be rather
unfortunate, if in the democratic mechanic arts, which are already despised by the elitist
media, the artists would restrict each other all of a sudden in their developments. This
would be a big favor for the traditional arts. With utmost regret, I anticipate that this will
have a lasting impact on the arts and that the big gateway to freedom will now be
slammed shut again, a gateway of which I hoped it would be opened for the arts by net
culture.
Hence, I appeal to everybody not to block the artistic and scientific development of net
culture for the sake of short-term individual profit?the ZKM does also not make any
profit?, but, on the contrary, to respect the spirit of artistic freedom and of scientific
freedom. Because, as Montesquieu had already written in 1748 in "De l'esprit des lois": It
is, above all, the spirit of the laws that counts. Hence, it would be of benefit to everybody,
if, in this spirit, a productive collaboration between the participants of the WWP and the
ZKM could be established in the future in order to jointly advance and defend net culture
as a democratic and free medium.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Weibel