Re: [Nettime-bold] Josephine Berry's net art history

[Josephine Bosma <jesis@xs4all.nl>]

Even if I have respect for the amount of work Josephine Berry has put in
her thesis, I feel like I have to make a comment about what I see as a
few basic mistakes in her analyses. The basis of Berry's way of thinking
seems to be that net art started in 1996 with net.art. There is no or
hardly any mentioning of network art before that time, and even of net
art made by others during the time net.art started to be discussed. Then
there is the insistent hammering on the alledged political aims of this
first net.art 'group'. Even if the works and attitude of -some- members
of this group have been very influential in the way net art has been
approached in especially the nettime community ( and also in the way it
inspired some artists of a younger generation) it would be wrong to make
an analyses of net art depend on these few and the spin around them.
What I read (and have read in the past) from Josephine Berry view on net
art is a strong focus on this political aspect of early net.art which
then turns into an analyses of its failure every time she writes about
it. And of course, what else could it be. The revolutionary potential of
'political' art (for lack of a better term) has always been very small.
This art is always part of a larger cultural change or tendency. I hope
it is clear in her thesis that this particular analyses concerns a small
but influential part of net art and that there will be many more up to
date chapters on other artworks and trends in her thesis. 





best


J
*


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