[Fwd: [syndicate] Tiia Johannson's last interview]

This was sent to Syndicate, curious what Rhizomers might have to say
about it.


-e.


——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [syndicate] Tiia Johannson's last interview
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 16:47:53 +0300
From: Raivo Kelomees <[email protected]>
To: syndicate <[email protected]>



Mari Laanemets and Killu Sukmit ask 10 Questions from Tiia Johannson
Published in Estonian Art 1/2002

1. You started as a painter, then emerged as an Estonian video pioneer,
and then came web art. How did these transitions come about? Did they
involve certain thematic/essential changes, and if yes, what kind?

This progression has certainly not been straightforward, and starting as
a painter was by no means clear either. The progression has been towards
constant immateriality. Where, however, is the beginning? If you
consider the start of producing professional art to be the moment you
get your diploma, then I do have a painter's diploma, but I haven't
actually produced a single painting since my diploma work. Before
studying painting, both during school and university, I was more active
in photography, video, happenings, collages, installations and all sorts
of art forms; besides, I first studied history. Painting is just one
stage between and alongside the others; no definite transitions from one
form to the other can be outlined. In 1989, as a first year student of
painting, I had an opportunity to go to Helsinki to study video art. I
was there for the spring semester 1990. My first computer course took
place in 1985, which means that all the developments have been parallel.
Still, during the last six or seven years I have stayed with web art
that is, of course, largely intertwined with video or rather moving
images in the internet environment. Web art also contains my entire
previous art experience. I have not detected any thematic changes; all
alternations have issued from changes in life.

2. What changes have occurred in web art since you started?

As the computers are now more powerful and the internet connection much
speedier, the main transition has been from text (so-called ASCII-art)
and audio-focused art to a more visual one.

3. Olga Goriunova expressed the opinion (autumn last year) that web art
was dead without any of the artists involved ever becoming famous.
No-one seemed to build a noticeable career and the artists have quietly
withdrawn from the territory. This is what Goriunova thinks, but what
about you? What comes next?

As far as I can remember, it was Heath Bunting who declared that 'Net
Art is dead, Web Art lives on…' Other sources refer to Vuk Cosic. The
Russian-language version of Shulgin is: 'Net Art mjortv, a ja ishjo
njet'… This resembles a manifesto-style declaration that essentially
claims that web art started and finished with the work of five people:
Cosic, Bunting, Shulgin, Jodi, and Lialina. Similar 'history-writing'
phenomena can be found closer to home as well… We have also had those
who call themselves 'the most sought-after artists in Estonia'. Science
should not recognise authorities and methods 'argumentum ad hominem',
which are, true enough, and hugely popular amongst people and the press.
My Self.Museum page was visited last year by more than 5000 people (?),
a fact easily proved.
Coming back to the manifestation, however, part of those prophets of
doom have used it as an excuse for justifying their own subsequent
activities within an institutionalised sphere - the good old wish to sit
in the Presidium and hide underground at the same time. One comparison
here would be the project carried out years ago, which contained the
sentence: 'This is the last page of Internet'. Due to insufficient
temporal distance, it is not possible as yet to draw any final conclusions.

4. To specify and continue the aforementioned: Goriunova considers the
main reason to be the fact that art institutions (and hence their
authorities) have infiltrated into the formerly free autonomous zone. In
her 1996 interview, Nelli Rohtvee was quite optimistic regarding the
possibility of web art. How does it feel now, six years later?

Nelli Rohtvee's and my work don't have that much in common. Nelli is
socially a very sensitive artist, whereas I am much more self-centred.
And I won't offer an answer for her either - you should ask Nelli
herself. It would naturally be naive to think that web art, although so
far the least institutionalised, is at the same time most vulnerable,
considering the problems with servers that emerge and vanish like
mushrooms during rain, and the administering of web art has partly
turned into a playground for art-political forces. About one third of my
own work, and the majority of the earlier Estonian visual web art
(1996-2000) has been destroyed. Both Nelli and I no longer have access
to most of our remaining work. Many works require special servers, so a
lot of them are found on Japanese or Australian servers. The most ideal
solution would probably be to have one's own server, or maybe it's high
time that such a small place as Estonia had its own so-called art server
where someone would be able (i.e. prepared) to look after works of art.
Alas, there's no reason for optimism so far.

5. It says in one introduction: Nelli Rohtvee is trying to make simple,
unpretentious pages which, from the point of view of the technology
used, are very cheap: only mixed messages… Do you work intuitively or
do you occasionally accept (web) art theory (if one may put it like
that)? Will you describe a web artist's work process: you surf around,
find a piece, load it, connect?

It is possible to create a theory for each work. Practice and theory, in
turn, always exist in a certain split state: And again - Nelli is Nelli,
and I am me… Work processes are vastly different. I've produced a work
within seconds, but another has taken weeks. There are the so-called
original works, and those where all basic material has been scratched
from the internet: chance, too, has its charm. Mind you, this activity
is not always web art-conscious, I have put up some earlier videos that
were originally just videos. The whole point of the internet, after all,
is to be one huge recombination.
I certainly don't theoretise when I create. The work process often
depends on the computer, its power and the available programmes. I've
got one 'weakness', though: I can't work when I'm not connected. To the
internet, naturally. Even when I don't need the internet for hours, it
must be open on the computer.

6. What is web art for you, and what isn't? When can web art be
considered 'real art pages' and when is commercialism glowing like
tinsel? What is (ideal) web art anyway? Should this be sought in
technological craftiness or social effect? What should we take note of
in your work?

Web art and web design are by no means similar areas. There can, of
course, be overlapping areas between the activitiy of a web artist and a
webmaster, but the aim is quite the opposite. Web art used in any other
way but for artistic purposes is for me essentially applied web art
where something is documented, displayed, advertised or whatever… Web
design is by nature an area 'to be employed'. One should perhaps instead
ponder the relationship between art and design. In compiling the
relevant study programmes, which trend to follow and what exactly to
specialise in should be considered.
What is ideal for me is simple, clearly perceived art, both internet and
other arts. Less is more. Overburdened and vague works are not to my
taste. When the technological side exceeds the contents or the visual
part, then something is not right, at least to me.
More generally, this not only concerns web art, but also the problem of
what is quality in culture, whether and to what extent it can/ought to
be measured.

7. Some of your videos can be, and have been, seen from a feminist point
of view; at times they are (e.g. the black sun) even mercilessly
self-centred. This kind of personal approach also seems to exist in your
web art. You seem to work with your real physical experience. The web
where you work, however, is something virtual? Is there a link?

Real physical experience, as a rule, appears when it amplifies on a
vital level and the relationship between real and virtual is in fact
that field of tension that invites us to play and ponder within its
vague limits and limitlessness. The more possible it is to be
self-centred in art, the less need there is to be self-centred in life
and society.


8. Internet is regarded-glorified as a public forum. At the same time it
is difficult to imagine anything more private than being on the net
anonymously. What is the character of internet's intimacy in terms of
(social) interference and engagement? How are such private-social
relations dealt with in your web work?

The treatment of space has pretty much been derived from the constraints
or non-constraints of physical art space, and the movement is from
constrained space towards liberating virtual and dematerialising space;
the private/social criterion is not that important.

9. As for web art, let's talk about cyber-feminism. You have said that
you were waiting for cyber-feminism to arrive in Estonian art. Would you
characterise, briefly, cyber-feminism/cyber-feminist: does this signify
critical women artists or is it more complicated, and what are those
pressing problems in Estonia that have a need for cyber-feminism?

I did not actually mean only art, but cyber-feminism in general. The
modern notion of 'distance work' has not fully materialised yet, and
people still mostly operate on the office-home axis, while continuously
moaning about the low birth rate. Accepting distance work and study in
society would in my opinion be one of the best solutions from the point
of view of uniting the environment of home and work/study primarily, but
not only, for women. For me, feminism means the return from the other
extreme, or from the achieved opportunities of study and career, to the
primeval role of women, and the uniting of these halves. The cyber world
is part of the solution, at least in my experience. Cyber-feminism in
art is a wide area seen from a woman's angle, where art, technology and
different ideologies meet. For me, the most unacceptable part of
feminism is the welfare feminism that seems to be on the increase in
Estonia.

10. What is your opinion of the fact that web art is often difficult to
access: computers are sometimes not able to deal with web art or have
insufficient power. So it is all relatively technical, and one is left
feeling that if you don't 'sit on the net' and are not 'online' 24
hours, then all this will stay a remote and closed sect…Moreover, even
24 hours does not seem to be enough, and it's not the main thing either.
Ever more often, in recent times, artists, cyber freaks, hackers and
other types of web activists leave the net to participate in social
life. What about you: is it at all likely that you will one day come
(back) to the streets again?

My works have been tested with 200 Mhz and 64 Mb RAM computers which are
worse than the average office computers; some of them require a modem
with more than 56 Kb. The problem lies in not knowing how to install the
gadgets that are legally accessible, cost-free, and need just a quarter
of an hour to be workable. Nowadays such problems really belong in
kindergarten. If you enter a dark room, but are not able to switch on
the light in order to view the painting on the wall, you shouldn't blame
the artist because you cannot immediately see the work of art. Besides,
I have not vanished from social life, I'm busy outside art as well. It's
just that our paths obviously don't cross.

Tiia Johannson
08.09.1965-11.06.2002

Links:
http://www.hot.ee/getrealgetsreal/
http://www.artun.ee/~tiia/netproject/
http://old.artun.ee/homepages/xtiiax/mikki/

–
————————————–
Raivo Kelomees
e-mail: [email protected]