Cornelia Sollfrank's 'net.art generator' as Collectors Object

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Cornelia Sollfrank <[email protected]>
> Date: January 28, 2004 10:28:50 AM EST
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Cornelia Sollfrank's 'net.art generator' as Collectors Object
>
> Net Art as Collectors' Object -
> How Smart Artists Make the Machine do the Work
>
>
> With the purchase of artist Cornelia Sollfrank's net.art generator
> 'nag_04', the Sammlung Volksfursorge becomes a pioneering art
> collector.
>
> In 2003, the Sammlung Volksfursorge put together one of the largest
> collections of contemporary art outside a museum. With a budget of EUR
> 800,000, contemporary works from a wide variety of media were
> acquired: from painting and sculpture to photography and video art to
> Net art. The permanent exhibition space for the collection is the
> newly opened luxury hotel Le Royal Meridien Hamburg on the Outer
> Alster Lake. The Galerie Ruth
> Sachse, overseeing the project, proposed acquiring for the collection
> not only completed images by Cornelia Sollfrank but also the computer
> program that generates the images. In cooperation with Panos Galanis
> of IAP GmbH, Hamburg, the artist developed a new net.art generator
> that works exclusively
> with images.
>
> Since 1999, Cornelia Sollfrank has been making new images, texts
> and/or automatic collages out of sites and HTML material available on
> the World Wide Web. So far, five versions of the program based on this
> concept have been created with varying emphases and formats. What they
> all share is a user-friendly WWW interface. The programs are based on
> Perl scripts which, once the user has entered the title of a work and
> the name of an artist,
> send the request to a specific search engine. The material called up
> according to the search terms is then processed in 12 to 14 randomly
> generated steps and placed in new combinations. The automatically
> generated images, texts or Web sites are stored in an archive, the
> 'net.art gallery.' Furthermore, the source code of the generator has
> not become private property of the collection, but is subject to the
> General Public License, GPL, which makes it possible for the code to
> be modified and distributed.
>
> Processes of rationalization via computer and automatization become
> means of artistic production via the net.art generator. Art works,
> traditionally understood as authentic, unique, creative and innovative
> can then just as well be created by a computer program. With the
> advent of new media, classic
> questions regarding authorship, originality, materiality, the role of
> the artist and the work are newly challenged.
>
> "And surprisingly quickly, you get used to the idea that the
> production of art can, in the end, only take place via the repetition,
> theft, quotation, combination and reprocessing of an underlying
> aesthetic program."
> Ute Vorkoeper in 'Programmed Seduction'
>
> Anyone who finds all that too complicated can go to the six floor of
> the hotel and see for themselves a series of automatically generated
> and aesthetically quite appealing images of flowers.
>
> Le Royal Meridien Hamburg, An der Alster 52-56, 20099 Hamburg
>
> A smart artist makes the machine do the work. Keep on Generating!
>
> Internet Addresses:
> Sammlung Volksfursorge: http://www.volksfuersorge.de/kunst
> Homepage for the net.art generators: http://soundwarez.org/generator
> Net.art generator nag_04: http://nag.iap.de
> Images (download): http://soundwarez.org/generator/src/imgs.html
>
>
> Contact: Julia Eble
> Press and Publicity
> Tel.: 040/2865-4603
> FAX: 040/2865-5771
> E-Mail: [email protected]
>
> *********************************************************************
>
> Net Art as Collectors' Object
>
>
> Cornelia Sollfrank in conversation with Dr. Joachim Lemppenau,
> Chairman of the Board of Volksfuersorge Versicherungen. As head of the
> insurance company, he is also responsible for the art collection and,
> as a jury member, took part in the selection of the artists.
>
> Hamburg, November 1, 2003
>
>
> C.S.: You've acquired one of my net.art generators for your
> collection. The purchase of a Net art work makes you a pioneer among
> collectors. What moved you to take this step and introduce Net art to
> the collection as well?
>
> Dr.L.: The net.art generator is a contemporary work of art that makes
> use of one of the most important media we now have - the Internet.
> With this purchase, the Sammlung Volksfuersorge is supporting current
> directions in art. Ownership of a materially tangible art work is not
> our concern; other sponsors make a sculpture or a painting available
> to the public in a museum.
> We find this more appropriate for our time, and besides, we're making
> the work available to a broader public by doing this on the Internet
> and with Net art.
>
> C.S.: One of the fundamental problems with purchasing Net art is the
> administration of copyright and rights of ownership regarding data
> that is online. What does it mean to you to be the owner of this
> generator?
>
> Dr.L.: It was agreed that the net.art generator would have a
> user-friendly Web interface for anyone who might be interested in
> using it. So the net.art generator is a sort of public work in our
> collection. We allow the "user" to create the art on his or her own.
> Anyone can become a (Net) artist.
>
> What's more, the code of the generator, that is, the program, is
> subject to a license, the so-called General Public License, GPL, which
> makes it possible for the code to be modified and distributed.
>
> C.S.: How will you be handling the needs that arise for the
> maintenance and administration of an online project?
>
> Dr.L.: The budget for the art collection ensures that the work will be
> maintained by another company for two years. After two years, we can
> decide how to carry on. (The costs aren't very high.)
>
> C.S.: Could you imagine expanding further in this direction, that is,
> adding another work of Net art to the collection?
>
> Dr.L.: The art collection has initially been set up to document
> exemplary works of contemporary art in various media immediately after
> the turn of the millennium. The plan does not currently project much
> further than that, particularly since it's a collection which
> principally has a single, immobile location - the Hotel Royal
> Meridien. The net.art generator represents the widest reach in terms
> of contact since it is accessible via the site
> www.volksfuersorge.de/kunst.
>
>
>
> –
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> take it and run!
>