Fwd: Carlo Zanni - AltarBoy Interview

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "cz" <[email protected]>
> Date: February 2, 2004 9:14:51 AM EST
> To: "Rachel Greene" <[email protected]>
> Subject: Carlo Zanni - AltarBoy Interview
>
> Translated from:
>
> Exiwebart_FOCUS
> Altarboy - Carlo Zanni
>
> by Domenico Quaranta
>
> Friday. 30 - 01- 2004
>
> Firstly, Altarboy is a sculpture. An aluminum case, with steel
> edgings, upon an iron pedestal. A 15'' screen peeps out through the
> top shell sheet, in white enameled aluminum; the bottom shell sheet
> hosts a little glass box, designed by the artist. The box contains
> fresh rose petals that have to be scattered at the foot of the screen.
> On the whole, a minimal, polished and solid object that hides all its
> complicated technology in the inside.
> Actually, the heart of the sculpture is not that sort of bios made of
> rose petals, but a computer that acts as a server for the work of art
> stored in its hard disk; a work that remains invisible on the net
> until the owner decides to switch on the server.
> So, Carlo Zanni 's first sculpture is also his answer to some basic
> questions: Is it possible to sell network-based artworks? If yes, in
> which form? How can I buy something public? How can the concept of
> property merge with the sharing one?
> These questions already got a lot of answers, but none succeeded in
> raising the issue in such a radical way. Buying Altarboy, the
> collector buys a server containing a net project, a piece of software
> that works only if connected to the network, shared with all its
> users. And yet, there is a preferential experience of the work: the
> one that uses Altarboy, with its touch screen and its rose petals.
> You can say: it's as plain as the nose in your face! But this seeming
> plainness hides all the complexity of the questions answered by the
> work.
> Now Altarboy hosts Cyrille, a fresh evolution - together with the 4
> Untitled Portraits, a recent commission from Kultursekretariat,
> Gutersloh - of the newnewportraits: a new genre of portraits, that
> joins someone appearance with his/her identity as it comes out of the
> net, or as it is reflected by his/her hard disk. Cyrille, director of
> Analix Forever Gallery, has pupils designed by different search engine
> live queries: the right one is filled of images coming from an
> automatic Google search based on keywords chosen by Cyrille; the left
> one is filled with images coming from user entries. They both are
> browseable. The first pupil mirrors the image of himself everyone
> builds up; the second, the image of himself everyone shows to the
> world; and they both mirror the face of the net in a given time.
>
>
> 5 questions to Carlo Zanni
>
> DQ. What 'aesthetic' need gave rise to Altarboy?
>
> CZ. I feel closer to Donald Judd than to Matrix. That's the reason why
> I hided the tech devices in Altarboy (probably the next one will have
> neither the screen). They aren't the subjects of my work, so there is
> no reason to make a tech bricolage.
>
> DQ. Altarboy raises a matter in a complex way: who can be considered
> the owner of a work based on a public network? How is this work
> related to the wonderful accessibility net art inherited from the
> network, and that for a long time has been its most charming (and most
> claimed) aspect?
>
> CZ. Think about an abusive pipe. I acted as a plumber, opening a
> faucet for private use. Running it, Altarboy uses water from the main
> pipe (Google); when they close it or there are problems with the main
> pipe (or when the net will not exist anymore) it starts cycling stored
> waters. Altarboy follows its way; it doesn't care about nothing. It's
> a godfather in a splendid villa in Sicily, sunbathing and drinking
> clean water in champagne glasses.
>
> DQ. Strangely, Altarboy joins the maximum of private and the minimum
> of intimacy: people who download the project on their PC seem much
> closer to Cyrille than people who enjoy it through Altarboy, secluded
> and distant as an altar icon. How do you explain this distance?
>
> CZ. This distance is due to the sculpture element. Despite it is more
> or less a system you can find on many desks, its aesthetic form avoid
> people to recognise it, emphasizing its contemplative side. People
> joining it through the web could feel closer because they type a url
> entering in it: they are also very close to the screen, probably
> alone, in a very private situation/environment. Altarboy, thanks to
> its touch screen, allows to have a different approach to the code, a
> really physical one, touching and slipping your fingers on the screen.
> It's a work about property and sharing, public and private, and its
> aesthetics and space dimension reflect these subjects.
>
> DQ. Do you think this solution is strictly connected to your way of
> exploring the network, or could any other artist adopt it for their
> work?
>
> CZ. It is of course something functional to my way of doing. It is
> also a very flexible idea, that you can apply to support/manage many
> different net projects. And yes of course, I hope other artists will
> use it.
>
> DQ. In Cyrille your interest shifts from the face to the eyes ('the
> windows of the soul'): their look is conditioned by the keywords
> chosen by the collector, but also by the life of the net. What kind of
> soul does Cyrille mirror?
>
> CZ. I think you should tell me that. The only thing I can tell you it
> is related to its conception.
> According to me, this way of making net drawings renders both
> aesthetically and conceptually the harvester ant's behaviours.
> Like them there is a continuous update and shifting of knowledge due
> to the Macrobehaviours (colony / society) and Microbehaviours (single
> ant / single person) relationship.
> Think to all those pixel-images forming the Cyrille's pupils like a
> colony of ants. They shape in a harmonious form filling the pupils
> (Macrobehaviour) but they are an addition of different aesthetics and
> meanings. This is how Google runs on my projects. How I feel to use
> it. In Cyrille you select a keyword (following your own
> idea/concept/memory of that word) receiving back what the society
> "thinks" about it, like a global meaning (with all those 'chance
> encounters'). So there are many aesthetic and conceptual levels like
> in a Photoshop file. It's up to you to decide which layers to merge in
> order to visualize from the piece, your temporary own soul.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> What about Altarboy? Views from the art world
>
> "When Analix Forever discovered Carlo Zanni and his innovative
> approaches to art, it was a revelation. Altarboy is the piece that
> most strongly combines the delicate beauty and the advanced netart
> developments that characterize Zanni's art. With the creation of
> Altarboy, people can now buy and sell netart, thus opening a new
> market. The ultimate proof of this: we bought this unique piece!"
> Cyrille Polla, director Analix Forever Gallery, Geneva - Switzerland
>
> "Altarboy's juxtaposition of fresh rose petals with web-based content
> serves as a refreshing memento mori, reminding us of the fragility and
> fleeting quality of net art. The owner's option to share it online or
> not underscores the ephemeral nature of net art works, a quality that
> sometimes goes unnoticed when servers are online 24/7."
> Sara Tucker, Director of Digital Media, DIA Center NY
>
> Links
>
> Carlo Zanni
> Cyrille
> 4 Untitled Portraits
> Analix Forever
>
>
> Exiwebart_focus - a project bydomenico quaranta
>
> [Exibart]