Following the honorary mention of OpenForge (an open-source development network) at the Prix Ars Electronica this year, the following question surely needs to be asked: when will art institutions look sideways at commerce and how software companies and developers have adapted to use the network as a fused combination of space for initiation, collaboration, dispersion, distribution and beyond to do likewise for art forms and disciplines such as net art. Net art having a long history of practitioners who are programmers, it seems that obstacles and technical hurdles lie in the domain of the institutions rather than the artist.

One such approach is Ars Publica, “a digital art publisher and agency established for providing and funding new media art, activities and resources in affiliation with the art server Noemata.net,” currently supported by the Council of Cultural Affairs in Norway. Yet cultural or physical borders don’t hold for this open content site.

Through a no-restrictions policy, regardless of where the content originated or what language is used, their “policy is to support collaboration, community, transparency and immediacy in the arts: net art, media art, correspondence/mail art, network art, context art, or other otherness and marginal artifactualizations.” The server space embraces art work and its byproducts in all shapes and forms, functioning and non-functioning; in fact, it revels in the successes, changes and even failures of the combinations of art and technology, documenting work as it is, in an almost dadaesque manner.

Individuals and institutions can participate in two ways: they can add, modify or remove material on the server to contribute to the work; or they can purchase shares of noemata.net…

“Shares can be browsed and purchased from the catalogue, establishing ownership in Noemata. The art will usually be delivered to you prior to your order. Digital art being freely available on the net, the audience–potential buyer–is already the owner of the art work; it is already distributed and downloaded by being browsed, much like quantum mechanics, readymades, Zen, or similar commodities. In addition, the art of Noemata is open-content licensed (meaning no fee can be charged for it); so that’s another problem–no order, no payment (if you figure out a way to pay us we’ll consider whether to accept it or not). By buying shares of Noemata in the form of art, we in Ars Publica fancy having provided a solution where you can order something you already possess and purchase something for which you may not be charged. These are problematic issues, maybe paradoxical. We’ll have a shot in the arm at it.”

While Ars Publica should be felicitated on its approach, it does seem like the attempt lacks dedication to posterity. True, art can be added in any way, but how is that art contextualized? How does it exist in relation to the piece next to it? And how will it be cataloged for users?

Lastly, because of the nature of the work that Ars Publica contains (often collaborative, contributory and variable), and the fact that it can contain many works, how do we define the border between the works and the space? Where are the indications you would have in a classic space such as a gallery, indications disposed of to free the space yet possibly to the compromise of context? How do we stop the space itself from just becoming an immense collective net-art work in itself? Is this good or bad? Do we consider galleries as collective art works?

For more information on Ars Publica and their approach see the site or [url=mailto:contact arspublica@kunst.no]contact arspublica@kunst.no[/url]

A special feature from Net Art Review. You can find more reviews and information about the NAR team at http://www.netartreview.net

January 2004