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University College of Malmo and Digitala Bildverkstaden i Skane (Digital Workshops of Scania), Malmo, Scania region, Sweden.
25-29 October 2000
Reviewed by by Fred Andersson, Ulvsbygatan 29 (6), 654 64 Karlstad, Sweden.
E-mail: konstfred@hotmail.com


Recent outbursts of NetArt enthusiasm, i.e. the NetArt section of last spring's Whitney Biennal, SF MOMA's present exhibition "Art in Technological Times" or Rachel Greenes article about the history of NetArt in Artforum (May 2000), shows an Art Establishment embracing cyberpunk anarchists. But Non-Establishment and Non-Commerce is the point of NetArt, as of course its immateriality. It's seen, read and heard at any computer equipped with a screen, a loudspeaker and a decent modem. But the same work may look different in different browsers or in different versions of browsers. And electronic technology is rapidly aging. How to collect and document art which is totally dependant upon aging technology?

Such questions were discussed during the international conference and exhibition Electrohype 2000 at the University College of Malmo, Sweden, 25-29 October 2000. Per Platou, member of the Norwegian performance- and NetArt group Motherboard (www.liveart.org), claimed the absurdity of maintaining ordinary copyright laws in the present situation of easily reproduced uniqueness. But some interesting questions remained unanswered: how to create new rules, and how to maintain an activity in which everything is offered for free? And what about preserving electronic art? Curator Perttu Rastas (from Kiasma Museum of Modern Art in Helsinki) aimed at a conclusion when he stated that we may have to abandon the routine of collecting material objects. The important thing is maybe not pictures and programs, but rather the ideas behind them.

The Electrohype exhibition of digital works, in the galleries and at the Web, featured international pioneers like Vuk Cosic, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, Mez and others, as well as interesting Nordic artists like Bjorn Wangen, Anna Kindvall, Klara Nagy, Sebastian Campion, Kirsten Bergaust and others. For more information: see the website at www.electrohype.org.

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