3/20/03: Technicalities

I subscribe to Net Art News, issued from rhizome.org, to keep to date on the new media art projects. After the first couple of emails, I realized that most new media projects are highly self-reflexive. Eighty percent of new media technologies conceptually treat new media technologies, examining the ontology of the motherboard, database, LCD screen, etc. “What is a click?” they ask. Well, you can click around and figure it out. I considered many of the projects irrelevant, too self-aware, too technical, too inaccessible… This was before I started dappling with my own new media project.

In the process of creating this show, I ran into too many technical limitations to count: There are wires, screen sizes, rendering times, computer crashes, expensive projector repairs, incompatible web browers, lighting issues, firewalls, audio feedback, camera glitches, microphone static, structural database meltdowns. You name it. We had problems. Imaging the body isn’t a easy as shutting your eyes and letting your imagination go. I think that’s why so many new media projects are about new media, I could barely concentrate on our conceptual goals, with all these machines wailing in the background…