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Welcome to the third issue of Art Orbit! This time the theme is Art & Technology. While I was working intensively on this issue I was, funnily enough, asked to write a text to be circulated at a symposium in Stockholm. My task was to write on the topic of art & new technology, in other words, art created with and for computers. The project director asked me to write a short text which on the one hand should be well-informed, on the other would appeal to a public at large. I accepted. I really racked my brain for a couple of days, trying to find ways of describing the state of this conjunction between art and new technology, of explaining the conditions of this art form. As usual, I was trying to get hold of some relevant literature on the subject. But no. That wouldn't help me at all as I was supposed to reflect on the situation in Stockholm and Sweden. Anyway, time was too short and so was the space allocated to me in the catalogue-to-be. I had to turn to my own experiences. I will not repeat my text - which I actually managed to complete - here in Art Orbit. But some things are worth pointing out once again. The whole of society has just entered a new era in which the new technology occupies an important position. The advent of computers in our homes and workplaces is well on the way towards transforming our culture in general. And there is now a new generation of artists, just graduating from advanced educational programmes, whose work reflects this major change. Fine, so what's the problem, you might wonder. Well, one major problem is that the art and culture institutions in Sweden are lagging behind. To put it even shorter: this kind of art is nowhere to be seen. The chance for the public at large in Sweden to see or get access to a high quality art project created with computers is minimal. Today there are no obvious ways to get acquainted with this type of art. There is not one single place where it's easy to go, easy to gain information, easy to learn more about this new art form and its relatively short but important history. (And this is truly absurd as so many projects are based on interactivity...) Luckily enough, I say to myself, there will probably be space for a few hundred members of the public at large at this symposium. But what about the rest? And one has to wonder about the artists. The vast majority of the digital art projects that I've seen are the ones I've come across inside the walls of art schools. There has been a good number of well-produced projects with interesting content. But they have never reached as far as out of the doorway of the schools. And naturally enough they are soon forgotten, if anyone even recognises them in the first place. That is not just a loss to the artists and audience, what's worse is that it points to a lack of interest in an important stream of contemporary art and culture from those in power in society and in the art world. OK, the thoughts above sprung from a Swedish context. Let's make it more international now. At the same time as I was dealing with this issue of art and technology both for Art Orbit and for the symposium, an interview with the by now legendary engineer Billy Klüver was delivered by e-mail. You can read it here in Art Orbit #3. (The sender was Art Orbit's irreplaceable contributor; Paris-based curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.) When reading this interview, which deals with experiences from the early 60's onwards in combining art and technology - I can't stop myself from comparing those descriptions to the situation today. The reason why Klüver, as the engineer, and Robert Rauschenberg, as the artist, decided to cooperate, was the need for technological solutions among the artists in N.Y.C.. The American industry had at that time made a very big leap thanks to the advances in technology. And the artists saw the technology as something that could help them realise their projects. If you want the whole story you'll have to read it yourself, just click. However, Klüver still stresses the importance of the artist/engineer collaboration very strongly. At the same time he clearly distinguishes their different roles. Klüver and Rauschenberg formed a well-organised platform for the cooperation between numerous engineers and artists. And it is just a fact that some of the art projects that now are a part of our recent art history were created within this collaboration. Naturally that makes you wonder"what if" when thinking of the prospects of art and new technology.~
yours / ANNIKA HANSSON,
chief editor, hansson@artnode.se
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