From: Miltos Manetas To: Daphna Lewy Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 9:01 AM Subject: Re: artiecle fof Haaretz daily http://www.haaretzdaily.co.il z   computers: I bought my first laptop in 1994. A Powerbook.The only reason I bought it, was that it was portable and it had a luminous screen. I didn't care about machines but I was looking for a weapon. Immediately after I bought it, I made my first and last program. It was called Whoops! Once activated, the screen would turn blue for a sec and the computer would say : Whoops...Whoops,whoops,whoops. Similar to a person which is surprised and blinks. After that, I just start to paint my computer on canvas, using oil color in the manner of Titian, for the same reasons that Cézanne was painting his wife ... About videogames : I start use them in 1995. The first work was 'Miracle", an airplane from a computer simulation, which runs over the water -as Jesus in his famous Miracle. It was indented not as art but as a "friend" for a painting ( which were rapressenting a laptop )in a group show in NY. The same year, I had to prepare an one man show for a gallery at Geneva . I was lazy and in order to avoid the show I asked from the gallery to provide me with whatever it come to my mind : the biggest and the smaller TV they could find, 4 PC and 4 laptop, the gallery walls painted gray, 10.000 $ for studio expenses etc, hoping that they will refuse. They accepted instead and gave me everything, so I was obliged to discover fast something fresh - a new concept. I went and bought a Sony Playstation and a copy of the Tomb Raider. Lara Croft was completely unknown then. I had not much time to play the game, but I discovered that the virtual girl would behave more or less as a real girl : when she 'll encounter a trap, she may get interested enough to fall in it! There were also other interesting details : she had a servant to bring her tea ( in the games introduction), the pixel details on the walls etc. I recognized that this material, is ready to become art as well as nature was ready just before the impressionists. An artist, is nothing but a psychoanalyst of forms: when forms are ready to reveal their secrets. he will listen. In this case, the forms ( videogame characters and environment), would say human stories in a graphic manner. And there was also the fact that nobody had ever used videogames to do any art before. Virgin ready material. do you feel video games express a side of our lives we are less willing to deal with in other ways? New forms ( videogames and computers in this case), always create extensions for our personalities. You can kill a cop in a game; its easy and colorful like playing tennis. Violence, becomes still life and nobody has to suffer. The simulated World gives you opportunities: if a traffic policeman will ticket you for speeding, you can take screen revenge . I dream of a World where we will interact with cartoons in a permanent basis. Swim in the sea, while inside your computer, Lara is also swimming. Double life. ----- Original Message ----- From: Daphna Lewy To: Miltos Manetas Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:12 AM Subject: Re: article fof Haaretz daily Wow! that was quick!!! Thanx for agreeing to answer my question. I would mainly like to know when did you start relating to video games and computers in your work, and why (I know this is an open question...). How do people react to it? and do you feel video games express a side of our lives we are less willing to deal with in other ways? Many thanks again Daphna ----- Original Message ----- c
     
From: Karen Leong <karenanne_leong@yahoo.co.uk>   >
> I was just wondering how you, as an artist, think of
> the media's coverage of net art. Do you think that it
> has done a good job with educating the public/readers
> about net art, and created enough awareness and
> curiosity among them? What kind of coverage would you
> like to see?
>

There is a problem with what you call Net Art ( and I call NEEN). It will sound paradoxical, but the Media ( or the large public) have not even see these works yet, because there are not screens available to display them.
Let me explain you : When we see and enjoy, a computer piece, our experience, is a combination of at least 2 sensations. A visual and/or sound one but also a tactile : what our finger over the keyboard is transmitting. Take a flash animation. You start it and while you watch it, your finger knows that if it will touch Esc. the animation will stop. Or if you'll scroll the mouse, something may change. This is not about interactivity, it is about the psychology that the context of interactivity creates to its users. If Internet is the new America, the given of interactivity, "what the finger knows", is the ticket to cross the Atlantic.
In our days there is no way yet to expose in a large public this "finger-to -the -eyes situation". Projections, are the worst way to show NEEN, because they involve darkness which direct us to a very different mental place, the tradiscional place of cinema where you don't need any finger. Workstations,(when you go to a show and you are suppose to see the pieces in terminals and move their mouse's ), are no good because they completely destroy another very important element of western art : the distance in between a piece and the observer. Those new flat digital TV's are to fat still and the way they use light is catastrophic for an artwork, -in some way they succeed to make from flatness a sculpture and because their format is similar to a painting, they look like unbearable paintings.
Before the Media ( the legitimate public ), will be able to look on what Neensters can see, we will need the event of a great discovery, a magic paint that you can apply to a wall and turn it to a screen. To simplify all that : think of a person in front of his computer, as a person in of a white wall.
He moves his hands into the void and forms appear. That's what is already happening when we look at a painting : instead of our hands, we move our eyeball.
To return to your question, What kind of coverage would you
> like to see?
The only good coverage for now are what the experts all telling : interviews like this one . Is like asking Tistan Tzara about Surrealism at the Club Voltaire.

> I think i'm asking too many questions for one email.
> Hope to hear from you soon, and i'm bursting with more
> questions.
>
> Thanks Miltos!
>
> rgds, karen.
> --- manetas_NY <m@manetas.com> wrote: > it doesn't
> exist any ""net art"". It exists though a
> > different psycological
> > landscape which is related with the computer screen.
> > The computer screen, is entirely different story
> > from any other screens we
> > were used too-such as tv etc. I use to think of it
> > more as a new America ( a
> > fresh discovered space ) than a media. All
> > contemporary art, was based on
> > the idea of the white empty space. But this is not
> > empty anymore: its if
> > fill up with concepts -visible and invisible forms.
> > Therefore, we should
> > start to ignore it and built in the screen space.
> > This will not be Net art :
> > it will be something more complex. I bought a name
> > for it -from Lexicon Inc
> > in San Francisco. The name is NEEN- for a generation
> > of Neensters . All info
> > : www.neen.org. I am working on the manifesto now...
> > Check also biennale.net : its my collection of all
> > best I found until now.
> > I'll write you more later... too warm here. I go now
> > to play with my new
> > AIBO dog... He doesn't want to learn its name yet..
> > -ask me questions...
> > miltos
> >
> >
> >
> > > that's great, miltos!
> > >
> > > the questions go like this...
> > > 1) what, to you, is a successful piece of net art?
> > > 2) name one net artist whose work you find most
> > > exciting. (could you describe his work, and say
> > why it
> > > appeals to you)
> > > 3) do you think that people who report/comment on
> > net
> > > art know enough about the medium?
> > > 4) tell me about some net art projects have you
> > worked
> > > on.
> > >
> > > essentially, miltos, i'd love to hear your
> > philosophy/
> > > ideas/ opinions on net art.
> > >
> > > thanks very much! and would it be too much of a
> > bother
> > > if more questions came up as we go along?
> > >
> > > rgds,
> > > karen.
> > >
> > > --- Miltos Manetas <m@manetas.com> wrote: > yes,
> > of
> > > course: feel free to ask me whtever you need
> > > > miltos
> > > >
> > > > www.manetics.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: Karen Leong <karenanne_leong@yahoo.co.uk>
> > > > To: <m@manetas.com>
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 11:37 AM
> > > > Subject: net art
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > Hi Miltos,
> > > > >
> > > > > I was just wondering if I could ask you a few
> > > > quick
> > > > > questions about net art and issues surrounding
> > it.
> > > > >
> > > > > I am a postgrad journalism student writing a
> > > > thesis of
> > > > > the same topic. And to be truthful with you,
> > I'm
> > > > > working at i-D magazine at the moment and came
> > > > across
> > > > > your contribution to their book project Learn
> > and
> > > > Pass
> > > > > It On. I'm part of that team, and hope you
> > don't
> > > > mind
> > > > > my approaching you like that.
> > > > >
> > > > > Your words and ideas seemed to touch on
> > > > technological
> > > > > matters in art, and it struck me that you
> > might be
> > > > a
> > > > > suitable person to speak to for my thesis.
> > > > >
> > > > > Let me know if you're alright with it, and the
> > > > > questions will follow shortly.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks Miltos!
> > > > >
> > > > > Kind rgds,
> > > > > Karen
> > > > >
> > > > > PS. your birthday is one day before mine.
> > > > >