Jennifer Riddell
MIT List Visual Arts Center
JLR@mit.edu
617-253-4400
Remo Campopiano
artnetweb
remo@artnetweb.com
212-925-1885 thru Jan. 15
617-253-4400 from 1/15 - 3/29/97
PORT: Navigating Digital Culture
(http://artnetweb.com/port)
An Investigation into Performance on the Internet
Cambridge, MA, December 1996 -- PORT: Navigating Digital Culture, a thematic exhibition organized by the New York-based collaborative artnetweb, to be held at the List Visual Arts Center January 25 - March 29, 1997, will present the work of artists who use the internet as their medium. Groups scheduled to participate thus far include Art Dirt (G.H. Hovagimyan and guests), Starboard (Adrianne Wortzel, Heather Wagner), Floating Point Unit (Jeff Gompertz, Bruno Ricard, Volcano), Parkbench (Emily Hartzell and Nina Sobell), and Myth Machine (Hal Eager, Marah Rosenberg). An opening reception will take place January 24, 1997 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. The principal organizers of PORT are Remo Campopiano, Robbin Murphy, Marek Walczak, G.H. Hovagimyan, Adrianne Wortzel and Ebon Fisher.
The exhibition will be staged via numerous interactive real-time performances scheduled in two-hour time slots. Visitors may participate in these events, or observe them, either in the LVAC galleries, or from their own computer terminals outfitted with the necessary hardware and software. In the actual gallery, computer terminals and the necessary technologies to participate will be available for use. To make the activity on the monitors easy to view, the performances will be projected onto large screens. Schedules and specific descriptions of all events will be posted on the exhibition's web site (http://artnetweb.com/port) which interested parties are encouraged to consult.
Of primary and unifying concern to the artists who will participate is the interactive potentiality of the internet and its functions as creative catalyst, network, and social space. In this regard, projects will be planned in advance, but only come to fruition in the process of execution on the internet.
The physical space of the gallery will also offer visitors information on the cultural, artistic, and technological context and implications of art on the internet, specific information about the performance taking place at any given time, as well as an visual/experiential component to introduce the themes explored by the exhibit to the technologically uninitiated. The exhibition is intended to provoke questions about the identity and the role of the artist situated within a virtual terrain, the role of an active viewer/participant, and the dematerialized work of art.
Due to the experimental nature of the work being presented, it was determined that the exhibition planning process would also be structured in such a way as to allow considerable interaction between the organizers and participants; or in other words, making the curatorial process apparent and open to questioning through the PORT web site. Participating artists and artist groups are being selected through proposal submissions to artnetweb (proposal guidelines and exhibition information may be found on the PORT web site). In addition, a Listserv, or e-mail discussion group, has been set up to engender discussions about art on the internet and its implications. The Listserv includes participants, organizers, writers, curators, students, and other interested parties and will continue for the duration of the exhibition. Instructions for signing on are also available at the PORT web site.
PORT Physical Layout
The gallery space at the List Center will be equipped with four Pentium Pro computers running four LCD projectors, projecting on to four 6' x 8' screens, all accessing remote performances from around the world. The computers will be set up with all the necessary software required by the participants. There are two slide projectors in the exhibition. One will display information about the participating group or individual currently on screen; the second slide projector will explain what is going on and the technologies used. The configuration of the space can be found on the PORT web site:
http://artnetweb.com/vrml/mit/plan/plan3.html
a VRML version of the space can be found at:
http://www.artnetweb.com/vrml/port/testport3.html
PORT Web Site
http://artnetweb.com/port
The PORT home page is the "rendezvous" for the exhibition, a place where information such as proposal guidelines, participant backgrounds and scheduling are available and where documentation of the process of creating this exhibition is archived.
PORT Listserv
Archives: http://www.home.ease.lsoft.com/Archives/port-mit.html
The PORT Listserv is an email forum, open to prospective participants, the media, and anyone interested in the development of this project. It is a moderated but open, and sometimes contentious, dialogue, designed to help people understand the PORT concept and allow for that concept to grow and evolve though direct participation.
PORT Image Index
http://www.artnetweb.com/vrml/mit
The Image Index is a graphical time-line tracking the visual development of PORT. You will find links to 2-D mappings and drawings and 3-D VRML (virtual reality modeling language) representations of the List Visual Arts Center gallery space as it has undergone a variety of conceptual treatments. Also, you will find links to virtual reality "worlds," or spaces, that you may enter with an avatar, or graphical representation of your presence, in order to talk to others about the development of the physical space. The images and other material on this page are available to the media.
How to Access PORT Remotely
http://artnetweb.com/port/remote
Check the schedule of events, which will be augmented and updated throughout the course of the exhibition with times for specific events and instructions. Artnetweb realizes that not everyone will have access to the appropriate technologies in order to participate remotely, but will offer information on hardware and software needed to optimize remote participation.
How to Get to the List Visual Arts Center
The List Visual Arts Center is located in the Wiesner Building, 20 Ames St., Cambridge on the MIT campus in close proximity to Kendall Square and Memorial Drive.
From the red line Kendall Square T stop, follow Main Street west to Ames Street, turn left, walk the distance of one block to the cross walk and the LVAC, housed in a building identifiable by its white gridded exterior, will be on your left. Signage is on the building. Parking is available at the Marriott Hotel on Main Street near the T stop and in campus lots after business hours and on the weekends.
Gallery Hours
Tues. - Thurs., Sat., Sun. 12 - 6 p.m.
Friday 12 - 8 p.m.
Closed Monday
Information, Directions
617-253-4680
All exhibitions at the List Visual Arts Center are free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.
PORT HOME