video feature
ISEA
Nagoya
Singapore
Nagoya
Wilfried’s participation in symposia like ISEA, FILE Symposium or most recently in VideoVortex XII in Valletta/Malta showed him their doubtful relevance in terms of science, as well as art, one of several reasons why Wilfried did not participate very often in such events. There is a wrong discussion! When Wilfried was participating in the Biennale of Electronic Art 2004 in Perth Australia, he was verbally attacked by one of the so-called artistic stars, a professor from Scotland by name Simon Biggs, who told him his art would have no value because differently than him Wilfried would have no academic positiion, and when Wilfried asked the curator responsible for his participation why the Biennale would exhibit Simon Biggs gigantic installation without any artistic substance, he told Wilfried, Mr. Simon Biggs was participating only due to his academic position. It was not possible to refuse his work. Now, Wilfried understood why so many mediocre works were part of the Biennale and why the Biennale was discontinued after 2004.
What have art and science in common, at all? In fact nothing, they are like fire & water, but for being creative – to be able to explore the best way to express one’s art, knowledge and particular tools and how to use these toll are necessary. Technology in art had always the function of a tool, and nowadays when science is definded via technology it is not different, science or technology if stay stand in the context of art have no other function than being tools. This is frustating, of course, for those scientists who claim to be artists.
In the same way as nobody would get the idea to declare a brush or using a brush already as art, in the same way it is not allowed to declare other tools like digital technology or “Science”, what ever this actually might mean, as art while they have no other function than serving as tools.
So, art is depending on the tools an artist is using, no matter whether he is using a brush or a computer, or a programming language or a 3D printer, thery are no more or less than tools,
and according to Wilfried’s point of view are the attemps of some scientists who equate science with art nothing else then making out of art a kind of scientific phenomenon, which can be controlled via the science.
So, an essential aspect of this intellectualization of art is the authoritarian idea behind taking control over the uncontrollable (art) in a scientific and political sense.
Neverthess, Wilfried was happy to be selected for participating in ISEA Nagoya 2002 – was it confirming that Wilfried was on a good way – after his completely new start as a human and artist in 2000, and today, the final day of the symposium in Singapore in 2008, Wilfried is happy that Lanfranco Aceti and Elif Ayiter – like Wilfried participants in ISEA Sysmposium were representing him – speaking on behalf of Wilfried, because after an accident Wilfried had not been able to attend the symposium in Singapore in person. So, thanks for this solidarity, while other persons like Andreas Broeckmann were spinning intrigues resulting that the Goethe Institute Singapore, expressively pointing to Andreas character assassination as the intruguer in its declining email, was not willing to fund travel and accomodation, but Wilfried was not depnding on that kind of scandal funding. Yes, Wilfried remembers, the same Andreas Broeckman was running since 2001 a mailing list and Wilfried published quite frequently news and information, and one day, Andreas contacted Wilfried, he would post too frequently, once per month would be OK, but Wilfried would permanently overwhelm the mailing list with his news. It was not true because the past weeks Wilfried hadn’t posted any news, and Wilfried told this guy he would better not treat him like a teacher with his lies, yes – and since then, this guy is Wilfried’s declared life-time enemy, while both do not know each other personally and never have met each other. But Wilfried heard also from others artists about this guy’s authortarian nature, and Wilfried did not pay any attention on this worthless matter.
View the Flash version – requires the Flash plug-in
“Identity of Colour”, 07:07:07, 2016
Film created by media artist Agricola de Cologne, based on the artist’s poem and voice performance of the same name created and executed in 2001.
The work combines DaDa like poetic texts, vector grafics and musical components created by the artist himself.
There are two work versions:
1. The netart piece, 2001, looping
developed according the principle of SAMAC
(Simultaneous Associative Media Art Composing) which describes Agricola’s individual way of experimental electronic writing: words, sound, images, animation, music and voice performance are developed simultaneously –depending on each other – in one long single process.
Voice and sound performance by Agricola de Cologne.
2. the video, 2016, 07.07.07
voice and sound performance by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne
The video is representing a reconstruction of the piece originally programmed in Flash (Macromedia) as netart which ist still existing as a completed netart work, however due to a specific, non-linear programming which could not be transferred to the linear structure of the video a complete reconstruction was necessary. Therefore the video is standing as an art work individually for itself.
Screenings/ participations
1. Netart Version
2003
*ArteMedia 2003 – Buenos Aires/Argentina
*Digital Sur Festival- Arte Digital Rosario 2003 – Rosario (Argentina)
*PEAM 2003 – Electronic Art Festival 2003 Pescara/Italy
*Chiang Mai 1st New Media Art Festival – Chiang Mai (Thailand)
2002
*Cyborg 01 Festival – III International Arts Festival Valencia/Venezuela
*X Canarias International Festival of Video & Multimedia
*e-magic – cybermedia events – 43th International Filmfestival Thessaloniki (Greece)
*VideoMarathon Contemporary Art Centre Chisinau (Moldavia)
*Liberarti – Liverpool Biennial (UK) – Violence Online Festival –
*Asolo Art Film Festival – Asolo (Italy) – www.asolofilmfestival.it
*ISEA 2002 Nagoya (Japan) – Electronic Theatre
*17th Videoformes Festival – Clermont Ferrand (F)
*COOP Media Festival – Museum of Contemporary Art Bucaresti (Romania)
*IV SALON Y COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL DE ARTE DIGITAL – Havanna (Cuba)
*’Visions Festival’ at St. Kilda Film Festival – Melbourne (Australia)
*Free Manifesta/Manifesta 4 – Kunstverein Frankfurt (Germany)
*Free Biennial New York (USA)
*About Vision – digital art exhibition London (UK)
*New Media Line – online exhibition on KanonMedia, Vienna (Austria)
*IDEA – Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts
2001
*Condominium – Webart at – HICETNUNC 10 – San Vito a/T (Italy)
*Cerveira Biennale 2001
*File – Electronic Language Festival 2001 Sao Paulo and Curitiba City (Brazil)
*2nd INTERPOETRY Exhibition Sao Paulo (Brazil)
*DMF2001 – Digital Media Festival 2001 Manila (Philippines)
*4th International Meeting of Experimental Poetry Buenos Aires (Argentina)
*Net_working – Exhibition at Watershed Media Centre Bristol (UK) and
*4th International Conference on Modern Technology and Processes for Art, Media and Design, Bangkok (Thailand)
Copyright © 2001 by Agricola de Cologne. All rights reserved
Nagoya University
Singapore
The Network – a challenge in New Media
by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne
“The Network” is the abbreviation for [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]||cologne, an experimental project environment for art and new media developed, created, curated and directed by Wilfred Agricola de Cologne (AdC), a multidisciplinary media artist, New Media curator and media art activist from Cologne/Germany.
Starting on 1 January 2000 as his big life experiment, he uses the Internet as a tool, as an art medium in its complexity and a platform for creating a new type of art, based on communicating – a big challenge in many concerns, also because its purpose is merely non-commercial, it does not require a membership, registration or password.
“The Network” represents a hybrid, simultaneously a media art project, a manifestation of philosophical ideas around the themes” memory” and “identity”, a research and curatorial project, a composition of dynamic social contexts in progress, a virtual and physical network on different levels, but also a multi-dimensional event environment organised completely online, however, not institutionally structured or associated, but realised in form of an independent art project. AdC himself is acting as a hybrid of different identities, not just as an artist, but also as the programmer, multimedia developer, curator, director in different functions and other virtual and physical instances of different kind, one might even say, he is representing “the Network” himself, re-creating himself continuously, he exists through others.
What is now manifesting itself as “The Network”, was not planned like that. It developed from a small cell through exploring the Internet for what is Internet specific in terms of art. One can divide the evolutionary processes abbreviated in three phases, which, however, did not follow one after another in a linear way, but non-linear sometimes parallel, at the same time or temporarily displaced.
The 1st phase started in 2000, when A Virtual Memorial – Memorial Project Environments against the Forgetting and for Humanity (AVM), was launched online, not more than just a raw construction of ideas, not really structured yet, but in this way a fertile soil for exploring, experimenting, and learning by doing.
Based on the artist’s very personal views, perceptions and philosophical ideas about human memory, humanity and a positive globalization, focussing on how people coming from most different cultural, religious, social, political or ethnic backgrounds deal with memory and the essential questions of life, AVM grew rapidly as a multi-media online context in quite a short time and became the framework for numerous subordinated theme related projects exploring Internet specific participatory, collaborative and networking aspects by inviting artists for participating and collaborating – just to mention a few project titles: “Memorial for the Victims of Terror”(2001), “Violence Online Festival” (2002), “ Rainforest Memorial (2003) “Women: Memory of Repression in Argentina” (2004) “://selfportrait – a show for Peace” (2006). The ancient idea of the finished and completed art project, was replaced by the new type that was ongoing, to be updated and extended this way and changing continuously, offering the visitors or users permanently new reasons to revisit the online environment again and again, resulting a kind of community on a voluntary basis. In these terms, the ideas behind AVM became the fundament of all activities within “The Network”, how different they may be.
Based on all those experiences promising perspectives for the future, the 2nd phase (starting in autumn 2000) is marked by AdC’s specific method of working on different project ideas and their realisation, and thematic and technological aspects at the same time.
The idea of a virtual museum was actually not really new, JavaMuseum – Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary art – gave this idea its specific structures dedicated to the needs of a new art genre (Internet based art). The social aspects got a new dimension in form of curating, ie. taking another type of responsibility. AdC’s curating is not reduced to just selecting art works, contents and artists, collecting links and posting them online, but he curates also virtual space, that space, that is visible on a user’s computer monitor i.e, he designs/ programs specific visual contexts or interfaces for each new project realisation. Curating becomes this way an expression of a new type of artworking. JavaMuseum realised since 2001 besides some global competitions, more than 20 showcases of “netart in a global context” and hosts this way a comprehensive collection of works (1000) from the high time of netart (2000-2004). JavaMuseum stands for a wide range of projects followed in sequence.
The 3rd phase starting sometimes in 2002 parallel to phase 1 & 2, was based on the perception, that the virtual space of Internet gets actually it really meaning when it is confronted with the physical space. One might call it the cross-platform phase, cross-platform in terms of combining the basics of already existing or future project environments, since they showed how closely woven their structures are and how much they complement each other, on the other hand to realise new projects according to those perceptions in an exchange between virtual and physical space. But essential was, AdC had finally become aware that all those projects he had realised until now individually were all standing in a common all encompassing context, i.e a network, The new Network to be created by re-structuring anything done before went hand in hand with the new project platform to be developed. NewMediaFest was thought to act as a framework for new type of experimenting, see-> Violence Online Festival (2002-2004), followed by [R][F]200x—>XP – global networking project (2004 -2007). Two of its “Memory Channels” dedicated to specific media, video and sonic art, i.e VideoChannel – and SoundLAB, became soon acting independently combining all perceptions AdC made during the years, resulting in 2006 also the foundation of CologneOFF – Cologne Online Film Festival, a new type of mobile film and video festival taking place simultaneously online and in physical space in cooperation with partner festivals.
From the beginning, AdC’s activities were addressed to an and the audience, all project environments became social contexts. After The Network had entered the discussion as an idea, new service platforms for participating artists and curators and users in general , were created: see -> JIP – JavaMuseum Interview Project (2006), VIP – VideoChannel Interview Project (2007), AND – Artists Network Database (2006) – central place for organising the 1400 biographies of the participating artists and curators -, and netEX – networked experience – a publishing platform for announcements and calls (2005).
Long before experts were considering a WEB 2.0, AdC was already working on his he personal Web 2.0 as a kind of open system. He sees his multi-facetted work on The Network as his specific type of artworking, where he can develop his abilities to the full.
While the success of The Network is manifesting itself visually online to each visitor, the site statistics show how many came: 500 000 hits in 2000, and more than 8 million hits during the past 12 months (Mai 2007-April 2008).
Certainly, some of the incorporated project environments can be considered as completed, The Network as such as a dynamic work in progress, however is ongoing with an open end.
The Network ~
[NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne – experimental platform for art and New Media http://www.nmartproject.net/
NetEX – networked experience (2005- ) http://netex.nmartproject.net/
netMAX – publishing environments (2007 -) http://max.nmartproject.net
AND – Artists Network Database (2006 -) http://and.nmartproject.net
A Virtual Memorial – memorial project environments (2000 – ) http://www.a-virtual-memorial.org/
Memorial for the Victims of Terror (2001- ) http://terror.a-virtual-memorial.org
Memorial for the Victims of Aids (2001-) http://aids.a-virtual-memorial.org
Tsunami Memorial (2004 -) http://tsunami.a-virtual-memorial.org
Family Portrait (2001-2005) http://familyportrait.engad.org/
Women: Memory of Repression in Argentina (2004- ) http://argentina.engad.org
://selfportrait – a show for Bethlehem (2006- ) http://self.engad.org
Cinematheque – streaming media project environments (2001 – ) http://cinematheque.le-musee-divisioniste.org/
JavaMuseum – Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art (2001 – ) http://www.javamuseum.org/
JIP – JavaMuseum Interview Project (2006 – ) http://jip.javamuseum.org/
NewMediaFest – festival project enviroments (2002 – ) http://www.newmediafest.org/
Violence Online Festival (2002- ) http://violence.newmediafest.org/
[R][R][F] 200X – global networking project (2004-2007 ) http://rrf200x.newmediafest.org/
IMPACT event series project (2005) http://impact.newmediafest.org/
VideoChannel – video project environments (2004 – ) http://videochannel.newmediafest.org/
VIP – VideoChannel Projectenvironments (2006-) http://vip.newmediafest.org
SoundLAB – sonic art project environments (2004 – ) http://soundlab.newmediafest.org/
SIP – SoundLAB – Interview Project (2006-) http://sip.newmediafest.org
CologneOFF – Cologne Online Film Festival (2006 -) http://coff.newmediafest.org/
Agricola de Cologne site (2000- ) http://www.agricola-de.cologne
Agricola de Cologne Moving Picture Collection (2001)
