Modem Dialing Out

INTRODUCTION MODEM DIALING OUT Nobody knows whether this will turn out to be the best or the worst thing the human race has done to itself, because the outcome will depend in large part on how we react to it and what we chooseto do with it. The human mind is not going to bereplaced by a machine, at least not in theforeseeable future, but there is little doubt that the worldwide availability offantasy amplifiers, intellectual tool kits, and interactive electronic communities will change the way people think, learn, and communicate. -Howard Rheingold My good friend and pop-conceptual artistJudy Malloy was the first to suggest to me a special issue of Leonardo that would investigate and document art and telecommunications . I thought it a great idea at the time-and now that it has become a reality, I like it even more! I am particularly pleased to see this resulting publication because I have been closely involved in much of the activity in the field. Well over a decade ago, Canadian seminal telecomputing artist Bill Bartlett came into Art Com, wild-eyed and carrying a terminal, printer and acoustic modem combo. He lifted up my telephone headset, dialed out and pushed the headset into the coupler. The printer started streaming out text onto paper. He said something like "This is a network for art" and went on to talk about connectivity and telecomputing. I became a convert at that moment. The era of the seventies was instrumental in establishing a groundwork in art and telecommunications, with many artists in the field developing global projects. Experiments in telecommunications art ran wild during that decade-the artists used satellites, slow-scan video, personal computer networks, telephone, fax and other forms of reproduction and distribution using electricity. I got my own first dose of connectivity producing video projects involved with satellites or slow-scan video, which were coordinated via computer networks. Electronics was and continues to be the true new frontier for contemporary art. "Connectivity: Art and Interactive Telecommunications", this special issue of Leonardo, is a beginning toward a chronicle of the era. Although the field represented here is vast, it has not been possible to document all of the significant work in telecommunications art. Noteworthy participants who are not part of this special issue include Lisa Bear, New York;Joseph Beuys, Dusseldorf; Byron Black, The World; Hans Breder, Iowa City; Hank Bull, Vancouver; Victor Coleman, Toronto; Douglas Davis, New York; Nancy Frank, San Francisco; Kit Galloway, Los Angeles; Michael Goldberg, Tokyo; Kate Craig, Vancouver; Sherrie Rabinowitz, Los Angeles; General Idea, Toronto; Sharon Grace, San Francisco; Marian Lewis, Toronto; Raul Marroquin, Amsterdam; Ko Nakajima, Tokyo; NamJune Paik, New York; Clive Robertson, Toronto; Garry Schumm, Dusseldorf.jill Scott, Sydney; Willoughby Sharp, New York; Shozo Shimamoto, Kobe; Aldo Tambellini, Boston. While the early seventies were the starting point, the late seventies and the eighties brought forth high-visibility projects, including "Artists' Use of Telecommunications " (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1979), conceived by myself, and "Planetary Network" (Venice Biennale, 1987), conceived by Roy Ascott. In a way, these two projects were the beginning and the end of these particular kinds of ephemeral, time-specific projects.©19911SAST Pergamon Press pic.Printed inGreat Britain. 0024.()94X/91 $3.00+0.00 LEONARDO, Vol. 24, No.2, p. 113-114,1991 113 The eighties also brought forth an interest in telecomputing projects of duration and in the formation of ongoing networks. One notable project is the Art Com Electronic Network (ACEN), a full-service personal computer network dedicated to contemporary art and communications technology. On a daily basis since 1986 ACEN has provided electronic art magazines, bulletin boards and a host of user-activated online art galleries and fun events. The Art Com Electronic Shopping Mall features contemporary art publications and electronic media art, where orders are placed electronically. ACEN is a virtual village. The decade of the eighties saw the emergence of independent, stand-alone telecomputing projects. Perhaps the most interesting was Art Net, a project ofArt Resource Center (ARC) in Toronto. Canadian artist Derk Dowden was a central figure in Art Net. The project continues to serve as a model for network builders researching user...