Noise on the Line: Emerging Issues in Telecommunications-Based Art

The author explains how telecommunications-based art breaks new ground by using technology to create completely new contexts for art. He identifies a series of issues that must be addressed in order to strengthen this art form: the need for clarity about conceptual rationales for using telecommunications in artwork, the need for attention to the sensual format in which information appears, the importance of editing and craft, and the appropriateness of producing local versus global works in some situations. The article then introduces artistic opportunities for working with related technologies that are converging with telecommunications: artificial intelligence, groupware, telepresence and virtual worlds.