Virtuelle verdener og rum X: 17. april 2002 Kunst i virtuelle verdener

1. Virtuelle verdener og rum • X: 17. april 2002 • Kunst i virtuelle verdener • Primærlitteratur: Primærlitteratur: Johansson, Troels Degn. 2000: "Staging Collaborative Relations: Superflex' Art for the Internet"

2. Kunst i virtuelle verdener • Hvordan kan virtuelle verdener bruges som medie for samtidskunsten? • Hvordan bruger den danske kunstnergruppe Superflex virtuelle verdener i deres såkaldt relationelle/sociale kunst? Hvordan hænger kunstkritikeren Nicolas Bourriauds begreb om relationel kunst sammen med Superflex’ praksis?

3. Staging Collaborative Relations: Superflex' Art for the Internet Troels Degn Johansson Assistant Professor

4. Staging Collaborative Relations: Superflex' Art for the Internet - foredrag ved netkunst-konferencen CULT 2001, Kulturnet Danmark, 3.-5. oktober 2001

5. Superflex as “Net-Art” or “Collaborative Art”? • Not only because some of their projects make use of the Internet: Superchannel, Karlskrona2 • Not only because Superflex establishes project networks for cross-disciplinary collaborations • Perhaps especially because Superflex establishes a common “net environment” that both make use of the Internet and networks based on art

6. Superflex’ “Net Environment” • The Internet as technology seems less important than the “net” as a conceptual principle • Networking as an organisational principle seems less important than the idea of networking, that is, network as a principle of art • Superflex’ thematises the “net” and “networking” by staging them: Staging collaborative relations by means of the Internet

7. Collaborating with Superflex • Two years strategic partnership with art group Superflex with reference to the development of the Karlskrona2 concept: a geographically based, virtual 3D-world (3D MUD). • Applied research as a media studies scholar in Internet-based visualisation of landscape and urban space -- using e.g. Karlskrona2 as a medium. • Research also in problems regarding Superflex’ work as fine art: relational art, cyberculture, etc.

8. Superflex - www.superflex.dk

9. Superflex - Introduction • Superflex are: Bjørnstjerne Christensen, Jacob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen; students from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; currently holding the Danish state art foundation scholarship. • Considerable international interest for app. 4-5 years, part of the ‘wave’ of Scandinavian relational artist • Also a company which should be economically ‘sustainable’. Office in central Copenhagen.

10. Karlskrona2 and Superchannel • Two out of Superflex’ current main projects; both based in the Internet as a ‘relational’ medium and cyberspace as a communication environment • Karlskrona2: a 3D Multi-User Domain (MUD) based on a digital model of the minor Swedish city Karlskrona’s central, old square. • Superchannel: A combination of streaming media, web-chat and a local, public accessible studio.

11. Superflex’ Project Karlskrona2 / Wolfsburg2

12. Superflex’ Karlskrona2 • A 3D Multi-User Domain (3D MUD) based on a digital model of the city centre incl. the UNESCO-protected square • Video screen linking real and virtual city centres • Special privileges to local citizen users • Addressing an IT strategy for regional development in Karlskrona/Blekinge council

13. Superflex’ Karlskrona2

14. Superflex’ Karlskrona2 • Karlskrona2’s current ActiveWorlds interface featuring a 3D display, a chat window, a navigation panel, and a web browser

15. www.karlskrona2.org • Download install program and install the K2 application • Further info on site

16. www.superchannel.org

17. Superflex’ Superchannel • Web-casted streaming media (RealMedia) • Local art galleries used as Superchannel ”TV studios” - or libraries and public spaces which are made into ‘art spaces’ by the staging of Superflex. • Continuous web-chat dialogues by the web-cast audience. • A common Superchannel site featuring a list of channels, a news section, and an archive

18. Superchannel and Karlskrona2 • Locally anchored networks featuring “concentric communications” staged by relational “net-artist”

19. Superchannel and Karlskrona2 • Locally anchored networks featuring “concentric communications” staged by relational “net-artist”

20. Staged by Art” • - dealing with Karlskrona2 as a planning studies scholar I am: • Staged as a common 3D MUD user • Staged on the ‘art scene’ to present my experiences with the application of relational art • Staged as a media scholar using K2 as a concept and a technology to promote a critical understanding of 3D-visualisation in planning communication

21. Superflex’ ‘Art Stage’ • Superflex thus stages processes, actors, and project partners on the ‘neutral foundation’ of art: It creates networks, makes thing happen -- and documents the results as stages of development before in the art world (galleries, etc.) • Superflex works ‘outside’ the art world in ‘the name of art’ -- their projects have a particular aim and cause in a society, they are not aimless as in traditional art (aimlessness, aesthetic pleasure and contemplation).

22. Superflex’ ‘Art Stage’ • Staging of relations seems to be a general strategy for Superflex as relational artists • Anything, that is, any system of relations seems in this sense potentially to be ‘stageable’ in the ‘name of art’, with Superflex’ ‘signature’: social, economic, representational, etc. - perhaps also urban systems? • To stage relational systems is for relational artist just to recognise the basic function of art.

23. Staging of Future • Reality is staged as ‘realised scenarios’ • The staging of relations applies to a possible causality, not to prognoses, and a particular outcome that may finalise the project: it is about ‘If’, not ‘when’: “What if …” • Relational art is in a fundamental sense opportunistic: Its material is opportunity, what may possibly be realised

24. Staging of future • The staging of relations is progressive, ideally infinite -- unlike most art works! • Relational art is in this sense ‘larger than life and art’ -- since both are usually understood in terms of an ending: The limitation of Life and art form.

25. Superflex - Characteristics • Superflex consists of anonymous artist personalities -- what is important is business, the case, the cause: To make things happen • The orange colour is Superflex’ ‘signature’: Anonymous orange connotes both ‘techno aesthetics’ and (public) service functions. • Although Superflex seems to devote themselves primarily to function, service, and technology, their art should be understood critically as fine art.

26. Superflex as Relational Art • Nicolas Bourriaud: “esthetique relationelle” • Relational art: A conceptual orientation in art that seeks to create relations between individuals, institutions, etc. -- sometimes also designated as social art. • Relational art is about the special (economical) contexts which are established and maintained by art as such: marginal/alternative economies.

27. Relational Art • Nicolas Bourriaud: “the work of art can be approached as a form of reality, and no longer as the image of an image.” (Bourriaud - with reference to Plato) • Nicolas Bourriaud: to establish a ‘network or relational universe: current art is composed of these mental entities which move like ivy, growing roots as they make their way more and more complex.’ (of “Esthetique relationelle”)

28. Relational Art as Net-Working • We should perhaps understand pictures in art, pictorial art, as invitations rather than representations? Invitations to continue oneself the work which has been initiated by the art-work. • Invitations are directed towards the future, re- presentations towards the past. • Networks (Internet, relations) are seen as something organic: Art grows as art work becomes inspired by art work.

29. Superflex’ Network-Art - • - based on invitations • Karlskrona2s log-in-interface