information.
this week's topic is Design and the Digital Aesthetic
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"It is difficult to distinguish today's computer-aided designer from the designer-aided computer. This is because thanks to the DTP industry's furious development efforts, the computer has surpassed the designer's expressive abilities and imagination and has come to govern the majority of visual development." John Maeda
What is good and bad art and design on the Net? How do we agree a critical framework, and common language, within which we can discuss that issue? To what extent does the technology itself determine the form and aesthetic of the work? Is the artist or designer merely a choreographer who sets the parameters for the work - the series of steps by which the user engages with the system? Is the system itself the artwork?
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Stanza argues for a networked national virtual media centre, and for recognition of the error404 page as an artwork in itself
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www.erroneous404.com - Stanza
"In one sense any submission to an exhibition about net art should just be the link to the work. The link is the work - its address, its location in the virtual world, its place within the system. The net itself can be interpreted as just a long list of links.
The beauty of art on the net, networked art and net art itself is that it is art for everybody. You can engage with the work at whatever level you want. But when the major curatorial institutions start to engage with the work, they bring their baggage to the party. And who are they to say what is good and bad net art?" Stanza
In this provocation www.erroneous404.com, Stanza tries to make sense of the proliferation of net art and the organised lists of links called 'online exhibitions'. He sets out his vision for a networked national virtual new media centre, offering artists, curators and researchers the opportunity to collaborate in the distribution and archiving of work on the net.
He also argues for recognition of the error404 page as an artwork in its own right.
Stanza is a UK based artist who specialises in net art, multimedia, and electronic music. His award winning online projects have been selected for exhibition in digital festivals around the world, and Stanza also travels extensively to present his net art, lecturing and to give performances of his audiovisual interactions. Stanza is interested in the engagement of the public/audience as a creative user across a variety of formats, from the web to cd rom and gallery installation, and his extensive explorations give him a high level of expertise in this field. He is a current recipient of a Clark Digital Bursary, and has been selected for a NESTA Dreamtime award in 2004.
Recommended links:
www.stanza.co.uk (main site)
www.thecentralcity.co.uk (work as an artist)
www.soundtoys.net (work as an artist/curator)
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- 'Soundtoys' from Design and the Digital Aesthetic
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the medium is tedium - impossible dreamer
Tuesday, Mar 02, 2004 
Congratulations to Stanza for arguing for a networked national online media centre - it's about time arts organisations, galleries and other such institutions learned how to share bandwidth and intellectual resources, rather than competing for profile and kudos in this already overcrowded arena of net art and culture. We need to get the work out there and interact with it - and some kind of umbrella structure is needed to provide a critical context for discussing creativity on the net.
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