information.

this week's topic is Web Environments

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Is there such a thing as a reality we can only experience through the Net? To what extent is our response to work on the Net conditioned by experiences in the physical world? And what is the influence of other media, such as cinema, print and television? How do artists exploit the web's separation of viewer, content and author - by locating themselves on the border between the real and fictitious, and between the institutionally sanctioned 'truth' and their personal vision of the world? Should we look for intellectual and moral authenticity in net art, and what roles do access and interpretation play in our response to the work?

What is the nature of an 'event' on the web? Is it a good medium for performance? How do virtual artworks unfold in time and space?

featured product :: www.cybracero.com.

www.cybracero.com

Cybracero is a programme that uses robotic technology to replace the bracero, the migrant worker who has to travel from another country to work in the fields of the United States. Through Cybracero, robots take care of the agricultural tasks like planting seeds, and harvesting, by being remote-controlled by workers who stay in their country of origin. According to its creator, the concept is of benefit to the owners of the farms, and to the farm workers, because it saves them money, and physical work, at the same time providing efficiency and good earnings.

The Cybracero program makes it possible for only the labour of Mexican workers to cross the border interactively while physically the worker can stay in his or her hometown. Using high-speed internet connections with Wi-Fi technology, the American harvest will be cultivated and monitored by machines which are operated from Mexico. The Mexican workers will be able to control, remotely, the harvest and production.

Is this a bold internet start-up, an edgy political satire, or an artistic meditation on labour, technology and how distance has little meaning in cyberspace? All of the above.