// <– The following text is the draft of a talk I am going to give at FILE
in Sao Paulo this August. I would like to circulate this beforehand and hope
it is of some interest. The objective of this talk is to extrapolate some
notion of sculptural elements in net.art, in order to introduce my two works
for the Internet, "Life Measure Constructions" and "Lee Marvin Toolbox", at
the festival.
//–>


< SCULPTURAL FORM > < NET.ART >

<The internet, it has been claimed, ALTERS spatial experience of human
beings.> <Because it provides immediate communication access for users in
one area of the world with others in distant parts, offering mainly written
and pictorial exchange. Somehow the Distant has become a part of the
intimate surroundings, has infiltrated the Close-by in a way that telephone,
television, travel writing, novels in translation, or photo-reporting have,
it seems, not been able to. This condition seems to be mainly driven by the
temporal quality of the internet: the possibility to access information,
post it, and to exchange it in ways that create an unprecedented social
environment.(1)> <If the internet does provide a changed notion of space,
then what is its relationship to spatial art, that is Sculpture.>

<Time and space are an inseparable unit.> <The notion of a changed
experience of SPACE relies mainly on its temporal experience which
contributes to an enhanced conceptualization of space. The immediate
networking of servers spanning the globe constitutes the tangible
materialization within the world. As these nodes operate in parallel real
times, they seem to be accessible OEsitesOE where people can OEbeOE without
actually physically being there.(2) Emotional and social space may be
broadenend by connecting isolated humans to a community, bring friends and
family together when physically apart. Still the senders and receivers of
messages are tied to their locations, moving about at rates far less rapid
than bytes. A changed physical experience of space therefore is a different
matter.> <Two main situations can be distinguished: accessing the net at the
humanOEs local base and away from that base. As the human body doesnOEt move
when accessing the net, the immobility of online activity at home does not
involve any new experiences of location, as all the action takes place in
front of a screen that is most likely fixed to a particular area in a room.
If in a foreign place, access helps to connect back to home (such as
regulating heat in your Internet-House; or checking eMail accounts), and
constitutes a means to not feel isolated.> <Away from the known environment,
prancing in new surroundings, provides an unknown spatial experience in a
physical sense. Away from the known environment, immersed in online reality,
provides an unknown spatial experience in a conceptual sense.>

<Spatio-temporal experience and conceptualization have been the major
element of sculptural practice.> <SCULPTURE has evolved from an object-based
crafting to a form-related practice in time and space, embracing a wide
spectrum from social sculpture to installation works and fetishized objects
on plinths. For Joseph Beuys, for instance, creating form in a social
process was sculptural activity; for him, artistic activity aimed at
changing current understandings of art, society, and science - here, social
process is intrinsically an artistic configuration without particular site
but located in the interaction of human beings. Allan KaprowOEs Happenings
similarly brought together a socializing group which, more recently Rirkrit
Tiravanija extended to a more poignant political moment. These artistic
configurations relied on particular sites: the site of the Happening, or the
gallery space transformed into a temporary home. Franz Erhard Walther
understood his objects as works only when being worked with: activity and
object form a unified entity, which in turn point towards insights from
Physics.> <Time and space are an inseperable unit; consequently, activity
and object are ingredients of space-time existence.>

<Sculptural activity has strong presence in Art-in-public-places as physical
manifestations, temporary or intended to last, restricted to spatial
settings (cities, roads, land, water) and PUBLIC reactions (vandalism,
endorsement, opposition). The internet is a public space whose strongest
restrictions are not spatial or political borders but probably language
(hegemony of English) and financial backing (hardware, software, server).
Here, art can exist without impact on the spatially known enviroment of
people (but nonetheless be part of Public Art programmes, such as