"THE FILE ROOM," A PIONEERING DIGITAL ARTWORK ABOUT CENSORSHIP, IS BACK
ON-LINE VIA MEDIACHANNEL.ORG

AN INTERVIEW WITH MUNTADAS ABOUT HIS 2 CURRENT NEW YORK SHOWS WILL BE
POSTED ON THE MEDIA CHANNEL MAY 10

New York City, May 6, 2000 – One of the earliest and most impressive
examples of online media art is New York-based artist Antoni Muntadas's
"File Room". Debuting in 1994, this interactive archive of two millennia
of social and cultural censorship chronicles hundreds of cases of
perceived censorship, sometimes, but not always, covered in the media or
other public forums. It invokes questions about the character of
censorship itself and offers a repository, or hidden history, of
thwarted personal and communal expression. Any visitor to "The File
Room" may add new cases of censorship to the database by filling out a
simple online form. Or search the site by geography, subject matter,
medium or time period. The result is a powerful experience that makes
real the insidious nature and effects of censorship. It can be seen on-
line at http://www.thefileroom.org

"MediaChannel.org is delighted to present and host 'The File Room,'"
said Robert Atkins, the site's Media Arts editor. "We see it as the
anchor of our Media Arts section, and a perceptive critique of the
'consciousness industry.' This celebrated artwork was one of the first
on the World Wide Web, prior even to the release of the Netscape
Navigator browser." Mr. Atkins' coverage of the culture wars appeared in
the Village Voice from 1987-1994.

Derived from a personal experience in which Muntadas's artwork was
censored, "The File Room" is one of the artist's many works addressing
power relations within society. It was developed as a project of
Randolph Street Gallery (a non-profit art space) in collaboration with
the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Art and Design.
Following its debut as both a physical installation and virtual artwork
at the Chicago Cultural Center on May 20, 1994, it was immediately
acclaimed by the press and public.

When Randolph Street Gallery closed in 1998, Muntadas began considering
other online venues for it. Unlike conventional artworks, an
interactive, ever-growing project like "The File Room," demands computer
server space and upkeep. After many discussions with museums, Muntadas
selected The Media Channel as a kind of experiment. "Since contemporary
work is not always relevant to museums" he observed "It is important to
create a new context for it on the Net."