Real performance on the pseudo network: Franklin Furnace and the Internet as an open medium

Sant, Anthony, «Real performance on the pseudo network: Franklin Furnace and the Internet as an open medium». Ph.D., , Ann Arbor, United States 2003

Abstract
This dissertation sets out to document a significant moment in performance history: the early years of live art on the Internet as presented by Franklin Furnace, a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. In the process I also aim to create some awareness to the fact that access to the Web as a creative medium may soon be taken over by governmental and commercial interests to be regulated and controlled like radio and television broadcasting. Since 1998 I have closely observed the performances presented online by Franklin Furnace and others. I present the key issues related to the potential of webcasting as a creative medium with the aim of explaining what is really at stake for independent webcasters. I examine what led Franklin Furnace to start presenting live art on the Internet in 1998 offering a unique overview, which links performance art to live art on the Internet through artists’ books. Web content creators can reach an audience without a controlling intermediary, broadcast their work and ideas to audiences they could not previously reach through other means. This dissertation’s broader investigation into how the new technology transforms power relations, resounds with the many efforts of avant-garde artist throughout the twentieth century who explored interactive art while questioning the role of the artist in relationship to their audience. Two critical issues raised by webcasting—long-term distribution of digital works, and digital rights management—are relevant for making webcasts available on demand immediately after they are created, and even more so during efforts for long term preservation and dissemination. While Franklin Furnace is the first to admit that it has far from found a solution to the critical issues, which threaten its mission to foster the dissemination of artists’ ideas, it firmly believes that the best way to move forward is to align itself with a larger organization that is already making headway in its endeavors to preserve the Internet as an open medium.

Other data

Number of pages: 189
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/305313159/abstract/B495AAD9CDC54742PQ/7
Language: Inglese
key: 9GQ54F84