The Thing (art project)
The Thing is an international net-community of artists and art-related projects that was started in 1991 by
History
The Thing BBS (1991)
In 1991, The Thing began as a
A second node, The Thing Cologne, was added in 1992, followed by The Thing Vienna in November 1993. Nodes in Berlin and elsewhere were soon to follow.
The Thing on the Web (1995)
The Thing changed its form when a website was created for a presentation at the 1995 Ars Electronica. Credits on the 1995 website also name Nicky Chaikin, John F. Simon Jr., Wolfgang Staehle, Rob Keenan, Darryl Erentzen and John Rabasa.[4]
In 1995 The Thing set up an independent art network with hardware of its own that offered arts communities ways to establish themselves, to send information to one another and also to conceive of new artistic practices deriving from conceptual art and from performance art. The idea was that working with the Internet was a way to operate around the institutions of art distribution of the day.[5]
In 1998 Max Kossatz designed The Thing Communicator a website mimicking many functions of the original BBS including member login, chat and messaging.[6]
The most
Alongside discussion forums The Thing has offered artworks in the form of graphics downloadable to the home personal computer – for example by Peter Halley.
thing.net communities
The Thing has enabled a diverse group of artists, critics, curators, and activists to use the internet in its early stages. At its core, The Thing is a social network, made up of individuals from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of expert knowledge. From this social hub, The Thing has built an array of programs and initiatives, in both technological and cultural networks. During its first five years, TT became widely recognized as one of the founding and leading online centers for new media culture.[7] Its activities include hosting artists' projects and mailing lists - as well as publishing cultural criticism.
The Thing has also organized many public events and symposia on such topics as the state of new media arts, the preservation of online privacy, artistic innovations in robotics, and the possibilities of community empowerment through wireless technologies.
In 1997, thing.net communications, LLC, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) was incorporated by Wolfgang Staehle, Gisela Ehrenfried and Max Kossatz. The ISP was to provide a financial backbone for The Thing Inc. (a 501 c 3 non profit organization). thing.net has hosted arts and activist groups and publications including
Among many others, artists and projects associated with thing.net have included Sawad Brooks,
The Thing global
- The Thing Amsterdam was founded by Walter van der Cruijsen
- The Thing Basel was founded by Barbara Strebel and Rik Gelles
- The Thing Berlin was founded by Ulf Schleth
- The Thing Cologne was founded by Michael Krome
- The Thing Düsseldorf was founded by Jörg Sasse
- The Thing Frankfurt was founded by Andreas Kallfelz
- The Thing Hamburg (1993–94) was founded by Hans-Joachim Lenger
- The Thing Hamburg (2006–2009) was founded by the local art association "THE THING HAMBURG"
- The Thing London was founded by Andreas Ruethi
- The Thing New York was founded by Wolfgang Staehle
- The Thing Stockholm was founded by Magnus Borg
- The Thing Vienna was founded by Helmut Mark and Max Kossatz
- The Thing Roma was founded by Marco Deseriis and Giuseppe Marano
Footnotes
This article incorporates text from "About: The Thing" and "Wolfgang Staehle: Resume", publications released into public domain by their author.
- ^ Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon, 2009, p. 50
- ^ Mark Tribe and Reena Jana. New Media Art. Cologne: Taschen Verlag. pp. 22-23
- ^ Dieter Daniels, Gunther Reisinger (Eds.) “Net Pioneers 1.0: Contextualizing Early Net-Based Art”, Sternberg. 2010.
- ^ "The Thing".
- ^ Mark Tribe and Reena Jana. New Media Art. Cologne: Taschen Verlag. p. 23
- ^ Christiane Paul, Digital Art, Thames & Hudson Ltd., p. 111
- ^ Christiane Paul, Digital Art, Thames & Hudson Ltd., p. 111
References
- Josephine Bosma, 'Constructing Media Spaces', in: 'Media Art Net 2', Wien, Springer Verlag, 2005.
- Dieter Daniels, Gunther Reisinger (Eds.) Net Pioneers 1.0: Contextualizing Early Net-Based Art, Sternberg. 2010.
- Christiane Paul, Digital Art, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., p. 111
- ISBN 978-0-7148-4782-5, p. 50
- Mark Tribe and Reena Jana. New Media Art. Cologne: Taschen Verlag. pp. 22–23
External links
- http://thing.net/ (current url)
- http://old.thing.net/ (1995)
- http://bbs.thing.net / (1997)
- http://www.thething.it/
- http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/frameset.html (Roma)
- http://www.thing-hamburg.de/ (Hamburg)
- http://www.thing-frankfurt.de/ (http://www.thing-net.de/) (Frankfurt)
- http://www.thing.de/ (Berlin)
- http://www.thing.at/ (Vienna)
- http://www.thing.desk.nl/ (Amsterdam)
- http://www.thing.ch/ (Basel, closed)