http://cont3xt.net/ October 10, 2007
Curatorial Contexts

CONT3XT.NET is a Vienna-based discussion platform for new media art. Founded in 2006 by Sabine Hochrieser, Michael Kargl (a.k.a. Carlos Katastrofsky), and Franz Thalmair, it has been playing a significant role in the examination of the most important issues that have recently arisen in the field–not only regarding the production of works for the internet, but also their online viewing. The consideration of curatorial methods for new media art is, in fact, one of the core domains of CONT3XT.NET’s activity, and reflecting this interest the team has edited the book ‘Circulating Contexts–CURATING MEDIA/NET/ART,’ that will be launched at Vienna’s Depot next Monday. As stated in the Introduction, this publication takes as its starting point the fact that ‘Internet art does not necessarily have to be presented in a customary exhibition space, because as long as there is a computer with internet access, it can be accessed anywhere any time. In many cases, net art emerges thro! ugh the participation of an audience with diverse approaches to the internet, which comments on, transforms and disseminates the works in many different ways.’ This topic and others that it has generated are then debated by contributors such as Penny Leong Browne, Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng, Ursula Endlicher, John J. Francescutti, Jeremy Hight, G. H. Hovagimyan, Ela Kagel, Joasia Krysa, LeisureArts, Eva Moraga, Scott Rettberg, Duncan Shingleton, Luis Silva, David Upton, xDxD xD, as well as several participants in the organization’s mailing list. In between established museum curators’ practices and emerging curating models, the presentation of new media art demands more and more theoretical frameworks that still need to be developed, and this project constitutes a step forward in this direction. – Miguel Amado