In our discussion about the role of authorship, institutions, and commerce in the arts, what I^Òd like to contribute is some speculation on the issue of knowledge. In particular, how our currently valorized notions or architectures of knowledge oppose and limit many of the possibilities that networked art, and distributed art and performance environments propose. All forms of art, including networked art and distributed art environments, cannot help but be attached to one economy of knowledge or another. Moreover, there is no liberation for art when it moves from one economy of knowledge to another, say, from the art market to the Internet. There is, in any case, something more interesting than the liberation of art: how its social and cultural value shifts and transforms as it travels, in the manner of a nomad, from one economy of knowledge to another. The question, then, is what economies of knowledge inform the art and culture of our technological ethos. This paper will address issues of ideology and perception, and propose that atttention to certain unexcavated forms of knowledge could offer us other ways of imagining and creating networked art environments.

 

Jon Ippolito "Allowing Art To Expire Is Beautiful But Stupid"

Antoinette LaFarge "Museum of Forgery"

Bill Seaman "An Economy of Means"