3.5.1 Communication technologies, allowing thought processes and ideas to fluidly exist and mutate, are a natural space for conceptual artists to explore. The challenge is, how does one work in such a space, and what determines a particular exchange to be deemed as an art piece? Much of the initial experiments with telecommunication technologies focused on the thrill of making connections and issues of providing access. At this point, it is important to differentiate between synchronous and asynchronous processes and tendencies of telecommunication events. Events which require physical presence of artists have a distinctly different feel and tendency from those that emphasised non-presence. The asynchronous communication events are inheritors of the above mentioned conceptualists, the synchronous events closer to more traditional forms of creative expression. Ascott made this distinction early on and insisted on the importance of asynchronicity. As we shall see later when considering information architectures, this is indeed a very important element to consider when conceptualising telecommunication artworks. [top]