5.1.1 As we have seen in the previous two chapters, communication technologies have had an enormous impact on our culture. With the introduction of the WWW and the opening of the Internet to the commercial world in 1995, we have entered into the defining stage of the telematic culture. One of the core points to consider in this context is how the overwhelming amount of data that is suddenly easily accessible is being collected, organised and systematised. The Internet as we know it is a product of unplanned anarchic response of many people who used the computer networks to allow access and exchange of their information and knowledge. It was mostly a spontaneous reaction, without much entrepreneurial thought. The second phase of the this vast network, Internet 2, is being designed with much more planning with an unapologetic motivation for expanding into the "global marketplace."

5.1.2 It is of great importance for artists who are focused on working on the networks to consider the historical background of this practice as well as present efforts. Archiving, cataloguing, and organising information directly implicates interface design or what many are referring to as Information Architecture‹the design of information spaces which determine how we navigate, access, and retrieve data. When referring to the data, I mean information that is static, waiting to be accessed in some form. Information is a more dynamic form of data, connected to searching and assembling into specific configurations, which is referred to as knowledge.

5.1.3 Cataloguing, archiving, and arranging information, as objects, images, or words is very much related to knowledge production and the building of institutions. The last wave was related to printing press technology, which resulted in vast number of books and the academic and publishing markets. We are now at a point where once again there is an enormous effort to catalogue and organise the vast information available through the Internet as a new establishment and virtual "institution" emerges.

5.1.4 Artists working with the net are essentially concerned with creation of a new type of aesthetic that involves not only a visual representation, but invisible aspects of organisation, retrieval, and navigation as well. Data is the raw form that is shaped and used to build architectures of knowledge exchange and the active commentary on the environment it depends on-the vast, intricate network with its many faces.

5.1.5 What emerges when considering the landscape of digital data on the networks is the reconnection of "libraries" as depositories of knowledge and "museums" as the exhibitors of creative commentary on our current state of being. In other words, text, image, and object are not separated institutionally anymore, nor does text assume primacy or authority over image anymore. What is still being established is how these libraries and museums will materialise and who will participate in this collective effort of information architecture. [top]