Title: wap.sonnet – microbe.4/wap.art
30 files: 17 KB
Created: 2000 (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Deleted: 16 June 2011
Author: Igor Štromajer
Produced by Intima Virtual Base – www.intima.org

Part of the Mobile Trilogy (micro gsm/gps/wap.art trilogy, 1999-2000) by Igor Štromajer.

Available as: wapsonnet.zip (11 KB)
- 21 WML files
- 3 WBMP files
- 3 WBM files
- 3 BMP files

Notice: Overall structure preserved, as well as original source code, images and other resources. Scripts, pop-ups and other specialities may or may not function in your WAP browser/emulator. Some links may be broken, changed, replaced or dead.

Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]

- Original WAP server/location (2000-2011): tagtag.com/soNet
- intima.org URL (2000-2011): http://www.intima.org/sonnet

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626927991008

#
Neues für Wap
Kunst im Handydisplay
by Christiane Wettig
Published in Net Business (München, Deutschland, 26 Juni 2000); www.net-business.de

tagtag.com/soNet – WAP sei Dank, jetzt gibt es sogar Kunst für Handys. wap.sonnet – microbe.4/wap.art ist die wahrscheinlich erste WAP-Kunst der Welt. Igor Štromajer heisst der Schöpfer des telematischen Werkes, das mit einfachsten Mitteln über das Leben in den Zeiten des WAP berichtet. Da wird geflüstert, geschwiegen und gestorben, werden Zahlen zu Menschen oder verwandeln sich Klammern und Sternchen in Gefühle. Ein Rätsel mit und über die neue Technologie und eine kleine, freche Eulenspiegelei.

Denn bislang haben vor allem Geschäftsleute und Technikfreaks teuere WAP-Handys, und die benutzen ihre Telefone in erster Linie ganz pragmatisch. “Plötzlich prallen sie auf das WAP-Sonnet, haben keine Ahnung, wofür es ist und was sie mit der sinnlosen Information machen sollen”, schmunzelt der 32-jährigen Slowene. “Ich bringe also Geschäftsleute durcheinander und erzähle ihnen vom Bruch in der Kommunikation.” Dass er für seine Arbeit nur die eingeschränkten Möglichkeiten einer Handytastatur zur Verfügung hat, findet der preisgekrönte Netzkünstler “wunderbar”. Dennoch will er keine weitere “WAP-Art” machen. “WAP ist tot, die dritte Handygeneration wird komplett interaktiv und multimedial sein.”

“wap.sonnet – microbe.4/wap.art” was a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) based artistic project for GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications) WAP mobile phones only. It was available via micro WAP browsers at the following address: tagtag.com/soNet

#
“WAP is dead!”
David Rensin – CTO at Aether Systems, a handheld infrastructure developer in Owings Mills, Md., Mobile Insights conference in Palm Desert, Calif., 2000

“The idea that WML replaces HTML is silly.”
Rob Enderle – chief analyst at Giga Information, in San Jose, Calif., 2000

#
- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

One (1) original HTML file left on the server:
[Inquiry] www.intima.org/0html/vpras.html

Author: Igor Štromajer
Produced by Intima Virtual Base – www.intima.org

- 142 HTML files
- 164 GIF files
- 19 (?) MP3 files
- 5 (?) WAV files

Award: 3rd prize at Extension, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 1997. Jury: Dr. Uwe M. Schneede, Rainer Wortmann, Dellbrügge & de Moll, Valie Export, Dr. Dieter Daniels.

Andreas Broeckmann has called 0.HTML “an archive of historical techno-imagination, world politics and a grain of melancholy“.

- Original URL (1996-1999): http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima1/0.html
- intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/0.html

# watch fullscreen + set resolution to 720p HD [how]

This video is part of the documentation project at net.artdatabase.org & www.curatingyoutube.net
title = “0.html”
creator = “IGOR ŠTROMAJER” | date of creation = “199601″ | technical description of the artwork: source = “http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima1/0.html”
 | source = “http://www.intima.org/0html/index.html” // since 1997 | type = “webpage” | type = “Interactive Resource” | content = “text/html” | archival technical info: creator = “curatingyoutube.net” | date of archiving = “20110606″
 | Hardware: EMULATION with Basilisk II | source = “http://basilisk.cebix.net/”
computer model: Apple Macintosh Quadra 650
source = “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Quadra” | Software: 
Operating System: 7.5.5 | Browser (version): Netscape Navigator (Netscape Communications®) 3.0

#
Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626574956671/

Original instructions and credits (from 1996):

Author: Igor Štromajer
Personal Adviser: Bojana Kunst
Internet Service Provider: ARNES – Academic And Research Network Of Slovenia
Special thanks to: Steve Klink, Iowa, USA

- The Communication Area
- The Body Observation Section
- The Plain Of Provocative Intelligence
- The Archives Of Conditions

Instructions:
Designed for PC using Netscape Navigator
Resolution: SVGA 800×600 small fonts – 256 colours – 14″ monitor
Modem: 28.800 bps modem

If you use better machines (like MAC / 15″ or 17″ monitor / higher resolution) you can also enter the project – only the graphical proportions will be different.
A sound card is required. You need to have RealAudio installed on your computer. Your software must support *.au, *.ra, *.ram and *.wav sound files. If your system does not support RealAudio format, download and install the RealAudio Player before entering the project.

There is no need (in any situation) to press BACK or FORWARD on your browser inside the project. The project is self-organised to lead you safely through many possibilities. If you will not be able to find a hypertext or hypergraphic for continuation press RELOAD on your browser.

Entering the project requires the basic knowledge about browsers and Internet – but there is just one suggestion: After you have downloaded the animation and are in the process of downloading the sound file, press RELOAD on your browser to re-animate the animation. You can play the sound file again. Wait for each animation to be downloaded (Document: Done).

If you are getting any kind of error messages during the project, it’s because of your browser (task did not call WSACleanup etc.), not because of this project. In this case exit the project, restart your browser and re-enter the project again.

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Extension, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 1997

Laudatio zur Preisverleihung am 14. 9. 1997

In der Logik des Mediums Internet läge es, die Preisverleihung nicht vor Ort zu machen, sondern sich online zu verabreden. Reisetickets und Kleidersorgen hätten sich erübrigt, Sie hätten zuhause bleiben können, die Preisträger in Ljubljana, New York und Berlin; Herr Schneede hätte mittels Inter Relay Chat der Presse Rede und Antwort gestanden, die Preisgelder wären per online-banking überwiesen worden und wir würden jetzt ungekämmt in unseren Pyjamas vor dem Terminal sitzen, um die Laudatio rüberzuladen.

Ein Vorteil des face-to-face-meetings ist, daß unsere Neugier befriedigt wird. Zwei der vier Preisträger waren keinem der Jurymitglieder bekannt. Daß Kommunikation und Interaktion auseinanderfallen, ist jedoch kein Novum des Internets, sondern bereits seit Einführung des Privatpostsystems 1712 der Fall.

Nicht das Netz strebt ins Museum, sondern das Museum zum Netz. Während Kunsthistorische Institute, Bibliotheken und Museen von St. Petersburg bis Florenz das Internet zur Effizienzsteigerung einsetzen, versucht das Museum gleichzeitig, das Zeitgeist-Phänomen Internet mit seinem sich rapide verändernden Charakter zu erfassen. Häufig beschränkt sich die Präsenz der Museen im Netz auf bloße Öffentlichkeitsarbeit.

In den Begriffen von Lager und Depot lassen sich jedoch terminologische und inhaltliche Analogien zum Speicher des Netzes finden, anhand derer Fragen der Selektion, Präsentation und Archivierung von Werken am Sonderfall Netzkunst neu aufgerollt werden können. Das Museum mit seinem hierarchischen und historischen Ordnungssystem ist im Netz mit Wucherungen konfrontiert, die eher unmittelbaren Anforderungen und Bedürfnissen entspringen, als einem übergeordneten Prinzip. Die Hamburger Kunsthalle läßt sich mit der Extension in den Datenraum auf ein Experiment ein.

Funktioniert der Transfer von “Netzkunst” in den musealen Kontext und geht damit die traditionelle Nobilitierung des ausgewählten Werkes einher? Werden einzelne Projekte durch das spektakuläre Ereignis eines Wettbewerbs im Datendschungel fokussiert, wo es bisher kaum möglich ist, aus der Menge der Informationen sinnvoll zu selektionieren und intelligent zu navigieren?

Das Netz hat eine community mit eigenen Parametern und medienimmanenten Formen der Veröffentlichung. Überschneidungen mit der Kunstszene und dem aktuellen Kunstdiskurs bestehen nur bedingt. Projekte, die diese Schnittpunkte markieren und sich an der Spezifität des Netzes entzünden, gehören für den Flaneur im Internet zu den schönsten Entschädigungen für schlecht programmierte Seiten, lange Ladezeiten, redundante Layouts und absehbare Inhalte. Statt zum Surfen auf der Oberfläche motivieren diese Projekte eher zum Verweilen und zum Ausloten der Komplexität ihrer Anlage. Vier dieser Projekte werden heute prämiert.

[...]

3. Preis:
Igor Stromajer: “0.html”

Stößt man auf Igor Stromajers Seiten, hat man sich bereits auf ein Computerspiel eingelassen. Die Mischung von Verführung und Herausforderung garantiert, daß man das Labyrinth so schnell nicht wieder verläßt. Der Spaziergang durch die vier Segmente “The Communication Area”, “The Plain of Provocative Intelligence”, “The Body Observation Section” und “The Archives of Conditions”, kann jedes Mal anders aussehen. “0.html” ist das einzige der gewählten Projekte, das eine in sich geschlossene Welt konstruiert und auf ein Interface zur analogen Realität verzichtet. Gleichwohl adressiert Stromajer den Betrachter wie der allwissende Romanautor, erteilt Verhaltensregeln und gute Ratschläge und bietet im Kommunikations-Sektor darüber hinaus die Möglichkeit eines Online-Treffens an. Stromajer benutzt ein Repertoire, das aus dem Umgang mit Computerspielen und Internet vertraut ist: limitierter Zugang, Paßwörter, Aufgaben, deren Lösung den Spieler auf die nächsthöhere Ebene befördern. Zur Komplexität trägt bei, daß Stromajer andere Internetquellen anzapft und beispielsweise ein Soundarchiv angelegt hat, bei dem man direkt mit Tondokumenten der BBC, der Nasa, verschiedener Universitäten verlinkt wird und noch einmal den legendären Worten Neil Armstrongs beim Betreten der Mondoberfläche und anderen historischen Persönlichkeiten lauschen kann.

[...]

Um mit dem Satz zu schließen, mit dem Igor Stromajer die Besucher aus seinem Projekt entläßt: “Internet is the most primitive medium ever.”

Dellbrügge & de Moll

The Leonardo Gallery
2000 Leonardo New Horizons Award Finalist

Igor Stromajer
www.leonardo.info/gallery/gallery343/stromajer2.html

Stromajer’s artworks have included street performances, time-based net art projects and Internet movies as well as “megapathetic symphonies” and digital art. His recent navigational digital web movie, sprinkling menstrual navigator [shown right and below] combines movies with written instructions that are alternately philosophical (“enjoy your sadness”), pragmatic (“enter by clicking enter signs”), or a synthesis of the two (“free your mind and the rest will follow”). The viewer then manipulates the work by clicking on individual film sequences. The resulting “short stories” rely on popular culture and individual (subjective) associations to create their full content.

Other of Stromajer’s recent projects also use the tools and the potential of the Internet (design, interactivity, connectivity, delay) to create conceptual art. The artist’s earlier web piece 0.html uses a format basic to many computer games (password demands, warning signs, game-level choices) to lead to various facets of the work, each with a sound file: Tito addressing his nation, a U.S. president discussing the role of the United States in world politics, Neil Armstrong’s voice extolling his great leap for mankind as he lands on the moon, etc.” At the end of the project, Stromajer leaves the visitor with the rather perplexing statement: “Internet is the most primitive medium ever.” Andreas Broeckmann has called 0.html “an archive of historical techno-imagination, world politics and a grain of melancholy.

–Barbara Lee Williams,
Leonardo/ISAST Awards
Committee chairperson

New Horizons Gallery: www.leonardo.info/gallery/gallery343/nh00.html
gallery entrance: www.leonardo.info/gallery
Leonardo On-Line: www.leonardo.info
Leonardo On-Line © 2001 ISAST

http://leonardo.info

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Screenshot: http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/_aext/preis.htm
[URL deleted in June 2011 by Hamburger Kunsthalle]

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Kunst aus dem Netz

“Es war ein Experiment, und selbst manches Jury-Mitglied dieses weltweit bislang einmaligen Wettbewerbs war anfangs skeptisch: Gibt es Kunstwerke, die für das Internet spezifisch sind, also nur dort existieren können?”

+ SPIEGEL SPECIAL 10/1997

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The Leonardo Gallery: 2000 Leonardo New Horizons Award Finalist
Igor Stromajer: www.leonardo.info/gallery/gallery343/stromajer2.html
[Screenshot]

- 9 HTML files
- 17 GIF files

- Original intima.org URL (1996-2011): http://www.intima.org/intferno

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626575229495

Original description (from 1996):

who is [GTC] Dragan Živadinov?

interno/inferno is a web art project [not documentary] dedicated to the [G]reat [T]eacher and [C]osmonaut [GTC] Dragan Živadinov. its purpose is to re/create his virtual and artificial:
psych/o[gram]
physi/o[gram]
art/o[gram]
it is constructed as an interactive web art project where internauts can co-re/create his virtual life and fiction artworks.

the project consists of 3 phases:
[phase A – construction]
[phase B – preservation]
[phase C – destruction]

even you can be [GTC] Dragan Živadinov!

start of the project: Sat Oct 12 16:54:59 1996
end of the project: Sun Sep 19 23:59:59 1999

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Available as: help.zip (352 KB)
- 20 HTML files
- 15 GIF files

Notice: Overall structure preserved, as well as original source code, images, sounds and other resources. Scripts, pop-ups and other specialities may or may not function in your browser. Some links may be broken, changed, replaced or dead.

Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]

- Original server/location (1997-1999): http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima
- intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/help

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626699754088

my name is valentina vladimirovna tereshkova. i am alone. it hurts.

my name is yury alekseyevich gagarin. i am alone. it hurts.
in my spacecraft, vostok 1, i travelled once around the earth on a flight lasting 108 minutes. because she did not know what the effects of loneliness on me might be, my e-motions were controlled entirely from earth.
you are like her. control me, please.

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Available as: revolution.zip (1.67 MB)
- 53 HTML files
- 22 GIF files
- 9 MP3 files

Notice: Overall structure preserved, as well as original source code, images, sounds and other resources. Scripts, pop-ups and other specialities may or may not function in your browser. Some links may be broken, changed, replaced or dead.

Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]

- Original server/location (1997-1999): http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima
- intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/revolution

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626699906624

Original instructions (from 1997):
Do not enter without a sound card.
Set font = ARIAL 12, Set mind = Free Your Mind And The Rest Will Follow

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

From: Andrej Tisma
To: Igor Stromajer
Subject: REUTERS – odgovor
Date sent: Thu, 25 Sep 1997

Dragi prijatelju,
Evo sta sam dobio od Reutersa Ltd. nakon ucesca u tvom projektu.
Zanimljivo!
Srdacno, Andrej

Dear friend,
Here’s what I got from Reuters Ltd. after participating in your project.
Interesting!
Sincerely, Andrej

↓

Subject: Re: Form posted from Mozilla
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997
From: “Andy Harrison, Corporate Web Manager 44 171 542 8408″ <webmaster@reuters.com>
To: Andrej Tisma

You sent 4 messages containing something like the following:
> critique = LIES LIES LIES

Were you trying to tell us something?

Regards
Webmaster
Reuters Ltd.

Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Reuters Ltd.

Available as: religion.zip (23.9 KB)
- 24 HTML files
- 2 GIF files

Notice: Overall structure preserved, as well as original source code, images, sounds and other resources. Scripts, pop-ups and other specialities may or may not function in your browser. Some links may be broken, changed, replaced or dead.

Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]

- Original server/location (1997-1999): http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima
- intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/religion

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flick] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626699867910

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Available as: redivision.zip (149 KB)
- 7 HTML files
- 9 GIF files

Notice: Overall structure preserved, as well as original source code, images, sounds and other resources. Scripts, pop-ups and other specialities may or may not function in your browser. Some links may be broken, changed, replaced or dead.

Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]

- Original server/location (1997-1999): http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima
- intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/division

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626575136763

Created for the 4^th International Festival of Computer Arts (IFCA) / 4. Mednarodni festival računalniških umetnosti (MFRU); Maribor, Slovenia, 1997
www.mfru.org
Curator: Jože Slaček

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Courtesy of Moderna galerija Ljubljana – Slovene Museum of Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Mirror / residency: Ars Electronica Future Lab, Linz – residence.aec.at/ljintima (incomplete version of the project still available at AEC).

- 1 EXE file
- 69 HTML files
- 95 GIF files
- 1 JPG file
- 1 TXT file
- 1 WAV file

Award: 5.000 DM (West German Marks) at COMTECart 99 / CYNETart festival, Dresden, Germany, 1999 (Kunsthaus Dresden and Medien- und Kulturzentrum Pentacon, Dresden).
Curator: Klaus Nicolai

- Original server/location (1998-1999): http://www2.arnes.si/guest/ljintima
- intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/baltica

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626575034893

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html

Original instructions (from 1998):

- min. resolution: 800×600, 256 colors
- soundcard: positive
- life: negative
- free your mind and the rest will follow

you have reached b.ALT.ica.
the land at the end of time.
00:00:00
77:77:77
the journey is over.
you will stay there forever.
this is beyond.
and this is emotional.

b.ALT.ica is dedicated to my father, because this is the place where he lives now.
Franjo Štromajer, 1943 – 1997

#

b.ALT.ica – Sakrowski / @curatingyoutube is transforming b.ALT.ica net art work from 1998, converting (SDK) it from HTML into Apple iOS App. (Photo: January 2011)

#

b.ALT.ica
Text by Sylvie Parent
Published: La Biennale de Montreal 2000 – Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Sep. 28 – Oct. 29., 2000

b.ALT.ica takes the visitor into an imaginary realm, offering the possibility of encountering the end of time, and to move about in a place of no return. In the artist’s words, “b.ALT.ica is about a virtual state or country, on the other side. It is about the line between the living and the dead world.”[1]. By means of a series of metaphors alluding to concepts of the last instants of life and accounts of near-death experiences,[2] the work establishes a correspondence between the passage from life to death (the “death rattle” when the dying person sees his life in flashback) and the entry into cyberspace.

The work, dedicated to the artist’s recently-deceased father, queries what remains of life when an individual leaves it. The symbolization of death is mainly concerned with life that persists, represented as an afterlife, attenuated or magnified, in all the notions of the hereafter: “(…) it is another life, a Life No.2, an ulterior life that takes over from the first one beyond the void of death”.[3] What does this supposed life after death look like, and how does it resemble or differ from real life, life before death?

How is it possible to convey life and the end of life simultaneously? In the environment of the Web, we feel that we continue to live in cyberspace, to move and make choices, that pieces of our lives can exist in it even if we are absent from the life that surrounds us, having torn ourselves away from the continuity of life to adopt a simulated life. In b.ALT.ica, we are told that we have arrived at the end and can “play the end,” knowing full well that our lives are not in danger. The procedure is more of a test, a try-out run.

Reaching the limit and going past the finish-line, we experience a breaking-off and are given the opportunity to simulate our own disappearance. Does the flickering mean that the system will shut down? The passage from light to darkness and vice-versa (but which side is the light actually on?) becomes an empty zone in which concealed paths can be taken. Like doors opening, icons lead into territories which correspond to fundamental aspects of life. What happens to love, language, individuality, communication, sexuality, politics, and art when earthly existence is over? Once these paths have been followed, however, there is nowhere else to go: each one leads to a dead end. Thus, after travelling through the archipelago of b.ALT.ica, we halt our journey because there is nothing left. Then we are faced with nothingness-infinite, inexpressible emptyness and silence.

[1] Igor Stromajer interviewed by Josephine Bosma, in nettime, www.nettime.org, 2000.
[2] See Raymond Moody, La vie apres la vie, enquete a propos d’un phenomene: la survie de la conscience apres la mort du corps, Laffont, 1977.
[3] Vladimir Jankelevitch, La mort, Paris, Flammarion, 1977, p.385.

Self-communication
Igor Štromajer interviewed by Tilman Baumgaertel
Published in Telepolis (Germany, April 1999). And: Tilman Baumgaertel: net.art 2.0 – Neue Materialien zur Netzkunst, herausgegeben vom Institut für moderne Kunst Nürnberg – Zweisprachig (Deutsch/English) – ISBN 3-933096-66-9 – Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2001

[...]

TB: Can you comment a little bit on “b.ALT.ica”, which is to my knowledge your latest work…

IŠ: […] It is very hard for me to comment on b.ALT.ica. This project is dedicated to my father, because b.ALT.ica is the place where he lives now. It is the land at the end of time. Beyond it. And it is emotional. It is about relationship between the Communication and the Communism. About “Was ist Kunst?” and “Was ist nicht Kunst?”. About uncensored sky view, no-time zone, definition of net art, viruses, and the last mind game. About not hurting me, because every time you say goodbye, I die a little. And about where have all the flowers gone. That is b.ALT.ica and that is what’s on my mind all the time.

[...]

Josephine Bosma: Interview with Igor Štromajer
Nettime and Rhizome (August, 2000) / Archee Magazine (November 2000, Montreal, Canada)

[...]

JB: What is the background of ‘b.ALT.ica’?

IŠ: b.ALT.ica is about a virtual state or country, on the other side. It is something about the line between a living and dead world. It is about what happens after death.

JB: But why call it ‘b.ALT.ica’ then?

IŠ: There is no logical explanation.

JB: Do you see the Baltics as a place of death?

IŠ: I have been there once, after I did the project. It is not meant as a real geographical place, but the word Baltica sounds to me like something which is not from this world. I did it in 1997, when my father died. I needed a place to put him there, somewhere. So that I would know where is he now. There. I chose Baltica because it sounded emotional to me, far away. Later, in Moscow, I discovered that a beer is called ‘Baltica’ –laughs–, and I bought it. They have a light version, and a normal one.

[...]

- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Netzkunst und der Netzkünstler: Igor Štromajer
b.ALT.ica
Text by Sonja Schaub
Februar 2001, Netzwissenschaft, Germany

Das net.art-Projekt b.ALT.ica entstand 1998. Es entstand im selben Jahr, in dem Igor Stromajers Vater Franjo Stromajer verstarb.

Der Netzkünstler erklärte zu diesem Kunstwerk, dass es einen fernen Ort, einen virtuellen Staat, ein virtuelles Land darstellt, in dem sich sein Vater nun befinde: Das Jenseits. Er war nach dem Tod seines Vaters auf der Suche nach einem Platz, an dem er sich den Verstorbenen vorstellen konnte. Einen Platz, wo er ihn positionieren konnte. Es geht in diesem Werk um die Grenze zwischen der Welt der Lebenden und der Welt der Verstorbenen. Es geht Igor Stromajer darum, was nach dem Tod passiert. Baltica soll keinen real existierenden Ort bezeichnen: der Künstler wählte den Namen, weil er sich für ihn emotional anhörte, als wäre er weit weg32. Eine Anspielung auf einen virtuellen Ort laesst sich indes erkennen: auf das French-Baltic-Nordic Video and New Media Festival, für das b.ALT.ica produziert wurde.

Darüber hinaus geht es aber auch – wie man an den vielen darauf deutenden Symbolen im Werk erkennen kann – um Kommunikation und Kommunismus, es geht darum, was Kunst ist und was keine Kunst ist. In seinen eigenen Worten: Es geht um den “unzensierten Himmelsblick, um Unzeit – Zonen, die Definition von net.art, Viren und das letzte Gehirnspiel. Darum nicht zu leiden, denn jedesmal, wenn Du gehst, sterbe ich ein bischen. Und darum, wohin all die Blumen sind. (…) Das ist “b.ALT.ica”, und das ist auch, worüber ich die ganze Zeit nachdenke”33.

Diese sehr spirituelle Dimension erschließt sich bei der Betrachtung des Netzkunstwerkes aber erst nach und nach. Dem User kann auf dem Weg durch dieses sehr persönliche net.art-Projekt nochmals deutlich werden, für was die Bezeichnung “INTIMA” steht.

Wer sich im Internet auf den Weg nach “b.ALT.ica” macht, wird von einer schwarzen Startseite begrüßt. Mit ein bischen Glück findet man den Link, der sich in der Mitte der schwarzen Seite verbirgt und nur durch die optische Veränderung des Cursors zu erkennen ist. Öffnet man die nächste Seite durch einen Klick, so erscheinen – wiederum auf schwarzem Hintergrund – die Widmung, das Editorial sowie, etwas oberhalb der Mitte, sechs weiß-graue Kästchen (2×3 Kästchen).

Von hier aus öffnet sich die Welt “b.ALT.ica”.

Begrüßt wird der Betrachter von einem Gewirr ständig wechselnder Zahlen, die in vier länglichen, rechteckigen und an den Ecken des Bildschirms orientierten Feldern aufgereiht sind.

Klickt man nun beispielsweise das linke obere Feld voller laufender Zahlen an, so erscheint nur noch die oberste Reihe Zahlen, die unteren verschwinden. Zurück bleibt eine dünne senkrechte, gestrichelte Linie. Bei einem erneuten Klick auf dasselbe Feld erkennt man in einer flackernden Abwechslung Zahlenreihen und Worte. Wiederholt man den Klick mit der Maus im selben Bereich, erscheint in der oberen Hälfte das Bild einer jungen Frau, zerlegt in vier Einzelbilder, die jeweils nur solange sichtbar sind, wie man sie mit dem Cursor berührt.

Diesen Vorgang kann man bei allen vier weiter oben beschriebenen Zahlenfeldern durchführen. Bei allen kommt man schließlich zu demselben Frauenbild. Von hier an unterscheiden sich die Abfolgen jedoch. So erscheint dem Betrachter beim Weiterklicken zum Beispiel in einem Feld eine Landkarte des virtuellen Baltica, oder man wird in einem anderen darüber informiert, dass man nun in Baltica angekommen sei, die Reise hiermit ein Ende hat und man für immer hier bleiben muß.

Zur Erleichterung des Betrachters hat dieser, als Mitglied der Welt der Lebenden, die Möglichkeit “b.ALT.ica” jederzeit zu verlassen.

Man sollte dies jedoch nicht zu früh tun, denn dieses schlichte und fast durchgehend schwarz-weiß gestaltete Land34 zwischen den Welten übt eine wunderbare Anziehung aus, die einen dazu verleiten möchte, immer weiter in diese virtuelle und spirituelle Welt einzutauchen.

- Original intima.org URL (1999–2011): http://www.intima.org/zvrst3

Audio net art work only. – No screenshots available.

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country can do for you!

#– MP3 audio sample

zvrst.3
Text by Rossitza Daskalova
(1967–2003; Bulgarian and Canadian art historian, journalist and writer, my beloved friend)
Published in CIAC Electronic Art Magazine (January 2001 / N.12; Montreal, Canada)

A true seeker of the emotional, intimate and personal aspects of the Internet and a militant striving to infuse this space with human warmth, Igor Stromajer is known as the author of a virtual base, called intima.org, which is welcoming and alluring, and yet non-lavish and non-seductive in its appearance. One of the most versatile artists on the Net, and the first cantor of HTML (Oppera Internettikka), Stromajer surprises us once again with the low-tech, minimalist trash-sound project, zvrst.3, awarded 1st prize at Trash ART, Moscow, Russia, 1999.

In this work the artist continues to make room for the individual and to render complex ideas with simplicity. As many other net.artists, especially from the former Eastern Block, Stromajer is a non-believer in seamless expression. He exploits the aspect of transparency of the Internet medium to the maximum in order to convey a healing message and sow a liberating seed. Therefore, the trick and the manipulation in the work are made so obvious: the sentence, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!” which John F. Kennedy pronounced forty years ago (January 20, 1961) on his inauguration as President, has been edited and reversed to – Don’t ask what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you!”

In an interview with by Tilman Baumgaertel, published in Telepolis (Germany, April 1999), Igor Stromajer says: “Being faced with the computer is like going to the very deep process of the most intensive self-communication. It is a kind of art that puts you as a user/participant into the co-creators position: you have to be active to survive in this kind of digital environment.” In these respects, zvrst3 is a manifestation of the syntax of “self-communication” enabling the individual to turn a powerful, imperative sentence into a question or even more precisely into many question marks. This is how an empty space is created in which human identity can dwell and being can unfold. As the artist says, “this is space democracy.” In zvrst.3 (zvrst means species in Slovenian) he encrypts the beginnings of the democratic experience in our civilization as Aristotle’s sentence “Man is a political animal” and Socrates’ “Know thyself” carved into the Delphi oracle come to mind and blend into each other.

The artist transforms the computer box into a dwelling of the human inner voice. He goes further than simply reversing the sentence by multiplying it and giving the opportunity to the viewer to replay them in different order. The statement goes out of control. From very small series of gestures performed both by the artist and the viewer, the deconstruction grows into monumental (better yet poly-mental) proportions. The voice of a leader breaks into many voices and his words splinter into many sounds. Then, comes the silence… The multiple silent cells on the screen constitute the magnified greed of the microphone conspicuously handed to the person in front of the computer. It is our turn to speak. The multiplicity of echoes and other sound effects, that the listner co-creates, reverberate and penetrate the viewer on a subliminal, almost organic level. The message instills an inner revolution, becomes healing, empowering life.

From a post-communist point of view, the artist, who belongs to a generation that has lived the traumatic effects of totalitarian thought and practice shows that imperatives could easily be taken to the absolute and turn into dogmas. Perhaps with zvrst.3, Igor Stromajer has the grand task of preparing the individual for a life in a community capable of reaching a higher level of democracy, yet unknown, and co-creating a 3rd millennium democracy. Or is it simply the distant voices of a species of a third kind that the Net has accidentally caught and brought down to us?

© http://www.ciac.ca/magazine

Available as: gsm-art.zip (1.01 MB)
- 47 HTML files
- 34 GIF files
- 30 JPG files
- 1 WAV file

Notice: Overall structure preserved, as well as original source code, images, sounds, movies and other resources. Scripts, pop-ups and other specialities may or may not function in your browser. Some links may be broken, changed, replaced or dead.

Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]

Part of the Mobile Trilogy (micro gsm/gps/wap.art trilogy, 1999-2000) by Igor Štromajer.

Award: Interferences / Les nuits savoureuses – 2eme Festival International d’Arts Multimedia Urbains; Belfort, France, 2000 (curators: Maria Chatzichristodoulou, Anne Roquigny, Pierre Bongiovanni).

- Original intima.org URL (1999-2011): http://www.intima.org/gsm

Selected screenshots/fragments (click to enlarge):

[Flickr] www.flickr.com/photos/intima-photo/sets/72157626699737176

Original instructions (from 1999):

this = very sad + lonely art
i remember olialina

- List of exhibitions (until 2007): www.intima.org/exhibit.html
- List of selected related texts (until 2007): www.intima.org/archives.html

Interferences / Les nuits savoureuses – 2eme Festival International d’Arts Multimedia Urbains; Belfort, France, 2000 [Award]

Délibération du Jury:

Nous, membres du jury, avons été agréablement surpris par la variété des propositions et des différents partis-pris. Ce qui nous a particulièrement touché est le regard sur le monde contemporain et comment le médium utilisé, quel qu’il soit, appuie l’intention de l’artiste. Nous avons décidé de donner un prix qui permettra à l’artiste sélectionné d’être soutenu pour développer ses projets.

NET ART / CD ROM

Pour le net-art / cd-roms, nous avons retenu plus particulièrement les sites suivants :
- www.mouchette.org (Mouchette).
– www.eusocial.com (Netochka Nezvanova).
– www.toywar.com (etoy).
– www.hgb-leipzig.de/~francis/f0rwardpunk/1.htm (Francis Hunger).
– www.wolf-kahlen.de (projet selbst-los/self less) (Wolf Kahlen).

Mais celui à qui nous attribuons le prix est le site http://kid.kibla.org/~intima/mt (projet Mobile Trilogy) réalisé par Igor Stromajer (Slovénie) car sa richesse d’idées, son engagement artistique et politique forment un potentiel énorme qui mérite vivement d’être soutenu.

Le jury est composé de:
– Odile Astorga, de l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille
– Marcelline Delbecq, de l’Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Caen
– Pascal Fendrich, de la Kunsthochschule fur Medien, Cologne
– Karl Otto von Oertzen, de l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts Paris-Cergy

Ce jury, assisté d’Angélique Sabourin, décerne 2 prix pour:
– Catégorie net art et les cdroms. Ce prix est attribué à Igor Stromajer (Slovénie) pour son site Mobile Trilogy.
– Catégorie performances. Ce prix est attribué à Alexei Shulgin pour sa perfomance 386 DX (Russie).