[Nettime-bold] net art history 1993-1999////Max Herman: A Cannonball Out of theFuture

[Ian Allen <HAL-1701@pacbell.net>]

In a message dated 12/13/1999 10:48:46 PM Central
Standard Time, 
JIppolito@guggenheim.org writes:

> Tilman,
>  
>  Thanks for passing on this fascinating document--a worthwhile creation, 
one 
> that I'm sure will be invaluable for people like me who will still have a 
> deep nostalgia for Internet art in the decades to come.

Man that's some old-time sounding shit.  Just think about
what you bastards 
are saying.  What if everybody could instantly upload all
their most 
creative, insightful, skilled moments?  Whose would be
art?  Alright gettin' 
preachy.

I would like to announce the Community Give-Back Program
as part of the 
Genius 2000 Project, an ongoing multimedia whatever the
fuck.  I currently 
have a rock band, and we will send demo tapes for
conversion to MP3; just 
contact me.  I also have a ton of photos, video footage,
and texts that 
record in minutiae lists like Shock--where I first
started the ass-whoopin', 
on punks like Granger and that dismal fetishist Madre, an
evil musketeer, un 
agent de la church--Fluxlist, and Rhizome.  Featured
contributors are Robbin 
Murphy, Terrence Kosick, Brad Brace, Brett Stalbaum, Tom
Sherman, and so 
forth.  

Most people reading this are holding their mouse. 
Clickin' away like little 
champions of cyber-clusterfuck.  At any given instant,
there are a bunch of 
fingers, not yet clicked away from my messages, all
poised together reading a 
certain text.  Even that is an unjustified level of
control given to one 
text, if you prefer to think in terms of right and
wrong.  Yes and no is 
better.  

What this means is that we already live in a network; the
TV networks are no 
different than PCs, just less clicking.  In some cases in
past history the 
understanding of what an interface is was altered
radically by what they used 
to call "art", and what we now know to be merely frozen
snapshots.  Throw 'em 
in the hopper and see what you get, that's right,
nothing.  Particular 
artworks changed how the system was organized, the
language, production, etc. 
 

In other words, get a Genius 2000 Video and watch it
during the commercials.  
Or, throw out a bunch of leaves of redemption in the
subway.  Everyone is 
completely capable of seeing something, recording it, and
putting it on the 
internet, barring severe (from my point of view)
financial hardship.  Make a 
big time capsule and record as much spontaneously
generated media as possible 
before the end of the millenium.  Don't debate too much
as to what to 
include, whether it's art, whatever.  All that bullshit
will end sooner or 
later, unless of course tyranny and violence completely
conquer human events, 
the ability of humans to influence events, if even
temporarily.

But this is a give-back, a chance to say "if you support
my art, I'll support 
yours."  I'm announcing the papers from the Genius 2000
Conference 1999, 
including one paper from a founding member and longtime
contributor to the 
band negativland, Ian Allen, my cousin.  I would also
like to publicly 
request Aurorablue.org to consider their limited
collection of my work to be 
free of access to all, including my drunken Lenny Bruce
monologue.  They may 
also have the July 4 Video, a work in which I mark with
great solemnity the 
greatest American Holiday of all, July 4.  

I'd also like to compliment all the artists and people
who contributed to my 
recent project:  Airworld, for their sense of
corporatization without 
representation; J Crew and Pappy Christmas, legends in
their own chi; all the 
DB inmates keep ya head up; Shock of the View at the
Walker, my hometown 
museum, lots of stodgy trustees, scandalous
Scandanavians; Patrick Lichty, 
for his observant and skeptical writing on the topic of
web-lightenment; C5 
and their creation of theamericancenter.net, slightly
left of; the Call It a 
Business Foundation for the Advancement of Art; Rhizome
for their wishy-washy 
survival tactics; and every TV station that calls itself
a network, aloud, on 
TV, at night.

I also authorize anyone in possession of a Genius 2000
Video to upload it to 
the web.  You can even run banner ads, sell toothbrushes
and Prozac if you 
like.  Go MP3, Quicktime, you name it.  And if you can't
think of a good 
reason to do so, or countenance anyone who does, think of
this:  what if all 
humanity agreed on a brand new word for world peace,
which was, "Genius 
2000."  Would you want everyone to see it, hear it, use
it in cross-cultural 
discussion, consumption, and production?  I sure would. 
So send out the 
word, and encourage others who do.  Two weeks we could
blanket the earth.

Your pal,

Max Herman
The Genius 2000 Project
January 1 Website
www.geocities.com/~genius-2000


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