Media Art Net /// 2001–2007 /// Net Installation /// Rudolf Frieling, Dieter Daniels
Medien Kunst Netz was created by Rudolf Frieling and Dieter Daniels as an internet-based platform for media art, in 2004. Music art, little known to the public, was to be made accessible to a larger number of users by the combination of different modes of access as well as by a clearly structured overview and by scientific texts, without cost. The initiators shared the view that the predominantly print-based fine arts no longer met the requirements of the rapid developments in media art and so designed a bilingual (Germ./Eng.) and compatible multimedia data bank, which was substantially supplemented by a book series published by the Springer publishing house (Medien Kunst Netz 1: Medienkunst im Überblick (2004), Medien Kunst Netz 2: Thematische Schwerpunkte (2005)). Access to this data bank could be managed via four different points of entry, whereas the themes were subsumed under eight chief categories and drawn from the fields of media and arts. A comprehensive artist data bank rounded off the platform. It is here that the advantages of a “youser” oriented data bank can be seen. The visitor can navigate through the data according to personal preference and, in a certain sense, edit his catalog himself. Media Artz Net thus masterfully combines different approaches: a relatively classical art historical overview of the media art genre is made accessible for personalized use. Media Art Net is a project designed for the mediation and contextualization of media art on the internet, edited by Rudolf Frieling and Dieter Daniels and commissioned by the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the Goethe Institute and the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. (Text: Kathrin Engler)
Rudolf Frieling (*1956 in Münster), studies in humanities at the Free University of Berlin; curator at the International Video Festival Berlin, from 1988–1994. Numerous publications and lectures on the subject of media and art since 1990. Curator of the Media Library of the ZKM | Karlsruhe as well as of the International Media Art Prize until 2001; various teaching posts and Guest Professorships since 1998; director of the research project Media Art Net from 2001–2004. Curator for Media Art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art since 2006.
Dieter Daniels (*1957 in Bonn), co-founder of the Videonale Bonn in 1984 and since then participation in numerous projects, exhibitions and symposia in the field of media art; setting up of the Media Library at the ZKM | Karlsruhe from 1991–1993. Professor for art history and media theory at the University of Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig since 1993. Publications on the subject of 20th century art, among others, on Fluxus, George Brecht, Marcel Duchamp, co-editor of Media Art Net. Lives and works in Leipzig since 2001.
