In the early days of the Internet and the World Wide Web, a group of
artists started using this evolving medium for collaborative projects.
It is my intention to explore the history and artistic processes that
made up these early explorations as well as document experiments and
works that grew out of these collaborations. To some extent, I will
examine the technology of these collaborations, but my main focus is on
the collaborative process, especially as it has developed within the
context of digital technology.
Some of us began with an outreach project that was called Navigating Global Cultures.This project was created in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of Columbus' attempt to connect the worlds of Europe and Asia by navigating across the ocean. Columbus tore open the conscious awareness of Europe by discovering a new world on the other side of his initial probe across the Atlantic. This was the the extension, actually begun by such undertakings as the Roman Empire and the travels of Marco Polo, of connecting the world, which continued with such achievements as the Pony Express, the railroad, the telegraph, and Marconi's monumental breakthrough of the wireless connection of continents in the early part of the 20th Century.
The Internet and the World Wide Web erupted in the latter part of the 20th Century as a wiring of the world, and now we are in the second generation of connectivity where our colleagues and collaborators are located throughout the world, and our association is creating a new platform for understanding and creation of new works, the creation of knowledge, and understanding.
