JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project

Survey: Juan Manuel Patiño

Juan Manuel Patiño (1972)

  • artist biography
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    Interview: 10 questions:

    01.
    Question
    Since a reasonable time, digital media entered the field
    of art and extended the traditional definition of art
    through some new , but very essential components.
    Do you think it is like that and if yes, tell me more about
    these components and how they changed the perception of art?

    Answer
    The digital planet —in space and time— is smaller
    than the head of a pin and shorter than an instant.
    Under these conditions: art, culture and expression
    will thrive, not be homogenized, colonialized or
    traumatized by some anglophone force of nerds.
    (ALT164)

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    02.
    Question
    A relevant section of digital art represents Internet based art.
    The Internet was hardly existing, but artists conquered already
    this new field for their artistic activities. Can the work of these
    early artists be compared with those who work with advanced
    technologies nowadays? What changed until these days ?
    What might be the perspectives for future developments?

    Answer
    The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. (Software)

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    03.
    Question
    The education in the field of New Media art,
    including Internet based art, started late compared
    with the general speed of technological development
    and acceptance. So, generations of artists who used
    the Internet as their artistic working field were not
    educated in this new discipline(s) and technologies,
    but had rather an interdisciplinary approach.
    What Do you think, would be the best way to teach
    young people how to deal with the Internet as an
    environment of art?

    Answer
    8 bits = 1 byte
    1.024 bytes = 1 Kilobyte
    1.048.576 bytes = 1 Megabyte
    1.073.741.824 bytes = 1 Gigabyte
    1.099.511.627.776 bytes = 1 Terabyte
    1.125.899.906.842.624 bytes = 1 Petabyte
    1.152.921.504.606.846.976 bytes = 1 Exabyte
    1.180.591.620.717.411.303.424 bytes = 1 Zettabyte
    1.208.925.819.614.629.174.706.176 bytes = 1 Yottabyte
    If you write in the mind of a kid, you write for ever.

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    04.
    Question
    What kind of meaning have the new technologies
    and the Internet to you in concern of art, are they
    just tools for expressing artistic intentions, or have
    they rather an ideological character, as it can be
    found with many “netartists”, or what else do they
    mean to you? Many “Internet based artists” work on
    “engaged” themes and subjects, for instance, in social,
    political, cultural etc concern. Which contents are you
    particularly interested in, personally and from an artcritical
    point of view.

    Answer
    Studies on perception, formulation and control of action, and related
    cognitive processes. The Gestalt school of psychology, with emphasis on:

    • Classical Mechanics
    • Conformal Field Theory
    • Dynamical Systems
    • Electromagnetic Theory (mathematical aspects)
    • Ergodic Theory
    • Fluid Mechanics (Navier–Stokes equations, models of turbulence)
    • Gauge Field Theory
    • General Relativity
    • Gravitation Theory (classical and quantum)
    • KAM Theory (stability and chaos)
    • Kinetic Theory
    • Many-Body Theory
    • Mathematical Methods in Condensed Matter Physics
    • Methods in Mathematical Physics
    • Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations in Mathematical Physics
    • Percolation Models
    • Quantum Chaos
    • Quantum Computing
    • Quantum Field Theory (algebraic and constructive)
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Renormalization
    • Scattering Theory (classical and quantum)
    • Schrödinger Equation (mathematical properties)
    • Semiclassical Analysis
    • Spectral Theory
    • Statistical Mechanics (equilibrium and nonequilibrium)
    • String and Brane Theory
    • Symmetries
    • Symplectic Dynamics
    • Supersymmetry

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    05.
    Question
    The term “netart” is widely used for anything posted
    on the net, there are dozens of definitions which mostly
    are even contradictory. How do you define “netart” or if
    you like the description “Internet based art” better?
    Do you think “netart” is art, at all, if yes, what are the criteria?
    Are there any aesthetic criteria for an Internet based artwork?

    Answer
    Art based on the Internet use technologies in significant ways,
    (Online displays of work that does not meet the definition).

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    06.
    Question
    “Art on the net” has the advantage and the disadvantage
    to be located on the virtual space in Internet which defines
    also its right to exist. Do you think, that “art based on the Internet”,
    can be called still like that, even if it is just used offline?

    Answer
    When you know exactly what it can do, you will probably make original.
    For example the Peacock butterflies, whose wings bear eye markings that birds
    respond to as though they were the eyes of a dangerous predator.

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    07.
    Question
    Dealing with this new, and interactive type of art demands
    an active viewer or user, and needs the audience much more
    and in different ways than any other art discipline before.
    How do you think would be good ways to stimulate the user
    to dive into this new world of art? What do you think represents
    an appropriate environment to present net based art to an audience,
    is it the context of the lonesome user sitting in front of his personal
    computer, is it any public context, or is it rather the context of art
    in general or media art in particular, or anything else.? If you would
    be in the position to create an environment for presenting this type
    of art in physical space, how would you do it?

    Answer
    Like a Hollywood Hallucination.

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    08.
    Question
    As Internet based art, as well as other art forms using new technologies
    are (globally seen) still not widely accepted, yet, as serious art forms,
    what do you think could be an appropriate solution to change this situation?

    Answer
    Early in his medical life, Alexander Fleming became interested in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times.
    He named the active substance penicillin.

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    09.
    Question
    The Internet is sometimes called a kind of “democratic” environment,
    The conventional art practice is anything else than that, but selective
    by using filters of different kind. The audience is mostly only able to make up its mind on second hand. Art on the net might potentially be different. Do you think the current practice of dealing with Internet based art is such different or rather the described conventional way through (also curatorial) filtering? Do you think, that speaking in the terms of Joseph Beuys, anybody who publishes anything on the net would be also an artist?

    Answer
    Dr Fleming died on March 11th in 1955 and is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

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    10.
    Question
    Do you think, the curators dealing with net based art should have
    any technological knowledge in order to understand such an art work
    from its roots? And what about the users of Internet based art?

    Answer
    Sure.

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