Article from Grubinger for the Festival Catalog

C@C - computer aided curating

C@C is an application for the World Wide Web where contemporary art can be created, viewed, discussed, and purchased. Located on the World Wide Web, outside the conventional institutional framework, C@C responds to the changing needs of contemporary artistic praxis.
Working with C@C opens up the possibility of long-term collaboration based on similar avenues of inquiry for artists and art-partisans from diverse cultural backgrounds. With its graphic user interface and specially designed tools, C@C is a universally applicable and easy-to-use instrument for producers and recipients of contemporary conceptual art.

Architecture of the exhibition:

C@C is based on a branching structure. Participating artists present not only their own work but also introduce three other artists of their choice (Computer Aided Curating). With the help of the C@C - Navigator, the observer can wander from work to work, from artist to artist; the social nexus where contemporary art constitutes itself becomes comprehensible. There is also a linear list of artists containing information about the pieces written by the artists.

Production:

Invited artists integrate the projects they have developed especially for C@C into the presentation structure of C@C. Every artist receives an individual studio with various editing tools already built in. These tools enable the artists to combine pictures, moving images, texts and sounds in a multiplicity of ways to create complex works.

Purchase:

C@C invites visitors to participate actively in C@C. Each work is assigned to a Business Class. Buyers of art works purchase the right to put together a presentation related to their activity. A selection of tools is made available for this. Buyers who already have online sites can refer users to their services via C@C.

Discussion:

In Public Discussion Areas, visitors can comment directly on the individual works, participate in discourse, enter into contact with both artists and buyers. C@C endeavors to stimulate public discussion around the commercial potentials of electronic networks as well as the threats these opportunities present to a network culture still in its infancy.

Announcements and documentation:

In order to reach a public outside the web, C@C opens windows to the World Wide Web from different (art) contexts. C@C is displayed at exhibitions, fairs and lectures. All presentations are both announced and documented in C@C. Articles in newspapers and magazines, television programs and radio broadcasts about C@C can be referenced, viewed and listened to at C@C as well. Sign up on the Mailing List to be regularly informed about the activities of C@C.

Further research and development of the game rules of this new sphere and the creative transformation of traditional connections between art and audience are the ongoing tasks of C@C.

Eva Grubinger, March 1995

Concept, creation: Eva Grubinger (grubi@is.in-berlin.de) Software development: Thomas Kaulmann (thomax@is.in-berlin.de)

Artists working with C@C: Christine Meierhofer, Pit Schultz, Karl-Heinz Jeron, Barbara Aselmeier, Agentur Bilwet, -Innen, Mathias Fuchs, Christina Goestl, Margarethe Jahrmann, Horst Schulte, Maroan el Sani, Nina Fischer a.o.

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Responsible for the content: Sabine Dreher
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last changed 21.April 95