[Nettime-bold] ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS --the website

[geert lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

From: <postmaster@9nerds.com>
Subject: ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS --the website

De Verbeelding art landscape nature, Zeewolde, The Netherlands is pleased to
present:

http://www.artificialnaturalnetworks.nl

A website developed by 9nerds - showing the 11 artworks commissioned for
the ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS  project- with;

* Mark Dion# (USA) * Krijn Giezen (NL) * Henrik Håkansson# (S) *
davidkremers# (USA) * Atelier van Lieshout (NL) * N55# (DK) * Tobias
Rehberger# (D) * Ulf Rollof# (S) * Roman Signer# (CH) * herman de vries#
(NL) * Annette Weisser & Ingo Vetter# (D) *

The website documents the development and history of all 11 works in 6
'moments' during the year 2001;

* the sketch proposal * the original situation * the realisation * the work
* the interaction * the final stage *

The ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS project can be visited on location in
Zeewolde The Netherlands until 12 november 2001.

The permanent artworks (marked above with #) are additions to the
collection of De Verbeelding, and can still be visited after this date.

-----------------------------------------------------

De Verbeelding art landscape nature is an international centre for the arts
that enters into a relation with the landscape and/or nature. The combined
information centre and exhibition space is situated in Zeewolde, the
youngest village in the province of Flevoland and the Netherlands. De
Verbeelding is the starting point for a route of 7 km leading through
Zeewolde village centre, across the landscape park De Wetering, through the
woods and over the dike to the Randmeren (the lakes between the polders and
the former coast). This route leads walkers past works by artists of
international fame. De Verbeelding organizes a bi-annual event during which
works of visual art are temporarily or permanently added to this unique
collection. The collection gives an impression of the relationship between
art, landscape and nature as it has developed since 1970. The centre also
provides information about other large works of art in Flevoland.

The project ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS
The title KUNSTmatige NATUURLIJKE NETWERKEN/ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS is
a word play on the terminology used to define how computers work. The
technical term is 'artificial neural networks' and makes a connection
between the workings of the brain and those of computers. A similar link,
between nature and technology, is also established by the American writer
Kevin Kelly in his book Out of Control: nature as model for man-made
systems and machines. He says that artificial natural evolution helps us to
better understand organic evolution.

In five successive presentations in the pavilion the following artists have
given an impression of their work: herman de vries (NL) and Roman Signer
(CH), Krijn Giezen (NL) and Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Tobias Rehberger (D)
and Annette Weisser-Ingo Vetter (D), Henrik Håkansson (S), Mark Dion (USA)
and N55 (DK), Ulf Rollof (S) and davidkremers (VS). Various generations are
represented in the project.
The American art critic Willoughby Sharp and the French novelist Michel
Houellebecq have been chosen as the points of reference, or perhaps indeed
as the voices of conscience, for De Verbeelding's first series of projects
under the title ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS. 'Earth art calls for the
radical reorganization of our natural environment; it offers the
possibility of mitigating man's alienation from nature', wrote Sharp in
1969. But the high expectations of the Sixties generation, of social and
spiritual consciousness, have recently been completely undermined by Michel
Houellebecq, who writes, 'The revolution will not be spiritual but
genetic.' While Sharp at that time envisaged a double role for the artist -
as environmental manager, as urban planner, as architect, as civil
engineer, as cultural anthropologist - the network structure has grown
considerably during the last thirty years. The fields of knowledge that
artists are interested in have intensified to the extent that they no
longer take up an autonomous position. It is this idea in particular that
is expressed in De Verbeelding's first project.

Project proposals
All eleven invited artists have agreed to cooperate on realising a work for
the De Verbeelding route. They were amazed at the artificial natural
character of the village of Zeewolde and the largest continuous deciduous
forest in Northwestern Europe in the polder, were surprised to see
underground creeks and the archaeological discoveries of shipwrecks at the
bottom of what used to be the Zuiderzee, were concerned about the rising
sea level and drop in land level, asked the Stadsbosbeheer forester
questions about all the different types of trees and the animals that come
and go. Their proposals are stimulating and challenging, interesting and
appealing to the imagination. But they also turned out to be so complex
that the planned opening to accompany the realisation of the projects in
May has had to be postponed until September.
This postponement has given De Verbeelding the opportunity to present
itself as a communication centre. The artists' proposals are being
presented in a special exhibition designed by Miriam Windhausen
(Amersfoort) in the pavilion from 26 May till 12 November 2001. The
ARTificial NATURAL NETWORKS project is becoming so much more an interactive
process for artists, organisers, government bodies and the public. It is a
process that is concerned with plans, designs and realisation, with
security and safety as regards permits for the various works of art, with
land and property rights in connection with the siting, but above all with
art, landscape and nature.

Realisation
The process of realisation already began in January when david kremers
connected his website with the Biodebat (www.biodebat.nl), a discussion on
Internet about xenotransplantation aimed at secondary schools. In the
summer, starting around the middle of June, Annette Weisser and Ingo Vetter
maked a start on their 'ambient music' project for the village square in
Zeewolde, which is part of their Controlled Atmosphere series of works. The
construction of the works of art began over the course of the summer. Some
of them will only reach maturity later, like the roses around herman de
vries's sanctuarium, as well as the plants inside it, the trees and plants
in Mark Dion's folly, the mosses, fungi and other plants in The Remembered
Self and The Forgotten Self by Ulf Rollof or davidkremers' fish genetically
manipulated by means of bio-technology. Not only art, the landscape and
nature, but also De Verbeelding will thus become 'out of control', with
maximum chances for an artificial natural evolution.

-----------------------------------------------------

For more information, contact:

De Verbeelding
http://www.verbeelding.nl/
De Verbeelding 25
3892 HZ Zeewolde
T +31 (0)36 5227037 - F +31 (0)36 5227205
e-mail: mailto:info@verbeelding.nl

9Nerds participants for http://www.artificialnaturalnetworks.nl are;
* Aldje van Meer * Gabrielle Marks * Marten Terpstra *
http://www.9nerds.com



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