Page 112 - Fundação MEO - Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas

to describe it have evolved between myth and error 9. See Ippolito (2002).
9
10
rather than between certainties. 10. See White (2002).
In this chronology, we have chosen to use the term 11. See Moss (2019).
“net art”. It seems that, at the moment, it is the term 12. See Oliveira (2021).
that allows us to bring together the different stages
and approaches that Portuguese artists have taken in relation to
the Internet. The time frame in which we have observed this pheno-
menon in the world, and not only in Portugal, has also allowed us to
consider this designation as the most favourable for greater longevity
of use within the community of artists and professionals who create
and study the relationship between art and the Internet. We can,
therefore, speak of an “expanded Internet art” at a time when the
11
terms “Internet art” and “net art” are used mainly in a historical sense.

THE BEGINNING AND THE END: A PRAISE OF A SOFT HEROISM

In Portugal, the development of the field of interactions between
art and technology was almost non-existent before the arrival of the
Internet. The country has not been a fertile ground for interdisciplinary
relations between science and culture . The artists who engaged in
12
this experimentation are isolated cases, usually on the fringes of the
institutional art system. Curiously, it wasn’t in a thoroughly artistic
context, but in the context of experimental poetry, and later cyber-
poetry and cyberliterature, that a fruitful interest in experimentation
and theoretical reflection between art and new media emerged. Poets
such as Ernesto M. de Melo e Castro and Ana Hatherly were pioneers
in using hypertext links. Melo e Castro published Poética dos
Meios e Arte High Tech surprisingly early, in 1988. In 2000,
Ana Hatherly realised a digital experiment in open and interactive
poetry for the magazine Interact, which referred to a poem of
hers from 1994.
Before artistic projects conceived as such could appear on the
Internet, there had to be a period of familiarisation and interac-
tion with the new tool. It was also necessary to learn its codes and
languages. Of note is the synchronisation between the commercia-
lisation of the Internet in Portugal and the presentation of Antoni
Muntadas’ project The File Room (1994-1998) at the Cascais
Biennial in May 1995. Although it is difficult to assess the impact
that this project, an expandable online database that archives censor-
ship cases all over the world, may have had in the few days it was
presented, we spoke to some artists who remember the experience at
the time . Some of the people exploring the medium were designers
13

A Proposal for a Chronology
A Proposal for a Chronology 112
– an Overview of Net Art in Portugal
– an Overview of Net Art in Portugal