Page 30 - Fundação MEO - Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE INTERNET 8. See Domingues (1997).

9. At the suggestion of José
The arrival of the Internet provoked a sense of stran- Roseira, I add this note: The
term cybernetics originates
geness. A striking example of this can be found in the from the Greek kybernētēs
words of journalist Maria Elisa Domingues, who, in (κυβερνήτης), meaning
“steersman”. In his Republic
1997, opened her television programme dedicated to (c. 375 BCE), Plato uses the
word in a nautical metaphor,
the Internet with the following remark: expressing the idea of the th
“Good evening! Don’t change the channel just because “art of governing.” In the 19
century, the French physicist
you hear the word ‘Internet.’ Surfing the web isn’t André-Marie Ampère employed
the term cybernétique to refer
as tricky as it seems, and besides, if you don’t start to the sciences of government,
learning about it, you might end up seriously out of linking it to the concept of
control and regulation. By the
th
touch with the world around you.” 8 20 century, the mathematician
Norbert Wiener redefined
During the 1990s, English-language computational the concept, establishing
terms increasingly coexisted with Portuguese vocabu- cybernetics as the study of
control and communication in
lary, generating numerous doubts and uncertainties, machines and living organisms,
formalising the discipline
as noted by journalist José Alberto Carvalho on the in 1948 with the publication
of Cybernetics: Or Control
website Ciberdúvidas as in Figure 1. One of the most and Communication in the
common prefixes used to mark the “novelty” of the Animal and the Machine.
Internet was ciber or cyber, in its Portuguese and 10. See Barbosa (1996).
English variations, both derived from the Greek kyber . 11. See Top 5% (1998).
9
This period saw an inventive blending of Portuguese 12. See IPM (2002).
and English in intriguing ways. For example, Pedro 13. See Galeria Lisboa 20
(2007).
Barbosa published A Ciberliteratura: Criação 14. See Carvalho (2009).
Literária e Computador ; the exhibition
10
Cyber 98 took place; an article in the Top 5% webzine was
published with the title “O Cabo da Cyber Esperança” ; and the
11
newsletter published by the Instituto Português de Museus presented
the online gallery Site-Specific as part of the “cyberespaço” of the
Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon . Over time, this
12
terminology fell out of use. The terms “net arte” and “net art” became
more prevalent a few years later. For instance, Luís Silva wrote about
“net art portuguesa”; the Galeria Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea
launched the online project LX 2.0, with the purpose of
“[commissioning] projetos de net arte” ; and Margarida
13
Carvalho dedicated a text to “Práticas de Net.Art em
Portugal” .
14
Today, the dictionary of the Lisbon Academy of
Sciences includes several English words related to
computational technology, such as browser, online,
site, software, and net. The Internet’s initial democratic
potential and the creative energy of its early years did
not translate into terminological coherence. As with any Fig. 1 Screenshot of the Ciberdúvidas
new phenomenon, there is significant variability in the website. See page 13.
See page 13.

The Study of Net Art in Portugal and the Exhibition
The Study of Net Art in Portugal and the Exhibition 30
Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas
Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas