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WEB
PROJECTS no.10
Christina
Goestl
Matrix.64
1999
In
Matrix.64 Christina Goestl presents the "64 arts" of the Kama
Sutra, in German and in English, and in the form of a tableau. This
work plays with notions of accessibility to information on the Internet,
the availability of even foreign (sanskrit) or very old (320-540 A.D) content,
and the recovery and transformation of written material on this new medium.
The artist proposes, then, to give visitors the benefit of the teachings
of the Kama Sutra by integrating them into a new structure and by
allowing them to add their own content to the originals. One should know
that the "64 arts" are the result of many collaborators and that they were
intended to be "improved" with time. Christina Goestl's project therefore
respects the spirit of these works, in a sense, while also putting them
in a form that contributes to an understanding of their meaning, thanks
to the resources of the new medium.
On
perusing these texts, the visitor realizes that, much more than a technique
of sexuality, it is a guide to pleasure that integrates many facets of
life as well as advice on the sexuality proper. The project's "instruction
manual," produced with Shockwave, concerns not the accomplishment of the
actions described, but indeed one's orientation within this new structure
of writing. The database is activated by each visitor as he or she sees
fit and allows him or her to create groupings of these "arts," to weave
links between texts dealing with sexuality as such and others dealing with
other aspects of life. The texts are accessed through a "close-up," an
enlargement that, again, does not directly give us erotic content, but
allows us to select and focus on one or another of the arts by the same
process. Complicit with the visitor, a play of diverted expectations is
produced.
The
work relies on curiosity and on the search for knowledge to turn the activity
into a playful itinerary, itself a source of pleasure, drawing the reader
into an adventure that contrasts sharply with the easy consumption of pornographic
images on the network. In this sense, it offers an alternative view of
sexuality that proves to be open minded, humorous, and creative.
(uses
Javascript, requires Shockwave)
Sylvie Parent
Translation:
Ron Ross
Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Montréal
Electronic Art Magazine no 10, March 2000
Reviews of works by:
Rachel Baker, Maurice Benayoun, Natalie Bookchin and Alexei Shulgin, Heath Bunting, Claude Closky, Janet Cohen, Keith Frank and Jon Ippolito, Christina Goestl, Valérie Lamontagne, Olia Lialina, Sabine Mai
Reviews by Anne-Marie Boisvert and Sylvie Parent
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