Redundant Technology Initiative

Symposium:

• ISEA98: Ninth International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA98:  

• Redundant Technology Initiative

• James Wallbank

• RTI is planning a direct action compute, salvage programme and art installation during Manchester’s Digital Summer. Here’s a quote from RTI’s website:

  1. 1998 over 1 million PCs are scheduled to be dumped by British businesses. As it stands most of this equipment will end up in landfill.

  2. Artists are the ideal people to experiment wilh redundant technology. While the rest of us may find that computers won’t do the tasks we want them to, artists can investigate playfully and be creative with what the machines can do, rather than be frustrated by what they can’t.

  3. Artists should be making work that is relevant to what’s going on right now. But many of them aren’t getting involved with information technology because it’s expensive.

  There’s been a lot of media attention given to artworks that use the newest, most expensive computer. But many these artworks seem less like works of art than like advertisements for the latest technology.

Category:

• Institutional Presentation