Own, Be Owned, Or Remain Invisible >>
Heath Bunting
A discussion of registering words (and thoughts) on the Internet.
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||| HIAFF 3.0 | university of colorado | department of art and art history | digital arts area | in conjunction with alt-x | atlas | blurr
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INTERVIEW OF HEATH BUNTING BY KRISTINE FEEKS
Spring, 2001.
Kristine Feeks: To begin, could you tell us how you first became involved with
Net.Art?
Heath Bunting: the first network in which i was active artisticly was the
street we didn't get involved in net.art - we invented it
KF: To me, Own, Be Owned, Or Remain Invisible is a discussion of registering
words (and thoughts) on the Internet. Everything will remain invisible (and
insignificant) until it (the domain name) is registered on the Internet. The
title seems very important to the piece. Would you talk about how you decided
on it?
HB: i agree with your interpretation but i tried to weave another layer it was
also considering my own situation as an evolving commodity and those around me
i could more greatly disseminate my work by giving up autonomy or i could fall
again back into the shadows i decided the latter
KF: Concepetual Artists from the Sixties and Seventies were often criticized by
the curatoriat for "pointing" to art as opposed to actually creating it. I can
imagine someone criticizing Own or Be Owned for the same reasons because Flint
wrote the article, and the links connect to others' URLs. How would you explain
to them that the *concept* is your art?
HB: the "is it art ?" is a trap set by fearful curators net.art was many things
but was heavily into avoiding colonisation by self interested heirachies it is
irrelevant whether it was defined or defended as art a better questions might
be: was it a thought provoking, accessible and self aware project ?
KF: To what art/artists do you connect? Are there strong elements or artists
that influence your work?
HB: i am interested in all artists/ activists that work for the benefit of
human beings and the environment i am opposed to all that are self serving and
corrupt
KF: I find it ironic and amusing that you choose to keep your own
name "invisible." Is this an effort to remove your touch or influence from the
art?
HB: as mentioned above - it was a statement about removing myself from the
market
KF: Despite the work to make the links, do you consider it to be a sort of
readymade?
HB: the text was an essential component as it was an artifact of my
commodification i think the term 'readymade' is useless making references to
past market victories is at best vacuous and at worst counter revolutionary
Note: I have maintained Heath's exact words and sentence structure in this
interview.
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