Project
by Chad Rossouw
Re-sign, Re-site, Re-Mix: Marcus Neustetter and Nathaniel Stern's getawayexperiment.net
www.turbulence.org/Works/getawayexperiment/
Marcus Neustetter and Nathaniel Stern's getawayexperiment.net, commissioned by net-art site Turbulence (www.turbulence.org), is a project which mixes the real and virtual worlds, while examining signage and design. Neustetter, based in Johannesburg, and Stern, currently in Ireland, but ex-Johannesburg, both regularly work on the interstices of art and technology. Using the internet to show art is still a little strange concept to most South African artists, and using the interactivity of the internet to produce art is virtually unheard of, but Neustetter and Stern have both been actively involved in producing and showcasing this type of work for years.
getawayexperiment.net takes several well-known information sites, such as Google and Joburg.org.za, and gets real-world sign writers based in Jo'burg to reinterpret them. The resulting signs are scanned and uploaded onto mock homepages of the original sites. Visitors to the site are then invited to scan their own images, and upload them to create a constantly changing remix. Ostensibly the project examines the relationship between site and sign design, between hi- and low-tech. It plays on a complex pun, between real world signs that signify a location or site, and the virtual world of sites, and the tendency of signs and websites to become locations unto themselves. The vast gap between the reality of Johannesburg and of Joburg.org.za, in terms of technology, money and culture puts a political spin on it.
Sounding simple yet? Wait till you add in the extra collaborative element of the audience interaction, and the mind bends trying to figure it all out. While an interesting dialogue does start to form between the real and virtual worlds, and I found myself re-thinking the standards of internet design the project falls into a trap much net-art tends to: it gets too involved in its own world and leaves the audience behind. While instant appeal is one of the internet's most notable qualities, net artists often veer into territory that becomes very hard work. Not to say that all net-art must be simple, I just wish sometimes for something simpler.
