[ISEA2000] Paper: SHARON DANIEL – Collaborative Systems: redefining ‘Public Art’

Abstract

This paper will discuss Collaborative Systems, works of art which employ and exploit information and communications technologies as new ‘sites’ for ‘public art’ – art which connects individuals and groups and opens dialogue around issues within given contexts. Through Collaborative Systems community groups and individuals are given a framework for building a database from their own experience and then structuring and interpreting that data themselves. Collaborative Systems re-cast networked online environments as public, community and collaborative sites. These works re-invent ‘public art’ and redefine the role of the ‘artist’ by allowing individuals and communities to evolve aesthetically, intellectually, and politically expressive, collaborative environments on-line. This paper will examine a variety of models for the design and implementation of ‘collaborative systems’, which have implications for codes of ethics as well as codes of aesthetics.

  • Sharon Daniel, USA, is Assistant Professor of Film and Digial Media at University of California, Santa Cruz. Sharon Daniel is an artist who is developing and exploiting new information and communications technologies for the design of Collaborative Systems. Her current research project, Subtract the Sky, is conceived as public art that engages technology and scientific research projects through interactive interfaces on the Internet.