[spectre] Yes, but is it art?

[self re:][ply.cator][]

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,3909023%255E7=
642,00.html

Yes, but is it art?
Cath Hart
08mar02

IS AUSTRALIA behind the times when it comes to accepting new forms of art=20
on the Net?

Cyberpoet Mez (Mary-Anne Breeze) has been banned from the e-mail list,=20
Fibreculture, on the ground that her work is art-spam =96 postings that clog=
=20
up the system.

According to the list administrator, Chris Chesher, Mez's work doesn't=20
contribute to the themes of the list. Chesher, a lecturer at the University=
=20
of New South Wales, says the themes of Fibreculture are new media policy,=20
education, artistic practice and theory. And posts by Net artist Mez don't=
=20
fit the bill.

Some of the other facilitators had experience of other lists where Mez had=
=20
been posting and had contributed to what they perceived to be a=20
deterioration of the culture of the list, he says. Mez has been banned from=
=20
two other e-mail lists in recent years =96 resistant.media and :::recode:::=
 =96=20
for similar reasons.

But this so-called art-spam has been Mez's ticket to international=20
recognition. "Overseas I'm a pioneer of Net art," she says. "Most people=20
recognise me and invite me to conferences to speak, but in Australia I've=20
been received, I wouldn't say poorly, but certain institutions (have) gone=
=20
'You're annoying, you're not fitting in to how we construct our arts scene'.=
 "

Internationally her work has been short-listed for the 2001 Electronic=20
Literature Organisation's Fiction Prize, appeared on the C-Theory website=20
and a conference paper devoted to her, The Internet Poetry of Mez, was=20
delivered to the 2001 Modern Language Association International Conference.

She creates fictional texts using a language she calls Mezangelle, which=20
involves inserting syllables, letters and symbols into words to "create=20
different layers of meaning or a different loading (that) will take you to=
=20
a meaning place that is somewhere else, like a hyperlink would," the=20
31-year-old says.

"I'll create an e-mail text that mimics e-mail conventions themselves, and=
=20
then I'll send that out on to different mailing lists.

"I've kind of hijacked the communications avenues in a way," she says, and=
=20
that can cause a bit of controversy because a lot of people don't want that=
=20
in their inbox.

For a time, Griffith University academic and poet Komninos Zervos didn't=20
want her posts in his inbox.

"They initially appear like a scramble of symbols and text," he says. "She=
=20
wasn't my cup of tea, but I had the right to hit the delete button so it=20
didn't bother me.

"And for a long time I did hit the delete button, until I took the trouble=
=20
to read them, and now I read them quite easily."

Zervos now says she is shaping a new direction for poetry and is one of the=
=20
few Australian writers who has made an impact overseas.

But Chesher thinks Mez's methods of exhibition and distribution are=20
inappropriate.

"In my building, on one side of the hall there are tutorial rooms, says=20
Chesher, "on the other side of the hall there are theatre spaces. And it is=
=20
appropriate to do performance art in the theatre spaces and not in the=20
tutorial rooms.

"I guess that part of the role of artists is to subvert some of those=20
spatial categories, but I guess part of the role of facilitators is to say,=
=20
'Don't do it'. "
=A9 Queensland Newspapers