Hi!
My name is Marie-Christiane Mathieu. I am an artist working in mediatic
arts, mostly with collaborative works and networks. I recently completed a
practical and theoretical PhD thesis on a project called Monument du Vide
(Monument of Emptiness).
Monument du vide is a network-performance made possible thanks to the
collaboration of artists networking in Canada, United States, Mexico,
Argentina and Brazil. The exchanges between the participants and all of the
production stage of the monument take place and may be observed on the
website www.ontogenetic.org. Six works-in-progress have been shown during
different events, the last one being "Nouvelles images 01 en Mexico"
December 5-6-7, 2003 at the Centro Multimedia of the CENART of Mexico City.
This project is more than a work of art, it is the field site of intensive
research done in full view of the public, whether in cyberspace or in other
public spaces of the event. It tests the endurance of the participants who
construct the monument over a period of 3 days each time.
To allowed artists to communicate and work together I have developed tools
and specific methodologies. Doing so, a working-space was created which
helped us exchanging data over long periods of time. The thesis analyzes
three work-in-progress revealing the importance of time in the construction
of interactive partitions, questioning the existence of publics and
evaluating the network art display as a machine of exclusion.
The archives of the practical project can be seen at
http://www.ontogenetic.org   and the thesis will be available in 2004. I
will be more than happy to exchange with you all your perceptions of
collaborative work and develop new kind of associations and approaches in
this field.