On behalf of Marleen Stikker (director Waag Society, Amsterdam):

Dear all,

Just to fill you in on the Amsterdam/Waag side of the Brandon project. We
are working on our Waag archive and Brandon is an excellent project to dig
deep in code, web and our attic. We found several pieces and props of the
installations. Here some first findings
http://project.waag.org/brandon/index.php3

The curator and artistic team @waag consisted of:
Mieke Gerritzen
Janine Huizenga
Caroline Nevejan
Susanne Oxenaar
Joep van Lieshout (theatrum circles)
Marleen stikker (jury app)
There were more people involved. Have to check.

My impressions was that Waag understood Brandon better than the Guggenheim
Museum at that time. The museum struggled with the hybrid nature of the
work and could not provide the technical, conceptual and financial support.
Waag supported Brandon over a period of two years from 1997 till 1999.
There has been a substantial financial support from Waag Society and from
the Dutch Mondriaan Fund. Waag could contribute some sophisticated artistic
coding (jury app) and top notch performative design from some great Dutch
artist. It could be interesting to explore this and see how it was embedded
in the artistic practice of Waag and its place in the early days of netart.
It also tells a story about the pyramid art world with musea at the top and
artist trying to make them understand new artistic practices. And at the
same time new artistic platforms and institutions where building up that
where not officially recognised by the formal art world. Not much have
changed over the years :)

Looking forward collaborating on this research in the coming new year!

Best wishes,
Marleen

_____________________________________________


From our website:
http://waag.org/en/project/brandon
<http://waag.org/en/project/brandon>
Brandon - Waag Society <http://waag.org/en/project/brandon>
waag.org
Brandon is a documentary story about (sexual) identity, initiated by the
internationally acclaimed media artist Shu Lea Cheang, and made accessible
through the ...


Brandon is a documentary story about (sexual) identity, initiated by the
internationally acclaimed media artist Shu Lea Cheang, and made accessible
through the Internet in 1998-1999. The project researched issues of sexual
politics through a series of hyperlinked experimental narratives and
discourses. The events were staged at the Theatrum Anatomicum in The Waag,
Amsterdam.

In co-production with the Guggenheim Museum New York, two events were
staged as part of the project: 'DIGI GENDER SOCIAL BODY: Under the knife,
Under the spell of anaesthesia', a performance and installation, and 'Would
the jurors please stand up? Crime and punishment as Net Spectacle', a
netcast roundtable. Both events were broadcasted on the video wall of the
Guggenheim Museum and presented on the World Wide Web.

In the course of the year two public events were organized which were a
combination of forum, performance and installation. These events took place
in the Theatrum Anatomicum of the Waag in Amsterdam whilst simultaneously
being broadcast on the internet and shown on the Videowall of the
Guggenheim Museum in New York. Brandon was shown on an unusual scale for
web projects in these days: three interactive displays of 25 screens each.

The Waag's Theatrum Anatomicum was of major importance to the Brandon
project. This is where in the 17th century, the guild of surgeons publicly
taught human anatomy by dissecting the corpses of criminals. This practice
was the inspiration behind Rembrandt's painting 'The Anatomical Lesson of
Dr. Tulp'. Brandon can be seen as a contemporary version of these
dissections.


2016-11-29 17:08 GMT+00:00 Shu Lea Cheang <[log in to unmask]>:

First all, I thank Karin for organizing this discussion and gathering
> you/we all.
>
> Interestingly i am aware that i am the only [net] artist invited? with
> connections to many of you curators on this list.
>
> Let me flash my memories, naviagate through my own (after)lives -
>
> John G. Hanhardt was chief curator who commissioned 'Brandon' while still
> at the Whitney museum. Brandon (1998-1999)
> was brought to the Guggenheim Museum Soho as John relocated. This was the
> time that Guggenheim was planning the virtual museum (Hani Rashid /
> Asymptote). Matthew Drutt, then the associate curator for film and media
> took over the realization of the project who "views Brandon as the
> foundation for
> the next Guggenheim, the cyber equivalent of Bilbao". (Village Voice,
> 1998). The major partner for Brandon is Waag Society (then Society for old
> and new media) in Amsterdam. Marleen Stikker who remains the director of
> Waag supported the project wholeheartedly. Brandon's two major interface
> Theatrum Anatomicum and Panopticon was developed and produced at Waag
> Society over a year's time with many designers, programmers involved, with
> year long residency supported by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.  In Waag
> Society, there remains Theatrum Anatomicum (built in 1691) where
> Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp guided the building of
> this amphitheater for anatomical lessons. A trip to Arnhem Koepel Prison
> which was built according to Panopticon Principle and remained functional
> helped created the panopticon interface. Way before streaming media, the
> opening of Brandon at the Guggenheim museum Soho was beamed from Theatrum
> Anatomicum with still images shuffling between New York and Amsterdam.
>
> But then before Brandon, there was Bowling Alley (1995, commissioned by
> Walker Art Center), a net based installation that connected an actual
> Minneapolis bowling lane with Walker Art Center's gallery and WWW. There
> was at the end some issues with the museum who asked for filtering/editing
> certain online/live texts input.  The work was mostly 'kicked' out of the
> museum. I have only Steve Dietz to thank for taking in the website to the
> gallery 9. I should also mention how later Steve and Sarah Cook as
> curators  included Brandon at the exhibition "The Art Formerly Know As New
> Media" (2005) held at the Banff Center (part of its 10th anniversary
> exhibiition) where I started HTML coding for Brandon back in 1997.
>
> I then need to thank Michael Connor who was courageous to show Kingdom of
> Piracy (an online curatorial project with  Armin Medosch and Yukoko
> Shikata) to open FACT's then brand new media lounge in 2003 right after its
> Ars Electronica run in 2002 and after it's being terminated by ADAC (Acer
> Digital Art Center) who first commissioned it in 2001. KOP [Kingdon of
> Piracy] website/workspace, however, is somehow lost now somewhere in
> Germany. (it hurts).
>
> (sorry, feel like i am retrieving personal history, but hope somehow these
> notes would help me get to some points)
>
> Still, I was part of ARTPORT platform initiated and curated by Christiane
> Paul.
> But then, another commission from Annet Dekker to compost skor.nl archive
> as part of my composting the net (2013) project [
> http://compostingthenet.net]
> also disappeared when Skor (foundation for art and publis space) was shut
> due to Dutch budget cut in recent years.
>
> So, good to meet all of these people I respect and love dearly here.
>
> I do question Dr. Matthias Kampmann's arguement for "centralised world
> wide data base, working in a way of standardised critiria" after reading
> his own painstaking preservation works on certain art works.  if we can
> agree with Hanhardt's "being in a museum should not normalize the artwork",
> can we possible devise 'centrailized' 'standardised" methods on
> preservation?
>
> Much thanks to Hanhardt for bringing up Brandon... to tell the
> preservation of Brandon would take another posting. Indeed, Brandon lives
> (not after).
>
>
> best
> sl
>
>
> About the Theatrum Anatomicum of the Waag in Amsterdam
>