911? by Paul Biedrzycki   The last thing I wanted to do in participating in this show is get involved in a pissing match about what technololgy is acceptable and what style should be followed to make "net art". The artist has taken time to enter the show, and I feel that alone signifies some sort of connection with their work to 911. I was hoping to see work that took in 911 as not a singular event, but rather as a series of events. I am not really interested in memorializing 911 for the media event it was and is, or reguritating images of WTC into my own work. Tetsuo Kogawa's concept of garbage in his essay has really taken on new meaning for me after reading these discussions. I refuse to believe profound indescribable loss is the only side of the story, and I am thus trying to vote for pieces that try to go beyond this. -------- I'd like this thread to be the beginning of some talk on the range of experiences that are involved with 911. It'd be great to compare notes with artists who witnessed 911 from a completely different angle than I did. 911 is really just an example, pronounced as it is, of struggles that have existed for centuries, maybe just with some more "modern" consequences. For instance, I am really interested in the technological aspects of 911, such as the failure of cell phone networks due to overload. It really made me think about the susceptibility of my work to the failure of its supporting technologies, arguments about using this language or that language seem really beside the point, if the server's on fire. If some main network switches, radio towers etc are destroyed (as was also the case on 911), how does that change the dynamic of art on the net? is code "art" only after being compiled and delivered? Saturday, October 5th, 2002 at 00:10

Re^1: 911? by Ansgard Thomson   the artist ,who on my opinion made the shortest statement ,what 9.11 was is Judith Villamayor and I should have put her on my list instead of the memorial with all the names of the victimes . 911 is the emergency number to call in our country and probably also in the other countries besides the USA. I hope 9.11 was an event that will not be repeated ever. Tuesday, October 8th, 2002 at 12:24

Re^1: 911? by Jeff Gates   Paul, I live in Washington, DC and I witnessed 911 from that perspective. I work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and early that day I was asked by my boss to go our Renwick Gallery for a press preview of an exhibition we were just about to open. The Renwick is right across the street from the White House. One of my daughters was attending daycare near the National Mall. We heard reports (not rumors but stated on the news as if it was true) that the Capitol building and other spots on the Mall were in fire. I rushed to pick up my daughter amongst the throngs of other workers choking the streets. The city was closing down but DC had no plan for evacuations of this sort. Rumors that the Metro, the subway, was not operating or that people feared using it could be heard as I rushed to the daycare center. Military jets zooming above made the whole scene very chilling. To a great extent, my experience that day made me feel that time and place, "when" you were and "where" you were made all the difference to whether you lived or died. And, it was with that foundation that I decided to do my piece, Dichotomy. Saturday, October 5th, 2002 at 08:33

Re^2: 911? by Pqaul BIedrzycki   I live in New York and have family in Pittsburgh and DC. It's difficult to seperate things I experienced from the news. The two strongest things that stay in my head were my trip to the beach on september12 and an experience I had in the subway about a week after. No one could go to work, so we took the subway to end to rockaway beach. The train goes above ground after east new york, and we could clearly see the huge cloud above downtown. Women on the train were talking about how it was the beginning of armageddon, and jesus's sword. The beach was empty, cargo ships that were being held a few miles out lined the horizon. It was a very quiet day overall, We were walking through the subway station at 14th st on our way to get groceries about a week after 911. There is a police station in the station. As we were walking by it, several cops came rushing out, jumping over the counter. They were holding a middle-eastern looking man against the wall. They ran at him, he cowered and they ran past him and down the stairs. Other people in station started running. So we ran as well. People coming in the opposite direction turned and started running. We got up to ground level the first person I ran into was a news anchorman pushing his child in a stroller. It was strange to see him in person, he asked why everyone came out running. No one really had any idea then we went and got groceries. Monday, October 7th, 2002 at 17:21

Re^3: 911? by sakana   Dear Paul, I watched the incident on CNN, CATV in Japan just after the first airplane smashed into WTC. It was quite usual night for me before that. The day after the night at my office in Tokyo the atmosphere was not feel at ease. Many workers were searching the information through web sites, streaming media, radio or even TV instead of doing their jobs. I was listing to the American forces radio, which was broadcasting emergency programs. The program was the first time after the gulf war. Next weekend, I was at Tokyo International airport to show off someone going to Europe. A huge queue was waiting for us, and people were patient on the queue to be checked out their belongings. So, I reinforced the reality that this was something extraordinary happened. What irritated to me was unchanged method of mass media even after the experience of Tokyo Sub way gas attack. They were repeating meaningless question like "what was there?" or "how about the situation?" and so on. The situation couldn't be worse than anything. It was very clear. I hope this was only Japanese case. I remember some broadcasts looping images casualties jumping off from the tower, and it was controversial in several discussions. Now I am suspicious these images from two sides of viewpoints. One is of course, human dignity. The other point is that these images are killing people's imagination at the end. These seemed to be paralyzing our thinking as consumable products. >I was hoping to see work that took in 911 as not a singular event, but rather as a series of events. I am not really interested in memorializing 911 for the media event it was and is, or reguritating images of WTC into my own work. That's true. Some people are listing up casualty's name as a monument. However, like suicidal images, monumental pieces might be danger to fall into the failure as taken up by a process of the grief work. That process may be an operation for accepting and FORGETTING the incident. Memorizing is important, I know, but I think not stopping contemplating the incident is the first priority all the time. And sharing the personal experience and thinking as well. sakana Tuesday, October 8th, 2002 at 09:54