13
Dear _____,

I have been invited to participate in The Korea Web Art Festival scheduled to take place between December 8, 2001 and February 8, 2001. The work I have decided to create is a collaborative net art work featuring the talents and energies of some of my favorite artists, writers, designers and thinkers. This work will be called "13" and is modeled after a very simple conceptual work process I created on a recent plane trip. Here's the skinny:

"13" grows out of an idea I've been focused on, namely that the WWW opens up poetic language to a new form of image ecriture.

The premise: online conceptual art is unique from any other form of art that came before it, but seriously depends on many other forms of art. Part of the idea of "13" is influenced by the activities and energies that emerged from Alfred Stieglitz's journal "291," Francis Picabia's follow-up journal "391" (which, he said, was significant because the numbers added up to 13) and the conceptual art project Art and Language.

I have also borrowed some ideas from other Conceptualists and Neo-Conceptualists, that is, I have decided to create a work of net art by arbitrarily assigning myself a system or process of production and then inviting others to create the actual work. For those of you who have worked with me before, you know that this would be a natural direction for my new work to go in.

The challenge: take that premise and write up thirteen terms that best describe the variety of work being created in a contemporary net art practice. In doing so, write a short thirteen word "definition" for each of the thirteen terms. Write it in thirteen minutes. Then: send the text file to thirteen artist/designers inviting them to remix my ideas in whatever way they feel comfortable.

The net connection: as Bruce Mau says at the end of his essay "Twelve Strategies: Essay on Collaboration," "[r]ely on gut instinct, and simply go where the feeling is good."

By going to you, the feeling is good.

If you would like to participate, then these are the absolute deadlines I need you to meet:

Confirmation or Regrets -- September 1, 2001

Final delivery of data -- October 1, 2001

The 13 terms and "definitions" are attached below as are a list of the other participating artists/sites in the Korea Web Art Festival.

Thanks for considering this and I look forward to collaborating with you on this.

Best,

Mark