This article contains the reflections of an artist who works on the Net, a Net-worker who on the one hand conceives telematic art and, on the other, sees it as a construct that creates room for relationships. The Net is an increasingly accessible context ¹, in which people from all kinds of different areas can meet up and exchange experiences and knowledge on an equal level and with the same positive attitude. This text is a reflection on this concept, but also especially on the role of technical, scientific knowledge, of know-how, which affects the use and development of the Net as regards the whole range of telematic communication, and particularly the creation of art on the Net.

As an example of telematic know-how – the same is true of all other sorts of know-how, such as programming, arranging interfaces, processing photos or organising mailing lists – I would like to use the visual search for information in the Internet or the knowledge about the function of search engines as they are accessible to users. I consider this knowledge to be one of the most important areas, and fundamental to life on the Net. I think that this field is of the greatest importance, above all because of the aspects of immateriality, mobility, and control as part of a general discussion about the society of neo-liberal globalisation and post-Fordism.

What is the search for information on the Net, and what constitutes visibility of information? The search is characterised by all methods, devices and techniques that provide access to information. The main devices are the search engines (pure, structured, using software agents to function, like Google), and the Web directory (categorised, non-structured, personally guided, like Yahoo); there are also the portals, the meta-search engines, peer-to-peer communities (like Freenet and Gnutella), and, for an equal, horizontal exchange of data, the news groups (Usenet), the mailing lists, forums and chat rooms – and, last but not least, the special search engines that function with payment. Complementary to searching on the Net, visibility consists of several components and strategies (the so-called »tips and tricks«) that are used to ensure that a web page can be easily found and indexed (catalogued) by the search engines, and that the page is among the first twenty responses produced by search engines to a particular query; being among the first twenty guarantees the visibility of the website. This is also denoted by the terms »top ranking« or »top listing«.

To better understand the importance of searching and visibility on the Net, here are a few data and notes as points of reference: there are around 10 million new pages appearing on the Internet every day, around 80% of users gain access to them via search engines. It is obvious that around 90% of webmasters and owners of Internet sites (and the artists operating on the Net) do not use any strategies to place themselves among the top 20 in rankings; only 25% of the web sites are found and indexed by the search engines. The rest is seen as »deep Internet«, as an unnoticed, obscure part of the Net.

There is one case of paid ranking that caused negative advertising on the Net. Commercial Alert, an American consumer protection agency, filed a suit against some of the best-known search engines (like Netscape and Altavista). It claimed that a lot of money was paid to get a top position in the ranking list, without this being officially and openly declared to the users. This makes it clear that access to information on the Net, which is gained primarily through search engines, has an important, but also a delicate status.

The main danger that search engines face is not that of manipulation of information, but the manipulation of the administration, organisation and systemisation of the data. Good and effective control strategies have been developed, circumspectly and with subliminal, surgical adjustments. One of these is censorship, which takes on an increased importance at the moment when an a priori decision is made about what item, or what part of the Net, will be considered for indexing. In other words, there is a strong element of censorship through preliminary exclusion. The administration and regulation of the information carried out by search engines are clear examples of the transition from the model of Fordism to that of post-Fordism: from a guided model of information censorship (such as an index of banned books, cinema or television films) to that of control through the search engines (or portals), brought about by an increased invisible indexing of certain information.

[b]Searching and being found[/b]

So the art of searching and, conversely, the art of being found represent de facto a form of technical knowledge, of digital knowledge, and a kind of know-how. In contrast to factual knowledge that can be called up in encyclopaedic fashion, this knowledge gains an undreamt-of relevance with regard to telematic communication and thus also the creation of art on the Net. It is a sort of »supreme material« that is generally necessary for all communicative processes, and particularly for those within the area of art and culture. The technical dimension becomes the capital that this know-how monopolises, in comparison to others, even though the typical characteristics of the Net (horizontality, speed and omnipresence) should really allow a redistribution of this method of knowledge. In Italy, however, one only needs to think of the monopolistic media empire of Berlusconi to realise that the future of communication in general does not look all that rosy.

The knowledge we are talking about is not, in a broader sense, limited to searching and visibility. It represents a delicate problem, namely, that of preservation despite constant change; it is therefore knowledge that has a central position, but is mobile at the same time. A knowledge that, despite this central position, has to be refreshed and readapted (we only have to think of the new algorithms of the search engines’ software agents, or, at a more banal level, of the release of a particular sort of software…). This has to occur from an individual, professional standpoint as well, as schools and training programmes do not give the necessary preparation.

It is therefore a type of knowledge that more or less circulates on the Net. It is shared and increased by users, a process that brings about improvements and implementations. Here are two examples to aid in understanding this aspect: in the fifth century BC, medical diagnoses and therapies were gathered in the form of collective »textbooks« (Egyptians and Babylonians). An example from our times, however, is that of Linux software, which appeared in 1991. Programmers, professionals, semi-professionals and, above all, hackers, all did their part to make this software as effective and reliable as possible.
We are thus dealing with a type of knowledge that is collective, open, non-definitive, and strikingly flexible and temporary. It functions like a social glue and, to put it concisely, possesses three fundamental principles: it is cumulative, cooperative and flexible. A certain know-how is always embedded in the division of areas of competency, above all in the sector of hobbyists, hackers, computer freaks, and tinkerers in general. It is knowledge that creates more communities the more individuals it includes, and thus represents an emulsion that realises interests and community ambitions, elements of the greatest importance for the art of networking. In Italy, the activities of the »Hackmeeting« are of fundamental importance for community, participatory art and Net art. This international meeting, organised autonomously, is devoted entirely to telematics, with all its new technical, social, ethnic, political and artistic aspects. Since 1998, these meetings have been held every year in different Italian cities (Florence, Milan, Rome, Catania and Bologna), to keep going a continuous process of exchange. ²

In my opinion, it is important that artists (or groups of artists) first of all work on strategies and techniques for open and horizontal communication (such as chaotic scanning on the Net, chaotic ranking of search results or the maintenance of all useful and accessible web pages), which allow us to escape from monopolies and controlled situations in such a way that everyone has access and can participate in the collective development of knowledge. This would mean, too, that users could develop their own ideas and demands in an autonomous and critical way.

My contribution is meant to encourage people to share and confront knowledge. The important thing is to participate actively and as positively as possible in building up and distributing knowledge on the Net (I have already pointed out the relevance of searching and being found in this text), because, on the Net, if you don’t participate, you don’t know anything, and if you don’t know anything, you can’t participate.

 

Translated by Tim Jones

 

---