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ListsBeyond "East" and "West" through The Eternal Network: Networked artists’ communities as counter-publics of Cold War Europe
Hunter, Roddy (2018) Beyond "East" and "West" through The Eternal Network: Networked artists’ communities as counter-publics of Cold War Europe. In: Performance Art in the Second Public Sphere: Event-based Art in Late Socialist Europe. Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies . Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 19-31. ISBN 9781315193106
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| Creators/Authors: | Hunter, Roddy | |||||||||
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| Abstract: | This chapter considers how networked communities of post avant-garde artists in the Cold War period reconceptualised frontiers of mind and territory named “East” and “West”, particularly in Europe. Positioning the launch of Sputnik 1 as a paradigm shift in planetary consciousness and telecommunications, Roddy Hunter takes Robert Filliou’s 1968 conception of The Eternal Network as an emblematic post avant-garde response of working in distributed collaboration across the former East/West divide. The analyses of chosen examples will consider whether artists’ attempts to work through horizontal, distributive networks arguably constituted a “second public sphere” anticipating peer-to-peer networks of now ubiquitous globalisation. In memory of Norbert Klassen (1941–2011) | |||||||||
| Official URL: | https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315193106-2 | |||||||||
| Output Type: | Book Section | |||||||||
| Additional Information: | A copy of this book is available for GSA staff and students to consult in the GSA Library: https://discovery.gsa.ac.uk/permalink/44GSA_INST/1jkke6u/alma991001088871806296 This peer-reviewed book chapter considers how 'networked communities' of post-avant-garde artists navigated frontiers of mind and territory across East and West Cold War Europe. The research aimed to re-examine how artists adapted means of dissemination, ranging from the postal system to live satellite broadcast, to become means of artistic production. It did so by considering the development of such networked art practice against the backdrop of an accelerated military-industrial-technology complex comprising the Cold War space race, the advent of live satellite broadcast and the development of television as a mass medium. While acknowledging the respective impact of state socialism or social democratic power structures, the research suggests artists' practice in both East and West equally engaged with a utopian aspiration for borderless planetary communication, quite at odds with the geopolitical experience of the late 20th century. Based on primary archival research at Tate Archive, London and Artpool Art Research Centre, Budapest, the study provides new analyses of György Galántai's presentation of Robert Filliou's 'Telepathic Music' (1979) in Budapest, Mieko Shiomi's 'Spatial Poem' (1965–1975) and Jaroslaw Kozlowski and Andrzej Kostolowski's 'NET Manifesto' (1971). Initially presented at the inaugural conference of the 'Performing Arts in the Second Public Sphere' research network, established by Dr Katalin Cseh-Varga, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and Dr Ádám Czirák, Freie Universität Berlin in 2014, my paper was selected for development into a chapter-length essay for peer-review publication in 'Performance Art in the Second Public Sphere: Event-based Art in Late Socialist Europe'. The volume presents the first interdisciplinary analysis of performance art in East, Central and Southeast Europe under socialist rule. My particular chapter is distinct within the collection in exploring questions of transnational artistic coproduction across East and West Europe through an interdisciplinary exploration of media archaeology, performance studies, art criticism and history. | |||||||||
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | networked art, correspondence art, cold war europe, media art history, Robert Filliou, György Galántai, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Andrzej Kostolowski, Mieko Shiomi | |||||||||
| Schools and Departments: | School of Fine Art | |||||||||
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| Status: | Published | |||||||||
| Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315193106-2 | |||||||||
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| Output ID: | 9457 | |||||||||
| Deposited By: | Roddy Hunter | |||||||||
| Deposited On: | 15 Apr 2025 12:50 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 15 Apr 2025 14:03 |
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