Italian version
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14.04.03 Software Art.net, Switch n.18 and Making Art on the Web.
Software programmed not for productive purposes, but aesthetical, social and conceptual, is becoming more and more important in the electronic art scene. Like any avant-garde movement, however, it needs in-depth studies and discussions to define its theoretical aspects, still very blurred. To this end, it's worth reading the long and extremely interesting transcription of the public debate which marked the opening of the site Software Art.net, supervised by Inke Arns (a co-founder of the Syndicate and Spectre mailing lists). During the opening day, at the Media Arts Lab of the KŸnstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, several renowned exponents of this scene (Florian Cramer, Pit Schulz, Amy Alexander, Sally Jane Norman, Adrian Ward, Diana McCarthy...) made deep contributions on subjects like the definition of software art and its aesthetic and social implications. The latest number (18) of the online magazine 'Switch', about new media culture, too, is dedicated to software intended as cultural production, and its different aspects (interface, interactivity, poetics) are analyzed with the help of a contribution by Tim O'Reilly, the famous 'enlightened' publisher. Also interesting is the difference between 'default software', that is, the one deceitfully labeled as 'official', therefore endorsed by the biggest software houses, and its alternatives, i.e.: the one voluntarily chosen and installed by the user. On the italian front, Undo.net has put online the acts of the conference 'Making Art on the Web', held at the Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, a part of the 'Gates/Transimages Europeennes' project. It's composed of a general overview and the contributions of the participants (Tatiana Bazzichelli, Pier Luigi Capucci, Mariacristina Cremaschi, Francesco Galluzzi, Claudio Parrini and Alessandro Ludovico).