One of the advantages of the net is that something small can appear to have the same dimensions as something big: an artist group and a corporation, a global brand and a server controlled from someone’s studio.
The appearance of
irational.org oscillates
between the two. The name-play with its letters, to the rhythm of net
rationale. Part of the game is that it is written with only one “r”
(it might bring to mind e-commerce, or a grain of sand in the works á
lá Deputy
Thirsters).
The arrangement of the quickly downloading homepage
likewise tips the scales toward rationality. The aesthetic of the open
source code is crossed with the love for order of a real sysop: data concealed
in bases, that comes just as reliably and looks just the same whether
over the lowest or highest bandwidth.
Heath Bunting
is the most active
irationalist agent, as the irational cv’s bear witness. Hence, it
is most worthwhile to make the acquaintance of the irational world through
his homepage.
Our man in London simply custom-tailors
the concept of new media. According to Bunting’s approach, this
means the establishment of open communications systems. Through his countless
(I abandoned the arithmetic at fifty-eight) network projects, we can study
such models during their operation.
His website occasionally dons an American
Express guise; nevertheless, most of the time the puritan open source
attitude remains, the irationalist profile, which is formally refined
and consistent. At the same time, surveying the listed projects, they
are of a high degree with respect to the equipment employed and their
forms, and we can experience their diversity as dictated by artistic freedom.
Everything within reach is employed – from chalk
through knives
to faxes,
from travel
through extreme sport
to public
radio,
from an advertising
campaign through a constellation
map to a biotech
magazine – whatever seems to be obvious in the given situation. World
traveller,
he has reduced his tools to the minimum in the interest of keeping his
baggage small,
travelling light: from this perspective it is interesting to see whether
he can carry with him a knife as a tool of his trade while globally practicing
his vocation as an artist, or if he must buy a new one in each new country.
Beyond this, he was the first Internet beggar
(though it is worth having a look at the second,
too).
Apropos to tools: let no one be misled by the diversity. Each is brandished
with convincing self-assurance (he surprised me, for instance, with the
exquisite calligraphy of his chalk graffiti
– it is evident that he gets a lot of practice). In contemplating the
net documentation
of his cave excursions,
I understood that here, there is more than meets the eye. Heath Bunting
simply loves what he does, and this love migrates into the systems that
he creates. Life and art become one, the travels
and the projects,
at the same time as the constant
encounters
and coexistence,
irationalist
adventure
with friends,
lovers
and accomplices.
He is from the first
generation that grew up with personal
computers; it is no wonder, then, that he is at home on the net. His international
reputation is due to his pioneering net-specific projects, among which
I find the most memorable Own,
be owned or remain invisible: with the “hair of the dog that
bit you” slogan in view, nearly every word of the white text on
white ground has been linked to its www.word.com
address – thus these linked words are visible to their precisely appropriate
extent, and the commerce-oriented face of the net flashes.
He surfs the net and the softening borders, he hikes between
countries and he inserts the documentation of all of this, replete
with images, as a limited access database. Stepping into the field between
countries (BorderXing), we awake to realise that the project was commissioned
by the Tate
Modern in London, with the support of mudam
(Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg). The two museums
foot the 9000 pound sterling production costs, receiving in exchange the
right to present the work for 5 years on their websites. The copyrights
remain with the artist, alongside with insurance of first right of purchase.
The work itself,
to which these rights relate, is, on the one hand, a handbook written
with his feet, realised through a series of excursions. It contains green
(without documents – sans papiers) methods of European border-crossings.
It is, on the other hand, a database of limited access – accessible only
from authorised locations: we can either request authorisation for ourselves
in a letter, or we have to get ourselves to such a location (in fact,
there is at least one such
place in every European country).
Immersing ourselves in the documentation, we search for the Hungarian
border in vain: it has not yet even been planned. Of the designated routes,
about half of them have been made, and those are revealed to us in the
form of a travel diary, presented in a personal tone, in striking detail:
we are acquainted with the equipment, the excursionists,
the accomplished
route,
the more interesting
motifs,
the duration of the trip, in text and in image.
The peak of the former is the conclusion that serves to provide practical
advice that can be followed by anyone, while in the latter, it is the
concrete
frames
of border
crossing that are the most memorable.
Alongside all this, I also looked with pleasure through the photo
album compiled by the author at the head of the list, whose arrangement
allows us, e.g., to deduce from the height of the picture-columns the
importance of the heroes depicted in the photos in the life of the author.
I also learned that he is already for quite
some time a passionate
excursionist,
whose significant leaps
can be observed on a scale of Kleinian tradition.
We can perceive
his activity
as subversive
too
, to the extent that its active criticism refers to consumer corporate
culture; thus it plays against something. Nevertheless, the gentleness
of this far-reaching subversion-series is that which ultimately arrests
the attention of the surfer. The choice of materials for the chalk-graffiti
already becomes the meekest of violence: it is easily removed; at the
same time, the operation demands greater dexterity.
So that we do not only make the acquaintance with his gentle side: he
is able to show something even to the power surfer with his Pornography
as protest, operational until now through his own funds, and which
I would not recommend to anyone who has not practiced at least a few seasons
of surfing: not because of the explicit lyrics, as with the rappers, but
rather due to the explicit imagination; at the same time, it is important
to add that the impact of the work is expressed just through the inter-reference
between the verbal and the visual information.
For those who have not yet surfed enough, or does not wish to take part in the reference-act, they should take a look instead at the irationalist critic of public space; this is again a gentle operation, the art of climbing.
Translation: Adéle Eisenstein