![\"\"](\"https:\/\/toshareproject.it\/artmakerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-17.57.22-1024x946.jpg\")
Screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n
…As time passed, the genre of electronic art\u2014\u00ad lacking formal institutional
\n\u00ad representation\u2014\u00ad congealed into international subcommunities. The period
\nof the 1980s saw the experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s congeal into a
\nnumber of relatively stable local organizations that encouraged technologi-
\ncally oriented practices. In Austria, for example, the yearly Ars Electronica
\nSymposium exhibition and conference began in Linz in 1979. During the
\nsame period, other similar organizations began to emerge to foster artists
\nthat wanted to significantly engage with information and media technolo-
\ngies. Other initiatives include the V2_ Organization \/ Institute for the Unsta-
\nble Media. It started in 1981 in the Dutch town of \u2018s-\u00ad Hertogenbosch as an
\ninterdisciplinary artists\u2019 squat. Out of frustration at the visual arts com-
\nmunity, in 1987 it began to focus exclusively on electronic art and other
\n\u201cunstable media.\u201d48 Founders Alex Adriaansens and Joke Brouwer saw the
\ninstability of electronic art as an advantage. Happenings and installations
\nbecame their core strength and brought these artists more in touch with
\nplayful and interactive mass culture (figure 0.1.3).<\/p>\n
In Canada, InterAccess in Toronto grew out of the Artculture Resource
\nCentre (ARC), founded in 1981. The organization brought together artists
\nthat were using Telidon, a Canadian pre-\u00ad web interactive telecommunica-
\ntions system somewhat similar to videotex or Minitel. Initially launched
\nwith a solo show by Brian Eno in 1981, the organization grew to include a
\ncore group of artists including Nancy Paterson, Tom Leonhardt, Jeff Mann,
\nGraham Smith, Nell Tenhaaf, Paul Petro, Doug Back, and David Rokeby.49
\nOther institutions founded during this period include the Transmediale fes-
\ntival in 1988 in Berlin and the Zentrum fur Kunst und Technologie (ZKM,
\n\u201cCentre for Art and Technology\u201d) in 1989 in Karlsruhe, Germany.<\/p>\n
These organizations were driven by the frustration electronic artists had
\nwith being neglected by mainstream visual art during the 1970s and 1980s.
\nAlex Galloway notes that the contemporary art journal October, which can be
\nviewed as a yardstick for artistic and intellectual trends, did not even cover
\nthe field of art and technology until 1985.50 And, as previously mentioned,
\nmuseums were reluctant to embrace projects that incorporated electronic
\nmedia. As a result, electronic artists often labored in silent obscurity. Accord-
\ning to Edward Shanken, \u201ceven Paik, the most celebrated artist associated with
\nArt and Technology, struggled well into the 1980s.\u201d51 Organizations such as
\nArs Electronica, V2_, and InterAccess supported artists, helping them to con-
\ntinue making groundbreaking interactive and intentionally unstable work
\nthat bucked institutional demands. These organizations often worked as
\ncollection points for DIY practitioners\u2014\u00ad a bit like proto-\u00ad hackerspaces\u2014\u00ad that
\naided in the production and distribution of this work.<\/p>\n
Electronic art started to ride on separate circuits through distinct exhibi-
\ntion styles, approaches, and events. Many artists that used electronic tech-
\nnologies viewed their work as part of a dynamic process, rather than part of
\nthe \u201cserious and stable\u201d institutional model. This process-\u00ad based view often
\nclashed with galleries interested in the preservation and presentation of static
\nobjects. Instead of maintaining a hermetic white gallery, electronic art orga-
\nnizations created spaces where projects were designed to be touched, make
\nnoise, and break down.52 At times, these electronic art performances more
\nclosely resembled a music venue than a gallery. These performative and
\ninteractive spaces required electrical infrastructure and staff to help start up
\nprojects, keep them running, and shut them down. With an emphasis on
\ninteractivity, these initiatives often drew historical inspiration from avant-garde
\nand interventionist art movements like Fluxus and Dada along with
\ntechnology-\u00ad minded theorists like Marshall McLuhan. <\/p>\n
To this day, numerous art festivals focus exclusively on electronic art, like Ars Electronica, the
\nInternational Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA), the Dutch Electronic
\nArt Festival (DEAF), and the Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletr\u00f4nica
\n(FILE) in Brazil. In response, some mainstream institutions invested in
\nsubstantial support for art and technology initiatives in a museum setting.
\nFor example, the Centre Pompidou in Paris integrated engineers as part of
\ntheir maintenance and preservation efforts by the late 1990s.53 Inclusion
\nof DIY electronic work in larger institutions happened occasionally, but
\nthe work primarily thrived in small, subcultural communities that regularly
\nblended art with engineering, design, science, and information technolo-
\ngies. Through a slow grassroots evolution over the course of the twentieth
\ncentury, electronic art has developed a distinct cultural approach to doing
\nand appreciating art; most of it is best understood as a variegated DIY pro-
\ncess and mindset instead of a stable and institutionalized canon….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*I’m really enjoying the tech-art gossip in this Garnet Hertz tome. …As time passed, the genre of electronic art\u2014\u00ad lacking formal institutional \u00ad representation\u2014\u00ad congealed into international subcommunities. The period of the 1980s saw the experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s congeal into a number of relatively stable local organizations that encouraged technologi- cally oriented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"\n
The 1980s: An Institutionalization of the Technologically Tentative | Artmaker Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 1980s: An Institutionalization of the Technologically Tentative | Artmaker Blog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/toshareproject.it\/artmakerblog\/the-1980s-an-institutionalization-of-the-technologically-tentative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 1980s: An Institutionalization of the Technologically Tentative | Artmaker Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 1980s: An Institutionalization of the Technologically Tentative | Artmaker Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/toshareproject.it\/artmakerblog\/the-1980s-an-institutionalization-of-the-technologically-tentative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Artmaker Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T16:53:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/toshareproject.it\/artmakerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-17.57.22-1024x946.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bruce Sterling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/toshareproject.it\/artmakerblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/toshareproject.it\/artmakerblog\/\",\"name\":\"Artmaker Blog\",\"description\":\"on Toshareproject.it - 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