Etoy is a European digital art group formed in 1994. It has won several international awards including the

Prix Ars Electronica The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) ...

in 1996. Their main slogan is: "leaving reality behind." Etoy has routinely experimented with the boundaries of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, such as selling shares of "stock" in the etoy.corporation, a registered company in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and travelling the world as well as living in "etoy.tanks" (

cargo containers Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the pr ...

History

The group first used the name "etoy" in 1994, for performances at

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

s and techno music events. The group's members, based in various European countries, were referred to as "agents". In 2007, German and Swiss director Andrea Reiter realised a documentary (produced by Hugofilm) about etoy's "Mission Eternity" project, a "digital cult of the dead". As of 2015, a history overview on the group's website describes it as entering "hibernation mode" in 2013.

Toywar

The ''toywar'' was a legal battle around 1999/2000 between the Internet toy retailer

eToys.com eToys.com was a retail website that sold toys via the Internet. It was established by a startup company of the same name on November 3, 1997. After an initial public offering on January 4, 1999, the company quickly shot up in value, becoming embl ...

and etoy about the

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

etoy.com. Fearing brand dilution and customer confusion about the similar domain names, eToys sued etoy for trademark infringement, and asked etoy to remove graphic images and profane language from their website that were bringing customer complaints. The artists refused to comply, and eToys eventually obtained a preliminary injunction against etoy which shut down their website. etoy fought back with a coordinated public relations campaign and Internet-based denial of service attacks on eToys.com. After several weeks eToys dropped the lawsuit and the etoy website returned to operation. etoy activists have called it "the most expensive performance in art history".Toywar.Com
/ref> The story is one of the subjects of the

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, ''

info wars ''InfoWars'' is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operates under Free Speech Systems LLC. Talk shows and other content for the site are created primarily in studi ...

''. An email campaign was led by Internet activists including etoy agents developing the toywar website. A

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

about the story of the etoy corporation, ''Leaving reality behind'', by

Regula Bochsler Regula may refer to: * Regula (name) * Regula (architecture), a feature of the Doric order in classical architecture * Regula (saint), a Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic saint * Regula (ship, 1993), a passenger ship operating on Lake Zurich in Sw ...

and

Adam Wishart Adam Wishart (born 1969) is a documentary filmmaker. His professional background includes writing, directing, and appearing in various productions for BBC television projects. Professional background Writing Wishart's first book, ''Leaving R ...

was released in 2002.

References

External links

website etoy.CORPORATIONthe digital hijackthe digital flapjack
- a parody of ''digital hijack'' created at the 1996 Prix Ars Electronica by

SITO SITO is an online artist collective which began in January 1993, making it one of the oldest Internet-based art organizations. It was started by Ed Stastny and has been maintained by Stastny and a group of volunteers and supporters. __NOTOC__ Fro ...

New York Times - EToys Lawsuit Is No Fun for Artist Group
* ttps://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/cyber/articles/26etoy.html New York Times - eToys Drops Lawsuit Against Artist Groupbr>Pam Dixon archive - Cyber artists' toy war is not child's play
{{Authority control European artist groups and collectives Advocacy groups Culture jamming