The Thing is an international net-community of artists and art-related projects that was started in 1991 by

Wolfgang Staehle Wolfgang Staehle is an early pioneer of net.art in the United States, known for his video streaming of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City during the September 11 attacks. He also captured the crash of the first plane into the ...

. The Thing was launched as a mailbox system accessible over the telephone network in New York feeding a

Bulletin Board System A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

(BBS) in 1991 before their website was launched in 1995 on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

. By the late 1990s, The Thing grew into a diverse online community made up of dozens of members' Web sites, mailing lists, a successful Web hosting service, a community studio in Chelsea (NYC), and the first website devoted to

Net Art upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance of the phys ...

: bbs.thing.net.

History

The Thing BBS (1991)

In 1991, The Thing began as a

(BBS) focusing on contemporary art and cultural theory. In 1990, the writer and critic Blackhawk (having recently produced the film ''Cyberpunk'') taught Wolfgang Staehle many of the abilities he needed to start the original The Thing BBS. Blackhawk was the first person Staehle turned to after conceiving the idea for an electronic culture resource based on the model of

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

's ''

Social sculpture Social sculpture is a phrase used to describe an expanded concept of art that was invented by the artist and co-founder of the German Green Party, Joseph Beuys. Beuys created the term "social sculpture" to embody his understanding of art's potential ...

''. Blackhawk and Wolfgang jointly set up the editorial structure of the original BBS and planned for many of the then experimental activities that took place. Other people who helped develop and shape the content of the early BBS included

Josefina Ayerza Josefina Ayerza (born 1950) is a writer and a psychoanalyst who lives and works in New York City. Biography Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1970s she moved to Paris and then settled in NYC where she established a private practice. J. Ayerz ...

, Dike Blair, Donald Newman, the original programmer, Jordan Crandall, David Platzker, Josh Decter,

Rainer Ganahl Rainer Ganahl (born 18 October 1961 in Bludenz) is an Austrian-American conceptual artist who lives and works in New York. His work has been widely exhibited, including the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; The Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, ...

Julia Scher Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g. ...

Barry Schwabsky Barry Schwabsky (b. Paterson, New Jersey, in 1957) is an American art critic, art historian and poet. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, New York University, Yale University, and Goldsmiths College, among others. Art cr ...

, Morgan Garwood, Franz von Stauffenberg and Benjamin Weil. A second node, The Thing Cologne, was added in 1992, followed by The Thing Vienna in November 1993. Nodes in Berlin and elsewhere were soon to follow.

The Thing on the Web (1995)

The Thing changed its form when a website was created for a presentation at the 1995

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...

. Credits on the 1995 website also name Nicky Chaikin, John F. Simon Jr.,

, Rob Keenan, Darryl Erentzen and John Rabasa. In 1995 The Thing set up an independent art network with hardware of its own that offered arts communities ways to establish themselves, to send information to one another and also to conceive of new artistic practices deriving from

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

and from

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. The idea was that working with the Internet was a way to operate around the institutions of art distribution of the day. In 1998 Max Kossatz designed ''The Thing Communicator'' a website mimicking many functions of the original BBS including member login, chat and messaging. The most

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

area of The Thing consisted of various message boards offering forums for

art theory Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, ...

debate, news and gossip, ongoing dialogue and an open-access flow of information as well as several online versions of art journals. Alongside discussion forums The Thing has offered artworks in the form of

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

downloadable to the home

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

– for example by

Peter Halley Peter Halley (born 1953) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s. Known for his Day-Glo geometric paintings, Halley is also a writer, the former publisher of ''index Magazine'', and a teacher; he ...

thing.net communities

The Thing has enabled a diverse group of artists, critics, curators, and activists to use the internet in its early stages. At its core, The Thing is a

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

, made up of individuals from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of expert knowledge. From this social hub, The Thing has built an array of programs and initiatives, in both technological and cultural networks. During its first five years, TT became widely recognized as one of the founding and leading online centers for

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

culture.

Christiane Paul Christiane Paul (; born 8 March 1974 in Berlin-Pankow) is a German film, television and stage actress. Paul first worked as a model for magazines such as '' Bravo''. She was 17 when she obtained her first leading role in the film '. Prior to h ...

, ''Digital Art'', Thames & Hudson Ltd., p. 111 Its activities include hosting artists' projects and mailing lists - as well as publishing cultural criticism. The Thing has also organized many public events and symposia on such topics as the state of

arts, the preservation of online privacy, artistic innovations in

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

, and the possibilities of community empowerment through wireless technologies. In 1997, thing.net communications, LLC, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) was incorporated by Wolfgang Staehle, Gisela Ehrenfried and Max Kossatz. The ISP was to provide a financial backbone for The Thing Inc. (a 501 c 3 non profit organization). thing.net has hosted arts and activist groups and publications including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center,

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

Mabou Mines Mabou Mines is an experimental theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City. Founding and history Mabou Mines was founded by David Warrilow, Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass, at the house of Akalaitis an ...

Willoughby Sharp Willoughby Sharp (January 23, 1936 – December 17, 2008) was an American artist, independent curator, independent publisher (he was co-founder and co-editor of Avalanche Magazine with Liza Béar), gallerist, teacher, author, and telecom activist ...

Gallery,

Zingmagazine ''zingmagazine'' is a contemporary art magazine composed of curatorial projects founded in 1995 by artist Devon Dikeou. ''zing'' began as a quarterly, black-and-white magazine. Its first issue contained projects by Kenny Schachter, Gordon Tapper, ...

, Journal of Contemporary Art, RTMark and Tenant.net. Among many others, artists and projects associated with thing.net have included Sawad Brooks,

Heath Bunting Heath Bunting (born 1966) is a British contemporary artist. Based in Bristol, he is a co-founder of the website ''irational.org'', and was one of the early practitioners in the 1990s of Net.art. Bunting's work is based on creating open and demo ...

, Cercle Ramo Nash, Vuk Cosic,

Ricardo Dominguez Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name * Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portu ...

, Ursula Endlicher,

etoy Etoy is a European digital art group formed in 1994. It has won several international awards including the Prix Ars Electronica in 1996. Their main slogan is: "leaving reality behind." Etoy has routinely experimented with the boundaries of art, ...

, GH Hovagimyan, Jérôme Joy, John Klima, Jenny Marketou,

Mariko Mori is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist. She is known for her photographs and videos of her hybridized future self, often presented in various guises and featuring traditional Japanese motifs. Her work often explores themes of technology, spirit ...

Olivier Mosset Olivier Mosset (born 1944 in Bern, Switzerland) is a Swiss visual artist.

, Prema Murty, Mark Napier,

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and Aesthetics, art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses. Life and work ...

Phil Niblock Phill Niblock (born October 2, 1933 in Anderson, Indiana) is an American composer, filmmaker, videographer, and director of Experimental Intermedia, Alan Licht, ''Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995-2020'', Blank Fo ...

, Daniel Pflumm,

Francesca da Rimini Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (died between 1283 and 1286) was a medieval noblewoman of Ravenna, who was murdered by her husband, Giovanni Malatesta, upon his discovery of her affair with his brother, Paolo Malatesta. She was a co ...

Beat Streuli Beat Streuli (born 1957)
is a

Jörg Sasse *The Thing Frankfurt was founded by Andreas Kallfelz *The Thing Hamburg (1993–94) was founded by Hans-Joachim Lenger *The Thing Hamburg (2006–2009) was founded by the local art association "THE THING HAMBURG" *The Thing London was founded by Andreas Ruethi *The Thing New York was founded by Wolfgang Staehle *The Thing Stockholm was founded by Magnus Borg *The Thing Vienna was founded by Helmut Mark and Max Kossatz *The Thing Roma was founded by Marco Deseriis and Giuseppe Marano

Footnotes

''This article incorporates text from
About: The Thing
and
Wolfgang Staehle: Resume
, publications released into

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

by their author.''

References

* Josephine Bosma,
Constructing Media Spaces
, in: 'Media Art Net 2', Wien, Springer Verlag, 2005. * Dieter Daniels, Gunther Reisinger (Eds.) ''Net Pioneers 1.0: Contextualizing Early Net-Based Art'', Sternberg. 2010. *

, ''Digital Art'', London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., p. 111 *

Edward A. Shanken Edward A. Shanken (born 1964) is an American art historian, whose work focuses on the entwinement of art, science and technology, with a focus on experimental new media art and visual culture. Shanken is Professor, Arts Division, at UC Santa Cru ...

, ''Art and Electronic Media''. London: Phaidon, 2009. , p. 50 *

Mark Tribe Mark Tribe (born 1966) is an American artist. He is the founder of Rhizome, a not-for-profit arts organization based in New York City. In 2013, he was appointed chair of the MFA program of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Formerly, h ...

and Reena Jana. ''New Media Art''. Cologne: Taschen Verlag. pp. 22–23

External links

*http://thing.net/ (current url) *http://old.thing.net/ (1995) *http://bbs.thing.net / (1997) *http://www.thething.it/ *http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/frameset.html (Roma) *http://www.thing-hamburg.de/ (Hamburg) *http://www.thing-frankfurt.de/ (http://www.thing-net.de/) (Frankfurt) *http://www.thing.de/ (Berlin) *http://www.thing.at/ (Vienna) *http://www.thing.desk.nl/ (Amsterdam) *http://www.thing.ch/ (Basel, closed) {{DEFAULTSORT:Thing, The (Art Project) Contemporary art organizations Net.artists Conceptual art Postmodern art Digital artists Mass media theorists American artist groups and collectives Conceptual artists Postmodern artists Artists from New York (state) Digital art Internet art New media artists