who_owns_them_controls

Southworth, Kate (2001) who_owns_them_controls. [Website Content]

Abstract / Summary

who_owns_them_controls is an aural-visual net art work selected by curators Mick Wilson, Nicola Gogan and Pallas Studios for the 2001 Straylight Online Exhibition, as part of the Darklight Film Festival of Ireland. It is archived in the ‘net art idea line’ on the artport website of the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, and in London's Soundtoys online permanent collection. The work is included in the online publication Aura Digital: Història del Net.art 2001. It was reviewed by Rossitza Daskalova for the electronic magazine of the Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal (CIAC), and was featured in the 2004 a-n magazine article Sampling net art. Curator, Wilfred Agricola de Cologne selected the work as part of Java Museum's exhibition of net art from Britain and Ireland.

Developed with reference to the information society, who owns them controls explores the relationship between ownership and control within the context of networked digital art. Critiquing utopian notions of networking and participation it pre-dates the significant critical debates on the limits of networking (Alexander Galloway & Eugene Thacker, 2004; Geert Lovinck & Florian Schneider, 2004).

who_owns_them_controls is a reflection of the relationship between I and non-I within the networked space, juxtaposing a sensuous painterly aesthetic with precise algorithms and rules of engagement. Expanding post-conceptual net art practices to include the affective, sensorial and aesthetic, the work proposes a strategy of resistance to the protocols and controls of the information society.

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