Archive 2020: Netzspannung.org

onika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, at the Fraunhofer IAIS - MARS Exploratory Media Lab

Netzspannung.org
netzspannung.org is an Internet platform for artistic production, media projects, and intermedia research. As an interface between media art, media technology and society, it functions as an information pool for artists, designers, computer scientists and cultural scientists. Headed by Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, at the MARS Exploratory Media Lab, interdisciplinary teams of architects, artists, designers, computer scientists, art and media scientists are developing and producing tools and interfaces, artistic projects and events at the interface between art and research. All developments and productions are realised in the context of national and international projects. See this video for more information.

Generating, Conveying and Appropriating Knowledge
netzspannung.org is a knowledge space. This means that alongside developing an extensive, up-to-date archive, the focus is on creating different avenues for exploring the media art field. For this purpose netzspannung.org provides services and tools that help users process information more easily and can be used for generating, conveying and appropriating knowledge. The full range of content, services and tools is available to users free of charge.
netzspannung.org's databases

A central component of netzspannung.org is its publicly accessible archive. This comprises numerous works of media art, projects from IT research, and lectures on media theory as well as on aesthetics and art history, all in the form of text, image and video presentations. The archive also contains content processed by the editorial team as well as community contributions. netzspannung.org firmly believes that contextualization and visualization are crucial factors in the discovery and acquisition of knowledge. This is why the archive interfaces provide alternative accesses to netzspannung.org's database.

Classic View
The classic view interface presents the database's contents in list form. Here visual information is a significant element, supporting visual access to the contents of the database. These contents (project descriptions, events, articles) can be arranged and sorted according to different criteria.

Archive Browser
The archive browser provides an overview of all the database's contents. They are organized in different categories (people, subject matter, keywords, latest additions), are combined into indexes, and presented in alphabetical lists. Thus the user can, for example, obtain an overview of all the people featured in the archive or look through the database's contents grouped by keyword.

Randomizer
The randomizer interface automatically generates with each loading process a random selection of 30 images, each of which refers to an entry in the database. It offers a purely visual and intuitive access to the archive.
 
Semantic Map
The semantic map presents the archive in an overview map, structuring and visualizing netzspannung.org's database entries according to semantic criteria. The semantic map provides new possibilities for discovering semantic connections between content from different disciplines. Because the interface is based on a text analysis, German and English texts are each provided with a map of their own. The contents of the two maps are different because many database entries are only available in one language.

Media Flow Browser
The Media Flow transmits an immediate impression of the documents in the online archive. Access is based on image or text. The flow of words indicates keywords, authors and titles of the documents. By choice of words or images, the relevant document is visually highlighted. Selecting one shows the data in context. Using text-to-speech processing the visual impression is augmented by artificial voices. The Media Flow interface creates an atmospheric image and sound domain. The floating interface supports the user to find things he or she would normally never discover. Therefore the Media Flow is an alternating interface to browse the netzspannung.org archive.

Biographies
Monika Fleischmann
Monika Fleischmann, born 1950, German research artist, studied visual arts, theater and computer graphics. Since 1992 she has been artistic director of the Institute for Media Communication; since 1997 she has been head of the MARS exploratory media lab at (the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication since 2005 the) Fraunhofer Institute Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS in Sankt Augustin near Bonn. In 1999 she started - together with Giaco Schiesser and the Knowbotic Research group - a New Media Department at the University for Art & Design in Zürich. In 1988 she was co-founder of Art + Com, Berlin, a research institute for computer-assisted media art, architecture, design.

Wolfgang Strauss
Wolfgang Strauss, born 1951, is architect, media artist and scientist. He works with old and new media and creates real buildings as well as electronic architecture, knowledge spaces and digital archives. He is head of the R&D activities on human-machine communication at the MARS – Explorative Media Lab of Fraunhofer Institute Intelligent Analysis and Informationsystems IAIS. His second area of competence is in knowledge arts and media. In 2000 the internetplatform „netzspannung.org“ was a forerunner of Web 2.0 cultural techniques like Wikis and Blogs. The platform is directed to the media arts & technology community dealing with archiving and examining user generated content. Since 1987, he has produced a large number of media art and design works on the topics of mixed reality, networked information space and the visualisation of knowledge in cooperation with Monika Fleischmann. He studied Architecture at the Hochschule der Kuenste (University of Arts) in Berlin, has worked as guest professor, has had fellowships and has given numerous talks in Germany and abroad. In 1992 he was awarded with Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica for interactive art. In 2005 and 2007 he received the if-communication design award.

Netzspannung.org is a case study presented during Archive 2020.