Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
7. Digital Culture in the
Twenty-first Century
Despite all the predictions about the so-called 'Y2K bug', the new
millennium did not see the breakdown of banking computer
systems, or the collapse of the systems governing the distribution of
welfare provision, or even the operational failure of medical equip-
ment, air conditioning systems, elevators, electricity grids, traffic or
air-traffic control systems or any other system that uses digital
technology, let alone the accidental launching of nuclear missiles.
Yet, the new century had barely begun when another apocalyptic
event took place that, though not directly caused by or linked to
digital technology, revealed the precariously inter-linked nature of
the emerging digital culture.
On 6 September 2001 an exhibition by the artist Wolfgang Staehle
called '2001' opened at the Postmasters Gallery in New York.
Staehle was already recognized as a pioneer of art involving the
Internet. In 1991 he had founded THE THING, a bulletin board that
became one of the first and most influential forums for the discus-
sion of new media art and theory. By the time of his Postmasters
show Staehle had developed a distinctive practice involving the
projection of high-resolution digital images onto gallery walls. What
made these images unusual was that they were coming from a real-
time live feed, refreshed every few seconds. In effect the spectator
was seeing the view represented more or less as it actually was at the
