http://www.newmedia-arts.org


The site for the Encyclopedia of new media has been realized in a collaborative effort between the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Ludwig Museum of Cologne, and the Centre pour L’Image Contemporaine Saint-Gervais in Geneva. Besides offering a rich source of information with a glossary and archive of artists and works, it is the first free, tri-lingual catalogue?French, English, and German?that acts as a research and documentation tool for discovering the various artistic practices tied to new technologies. The most dynamic area of the site, accompanied by a background soundtrack, is that dedicated to current affairs and which, among other things, has a section with links to various international artists’ Internet projects, including those of Claude Closky and Miltos Manetas. At the end, there is also a kind of navigational tree which facilitates use.

http://www.weallplugin.org


Plug in is a space with its seat in Basel, which was founded in August 2000 by the association Forum for New Media. Under the direction of Annette Schindler, the space is dedicated to new media and its main objective is to recommend, realize, and support projects linked both to technological innovations and to the development of contemporary art. For example, on the occasion of “Liste 2001,” Plug in supported the fascinating sound and digital project by the group Knowbotic Research. The site, in both English and German, presents the activities of the center, a news area, and a section called “Garden,” which hosts contributions form artists who work predominantly with new media. Among them are Ursula Biemann, Vuk Cosic, and the Co-Lab, a group made up of Claude Hidber, Christian Rohner, and Valentin Spiess, which is actually an active laboratory which creates work that attempts to supercede the barriers between art and technology.

http://www.context.ro


Context is a long-term project, born from the collaboration between Alexandru Patatics and Sebastian Bertalan, which was presented at the Rumanian Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale. The members of the context network do not belong to a defined group that is independent from the realized projects. International artists are invited from time to time to participate in events that, for the most part, try to create an actual point of intersection between the network and a physical place. One the appearing contributors is Cãlin Dan, in the area “Insert Spaces,” who was born in Rumania but has been resident in Holland for several years. The site also includes a short biography on all the participating artists.

http://www.mudam.lu


Presented in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale, on the site for the Musée D’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, whose director is Marie-Claude Beaud, is a project by the artist Claude Closky, who has already had a presence on the internet in the past. The visitor to the site is constantly accompanied by a moveable window which contains within it the entire site’s index. In French, English, and Italian, this site provides, amongst other things: a magazine, an area dedicated to projects by artists who work on the Web-such as The Cercle Ramo Nash and Peter Kogler, and information on the museum’s collection, which represents internationally recognized artists such as Marina Abramovic and Shirin Neshat. The site is not just a simple online window into the museum’s collection, but a special project. The artist has created a dynamic interface and, while remaining easily navigable, offers a new method in the presentation of texts and images.

http://www.ganahl.org


This site, part of the program presented by the Austrian Pavilion at the 1999 Venice Biennale, combines texts, images, and sounds which reflect Rainer Ganahl’s interest in learning foreign languages as an artistic practice. The site is divided into various areas: “Basic Linguistics” gives a rigorously detailed account on his learning activities and the various contexts of his study; “Glocal Languages” is the part dedicated to the discussion of language and politics. The same artist also has another project in progress http://www.ganahlmarx.com which invites the involvement of the visitors, asking them to send in texts, images, and links regarding Karl Marx.