#alpha 3.3

NOTES: This essay appears in the book Histories Identities Technologies Spaces: Singapore Art Today edited by Kwok Kian Chow.   

NOTES: Click on screenshot to go to link of actual item. Alpha 3.3 was presented as part of the exhibition Nokia Singapore Art held at the Singapore Art Museum in 2001. This was the earlier work which became the conceptual basis for Alpha 3.4 later presented as part of Documenta 11 in 2002. 

NOTES: The work “alpha 3.0” mentioned by Christiane Paul should be corrected to “alpha 3.3.” instead. A similar error is also replicated in another item in the same collection. See item here. As with many other art historical sources (published around the same time in the early 2000s while tsunamii.net was still active), factual errors are quite common whether it is in the names of the alpha project in question, or in the artists’ names. This might have to do, after all, with a lack of documentations as resisted by tsunamii.net themselves. Also, the emphasis in these publications tend (as with Christiane Paul here, or Rachael Greene elsewhere) to focus on the use of Global Positioning System devices rather than the projects’ critique of internet infrastructures.  

NOTES: Click on screenshot to go to link of actual item. The eponymous website of tsunamii.net is now no longer functioning. As of November 2017, the Wayback Machine has recorded 91 captures of the URL tsunamii.net, between December 3, 2001 and November 16, 2012. 

Click on screenshot to go to link of actual item. The eponymous website of tsunamii.net is now no longer functioning. As of November 2017, the Wayback Machine has recorded 91 captures of the URL tsunamii.net, between December 3, 2001 and November 16, 2012. 

NOTES: The mentioning of “alpha 3.0” on page 177 should be corrected to “alpha 3.3” instead. This mistaken identity is a common error, found elsewhere in the collection: see for instance Christiane Paul’s publication (link here) in the same collection. While Rachael Greene’s description of tsunamii.net’s work is still predicated upon the collective’s use of Global Positioning System devices, it does make the effort to stress on the collective’s emphasis on the material and physical aspects of the internet’s geographies.

NOTES: This is an entry on tsunamii.net written by the Singaporean art theorist and curator Gunalan Nadarajan (who now serves as Dean of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan) for the short guide of Documenta 11. The guide, Documenta 11 Kurzführer | Short Guide is edited by Gerti Fietzek et al.   

NOTES: This is the entry on tsunamii.net as part of the exhibition catalogue for Documenta 11′s Platform 5 in Kassel, Germany. The catalogue is edited by Okwui Enwezor who also served as the lead curator for Documenta 11. The images shown on pages 522 and 523 belonged strictly to the earlier work alpha 3.3 which was presented in Singapore. So while alpha 3.4 was presented by tsunamii.net for Documenta 11, the represented work published in Documenta 11′s exhibition catalogue was alpha 3.3. This seems to suggest that the editors and publishing team in charge of the exhibition catalog could not include an image or documentation of alpha 3.4 in time for print. This might also explain why certain publications which mistakenly cite tsunamii.net’s work in Documenta 11 as “alpha 3.3.” See for instance Margot Lovejoy’s publication (link here) in the same collection.