#alpha 3.4

NOTES: The name of the work described is mistaken. It should be Alpha 3.4 that was presented as part of Documenta 11 in 2002. See other materials in the same collection for cross-reference. Also, “Tien Woon” as listed in the artists’ names should instead be “Tien Wei Woon” with “Woon” being the last name of the artist; “Tien Wei” is the anglicized Chinese first name of the artist.     

NOTES: Click on screenshot to go to link of actual item. The artist group name “Tsunamii” should have been “tsunamii.net” instead, as it is important to retain the collective’s name as a URL. 

NOTES: This is an essay included in the book Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Trish Cashen, Hazel Gardiner. There is also a typo in the name “Woo Tien Wei”: Tien Wei Woon is the correct spelling of the artist’s name where the last name is “Woon” and “Tien Wei” is the anglicized Chinese name of the artist. Also, note the typo of “Singaporian” rather than “Singaporean.” The authors’ opinion of alpha 3.4 as a rather unsuccessful representation of “raw data” suffering from a “lack of aesthetic dimensions” is also interesting to consider, for many reasons, but also because it happens to be one of the few and rare critique of the work that goes beyond describing the novelty of using “locative new media” (i.e. Global Positioning System) for art.    

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: Not much is known about this image itself (e.g. exact location, identity of walker, what the sign of “404” referred to). It is however also published with the entry on tsunamii.net as part of Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology, the latter of which is included in this same collection (link here). 

NOTES: Not much else is known about this image. It is also published along with the entry on alpha 3.4 as part of Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology included in the same collection (link here). 

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: Click on screenshot to go to link of actual item. However, actual item is originally written in German. A translation of the article’s content is available through Google. The use of the internet browser Google Chrome for this item is therefore highly recommended.