{"id":12092,"date":"2015-04-23T22:15:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T22:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww.closky.info\/?p=12092"},"modified":"2018-06-01T20:16:56","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T20:16:56","slug":"jill-gasparina-smart-or-dum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/?p=12092","title":{"rendered":"Jill Gasparina > \u2018Smart or Dumb?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/u>Lire la version originale en français<\/span><\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

SMART OR DUMB?<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Jill Gasparina
\n\t\t\t\t\tin Rectangulaire<\/i>, Les presses du r\u00e9el, Dijon, 2015. Translated from French by Tiffany Thomas<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSoon, everyone on earth will be connected\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Claude Closky is not a net.artist, he is a conceptual artist and even a \u201cludo-conceptual\u201d [1]<\/a><\/u> one, in the words of art historian Michel Gauthier in his essay dedicated to the artist\u2019s work (2008). His work has often been described as a critique of the media landscape. The media is not limited to printed newspapers and magazines, but largely overflows\u2014at least since the invention of the electric telegraph, the Victorian Internet [2]<\/a><\/u>\u2014in the partially immaterial world shaped by information technology. It was thus logical that Claude Closky would gradually annex the medium that is the Internet. Since 1997, and with the help of computer scientist and programmer Jean-No\u00ebl Lafargue, he has developed nearly a hundred websites, all listed on the same website: sittes.net<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

In his essay, Michel Gauthier described Collage<\/em> (an artwork created in 1990, consisting of a piece of duck tape stuck to a sheet of paper, at the bottom of which is written \u201ccollage\u201d) as the most eloquent example of Closky\u2019s \u201chyper-literalism,\u201d [3]<\/a><\/u> a radical version of the artist\u2019s common literalism. In this respect, in 2003, the website Search<\/a><\/u><\/em> embodied the digital facet of this literalness: the only result it offered to a particular web search query was a number corresponding to the amount of occurrences of this very query (when this essay was being written, the name \u201cClaude\u201d had been the object of 301 search queries, whereas the first name \u201cJill\u201d the object of only 3\u2014all the searches being performed by the author). There is thus a kind of continuity in the nature of the work he delivers in his material works, in multiples of all kinds, in his exhibitions, and in what he does online. The same literalism, and the same forms of humor, the same \u201cdocumentary rawness\u201d and the same \u201ccheap sublime,\u201d [4]<\/a><\/u> the same post-consumerist poetry, [5]<\/a><\/u> the same articulation between the simplicity of the artistic gesture and the complexity of the experience it offers, and the same discreet way of highlighting existential questions and life projects based on next to nothing.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, Collage, 1990<\/u>
\nClaude Closky, ‘Collage’, 1990,
\nbrown tape and ballpoint pen on paper, 30 x 24 cm<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

From this perspective, his first two websites have a programmatic dimension. In 1996, as a response to a commission by the DIA Foundation, Closky selected hundreds of excerpts drawn from a vast magazine collection belonging to Olivier Zahm. He turned them into two questionnaires and created two large sets of tests that mimicked the ones found in women\u2019s magazines. The first page featured a crucial choice between love or lust: Do you want love or lust?<\/em><\/a><\/u> Two parallel paths then unraveled throughout hundreds of pages of questions about work, love, friendship, family, sexuality, food\u2014like an immense trend book of all the possible moods. It seemed like an endless succession that one could hardly manage to deplete. The colors of the pages varied without any real link to the theme of the questions. The process of these random combinations (a principle that the artist is particularly fond of) was simple: the colors, just like the textual content, were purely decorative. This contraction of the existential and the anecdotal, this scathing critique of the binary, obeys strategies that were already well established in the artist\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Calendrier 1997<\/em> [Calendar 1997]<\/a><\/u> plays in an identical range: following the principle of the ephemeris, the website is updated daily, offering for each new date a quote from the advertising prose, thereby delivered to the viewer like food for thought. Breaking the hierarchy between advertising speech and artistic speech, this calendar gives advertising an oracular value. This work does not only teach us that one can ponder over the anonymous prose of the Bon March\u00e9, the SNCF, Honda, Miele and Volkswagen, as one would with a quote from the Dalai Lama, Montaigne, or Jacques Attali, drawn from a quotation dictionary. The very act of isolating a short extract from a text also serves as a reflection on the exhibition as such, or even teaches us another lesson: if one can spend a long time meditating over an advertising slogan, provided that one exhibits it, then any material whatsoever can enter the exhibition space.<\/p>\n

Beyond the undeniable similarities between on-<\/em> and off-line<\/em> work, the critique that seeps through these websites has a specific dimension\u2014one that focuses on the Internet\u2019s technological and cultural imaginary world, [6]<\/a><\/u> and of course on its uses. By the late 2000s, some of these \u201cnon-websites,\u201d as the artist calls them, functioned as jokes on the notion of interactivity, in which was bogged down enthusiastic talk on information technology.<\/p>\n

In 2000, +1<\/em><\/a><\/u> offered a zero degree of interactivity as a response to this situation. When one clicked, a sum was carried out. That\u2019s was it. More vs. Less<\/em><\/a><\/u>, Plus Vite [faster]<\/em><\/a><\/u> and More Beautiful<\/em><\/a><\/u> were all parodies of the same ideology of communicative efficiency, which information technology discourse has heavily drawn from (and continues to do so). In More Beautiful<\/em> for example, each refreshed page randomly gave out a new composition and a new set of colors. Each page was supposedly more beautiful than the last. With this disarmingly simple system, Closky proposed nothing less than to question the criteria of Beauty. And the pursuit of Beauty is endless. Is it complexity that is beautiful? Is it simplicity? Color harmony? This demonstrates the very stupidity of trying to quantify and classify Beauty.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, +1, 2000
\nClaude Closky, ‘+1’, 2000,
\nprojector, computer, table, mouse, permanent Internet connexion (http:\/\/www.sittes.net\/indice), dimensions variable, unlimited duration
<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIdentity will be the most valuable commodity for citizens in the future, and it will exist primarily online\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When looking at this body of websites, one can observe that Closky has incorporated the web\u2019s evolutions into his creations, and particularly the gradual shift towards a more user-friendly web, adapted to users without programming skills (what we call Web 2.0, which is not based on a different technological device than that of the first web, but which generalizes \u201carchitectures of participation,\u201d [7]<\/a><\/u> a network effect and the production of content by the users themselves).<\/p>\n

However Closky uses the major interfaces for posting personal content like assisted ready-mades: if he makes a blog, a Tumblr or more seldom, artworks for Facebook or Twitter, he slips into an already well designed platform and very often alters its code, slightly transforming the ready-to-use templates. These actions, although discrete, have a strong critical potential. Faced with the exploitation of a global digital proletariat, more and more voices rise up for the establishment of a commodification system for personal content. More than willing to graciously share the content and the data that he generates, Closky offers an essential contribution to the debate, recalling that the solution is to make one\u2019s own HTML pages rather than sell one\u2019s data, that communicating with friends is possible without a Facebook page, and that a FOC economy can be devised other than as a form of exploitation. The subtle programming effects of his websites, which only appear if we agree to devote some of our time to them, and maybe even play with them, must also be taken into account to understand his strategy: they aim to give a more specific attention to this medium, to take it seriously, in short.<\/p>\n

Source Html<\/em><\/a><\/u> (2011) could have perhaps been the manifesto of this outlook on the possible uses of the Internet. The page offers visitors to look at the source code. After having done so (at least for those who know how to access this code), an image appears. There is nothing natural about the source: it is a hand holding a watering hose. In a Duchampian act of humor, the lyrical motif is cast back to a trivial form. From the source to the fall, a double literal poetic play took place, asserting that there is a form of poetry very particular to coding, but also that the code itself may be the Source, or in other words the solution.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, Source html, 2011
\nClaude Closky, ‘Source html’, 2011,
\nweb site (http:\/\/sittes.net\/source.html)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Also regarding World Wide Web evolution, Closky\u2019s recent reflections have been focusing mainly on issues of identity production and exposure. As stated by Boris Groys, social networks have created an \u201cobligation to self-design<\/em>.\u201d [8]<\/a><\/u> He points out that we must now all design and devise the digital interface that we send out to the world. As a response to this situation, certain websites have chosen a generic identity, rejecting the faces woven with advertising trivialities or aesthetic mass fads. Kept active for one year, Welcome to My Blog<\/a><\/u> (2006) consisted for example of a short daily post, in which the author recounted his day whilst maintaining a strict separation between his professional and his personal life, between his work environment and his domestic life. Each day was also summed up in one word, a particular mood (as always, the content as a whole was made up of found material). With its pompous title, it acquired a generic quality that shed light on the different uses of blogging, the commercial relationship to intimacy, and the impossible yearning for originality.<\/p>\n

More recently The 24th of May<\/a><\/u> [9]<\/a><\/u> offered to follow the circulation of an image on Tumblr for one whole day, as far as it was technically possible. The chosen image was a skull with roses on a black background; an image with strong immaterial tackiness, pure Tumblr romanticism, perfectly designed to please everyone and circulate endlessly in order to become a component of the atlas that each user designs for others to see. Every time, appropriation strategies clash with the construction of an original identity.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, The 24th of May 2013, 2013
\nClaude Closky, ‘The 24th of May 2013’, 2013,
\n(tumblr) web site (http:\/\/24-05-2013.tumblr.com)
<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are what we tweet\u201d<\/p>\n

In this context, how is Rectangulaire [Rectangular]<\/a><\/u><\/i> to be understood? The project\u2019s primary goal is to enable a limited group (the PASTE association) to feel as one. It can also be described in broader terms as a reflection regarding the representation of individuals or groups (the website is accessible to all), addressed to the whole community. If a comparison is still possible between the individualized interface of a social network and the miniaturized space of a business card, it will tone down the archaic dimension of a rectangle bearing a name and a randomized composition with regards to a Facebook page. As Closky explains, the Internet is a simple circulation tool in Rectangular<\/i> and not an idea to dwell upon.<\/p>\n

Whilst it is true that a number of other websites raise similar questions on identity creation and representation\u2014whether it be an individual or a collective identity\u2014it seems more relevant to compare Rectangular<\/i> with other works playing with forms of name\/first name. For example, My People and Biennales<\/i> are two books of sonnets made up of celebrity names from the TV and cinema industry for the former, and from the art world for the latter. Classement, another recently published [10]<\/a><\/u> textual work, consists of 8 pages that blend names and first names without ever giving a chance to decipher the logic behind their classification. Let us return to the variation games that the artist performs on his own name, in the sittes.net bookmark. In a looped format, the bookmark is refreshed nearly every ten seconds and displays a new approximate version of the artist\u2019s name: Claudo Quoski, Quaude Kloky, Clude Clossy, Cladde Klooky, Clod Closkie, Claue Chosky, Clauce Closko, Kaude Closhy, Chaude Koski, Code Cosky, Cloud Clowsky, Clode Cloky, Caude Closky, Cleaude Clocky, Klaude Klosky, Claud Losky, Clade Klosky, Klaude Cosky, Laude Clausky, Colode Coloski, Claud Cloqui, Caude Cloky. First and foremost, these variations and accumulations prove that names have a genuine comical faculty. In fact, this dimension is also very clear in Rectangular<\/i>\u2019s preparatory study, in which the artist manipulated gallery listings. In order to test his various randomized composition projects, he invented names that do not exist but that are akin to the most famous names of the art world.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, My people (followed by biennials), 2008-2009
\nClaude Closky, ‘My people (followed by biennials)’, 2009-2008,
\nMarseilles: Al Dante Publishing (English and French separate editions). Two color offset, 96 pages, 21 x 14,5 cm<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the final version of Rectangular<\/i> has the distinction of being one of the only works by the artist to be devoid of a humorous dimension. And indeed, according to the \u201chyper-realism\u201d strategy that Michel Gauthier described as central to the artist \u0153uvre, the use of this name\/first name form can only lead to a rather bleak vision of individual identity\u2014the inevitably ephemeral, and never truly original, association of a name and first name with a given randomized composition that each of us is forced to identify with. As a comparison, the 1,200 frames of the installation Each and Every One of You<\/em> (2004) by Allan McCollum, which each contained a single first name, male or female (the 600 most popular male and female first names in the US in 2003), may bring about a more emotionally chaotic interpretation, but also a more joyful one, forged with personal and cultural memories\u2014at least for a North American visitor for whom these names are actually common.<\/p>\n

Allan McCollum, \u2018Each and Every One of You,\u2019 2004, 1,200 digital print on cotton, each 10 x 15. Exhibition view La Salle de bains, Lyon, 2011
\nAllan McCollum, \u2018Each and Every One of You,\u2019 2004,
\n1,200 digital print on cotton, each 10 x 15. Exhibition view La Salle de bains, Lyon, 2011<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

As for the list of names of the collective body\u2014which would be its purest conceptual form\u2014it will never materialize. The website Rectangular<\/i> has no archives: it will not keep a record of these names; it will not store any data. Rectangular<\/i> always deletes the names from the interface and disseminates them. This conceptual body is a scattered body.<\/p>\n

If there is well and truly a continuity between the nature of Claude Closky\u2019s online works and that of his physical works, it is maybe because all of his works, with their taxonomic games, classifications, data and list accumulations, highlight a phenomenon that is coextensive with modernity as a whole and not just its digital version: the empowerment of statistical laws and their consequences, \u201cthe imperialism of probabilities,\u201d \u201cthe enthusiasm for numerical data,\u201d the \u201cavalanche of printed numbers\u201d and the invention of \u201cnormal people,\u201d brilliantly described by Ian Hacking in The Taming of Chance<\/em> [11]<\/a><\/u>\u2014his political, administrative, scientific history of the West since the Age of Enlightenment. Refusing to archive and to classify in Rectangular<\/i> is not only a way of making these laws apparent but also a means of evading them.<\/p>\n

All of the quotes in the subtitles are from Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, The New Digital Age. Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013.<\/p>\n

[1<\/a><\/u>] Michel Gauthier, 8002-9891<\/em>, catalog of Claude Closky\u2019s retrospective at MAC\/VAL (from March 28 to June 22, 2008), \u00c9d. du MAC\/VAL, 2008, p. 111.<\/p>\n

[2<\/a><\/u>] Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet. The Remarkable History of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century\u2019s On-line Pioneers<\/em>, New York, Walker and Company, 1998.<\/p>\n

[3<\/a><\/u>] Michel Gauthier, op.cit.<\/em>, p. 111.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4<\/a><\/u>] Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Paul, Hello and Welcome<\/em>, \u00c9d. Domaine de Kergu\u00e9hennec – Le Parvis, 2004, p. 8.<\/p>\n

[5<\/a><\/u>] Kenneth Goldsmith has called Claude Closky a \u201cPost-consumerist Poet\u201d when speaking of Mon Catalogue<\/em>.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

[6<\/a><\/u>] See Patrice Flichy, The Internet Imaginaire<\/em>, Cambridge MA, The MIT Press, 2007.<\/p>\n

[7<\/a><\/u>] See Tim O\u2019Reilly, What Is Web 2.0<\/em>, 09\/30\/2005.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

[8<\/a><\/u>] Boris Groys, \u201cThe Obligation to Self-Design,\u201d in Going Public<\/em>, Journal \/ e-flux, New York-Berlin, Sternberg Press, 2011, p. 21 and sqq.<\/p>\n

[9<\/a><\/u>] See also for example Reblogging<\/em><\/a><\/u>, 2012. <\/p>\n

[10<\/a><\/u>] BLANCHE n0 2, \u00c9ditions Autrechose, February 2015.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

[11<\/a><\/u>] Ian Hacking, The Taming of Chance<\/em>, \u201cThe argument,\u201d Cambrige University Press, 1990, p. 2.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/u>Read the English translation<\/span><\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

SMART OR DUMB? <\/p>\n

Jill Gasparina
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tin Rectangulaire<\/i>, Les presses du r\u00e9el, Dijon, 2015.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00ab Soon, everyone on earth will be connected. \u00bb<\/p>\n

Claude Closky n\u2019est pas un net artiste, c\u2019est un artiste conceptuel et m\u00eame \u00ab ludo-conceptuel [1]<\/a><\/u> \u00bb, pour reprendre l\u2019expression de l\u2019historien d\u2019art Michel Gauthier dans l\u2019essai qu\u2019il lui a consacr\u00e9 en 2008.<\/p>\n

Son travail a \u00e9t\u00e9 fr\u00e9quemment d\u00e9crit comme une critique du paysage m\u00e9diatique. Les m\u00e9dias ne se limitant pas aux journaux papier et aux magazines, mais d\u00e9bordant largement \u2013 au moins depuis l\u2019invention de cet Internet victorien [2]<\/a><\/u> que fut le t\u00e9l\u00e9graphe \u00e9lectrique \u2013 dans le monde partiellement immat\u00e9riel dessin\u00e9 par les technologies de l\u2019information, il \u00e9tait donc logique que Claude Closky annexe progressivement ce m\u00e9dium qu\u2019est Internet. Il a ainsi d\u00e9velopp\u00e9 depuis 1997, et avec l\u2019aide de l\u2019informaticien et programmeur Jean-No\u00ebl Lafargue, pr\u00e8s d\u2019une centaine de sites Internet, tous r\u00e9pertori\u00e9s sur un m\u00eame site, sittes.net<\/a><\/u>. <\/p>\n

Dans son essai, Michel Gauthier fait de Collage<\/em> (\u0153uvre r\u00e9alis\u00e9e en 1990, consistant en un morceau de ruban adh\u00e9sif d\u2019emballage coll\u00e9 sur une feuille de papier, au bas de laquelle il est \u00e9crit \u00ab collage \u00bb), l\u2019exemple le plus \u00e9loquent de l\u2019\u00ab hyperlitt\u00e9ralisme [3]<\/a><\/u> \u00bb de Closky, une version radicale du litt\u00e9ralisme \u00e0 laquelle l\u2019artiste a souvent recours. \u00c0 cet \u00e9gard, le site Search<\/a><\/u><\/em>, en 2003, incarne parfaitement le versant num\u00e9rique de cette litt\u00e9ralit\u00e9 : il propose, comme seule r\u00e9ponse aux requ\u00eates effectu\u00e9es, un nombre, correspondant aux occurrences de cette m\u00eame requ\u00eate (au moment de l\u2019\u00e9criture de cet essai, le pr\u00e9nom \u00ab Claude \u00bb avait fait l\u2019objet de 301 recherches et le pr\u00e9nom \u00ab Jill \u00bb de 3 recherches seulement, toutes r\u00e9alis\u00e9es par l\u2019auteur). Il existe ainsi une continuit\u00e9 de nature entre le travail qu\u2019il livre dans ses \u0153uvres mat\u00e9rielles, multiples en tout genre, et expositions, et ce qu\u2019il fait en ligne. On y trouve le m\u00eame litt\u00e9ralisme, donc, et les m\u00eames formes d\u2019humour, la m\u00eame \u00ab crudit\u00e9 documentaire \u00bb et le m\u00eame \u00ab sublime de pacotille [4]<\/a><\/u> \u00bb, la m\u00eame po\u00e9sie post-consum\u00e9riste [5]<\/a><\/u>, la m\u00eame articulation entre la simplicit\u00e9 des gestes artistiques et la complexit\u00e9 de l\u2019exp\u00e9rience qu\u2019ils offrent, et la m\u00eame mani\u00e8re discr\u00e8te de pointer vers des questions existentielles et des projets de vie \u00e0 partir de presque rien.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, Collage, 1990<\/u>
\nClaude Closky, ‘Collage’, 1990,
\nbrown tape and ballpoint pen on paper, 30 x 24 cm<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Ses deux premiers sites ont, de ce point de vue, une dimension programmatique. En 1996, pour r\u00e9pondre \u00e0 une commande de la DIA Foundation, Closky s\u00e9lectionne des centaines d\u2019extraits de textes puis\u00e9s dans un vaste fonds de magazines appartenant \u00e0 Olivier Zahm. Il les transpose sous la forme de deux questionnaires et cr\u00e9e deux vastes ensembles qui miment les pages de tests dans la presse f\u00e9minine. La premi\u00e8re page propose un choix crucial entre l\u2019amour ou la luxure : Do you want love or lust?<\/em><\/a><\/u> Se d\u00e9roulent alors deux cheminements parall\u00e8les \u00e0 travers des centaines de pages de questions sur la vie professionnelle, l\u2019amour, l\u2019amiti\u00e9, la famille, la sexualit\u00e9, l\u2019alimentation, comme un vaste carnet de tendance des humeurs possibles. C\u2019est une succession apparemment infinie, qu\u2019on parviendrait difficilement \u00e0 \u00e9puiser. Les couleurs des pages varient, sans lien r\u00e9el avec la th\u00e9matique des questions pos\u00e9es. Cette association arbitraire (un principe que l\u2019artiste affectionne par ailleurs \u00e9norm\u00e9ment) est simple : la couleur, comme le contenu textuel, sont du pur d\u00e9cor. Ce t\u00e9lescopage de l\u2019existentiel et de l\u2019anecdotique, cette critique acerbe de la binarit\u00e9 ob\u00e9it \u00e0 des strat\u00e9gies d\u00e9j\u00e0 bien rod\u00e9es dans le travail de l\u2019artiste. <\/p>\n

Calendrier 1997<\/em><\/a><\/u> joue sur un registre identique. Sur le principe de l\u2019\u00e9ph\u00e9m\u00e9ride, le site se r\u00e9actualise quotidiennement, proposant, \u00e0 la date du jour, une citation trouv\u00e9e dans la prose publicitaire, ainsi livr\u00e9e \u00e0 la m\u00e9ditation du regardeur. Cassant la hi\u00e9rarchie entre discours publicitaire et discours d\u2019auteur, ce calendrier donne \u00e0 la publicit\u00e9 une valeur oraculaire. Que l\u2019on puisse trouver \u00e0 m\u00e9diter \u00e0 partir de la prose anonyme du Bon March\u00e9, de la SNCF, Honda, Miele ou Volkswagen, comme on le ferait avec une citation du Dala\u00ef-Lama, de Montaigne ou de Jacques Attali puis\u00e9e dans un dictionnaire de citations, n\u2019est pas le moindre des enseignements de cette \u0153uvre. Le geste consistant \u00e0 isoler ainsi un court extrait de texte fonctionne aussi comme une r\u00e9flexion sur l\u2019exposition, voire une le\u00e7on : si l\u2019on peut passer un long moment \u00e0 m\u00e9diter un slogan publicitaire, pour peu qu\u2019on l\u2019expose, alors n\u2019importe quel mat\u00e9riau peut franchir la porte d\u2019un espace d\u2019exposition.<\/p>\n

Par del\u00e0 les ind\u00e9niables similarit\u00e9s entre le travail online<\/em> et offline<\/em>, la critique qui traverse ces sites poss\u00e8de une dimension sp\u00e9cifique, portant sur l\u2019imaginaire technologique et culturel d\u2019Internet [6]<\/a><\/u>, et bien entendu sur ses usages. D\u00e8s la fin des ann\u00e9es 2000, certains de ses \u00ab non sites \u00bb, comme les nomme l\u2019artiste, fonctionnent comme des blagues sur la notion d\u2019interactivit\u00e9, dans laquelle le discours enthousiaste sur les technologies de l\u2019information se trouve alors englu\u00e9.<\/p>\n

+1<\/em><\/a><\/u>, en 2000, propose par exemple, en guise de r\u00e9ponse \u00e0 cette situation le degr\u00e9 z\u00e9ro de l\u2019interactivit\u00e9. On clique, une addition s\u2019op\u00e8re. C\u2019est tout. More vs Less [Plus versus moins]<\/em><\/a><\/u>, Plus vite<\/em><\/a><\/u> et More Beautiful [Plus beau]<\/em><\/a><\/u> parodient de m\u00eame l\u2019id\u00e9ologie de l\u2019efficacit\u00e9 communicationnelle, dans laquelle le discours des technologies de l\u2019information a largement puis\u00e9 (et continue de le faire). Dans More Beautiful<\/em>, par exemple, chaque rafra\u00eechissement de page propose de mani\u00e8re al\u00e9atoire une nouvelle composition et un nouveau jeu de couleurs. Chaque page est suppos\u00e9e \u00eatre plus belle que la pr\u00e9c\u00e9dente. Avec ce syst\u00e8me d\u2019une simplicit\u00e9 d\u00e9sarmante, Closky propose rien de moins que d\u2019interroger les crit\u00e8res du Beau. Et la qu\u00eate du Beau est sans fin. Est-ce la complexit\u00e9 qui est belle ? La simplicit\u00e9 ? L\u2019harmonie des couleurs ? Voil\u00e0 qui d\u00e9montre l\u2019idiotie m\u00eame contenue dans le projet de quantifier et de classifier le Beau.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, +1, 2000
\nClaude Closky, ‘+1’, 2000,
\nprojector, computer, table, mouse, permanent Internet connexion (http:\/\/www.sittes.net\/indice), dimensions variable, unlimited duration
<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab Identity will be the most valuable commodity for citizens in the future, and it will exist primarily online. \u00bb<\/p>\n

L\u2019examen de l\u2019ensemble du corpus constitu\u00e9 par ces sites montrent que Closky a int\u00e9gr\u00e9 \u00e0 ses cr\u00e9ations les \u00e9volutions du web, et notamment le glissement progressif vers un web plus simple d\u2019utilisation pour des usagers sans comp\u00e9tence de programmation (ce qu\u2019on appelle le web 2.0, qui ne repose pas sur un dispositif technologique diff\u00e9rent du premier web, mais g\u00e9n\u00e9ralise des  \u00ab architectures de participation [7]<\/a><\/u> \u00bb, les effets de r\u00e9seau et la production de contenus par les usagers eux-m\u00eames).<\/p>\n

Closky utilise cependant les grandes interfaces de mise en ligne de contenus personnels comme des ready-mades aid\u00e9s : s\u2019il r\u00e9alise des blogs, des Tumblr ou beaucoup plus rarement des \u0153uvres pour Facebook ou Twitter, se glissant ainsi dans une plate-forme d\u00e9j\u00e0 dessin\u00e9e, il en modifie tr\u00e8s souvent le code, transformant l\u00e9g\u00e8rement les gabarits pr\u00eats \u00e0 l\u2019usage. Ces gestes, bien que discrets, poss\u00e8dent un fort coefficient critique. Alors que face \u00e0 l\u2019exploitation d\u2019un prol\u00e9tariat num\u00e9rique global, trop content de c\u00e9der gracieusement les contenus et les donn\u00e9es qu\u2019il g\u00e9n\u00e8re, de plus en plus de voix s\u2019\u00e9l\u00e8vent pour que soit mis en place un syst\u00e8me de marchandisation de ces contenus personnels, Closky propose au d\u00e9bat une contribution essentielle, en rappelant que la solution consiste \u00e0 faire ses propres pages HTML plus qu\u2019\u00e0 vendre ses donn\u00e9es, que l\u2019on peut communiquer avec ses amis sans passer par une page Facebook, et qu\u2019une \u00e9conomie de la gratuit\u00e9 peut s\u2019\u00e9laborer autrement que dans une forme d\u2019exploitation. Les subtils effets de programmation de ses sites, qui n\u2019apparaissent que si l\u2019on accepte de leur consacrer du temps, voire de jouer avec, sont aussi \u00e0 prendre en compte dans la compr\u00e9hension de sa strat\u00e9gie : ils visent \u00e0 cr\u00e9er une attention plus pr\u00e9cise \u00e0 ce m\u00e9dium, \u00e0 le prendre au s\u00e9rieux, en somme.<\/p>\n

Source Html<\/em><\/a><\/u> (2011) serait peut-\u00eatre le manifeste de cette vision des usages possibles de l\u2019Internet. La page propose au visiteur d\u2019aller voir le code source. Ceci \u00e9tant fait (du moins pour ceux qui savent comment acc\u00e9der \u00e0 ce code), appara\u00eet une image. Nulle source naturelle ici : c\u2019est une main qui tient un tuyau d\u2019arrosage. Dans un geste \u00e0 l\u2019humour duchampien, le motif lyrique est renvoy\u00e9 \u00e0 une forme triviale. De la source \u00e0 la chute s\u2019accomplit ici un double jeu po\u00e9tique litt\u00e9ral, qui affirme qu\u2019il existe une forme de po\u00e9sie tr\u00e8s sp\u00e9cifique au codage, mais aussi que le code est peut-\u00eatre la Source, c\u2019est-\u00e0-dire la solution.<\/p>\n

\tClaude Closky, Source html, 2011
\nClaude Closky, ‘Source html’, 2011,
\nweb site (http:\/\/sittes.net\/source.html)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Toujours en lien avec les \u00e9volutions du web, les r\u00e9flexions r\u00e9centes de Closky s\u2019orientent tr\u00e8s largement vers les questions de production et d\u2019exposition des identit\u00e9s. Les r\u00e9seaux sociaux, comme l\u2019\u00e9crit Boris Groys, ont cr\u00e9\u00e9 une \u00ab obligation de self-design<\/em> [8]<\/a><\/u> \u00bb. Nous devons d\u00e9sormais tous dessiner et penser l\u2019interface num\u00e9rique que nous adressons au reste du monde, explique-t-il. Comme une r\u00e9ponse \u00e0 cette situation, certains sites donnent \u00e0 voir des identit\u00e9s g\u00e9n\u00e9riques sans visage tiss\u00e9es de banalit\u00e9s publicitaires ou des engouements esth\u00e9tiques de masse. Aliment\u00e9 pendant un an, Welcome to My Blog<\/a><\/u> (2006), est, par exemple, constitu\u00e9 d\u2019un post quotidien succinct, dans lequel l\u2019auteur raconte sa journ\u00e9e en maintenant une s\u00e9paration rigide entre vie professionnelle et personnelle, entre l\u2019univers du travail et la vie domestique. Chaque journ\u00e9e est par ailleurs r\u00e9sum\u00e9e en un mot, une humeur (l\u2019ensemble \u00e9tant, comme toujours, construit avec des mat\u00e9riaux trouv\u00e9s). Avec son titre ronflant, il poss\u00e8de une qualit\u00e9 g\u00e9n\u00e9rique qui vient mettre en lumi\u00e8re les usages du blogging, le rapport publicitaire \u00e0 l\u2019intimit\u00e9 et l\u2019impossible aspiration \u00e0 l\u2019originalit\u00e9. <\/p>\n

Plus r\u00e9cemment The 24th of May<\/a><\/u> [9]<\/a><\/u> propose de suivre pendant une journ\u00e9e, dans les limites du possible, bien entendu, la circulation d\u2019une image sur Tumblr. L\u2019image choisie repr\u00e9sente un cr\u00e2ne avec des roses sur fond noir, c\u2019est une image d\u2019un kitsch immat\u00e9riel intense, du romantisme Tumblr pur jus, parfaitement design\u00e9e pour plaire \u00e0 tous, circuler sans fin et int\u00e9grer comme une composante de l\u2019atlas que chaque usager dessine \u00e0 destination des autres. \u00c0 chaque fois, les strat\u00e9gies d\u2019appropriation se t\u00e9lescopent avec la construction d\u2019une identit\u00e9 originale.<\/p>\n

Claude Closky, The 24th of May 2013, 2013
\nClaude Closky, ‘The 24th of May 2013’, 2013,
\n(tumblr) web site (http:\/\/24-05-2013.tumblr.com)
<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab We are what we tweet. \u00bb<\/p>\n

Comment comprendre Rectangulaire<\/a><\/u><\/i> dans ce contexte ? Le projet consiste en premier lieu \u00e0 permettre \u00e0 un groupe limit\u00e9 (l\u2019association PASTE) de faire corps. Il est \u00e9galement pens\u00e9 plus largement comme une r\u00e9flexion, adress\u00e9e \u00e0 la collectivit\u00e9 toute enti\u00e8re, sur la repr\u00e9sentation des individus ou des groupes (le site est accessible \u00e0 tous). Si la comparaison entre l\u2019interface individualis\u00e9e d\u2019un r\u00e9seau social et l\u2019espace miniaturis\u00e9 d\u2019une carte de visite est toujours possible, elle ne peut que gommer la dimension tr\u00e8s archa\u00efque d\u2019un rectangle porteur d\u2019un nom et d\u2019une composition al\u00e9atoire en regard d\u2019une page Facebook. Dans Rectangulaire<\/i>, comme l\u2019explique Closky, l\u2019Internet est un simple outil de diffusion, pas un v\u00e9ritable sujet de r\u00e9flexion.<\/p>\n

S\u2019il partage avec certains sites un m\u00eame questionnement sur la constitution et la repr\u00e9sentation d\u2019une identit\u00e9 qu\u2019elle soit individuelle ou collective, c\u2019est plut\u00f4t de certaines \u0153uvres jouant avec la forme du nom\/pr\u00e9nom que l\u2019on pourrait rapprocher Rectangulaire<\/i>. On pensera ici \u00e0 Les Miens et Biennales<\/i>, deux recueils de sonnets constitu\u00e9s seulement de listes de noms de c\u00e9l\u00e9brit\u00e9s de l\u2019audiovisuel pour le premier, du monde de l\u2019art pour le second, ou Classement, autre \u0153uvre textuelle r\u00e9cemment publi\u00e9e [10]<\/a><\/u>, qui consiste en une liste de 8 pages o\u00f9 se m\u00ealent noms et pr\u00e9noms, sans qu\u2019il ne soit jamais possible de percer la logique de leur classement. \u00c9voquons encore le jeu de variations que l\u2019artiste accomplit sur son propre nom, dans le signet de sittes.net. Toutes les dix secondes environ, le signet se rafra\u00eechit pour afficher des versions approximatives du nom de l\u2019artiste, qui tournent en boucle : Claudo Quoski, Quaude Kloky, Clude Clossy, Cladde Klooky, Clod Closkie, Claue Chosky, Clauce Closko, Kaude Closhy, Chaude Koski, Code Cosky, Cloud Clowsky, Clode Cloky, Caude Closky, Cleaude Clocky, Klaude Klosky, Claud Losky, Clade Klosky, Klaude Cosky, Laude Clausky, Colode Coloski, Claud Cloqui, Caude Cloky. Ce qui se dit dans ces variations et ces accumulations, c\u2019est d\u2019abord que le nom poss\u00e8de un authentique pouvoir comique. Cette dimension appara\u00eet d\u2019ailleurs tr\u00e8s nettement dans l\u2019\u00e9tude pr\u00e9paratoire de Rectangulaire<\/i>, dans laquelle l\u2019artiste a manipul\u00e9 des listings de galerie, inventant, pour tester ses diff\u00e9rents projets de composition al\u00e9atoire, des noms qui n\u2019existent pas, mais qui poss\u00e8dent un air de famille avec des noms plus c\u00e9l\u00e8bres du milieu artistique. <\/p>\n

Claude Closky, My people (followed by biennials), 2008-2009
\nClaude Closky, ‘My people (followed by biennials)’, 2009-2008,
\nMarseilles: Al Dante Publishing (English and French separate editions). Two color offset, 96 pages, 21 x 14,5 cm<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Pour autant, la version finale de Rectangulaire<\/i> a la particularit\u00e9 d\u2019\u00eatre l\u2019une des rares \u0153uvres de l\u2019artiste dont la dimension humoristique est quasi absente. Et c\u2019est peut-\u00eatre parce que l\u2019emploi de cette forme nom\/pr\u00e9nom ne peut g\u00e9n\u00e9rer, conform\u00e9ment \u00e0 la strat\u00e9gie de l\u2019 \u00ab hyperr\u00e9alisme \u00bb que Michel Gauthier a identifi\u00e9e comme centrale chez l\u2019artiste, qu\u2019une vision assez lugubre de l\u2019identit\u00e9 individuelle : l\u2019association, forc\u00e9ment temporaire, et jamais vraiment originale, d\u2019un pr\u00e9nom et d\u2019un nom de famille, une composition trouv\u00e9e et largement al\u00e9atoire que chacun est contraint de s\u2019approprier. \u00c0 titre de comparaison, les 1 200 cadres de l\u2019installation Each and Every One of You<\/em> (2004) d\u2019Allan McCollum, qui comprennent chacun un simple pr\u00e9nom qu\u2019il soit masculin ou f\u00e9minin (les 600 pr\u00e9noms masculins et f\u00e9minins les plus populaires aux USA en 2003), g\u00e9n\u00e8rent, du moins pour un spectateur nord-am\u00e9ricain pour qui ces pr\u00e9noms sont courants, une lecture peut-\u00eatre plus chaotique \u00e9motionnellement, mais aussi plus joyeuse, et tiss\u00e9e de souvenirs personnels ou culturels. <\/p>\n

Allan McCollum, \u2018Each and Every One of You,\u2019 2004, 1,200 digital print on cotton, each 10 x 15. Exhibition view La Salle de bains, Lyon, 2011
\nAllan McCollum, \u2018Each and Every One of You,\u2019 2004,
\n1,200 impressions num\u00e9riques sur coton, 10 x 15 chaque. Vue d’exposition La Salle de bains, Lyon, 2011<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Quant au corps collectif, dont la liste de noms serait la version conceptuelle la plus pure, il ne se mat\u00e9rialisera jamais. Le site de Rectangulaire<\/i> n\u2019archive rien de ceux qui en font usage. Aucune trace ne sera conserv\u00e9e de ces noms, aucune donn\u00e9e ne sera stock\u00e9e. Rectangulaire<\/i> fait dispara\u00eetre les noms de l\u2019interface et il les diss\u00e9mine. Ce corps conceptuel est un corps dispers\u00e9.<\/p>\n

S\u2019il existe bel et bien une continuit\u00e9 de nature entre les \u0153uvres en ligne et les \u0153uvres physiques que Claude Closky a produites, c\u2019est peut-\u00eatre parce que l\u2019ensemble de son travail, avec ses jeux taxinomiques, ses classements, ses accumulations de donn\u00e9es et de listes, met en \u00e9vidence un ph\u00e9nom\u00e8ne coextensif \u00e0 la modernit\u00e9 toute enti\u00e8re et pas seulement \u00e0 sa version num\u00e9rique : l\u2019autonomisation des lois statistiques et ses corollaires, \u00ab l\u2019imp\u00e9rialisme des probabilit\u00e9s \u00bb, \u00ab l\u2019enthousiasme pour les donn\u00e9es num\u00e9riques \u00bb, \u00ab l\u2019avalanche de nombres imprim\u00e9s \u00bb et l\u2019invention de l\u2019\u00ab homme normal \u00bb, brillamment d\u00e9crits par Ian Hacking dans The Taming of Chance<\/em> [11]<\/a><\/u>, son histoire politique, administrative et scientifique de l\u2019Occident depuis les Lumi\u00e8res. Dans Rectangulaire<\/i>, le refus de l\u2019archive, du classement est aussi une mani\u00e8re de se soustraire \u00e0 ces lois, et pas seulement de les donner \u00e0 voir.<\/p>\n

Toutes les citations des intertitres sont issues de Eric Schmidt et Jared Cohen, The New Digital Age. Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013.<\/p>\n

[1<\/a><\/u>] Michel Gauthier, 8002-9891<\/em>, catalogue de la r\u00e9trospective de Claude Closky au MAC\/VAL (du 28 mars au 22 juin 2008), \u00c9d. du MAC\/VAL, 2008, p. 111.<\/p>\n

[2<\/a><\/u>] Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet. The Remarkable History of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century\u2019s On-line Pioneers<\/em>, New York, Walker and Company, 1998.<\/p>\n

[3<\/a><\/u>] Michel Gauthier, op. cit.<\/em>, p. 111. <\/p>\n

[4<\/a><\/u>] Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Paul, Hello and Welcome<\/em>, \u00c9d. Domaine de Kergu\u00e9hennec – Le Parvis, 2004, p. 8.<\/p>\n

[5<\/a><\/u>] Kenneth Goldsmith a qualifi\u00e9 Claude Closky de \u00ab po\u00e8te post-consum\u00e9riste \u00bb, \u00e0 propos de Mon Catalogue<\/em>.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

[6<\/a><\/u>] Voir Patrice Flichy, The Internet Imaginaire<\/em>, Cambridge MA, The MIT Press, 2007.<\/p>\n

[7<\/a><\/u>] Voir Tim O\u2019Reilly, What Is Web 2.0<\/em>, 09\/30\/2005.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

[8<\/a><\/u>] Boris Groys, \u00ab The Obligation to Self-Design \u00bb, dans Going Public<\/em>, Journal \/ e-flux, New York-Berlin, Sternberg Press, 2011, p. 21 et sqq. <\/p>\n

[9<\/a><\/u>] Voir aussi par exemple Reblogging<\/em><\/a><\/u>, 2012.<\/p>\n

[10<\/a><\/u>] BLANCHE n\u00b0 2, \u00c9ditions Autrechose, f\u00e9vrier 2015.<\/a><\/u> <\/p>\n

[11<\/a><\/u>] Ian Hacking, The Taming of Chance<\/em>, \u00ab The argument \u00bb, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 2.\u2028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lire la version originale en français SMART OR DUMB? Jill Gasparina in Rectangulaire, Les presses du r\u00e9el, Dijon, 2015. Translated from French by Tiffany Thomas \u201cSoon, everyone on earth will be connected\u201d Claude Closky is not a net.artist, he is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww.closky.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}