A physical 'portal' for the net art works in an exhibition of mixed media.

Antenna (hardware) A physical 'portal' for the net art works in an exhibition of mixed media. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis A physical 'portal' for the net art works in an exhibition of mixed media. A physical 'portal' for the net art works in an exhibition of mixed media. This physical 'portal' was designed by Antenna to show the net art works curated by Steve Dietz as "Art Entertainment Network" within the group exhibition "Let's Entertain".

The user pushes the bar to make the 'door' rotate, and the movement of the door triggers the artwork on the screen to change, so that each net art work corresponds to a physical position of the door (i.e. to go 'back' to the last artwork, pull the door 'back').

Steve Dietz discusses the interface in Dietz, Steve (2003) “Interfacing the Digital.” Museums and the Web 2003. Available from URL: http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/papers/dietz/dietz.html:

" ... the interface that we created for the online exhibition Art Entertainment Network, was designed as a portal; a format "native" to the network. Once we had decided on this exhibition design, we commissioned Antenna Design in New York to create a physical interface, which could be used in the galleries as part of the parallel exhibition of visual arts, Let's Entertain (http://www.walkerart.org/va/letsentertain/le_content.html).

Antenna designed a freestanding, revolving door, which acted as a kind of portal between the physical space of the exhibition and the virtual space of the online artworks. As you push the door around, it automatically calls up the home page of each project. A touchpad allows you to interact with the work.

This door could hold its own, so to speak, with the other installations in the exhibition. At the same time, it was appropriate to the concept of the online interface — as a portal. It also didn't assume that the goal of the interface was to create a comfortable browsing situation for hours of enjoyment. Like much gallery behavior it was designed for more casual browsing. A holder next to the didactic label contained printed bookmarks, which visitors could take and use to later log on to the site at their convenience and in their favorite viewing position."

The Antenna web site shows more images of this interface http://www.antennadesign.com/.



Comments by Beryl Graham July 2006 1