Between the Net and the Street RACHEL BAKER DISCUSSES THE NETWORK EXPERIMENTS OF HEATH BUNTING This essay accompanies the…
Between the Net and the Street
RACHEL BAKER DISCUSSES THE NETWORK EXPERIMENTS OF HEATH BUNTING
This essay accompanies the presentation of Heath Bunting’s Communication Creates Conflict as a part of the online exhibition Net Art Anthology.
In the 1990s, as activists, artists, and their ilk explored the new possibilities presented by the internet, communities often formed around shared resources such as servers. In London, the cybercafe bulletin board and, later, the Irational web server—both initiated by Heath Bunting—played such a role role. Run on recycled hardware and software, they offered space for posting and exchange that tended towards the aesthetically and politically radical. In this interview, Rachel Baker, one of Bunting’s collaborators, recalls her experience as a participant in these two platforms, which shaped her own work in net art, activism, and internet radio.