The Thing (art project)

The Thing is an Internet provider in New York, known as host of many net art and activist websites ( toywar, RTMark, etc.).

The Thing was founded in 1991 as a BBS for the New York art scene, making it the oldest platform of its kind noteworthy is the uncompromising support radically provocative projects by the founder and net artist Wolfgang Staehle, who The Thing already placed several times under massive pressure.

Idea

One of the basic ideas of The Thing is one of a project initiated and run by artists speaking and writing about art and culture. From the spirit of " institutional critique " emerged, THE THING was part of an art that had begun in the 1980s, to address their own production conditions, its dissemination and reception. To implement this concept of art is to develop their own information and communication infrastructures heard. Likewise, there is the intention to create in addition to the information from the mainstream and traditional art criticism is another form of public. From: The Thing Hamburg

History

As Mailbox The Thing spread in the years 1992 to 1994 in Germany. Nodes existed in Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt am Main. In other European countries, there was for a short time branch in Basel, Vienna, London, and Stockholm. With the advent of the World Wide Web, the mailboxes disappeared gradually. New York, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Basel: From 1995 to 1997 the following stations of The Thing went online. In November 2006 Thing was joined by Hamburg.