THE ON-LINE TERRITORY

by Annick BUREAUD



The "Territory of the Square Metre" emphasized various status symbols : a red telephone, remote control rooms, electronic guards, a communications centre, etc... The "on-line Territory" introduces metacommunication and metasymbols into the non-material and symbolic network space.
With the " on-line Territory" Fred Forest moves from the Art of Communication to the Art of Networks, with two main objectives in mind. The first being "Webness" (a term borrowed from the jury of Prix Ars Electronica), based on hyperlinks created or set in motion by the World Wide Web artists. The second aim is to highlight the existence of a worldwide community.
The Art of Communication aimed to make the public aware of the internal meshwork of our planet through the new technologies of communication... With the Art of Networks, it is a question of inhabiting a space in which information rather than people are made to travel, this being a modern form of nomadism; individuals no longer "move" about the territory but "become" the territory. Gibson's metaphore of a mathematical grid in which we circulate is superseded by that of a formless, infinite, constantly changing set reconfiguring itself at each new moment of connection. A space fitted to each person and only materializing into a given form in the physical space of a given person (computer, office, etc...) or his mental one (hence, bodily space), at a given time.
The human psyche and body form the heart of cyberspace. The skin is no more an impenetrable frontier covering an intangible body. In inviting kindred beings to send a symbolic part of themselves, the foot, for this first undertaking, Fred Forest shows his masterly grip of the concept. Each person on sending a footprint may become a participant in the worldwide communication that is taking hold.
Fred Forest did not choose the terminal member of the body gratuitously. Over and above the light-hearted and comical aspect attached to it, the first footstep is a reflection of the very essence of Mankind: Armstrong's footprint.