Dear visitors of JavaMuseum,
the makers of JavaMuseum decided in 2010 to prove, whether the museum should be continued as a living organism or better become an historical monument of digital and virtual art.
Even if “netart” will never be “dead” as one possible artistic expression by dealing with technologies used in Internet, also because technology changes and develops further on and in this way also its artistic use, the Internet was never explored substantially as a medium in art, and this has many reasons.
While the real high time of “netart” was already in 2004, there was actually no real artistic further development, although technology had an enormous speed of development since then. This does not mean, that artists would not use the Internet and create Internet based art applications, but the artistic development is far behind the technological speed, and in a certain way, like fashion “netart” is continously repeating itself.
JavaMuseum saw itis goal in being a promotor and encourage artists
by giving them the chance to receive the audience of the World Wide Web. But art needs to be created by the artists themselves, and this obviously came to its limits.
This again does not mean, that tomorrow, next year or in ten years, Internet based art would’t get probably a real re-vival sometimes, but currently there lie no perspectives in maintaining JavaMuseum active.
JavaMuseum was since its foundation in 2000, not only a virtual museum for virtual art, and one of a few of its kind, but it was simultaneously always also a piece of Internet based art itself created by Agricola de Cologne. And this piece of art is now officially completed in its incomplete way, typically for a context without beginning and end.
By deciding for an in-active status, JavaMuseum will become from 1 January 2013 on an historical monument aimed to keep vivid not only JavaMuseum as a virtual museum of virtual art, and honour the art works and artists active in this field, but basically also the idea and ideal of the artistic self-determination and the creation of an activating, alternative type art working outside of the usual market strategies in contemporary art.
In this way, JavaMuseum will be also the museum of lost, but not forgotten ideals.
Viva JavaMuseum!
Wilfried Agricola de Cologne
founder, developer and director of JavaMuseum
