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Discussions The Notion of the Originär
Axel Wirths: I would like to thank Michael Wenzke for giving an account from real life. I
found the talk very interesting, it is good to know that there is someone able to speak
so clearly and plainly about such a complex subject because that's the way he actually
treats it. I also found Wolfgang Ernst's lecture very interesting, and the way he sought
first to dismantle the notion of the original and then to rebuild it. I am curator for media
art and director of 235 media, distributors and agency for media art. Since 1982, we have
developed an active distribution structure of 800 tapes and an archive of around 3000
works. In addition, we represent a number of artists with installations and are actively
participating in the realisation of new productions.
Siegfried Zielinski: Until a few days ago, I was vice-chancellor of the Art College for
Media in Cologne, now I am once more travelling in the cause of an-archeology of the
media, my actual field of work. The first video recorder I could use in practice was a 1963
"Philips recorder". Under the oscilloscope, you could see the fine structure of the signals
Wolfgang Ernst was talking about.
Miklos Peternäk: I teach in Budapest at the media department of the College of Art
and am director of C3, Centre for Culture and Communication in Budapest.
Axel Wirths: I will start by summing up the various viewpoints. Eventually, we will
no doubt have to cobble together the three subject areas under discussion today. It has
become clear today that with the growing structural broadening of media art, i.e. from video
art to media art, the notion of the original is increasingly falling apart and this art is
becoming more process-like. The art is turning ever more immaterial and at the same
time more process-like. I see this also in connection with the role of the artist, the function
of the artist, i.e. the artist is less and less this multitalented artist, but offers instead
a system of tools and interfaces controlled by algorithms or software programs. Works
that show this process-like structure are Bill Seaman's communication artworks and also
the large body of works on the Internet. So the notion of the original has to be viewed
in its function with reference to the role of the artist, and then the whole idea of the artistic
work will change accordingly. Here, we are scratching at real manifestations of art
history. If the idea of the work of art is reduced to a database that has been compiled
and designed and in parts freshly conceived by the artist, and with a specific interface,
then the actual question of the notion of the work of art and of originality may well become
obsolete. In this context, I would like to ask Siegfried Zielinski whether he would
not agree that in the era of digital reproducibility, the notion of the original has become
obsolete. Has it not plainly become dated, belonging to a notion of art that has little in
common with the electronic media?
Siegfried Zielinski: No, I think that the opposite is true. Since it is clearly so hard
to part from the original, why not simply turn it round and say, we have an infinite number
of originals, isn't that much better. I think that is the heart of the matter. Everything
we have discussed on various levels - and in conclusion, Wolfgang Ernst put it in a nutshell
with the term "temporary original" - amounts to the fact that these new processes
and works can be originals only for a very brief moment. What makes them original is a
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