You’ve got to love a professor who teaches an “Uncreative Creative” writing course at an Ivy League college. Kenneth Goldsmith has encouraged many writers, poets and artists as founder of UbuWeb and as the first-ever Poet Laureate for the Museum of Modern Art. That kind of moniker requires a substantial art exhibit and Goldsmith just may have done it, albeit angering the environmental movement in the meantime.
“Printing the Internet” is a crowdsourcing art exhibit that Goldsmith has launched that will run July 26 – August 30th at a 500 square-meter space that Goldsmith has rented in Mexico City. First, he needs help getting the Internet printed out and he’s asking for your help via printingtheinternet.tumblr.com.
“The process is entirely open: If it exists online and is printed out, it will be accepted. Every contributor will be listed as a participating artist in the show and will be listed on this Tumblr.”
The exhibit is dedicated to Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz who dedicated his life to an open internet. Swartz committed suicide last year after he was arrested and charged with with wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. He allegedly hacked, then downloaded documents rom the JSTOR archive with the intent to distribute the info for free.
Will Goldsmith succeed? Doubtful. I’m no mathematician, but if I were I would calculate it, the entire Internet would take probably years, not days. What do you think? Does Goldsmith’s project move you to act?