Karenina.it / CommunicAction
Perspectives on
Modern Web Literary Avant-Garde
Enrico
Gianfranchi
Caterina
Davinio’s Karenina.it
CommunicAction and Perspectives on Modern Web
Literary Avant-Garde
Very
Fluxus and absolutely avant-garde, Caterina Davinio’s Karenina.it site
pushes the boundaries of poetry and literary discourse deep into the digital
realm. The traditional sheet of paper is replaced by binary code that can now
be read by more people simultaneously by virtue of the worldwide network in
which it resides. The website makes use of the freedom of communication the
internet offers in order to present the experiences of literary artists that
experiment with the grey areas of literary theory where traditional writing,
visual arts, and digital technologies fuse.
In Karenina.it, historical artistic movements merge with literary
discourses and critiques to subtly mould into a dense artistic/literary
schema. Since 1998 the website has been
an expanding collection of discourse and critique on new media art,
experimental art, avant-garde literary theory and net-writing essays. It was the first art-poetry/communication
project presented on the web in an Italian context. The suffix ‘.it’ that follows the Karenina title of the
website is indeed a geographic locator for the origin of the website (‘.it’
being the suffix that indicates an Italian website). The value of the site is however not defined by any discourse of
geographic location; it rather resides within the conceptual framework of the
Fluxus art movement.
Emerging
in the sixties in New York and quickly spreading to Europe and Asia, the Fluxus
movement brought together elements of Dada, Zen and Bauhaus ideals. An unstructured network of Fluxus artists
from around the world was firmly established throughout the sixties and into
the seventies. A spontaneous
playfulness defines Fuxus art and performance works. The unplanned and seemingly chaotic blend of mediums and art
forms has a tendency to come together as a rather structured whole in the hands
of a Fluxus artist. The fusion of mediums and materials as diverse as ready
made scavenged posters, newspaper cuttings, mail art, and everyday objects
created a happy feeling of disorientation.
Though
the Fluxus movement is no longer present as such, its ideals, sensibilities and
ability to predict the form the avant-garde will assume within the artistic
world are still intact. The necessity
to predict and pioneer aesthetic, political and social trends and sensibilities
still remains a defining feature of any artist or theorist associated with the
movement.
Far
from being just an assortment of found dissertations and poetry cut-outs
assembled according to an obscure plan, the Karenina.it website is far
from being a useless jumble of literary material. Its contents are structured and clear, though its form and
aesthetic is rather reminiscent of a notice board cluttered with
announcements. Much in line with the
Fluxus aesthetic explained above, Karenina.it is in fact permeated with
a playful look that contrasts the deeply intellectual contents of the
articles.
Though
the website could pass for a generic on-line journal, it rather is, in
Davinio’s own words, a ‘place of aggregation.’
The site, in fact, is host to an ongoing discourse and debate which
involves artists and critics alike, as well as artwork and the responses it
generates. There is a tangible feeling
of constant discussion between contributors to the site, as educated voices
emerge from the visually chaotic environment.
The communication aspect is treated as an artistic medium that goes
beyond the contents of the dialogues or the quality of the words used in
them. The flow of words and information
become art in themselves, transcending the necessity to view art in traditional
terms of form and the like.
‘Poetry
in phatic function’ is, in fact, Davinio’s way of describing the activity in
her site. According to Roman Jakobson’s
communication model, the phatic function is the use of language that maintains
and augments the flow of information between the interlocutors. Communication is the artistic material. The ability of the site to generate and
maintain open many simultaneous pathways of discussion is what makes it
successful, not only as a portal for literary discourse, but also as a piece of
art in itself. Davinio, therefore, is
the curator of the virtual space and also both artist and architect of the
literary landscape created.
The
website escapes tradition and pushes through the boundaries of the avant-garde
in terms of digital art. The Fluxus
movement, upon which the Karenina.it site is structured, emphasize on
the chaotic aspect as a means of undermining traditional ways of viewing and
understanding art. The site does the
same in terms of digital art. Where
digital art promised to offer the tools to easily create aesthetically appealing
and successful images, Karenina.it not only provides a visually chaotic
environment that undermines the power of the digital image as an aesthetically
alluring product, but questions the strength of the iconic image when placed
against a verbally striking and pulsating counterpart. The image appears static, while the word, in
the Karenina.it phatic function, is alive and vibrant. The flow is endless, therefore the site is
essentially in an eternally unfinished state and cannot be judged by the same
standards as a completed image. The
importance and conceptual focus here is placed upon the process of
communication rather than upon an appreciation for a finished and edited
product. The flow of information is
appealing and fascinating, forcing the viewer to read and become mentally
involved. Rather than passively
responding to the basic visual element of the site, the viewer is drawn in to
explore the literary landscape present.
In
keeping with Fluxus ideals, the site hosts virtual poetry/performance works as
well as a vast and varied collage of essays (in many languages), digitized
musical pieces, and poetically charged images (where the aesthetic of the image
itself takes second place to the literary message embedded). Also, there is a degree of direction applied
to the flow of information and conversations to maintain them within the
channel of experimental art and poetry.
Karenina.it is not restricted or controlled by the curator but is
neither left completely free or open, otherwise the resulting effect would
literally be that of a bulletin board for literary intellectuals.
It
is essential to point out that the site also has an embedded conceptual side
note that has interesting literary references.
The name chosen, Karenina.it, refers strongly to Tolstoy’s tragic
character Anna Karenina. Bound by the
social situation of the time period and social class she was born into
(nineteenth century high-class Russia), Anna Karenina tragically chose to
commit suicide by jumping under a speeding train, a new technological addition
to her world. The Karenina.it website
plays upon the character’s life in many ways.
Karenina
is revived in the Karenina.it virtual form - how ironic a character that
chose death by a new technology should be reborn in a technologically advanced
form with the addition of the ‘.it’ suffix.
The website collects open literary discourse and functions as an open
gateway that links people and opens up numerous pathways for communication -
the literary Karenina was not only bound
by the social structure she lived in, but her actions as a character
were decided by her author/creator, Tolstoy.
The virtual Karenina.it not only speaks for herself, but has been
purposefully created as an open entity by her originator, Caterina
Davinio. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is
trapped in the tradition that surrounds her, much like digital art seems
trapped in the same paradigms of form and aesthetics that define visual
art. Karenina.it is strongly
literary, anti-traditional and very avant-garde. The single word embedded inside it becomes art, free from
aesthetic judgement and vibrant in its phatic function.
Specifically,
it is the virtue of the phatic function that creates conceptual strength in the
site. The flow of words becomes art,
conceptually tied to a freedom from traditional paradigms of art critique. Fluxus questioned such paradigms by
emphasizing the importance of the conceptual element over the visual. Karenina.it does the same in
web-literary terms by presenting words as art and their literary landscape as
the only visual reference.