On December 10, 2002 an automated net artwork by MTAA and P.Erl (AKA Alex Galloway) entitled onKawaraUpdate ceased to live. The work, created as a splash page for Rhizome.org, was launched on April 27, 2001. During its brief life, the onKawaraUpdate spawned a new web page each day mimicking the aesthetic and process of conceptual artist On Kawara’s famous Date Paintings. Each new page also culled news from online sources. The artwork was intended to keep creating new web pages daily until the end of time. You may view the deceased artwork here: onKawaraUpdate

According to the T.Whid of MTAA, “the work automated seminal process art as a comment on our increasingly automated, mediated, and computer-processed present.” Ironically, the work died long before Mr. Kawara who has been making his Date Paintings for almost 40 years.

The project seemed to be in ill health from its birth. In its first month of life the onKarwaraUpdate began to generate gibberish headlines but was brought back to health by P.Erl. Over the next year or so P.Erl was called in to stabilize the project on several occasions. Sadly, the artwork never seemed to fully recover.

Finally on April 18, 2003, M.River of MTAA found the work paused on the December date and pronounced it dead on the art scene.

“It’s a tragic loss for us,” lamented T.Whid of MTAA “You bring a small artwork into the world and you think it will be around to grow and thrive, but now, it’s just gone.”

A private cremation will be held at the MTAA Home Office in Brooklyn this Sunday afternoon. In lieu of flowers, the artists request donations to the onKawaraUpdate Memorial Fund. Contact MTAA to find out how to contribute to this fund which will be dedicated to helping struggling and underfunded net artworks. permanent link to this post