Netochka Nezvanova

Netochka Nezvanova is the pseudonym used by the author(s) of nato.0+55+3d, a real-time video processing software. Alternate and retired aliases include "=cw4t7abs", "punktprotokol", "0f0003", "maschinenkunst" (preferably spelled "m2zk!n3nkunzt"), "integer", and "antiorp". The name itself is borrowed from the main character of Fyodor Dostoevski's first novel Netochka Nezvanova (1849) and translates appropriately as "nameless nobody." ^[1]

Next to her audio-visual software art, the fame and notoriety of 'Netochka Nezvanova' stems from the aggressive online behavior she displayed through her various identities on countless mailing lists and websites, by which she terrorized other internet users and the users of her software products alike.

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History

The earliest identity "=cw4t7abs" (antiorp@tezcat.com) surfaced in 1995 on mailing lists and newsgroups relating to electronic music production (for instance, the Kurzweil K2000 music synthesizer) and related Usenet groups (rec.music.makers.synth), flooding them with cryptic, nonsensical and confrontational spam messages that contained a mixture of code-poetry, abstract ASCII art as well as targeted personal attacks.^{[citation needed]}

Disregarded by the community for openly neglecting netiquette, her personas (at that time mostly "integer") surprisingly gained some respect among the Internet art scene, specially during the production and release of the video processing software nato.0+55+3d that promised to be a tool of much interest for the emerging genre of laptop performers, VJs and electronic live-musicians. However, from the cryptic documentation to the clever online licensing mechanism that had users in constant fear of having their licenses revoked instantly if they did not conform with Netochka's unpredictable world view ^[2], buying one of the expensive licenses subjected the users to the despotism of its makers completely. Next to the software projects listed below, a CD titled "KROP3ROM||A9FF" was released by Decibel Records in 1997. It shows influences by electroacoustic art music as well as the industrial and techno genres^{[citation needed]}.

Identity

A contribution to the enigma of Netochka Nezvanova and her various alter egos is the mystery around the persons behind them. For several years, rumors circulated that ranged from artists claiming to have in fact seen her passport to allegations that certain well-known celebrities were behind the fictitious persona^{[citation needed]}. On February 26 1998, New Zealand artist Rebekah Wilson performed an extract of A9FF at the "Electric Insights" concert at Victoria University of Wellington^{[citation needed]}; This established the rumor that the originator or primary creative force behind Netochka is Rebekah Wilson. In the early 2000's however, Netochka's persona made several appearances at international media art festivals with different performers taking her place^{[citation needed]}.

The author Florian Cramer claims that "It is known today that NN was a collective international project, with the person who wrote NATO differing from the one who wrote the message [by Netochka Nezvanova] quoted above."^[2]

Even though the personal identities behind the pseudonym as well as their artistic intentions and strategies remain under dispute even today, Nezvanova's experimental web browser "nebula.m81" co-won the 2001 artistic software award with Adrian Ward at Transmediale in Berlin, and she was awarded the fictitious post "Director of Leaves and Petals" at the Dutch live electronic music centre STEIM in Amsterdam, where Rebekah Wilson worked as a curator from 2002^{[citation needed]}.

Other software created by NN

• 0f0003 propaganda (1998) - authored with Max/MSP, this program algorithmically generates animated graphics and synthetic sounds. Offering little interactivity to the user, it can be seen as a demo, bearing aesthetic ties with the 8-bit era demoscene.

• b1257+12 (1998) - a software for sound deconstruction and composition, authored with Max/MSP. The minimal but intricate user interface allows for radical manipulation of soundloops in realtime, offering a large amount of control parameters which, every now and then, take a life of their own. The name of the software refers to a rapidly rotating neutron star.

• @¶31®�≠ Ÿ (1998) - this software, authored with Max/MSP, extracts random samples from a CD and creates a stochastical remix, accompanied by futuristic-looking graphics (according to the reference documents, it is intended for use with the krop3rom||a9ff release).

• m9ndfukc.0+99 and k!berzveta.0+2 (1999) - two programs written in Java interpreting network data, very likely preliminary versions of nebula.m81.

• kinematek.0+2 (1999) - another Java application that performs "animated image generation from internet www data", incorporating parts of nebula.m81.

• nebula.m81 (1999) - an experimental web browser written in Java, rendering HTML code into abstract sounds and graphics. Awarded at the International Music Software Competition in Bourges 1999 and at Transmediale 2001 (first prize in the category "Artistic Software"). Described by jury member Florian Cramer as "an experimental web browser that turned browsing into something resembling measurement data evaluation"^[3].

• !=z2c!ja.0+38 (1999) - a Max/MSP application that generates a dense visual texture based on the user's keyboard input. It (ab)uses the QuickDraw capability of Max and can therefore be seen as a preliminary step towards nato.0+55.

Notes

References

• Albert, Saul (2002-05). Useless Utilities. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.

• Arns, Inke (2004). Read_me, run_me, execute_me. Code as Executable Text: Software Art and its Focus on Program Code as Performative Text. Medien Kunst Netz. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.

• Carroll, Thomas (2002-05-21). Nameless Nobodies as Virtual Intelligence. Nettime-l. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.

• Nezvanova, Netochka (2000). "The Internet, A Musical Instrument in Perpetual Flux". Computer Music Journal 24 (3): 38-41. ISSN 0148-9267.

• Neue Kraft, Neues Werk (Transcodeur Express), a documentary film by Ninon Liotet, Olivier Schulbaum and Platoniq, shown on ARTE on april 25th 2002, features an interview with NN. http://www.platoniq.net/nknw/

• IMA fiction: portrait #2 06, a video portrait of Rebekah Wilson, directed by Elisabeth Schimana and produced by The Austrian Institute for Media Archeology. Presented at the Transmediale festival on january 31 2007. http://www.ima.or.at

• And all is finally revealed