Once again – words and things

Artnodes, in its editorial work of the last decade, has endeavoured to map out a niche for reflection and evaluation regarding the forces acting on something as elusive as the present of artistic and cultural practices associated with particular places and times.

Year after year, however, a somewhat perplexing paradox is painted. Is it a question of talking about the present from the past? Or rather a question of talking about the past from the present? In referring to the artistic and cultural practices of our networked society, past issues of Artnodes have remarked on the need to map, survey or rewrite these practices and even to the more radical need to wipe the slate clean. This is because – leaving aside the ‘great narratives’ and stories already told – their immediacy and primitiveness (in the positive sense) allow us to glance between what has and what will be written.