Rules of Netnews Debating (Rich Rosen,1984) is a wall sculpture in which David Jablonowski suggestively reveals the reality behind today’s communication and networking culture.
In this case, it is a set of rules that Internet pioneer Rich Rosen already formulated in 1984. The fact that these are meant to be ironic, does not diminish their historical importance as one of the first succinct expressions confirming what the Internet would entail in terms of new human relations.
Rule # 1 is (incidentally, all the Rules have the number 1):
Any attempt to say that someone’s personal beliefs are wrong, even if you supply evidence to support your claim is an outright attack. If you show people a flaw in their logic, they have every right to punch you in the face.
Nearly thirty years later in the world of Facebook and Twitter it has become clear just how accurately Rosen had hit the nail on the head. From the very beginning it seems network communications created a challenge to let go of the known social codes.
Not that David Jablonowski focuses on the actual meaning of such phenomena. As an artist he is primarily interested in a strong and convincing image.
He presents Rosens text in printed form on a transparent support. This is part of a series of ‘screens’ that can turn like the pages of a book. We get into a broader zone where the boundaries between the virtual and the physical world seem to have been lifted. The loop, the zipper and the offset plate are used to add their own suggestive layers to this.