Etoy is a European digital art group formed in 1994. It has won several international awards including the
Prix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria).
...
in 1996. Their main slogan is: "leaving reality behind."
Etoy has routinely experimented with the boundaries of
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
, such as selling shares of "stock" in the etoy.corporation, a registered company in
Switzerland and travelling the world as well as living in "etoy.tanks" (
cargo containers
Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the pro ...
).
History
The group first used the name "etoy" in 1994, for performances at
raves and techno music events.
The group's members, based in various European countries, were referred to as "agents".
In 2007, German and Swiss director
Andrea Reiter
Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrey, Andrej and Andrew.
Origin of the name
The name derives from the Greek language, Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός ...
realised a documentary (produced by
Hugofilm) about etoy's "Mission Eternity" project, a "digital cult of the dead".
As of 2015, a history overview on the group's website describes it as entering "hibernation mode" in 2013.
Toywar
The ''toywar'' was a legal battle around 1999/2000 between the Internet toy retailer
eToys.com and etoy about the
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. ...
etoy.com. Fearing brand dilution and customer confusion about the similar domain names, eToys sued etoy for trademark infringement, and asked etoy to remove graphic images and profane language from their website that were bringing customer complaints. The artists refused to comply, and eToys eventually obtained a preliminary injunction against etoy which shut down their website. etoy fought back with a coordinated public relations campaign and Internet-based denial of service attacks on eToys.com. After several weeks eToys dropped the lawsuit and the etoy website returned to operation.
etoy activists have called it "the most expensive performance in art history".
Toywar.Com
/ref> The story is one of the subjects of the documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
, ''info wars
''InfoWars'' is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operates under Free Speech Systems LLC.
Talk shows and other content for the site are created primarily in stud ...
''.
An email campaign was led by Internet activists including etoy agents developing the toywar website.
A book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this phys ...
about the story of the etoy corporation, ''Leaving reality behind'', by Regula Bochsler and Adam Wishart
Adam Wishart (born 1969) is a documentary filmmaker. His professional background includes writing, directing, and appearing in various productions for BBC television projects.
Professional background
Writing
Wishart's first book, ''Leaving R ...
was released in 2002.
References
External links
website etoy.CORPORATIONthe digital hijackthe digital flapjack
- a parody of ''digital hijack'' created at the 1996 Prix Ars Electronica by SITO
New York Times - EToys Lawsuit Is No Fun for Artist Group
* ttps://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/cyber/articles/26etoy.html New York Times - eToys Drops Lawsuit Against Artist Groupbr>Pam Dixon archive - Cyber artists' toy war is not child's play
{{Authority control
European artist groups and collectives
Advocacy groups
Culture jamming