No Man’s Land (2005–06)

line drawing keyboard with no mans land written on the keycaps

No Man's Land was a web-based project that ran between 2005-2006. It was organised by Varsha Nair and Katherine Olston. It was a web-based project focused on the theme of the 'borderless scape of cyberscape - yet another kind of no man's land'. Participants from across the world were invited to 'consider attitudes towards nationalism and generally what a no man’s land represented'.

Organised by: Varsha Nair and Katherine Olston

Advisor: Keiko Sei

Web Advisor: Suvita Charanwong

About No Man's Land

Co-organiser Varsha Nair on No Man's Land in Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, Volume 3, Number 1, March 2019

"In 2004 work began on creating a website to showcase Womanifesto’s past events and to plan the next one: No Man’s Land, a web-based project that would be launched in 2006. Taking as theme the borderless scape of cyberspace—yet another kind of no man’s land—75 participants from diverse places and backgrounds across the globe were invited to consider attitudes towards nationalism and generally what a no man’s land represented.

Cyberspace was conceptualised simultaneously as a borderless zone, as the site of the border, and as the part of individuals that escape such definitions. The territorially imagined line of the border and its powers to include or exclude people, as well as its ability to simultaneously promote both unity and conflict were explored. The works included short video pieces, single or multiple still images, sound pieces and texts.

Co-organising the project with Katherine Olston, who was based in Chiang Mai at the start of the project but soon after had moved to Sydney, meant relying on the very same cyberspace to communicate over distance and time zones to bring the project together." Read more...

Co-organiser Katherine Olston on No Man's Land via Womanifesto.com

"The project No Man’s Land invites 65 participants from diverse locations and backgrounds to utilise cyber space as the primary platform to present works addressing the territorially imagined line of the border, its powers of inclusion and exclusion, and its ability to simultaneously promote both unity and conflict.

An initiative of Bangkok-based collective Womanifesto, No Man’s Land creates a kind of web gallery where visitors entering the site can scroll down a list of participants’ names and choose to view a specific work. Works include short video pieces, single or multiple still images, sound pieces and text. The site will also include a web-board where participating artists and site visitors can post comments about the work or any other related issues. Active since May 2006, the project will continue to develop and evolve as participants up-load their work throughout the year. It is hoped that the project will be widely accessible online to a diverse range of people in numerous locations." Read more...

Keiko Sei, 'Discovering No Man's Land', Womanifesto.com

"Discovering No Man’s Land, geographically or psychologically, pondering on how to use it for which purpose, and creating and engineering (geographical or psychological) connections between one No Man’s Land to another, is a task that artists and writers must continue to pursue even after this project. Otherwise, who else will collect these enormous amounts of human dramas that have come to rise when people have tried to find a connection to it?" Read more...