The Thing (art project)

The Thing website (circa 1998)

The Thing is an international net-community of artists and art-related projects that was started in 1991 by Wolfgang Staehle. The Thing was launched as a mailbox system accessible over the telephone network in New York feeding a Bulletin Board System (BBS) in 1991 before their website was launched in 1995 on the World Wide Web.[1] By the late 1990s, The Thing grew into a diverse online community made up of dozens of members' Web sites, mailing lists, a successful Web hosting service, a community studio in Chelsea (NYC), and the first website devoted to Net Art: bbs.thing.net.[2]

  1. ^ Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon, 2009, p. 50
  2. ^ Mark Tribe and Reena Jana. New Media Art. Cologne: Taschen Verlag. pp. 22-23