a byte of history [part 1]

this is going to be a short introduction to guide from the abstract, technical, philosophical topics that underlay the background of the vibecontrol label and collective to the more practical and operational facts that describe the development and evolution and represent the actual experience. the vibecontrol term popped up around 1996 in vienna/austria first as an idea, in 1997 it became the concept and worktitel for an electronic record and in early 1998 it transmorphed into a label that was initially supporting the musical endeavors of the band and production team frog and later the vibecontrol soundsystem. in summer of 1998 the first vibecontrol website was launched in new york city through earthlink and around 1999 the original vibecontrol.net went online as a selfgrowing entity and interactive megazine on our own webserver maintained through our friends and partners from manhattan multimedia. this was at the time when dotcom was booming, the internet topic was hot, a whole new wave, a brand new scene was born between silicon alley and silicon valley and worldwide and we were not fully aware of it. basically we were doing our thing, never really too structured, though we had an office that functioned as our international headquarter in the world trade center for a while. technically we were never a business, or a startup, never really thought in these terms, it really was about creating, efficiently producing interactive content and sharing openly among likeminded. never spent a dime on advertising, marketing or promotion. besides the virtual product in form of art, content and intellectual property we did create some merchandise (tapes, records, cds, dvds, t-shirts, hats, etc) which was mainly given away for free within our network, simply to give back and say thanks. somehow our projects were pretty successful, many hits on the websites, postcards on broadway, vc in the press, cooperations, international recognition. in late 2000 and early 2001 we moved our office and sever to the westcoast were it remains ever since. the dotcom bubble burst, but it didn't change much for vibecontrol. in 2002 a group of artists gathered in amsterdam/netherlands and created an interactive artinstallation over the course of a week in cooperation with the dutch communication label and agency fanclub network. the event was called vibecontrol artweek amsterdam and created the multimedia installation the message - a manifestion of a virtual spot in reality in sound, colour and shape. the event was a huge success and was definitely a highlight of our enterprises. over the years vibecontrol has created a number of exciting and challenging projects and the results can be seen and explored on the vibecontrol pages. the vibecontrol catalogue has become a collection of anlogue and digital art that demonstrates the transition and evolution of multimedia and interactive art around the millenium. starting with 2010 vibecontrol 2.1 will make an effort to organize and reorganize the collection and database and present vibecontrol works in context of space and time to honor the contributions, contributors and supporters of this unique experience. respekt the artizt [[[]]]