The Thing (art project)

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. 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 Web site devoted to Net Art: bbs.thing.net.

In 1991, The Thing began as a Bulletin Board System (BBS) focusing on contemporary art and cultural theory. In 1990, the writer and critic Blackhawk (having recently produced the film Cyberpunk) taught Wolfgang Staehle many of the abilities he needed to start the original The Thing BBS. Blackhawk was the first person Staehle turned to after conceiving the idea for an electronic culture resource based on the model of Joseph Beuys's Social sculpture. Blackhawk and Wolfgang jointly set up the editorial structure of the original BBS and planned for many of the then experimental activities that took place. Other people who helped develop and shape the content of the early BBS included Josefina Ayerza, Dike Blair, Donald Newman, the original programmer, Jordan Crandall, David Platzker, Josh Decter, Rainer Ganahl, Julia Scher, Barry Schwabsky, Morgan Garwood, Franz von Stauffenberg and Benjamin Weil.

A second node, The Thing Cologne, was added in 1992, followed by The Thing Vienna in November 1993. Nodes in Berlin and elsewhere were soon to follow.

The Thing changed its form when a website was created for a presentation at the 1995 Ars Electronica. Credits on the 1995 website also name Nicky Chaikin, John F. Simon Jr., Wolfgang Staehle, Rob Keenan, Darryl Erentzen and John Rabasa.

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