(Blank & Jeron)

Joachim Blank (*1963) and Karl-Heinz Jeron (*1962) have been working together since 1993 on the realization of Internet projects in the art and culture context. In this year they founded together with Barbara Aselmeier and Armin Haase, Handshake, one of the first communication projects involving the electronic network, the Internet, in Germany. Realized as an interactive spatial installation, it formed an interface between the electronic network and the living world. Handshake saw itself as an ongoing process with the intention of observing the behavior of people and machines in electronic networks.

From 1994 to 1995, Handshake operated the legendary 'Clubnetz', which consisted of public IRC chat terminals in Berlin clubs. In 1994/95 'Handshake' merged with the newly founded 'Internationale Stadt'. Blank and Jeron were two of the eleven employees of 'Internationale Stadt (IS) Berlin', which, between 1994 and 1998, saw the Internet as a “digital meeting place” - comparable to 'De Digitale Stad Amsterdam'.

In September 1997, Blank & Jeron opened their own website under the domain sero.org, which took the name of the GDR's state waste management company and the SERO Entsorgung AG (Berlin), which emerged from it after privatization. At the same time, it also described the artistic principle of the two artists: the reuse and further processing of data input.

Blank & Jeron are among the most important protagonists of the Berlin net art scene of the 90s and are pioneers of a net-specific artistic practice. Their works, which were realized in the context of Berlin's unique history, point beyond this local reference and thus situate themselves in the international scene of media and especially net artists. They are an indispensable part of digital-born art history and, with their pioneering net art activities, have established a tradition to which today's artists working with the digital medium draw from.