The Internet Production

At last! Vlad can actually speak on the internet. NNP's revival of bloodsucking intrigue is ripe for 1996 web technology. The perfect medium to reach today's techno wizard/world wide audience. Cyberperformance becomes cyber-reality.

A year in the making, NNP created new collaborations with digital artists, computer scientists, and leading edge software developers to getVD 2001 up and running.

In 1994, San Jose Metro acquired a BBS system they eventually renamed Virtual Valley (vval.com), and soon invited local non-profits to participate. The site had serious limitations - content had to be physically carried down to the Metro offices and uploaded to the server by a Virtual Valley staffer, files were limited to 100k, total space per non-profit was 1 megabyte. NNP created its first web presence on this system, but difficulties with updating content and space limitations prohibited any serious creative uses.

By the end of 1995, a decision was made to develop a standalone web site to explore the creation of an online venue. We began to research providers, performance, and costs. Experiments with AOL and Netcom convinced us that we needed a full service hosting provider, and on:
March 15, 1996 - Obtained URL and setup hosting account at BEST with 25 megabytes available.
March 16, 1996 - About the company uploaded, duplicating/updating the older vval.com content.
April 16, 1996 - Prototype VD2001 content online - testing begins. Use of quicktime movies immediately reveals limitations of even 25 megs of server space. Decision made to convert content to episodes and restrict movie availibility to only the current episode. Two episodes were to be available at any one time, the previous and current.
The site was publicized at the Internet World exhibition at the San Jose Convention Center in May of 1996. Yahoo and Lycos listings soon followed.

  1. The Blood Club officially opened June 14, 1996 and closed July 12, 1996
  2. The Visitor opened June 28, 1996 and closed July 26, 1996
  3. The Workplace opened July 12, 1996 and closed August 9, 1996
  4. The Street opened July 26, 1996 and closed August 23, 1996
  5. Messengers opened August 9, 1996 and closed September 6, 1996
  6. The Cave opened August 23, 1996 and closed September 20, 1996
  7. News of the Day opened September 6, 1996 and closed October 31, 1996
  8. Bathed in the Blood opened September 20, 1996 and closed November 15, 1996
  9. The Congeries opened October 31, 1996 and closed November 30, 1996
  10. The Pesticide Warehouse opened November 15, 1996 and closed December 15, 1996
  11. Ascension opened November 30, 1996 and closed December 13, 1996
  12. The Short Version (minus movies and sound clips) opened December 14, 1996 and closed March 31, 1997
  13. The Complete Production (with large format movies and sound clips) was released on March 31, 1997 on CD-ROM
  14. The Short Version (minus movies and sound clips) was re-released for Internet on October 30, 1997 and will remain as a permanent installation
  15. A preliminary edit of the film version, Vampires in Cyberspace, was first shown at ATA (Artist's Television Access) Halloween week, 1999.
  16. The final edit of Vampires in Cyberspace was produced for DVD and released in June of 2006 for the 10th anniversary of the web site.

VD2001