Wolfgang Staehle
1950–
Wolfgang Staehle (b. 1950; Stuttgart, Germany) is the founder of THE THING, an independent media project that began in 1991 and became a seminal online and offline forum for net art. Recognized as a pioneer of internet art, his video and new media works have been exhibited worldwide. His Empire 24/7 (1999–2004), a live image of the Empire State Building in New York, was first exhibited at ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany, in net_condition (1999) and subsequently at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, in Loans from the Invisible Museum (2000). He had solo exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1993) and Morimura Art Museum, Tokyo (1990). His exhibition 2001 at Postmasters Gallery (1984–2025), New York, consisting of three live web transmissions—two in Germany and one in Lower Manhattan—famously captured the attack on and collapse of the World Trade Center in September 2001.
Introduction
Wolfgang Staehle (born 1950) is an early pioneer of net.art in the United States, known for his video streaming of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City during the September 11 attacks. He also captured the crash of the first plane into the World Trade Center.
Wikidata identifier
Q1232132
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed March 12, 2026.
Roles
Artist, video artist
ULAN identifier
500083397
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed March 12, 2026.
Exhibitions & projects
artport
View more on artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet and new media art.