upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden
Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of
new media art distributed via the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance of the physical gallery and museum system. In many cases, the viewer is drawn into some kind of
interaction
Interaction is action that occurs between two or more objects, with broad use in philosophy and the sciences. It may refer to:
Science
* Interaction hypothesis, a theory of second language acquisition
* Interaction (statistics)
* Interaction ...
with the work of art. Artists working in this manner are sometimes referred to as net artists.
Net artists may use specific social or cultural internet traditions to produce their art outside of the technical structure of the internet. Internet art is often — but not always — interactive, participatory, and
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...
-based. Internet art can be used to spread a message, either political or social, using human interactions.
The term ''Internet art'' typically does not refer to art that has been simply digitized and uploaded to be viewable over the Internet, such as in an online gallery.
Rather, this genre relies intrinsically on the Internet to exist as a whole, taking advantage of such aspects as an interactive interface and connectivity to multiple social and economic cultures and micro-cultures, not only web-based works.
New media theorist and curator
Jon Ippolito defined "Ten Myths of Internet Art" in 2002.
He cites the above stipulations, as well as defining it as distinct from commercial web design, and touching on issues of permanence, archivability, and collecting in a fluid medium.
History and context
Internet art is rooted in disparate artistic traditions and movements, ranging from
Dada to
Situationism,
conceptual art
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called ins ...
,
Fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
,
video art,
kinetic art,
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
,
telematic art and
happenings.
In 1974, Canadian artist
Vera Frenkel worked with the Bell Canada Teleconferencing Studios to produce the work ''String Games: Improvisations for Inter-City Video'', the first artwork in Canada to use telecommunications technologies.
An early
telematic artwork was
Roy Ascott's work, ''La Plissure du Texte'',
performed in collaboration created for an exhibition at the
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1983.
In 1985,
Eduardo Kac
Eduardo Kac �dwardoʊ kæts; ĕd·wâr′·dō kăts(1962) is a contemporary artist of dual nationality (American and Brazilian) whose artworks span a wide range of practices, including performance art, poetry, holography, interactive art, digit ...
created the animated
videotex poem ''Reabracadabra'' for the
Minitel system.
Media art institutions such as
Ars Electronica Festival in
Linz
Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846.
In 2009, it was a European Capital ...
, or the
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
-based IRCAM (a research center for electronic music), would also support or present early networked art. In 1997
MIT's
List Visual Arts Center
Established in 1950, the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) is the contemporary art museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is known for temporary exhibitions in its galleries located in the MIT Media Lab building, as well as its admini ...
hosted "PORT: Navigating Digital Culture," which included internet art in a gallery space and "time-based Internet projects." Artists in the show included
Cary Peppermint
Cary Peppermint (born 1970) is a New York-based conceptual, new media, performance, and environmental artist. Peppermint was born in Rome, Georgia, in 1970 and received in M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1997. Peppermint has conducted a se ...
,
Prema Murthy,
Ricardo Dominguez, and
Adrianne Wortzel
Adrianne Wortzel (born 1941) is an American contemporary artist who utilizes robotics in her installations and performances. She has also created many online works.
Early life and education
Wortzel was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941. She atte ...
. In 2000 the
Whitney Museum of American Art included net art in their Biennial exhibit. It was the first time that internet art had been included as a special category in the Biennial, and it marked one of the earliest examples of the inclusion of internet art in a museum setting. Internet artists included
Mark Amerika
Mark Amerika (born 1960, Miami, Florida) is an American artist, theorist, novelist and professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado. He is a graduate of the Literary Arts program at Brown University
Brown University is a pr ...
,
Fakeshop,
Ken Goldberg
Kenneth Yigael Goldberg (born 1961) is an American artist, writer, inventor, and researcher in the field of robotics and automation. He is professor and chair of the industrial engineering and operations research department at the University of ...
,
etoy and
®™ark.
With the rise of search engines as a gateway to accessing the web in the late 1990s, many net artists turned their attention to related themes. The 2001 'Data Dynamics' exhibit at the Whitney Museum featured 'Netomat' (Maciej Wisniewski) and 'Apartment' (Marek Walczak and
Martin Wattenberg), which used search queries as raw material.
Mary Flanagan's ' The Perpetual Bed' received attention for its use of 3D nonlinear narrative space, or what she called "navigable narratives."
Her 2001 piece titled 'Collection' shown in the
Whitney Biennial displayed items amassed from hard drives around the world in a computational
collective unconscious.'
Golan Levin's 'The Secret Lives of Numbers' (2000) visualized the "popularity" of the numbers 1 to 1,000,000 as measured by Alta Vista search results. Such works pointed to alternative interfaces and questioned the dominant role of search engines in controlling access to the net.
Nevertheless, the Internet is not reducible to the web, nor to search engines. Besides these
unicast
Unicast is data transmission from a single sender (red) to a single receiver (green). Other devices on the network (yellow) do not participate in the communication.
In computer networking, unicast is a one-to-one transmission from one point in ...
(point to point) applications,suggesting the existence of reference points, there is also a
multicast
In computer networking, multicast is group communication where data transmission is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Multicast can be one-to-many or many-to-many distribution. Multicast should not be confused wi ...
(multipoint and uncentered) internet that has been explored by very few artistic experiences, such as the
Poietic Generator
The Poietic Generator is a social-network game designed by Olivier Auber in 1986, and developed from 1987 under the label free art thanks to many contributors. The game takes place within a two-dimensional matrix in the tradition of board games a ...
. Internet art has, according to Juliff and Cox, suffered under the privileging of the user interface inherent within computer art. They argue that Internet is not synonymous with a specific user and specific interface, but rather a dynamic structure that encompasses coding and the artist's intention.
The emergence of social networking platforms in the mid-2000s facilitated a transformative shift in the distribution of internet art. Early online communities were organized around specific "topical hierarchies",
whereas social networking platforms consist of egocentric networks, with the "individual at the center of their own community".
Artistic communities on the Internet underwent a similar transition in the mid-2000s, shifting from Surf Clubs, "15 to 30 person groups whose members contributed to an ongoing visual-conceptual conversation through the use of digital media"
and whose membership was restricted to a select group of individuals, to image-based social networking platforms, like
Flickr, which permit access to any individual with an e-mail address. Internet artists make extensive use of the networked capabilities of social networking platforms, and are rhizomatic in their organization, in that "production of meaning is externally contingent on a network of other artists' content".
Post-Internet
Post-Internet
Post-Internet is a 21st century art movement involving works that are derived from the Internet or its effects on aesthetics, culture and society.
Definition
Post-Internet is a loosely-defined term that was coined by artist/curator Marisa Olson ...
is a loose descriptor
for works that are derived from the Internet or its effects on aesthetics, culture and society. It is a controversial and highly criticized term in the art community.
It emerged from mid-2000s discussions about Internet art by
Marisa Olson
Marisa Olson is an artist, writer, curator, and former punk singer. In 2004 she auditioned for popular American television show American Idol as an artistic project. Over the course of three months of daily "training exercises," it is revealed th ...
, Gene McHugh, and
Artie Vierkant
Artie Vierkant (born 1986) is an American digital artist based in Brooklyn, New York, known for his "Image Objects" series. The series is based on the 2010 essay "The Image Object Post-Internet", which he wrote while in graduate school. The ser ...
(the latter notable for his ''Image Objects'', a series of deep blue monochrome prints).
Between the 2000s and 2010s, post-Internet artists were largely the domain of
millennial
Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western world, Western demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as start ...
s operating on web platforms such as
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to ...
and
MySpace. The movement is also responsible for spearheading slews of
microgenres and
subcultures such as
seapunk and
vaporwave
Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music fr ...
.
This term "post internet" was coined by Internet artist
Marisa Olson
Marisa Olson is an artist, writer, curator, and former punk singer. In 2004 she auditioned for popular American television show American Idol as an artistic project. Over the course of three months of daily "training exercises," it is revealed th ...
in 2008. According to a 2015 article in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', the term describes "the practices of artists who ... unlike those of previous generations,
mploythe Web
sjust another medium, like painting or sculpture. Their artworks move fluidly between spaces, appearing sometimes on a screen, other times in a gallery."
In the early 2010s, "post-Internet" was popularly associated with the musician
Grimes, who used the term to describe her work at a time when post-Internet concepts were not typically discussed in mainstream music arenas.
Tools
Art historian Rachel Greene identified six forms of internet art that existed from 1993 to 1996: email, audio, video, graphics, animation and websites.
[5-Arts Net>
In the 1990s, email based mailing lists provided net artists with a community for online discourse that broke boundaries between critical and generative dialogues. The email format allowed instant expression, however limited to text and simple graphic based communication, with an international scope.<5-arts net>] These mailing lists allowed for organization which was carried over to face-to-face meetings that facilitated more nuanced conversations, less burdened from miscommunication.
Since the mid-2000s, many artists have used Google's search engine and other services for inspiration and materials. New Google services breed new artistic possibilities.
Beginning in 2008,
Jon Rafman
Jon Rafman (born 1981) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, and essayist. His work centers around the emotional, social and existential impact of technology on contemporary life. His artwork has gained international attention and was exhibited in 2015 ...
collected images from
Google Street View for his project called ''The Nine Eyes of Google Street View''.
Another ongoing net art project is
I'm Google' by Dina Kelberman which organizes pictures and videos from Google and YouTube around a theme in a grid form that expands as you scroll.
See also
*
Art sales
*
Artmedia
*
ASCII art
*
Cyberculture
*
Cyberformance
Cyberformance refers to live theatrical performances in which remote participants are enabled to work together in real time through the medium of the internet, employing technologies such as chat applications or purpose-built, multiuser, real-time ...
*
Digital art
Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media.
Since the 1960s, various name ...
*
Electronic literature
*
Email art
Email art refers to artwork created for the medium of email. It includes computer graphics, animations, screensavers, digital scans of artwork in other media, and even ASCII art. When exhibited, Email art can be either displayed on a computer sc ...
*
Fax art
Fax art is art specifically designed to be sent or transmitted by a facsimile machine, where the "fax art" is the received "fax". It is also called telecommunications art or telematic art. According to art historians Annmarie Chandler and Norie ...
*
Fractal art
* ''
Homestuck''
*
Hypertext fiction
Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text ...
*
Net.art
net.art refers to a group of artists who have worked in the medium of Internet art since 1994. Some of the early adopters and main members of this movement include Vuk Ćosić, Jodi.org, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, Heath Bunting, Daniel Garcí ...
*
Net-poetry
Net-poetry is a development of net.art, involving poetry. This kind of experimental art was born in several different cities and countries around 1995.
Short history
Net-poetry was born in the context of net-art and digital art avant-garde in vari ...
*
Online exhibition
*
SITO
*
Surfing club
*
Telematic art
*
Virtual art
Virtual art is a term for the virtualization of art, made with the technical media developed at the end of the 1980s (or a bit before, in some cases). These include human-machine interfaces such as visualization casks, stereoscopic spectacles and s ...
References
Bibliography
* Kate Armstrong, Jeremy Bailey & Faisal Anwar on Net Art in Canadian Art Magazin
* Weibel, Peter and Gerbel, Karl (1995)
''Welcome in the Net World '' @rs electronica 95 Linz. Wien New York: Springer Verlag.
*
Fred Forest 1998,¨Pour un art actuel, l'art à l'heure d'Internet" l'Harmattan, Paris
* Baranski Sandrine
''La musique en réseau, une musique de la complexité ?''Éditions universitaires européennes, mai 2010
*
* Baumgärtel, Tilman (2001). ''net.art 2.0 – Neue Materialien zur Netzkunst / New Materials towards Net art''. Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst. .
* Wilson, Stephen (2001). ''Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology''. Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press. .
*
Caterina Davinio
Caterina Davinio (born Maria Caterina Invidia; 25 November 1957, Foggia) is an Italian poet, novelist and new media artist. She is the author of works of digital art, net.art, video art and was the creator of Italian Net-poetry in 1998.
Biograph ...
2002. ''Tecno-Poesia e realtà virtuali / Techno-Poetry and Virtual Realities'', Sometti, Mantua (IT) Collection: Archivio della poesia del 900. Mantua Municipality. With English translation.
* Stallabrass, Julian (2003). "Internet Art: the online clash of culture and commerce".
Tate Publishing. , .
*
Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "L’art à l’époque virtuel", in Frontières esthétiques de l’art, Arts 8, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004
* Greene, Rachel (2004). "Internet Art". Thames and Hudson. , .
*
Corby, Tom (2006). "Network Art: Practices and Positions". Routledge, .
* WB05 e-symposium published as ISEA Newsletter #102 - #10
* Juliff, Toby & Cox, Travis. 'The Post-display condition of contemporary computer art.' ''eMaj'' #8 (April 2015) https://emajartjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/cox-and-juliff_the-post-display-condition-of-contemporary-computer-art.pdf
* Ascott, R.2003. ''Telematic Embrace: visionary theories of art, technology and consciousness''. (
Edward A. Shanken, ed.) Berkeley: University of California Press.
*
Roy Ascott 2002. ''Technoetic Arts'' (Editor and Korean translation: YI, Won-Kon), (Media & Art Series no. 6, Institute of Media Art, Yonsei University). Yonsei: Yonsei University Press
* Ascott, R. 1998. ''Art & Telematics: toward the Construction of New Aesthetics''. (Japanese trans. E. Fujihara). A. Takada & Y. Yamashita eds. Tokyo: NTT Publishing Co.,Ltd.
*
Fred Forest 2008. ''Art et Internet'', Paris Editions Cercle D'Art / Imaginaire Mode d'Emploi
*Thomas Dreher
''IASLonline Lessons/Lektionen in NetArt.'' chap.VI: Net Art: Networks, Participation, Hypertext
* Monoskop (2010). Overview of 'surf clubs' phenomenon
Art in the Era of the Internet PBS Report
* Martín Prada, Juan, ''Prácticas artísticas e Internet en la época de las redes sociales'', Editorial AKAL, Madrid, 2012,
* Bosma, Josephine (2011) "Nettitudes - Let's Talk Net Art
NAI Publishers,
* Schneider, B. (2011, January 6). From Clubs to Affinity: The Decentralization of Art on the Internet « 491. 491. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from https://web.archive.org/web/20120707101824/http://fourninetyone.com/2011/01/06/fromclubstoaffinity/
*
*
Moss, Ceci. (2008). Thoughts on “New Media Artists v. Artists with Computers". ''Rhizome Journal''. http://rhizome.org/editorial/2008/dec/3/thoughts-on-quotnew-media-artists-vs-artists-with-/
* Greene, Rachel. (2000) A History of Internet Art. ''Artforum'', vol. 38.
* Bookchin, Natalie & Alexei Shulgin (1994-5). ''Introduction to net.art.'' Rhizome. http://rhizome.org/artbase/artwork/48530/.
* Atkins, Robert. (1995). The Art World (and I) Go Online. ''Art in America'' 83/2.
* Houghton, B. (2002). ''The Internet & art: A guidebook for artists.'' Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. .
*Bosma, J. (2011). Nettitudes: Let's talk net art. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers. .
* Daniels, D., & Reisinger, G. (2009). Net pioneers 1.0: Contextualizing early net-based art. Berlin: Sternberg Press. .
External links
netartnet.netan online-gallery listing and directory of internet art
netart latino database
* An interview with Martijn Hendriks &
Katja Novitskova
Katja Novitskova (born 1984 in Tallinn, Estonia) is an Estonian installation artist. She lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. Her work focuses on issues of technology, evolutionary processes, digital imagery and corporate aesthetics. Nov ...
"The New Aesthetic and its Politics"*
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