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 New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D pri ...

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, pub ...

. 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) * Interactions o ...

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 Jon Ippolito is an artist, educator, new media scholar, and former curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Ippolito studied astrophysics and painting in the early 1980s, then pursued Internet art in the 1990s. His works explore digitally indu ...

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 Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

Situationism The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

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 insta ...

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 Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

, 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 A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

. 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 Roy Ascott FRSA (born 26 October 1934) is a British artist, who works with cybernetics and telematics on an art he calls technoetic by focusing on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on consciousness. Since the 1960s, 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 created the animated

videotex Videotex (or interactive videotex) was one of the earliest implementations of an end-user information system. From the late 1970s to early 2010s, it was used to deliver information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typi ...

poem ''Reabracadabra'' for the

Minitel The Minitel was a videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and was the world's most successful online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was invented in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes in Brittany, France. The service w ...

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 city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

-based IRCAM (a research center for electronic music), would also support or present early networked art. In 1997

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

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, Prema Murthy,

Ricardo Dominguez Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name * Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portu ...

, and Adrianne Wortzel. In 2000 the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

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, Fakeshop, Ken Goldberg, 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 The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

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 with ...

(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 Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

, 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, Gene McHugh, and Artie Vierkant (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 demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s ...

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 a sho ...

and MySpace. The movement is also responsible for spearheading slews of

microgenre A microgenre is a specialized or niche genre. The term has been used since at least the 1970s to describe highly specific subgenres of music, literature, film, and art. In music, examples include the myriad sub-subgenres of heavy metal and electr ...

s and subcultures such as

seapunk Seapunk is a subculture that originated on Tumblr in 2011. It is associated with an aquatic-themed style of fashion, 3D net art, iconography, and allusions to popular culture of the 1990s. The advent of seapunk also spawned its own electronic mus ...

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 fro ...

. This term "post internet" was coined by Internet artist Marisa Olson 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 Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has i ...

, 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. 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 collected images from

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expan ...

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.

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 Fred Forest (born July 6, 1933 in Mascara, French Algeria) is a French new media artist making use of video, photography, the printed press, mail, radio, television, telephone, telematics, and the internet in a wide range of installations, perform ...

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 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 Christine Buci-Glucksmann is a French philosopher and Professor Emeritus from University of Paris VIII specializing in the aesthetics of the Baroque and Japan, and computer art. Her best-known work in English is ''Baroque Reason: The Aesthetics o ...

, "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. *

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. *

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