Internet art, which reached the peak of its activity in the period from the 1990s to the beginning of the 2000s, significantly influenced the creation of digital culture and critical reflection on ...the information society. The text explores three important areas that characterise critical aesthetics of Internet art: computer code, hypertext and interactivity, as well as democratisation and massification of the Internet and art as key aspects of the transformation of this practice in the 21st century. We present and analyse examples of the practice of Internet art in these spheres from its appearance in the 1990s until modern times and the development of the culture of Internet memes, post-Internet art and AI art. Unlike art on the Internet or the impact of internet technology and digital culture on art institutions and discourses, Internet art is difficult to distinguish from the World Wide Web from which it came. Internet art can never escape from the technological framework—the interface in which it is created and the contexts of that framework are always an integral part of the work of art. The work of net.art artists (Vuk Ćosić, Heath Bunting, Olia Lialina, Alexei Shulgin and the duo Jodi) produced alternatives to early applications and understanding of the impact of information and communication technologies on society. They explored hypertext as a new approach to reading, software art as alternative ways of presenting information, and Internet platforms and interactive art as models for pushing the boundaries of communication and collaboration in cyberspace. Internet art, as a specific artivist movement characterised by the intertwining of the spheres of digital activism, programming culture and the world of art, went further than all of its predecessors in the realisation of the avant-garde’s dream of erasing the boundaries between art and life, and its successor—the culture of internet memes seemingly makes this work complete. We point to the practice of Internet art as an important critical model of paradigms of information society, technology, and digital culture, which predominantly started to frame contemporary societies by the second decade of the 21st century
"To get a smile every day", "To balance what I have to do and what I choose to do", "To take my coffee in the morning with the people I love", "My meaning in life is to worship of Allah". These ...fragments are answers to the question: "What gives meaning to your life?" The interface of "Life is Meaning" is a Flash Web site that visualizes the information of public thoughts stored in a database.
When launching the interface, an input form pops up in which the user enters the answer to the pertinent question (Figure 1). He also positions his answer by selecting one or more out of fifteen categories from a dropdown menu that includes family, personal, socializing, food, work, travel, athletics, nature, city, spirituality, ownership, philosophy, culture, pleasure, and other. Gender, age and the timestamp of the entry are also stored. All received data is outputted back to the Internet site in real-time. After submission, the participant is directed to a site where he can browse through remote outputs by category, continent or gender to compare, discover and share others' thoughts (Figure 2, 3). Participants can compare i.e. the way males and females respond to a certain category and which of the two genders is more affected by the category.
"Life is Meaning" uses its own graphical elements and creates a system within itself with a focus on user intuition. Categories are distinguished by colors; gender by rounded and square-cut corners. Age entries vary by three different typefaces. Additionally, the choice of age is personalized: Instead of choosing a specific age range, the user selects the age he thinks suits him best. Furthermore, participants are invited to answer the question in the language of their choice. The aesthetics creates a pleasing feeling inside this system of signs that aims to connect the participants emotionally to the project.
With participation, individuals will get a chance to read uncommon and interesting answers about the meaning of life. They will learn about others' perspectives on life and ideally question their own life and get into self-reflection. The question is existential in and of itself and aims to make the participant aware of the significance of single events, activities or experiences. The purpose is to go beyond scientific research as for instance described in Csikszentmihalyi's book "A Life Worth Living: Contributions to Positive Psychology", which is about leading a happy life. The data in "Life is Meaning" are instead collected in an uncontrolled, rather playful environment that is influenced by factors such as participants' mood, or the actual context they are in.
"Life is Meaning" is a collaborative project that relies entirely on the entries of its community. A project that is similar to "Life is Meaning" in terms of collaboration is "Turns". For this Web project, users submit their own stories or query entries to collect "Turning Points in Life". Collective participation is further used in Rivane Neuenschwander's installation "I Wish Your Wish", where individuals are invited to choose one of the numerous ribbons that contain silkscreen printed wishes. In exchange, they write their own wish on a piece of paper and deposit it in a box for future exhibits. "Life is Meaning" works in a similar way: Individuals receive or read entries and as a further step they submit their own answer.
The project is promoted and diffused by its own community through the sharing-with-friends-option. It is also connected throughout links and groups in social networks such as "Twitter" or "Facebook".
Whereas these kinds of social networks are based on transparency of data, "Life is Meaning" intends on keeping participants anonymous and thereby obtain more reliable and honest answers. Primarily, anonymity helps to encourage participation. However, participants have the choice to enter their email address to be able to receive updates on the project. This entry is confidential and will not be published to any third party.
In conclusion, the project can be seen as a documentation of collective current lifestyles and experiences on a worldwide level. The World Wide Web not only has the role to make it accessible to participants from all over the world and gather a broad range of answers, but also to function in form of an online gallery: "Life is Meaning" is definitely a contribution to today's Internet art that is no longer dependent on the traditional physical gallery space.
WebStorm Costa, Pedro J.; Duarte, Pedro; Costa, Carlos J.
ACM Special Interest Group for Design of Communication: Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication; 22-24 Oct. 2007,
10/2007
Conference Proceeding
From the beginning of the Internet Age artists found this medium a good field of expression and diffusion of their works. In this paper we start by introducing the wider context of New Media Art and ...explore the features of this area, illustrating with some examples. The artistic environment of contemporary art is achieved as a fundamental background for Internet Art. It is in this context that we proposed the Webstorm project.
The demand of responsibilities among teachers has evolved not only in classroom management but also to the extent of promoting communication and interpersonal skills. Social media is integrated in ...schools and higher learning institutions for communication and reflection of learning which enhance teachers’ performance in leadership quality and effective teaching. This study was designed in a qualitative approach mainly to explore the extent of interest and enjoyment students experienced during an intensive ICT course. Blog was used as a medium for reflection during the class where students posted their creations of videos, posters and other ICT materials. The three needs investigated were namely autonomy, competence, and relatedness support. The researcher further examined on students’ awareness of the usefulness of the ICT skill they learned and how much they can use the blog for teaching and learning. Based on the Basic Psychological Needs Theory framework (BPNT), this study has adopted the direct observation, journal entry, and interviews as a triangulation approach.
What is theatre? Can it take place separate from the body, voices, and shared space? How does "Waiting for Godot" play online? What about original works? Works created in real time with multiple ...players/characters? The genre hinges on the "democratization of creative practice" and the author invites readers to make their own Desktop Theater.
Net Art’s Broadening Niche Golonu, Berin
Afterimage,
05/2001, Volume:
28, Issue:
6
Journal Article, Book Review, Magazine Article
Peer reviewed
Golonu reviews "010101: Art in Technological Times" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and "Telematic Connections: The Virtual Embrace," at the Art Center College of Design in ...Pasadena CA and other venues.
Discusses the use of technology at the Seattle Art Museum (Washington). Includes a Web site that enables students in grades six through ten to act as curators and offers integrations of technology in ...the exhibition "Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science." (CMK)
"While Prince is partnering with Target to sell a new three-CD set for the recession-proof price of $11.98, the musician will also offer subscriptions to his new site, Lotusflow3r.com, for a ...not-so-recession-proof $77 per year. With the physical albums available so cheaply at a big-box retailer, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether the site could possibly be worth that much. More important than the economic rationale, perhaps, is whether Prince can use the Web to advance any artistic payoff." (Newsweek) Prince's "new strategy for inducing hard-core fans to pay more" is reported. His efforts to "rule the Web" are assessed.
