Perusing my CRUMB list emails this morning highlighted this eloquent quote from BBC art critic Will Gompertz:
It’s interesting that, as far as I am aware, no contemporary artist has yet harnessed this extraordinary technology to make a significant artwork. Of course, maybe I’m wrong and am missing something great – do you know of any net-based art works that are worth a look?
Maybe you have made one (an artwork made specifically for the medium, as opposed to a film such as the one above, which uses the net only as a means of dissemination)?
If you, like me, can’t find any net-based art of note, why do you think that is? Why, when there’s been such a boom in contemporary art around the world, has no artist made the medium of the web his or her canvas? And if someone were to use the net as a medium, as opposed to making an image, or a video, or even an interactive Flash animation, what would the resulting art look, or sound, or feel like?
You can read the full article here.
Responses on the list where a mix of surprise and habitual disappointment with the mainstream art press. Of particular note was the irony of a this being posted on the man’s blog, and that he previously worked for the Tate (where he ran Tate online), which has commissioned several significant net art pieces.
I often try not to read comment threads on major news outlets. I end up finding my world view so out of sync with the readers that it leaves me either depressed or angry or a super hybrid of the two, but I’m not sure if it’s just British people, but there was a surprising amount of politeness in the response to such an asinine statement. It’s worth checking some of the recommendations provided by the polite rebukers, but you can also just follow a few of the links below.
One of the most widely popular net-art pieces of the last years is Jonathan Harris’ “We Feel Fine”, which was so successful they have now made a book about the project, and we all know if they cut down trees for you it means your legit.
For an elegant flash version of the contemporary urban routine try this:
http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html
But for more general repositories of all things creatively networked there are of course these staples.
HTTP Gallery in London
and for CanCon you really can’t beat the Fondation Daniel Langlois for it’s media art history. Check out details on works by David Rockeby and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and surprise many of them use impressive and elegant network technologies!
For another response read Rhizome:
http://rhizome.org/editorial/3282