Category: Leon Eckert

Posted on

Response to “A History of Internet Art”—Jialu

How do we define art? What does art do? These are the two questions that come to my mind whenever I hear my friends expressing their opinions on art. A friend of mine who is very fond of art claims that art has to be something “beautiful” and “superior” which the majority of people cannot accept or understand. I cannot agree with him on this. I feel like everything can be artistic in some way. Often there are times when I glance at something/someone and suddenly find it/him/her very different. Unique. Amazing. And these are the moments that I realize the existence of art. Since “art” is really just a concept created by us human, there will never be a “right” or universal definition of it, and there shouldn’t be one. However, I find it quite important to find a definition for art that is accepted by a community, since it’s impossible to talk with others about art without a clear sense of what art is. And it is also impossible to build any conversation about art if each person involved in that conversation has a different definition for art. So, personally, I define art as a thought generator. Art provides its audience with a new way of looking at and thinking about things. Therefore, the real artistic moment to me is the moment when a new idea pops up inside my head.

With a definition for “art”, we can finally start talking about Internet Art. The art works that the artists create on the Internet are doing almost the same thing that other traditional art works were doing—telling stories, distinguishing self and others, expressing opinions and emotions, conveying and innovating ideas. The only difference that distinguishes Internet Art from other forms of art is its medium—the Internet. At a time when art is commercialized and mass produced, Internet becomes a pure land where artists can express their unique thoughts with few limitations. Turning to the Internet and experimenting art on the Internet can be seen as an act of rebellion towards the diminishing of public’s awareness of think freely and independently caused by the mass production of traditional art as well as the political control of the content of art. Also, Internet Art is more interactive than any of the existing art form, which blurs the boundary of audience and artists. “Art is for all”. Internet artists gives new ideas to the audience, and the audience in turn innovates artists, which makes Internet Art an art that is constantly growing and evolving.

Posted on

Response to “A History of Net Art” – Taylah Bland

I never really gave much thought to Net Art in all honesty. Much of what I usually look at is either physical art forms or musical pieces. I didn’t really see the Net as a place where art could live and be a dynamic part of an actually larger movement. 

In line with Greene’s article, it seems like Net Art is actually the hidden gem of the artistic world. I didn’t realize how far reaching some of the projects actually could be – but forgot that trough a medium that literally transcends the entire world, anything is possible. I found the example of the “Fresh Kill” and “VNS Matrix” intriguing as they had ties to Australia. I actually hadn’t heard about these before but after reading about it in Greene’s article, I looked into it more. It’s interesting to think that these things took place literally right infant of me but I wouldn’t have known. 

The power of net art is definitely underestimated. Greene’s recounting of popular net art series who are obviously given recognition is a given however there’s so many other pieces that aren’t even known. I feel like its a really powerful medium for conveying deeper messages or providing assistance just like Greene hints at with the success of a “user help” like project. 

The article really enlightened me on Net Art and how powerful it can be. I am now much more interested in the topic and look forward to exploring more. 

Posted on

Response-to-“History of Net Art”(clover)

  This article introduces the history of how the internet art was formed. At the beginning only very simple art work came out but it represents a new way of art. The artist has more freedom to create his or her work which is great and can be seen by people around the world. The number of the audience became bigger which means that your work will be more likely to find the group of people who like it. This encourage the development of the art, more the audience is, more enthusiastic the artist is. The combination of internet and art really open a new page in the history of art, providing many new ways of expressing ideas.

  Then it mentioned the technology. The upcoming technology is also a great promotion to the art. Before, you can only use a paper or a pen to create your art work, but nowadays, you can use many tools online to help you do that. You can use photoshop to easily mix up colors creating your own style, you can also use AE to add great effect to your video. These new technology opens the new page of art, making it interacte with the audience from sound to visual effect. I think this is the biggest changes after the combination of internet and art. The technology will not only make the process easier but also giving us more ideas.

  In the article, the author also mentioned a point which is people worry the Internet would soon be colonized by mainstream media. I think this is a serious problem. Nowadays, if you want to be a great designer, you have to let your audience like your work. Also, the view of the audience is influenced by the mainstream media. So the work of the designer has to change to meet the need of the audience, but does that means these art work is great? We all know that some great art work in the history were not accepted by the audience at that time but are accepted by people many years later. This make me think of what is a good artwork and how can the designer not be influenced by the mainstream media. After thinking for a long time, I decided that if I work as a designer, I will make artwork that meet the mainstream of the audience but I will still working on my own piece of artwork but not to meet the mainstream media.

  Another thing really touches me is the diversity of the Internet art. People of all ages can create art and share them on the website. More women artist appeared with their impressing artwork. I think the Internet gave many people a chance to do their artwork and to become artist that is the shining part.

Posted on

Response to ‘”History of Net Art” – Jamie (Ziying Wang)

Before reading this article, I had always thought internet art is founded by an artist who created this form of art intentionally. Therefore, it was shocking for me when I read that internet art is created without intention, just a lucky discovery.

I think what makes internet art booms in our society is its convenience in spreading and its interaction. Nowadays, the internet is an indispensable element in our lives, sharing art through this media is the easiest of all, visiting art museums, appreciating artworks and reading art magazines, these traditional ways of appreciating arts are getting more inconvenient.

Also, interaction is the element audiences are expecting more and more now. We no longer want to stop by artwork and just appreciate it within a certain distance, that is a less efficient way of art-appreciating because most of us aren’t art professions and we are tired of reading the description of artworks, instead we want to feel it ourselves and therefore generate our own understandings. The internet is the media that satisfies all these conditions. The internet art I selected last time was “exhausting a crowd” and the creator wants to express the feeling of being monitored. Most internet art projects aim like the traditional artworks, they want to serve a certain purpose of expressing the creator’s idea.

The future of the internet art is very bright, instead of limited on the pc, it’s going on other devices like VR, where users are allowed to appreciate this form of art with a better atmosphere.

Posted on

Week 11: Response to Rachel Greene’s “Web Work: A History of Internet Art”

In Rachel Greene’s work, she discusses this idea and history of “net.art” in which is the communication of ideas through dialogue, images, graphics and more. I find it interesting how she mentions that e-mail played a significant role in those involved with starting net.art in the 90’s.  It was the enabling of people being able to communicate to each other everyday in a fast and equally grounded way that helped to create this platform of illustrating a new way of art through the internet. 

Before reading this, I had never really heard of the term “net.art” or understood the historical context behind this type of art form.  Through her explanation of creators of specific websites, cyber feminism, chat rooms, and email lists, she gives the reader the definition of what net.art is not only to the community of netizens who use it but gives people a space for creativity and inspiration. 

I did find this reading a bit difficult to understand at times, as she mentions so many projects and different creators that it can be hard to follow her. She provides so many examples that it makes following the history of Net art confusing. Although, it is from these examples that help give perspective to how digital art transformed the internet into more of an abstract way of communication for people and the creators.