After reading Rachel Greene’s “A History of Internet Art,” I found her writing very interesting as it shows a detailed analysis of how art and internet merge, in both positive and negative aspects. What stood as particularly fascinating to me was the depiction of internet art from the late 1990’s moving into later years. When seeing old systems of web browsers, I found the artwork created off of them captivating as it shows the value and limitations of art through old technology.
The above image specifically reminds me of instances such as film photography versus DSLR photography in today’s society. Although the internet art depicted is old, it is not necessarily bad or “ugly” as some people would put it. I consider art to be a depiction of the artist’s mind, or at least as close as it can get. Therefore, like film photography, I feel that this older style of internet art is not “ugly,” but instead unique in its own way. Considering these aspects, I feel that acknowledging old and new styles of web art is extremely valuable to an artist as it allows them to see two sides of a picture and create artwork that travels through time, capturing the essence of a specific moment in history.
What also stood as very interesting to me was the explanation of how culture and society impacted internet art from the late 1990’s into later years. As internet in America has strict regulations for certain actions, I found the original net.art communities to likely have felt limited in their ability and freedom to create artwork online. Although these communities were originally granted freedom and certain privacies to work as they please, the role of corporate businesses such as CNN stood as important to recognize in harming smaller net.artists. The fear of mainstream companies and media overpowering net.art stood as fascinating and intriguing to read as it is and was an issue that is still very active today. As many artists are not granted proper freedom to their artwork and styles, it is important to be aware of how large companies can easily crush smaller artists. Therefore, I feel that it is important to have activists and artists unite such as the ones in the article, as they are able to create net.art that sends a powerful message to society in hopes of maintaining a sense of artistic freedom. While culture has a huge role in dictating the work of net.artists, I feel that as long as we do not conform to what society wants us to do, we will be able to preserve and continue net.art as a social, political, and moral output for displaying who we are and why we create the art we create.