Link: http://indirect.flights/
Indirect Flights, 2015, By Joe Hamilton
The net art I found is called Indirect Flights made by Joe Hamilton. The website, in Hamilton’s own word, is “a sprawling landscape of layered images”. The images he used for the website are taken during his travel to different places including Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and also some online images. He rendered the images in a google map style and displayed different layers of images in an interactive way. Raw materials, satellite images, organic textures, brush strokes and architectural fragments are all blended together into a dense panorama extending in all directions.
As the user scrolls to different directions, he/she will see different landscapes collage on the webpage. The artist blurs the boundary of different landscape and mixes together deserts, seas and the forests. The perspective he chooses is also interesting. Using an aerial view, he creates the feeling of watching these landscapes from the sky or the satellite view, which echoes the name of this project-indirect flight. It gives you a sense of sightseeing during the flight and drives you through the flight experience though you are not directly experiencing it. Meanwhile, he chooses photos of fence, windows, walls to enhance the feeling of “distance”. While he is trying to navigate the user to get closer to the landscape, he is also pushing them away by using the fences and windows as an interruption.
I like this net art project not only because it creates an interesting way of photo collage but also because it creates a space for photos to communicate and generate new meaning. The usage of brushes and photos also forms a contrast between the realistic object and abstract creation (like painting), a contrast of reality and imaginary. The artist also takes advantage of the feature of the website (or the internet) as a medium to convey the message. Instead of simply showcasing the artwork, the website allows the user to interact with different photos and creates more possibilities for the collage of photos.