The history of Internet Art plots out the development of works of online arts and communications. Reading this article, three things impressed me most.
Firstly, I found it interesting that the term “net.art” is not coined purposefully but a result of “software glitch”. By comparing internet arts with the animals in the zoo, the writer seems to point out the feature of internet arts—diverse forms but with limitations (bars). This metaphor also reminds me of the “Five Obstructions”, where filmmakers tried to explore the boundary of creation.
Secondly, I like the way that article plots out the timeline how internet arts developed. Online arts have much bearings with the trends, the situations during the time they were created. It is exciting to hear Internet Arts, after initial years of struggling and exploring, has become “significant cultural and economic phenomena” in 1996, and embraced its explosive development in 1997.
Thirdly, I was amazed by how many forms can be brainstormed and created, via merging the technology of computer with everyday life. The projects started from small presentations of “manifestos and firing off polemics”, towards more complicated forms like a software producing “compelling collages”. As the internet arts takes on more freedom as we train computers to produce stuff that nowhere exist in the real life, it is thrilling to look forward to innovative, even bizarre projects online.