week 10

02/12/11. Internet art.

In 1990 the Internet popularity was at its tipping point, almost everybody was using it on a regular basis. The generations of these years grew up with this technology and considered it as a phenomenon that provides new emotions. Subconsciously the user ignores the presence of the equipment as if there was no computer and unless a technical problem occurs, it is used as a window or doorway to a new dimension, new place and meeting point. The internet has provided so much change in the way populations live today (communication, information, commodity, work) but it is still growing and many wonder what it is going to become, what effect these changes may have in the future on the cultures and traditions.

It is a difficult task for artists today to adapt and think of new ways to practice and present art, as it now includes personal/private and public (micro/macro) aspects. By trying to define what the Internet was during the lecture we came to talk about a book called ‘windows and mirrors’ that explains about digital art, interaction design and the myth of transparency.

We looked at other pieces of technology that provide new experiences, for example the ‘connect 360’ from Microsoft. It allows a much more physical way to play video games and share these games with millions of people all over the world. The user can also browse and watch videos from the net and all these options are controlled by his or her body and voice commands. I think it is also going to encourage people to stay in their living room and adapt little by little to this inevitable virtual life. We then talk about the device itself and how its operating technology has attracted many people’s interest. We discussed how it is built and what can it be used for other than its initial purpose. Microsoft has decided to leave the device’s source open and created hackers sites where information is displayed or exchanged and discussions about the device can be carried out in an attempt to help experiments with this technology to take place. This reminds me in a way of the new forms of organization of work. I am referring to an essay written by Maurizio Lazzarato called ‘Immaterial Labor’ that identifies the new composition of what work is nowadays. The new I-phone is also a device that uses new technology and has the ability to recognize voices and execute tasks on voice-command. It will be interesting to see what kind of experimentation and use of these systems will take place in the future.

Today there is a much clearer idea of what Internet art is. It is personal; people started using private and personal events from their ordinary life in art. For example, a project is being carried out by a student for which he has attached a camera to himself and records every moment of the day for a period of two weeks. We talked about a performance artist, Stelarc (Stelios Arkadiou); using surgical practice he has had implanted a mouse’s ear on to his harm. His work focuses on increasing the capability of the human body. As a professor of art and robotics he has worked on many other projects that contribute towards the field in the creation of androids. He also wired his body’s nervous system to a web page from which his movements could be controlled via the Internet. It shows that the lines between art, medicine, science and humans are blurred and the interaction has changed.

Next was a small activity for which we had to write personal secrets on to post-its. They were read out anonymously which is in a way like Facebook. This kind of information can be stumbled on randomly on the Internet, in that case the context in which it was created is absent. The Signifier does not affect the viewer and we are free to think and feel what we want of it (funny, sad, true etc.).

To follow we talked about an artist that recently had a book launch ‘txt me up’ in a local art gallery (the Void gallery). The book contains notes and texts that the artist kept along the years. She combined these with images and pictures to present the very personal events and evolution of her life.

To be continued…