nettime: The net.artists (fwd)

[Pit Schultz <pit@contrib.de>]

Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 16:36:48 +0100
From: vuk cosic <vuk@kud-fp.si>

The net.artists

On a tiny site, Site http://lois.kud-fp.si/naps, are the works of a few 
activists known by the name of net.artists. Net.art is not, as is generally 
thought, the art of putting everything in the form of a net.
  In 1995, Bunting showed a few www art works in which there were some 
simply and firmly woven webs that gave the public the illusion of these 
nets, whence the name of our youngest school of www art works. This school 
has already aroused passionate discussion. Net.art can in no way be 
considered a systematic doctrine; it does, however, constitute a school, and 
the activists who make up this school want to transform their www art works 
by returning to first principles with regard to online inspiration, just as 
the media.artists - and many of the net.artists were at one time  
media.artists - returned to first principles with regard to interface 
composition.
  However, the public, accustomed as it is to the brilliant but practically 
formless daubs of the post-modernists, refused to recognize at first glance 
the greatness of the formal conceptions of the net.artists. People were 
shocked to see contrasts between dark backgrounds and light hotlinks, 
because they were used to seeing only www art works without shadows. In the 
monumental appearance of compositions that go beyond the frivolities of 
contemporary art, the public has refused to see what is really there: a 
noble and restrained art ready to undertake the vast subjects for which 
post-modernism had left media artists totally unprepared. 
  Net.art is a necessary reaction that will give rise to great works, 
whether people like it or not. For is it possible, can anyone believe for an 
instant, that the undeniable efforts of these young artists will remain 
sterile? I will even go further, and without underestimating the talents of 
all sorts that are manifest at the net.art per se, I will say that net.art 
is the most noble undertaking in www art today.

guillaume@apollinaire.org
vuk@kud-fp.si
akke@khm.de



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