The progression of painting in America through the 1960s lead to a pivotal moment in the history or art. Painting was dead. The Modernists had pushed nature of painting down to its most reduced form, a composition of form and color aimed towards stimulating aesthetic response. Art was directionless, painting was illusion. Then something was born out of the formalist ideologies of the modern pioneers of paint, minimalism. An application of simplicity and form in the tangible world of sculpture to produce a response. By denying the relation of contextualization, an object exists. It exists as the occupier of space. It exists as a player, waiting to be interacted with and engaged. Sculpture has its sides and edges, its lighting and its placement, its material and weight - its naturalness as on object of this world. And then art was given a new dimension, occupying not a physical realm, but a constructed realm. Parameters, like the structure of a room, define its possibilities and limitations. Its placement and accessibility defines how you as the observer interact with it. The internet has its definitive framework to which WE THE PEOPLE can exploit towards our personal artistic advantage. Ever adaptive, ever changing, the hyper-real is as real as we make it. And although this space serves to appease our every idea and phantasm, the internet infrastructure remains intact. And if we were to push the net beyond the realm of contextualization towards the visceral response as the formalist painters of the 1960s had done, what would lie at its essence? What would be the its domineering characteristics? What would we feel? In Susan Sontags Against Interpretation, she states "Show how it is what it is." By rejecting conceptualization, what is left is the means to display information, an internet. Web boxes, text, code, interaction, composition, form. All works of art in themselves as a reduction of the internet to its basic components. Robert Morris in Notes on Sculpture argues, "Simplicity of shape does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience." The net elements as the medium itself, relying on simplicity of source to create a complexity of response. A sculpture chooses the material best suited to create, each with their own inherent properties as objects in space. The net.artist chooses their building blocks - code, pixels, display, the digital - to create and interaction with the viewer. To utilize the simplistic potential of the tools they have at their disposal to create an aesthetic response, an experience. A digital sculpture in the hyper-real world.___________________curated by. DOUGLASKILEY
MINIMAL net.ART
ARTificial ART was created by the Swiss developer Kurt Baumann. Through the application of simple algorithms and random numbering, a work of complex expression and color is formed by the computer, for the viewer. Baumann uses the laws of computer science to create a work through random generation. What we experience is a work of animated color and form representative of the abstract expressionists of the 1960s. Each work created is done so through spontaneity of computer code. Application of the basic structure of a computing machine. Kurt Baumann. ARTificial ART
Electric sheep is an adaptive, self-sustaining image generator created and operating mainly by Scott Draves among other programmers and writers. Mitchell Whitelaw of Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life described electric sheep as thus, "On the screen they are luminous, twisting, elastic shapes, abstract tangles and loops of glowing filaments." Distributed as a screen saver, electric sheep freeware can be downloaded onto your computer to take advantage of your idle time. As a participant, votes can be computed regarding the sheep (segments of fractal color manipulation) you like or dislike. Based on positive votes, a generative algorithm combines favor sheeps fractal code to create new images, which are again sent out and voted on. The result is an extremely mesmerizing flow of mathematical color and form. Scott Drave. Electric Sheep
Jimpunks meditation uses the faculty of the internet to create a work of extreme stimulation through minimal means. The use of simple sounds and images, as well as text and window boxes create a very engaging yet hypnotic experience for the viewer. At first, the user would aim to disable the screens, reasoning that the computer or program must be malfunctioning. ÒThinking back, my computer never acted like this!Ó people would say and respond in a hostile manner missing the piece all together. Yet the response lies in the observers willingness to experience the work, the vulnerability to let it run its course. Jimpunk. Meditation
OSS.Jodi.org stimulates an evaluation regarding the functionality of the personal computer. In an interview, jodi.org said that "OSS builds on the personal relation you have with your computer." The personal relation between the observer and the work, a collaboration of response exchanged between both realms. At first glance, it would appear your computer is suffering some kind of meltdown when in reality, the software merely challenges your expectations of how your computer aught to run. The result is an experience initiated through the simple use of window boxes arranged in a chaotic and uncontrollable way. The work serves as a commentary between bio-technological relations through simple interaction. The users use the computer, yet the simplest of malfunctions bring about feelings of helplessness and confusion. Jodi.org. OSS
Created by Antonio Mendoza, whose work is self-entitled as Òthe.web.on.crack." Subculture is the most contextualized piece among the selection and yet manages to create an overall experiencing of their work absent of the iconic imagery. Through a combination of sound, image, and movement, the viewer is gifted a series of illustrations that produce an extremely lucid aesthetic response. The chaotic movement of window boxes confronts the viewer in an almost subliminal fashion. Images and sounds race across the screen demanding attention and obedience. Antonio Mendoza. Subculture