Mamta Herland - Internet Consequences...

The Never Ending Revolution

The information age is upon us, a paradigm with consequences comparable to those of the Industrial Revolution. Information replaces energy as the basis for economic life in post-industrial societies, just as energy replaced land and agriculture products in the Industrial Revolution. Internet and WWW depend upon effective telecommunication networks not available for a large part of the world's population but, when introduced, initiate rapid change.

Both the expression and the cognitive theories hold that art communicates feelings and emotions, thoughts and ideas. Internet and the World Wide Web make up the fastest growing communications medium in the world today where space and time are colapsed and individuals have the ability to engage in interactive, multimedia communications around the globe.

'Internet' is about 35 years old. The first experimental network was created in 1969 , but the full advantage to the public and the tremendous growth did not come until the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1994. Already in 1996 there were around 40 million users on Internet, and nearly 20 million of them had access to the WWW . During the last ten years almost everyone in the economically advanced nations, is on the net, including government agencies, universities, artists, museums, small companies and global conglomerates as well as private citizens.

Digital Pre-History

Predecessors of today's digital art installations were first exhibited in the 1960s, such as Michael A. Noll's work, some of the earliest computer-generated images, among them Gaussian Quadratic (1963). The works of John Whitney, Charles Csuri and Vera Molnar remain influential today for their investigations of the computer-generated transformations of visuals through mathematical functions. In 1968, the exhibition 'Cybernetic Serendipity' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London presented works which anticipated many of the important characteristics of the medium today .

Digital technology has revolutionised the way art is created and experienced. Not only have traditional forms of art such as printing, painting, photography and sculpture been transformed by digital techniques and media, but entirely new forms of art such as net art, software art and digital installations have emerged. Some of the vital themes raised by this development are viewer interaction, artificial life and telepresence with multiple identities and personalities. Issues regarding sales and collections, presentation and preservation of digital art are also hotly debated.

Paul Valéry predicted, in his essay 'The Conquest of Ubiquity' that the near future would see the reception of artworks transmitted from afar by electricity. If we did not know this was written in 1928, it could be a description of contemporary telematic art.

By integrating written, oral and audio-visual human communication, the character of the communication changes fundamentally, thereby changing our cultures with new systems of interaction, beliefs and codes. Even though some of the concepts explored in digital arts date back almost a century, to understand WWW and Internet art requires some knowledge of the environment it inhabits.

Digital Internet Work, "Yes, but is it art?"
Digital art has developed based on an alliance between art, technology and science, and it was advanced early on through the collaboration among universities which began in the 1960s. Nicholas Negroponte declared that the goal was to combine the visual capabilities of film with computer processing. The Internet, WWW and digitalisation provide new conditions for artistic creation, practice, distribution and perception.

Those who master the new technology are enthusiastic, those who don't understand it argue that art 'generated' by a computer cannot be defined as 'fine art.'

Digital technology has given artists the possibility to synthesise traditional art forms and has brought the art of collage to a much higher level than it was ever possible previously. An image can be completely transformed in multiply ways and re-mixed with different visually interactive layers. Works can be copied without any decrease in quality. Digital media and traditional methods also frequently merge into new unities . Fine art, music, dance, animation, film, video and robotics can be synthesised, for the first time giving the artist the possibility to create art that includes all these elements. Art presented at Internet Web sites have a potential audience world-wide.

Traditional artwork also benefits, as it can be presented in the form of digital reproductions to a much wider audience than before. Digital works can be presented either as prints or on high-resolution flat wall-mounted screens, as 3-D works, video, animation or any other synthesis of known art forms. To some artists and art institutions this fast, seemingly uncontrollable and unregulated development, is frightening as well as wonderful, as it questions traditional roles and values in the world of art. Values regarding originality, authenticity and uniqueness, that have been cherished for hundred of years, are not always applicable to digital art. However, the technology is here to stay and it won't go away even if art communities keep ignoring it.

Internet has allowed unprecedented opportunities for participation and collaboration among geographically dispersed artists. Among the best known events is Douglas Davis's 'The World's First Collaborative Sentence' (1994) to which thousands of people contributed. ¡Exploding Cell' was created in 1996 by MoMA with artist Peter Halley, and in 'Generation/Mutation' artists world-wide were invited to choose an image, download it to their own computer, modify and return it. Artists in China and Europe are collaborating in ','Art for the People convened by Marketforces in London. Such cultural exchange is important, not only as new possibilities for artists, but as a means for broader understanding between people and cultures, an issue which seems to be critical for a peaceful world.

The introduction of networked telecommunications have, however, introduced an art totally different from anything experienced before. Roy Ascott has defined 'telematics' as 'computer-mediated communications networking between geographically dispersed individuals and institutions…and between the human mind and artificial systems of intelligence and perception'. Telematic art emphasises the systematic relationship between artist, network and viewer . The idea of art as a system capable of transforming behaviour and consciousness was fundamental to Ascott. To achieve this the art must be interactive, allowing the audience to be actively engaged. Control over content, context and time can be shifted to the viewer through interaction, thereby blurring the distinction between artist and participant.

New, Unreal Realism

Internet also provides for a field of interaction between human and artificial intelligence. Telematic art challenges the traditional notions of realism by facilitating the creation of alternative, simulated forms of reality, or the 'hypereal.' In the early 1990's Demetri Terzopoulos, developed a bio-mechanical software model of a fish, and Karl Sims created 3-dimentional images of forest and plants with highly complex structures in 'Panspermia,' (1990). In 1994 Christia Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau presented A-Volve , a bright virtual habitat. Other artists-scientist such as Thomas Ray and Jane Prophet (TechnoSphere, 1995) also simulate life processes.

Evolution, breeding and selection have become methods for creating art works with 'living' image worlds and viewers 'playing God' creating new 'life', manipulating the reproductive system, controlling the simulated biotype and 'killing' by withdrawal of 'nourishment.' Some artistic virtual-reality environments that completely immerse the audience into an alternative world have been developed; Canadian artist Charlotte Davies's 'Osmose' (1995) and 'Ephemere' (1998) are classic examples.
Through the involvement of the viewer, the artist no longer has control of the final result or even the survival of the work. It is as if art has become a testing ground for scientific theories. With 'Netlife' Thomas Ray predicts that artificial intelligence will form in the Internet and be able to go anywhere on the planet in milliseconds.

Body and identity, themes with long traditions in art, are also present in Internet. Online identity allows a simultaneous presence in various spaces and contexts, a constant 'reproduction' of the 'self without body.' Subcultures are fostered, with groups existing only on Internet and group members geographically far apart, possibly only knowing each other as avatars . Roy Ascott's vision is 'a multiplicity of bodies', and his 'Aspects of Gaia: Digital pathways across the Whole Earth' (1989) combined the disembodied experience of telematics and cyberspace with the corporeal experience of concrete reality in physical space. Several philosophers, including Jean Baudrillard celebrate what they call the techno-body. In her book How We Became Posthuman, Katherine Hayles states: 'Increasingly the question is not whether we will become posthuman, for posthumanity is already here. Rather the question is what kind of posthumans we will be.'

Since the introduction of photography in art, realism has been hotly debated. Telematics adds a new dimension to this debate with artificial life and multiple identities. Another dimension was added in September 2001. Wolfgang Staehle had a solo show at the Postmasters Gallery in New York where he presented three live views, one of them through a Web camera pointed at downtown Manhattan. The events of the 11th of September were unfolded live on the gallery walls and created an unexpected, shocking context for the concept of 'the ultimate realism' in art.

Digital Art and Theory

Digital art did not develop in an art-historyl vacuum, but has connections to previous movements, among them Dada, Fluxus, and conceptual art. The important of these movements for digital art resides in their emphasis on formal instructions and in their focus on concept, event and audience participation, as opposed to unified material objects. The Theory of the Avant-Garde; technology as a sequence of creations, adoptions and liquidations of technical forms was radically different from the traditional attitude. Net artists in the early 1990's often combined an avant-garde rejection of the artist's individuality and originality with the possibilities provided by computer mediated communication to generate anonymous, parodic, shared, multiple and inauthentic identities.

Jean Baudrillard , 'a theorist of the computer screen', describes an audience that is absent, absorbed into the PC-monitor, losing its own image and predicting the disappearance of reality. Baudrillard 's concept of 'Hyper-realism' designates an experience of the contemporary world which is radically 'unoriginal.'

Marshall McLuhan believed that new technologies promote democracy and enhance human perception. In claiming 'the medium is the message,' McLuhan affirms that content matters less than the structures of media, which shape human consciousness in profound ways. Roy Ascott believes that the Net is the infrastructure of a dynamic new human consciousness powered by associative thought. The viewer is empowered as his Internet interactivity levels artistic authority. It can even be argued that the participatory mode of the Internet heralds a culture where everyone can be an 'artist.'

Digital technology and Internet raise critical questions about the concepts of originallity and authenticity, though photography had already opened these issues. With photography the authentic original was less relevant and challenged the uniqueness of a work of art. Walter Benjamin favoured the newer, more democratic forms of art and discussed the impact of mechanical reproduction believing that it contributed to human emancipation by promoting new modes of critical perception. The 'aura' of artworks was related to their special power in religious cults and the unique situation in time and space. The concept of time and space has radically changed with the World Wide Web, a work of art being able to be anywhere anytime. Unlimited digital high-quality reproduction permits us to argue that we are now on the threshold on the real democratisation of art.

The project 'life_ sharing' (2001) by Duo, challenged control over information and intellectual property when the project was turned into public property, published on the Web and thereby reproducible by anybody.

The Art Market and Internet Galleries
The art market does not merely sell art commodities but actively helps to define what counts as art and particularly what is 'significant' art, thereby altering our perception of art . Sales and price of art attracts more public attention than most other commodities, and when Charles Saatchi buys an artwork it is published widely . If someone like him starts collecting digital Internet art, the perception of digital works might be changed as well.

One of the most well-known consequences of WWW is the growth of Web-based galleries, either existing dealers going online or virtual galleries existing only on the Web . Internet has opened up to a global market for artists.

In March 2004 the World Printmakers website had 112.000 page views, reflecting an interesting exposure for printmakers represented at virtual galleries. Most of the Web galleries, though, feature art made by traditional methods and Internet galleries are not necessarily in the forefront in promoting and selling digital art.

An artist with a personal Web site promoting her own works, has the possibility to deal with potential customers directly without going through commercial galleries or other middlemen, and many find it fascinating to be free of any interference. However, it requires thorough technological knowledge as well as ongoing hard work to develop and attract potential clients to the Web site . As always it is prioritising, between using the time to creative artistic work or the joyous feeling of controlling it all by oneself.

Art as a digital commodity
The art market is based on ownership and scarcity, with a few artists as international stars. The concept of a unique original, limited editions and exhibitions in well-known galleries are important when art is basically an investment, and works as a tool for further increasing the price and thereby the assumed value of the artwork.

Digitised art and digitised copies of artworks originally created by traditional methods, can be perfectly multiplied in infinite numbers, manipulated and made available to others without the owners knowledge. Digital art and Internet ideology can therefore be seen as an anti-commodity with questionable authenticity and ownership and little or no copyright protection.
Commercial galleries are trying to convince potential clients of the possibility of earning money based on the 'scarcity model', mostly of interest for wealthy clients. From an investment point of view it is understandable that the market for digital and Internet art has been limited. Digital prints have, however, been sold as limited editions and customised art, software art being licensed and Internet art acquired as Web pages. Digital art can be distributed and priced in a way affordable to ordinary people, buying art for art's sake.

Democratisation or Conglomeratisation

We live in the 'Age of Access' , and more and more the key questions are:

The issues regarding copyright and ownership might threaten the democratic and free ideology of the Internet since it actually questions our capitalist economic system. The 'piracy' war fought by the music industry, the new digital copyright laws and large global companies aggressively commercialising the Internet questions its future. Many argue that copyright is one of the most valuable commodities in the new millennium. Corbis already controls 76 million digitised images and has spent more than $100 million to purchase the rights to reproduce images from Louvre, Hermitage, London's National Gallery and the Detroit Institute of Art. Together with Getty Images Inc. they are currently buying the digital rights to nearly every image that may have a market value. Observing current globalisation trends and the conglomerate's market power, Joost Smiers proposes the complete abolition of copyright arguing that investors, not artists, are the main beneficiaries.

Global cultural conglomerates will, with little doubt, force the Internet into adopting their existing economic system and values. Without an open software code, ways to introduce control of content as well as access and countries in Asia already attempting to introduce censorship, Internet's future as a free and open communication channel is in danger. The largest content providers are American, and we might well be facing Americanisation and homogenisation instead of globalisation in Fine Art, as witnessed in the music and film industry.

When buying a piece of art is just a click and a credit card away, and massive advertising by large international players influencing local buyers to buy internationally 'known' names as an 'investment', the survival of the artist's local art market is at risk. Walter Benjamin might not be so impressed by the Web as a democratic space for art,after all.

Art Institutions and Museums
The art establishment, trained to operate within the boundaries of the art traditions, seemed to have found it difficult to recognise digital projects as being art. Museums, curators, educators and gallery owners all have to learn new skills, both in terms of technology and receptivity. The traditional way to exhibit, evaluate and preserve art changes with digital net-based art.

Digital art made its official entry into the art world only in the late 1990s, when museums and galleries began timidly to incorporate such art forms into their shows, some of themdedicating entire exhibitions to it. Major international art events, including Documenta, the Withney Biennal and the Venice Biennale have showed Internet art, and large institutions such as Guggenheim, SFMOMA, Walker Art Center and ICC have acquired digital Internet-based art.

Museums can store written information about art objects together with digitised images, video, sound and oral presentations, with enhanced capabilities to present versions of an art work as it evolves to a finished state, thereby multiplying and intensifying the experience for visitors.

The digital medium, however, poses a number of challenges with regard to collection and preservation. The curators have to take on new roles, curating information as well as preserving art depending on changing, unstable technology with an interactive audience and art works not intended to last. An increasing number of international exhibitions and art events such as SIGGRAPH rely on virtual curatorship. Many also argue that Internet art should only be presented online, since it belongs to the context of the Internet, and should not be taken into the 'white-cube model' of museums.

Educators
Art schools face a challenge insofar as new generations of students use computers and theInternet as their daily tools, with the Web as the obvious place to gather information. Thus, and the technology gap between generations continues to grow.

Most universities use Internet as a way to present themselves to future students and teaching professionals. Publishing research projects and documents having interactive discussions with other professionals and students are becoming more common. Already in 1980 Roy Ascott organised an international artists computer-conference, 'Terminal Art,' and he later founded the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CaiiA). In 1995, CaiiA became the first online Ph.D program with an emphasis on interactive art, and in 1997/98 CaiiA-STAR was established (now Planetary Collegium) as a global network for advanced research in art and technology.