Net art

also: net.art · Internet art · web art

movement c. 1994-present Worldwide Europe

Net art - the mid-1990s wave of art made for and on the internet - grew out of Dada, Fluxus, conceptual art and earlier telematic experiments such as Roy Ascott's La Plissure du Texte (1983). A loose international circle - Jodi, Olia Lialina, Vuk Ćosić, Alexei Shulgin, Heath Bunting - treated the browser itself as medium: raw HTML, broken links, error pages and ASCII stood in for paint, and the gallery system was bypassed entirely. Platforms like The Thing, Rhizome and Turbulence.org hosted and commissioned work, and documenta X (1997) and the 2000 Whitney Biennial pulled the scene into museums. Net art raised questions that still shape digital culture: how art circulates outside institutions, how works built on obsolete software can be preserved, and what authorship means with a networked audience.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • The browser and its defaults as visual material: raw HTML, blue hyperlinks, system fonts, visible page code
  • Glitches, broken links, and error states staged on purpose
  • Interactive, participatory pieces that depend on live network connectivity
  • Distributed, dematerialized work that exists outside the gallery and museum system
  • ASCII, typographic, and low-fi graphics suited to slow connections
  • Irony and institutional critique aimed at the art market and the commercial web

Key figures

  • Olia Lialina (b. 1971) — Russian net artist whose web narratives (My Boyfriend Came Back from the War) and writing defined early net art
  • Vuk Ćosić (b. 1966) — Slovenian artist known for ASCII works and Documenta Done, central to the 1990s net.art scene
  • Alexei Shulgin (b. 1963) — Russian artist behind Form Art and the satirical Introduction to net.art (with Natalie Bookchin)
  • Joan Heemskerk (b. 1968) — Dutch half of JODI, turning raw code and browser errors into art
  • Dirk Paesmans (b. 1965) — Belgian half of JODI, trained with Nam June Paik

Example works

Sources

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