Reading Blog #3

Net.art seems to be the punk scene of the mid to late 90s where artists were exploring pure creation. During this time period, the internet is a very new abstract concept. Artists throughout the globe saw the potential a vast interconnected network could bring. The net.art movement shows the camaraderie amongst creative minds to use avant-garde techniques.

The internet allowed like-minded artists to easily create a collective network to share whatever they wanted. There is a lot of experimentation and excitement whenever a new outlet is being discovered, especially an outlet as big as the internet. Net.art also supplied a medium on which an imprint of the social and political atmospheres to be stored in, allowing us now to look back and speculate.

Activists and artists alike could harness the potential of a collective network to spread ideas in a highly accessible form. For example, the cyber-feminist movement was an inspiration to women seeking an outlet for programming and coding; sharing ideas and frustrations with each other. It is my opinion that the net.art scene is analogous to our contemporary concept of memes. The current generation uses memes to mirror the reality of the world in our own view, just like net.art did in its time.