Web Art

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Web Art

• ART 321
• Dr. J. R. Parker
• Art/Digital Media Lab
• Lec 01 Winter

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Web Art

• This course will focus on the basic concepts of
  web art and net art.
• This is not a course in web page design.
• At the end of this course you will have a better
  understanding of the nature of net art, and the
  materials and tools used in its construction.

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Evaluation
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Materials

• You are responsible for materials used in
  completing the assignments. You will need access
  to computers, and may use your own, the computers
  in the lab, or any on campus. You will be asked
  to pay for printing and any materials you
  consume.

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Instructor (ME)

• Dr. Jim Parker
• Specialty Digital media, video games, animation
• Office AB606
• LAB AB611
• jparker_at_ucalgary.ca
• http//www.ucalgary.ca/jparker/311

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What Is Web Art?

• Its likely that any definition with Web Art will
  eventually have to be so flexible as to be nearly
  meaningless.
• However, for now we have some basic criteria.

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What is Web Art?

• - Web Art is on the Internet. Anyone can access
  the work from any browser that is connected to
  the Internet.

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What is Web Art?

• Web Art is interactive. By clicking, typing,
  dragging, or whatever the viewer has some or full
  control over the experience with the work.
• Or can be interactive.

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What is Web Art?

• The name of the work can be a registered domain
  name.
• A typical name might be untitled5work9.com or
  art321asg1.ca

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What is web art?

• The work is interesting to look at when there is
  no one interacting with the site as well as while
  the viewer is interacting with the site.

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What is Web Art?

• The work is self-contained. It stands by itself.
  If there must be links, the work must still be
  able to be considered a work of art even if the
  link to the outside fails.

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What is web art?

• The work is interesting to look at when there is
  no one interacting with the site as well as while
  the viewer is interacting with the site.

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What is web art?

• Web Art does not sell, preach, recruit or teach.
• A mail order catalog may be stunningly beautiful
  but we would be reticent to put such a catalog an
  an art museum as a work of art.
• The more likely scenario is that the work is
  intended to be a work of art from the beginning.
  The purpose of Web Art is to inspire, to cause
  wonder, to be fun.

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What is web art?

• It is very likely that the web site is built with
  Free Open Source Software (FOSS).

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What is web art?

• The web site is free of Digital Rights Management
  (DRM) and any other limitations that could
  diminish its life-expectancy.
• Web Art is art for art's sake.
• http//aotn.us/what_is_web_art

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What is web art?

• http//www.radiohead.com/

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What is net art?

• Net art differs from art on the net.
• Art on the net is mostly nothing more than the
  documentation of art which is not created on the
  net, but rather outside it and, in terms of
  content, does not establish any relationship to
  the net.
• Net art functions only on the net and picks out
  the net or the "netmyth" as a theme. It often
  deals with structural concepts A group or an
  individual designs a system that can be expanded
  by other people.

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What is net art?

• Museum of Net Art
• http//www.mowa.org/

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What is net art?

• http//www.radiohead.com/

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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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What is net art?
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New Media

• It is the result of a natural evolution of
  information technology in the usual direction
  that humans choose art.
• Everything that humans do, essential or not, we
  make into art.
• Architecture, cooking, resting, recreation,
  communication, ...

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New media

• New media uses the enabling technology associated
  with computation to create art.
• This began simply, slowly, and grew, and will
  continue to grow.
• So, texts, graphics, and sound recorded on
  computer readable form are an elementary example
  of new media.

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New media

• More advanced forms of new media cannot exist
  without the computer.
• An example is the video game, which I consider a
  pure form.
• Hypertext is next it can, in principle, exist
  as cross references to paper and other sources,
  but computers make it practical and useful.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Do Not Be Always On
• Humans can only really perceive the present
  moment. Computers are in some sense biased
  against time. Joining too closely with computers
  means abandoning our natural
• cycles.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Computer programs (code) is biased away from
  continuous time. These programs encourage
  behaviours also biased against continuous time.
• Email, twitter, facebook, etc. demand our
  attention. We can say no.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 2. Live In Person
• Computer networks allow immersive communication
  over vast distances. If we engage too closely we
  can not deal with what is in front of us.
  dislocation

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Messages that underlie digital network
  communication travel various routes to arrive at
  us. There is no sense of place.
• We should avoid the use of computers to simulate
  presence when real presence can be accomplished.
  

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 3. You May Always Choose
• None of the Above.
• Computers turn everything into a choice. A
  problem resides in who choses, and what we get to
  see and do.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Messages that underlie digital network
  communication travel various routes to arrive at
  us. There is no sense of place.
• Vision what colour is that? 491 Thz? 492? Where
  does orange end and red begin?
• Sound CD vs analog recording.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 4. You Are Never Completely Right.
• Digital tools oversimplify nuanced problems.
  Digital media is a polarizing influence. They
  model reality, not substitute for it, and are not
  completely accurate.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Digital technology tends to attempt to reduce
  complexity. It levels the playing field by
  allowing simple and comprehensive searches, but
  does not convey the complexity of the results. We
  now tend to cherry pick the facts we like, which
  polarizes us.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 5. Once Size Does Not Fit All
• Everything scales, on the net. Abstraction is a
  natural activity, but some things have a natural
  or best scale to operate.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Successful Bookstore gets business online,
  hires some kids to create a web site with
  shopping cart and Paypal. Online transactions are
  less expensive, so he gets computers for the shop
  for orders. Then eliminates the store and goes
  online. Now aggregators collect prices from all
  book purchase requests by customers, and looks
  for lowest price. If hers is not lowest, the sale
  is lost. Business
• fails.
• On the net all happens at the
  same level.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 6. Be Yourself
• The out-of-body nature of digital experiences
  foster depersonalized behaviour. You should
  mostly resist the temptation to be anonymous.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• The less responsibility we take for our online
  behaviour the more likely we are to behave badly
  (our worst natures become exposed).
• Only 7 of human communication is verbal.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 7. Dont Sell Your Friends
• Our digital networks are biased towards social
  connections. Any effort to redefine those
  connections for profit will compromise the
  integrity of the network, you
• connections, and the promise of contact.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 8. Tell the Truth
• False info placed online will soon be exposed to
  the light of day. Truth is the only option.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 9. Share.
• The Internet is ideally situated for sharing
  information. We are not used to operating in such
  a sharing environment. In addition, credit must
  be given. Exploiters risk being
• exploited.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• Internet was initially created by academics (for
  a military purpose, to be sure). The idea was to
  build a survivable communication infrastructure.
• As it became more publically accessible and
  privatized, the sharing aspect has largely
  remained.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• 10. Program or be Programmed
• Digital technology is created by programs. It is
  biased towards people who write code. If we
  cannot code we are at the mercy of those who can
  and do.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• Ten Commandments
• for a Digital Age
• The public is always a generation behind the
  modern technology of communication. The invention
  of the alphabet did not lead to a society of
  readers, but one of listeners (oral
  transmission). The printing press created more
  readers, not writers. Radio created listeners, TV
  created watchers. Were always a step behind.
• Instead of optimizing computer systems for
  humanity, they optimize for machinery.

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Philosophical Sidelight

• This course is designed to have you catch up
  to the current technology.
• You will become programmers. It is easy, really,
  and gives you options and understanding of
  systems that you never thought you would have.
• You will control the lightning, make the computer
  do your bidding. Its a powerful feeling.
• Art is the most fundamental human
  act
• possible. You should feel powerful.