Histories of Internet Art: Fictions and Factions

[anna balint]

http://blurr2.colorado.edu/~hiaff/


HISTORIES OF INTERNET ART:
The Histories of Internet Art: Fictions and Factions web site is
part online exhibition, part multi-media (net) art history resource,
and the opening salvo from the TECHNE group at the University
of Colorado at Boulder. This 1.0  version of the site features
seventeen video and email interviews with international net artists
including Mark Napier, Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries,
Ben Benjamin of Superbad, Melinda Rackham, Lev Manovich, Giselle
Beiguelmann, Heath Bunting, John F. Simon Jr., Erik Loyer and many
others. The site also includes a curated exhibition of 35 net-based art
works, a section devoted to net theory, and a peak inside the work
being created by students inside the TECHNE lab. This easy-to-navigate
site with its stunning design and exploratory content is  produced by
undergraduate and Graduate students inside theUniversity of Colorado's
Department of Fine Arts.



Introductory Statement by Mark Amerika
The "Histories of Internet Art: Fictions and Factions" web site is an
online-only exhibition of the early (and continuous) history of Internet
art.
Produced by students in the Digital Art area located in the University
of
Colorado's Fine Arts Department, and in conjunction with the Alt-X
Online
Network and blurr_ digital inovation center, this ongoing exhibition
showcases a student-designed web interface that takes readers to online
art work created by both internationally celebrated and emerging
Internet
artists. The site also provides much-needed original content to help
contextualize the sudden rise of Internet art into the mainstream art
world.
Original content on the site includes video and email interviews with
many
important figures in the net art culture, explanations of current trends

in the field and reviews of the work selected for our exhibition site.
The
site also features an area devoted to critical theory and the history
of digital art as well as significant student work composed during their
course
of study in the new Digital Art curriculum being developed at
CU-Boulder.
This project grows out of a new  practice-based research initiative
called
TECHNE that enables students and faculty to investigate the most
efficient
and rewarding ways to augment the creative process as it relates to a
digital arts
practice in an unfolding network environment. As is often the case with
heuristic
learning environments, producing sites like "Histories of Internet Art"
allows
students both a hands-on experience in creating complex digital designs
as well
as an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills via self-motivated
personal
discovery and group collaboration.