Now are the times for net.art

As US schools prepare to open for the 2020 -2021 school year, the COVID-19 global pandemic is forcing art educators to rethink many of their practices. This Fall, 11 of the 15 largest school systems in the US will solely use distance learning, affecting over 2.8 million students (1).

Art educators are also rethinking the relationship between their practices and social justice; many are specifically concerned with the oppression of black people in the United States and how this influences art educational practices. The killing of George Floyd on May 25, at the hands of police in Minneapolis MN, sparked protests that have expressed rage at this specific injustice, as well as serving as a platform for larger calls for the defunding of the police and legal justice reform. These protests have aligned with the COVID-19 pandemic in a number of ways. Both point out that systemic racism has resulted in Black and Brown people in the US being more likely to die from COVID-19, and more likely to die at the hands of the police.

While these issues are opening up space for long-neglected conversations to be had, and now that distance education is more common than ever, it is time for art educators to embrace art that speaks to racial injustice and oppression, and that is also made to be viewed at a distance. Art that is ‘born digital’ (2). Net.art.

The beginnings of net.art can be traced back to the early 1990’s, when the World Wide Web was starting to open up to a wider audience. The term itself is credited to Slovenian artist Vuk Cosic, who reported that it was the result of a computer glitch (3). Early examples of net.art were primarily text-based, due to the data limitations of the early WWW. As home computers became more powerful, net.art began to incorporate images, eventually incorporating video. With the rise of mobile computing came the ability for place-based visualizations, usually in the form of augmented reality such as Pokemon Go.

Net.art tends to be made by artists who identify as white. While this is not remarkable, considering that an estimated 85% of artists represented in US museums are white (4), it does challenge the idea that the internet was to be a space for increased representation and visibility. While this disparity exists, there have been a number of important works made by People of Color.

Keith and Mendhi Obadike speak to aspects of race as it functions and serves to reaffirm power and privilege on the internet. They have archived their 20 years of net.art at http://www.blacknetart.com

Jennifer Chan explores issues of consumerism and race through a variety of contemporary artistic practices. Her work “addresses gender and race politics in reaction to the media’s promise of happiness. (5)” Her work can be found at: http://jennifer-chan.com/recent/

Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz uses YouTube as a platform for video art that speaks to representation in the art world. Her performance persona Chuleta is her performative outlet for reflections on current topics in the gallery-based contemporary art system: https://www.raimundiart.com

These artists are only a small representation of the important work that has been done by net.artists on race and digital technology. Art educators who are currently looking for way to open up important conversations about race at the same time that they are challenged by the lack of face-to-face contact might find excellent opportunities for engagement with art and artists in the 30 years of net.art. Much of this art has been archived at Rhizome.org (6), but there are numerous outlets for net.art out there.

The time for art educators to use net.art is now.

1. School Districts’ Reopening Plans: A Snapshot (2020, July 15). Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/school-districts-reopening-plans-a-snapshot.html

2. Ryan M. Patton, & Aaron D. Knochel. (2017). VAR Born Digital Editorial. Visual Arts Research, 43(1), V-Xiv. doi:10.5406/visuartsrese.43.1.000v

3. http://www.easylife.org/netart/

4. https://news.artnet.com/market/new-study-shows-us-art-museums-grappling-with-diversity-1467256

5. http://front.bc.ca/events/jennifer-chan-2/

6. Rhizome has recently published a guide for activists using digital media as a space of resistance, which is available at https://rhizome.org/editorial/2020/jun/03/digital-resources-for-a-movement-against-police-violence/