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Featured Event

As we venture into the future, we lean on history. The original Internet Artists, or Net Artists, working in the early 1990s, created artworks using the internet. Before the New York Times got online, artists like Mark Amerika, Olia Lialina, and JODI were using the internet as their artistic medium (demos included). For them, the internet was a new frontier – novel and unexplored. But, this was before WordPress and before most of us were truly aware of the internet and its capabilities. Now, more people have the opportunity to create online and actively participate in the internet landscape. Plus, everyone can start an internet company and create internet art.

This presentation is different each time. Win highlights different lessons learned from the original Internet Artists, and showcases new creations since then.

Featured Event:
NYC WordPress Meetup

Location:
Tumblr/Automattic HQ, Manhattan

Date:
April 6, 2024

More Presentation Dates
& Recordings

West Orlando WordPress Meetup

Watch Recording @ YouTube

October 19th, 2023

Virtual

WordCamp Montclair 2022

Watch Recording @ WordPress.tv

September 2nd, 2023

In-Person

Learn WordPress

Watch Recording @ WordPress.tv

March 1st, 2023

Virtual

NYC WordPress Meetup

Register @ Meetup.com

April 6th @ 6 pm ET, 2024

Hybrid

WordPress as a Paintbrush

Internet Art Then & Now

Rachel Winchester

Visual Webmaster, l. l. c.

“Creative & Compelling Communication”

My Background & Perspective:

Art

  • 2017: B.A. in Art History
  • Contemporary Art Museums & Galleries

Products

  • 2020: UX Design Bootcamp
  • Independent Product Designer
  1. Net Art: Setting the Stage
  2. WordPress: Then ’til Now
  3. Future: What Now?

Net Art

Setting the Stage

Jurassic Park

VCRs and Cassette Tapes

President Bill Clinton

1993 – 2001

Cartoon Network

Oprah Interviews Michael Jackson

90s

Pulp Fiction

Metallica plays at the GRAMMYs

CDs

Gameboy

Internet History

Apple Macintosh II

Photo: Hellis at it.wikipedia

Word Wide Web

1991

First Internet Service PRovider

1994

HTML released to the Public

1992

1 million People Online

Getting People Online

1

Government

3

Corporations

2

Universitites

4

Public

Internet Art

Conceptual

Relating to or based on mental concepts

Digital

Electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data

Internet-centric

Global computer network for information and communication

Early Examples

Olia Lialina

1996

"Netfilm"

Pioneer, Organizer, Curator

Demo:
“My Boyfriend Came Back From the War”

teleportacia.org/war/

"I was not very fond of this format back then. I would have preferred it to be a video, but animated GIF was the only way to get a moving image in the browser."

- Olia Lialina

JODI

Joan Heemskerk and
Dirk Paesmans

1995

"Code Poetry"

Demo:
“wwwwwwwww.JODI.org”

“When you work with computers, you have sound and you have image, but in the computer you also have code. And we tried to play with that a lot.”

- Joan Heemskerk (JODI)

Mark Amerika

1997

"Epic Novel"

Selected for 2000 Whitney Biennial

Demo:
“GRAMMATRON”

grammatron.com/

"What is kind of scary is the possibility of never reaching production closure because of the advent of all these software applications."

- Mark Amerika

Timeline

1996

New York Times goes online

1997

Forming a definition

Late 90s

  1. Net Art: Setting the Stage
  2. WordPress: Then ’til Now
  3. Future: What Now?

WordPress

Then 'til Now

# of Websites

WordPress

2003

What it is:

Open-source

Content Management System: Theme, Plugins, Media, Database, “Core”

How it helps:

  • easier to build websites
  • easier to build companies
  • easier to publish content
  • easier to connect to people

Web History

Major Factors

  • Smartphones & PCs
  • Social media
  • Blockchain

WordPress

Revolutionizing the Web

  • Transparent
  • Democratized
  • No-code Options

'internet art'

Understanding a definition

  • minimalism
  • expressionism
  • cubism

Newer examples of internet art

Adrian Piper

2013

Misinformation, Ownership

DEMO:
“Removed and Reconstructed (Autobiography)”

adrianpiper.com/removed-and-reconstructed-en.wikipedia-biography.shtml

Raphael Rozendahl

w. 2000 - present

Sells websites as art

ATLAS + SUZI

Platform Art

Comedy

Marketing

Demo:
“Amazon Dating”

Blog Post:
atlasacopian.com/amazon-dating

  1. Net Art: Setting the Stage
  2. WordPress: Then ’til Now
  3. Future: What Now?

Future:

What now?

What Now?

Net Art's Function

  • Understand the Past
  • Experiment with the Present
  • Imagine the Future

2016

2022

GRAMMATRON REMIXED W/ CHATGPT

CMS: WordPress

Front-End: Elementor

Content: AI (ChatGPT)

"My focus is and has always been to look at the role that technē, technicity, plays...

To really investigate the prosthesis I am."

- Mark Amerika

Go forth and make art!

Like I did...

“Only when users start to express themselves with these technical innovations do they truly become relevant to culture at large.”

- Olia Lialina

Thank You!