The debate over a definition for
art is never-ending.
net.art, born on the
tides of the
infinitely fluid data ocean, is the beginning of the final culmination of
art and the
artist's fundamental endeavor: mapping the
memetic space of the
mind onto the physical dimensions of
reality.
Beginning with the manipulation of physical space to control sensory stimuli (i.e. painting, music, culinary arts, etc.), the mental matter of language was then added to the mix to create poetry, song, fiction, campaign slogans. The computer is a language machine, built upon the foundations of a structured syntax. This is exactly what the human brain is, complete with visual and aureal expression. As such, the computer represents an abstract space with infinitely more resolution than the painter's canvas. As such, net.art is the first art to accurately reflect the artist's consciousness with some degree of precision. Furthermore, since cyberspace is a global phenomenon, the internet increasingly reflects the collective consciousness of humanity as a whole. Whereas the brain and its descendent consciousness is a network organism on the micromolecular (and probably quantum) scale, the net is a distributed organism on the macrophysical scale, representing the exteriorization of abstract mental space. net.art is the latest result of the universal algorithm of infusing Mind into matter.
net.art is not.art; it is the prologue to the next big thing.
Examples:
http://jodi.org/
http://www.0100101110110101.org/
http://www.superbad.com/
http://www.absurd.org/
http://www.hell.com/
http://www.plagiarist.org/