Preface

  • Quick history of the Web in three eras:
    • The early web: 90's to 2005ish
      • Homepages, animated gifs, AOL
    • : 2005ish to 2010ish
      • MySpace, Facebook, YouTube
        → Internet transitions to mass popularity - subject of much of my art
    • Current era: 2010ish to present
      • Apps, mobile, Instagram, less "web pages"...




































My journey to the World Wide Web

  • A music fan falling out of love with music
    • mp3s + free downloading + easy info
    • Quick and worthless -- no respect, tap water
    • Is music (journalism, dating...) ruined, or is something else going on?

  • The Internet was eating Music
    • The Internet as equalizing force
    • Insanely accelerated version of "DIY"
    • What truly moves me now and why?

    When you see the most amazing thing you've ever seen every single day, amazing things aren't amazing anymore: I became curious about this banality





























































Surfing community

  • Started to understand this cultural shift by surfing the web and sharing links on del.icio.us (joined late 2004)
    • What was(/is) del.icio.us?
    • We loved the home-made & "normal" people participating in DIY
    • (To clarify: My interests are not really in "memes" [e.g. LOLcats])

  • Some examples (mostly homepages, not a great overview):
2670ad 53os 75688837 aaronfai alexlane amemigarba ando.steinmetz angeloplessas annala apkozlowski atcat Automatic_Update avakaufman awlavallee b.w.schumacher babiesarentreal bblagojevic bfinoradin billy_liar binaryrobot blackmoth britta cabbi caloriewarp cameron catshive cecimoss chris_collins ClubInternet.org connor constantje cory_arcangel cosmic cybersex Damik55 damonzucconi dashouck davidberezin davidhorvitz dearjessica deltalfa dialogistkantor droitcour eddietainment eldiablito elemenoh esesms fagette felicitree fennec_sokoko ffnnnfnf fi5e fixoid fnnnf frankzadlo frederic gardinal ge.ty.si genemchugh genom4 geyarp glaciersofnice gocutters hairdo_mcpancakes HayleySilverman Heather_Rasley herman_ootix iainandjane ilord index_of_links iovechkin irenerinconiriondo itsallhalal J_O_D_I JackKitzler jbaij jmshaeffer JoelHolmberg jonathanvingiano jonrafman jordanrhoat joshua jpegmess jwheelock jww kick_out_the_internet_jams killinUrd00dz Kiptok kseeno KTMnoideas ktodora lauren_cornell Leegte leftherism LeisureArts lilylilylily lindsaylawson lobsterrags lostpostservice louisfuton lowcast lowfive m.river manapea manetas marisaolson martijnhendriks martyscorsese mathwrath mattmordecai mbs mcbrown mersenne_twister mguidetti michelobLIE mikenavarro mthw muppy5 nastynets natehitchcock ndjandji nervousxcircuits newrafael nikkosmas notgluegun ola_vasiljeva olialia P3Y59A panchi2131 pcho petedeeva petracortright piotch pjbaldes PKslime Pluralmedium pnowogro powerwulf preciousstuff psflannery psisto pup pupsintrouble qwertypak radjustin REAS regine representordie rhizomedotorg righteousharmony rsg samsanford sandchords saranrapjs sccottt seandockray seecoy sirwilliam sl1ckn1ck taboularasa telicartsexchange tforkin the_new_normal thisisnoisland thisrecording thomasbeard thomasgalloway thomastraum tiiiiiiiiiim tinyherald toommy tootite4liph topsyturvy tracky travelersdiagram trollbaby tsttbe tyler_campbell Vamptooth vostok1 werdtoyourmoms williamcotton Windfucker winning_information WIZARDISHUNGRY youpy yowhatsupdog























ankh.jpg via Travis Hallenbeck 




































Defaults

Why did we like this stuff?
  • With the Internet, DIY = Mainstream (not "alternative")
    • Computers/Internet were becoming everyday

  • Technically Un-impressive
    • Attracted to Internet DIY that is often boring & slow paced
    • "Minimal-janky" - Different from "lo-fi"
      • They let the computer do the work
      • Never completely looks like a mess, because there is always a corporate/anti-septic foundation

  • I found myself drawn to defaults...
    • Basic video effects, preset font styles, clip art and templates...
    • When the technology itself, even though it was intended for boundless creativity, has a tangible influence on the end result















Hacking Defaults
Hacking a Nintendo cartridge to make images Using MS Paint to make images
12 point Times New Roman
Net.Art 1.0 ???

Anxiety
Banality
"The Man is taking away our privacy... that's lame!" "We willingly give up our own privacy (i.e. endlessly talking about ourselves on our Myspace profiles)... why?"
Empowering The People by subverting The Man's power Being and critiquing The People by using the tools made by The Man
Rock & Roll attitude Exuberant humility
Jodi's blogs Tom Moody's blog
Sophisticated breaking of technology Semi-naive, regular use of technology

Hacking vrs defaults chart, 2007







I love the struggle of something "real" slightly peeping through this kind of structure

and "Normal" Internet users using this pre-existing foundation






































































Internet group shot, 2006
































Artist / Internet surfer

  • Babies' First Steps, 2005
    • Pre-YouTube (or pre-YouTube-era) videos
    • A very common video to find
    • Patterns within videos emerge

  • Myspace Intro Playlist, 2006
    • Young people welcoming the world to their myspace profiles; I took them out of their original contexts and put them together in a playlist
    • The playlist is a default form, but also the videos conform to unspoken defaults
    • Similar tone and form -- like voicemail greetings
    • Not voyeuristic, more like a series of commercials
    • Lack of "mainstream" polish unwanted in diy?

  • 2001<<<>>>2006, 2007
    • Default Photobooth and Ken Burns effects vrs. film special effects
    • The User juxtaposted with Hollywood
    • Positioning YouTube players/embeds

  • "Released" via blogspot, delicious, nasty nets, theageofmammals.com
    ...and Gallery/Museum context
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    Floor Warp 2, 2008




















    The Big Database

    • The bigger picture
      • Mp3s as small chunks in a Big Database, music not aware of database
      • Art as entries in database Vvork (Now: Artsy, Contemporary Art Daily...)
      • Internet-aware Art?

    • The generic ideal, too much stuff
      • Cliches/the generic as response to the big database
      • Parallels the banality of defaults and the "normal" Internet user




    • Artist Looking at Camera, 2006
      • From GettyImages search for "artist looking at camera"
      • Stock pursues the generic
      • Stock material is meticulously keyworded
      • DIY as mainstream thing again...artist fantasy

    • Acapella, 2009
      • Cheaper made stock footage from efootage.com
      • Imagine a guy alone in a room with a camera, filming himself
      • Resembles a lot of performance-style video art
      • Trying very hard to make the perfectly genericly ideal clip, but failing so slightly makes it very interesting

    • Dreams from Google 3D warehouse, 2010
      • Open database of models, anyone can upload or download
      • Contacted modelers for more information about their dreams
      • I had previously contributed my own models















    Gatorade full spectrum, 2008