Internet art

Art transcends format so it is no surprise that with the birth of the Internet a new form of art arrived: Digital art. Digital art is made or at least modified on a computer. Due to the many different tastes and preferences of people around the world Internet art is an amalgamation of styles.

The Internet is a perfect platform for art. There will always be an audience and the idea that if you like your art, there is probably at least another few people who will enjoy it and more will serve as an audience.  Websites such as DeviantArt are social networks for artists to share their work. No longer do established artists have to be from a family that is well-off, most of the best work comes from people that struggle and have something to keep their art fresh anyway. Artists can present their art on websites and performance artists can have videos on video sites such as YouTube or Vimeo, which advertise similar videos, making it easier for someone with an interest in art like it to find the artists.

With the multitude of artists finding a new platform it is becoming increasingly necessary to ‘push the boat out’ and resort to more shocking art to get seen. Shock art is deep in the roots of post nineteenth century art, making a piece of art ironically to provoke the audience is a well-established form of art but with so many artists on the internet, performance art is becoming more graphic and gruesome and still image art is reaching new highs (or lows) thanks to the invention of photo editing software. It is obvious that a lot of these artists are only doing it to see how far they can go and just for the shock rather than doing it for arts sake. The depths of the internet can be a scary place full of these weird images that someone had obviously thought of.

Another form of internet art often forgot about is designing websites. To be one website in millions and have a viewer stay on the page is a skill so the site designer has but a few seconds to catch the viewers eye and direct them (without telling) where the page wants them to go. A logo can be the most famous part of a website or it could be an easy or fun layout. Basically, however, the page has to portray accurately the subject it is on in a few seconds. For example, Google has a sleek, minimalist webpage whereas Reddit would be cluttered, to allow for the readers to lose concentration on one subject and swiftly move to another without leaving the site.

The internet has had a great impact on art and the changes it has made regarding who can and cannot be an artist as well as requiring new forms of art to be made to allow for the ever changing fashions of this new and volatile platform.

Digital life

I was born in January 1990, just missing the eighties. When I was six my Granda gave me an old Amstrad (called Arthur). The games were cassette tapes inserted into the drive and when not playing games the accompanying book held lists of run codes to make the computer do interesting things like fireworks or make sounds. I would spend hours writing in these codes to achieve something new. That was my first experience of a computer and I’ll never forget it. But by that time, most households with a computer were running Windows and I didn’t have a computer after that until secondary school, or a home Internet connection until I was maybe 19. But I always had an interest in computers and when the time came for me to have my own I discovered that whatever I was going to do in life, it would be digital. I am a ‘late bloomer’ for my generation, although I was able to take to computers easily, by the time I discovered photoshop, people were already whizzing by and I had no idea what to do. I only began using it last year.  Yet it doesn’t totally perplex me when I see children on iPhones or other such technologies. My housemates nephew came over a few weeks ago and at 4 years old was able to sit and play with my iPad, find Sonic, go to the App Store to download another Sonic game (without me noticing until it was too late) and play it with me. I thought this was incredible and that the child was a genius until I was told his two year old brother could do almost the very same sans actually downloading apps. It is the equivalent of a child sitting in front of a TV, except they can find their own videos on YouTube or on the video app, or play games.

Probably the strangest thing about generations born in the later part of the 20^th Century and 21^st Century is the fact that we have computers on tap. We are born with this technology surrounding us and at an achievable price. The house I live in now is wired up so much that it is impossible to do anything without coming in contact with technology with the exception of maybe the acoustic instruments. Children born into this environment have no choice but to learn the tricks of these technologies, but when you watch young children, it seems like it is an ability not learned, but somehow an evolutionary knowledge of how to work these gadgets especially now that the interfaces are SO user friendly that having to read no longer poses an obstacle, it is all sight and recognition of the app logos. These children are called digital natives.

Being a Digital Native is not about being smarter than the preceding generations, it is the contact that children have with these technologies at such an early age that helps them. Akin to learning how to speak because people are talking to you, children are learning how to use Tablets and Smartphones because they are being shown how. With the multitude of Children’s apps and Learning apps it is no surprise that young children are using them and schools are even beginning to integrate iPads in the classroom.

On the other side of the spectrum are Digital Immigrants, people born before the Digital revolution. So called because it is more difficult for them to integrate themselves into our Digital society. Immigrants can find it difficult to understand that the shift in learning is not singular but a phenomenon that has happened around the world. Teachers who fail to understand that practiced teaching methods that were around in their school days are out of date can be excused of their ignorance because computers to them are still a new fad and some immigrants even find it hard to use them no matter how easy the interface. And then there are the adopters. These people are immigrants, born before the Digital Revolution, but are ultimately more tech-savvy than most Digital Natives. My Granda, in his seventies by now, is an adopter. His job required him to start using computers early in the revolution and so he was easily able to adopt the newer formats that arrived.

Digital natives are so immersed in technology, we have constant connection to the Internet and as a result of that, anywhere in the world, our fun is online, whether it is consoles or computer games, we can even stream to our TV from computers. We are so connected now, more so than ever. At the start of Radio, David Sarnoff conceived Sarnoffs Law, which was a ‘few to many’ network. This meant that a lone transmitter could reach many different people; the network was dependent on its receivers to derive any value. This was the case until the Ethernet arrived and a new law was needed because networks grew and it was no longer one device sending to one or more receivers. Coined by Robert Metcalfe, Metcalfe’s Law stated that ‘The value of the network grows with the square of the number of nodes’. Basically, computers could send and receive to others. This only worked on a very small level until the Internet arrived which meant that devices could send and receive signals from a multitude of different recievers. This is Reed’s Law and it is the connection between closed computer networks and social networking.

Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher, coined the word Simulcra, which means living life through simulations of real life. Social networks, games and texting are attributions of Simulcra, we are in contact with more people than ever but not face to face. We have more ‘friends’ now than ever and we winningly share information of ourselves that normally we never would have. Facebook is like a glossy magazine. Pictures are shared, gossip is juicy and drama is high and as much as it irritates me, it is the second thing I check every day. Another site, Reddit, is a user contributed news aggregator that compiles interesting content every day and is used around the world. This is the first thing and I could be looking at a picture and talking to someone anywhere else in the world yet most days I will see the five people I live with and only more if I go out or go to class. This is true for a lot more people these days. The need to leave the house to interact with others is null and void. With the invention of smartphones and smaller computers ease of access means that with a touch of a button we are online and connected to the world.

Role-playing games (or RPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons and later games like World of Warcraft are excellent examples of Simulcra; sometimes completely replacing real life. It is a way for more socially inept people to socialize and almost becomes a way of life, an addiction. There are cases of people divorcing due to their spouses cheating in an RPG (mainly Second Life) and even neglecting children to look after a virtual child. This is Simulcra at its finest, where people have their lives online and barely exist offline. The confidence that being in front of a computer screen gives people means that the players can be whoever they want to be and can live a fuller life than they could ‘IRL’ and this is what causes the addiction.

We are all living through Simulcra. Some more so than others, with the growth of the Internet it is becoming increasingly difficult to not have some aspects of your life online. And with computers becoming smaller and more inclusive in everyday life it is easier to realise that the film ‘Wall-E’ is more of a prediction than you think. 

Music

“Sight isolates, sound incorporates. Whereas sight situates the observer outside what he views, at a distance, sound pours into the hearer.” (1961) Walter Ong.

One cannot simply escape sound; even deaf people will perceive sounds (albeit differently to hearing people). It is immersive and cannot be truly shut out. As I sit in my apartment on my own, I can hear traffic, the hum of my computer, clocks ticking and my fingers tapping. Sound is not something we can merely live without; it is our warning beacon, our emotional soundtrack and our intimate lover. Is it any wonder, then, that sound is so prevalent in art. That video that made you weep is nothing without a soundtrack, for without sound, our emotions are never fully aware how to react. Any change in tempo, or tone and the visual has a completely different meaning. To throw in a pop culture reference, think of the motif in Scrubs that is played during a melancholy scene and remember how just by hearing that music you know it is sad, or going to get worse. That cue is necessary to make the audience know that there is a change in the feeling of the show, which until probably thirty seconds before was funny.

Sound is subjective, one person my like a sound that another may not. It is far beyond the vibrations, medium and timbre that physically make the sound. Sound pulls emotion from people. A building site outside your bedroom can make you angry and similarly, a piece of piano played with minors at a slow pace can make you sad. Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho” would not be the same without it’s score, film is enhanced by the sound, and silence (a forgotten sound) plays an integral part in denoting suspense, as well as dissonant notes played softly. Sound effects (foley) play a huge part to portray how things should sound. A lot of times, these effects are made with objects like sheets of metal and tin cans. For films with non-musical scores foley is fundamental in getting the emotions the director wants across; because just having a video on a screen is no longer excitable, and hasn’t been since Bruce Forsyth was a child. 

Music tells a story, even before scores for films there was the Romeo and Juliet Overture from Tchaikovsky (based on Shakespeare’s play). It told the story through musical instruments, like listening to the music from Tom and Jerry cartoons. You know what is happening without even seeing the images. It appeals to the sight, sound and even touch, as bassier frequencies will help you FEEL the music.

John Cage once said, “All sound is music, music is all sound” and he demonstrated it with his piece ‘4’33”’. This aggravated people’s perceptions of music and made them think. I have had discussions with my housemates about whether this piece is musical or not but for me, I find it incredibly interesting. It proves a silence is never silence. Even sounds of the restless audience, the rustle of clothes and programs, have a musical feel to them.

Dadaism, the birth of Conceptual Art

Conceptual art was started by a group of artistic rebels (and yes I use the term loosely) off the back of World War 1. Artists were discontented with the war and the violence connected to it and also with the rigidity of art at the time, whether it was visual, literature, theatre or design. Painting was no longer good enough for the visual, people were getting bored.

Square dancing, you're doing it wrong

Dada burst onto the scene with a bang. Their art mainly for shock value, their pieces and ideas influenced many movements afterwards such as surrealism and shock art. Concept artists used visuals that were not before used in art. The first piece that really announced the scene was something rarely seen before anywhere but a men’s toilet. A urinal. Hung from the ceiling. In Tate Modern. Granted, the hung piece was a reproduction (the original hung in the artist Marcel Duchamp’s studio proudly, where only a seldom few would see it. Both were signed R Mutt (the piece was submitted under the pseudo name Richard Mutt) 1917. The piece and the reproduction were to revolutionise how we see art today.

It was torture for the guys with IBS

‘The Fountain’ changed people’s perception of art but also made people question the validity of the ‘Bathroom Appliance” as a piece of art. People either argued that it was art or that it was vile and tasteless. Remember though that this was at the start of the 20^th century, where people were still very prude. Dadaism was an anti-establishment movement; they had no leader but were an unorganized group of artists free from rules, a stark contrast to wartime Europe. They were artistic anarchists.

Marcel's kids HATED peek a boo

Concept art brings the question ‘Are ideas as important as representations?’ Could the idea that the urinal portrays, the lack of rules, the need to express themselves differently, the shock, just be shown in a painting? A piece is nothing without an idea, but what if the idea WAS the piece? Instead of trying to just paint an abstract piece, concept art gets people talking. It opened the way for artists to show their pieces in any other areas. This formed the way for land art and site-specific art, where the location was part of the piece itself. This can make for a lot of wonder and amazement, like the crop circles that were formed with just two guys, yet people still think of them as UFO landing sites.

I think he's just a cover... look at his HEAD!

Maybe on a more aggressive level, graffiti is derived from conceptual art. Blek le Rat, the French ‘street artist’ is famed for his stencils of rats around France and thereafter many other European countries. The Rats portrayed freedom, (rats can do what they want and go where they want) and the towns and cities were Blek’s canvas. Without the idea of conceptualism, and indeed, Dadaism, artists such as Blek le Rat and Banksy would not be able to express their art, nor would any pieces of graffiti that have a meaning (and aren’t just a name tag) have a place in society. We have a lot to thank Dadaism for.

“Dada:

An early-20th-century international movement in art, literature, music, and film, repudiating and mocking artistic and social conventions and emphasizing the illogical and absurd.”