Curatorial Statement

It doesn’t take a genius to realize how the internet has grown exponentially. Social media alone has expanded in numerous ways, marketing children at a very young age to basically senior citizens. That is the power of the internet. It has a way of connecting large numbers of various groups of people from various places worldwide. The internet increases potentiality in various aspects of life such as communication, knowledge intake, and even art. Internet art specifically has shown the world a different way of expressing ideas and promoting a cause.

In this day and age, the accessibility of the internet is incredible. So long as one has access to a modem, one has access to the world at large.1 For instance, it is entirely possible for a child at the age of 8 to watch tutorials on and learn how to drive solely from YouTube.2 The amount of information that can be shared is unfathomable, as well as how information is being displayed. There are countless ways to express an idea online, whether it be through digital images or animation. With that in mind, artist often take advantage of this technological era, challenging the many ways in which their message can be delivered.

One powerful factor that internet artist largely incorporate in their work is activism. Activism is often thought of in a physical sense, such as protests. It is also presumed that activism with art involves drawings, posters, literature, and other printed/physical materials. However, when activism is combined specifically with internet art, the audience reacts in a wide sense of ambivalence. With that said, this exhibition is going to display internet art focusing on internet activism. To be even more specific, the five pieces being represented will focus on the topics of war and a social commentary on government tactics. The online world is where people are easily able to control information and have an opportunity to network. Therefore, it no surprise that the internet has become a battleground for freedom of speech and information. 3 It is no longer just for the government and computing purposes as historically shown. Internet activists and artists clearly shows their audience that evolving the internet and technology as a whole has allowed for public exposure while bringing people together through sensitive subjects and experiences.

The Immigration Project is a great example of internet art that delivers a social commentary on government. Anni Holm, the artist responsible for this project, was inspired by the security protocols and precautions that had risen due to the September 11th attack.

Holm is a Danish immigrant who moved to the United States in hopes of completing a Fine Arts degree. She graduated with a BFA in photography and is not only known for the images she had taken but also for her conceptual installations, performances, and collaborative art. Her work largely concerns the topic of immigrants. For instance, she answers the question of how we can make the “aliens” of this country feel not so alienated through her art piece Passport to the United States. The Immigration Project portrays a similar message in which a group of people are connected to one another due to their foreign identity. After the unforgettably and horrific day of September 11, 2001, it was discovered that the suicide pilots involved were in the country on expired student visas. This information alone creates a large sense of fear from foreign students who seek education in the United States. The public concern about national security triggered a change in immigration protocol and precautions. 4 This included a mandatory enforcement of fingerprinting as well as tracking card with chip implants. The knowledge of personal information from these incoming foreign students were seen as a tool to secure America. Holm, being someone who initially came to the United States with a student visa, decided to incorporate this issue into her internet art. After collecting approximately 4,000 life-size fingerprints, Holm was able to utilize them by creating large digital portraits of international students. 5

Holm’s process for the Immigration Project can be categorized as a collaborative one, as with most internet artists. 6 Andy Deck for example is known for his collaborative public art that incorporated that sense of ambivalence within his aesthetic. Deck’s work can also be categorized within problematic interface, informative art. He displays internet activism through the subject of mass media misrepresentation. He challenges the way mass media portrays certain subjects, specifically war, through his website’s appearances. He provides an alternative for internet interactivity and interface design. In fact, it can be seen that Deck intentionally goes against basic graphic design principles in terms of a pleasurable aesthetic. In doing so, it provokes a sense of irritancy due to unsettling features, whether it be miniscule or large.

AntiWar404, the piece being exhibited here, is one that speaks very clearly to the idea that opposes what is typically considered good looking. When you first enter the website, you are introduced to what it is and the general purpose or thought of its existence. You are also able to see a “mosaic” art piece, which is a collective group of photos, collages, and posters documenting the graphics of missing websites. Every image promotes peace and pushes a stop to war. Internet activism like this is often supported by lively and disputatious critism. 7 By bringing forward a popular issue, specifically about warfare and the desperate need for hope and peace, it criticizes corporate culture and militarism. In other words, Andy Deck has created an online war resistance. 8

In terms of the overall aesthetic, the animated yellow and orange squares in the background are in consistent and the content is placed in a very basic manner, none of which offer a sense of appeal. It is evident of an internet artist’s way of provoking a certain response from the viewers, usually something that is initially unwanted, such as irritation, confusion, or aggravation. The name itself and the way it is dominantly displayed on the website initiates such response. 404 is a number commonly associated with a website or network error. By including this within the name and the overall idea of Andy Deck’s work, it implies a sense of disruption from daily routine and activities in hopes of directing attention to his cause. 9

The third artist represented in the exhibition is one that is known to research an individual’s place within systems. Martin John Callahan often express how technological, economic, environmental, and other systems can be made tangible to the individual and in an accessible way. Most of Callahan’s work are information collected or delivered over a period of time. He also represents internet artist in the sense that his art attempts to segregate or incorporate online practices with traditional categories such as performance art. 10 For instance, one performance involves tracking and publishing one’s live location every minute in the course of two years. Similarly, the work exhibited here also displays an action and list of information within a timeline. 11

Callahan’s Wars During My Lifetime was done in two ways, live action and an audio track. The piece is originally a performance in which a man dressed in eighteenth century fashion would walk around public spaces announcing a list of wars within a person’s lifespan. When entering the website, there is automatically an audio track of this man’s announcement paired with still images of the performance and description of the project as a whole. It displays activism because of the way his list was delivered to the public. The historically costumed man exaggerated the idea of being in a time of warfare while also commenting on the fact that there have constantly been wars since the beginning of this country. By randomly announcing the list with no precautions, the information and therefore the issue is being forced unto the public hearing. It is the same aspect when clicking on the website. The length and frequency of this list implies the issue in which war seems to be a common “solution” or practice based. The overall work plays a role in reiterating recent wars as well reminding the audience of previous and/or forgotten pieces of history.

Joseph DeLappe is another internet artist that heavily displays social commentaries about government and war. DeLappe is a professor at Aberty University in Dundee, Ireland, teaching the subject of games and tactical media. He is known for art performances as well as installation concerning war and the United State’s media portrayal of it. A great example of this is his online performance “dead-in-iraq,” which is the piece exhibited here. DeLappe plays the recruiting game called “America’s Army” and stands there while manually typing the names, age, service branch, and death of those who died in iraq. His character would constantly die and respawn as he enters these dead soldiers’ information. As the game went on, DeLappe would encounter unamused current soldiers who played the game as an escape from their war invested lifestyle.

“dead-in-iraq” functioned as an online memorial to the men and women who served our country. It was also a social commentary in response to social media’s lack of press regarding the effects of war. It did not address the idea and act of the United States invading Iraq and the thousands who are dying there. Plus, DeLappe wanted to touch on the lack of government strategy to disengage. 12

The last internet artist represented here is Wafaa Bilal. He is an Iraqi-born artist “known internationally for his online performative and interactive works provoking dialogue about international politics and internal dynamics.” Also concerning the Iraq War, Bilal uses is performance art piece, Domestic Tension, to display the conditions of bombardment felt by citizens of his homeland. The alternative name for this work was called The Paintball Project. It involved a paintball gun connected to the internet. This allowed people to access the ability to shoot 24/7. People shot Bilal so often that he resorted to placing a glass shield in front of his bed, that way he was able to sleep in peace, even if it were only a couple of hours. 13

One of the main idea Bilal reinforces is the idea of comfort zone versus conflict zone. In other words, he is introducing the thought of existing in a comfort zone while power is constantly being taken away by higher institutions. It displays the inescapable vulnerability in which those who live in Iraq, or other war torn countries, have to live with every day of their lives.

Another point Bilal introduces is about the use of video games as a form of activism art. The fact that people over the internet are able to pull a trigger in a setting they do not physically occupy reflects the idea of video games centralized around war and gun violence. The point is more apparent in his other art piece Virtual Jihadi. Here he creates a suicide bomber character posing as himself. Overall, using the Internet and video games as art mediums bypass the censorship of higher institutions, allowing Bilal to fully express his cause and ideas with minimal restrictions. 14

With technology constantly changing, more and more people are taking advantage of it allowing a wider opportunity for art and activism. Due to a global access, internet activists are able to gain a much larger audience for their cause, not just to listen but to join as well. In fact, “modern information and communication technology, particularly the internet, has become central to current modes of activism and politics world wide.” 15 Internet art relies heavily on an interaction between the viewers and the piece, most of which are performances or installations. This aspect is debatably one of the main distinctions between new media art, such as the use of internet and video games, and traditional art, which include paintings and printed photographs or drawings. Interactivity is also incorporated very clearly in all five artists within this exhibition. Their ways of distributing an emotion or idea impacts the viewers directly and causes mixed responses. Whether it be a strange look or a violent threat, there will always be a reaction, especially with internet activism.

Notes

Carrie Twomey, Dissent on the ‘net, (Fortnight Publications Ltd., 2001) 12.
Mary Bowerman, 8-year-old learns to drive on YouTube, Heads to McDonald’s, (USA Today, 2017.)
Twomey, Dissent on the ‘net, 12.
Liza Featherstone, CAUGHT IN THE WEB: Economics of Immigration, (Sage Publications, Inc., 2012) 99.
Anniholm.com
Julian Stallabrass, The Aesthetics of Net.Art, (Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 2003) 50.
Ibid., 59.
Andyland.net
Getpeaceful.org/AntiWar404
Jon Ippolito, Ten Myths of Internet Art, (Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 2002) 468.
Greyisgood.eu
Delappe.net
Rebecca Clarren, Virtually Dead in Iraq, (Oregon, Salon.com, 2006.)
Wafaabilal.com
Marku Lonkila, The Internet and Anti-Military Activism in Russia, (Taylor &Francis, Ltd., 2008) 1125.