Introduction to Digital Media
ARS 162, Spring 2006
Instructor: Barbara Lattanzi

WEBLOG

This ongoing assignment will be reviewed 2 times during the semester: after week 9, then after week 13.

A weblog ("blog") annotates web locations. It is a chronicle of your discoveries and can even be a pathfinder for others to use. Your blog should subjectively highlight what you find meaningful, challenging, perplexing, significant on the web - aesthetically, politically, culturally - and your blog should elaborate the list of websites with a brief statement or commentary.

By the end of the semester you should have a minimum of 8 annotated links on your weblog.

The more the effort to engage your audience the better. The Internet is about connectivity... social networks even more than technological connection. You are lending some sweat to the barn-raising construction of the web as a cultural space.

Here are a few descriptions of blogs:

Here are a few blog examples

  • Joy Garnett, NewsGrist art blog
  • Regine Debatty, We Make Money Not Art
  • The Yes Men - their faux Bush election campaign travel blog (US, 2004)
  • daily thing - artist, Diane Bertolo's recent work can, on one level be seen as a significant contribution to the genre of blogging - a daily journal presented with images only.

Here are some examples of blogs produced by past participants in this course:

REQUIRED COMPONENTS

Using the links from the course citations, from resource pages (net art links, etc.), or from the Net Art textbook as your starting point, explore the web for work which expands or challenges understandings of art and culture, and add one single link minimum per week to your blog.

Your weblog will consist of one single HTML page posted to your website to which you will add links and commentary every week, starting the 4th week of the semester (starting Feb.21st).

Each of your website listings should include the following:

  • one clickable hyperlink
  • a very brief commentary, around 50-100 words is all you need. (more text is optional)

By the end of the semester you should have a minimum of 8 annotated links on your weblog.

  
 

Here are a few portal websites (blogs, zines, artist-run organizations and museums) for researching Net Art

  • Turbulence is a NYC based organization focusing on the web as a medium for art
  • Rhizome is also NYC-based, artist-run organization that has a free membership to enter the website to view net art works and to read essays on net culture and to read announcements about exhibition and festival opportunities, etc.
  • Neural.it is an highly regarded online magazine with blog listings of new media art, hacktivism, electronic music and digital culture.
  • Noema > Arts lists events, conferences, festivals - in addition to announcements of digital art and new media works. (Entries logged in a mix of English and Italian)
  • Net Art Review does what its name describes. Also of interest is the main page where there is a long list of net art organizations and venues.
  • NEWSgrist - This is a news blog that locates its cultural position according to the phrase "where spin is art". NEWSgrist features topical issues relevant to intersections of art, new technologies, and politics.
  • Artport is a relatively recent portal to Net Art produced by the Whitney Museum of American Art, with commissioned works by artists. On this site is a list of links to a number of Net Art Exhibitions.
  • Dia Art Center has a long history with showcasing experimental works by artists on the Internet, including artist commissions such as Between a Rock and a Hard Drive by Kristin Lucas, and Wake by Gary Simmons. Many other projects are listed there.
  • Walker Art Center is a contemporary museum located in Minneapolis which is one of the earliest museums to devote serious attention to the emergence of net art forms. Its website has hosted a number of ground-breaking exhibitions over the years. Its new media archives are still available to view. Check out their online exhibition "Art and Entertainment Network",also "Beyond Interface" as well as other online projects and Net Art commissions at their projects listings page.