12 Sep The Art Happens Here:
Net Art Anthology
Art happens everywhere these days. And yet, there are some realms which still linger in the shadows: namely, net art. All the more important is what Rhizome did with its self-claimed preservation platform for digital art. With their mission in mind to save net-artifacts from falling into oblivion, they presented one art work at a time over the course of two years on anthology.rhizome.org. The idea was to create a time capsule, a finite selection of 100 art works which happened in the spheres of the internet from 1982 to 2016. This compendium is certainly an one-of-a-kind collection of websites, softwares, sculptures, graphics, books, and merchandise which pushed the possible uses of the internet as social process, material infrastructure, and lived experience to its limits. While the New Museum in New York currently showcases these art works, the repertoire also lives on in the corresponding chronicles ‘The Art Happens Here: Net Art Anthology’. This already historical document, with a whole lotta net art, shall be a fruitful and pertinent research source for pre-, digital natives and generations still to come – since as Rhizome’s Artistic Director, Michael Connor, states: ‘In Spite of Everything Net Art is Still a Wonderful Terrible Pure Hard Thing”. There is not much to add except: Mission accomplished!