Remember the bulky black cell phones high schoolers used to tote around in '90s cinema staples like Clueless? I can still remember begging my parents for my very own and being “brutally rebuffed,” to quote Ms. Horowitz. The truth is, if you’re reading this post, you’re most likely a member of the last generation that will remember a world when you still had to beg for a cellphone––or when learning to ride a bike was something you did before learning to USE A computer.
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the World Wide Web. But whatever mixed feelings you harbor about the technology takeover, there’s no denying it's revolutionized the art world. Writer and critic Orit Gat’s upcoming panel at Frieze New York, “The World Wide Web at 25: Terms and Conditions” plans to celebrate this monumental anniversary and address the resulting developments in contemporary art, specifically the birth of “net-art” and “post-Internet art,” two movements that have exploited the Internet to develop a new and exciting visual vocabulary. I caught up with Orit before her talk on Sunday to hear her opinions on how the Internet is changing the art market, the democratization of the art world (or the lack thereof), and the future of Frieze.
Visit Frieze New York to see "The World Wide Web at 25: Terms and Conditions" on Sunday May 11 at noon
CLARKE RUDICK: Can you define “net art” versus "post-Internet art?"
ORIT GAT: It's a little hard to describe post-Internet. That is a term a lot of people are grappling with and some of our panel may revolve around that. In general, net art came first. It started in the '90s with artists like JODI, for example. While there are still a lot of artists who refer to their work as net art, I would classify post-internet as a different approach to the Internet. While net art (especially at first) was very tech-oriented and involved a lot of coding, post-Internet work reacts to the Internet as a state in which we're all implicated. So there's a generational difference (even though very flexible) but also a difference in attitude, one that I personally think is rooted in a certain disappointment or disenchantment with the structure of a growingly corporatized Internet. And then you can name drop people like Brad Troemel and The Jogging. There’s a very “scenester-y” feel to post-Internet art.
How do you think the Internet has changed the art market?
There’s the way that the Internet has “flattened” all art: when you work in galleries, you see work being sold by JPEG. A collector… might never see the work [in person]. Paddle 8, Artsy, and Artspace have changed the way we think about how to sell. I wonder how that has changed the work itself…
Do you think artists are making work to cater to an online format?
Yes. That is a lot of the criticism that happens around post-Internet work. I think when post-Internet work is great, it really tells you about the cond
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the World Wide Web. But whatever mixed feelings you harbor about the technology takeover, there’s no denying it's revolutionized the art world. Writer and critic Orit Gat’s upcoming panel at Frieze New York, “The World Wide Web at 25: Terms and Conditions” plans to celebrate this monumental anniversary and address the resulting developments in contemporary art, specifically the birth of “net-art” and “post-Internet art,” two movements that have exploited the Internet to develop a new and exciting visual vocabulary. I caught up with Orit before her talk on Sunday to hear her opinions on how the Internet is changing the art market, the democratization of the art world (or the lack thereof), and the future of Frieze.
Visit Frieze New York to see "The World Wide Web at 25: Terms and Conditions" on Sunday May 11 at noon
CLARKE RUDICK: Can you define “net art” versus "post-Internet art?"
ORIT GAT: It's a little hard to describe post-Internet. That is a term a lot of people are grappling with and some of our panel may revolve around that. In general, net art came first. It started in the '90s with artists like JODI, for example. While there are still a lot of artists who refer to their work as net art, I would classify post-internet as a different approach to the Internet. While net art (especially at first) was very tech-oriented and involved a lot of coding, post-Internet work reacts to the Internet as a state in which we're all implicated. So there's a generational difference (even though very flexible) but also a difference in attitude, one that I personally think is rooted in a certain disappointment or disenchantment with the structure of a growingly corporatized Internet. And then you can name drop people like Brad Troemel and The Jogging. There’s a very “scenester-y” feel to post-Internet art.
How do you think the Internet has changed the art market?
There’s the way that the Internet has “flattened” all art: when you work in galleries, you see work being sold by JPEG. A collector… might never see the work [in person]. Paddle 8, Artsy, and Artspace have changed the way we think about how to sell. I wonder how that has changed the work itself…
Do you think artists are making work to cater to an online format?
Yes. That is a lot of the criticism that happens around post-Internet work. I think when post-Internet work is great, it really tells you about the cond