THE SECOND EDITION'S SELECTION

We have selected ten Web art projects which attracted our attention.


Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew and collaborators
ISI-PIKISKWEWIN AYAPIHKESISAK
Speaking the Language of Spiders
A group of Amerindian artists created this site where the emblem of the spider is used as much for its symbolism as for the purpose of making an allusion to the web which the spider weaves, and to the idea of the system of links characteristic of the Internet structure. This artwork presents stories and subplots which refer to one another in a circular mode, while indicating the culture from which they have originated. The menu, very attractive visually, consists of icons which are implemented with the aid of diverse techniques; these icons serve as entries to the stories. (Banff Centre for the Arts) SP

Antirom
The Antidote
Created in 1994, Antirom is a collective of 10 British artists residing in London, which includes musicians, designers, programmers, and producers. As the artists say, Antirom was "born out of frustration with the poverty of digital publishing." "The Antidote" is an example of their production and of what they call "engines" - interactive digital toys. This project was created in Java. It shows on a screen within the screen a sequence of intriguing images accompanied by sound. You control the movement by moving the curser, and by clicking you go on to the next picture. These amusing, alternating pictures form a clever electronic palette with an engaging rhythm. Finding an artwork on the Web which is so skillfully constructed, while being fresh, simple, and unencumbered is rare. The work lends itself to manipulation with great ease and its maneouvered continuous/discontinuous flow conjures up a perpetuum mobile. (Obsolete) (requires Shockwave) RD

Greg Garvey
The Automatic Confession Machine
1993
While exploring this interactive site, the visitor is invited to reveal his sins as if he/she were in a confessional. This time, however, he/she is confiding to a machine. Even if the visitor avoids the embarrassing and intimate contact characteristic for this exercise, a certain uneasiness establishes itself. This discomfort can be partly attributed to the fact that the Net doesn't guarantee the confidentiality of the information disclosed. Moreover, it is disturbing to settle the "matters of the soul" in the same way one does their banking with the automatic banking machine... Above all, the site provides us with answers testifying to a convenient and amnesiac spirituality which is based on ready-made formulas. As such, this artwork is a critique of the dehumanization brought about by technology. (Lightfactory) SP

Tim McLaughlin
Threw the Read Window
1997
Several artworks of visual poetry are put together in this site. They follow the model of Apollinaire's anagrams, while subtly using current tools, and more specifically, the Internet. Although simple in their rendering, these poems proved to be efficient. The position and the movement of the letters and the words represent, through allusions, the things and the actions which they are describing. At the same time, the distance between these references and the things described is sufficent so that a poetic world can emerge. In this respect, the artworks VIA and Blues Revolved are particularly effective. (Banff Centre for the Arts) SP

Sharon Matarazzo
Elsewhere
Consisting of stills and text, this artwork is endowed with a tight, clear-cut structure and laconic form. We cannot lose ourselves in it and no part of it can remain unexplored. Although the piece is static in appearance, the artist succeeds in conferring an inner, dream-like movement which springs from what has been suggested, alluded to, and left out rather than from what has been shown. The silence of this montage of images has a melodic quality to it. The three images from the opening window - a stone, a frame, and an ear - are not only points of departure but also of arrival and transition. The fact that we often return to them brings an element of dramatization to the artwork. On one level of meaning, they allude to the senses of touch, sight and hearing. Further, the artist plays out with them our encounters with the tangible and the intangible, the visible and the invisible. Matarazzo’s work touches on our relationship with time, space, and desire. "Elsewhere" is evocative and mnemonic and its nostalgic overtones are at times permeated with irony. RD

Mouchette
1996
Here is a trilingual site (French, English and Dutch) where the writing, the sound and the visuals are manipulated with much humour and insight. Mouchette, a young artist of 13 living in Amsterdam, welcomes the visitor and leads him into a world which is stange, disconcerting and poetic. Various playful interactions originate from the very name of Mouchette (such as the small fly - mouche- which flies around on the screen); many other references can be made (the film by Robert Bresson, for example). The surprising and unconventional menus, the hidden links, and the intricate structure in which one can easily lose oneself make this interactive site, which develops continuously, captivating.(requires Real Audio) SP

Alexei Shulgin
Remedy for Information Disease
This site offers to heal the visitor of the overabundance of mediated images to which he/she is exposed with the aid of other preselected images which he/she can manipulate in his/her own way. Pertaining to the consumer's society, a collective imagination and a culture limited to its prominent figures, the banality of the presented images brings forth the visual weaknesses resulting the overbundance of information. In addition, the few operations provided in the artwork are far from able to produce an impression of control. They only amplify the sense of a lack of hold over the visual environment. The artwork presents a critical and amusing view of the technologies of the image.(requires Netscape 3.0) SP

Jody Zellen
Ghost City
In this project, the artist uses the Internet medium as a lense through which to view the urban experience. At first glance, the work seems simple, just as when we first look at a city. As we progress into the artwork, the impressions accumulate while becoming ever more complex. Jody Zellen creates a mosaic of images and text mimicking a walk through the city as if through a labyrinth. Built on the principles of repetition, the project has a cyclical structure; it abounds in images which are multiplied and set in motion. There are many dead-end streets, hidden links and unexpected passages. You may find yourself many times at the same place (Walk in, for example) and think that you are lost. Once you get to no where, you may choose to click on these words or on the image below them. These are entrances to two different roads, and it is worth exploring both. (Banff Centre for the Arts) RD

Cheryl Donegan
Studio Visit
The artist takes us on a whimsical excursion into the secrets of her studio and telle the story of the making of a painting. Looking at herself working and following her own steps, she constructs a playful, cartoon-like pastishe which is striking in its opaqueness. Although nothing seems to be hidden, the viewer, kept at a distance, remains an observer. The project is rendered as an illustration of the art practice with its downfalls and joys, its prose and its wonder. Creation is presented here as a game of cards, a jigsaw puzzle, or a play of words. The fragments are purposefully placed in an awkward manner, as if they could never fit together into a whole. The artist is immersed in and submerged by the various elements and considerations involved in the creative process - frames, points of view, materials and motives - an are placed in calculated disorder. While we realize that they can enter into many different configurations, Donegan initiates us into the artist’s dilemmas. We often have the impression of sliding on surfaces, as the artist's routines, state of mind, actions, and confrontations with the creative process are described. It is suggested that in order to come to grips with the piece, patience and careful examination comparable to the one required in the art are necessary.(Dia Centre for the Arts)(requires Netscape 3.0) RD

Tom Hawkins
Red and White Dots
Despite the fact that this piece seems to have nothing funny in it, it makes one break into laughter and giggle. The anthropomorphic and other strange sounds have humorous reverberations producing a tickling effect. Ephemeral and etherial, the artwork lasts an instant and recalls a brisk gesticulation, charged with surprises which emerge as an echo of the witnessed performance. What captures the attention is that the experience of the work cannot come but after this event, reminiscent of a sigh, has taken place. As such, "Red and White Dots", as surface-like as it may appear, suggests an aesthetic experience which does not coincide with the time of viewing the actual work but resurfaces as a result of it. While curving time and creating a time of its own, the dots, in outburst or at rest, act as a peculiar punctuation of the beholder’s fantasy and reactions. "Red and White Dots" is an example of an artwork as an empty space; its lack of content provokes the imagination to fill it in. This artwork is located in a site called Bolderequalszero which hosts Web projects. RD



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