We are witnessing the commercialization, standardization of the web. Gradients, odd names, mirror effects and so on can be found everywhere online.
Although web 2.0 certainly brought an online revolution, the old times of cyberspace had also a flair of their own.
This is a list of “web 1.0″ sites. They are great sources of net art; some of them are full of theoretical essays, others are activist projects and there are even some who are extremely experimental.
You are warned, most of these sites are by no chance any eye-candy. If you are the visual type, who needs usability and simplicity to follow the concepts, turn around.
The net.art list
Vuk Cosic. One of the artists of the Ljubljana digital media lab. I really enjoy his stuff. Some of them are very ‘avant-garde’ but certainly worth your time.
Super Bad. If you like cats, kittys, Lolcats or whatever this might be a sight for you! I warn you though, it’s not THAT conventional.
etoy. This is probably my favourite. Just read what their new project is all about
an ultra long term project that allows pioneers of the information age to travel space and time forever…
One of their coolest projects was the digital hijack in 1996.
Brandon. That’s cool. You have to solve small puzzles to carry on. I really like it.
0100101110101101. Cyberpsace in its purest form. These two artists mostly devise hoaxes. They even spread a virus as a work of art. Thanks!
War.
borderXing guide. It took me some time to decode this site’s structure, form and principle, but it finally got me thinking.
Netzliteratur. I’m sorry to say, that this site is in german. It is full of net art projects and essays. start learning german?
This is certainly not a large list. But these sites contain so much information, that can keep you surfing, reading and browsing for hours. Handle with care.
Terry Heath responded on 27 Feb 2008 at 2:43 pm #
You’ve listed some interesting sites (and sights!) which invite me to re-evaluate some of what I take for granted. There is a similar movement in literary hypermedia which challenges the linear nature of stories; I may be writing about that soon myself
Micha responded on 28 Feb 2008 at 10:29 am #
Hey, yeah cool, the netart movement was and is quite interesting!
We once started an early web2.0 project, or actually neither - classical 1.0 nor 2.0 style, and tried to provide a tool with which you can surf and explore several netart sites without leaving our own site. It is Java based and has a Wiki included. We originally also wanted to allow users to add sites to the network we provide, but did not manage in time. So if anybody out there knows how to Java, go ahead!
http://www.copyandpaste.org
PS: If it does not work correctly, you may have to install the JRE (http://www.java.com/de/download/)
PPS: In case of any other problems, feels free to contact me through changemod
robojiannis responded on 28 Feb 2008 at 8:52 pm #
@ Terry
cool, can’t wait to read it.
You got me confused though. I find it hard to follow your work. How many blogs do you have?
@ Micha
I like the navigation. It has lots of stuff on, it will take me some time to check it out…
Terry Heath responded on 29 Feb 2008 at 2:25 am #
Hey robojiannis,
Sorry for any confusion. I just have two blog I write: terryheath.com and seonoobs.com . . . a few others I run as experiments but am not writing them.
Tad Chef responded on 29 Feb 2008 at 12:02 pm #
In a way etoy was always Web 5.0 also net.art can’t be seen according to these overtly technocratic categories.
robojiannis responded on 29 Feb 2008 at 9:27 pm #
You are absolutely right on that one Tad!