Searching for the LA-based pioneers of internet art
Works In Progress
English - January 28, 2021 02:00 - 17 minutes - 12.4 MBVisual Arts Arts Performing Arts art architecture design film theater dance performance visual arts ucla los angeles Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Internet art is a broad term for the work of artists who use the internet as their canvas. Think of Flash animation, psychedelic glitch art, computer-generated art, GIFs, and many other examples. The internet has been around for five decades now, and internet art is falling victim to broken links, expired domains, and unsupported file types.
"I believe we're in a crisis right now, where so much work is disappearing and will never be seen again. We want to be in communication with these artists while they're still with us,” said Casey Reas, co-founder of the UCLA Arts Conditional Studio with Lauren Lee McCarthy and Chandler McWilliams, all professors in the Department of Design Media Arts.
The UCLA Arts Conditional Studio is launching an initiative to collect internet art made by LA-based artists and preserve it for future generations. “Art and the Internet in LA 1969+” will explore the history of artists in Los Angeles who have worked with, responded to, and transformed the internet.
Their beginning point is November 21, 1969, when UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock established the first permanent ARPANET link from his laboratory to Stanford University. It continues through the emergence of the World Wide Web to the ubiquitous influence of the internet today.