In the reading, “Web Work”, a History of Internet Art, by Rachel Greene. it was a very interesting and untraditional work. In my classes about art history, the documentation of modern art is still stuck in the arts of performance artists and modern artists. While digital art is making its way into textbooks, this reading was my first understanding of the history of web work. “Net.art” was completely groundbreaking at the time and allowed eastern european and russian artists a place to fully express themselves and expand their talents in an uncharted field. That is until 1997 did “net.art” fully blow up in popularity. In the states it seemed to be that the web was a place for controversial art, that of which would normally be chastised or ridiculed by the popular opinion. More specifically the concepts of “cyberfeminsim’ and “cyber rape” were very intersting concepts mentioned in the article. The ideals of gender play and transgender ideniities came up in the web world, where online chatting gave a platform to creat whoever you want to become. On a funny note, there was also a new platform for pranksters and jokes. These artists quickly figured out how to transform their identities into becoming a more reliable source. Allowing people to click on their pages revealing a funny prank. This all eventually added to the “hacktivist artwork” world which we see everyday. As mentioned in the conclusion of the article, web art is where the everyday and art meet, which creates a very beautiful outcome.
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