Artists

“For a long time it did not make sense to show net art in real space:
museums or galleries. For good reasons you had to experience works of
net artists on your own connected computer.

Yesterday for me as an artist it made sense only to talk to people in
front of their computers, today I can easily imagine to apply to
visitors in the gallery because in their majority they will just have
gotten up from their computers. They have the necessary experience and
understanding of the medium to get the ideas, jokes, enjoy the works and
buy them.”

Olia Lialina, Flat Against the Wall, 2007
http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/flat_against_the_wall/

“So, experienced audiences, artists and gallery-friendly computers make
the transition of Net Art from New Media to Contemporary Art very
explainable. The audience recognizes and values internet aesthetics.
Artists make works about the internet, gallerists see a nice way to
present and sell. Everything works smooth and comfortable.

Comfort for all parties is a feature of Contemporary Art. New Media does
not know this word. In New Media artists fight, curators suffer,
audience gets angry. And that’s how it should be.

Net Art this season is not a part of New Media, and that’s fine. But if
New Media becomes a theme in Contemporary Art and dissolves there, this
would be a real loss.”

Olia Lialina, Flat Against the Wall, 2007
http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/flat_against_the_wall/

“However, in the last two years the situation has gradually calmed down.
Artists stopped being jittery and collectors became more active.
Exhibitions have shaped up and became more eye-pleasing. New media has
switched to pictures, to moving and dynamic images. Besides the obvious
market interest in eye candy, there are three more reasons that
encouraged this switch.

Processing gave birth to a new line of graphic generators and inspired a
new wave of interest in generative forms. YouTube invaded the Web and
turned video into a standard way of expressing thoughts and feelings.
And last but not least, video projectors have become substantially
cheaper, while the quality of the image has grown significantly better.”

Olia Lialina, An Infinite Séance 2, 2008
http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/infinite_seance_2/