Posts Tagged ‘Art’

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Engineer vs. Artist Smackdown for Control of My Mind

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

The more work I do as an engineer, the less work I do as an artist.

I do, essentially, have two jobs.

From 8-5, Monday through Friday, I am a Mechanical Engineer, licensed by the State of California and everything.

I design very practical things in practical ways. If you ever go to the bathroom in Yosemite Valley, your waste most likely leaves the valley through my pump station. A few of you might drink tap water from plants I helped design and build.

Right now I’m busy designing the replacement heating, cooling, and ventilation systems for a large helicopter repair hangar. Last time I was at the hangar it was full of partially disassembled Blackhawk helicopters. Cool!

When I say “busy”, I really mean “really busy”. I took Saturday off last weekend, but was in the office for 13 hours on Sunday. The weekend before I put in about 25 hours between Saturday morning and Sunday night.

Deadlines are keeping me this busy, I have a lot to get done, and not quite enough time to do it all. Still, It needs to get done. Not doing it isn’t really an option.

For the last few weeks, my mind has been calculating pressure losses, looking up electrical load data, sizing ducts, and drafting equipment details.

It is left brain work, and when I get home, I have nothing left, and nothing goes right.

There’s a painting I started 3 weeks ago sitting on my work bench next to my desk. The paint on my pallette has grown a thick skin that I will have to eventually scrape off.

Every day, I look at this painting, and then think about how I should work on it, and I am neglecting it. I just can’t wrap my head around it though.

I can’t wrap my head around how to apply paint to the canvas right now, I can’t think about the risks I take with presentation when I paint, or the emotional resonance I may be trying to capture.

It’s a good thing, that I’m stuck in my left brain right now. I need my left brain, at least until the end of the day when this project submittal goes out.

I don’t just get stuck in left field though. The same thing happens on the right.

When I start digging into art, and get deep into my right brain activities, I have a hard time switching gears to crank out some rough and dirty engineering work. My job suffers when I am productive at night making art.

It’s quite a conundrum!

I think that the answer is to focus on the more “left-brained” stuff during the week. I can prepare paper, edition prints, even print during the week, keeping it nice and left. No creative stuff though. No image development, no painting, no “artsy” stuff. Keep it analytical.

Friday night, switch gears and swing out to the right for the weekend, and let myself hang out in that mode for two and a half days.

I think I have been trying to switch gears too fast, faster than I am naturally capable of.

Anyway, I’ll test this out, and see how it works for me.

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Lessons From Blog World Expo: Quality Content Above All

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

I a weekend at Blog World Expo recently. The best way to describe it is as a conference and trade show for folks that create content and distribute it via the internet.

They like to call it “New Media”, but really it is just old media distributed in new ways.

There was a whole lot of talks given about how to make money by producing content on the internet, but one point was driven home more than any others: the importance of quality content.

Without quality content, readership, followers, subscribers, etc, just won’t come.

This point hit home for me, specifically as it relates to this site and my overall goals – fame, fortune, and glory through art.

Amazing content is not easy, and it does not come naturally. It takes hard work, and a lot of it.

Printing may be like riding a bike, but that first mile or so on a bike after ten years without riding is going to be a little shaky and wobbly. This is the reason for the 101 Woodblock Series.

It’s been a long time since I spent the majority of every day in the printmaking studio, knocking out lithograph after lithograph. The 101 Woodblock Series is my chance to get reacquainted with an old friend, and catch up over a long night of drinks and stories from the good ol’ days.

My goal for this series of prints is to make each one different, no two are alike. Each one requires thought and consideration to balance the image and the colors and decide what else is needed.

The result is that this series takes a lot longer than a standard woodblock edition, where each print is the same, and also that I am having that long night catching up, telling the old stories that we remember, and reacquainting ourselves with an old friendship.

In other words, I am forcing myself through a crash course of printmaking to re-learn the means and methods required to make beautiful art.

Of course, my work is your benefit, because when these are all done, I will be giving these out for a fraction of the real value. I want to celebrate this old friendship with printmaking by putting a piece of handmade artwork in your hands for less than the cost of a burger and a beer (my favorite meal).

If you’re not already signed up, head over to the 101 Woodblock Series page, and sign up for the newsletter for updates on the series, and notice of how to get one of these hotcakes into your hands.

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How to Print a Woodblock

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Here we go, part 3 of a series explaining what a woodblock print is and how it is made. Part 1 explained what a Woodblock Print is, and Part 2 discussed preparing the block and the ink.

Printing a woodblock consists of rolling ink on the block, and pressing paper against it. There are many more nuances to it though, which I’d like to explain.

To explain the printing process, I have to take a step back and explain how prints with multiple colors are made. There are a few processes that can be used; the most common is to carve a separate block for each individual color. Each block is printed separately, and the the image is created as the colors are added to the paper.

Here’s an idea of how the different blocks look that go into a multi-colored print:

3 blocks used to print 5 different colors

3 blocks used to print 5 different colors

These 3 blocks were used to make the prints that came off the press yesterday. I had to print each block individually with a different color.

A woodblock print made from the 3 blocks shown above

A woodblock print made from the 3 blocks shown above

I did something a little tricky with two of these blocks, I used different portions of the blocks to print different colors. The two leftmost blocks in the image above had a lot of space left on the block after I finished carving the first image, so I used each of the blocks to also print part of the “vase”.

The image to the right is one of the prints made with these blocks. If you look at it closely, you will be able to see which part of which block printed which color.

You will also notice one other aspect to printmaking, which is that everything prints in reverse. When a block is printed against the page, the mirror image of what is on the block ends up on the paper.

Now that I’ve got 3 blocks with a total of 5 colors to be printed, the challenge is to align each of the blocks on the paper. This process of making sure all the blocks line up is called registration. In some way or another, I have to make sure that the blocks all register with one another.

(The question of how the blocks are carved in the first place so that all the images line up is another question for another day)

Before I do that though, I have to ink up the block! The block is inked by simply rolling the roller in the ink, and then rolling it on the block. It takes a few passes of ink on the block to (1) get enough ink on the block to print, and (2) get an even layer of ink on the block so that the color is consistent. Both of these are done by taking time and rolling the ink on the block a number of times.

The ink rolled onto a portion of the block, ready to print

The ink rolled onto a portion of the block, ready to print

I roll the ink on the block, then roll it back in the well of ink that I previously rolled out. I repeat this until their is enough ink and the thickness is consistent.

Next, I use my simple registration system – a ruler. The ruler I use is one inch wide, and luckily enough, the margins on these prints is 1 inch as well. I place the ruler along the left side of the paper, and I align the block against the edge of the ruler, with the top of the block 1-1/4 inches below the top edge of the paper.

I use a ruler to align all the blocks in the same place on the paper

I use a ruler to align all the blocks in the same place on the paper

This part of the process is delicate, because if I move the block on the paper, the ink will smear a little bit, and that does not look very nice. I’ve got one chance to lower the block directly onto the paper in the right place with the help of the ruler.

When I get around to printing the next block, I will place the ruler against the edge of the paper again, and line up the next block with the ruler. This way, I make sure that each block gets printed in the same place on each sheet, and all of the colors will line up with each other.

So now the inked block is lying down on the paper. I slide the paper and block off of the table, and flip them over together. I am not so fancy as to have a printing press in my little apartment, so I use a wooden spoon. The spoon in the picture was actually part of a sushi making kit that I got as a gift.

Mmmm. I love the sushi. It’s an incredible food.

The block is flipped over with the paper on top, ready to be pressed with the wooden spoon

The block is flipped over with the paper on top, ready to be pressed with the wooden spoon

This spoon, though it is made for sushi, also seems to be made for woodblock prints. It is very wide, and nearly flat, but with e slight curve to the backside. I rub the backside of the spoon over the back of the paper, pressing it against the block. This takes a few minutes of pressing, because I like to make sure that I get the ink transferred onto the paper well.

When I’m all done, I pull off the paper, and see the ink transferred over. Nice and simple!

The ink is transferred onto the paper, it will take a few more blocks to complete this image

The ink is transferred onto the paper, it will take a few more blocks to complete this image

The real joy of this process is seeing what each block adds to the image. I usually have an idea of how the finished prints will look as I am carving the block, but that vision in my mind can never compare to what I see when I pull the paper off of the block for the first time. Each time a new color is added, I get very excited that first time that I remove the paper from the block and reveal how it looks.

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New Art Hot Off The Press

Monday, October 12th, 2009

I’ve got something to show for my last few days work. If you like this art and want to keep up to date on when it will be available for you to buy (for ridiculously cheap prices), then go to the 101 Woodblock Series page and sign up for the newsletter.

This series is all about the combination of gears, flowers, plants, and graphic design. Yeah, it’s an odd mix, and I promise to explain it some day. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for enjoying some previews of the art.

A New Woodblock Print - Hot Off The Press!

A New Woodblock Print - Hot Off The Press!

Another 101 Woodblock Series Print

Another 101 Woodblock Series Print

One More Print from the 101 Woodblock Series

One More Print from the 101 Woodblock Series

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What is a woodblock print?

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Did you make a potato print back in elementary school? You cut the potato in half so there is a flat edge, then carve some sort of shape in to it, a heart or a star, then you dipped it in poster paints, and pressed it against paper. You essentially made a stamp out of a potato.

A woodblock print is no different. It is printed from a flat piece of wood that has portions carved away, so that the ink doesn’t print there.

Woodblock prints are not very common in Art History, but the most famous woodblock prints were made in Japan. You probably recognize the image below, it is a woodblock print by the artist Hokusai from 19th century Japan. This print is titles The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura is the Japanese title). This print was the first in a series called 36 Views of Mount Fuji. You can see Mount Fuji in the background of the image, in the dip between the waves. Hokusai’s prints are an inspiration for and influence on my own woodblock prints.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai

The Wood Makes the Print

Woodblock for a woodblock print

Woodblock for a woodblock print

To make a woodblock print, I start out with a smooth, flat piece of wood (or sometimes linoleum as a substitute). I have to have some sort of image in mind when I start. I determined that the imagery for the 101 Woodblock Series is going to be gears, flowers, and plants, so I know what I am trying to accomplish image wise.

Section of Wood

Section of Wood

The wood is special made for prints. I have actually had the block you see above for a very long time. I got this block about 10 years ago, but only recently put it to use. I believe that this block was made in Japan. The block itself is made of 5 plys (layers). The middle 3 plys are about 1/8-inch thick. The ply on the top and bottom are extremely fine. They are about 1/100-inch thick! I used my scale to measure the thickness, and it was too small to measure, even with my scale that measures in 1/60-inch increments! The direction of the grain alternates on each layer, creating a very sturdy block.

The next step is to carve the block. A woodblock is printed by rolling ink on a roller on to the woodblock. Every part of the wood that I do not carve away gets ink rolled on to it. The portions of the block that are carved away do not get ink, because the roller rolls on the flat, untouched portion of the block, missing the “valleys” that I have carved in.

Tools of the trade

Woodblock Print Tools

Woodblock Print Tools

Here’s a list of the tools I use and why and how I use them. From right to left in the picture above:

  • Compass: A lot of the imagery I like involves circles. I have a number of compasses that range in size to help me carve perfect circles. The compass shown is one of the larger compasses I use.
  • X-Acto Knife: I have a nice set of X-Acto knifes with a wide selection of blades. This set was a gift many years ago (thank you Uncle David and Aunt Kathy!), and is extremely useful. The knife shown is what I most often use for woodblocks. It is the largest of the set, and I can get the most leverage out of it. Unfortunately, this also means that it cuts me the deepest when I slip. If you don’t bleed a little for your art though…
  • Gouges: I have a set of cheap gouges that I use to remove large portions of the block. The X-Acto knife does the fine work, but these gouges do rough work. These can remove a lot of material from the woodblock quickly. The gouges I have are pretty low quality, I will have to upgrade soon.
  • Pens and Pencils: I use these to draw the image on the block before I start carving. The nice thing about a block is that unlike paper, I can draw without worrying about mistakes. In the end, the block will be carved and ink will be rolled on it, so any pencil and pen marks will not show up.

Coming Attractions

I’m out of time in my morning writing hour, so check back tomorrow for a follow up. I’ll be covering carving the block and rolling out ink. I’ll finish up with a post about printing the block and registering multiple blocks (what does that even mean?), and all the other stuff that goes in to making a woodblock print.

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Art Galleries and Collectors Have Dinosaur Mentality

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

The New York Times is running an article, Digital Creations Come of Age about Digital Art and some of the little annoying problems that collectors and dealers are facing trying to collect and sell this stuff.

They are looking at this entirely wrong.

In the age of Pirate Bay, unique ownership of anything in digital form is like trying to scoop up water with a net.

For those of you that didn’t go read the article, the author writes about the challenges that artists and collectors face when buying and selling digital art. A piece of digital art, after all, is made up of a bunch of 1’s and 0’s on a computer, disk, or other digital storage device.

If someone makes a work of art with digital methods, what is the original piece of art? If the art is nothing but a file, how can anyone be sure that their copy is unique or original?

The article goes on to say,

Uniqueness is central to the digital art paradox. On one hand, its lack of uniqueness is a fundamental characteristic, part of its originality; on the other hand, the sense of exclusive ownership that uniqueness bestows is what collectors and investors typically want.

The problem that these artists and collectors face only come up because they are trying to apply the old model of art to new media. The “fundamental characteristic” that digital art may not be unique shouldn’t be considered a problem, it is an interesting part of the art, Collectors and Investors be damned.

The whole cycle of museum/collector/investor is one of the reasons why art seems so inaccessible. If you are not “part of the club”, you just won’t get it. Digital art has the potential to reach beyond that art culture, since it can be freely accessible to everyone.

The article ends by kinda indicating this, even if it does go a bit overboard and gives in to the temptation to use hyperbole:

Perhaps the idea of the unique object is becoming obsolete, just as software programs that are only used online rather than owned, are slowly replacing physical software packages that one owns.

Digital art should be embraced for what it is, and should be distributed and shared with the world in the way that most makes sense given the characteristics of the medium.

If this doesn’t fit in to the defined structure that galleries, collectors, and investors have come up with for traditional artistic media, then the party should go on without them, and they can show up to this new party if they want.

If you haven’t yet, go check out the New York Times article here:

Digital Creations Come of Age

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Qualities of web art: Variety in Time and Presentation

Monday, August 31st, 2009

In this series of posts I am discussing the web as an art form, and what exactly that might mean. Feel free to check out the previous posts in this series:

In this post, I will be continuing to discuss particular aspects of the internet that may help show how web art can be different than any other artistic medium.

Time can be partially controlled (or not controlled)

Building on all of the previous aspects mentioned, time can be controlled, or not controlled in a work of web art. In video and music , time is controlled. Things are experienced in a sequence, and that sequence is determined by the artist. In other traditional mediums such as paint or sculpture, time is not controlled, and the viewer can experience the work of art for as little time or for as long a time as she likes.

With web art, time can be controlled, and further, it can be controlled either by the artist or by the viewer. With programming, an artist can force something to happen after a specific amount of time, or this can be left up to the viewer to decide when to move the mouse or type on the keyboard to make something happen.

When I go to a museum, I can spend 5 minutes looking at a painting by Mark Rothko, or spend 3 minutes looking at a dozen paintings by Piet Mondrian. In this traditional example, I , as the user, have the control over the amount of time that I spend looking at each piece.

With web art, the amount of time that the user has to experience and interact with any particular part of a work of art can be controlled, limited, or be given a minimum amount.

A piece of interactive web art, for example, could give the user a few seconds to interact with it and give an instruction before it executes a default instruction, it may not allow the user to proceed until giving an instruction, or it may require the viewer to examine and experience one particular aspect of a work of art before it allows or forces the viewer to move on to another part of the piece of art.

The ability for the artist to control time, or to hand off that control to the viewer, is particular to art on the web.

Presentation varies from viewer to viewer

What browser are you using to view this website?

If you are using Internet Explorer, things might not look quite right. This site looks downright wrong in Internet Explorer 6.

If you are using Safari, the site probably appears a little smaller than in Firefox, and the colors are a little brighter.

Is your browser maximized, taking up the entire computer screen, or is it a window? How big is your screen, for that matter?

A website is a different experience for me on my large, 24” desktop monitor than it is on the small, 14” labtop screen I am writing this on right now.

The computer a person uses to view a website, the browser they use, and how they use it all contribute to the user experience of the website, and therefor, the art itself.

The implication of this is that the art may not be the same each time it is viewed, due entirely to the hardware that is used to view and display the art. Further, it is possible to program something on the web to behave differently if different browsers are used to view it. This kind of variety removes some of the definitive qualities of a work of art, since the experience of viewing it can be changed based on what and how the viewer chooses to experience it with.

Coming Up Next

In the final post in this series, I will wrap all of this up, and see what it all means, and maybe even see some examples of what I have been talking about.

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Qualities of Web Art: User Interaction

Friday, August 28th, 2009

In this series of posts I am discussing the web as an art form, and what exactly that might mean. Feel free to check out the previous posts in this series:

In this and the next couple posts, I will be continuing to discuss particular aspects of the internet that may help show how web art can be different than any other artistic medium.

Users interact with a website, and therefore, the Art

At the most basic level, user interaction has been part of the web from the beginning. Even the earliest web pages required the user to input URLs, and click on links to navigate. Any piece of web art is going to rely on user interaction to at least this degree.

User interaction has taken on a whole new meaning with newer web sites and applications, dubbed as a whole as Web 2.0. Websites and features are much more interactive than they were in the past, as web programming has allowed programmers to write code for much richer and interactive sites.

User interaction can take on a new level with web art, where in the viewer can have a fundamental role in creating the art and its presentation.

Referring back to the programming nature of web art, the user has two roles he can take with respect to the art: he can supply data to the program, and he can give instructions to the program.

Supplying data into a program can be as simple as entering a word into a text field, the user’s name, for instance. The program can then store and manipulate the data. It can use it then, right away, or it might store it away for use later on in the experience. The ability to store and hold on to data is fairly unique to programming, though fundamentally it works like Mad Libs.

With Mad Libs, the user is prompted to enter nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. When the user is done randomly generating these words, a story is created, using these words to fill preassigned places in the text. Hilarity ensues.

Programs have the ability to do this, but to a much greater degree. Data can be entered, stored, manipulated, and outputted. All along the way, any number of things can be done with this bit of data. This is again one of those things where the options are so vast, that it is nearly impossible to describe just what is possible.

The second fundamental role the user takes is to supply instructions to the program. The actual action is very simple, and usually consists of clicking on links or buttons, and scrolling with the mouse. The results of these actions are up to the program to determine.

At the heart of instruction is choice, and that is what the web site is fundamentally getting from the user. When ever an instruction is made, a choice is made. After a choice is made by a user, the experience is guided, to at least some degree, by the user. This choice is at the heart of interaction.

When the user is given this ability to decide what the work of art will do, the artist loses some control over the final work of art. Taken to the most extreme degree, the work of art could end up as just a set of tools that allows the user to create the art themselves.

An implication of this is that every instance of the work of art may be a collaboration between the artist and the viewer. One work of art can take on many meanings based on the input and direction the user gives the program.

Taken to an even greater extreme, since a program can by nature store information, the choices and input that one viewer makes can be stored and carried on to the next viewer. The art can continually evolve and change as each viewer gives their own input and instructions.

A virtual canvas where everybody has the opportunity to paint one mark on the canvas, which is then saved and built upon by the next viewer is an example of how this may function.

Coming Next:

In the next post, I will discuss two more aspects of web art, control of time, and user variation.

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Qualities of Web Art: Non-Linearity

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

In this series of posts I am discussing the web as an art form, and what exactly that might mean. Feel free to check out the previous posts in this series:

In this and the next couple posts, I will be discussing particular aspects of the internet that may help show how web art can be different than any other artistic medium.

Webart can be nonlinear

Most traditional artistic mediums are linear. The viewers experience of them progresses in a specific order. Music and video are examples of this. Music is listened to note by note, and video is viewed frame by frame. You do not experience these separate pieces out of order. Poetry and Prose are the same. The viewer may experience them faster or slower based on their preference, but they are meant to be experienced in order.

Painting and illustration are even less linear, since they do not change over time. The experience of them is more of a point than a line, though the viewer gets to decide how long they will view the work of art for.

Sculpture is the only traditional medium that is non-linear, since the viewer can walk around it, and experience it from many different angles, and get many different views of it. The viewer gets to decide how to walk around it, where to look, and when. There is no “proper” way to look at a sculpture.

Another defining characteristic of the web – and it builds off of the previous characteristic of connections – is that of nonlinearity. A work of art on the web that does consist of connections and user interaction (which I will get to next) allows the user to experience the work of art in many different orders.

For instance, if a website consists of five unique images that are meant to be looked at sequentially, but allows the user to decide on the sequence, there are 120 permutations of the viewing order. It is possible that each of these permutations may give the user a different experience of the art.

I am reminded of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read when I was a kid, at the end of each page, a choice was presented to the reader of what to do next. If you wish to take the door on the right, skip to page 23. If you would like to take the door on the left, skip to page 40.

A work of web art can present itself in a similar way, and the user can choose to navigate the work of art in whichever way he chooses.

There is are a couple interesting ramifications of this, one is that it is possible to create a work of non-linear art that neither has a beginning or an end (as opposed to a poem or a symphony), and it is also possible to create art in which the viewer does not see the entirety of what is available.

The lack of a beginning and an end is another way that a work of webart is less of a “thing”, and more of an experience. An experience cannot be hung on a wall like a painting, and the meaning of an experience is never complete. A piece of music has a beginning and an end, and while a listeners experience of the music may change each time it is listened to, each listening is a complete experience in and unto itself. An unending, non-linear work of art may not have a defined complete experience, so it may either not exist, or be left to the viewers discretion when they have finished their experience of the work of art.

In another vein, a work of art that consists of a collection of things that are meant to be experienced in whatever order the viewer decides means that not everything may be seen. In the previous example I gave of the website with five unique images, if the viewer were able to view any image after the current one, with no defined limits, it is possible that the viewer would never choose to view number four, for instance. An artist that makes a non-linear work of art in this way needs to be aware that not everything that they create may be viewed.

I should mention that due to the programmable nature of the web, an artist can restrict the experience to a linear one. None of these characteristics are mandatory for web art, after all. They are just a brainstorm of the different qualities that web art may have.

The possibility that the work of art may not be experienced linearly means that works of web art may have to be looked at as an overall work, and it’s possible that the meaning and experience of the art will drastically differ based on how it is navigated.

Coming Next

In the next post in this series, I am going to discuss user interaction and how that can impact web art.

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Qualities of Web Art: Programs and Networks

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

In this series of posts I am discussing the web as an art form, and what exactly that might mean. Feel free to check out the previous posts in this series:

In this and the next couple posts, I will be discussing particular aspects of the internet that may help show how web art can be different than any other artistic medium.

The Web Is Programmable

Fundamentally, the web is software. Computer programs run continuously on servers and your computer to bring you your experience of the internet. This means that any piece of art that is created in the web medium is fundamentally made up of code.

Just as a painting is made up of paint and canvas, and a sculpture is made up of bronze or steel, a work of web art is made up of code. There may also be image, animation, and sound files, but it is code that holds it all together.

The primary benefit of this is that web art can be programmed. What the art is, and what the art does is created by programming it to do a certain thing or things. The implication of this is literally too big to discuss, since programs can be written to do nearly anything.

What can be discussed is the general abilities of programs, and what they can do. In the most abstract sense, programs receive, process, create, and send data. They also accept instructions about how to do these processes and what data to do them with. Programs can send and receive data and instructions either from a user, or from another program.

As I mentioned previously, programs can do anything within this framework.

The other aspect of programs is that they can do more than one thing at a time. Multiple computing and processing threads can occur at once, allowing many things to unfold and interact with each other at a time.

The programmable nature of the web is a meta-aspect to web art. This quality informs and defines the other aspects of the web. All of the other characteristics of web art exist as an implementation of the programmable definition of the web. This will be something to keep in mind throughout the discussion that follows.

The web is made up of networks and connections

One of the earliest defining characteristics of the web was the connections – or hyperlinks – between websites. Most webpages on the internet connect via these links to other pages on the internet. One way to look at a website is just a collection of webpages that all link to one another.

A link to another webpage creates an association between whatever is on that one page, and what is one another. The way that the link is presented gives meaning to that association.

Web art may consist of a number of pages that are connected together via linking. In this way, the user experience of this work of art can unfold by the user following the links amongst different parts of the work of art.

Beyond this, the ability to connect different portions of the web makes the connection itself a viable work of art. A piece of web art can use this method of connecting different things to show that the connection between them is the work of art itself.

Connections between separate ideas is not new to art, in fact, there is an argument that one of the defining qualities of post-modern art is connections between separate items, ideas, and actions. The posit of post-modernism that “art is anything you bring attention to as art” is fundamentally a connection between art and everything that exists in the world.

Since connections and linking between separate bits of data is one of the fundamental qualities of the web, it brings this notion of connections to prominence. A work of web art may not just rely on connections as a tool, the ability to so strongly assign meaning to connections on the web may make the connections themselves the work of art.

Links are a tool used to create web pages and websites. It is possible that web art give meaning to that link.

Coming Next

In the next post in this series, I am going to discuss the non-linear possibilities of web art.

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