The digital world has become unmistakable as a part of life. Most of us interact with some form of digital media every day.
I was raised online, constantly plugged into the great open internet, and many people I know were the same. It was and still sort of is a brave new frontier, all accessible through your phone or computer. In general, I am sure this had many effects that none of us are quite aware of yet, but for me and my friends, it provided a space for us to create and interact with art. But what has this art-internet interaction done to art, artists, and viewers alike?
We have all interacted with art on the internet, whether we know it or not. Maybe that is through music or videos, or even just websites. The internet has become such a bottomless pit, so it can seem daunting to think about what it is or what its impacts are in our daily lives, let alone art.
The internet is like a huge library. Anything you can think of you can probably find hidden away in its elaborate halls. This is a double-edged sword for artists and art-lovers alike. Viewers have the chance to see art from anywhere, catering to any sort of interest and discussing a huge range of ideas. If you have an idea, you can probably find art on the internet about it, and if you cannot, well you better get to work making it.
When the internet was first setting its foot into the world as AoL, it was not given the same rules we give our lives. It was a new, created frontier so why should it? It was dubbed the internet, and everything put onto it was new and fresh. We have had a lot of time since then to reflect on what this ‘new frontier’ is. I would say that in a lot of ways it’s simply a new method of communication of information which can branch long gaps of space between people easily. The information which we put on the internet, for the most part, already has a name. Most of what we are presented with on the internet is art. Yet I feel that there is a sort of disconnect from this art. The internet puts more distance between the gap of art vs entertainment.
This gap started with television. TV shows were highly produced, not for artistic purposes, but purely to stimulate the audience so artists and producers could make a living. This is not to say that there were no artists or artistic processes involved, but the priority was entertainment. With the internet, this becomes a far vaster plane. Content is what we call most pieces of media we view on the internet. Content is what we may call a piece of art that values entertainment has become very prevalent on social media and video sharing sites. Would you consider a Tiktok or YouTube video art? Maybe not. But I would argue against that conclusion, as would others.
An artist named Vita Kari (@vitakari) has become popular on Instagram and Tiktok for their attempts to blur this line. Vita began posting what later became their most famous series of short videos where they would hide a printed out piece of their set hidden in plain sight, then revealing the location of the prop to the viewer. These videos became popular and gave way to sort of a contest in the comments to try and figure out which piece of the set was made of paper. I would see these videos all the time and think they were just more attempts at the fifteen minute fame podium. When I clicked on their account I found that these videos had only been a gateway into what was a larger artistic exploration of how social media specifically affects art. Vita had turned their online success into art, and the way that people viewed the art became an essential part of what the art was.
The machine that the internet can turn you into as an artist is scary. If you look at any popular Instagram artist, you will see them discussing this need to get validation and clicks in order to feel like they have value as an artist. The online art-scape can feel like a prison in that regard. It’s a similar battle that many artists fight to gain recognition. In Vita’s case, the concept that got them famous is also the one that repeats on their account the most.
Another account I stumbled upon earlier this year was Taylor Morrison’s account (@weopen). Taylor is a painter who began posting critiques of popular art trends and pieces on his account. I kept seeing his critiques of Instagram artists come up. These critiques were harsh and unforgiving, but seemed to always aim to encourage the artist to continue in a direction. I do still think he is a little snobby but I’ve come to appreciate that his comments are often the result of a strong desire to see the arts and artists prosper in their practices. Taylor got popular for this style of critique and people began asking him to critique their art. He now runs ‘the dungeon,’ a series of videos that artists can pay for where Taylor critiques art posted on the artist’s account. Taylor is also an artist but was able to capitalise on the success of his critique videos to make money and promote artistic dialogue online.
Especially on social media, where algorithms reign over all, it can be difficult to get a foot in the door of the artistic career. Most freelance artists now rely on social media traffic in order to make money and find customers. This means that most freelance artists must act as their own business manager on top of creating art. This is manageable for some, but I find that for most people who just want to make art, this can become a challenge. Advertising in any sense means a submission to some kind of mainstream or trend, which can be daunting.
Everything on the internet is there forever, through archival sites and downloads, but everything on the internet also fades, just in the sheer volume of things there. This also becomes apparent with the long history of artists having copyright issues online.
A famous example might be music sharing in the early days of the internet. Music pirating sites like Limewire allowed for anyone to pass around music files illegally and there was not much anyone could do about it. This digital age of music was really jarring coming from a time period where music could only be owned via physical copy. Musicians were furious that they were not getting any sales. After long complicated legal battles and a few decades later, we have the modern incarnations of music streaming services, where musicians are still not paid excellently, and pirating has moved over to movies. The internet is not an easy place to regulate as it is so vast and changes so regularly, which often leads to art getting stolen or used without any credit going to its original creator.
This probably makes art on the internet out to be a pretty bad situation for art, but it is not all bad.
Brian Eno was an extremely talented producer and musician who often speculated about art and the methods and motives for making it. He talked a lot about the ‘scenius’ (scene-genius), the idea that there are no lone genius creators, only the collectives that helped produce the work. Finding that artist's space can be a really important part of both establishing yourself as an artist and growing in your work. The art collective can become like a body of its own. I think the internet has certainly allowed more of these scenes to exist.
As a kid I really enjoyed finding these niche scenes, buried under layers of Wikipedia hyperlinks and old, dead websites. One of these sites I found was called Paper Rad, which was an art collective in the early 2000s that existed almost exclusively online. The website contained extreme flashing colours, but it also included what seemed like an entire empire of art. Paper Rad included music, videos, art, installations, animations, comics, and a bunch of other mediums, all weird and very appealing to a young me. The idea that entire art movements and collectives like Paper Rad lived and died entirely online is crazy to think about. Just think of how many fleeting subgenres of styles and art come and go all the time on the internet.
Artists have always been interested in ‘carving out’ a space for themselves, whether in the public eye or just as a place to share and make art with like-minded people. This mythical artist space, if pulled off well, can produce some of the most beautiful art; art unique to the artist and the viewer, that expands everyone’s world view.
This space has become challenged recently, as automated creation becomes more prevalent on the internet. Specifically the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on the artist communities online is blatant. Constant discussion over its implications for the future of art are sure to have everyone wondering if artists will become obsolete altogether.
AI will not replace artists if artists continue to make art. And no one likes AI more than actual art without some kind of ulterior motive. Do not ever let something like that make you think what you are doing is unimportant or being phased out. But do not just think that there will not be more attempts to undermine the artist in the future. Be conscious of the media you consume, support up and coming artists, and don’t be so passive with your consumption.
The biggest advice I would give to anybody figuring out interaction with art on the internet is to be intentional. Now that the internet has been so ingrained in our lives, it is easy to forget all it has the capability of doing. I say we must bring back the exploratory stage of the internet. Research, find things that interest you, participate in online communities, and use the internet to its full potential.
The digital landscape will continue to grow with art and art with it, through good and bad. As always, artists will keep making art and people will keep looking. So go out and explore the still fresh grounds of the internet.
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