Mapping the (Hi)Stories of Net Art

My doctoral research focuses on net art, a highly relevant media art practice with a rich history and significant political implications. Using the Internet as both an artistic medium and a place of production and distribution, net art can be observed from the late 80s until the early 00s. Despite its significance, net art has received little analysis to date, often being dismissed as an anti-museum niche art form. Although there is a certain body of texts on net art, these often come from the artists and actors themselves. So, there is an urgent need to revisit these early writings from an academic perspective. Therefore, I want to focus on a persistent yet ambivalent narrative that continues to shape the net art discourse: the internet as a placeless space and the detachment of net art from physical locality. I will confront this narrative with the importance of specific localities, also in terms of different political systems and regional characteristics.

Unfortunately, important net artworks are being lost at an alarming rate due to insufficient preservation and archiving programmes. This research project aims to shed light on this disappearing digital heritage, with a particular focus on artists who have received little attention in the emerging net art canon.