shredder

Mark Napier’s Shredder

This work is typical of much digital art because it is an artwork that places importance on

è  Formal instruction

The user have to enter the webside address and it will be broken down into distorted texts and images.

è  The concept rather than the art object

This artwork does not have the physical object, it exists on internet. The concept of shredder is to restore the website’s originality. Just like Napier explain “I wanted to expose the raw material that make up the ‘design’, ‘content’ and‘information of the web and use of information directly. Of course, this material is a construct of software and the graphics display. It is ‘raw’ only by virtue of the context The Shredder creates” (Green, R., 2004 p.100)

•         the event and audience participation

      When the user enters the web, they have to enter the web address in its interface and it will immediately deconstruct the original site and shatter the web pages' text, images, graphics and HTML code. It encourages audiences to take part .

•      an interest in random events and/or chance

      When you enter different website's address, it will appear different images and texts as the URL of each website is different.

my boyfriend came back from the war

My boyfriend came back from the war is a browser-based art using hypertext to combine the images and narrative together. The artist is Olia Lialina, a pioneer internet artist,

It is a story about a couple reconvene after the war, the girl and the boy talk about the marriage, betrayal, faithfulness and their wish. The text begins with a phrase; my boy friend came back from the war, after the dinner, they left alone’, when clicking on this short sentence, the screen is divided into two pictures, one with a window and one with the boy and the girl sitting on a bench, it symbolize the couple is far from being separated. The next click is divided into two frames, one merge the previous frames together, and one with the image of the boy.

My boyfriend came back from the war encourage users to participate with the artwork, they can determine the story order by their own path through clicking what window they want without any restriction. Besides, the readers have to construct the whole story by their own by the broken dialogues. For example, “Will you marry me”, “ Tomorrow”, “No, better than two months later”, the three broken dialogues are the metaphor about the date for wedding that the boy asks the girl.

It shares some features of Piet Mondrian’, Dada art as well as conceptual art. Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter, was a great contributor to De, Stiji art movement. His arts mainly focus on lines, different from of square and rectangular as well as using  single color tones. My boyfriend came back from the war is similar to Piet Mondrian’s art. Lialina uses few lines to constitute the frames which make the brilliant contrast with the background. Also, the color of the images, comments and the dialogues between the couple are only black and white.

For Dada art, let’s give a brief summary of its style. Dada movement began in World War I, it has no predominant medium, nonsensical and it never follow any rules. Unlike traditional art, My boyfriend came back from the war

is one of the earliest arts using hypertext from internet. Each link connects with another to ensure reader can browse continuously. Also, it adopts HTML which can show several frames on the screen simultaneously and hide the next HTML document until it is opened. It enables readers can move forth or back without any restriction and manipulate the frame what they want by their own path. The artwork can also be stored on CD-Rom that allows to show it in any computer or even when offline.

For conceptual art, it focuses on idea over the form. My boyfriend came back from the war does not have a physical object but being presented on the Internet. In order to present her idea- the disconnection of the boy and the girl after the war,

Lialina uses the hyper narration that doesn’t present in the whole sentence but in the short phrase or in the broken dialogue to convey the atmosphere of the difficult conversation. For example, When the girl being questioned in her faithfulness, Lialina splits the dialogue into “ Last summer”, “ What should I explain”, “ You don’t’ trust me?”  to create the tensed atmosphere between the couple. 

new media art

1.Dada and new media art both described as reactions, what did they react to? -Dada was in reaction to the industralization of walfare and mechanical reproduction of text and images. -New media art was in reaction to the digitization of cultureal forms and information technology revolution. 2. What are some similarities of new media art to Dada, Pop art and video art? -Dada art Both of them focua on concepts over skilld or forms. Also, the subjects of them are about the collage, political action and readymade. -Pop Art Both of them engage with commercial culture -Video art The artists use the portable video camera to explore the technology and culture 3. When was net art first included in a major exhibition - 1997 4.Is new media art focus in one country? - no,new media art does not focus in one countries .since there is no geographical boundaries,the users can access on internet at any time and place they want. 5. Why were many artist drwan to new media art from other discipline? the reason is the globalization and advanced of technology draw the artists to ne media art from other disciplines. Nowadays, it is easily for people to contact with meadia ar as thw widespread of computer, telophone, ipad and so on. they can appreciate the artwork at any time and places without any restriction.