CHArt Twenty-Second Annual Conference

New Futures in Net Art: Discovering Emergent Art Historical Technique in Net Art Contextualisation
Charlotte Frost, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

In 1997 the artist Vuk Cosic signalled a selection of monographs missing from art history departmental libraries the world over by creating an online catalogue of fantastical publications on Net artists. The irony was not lost on the Net artists, that is, that not only were these works as-yet-unpublished, but there was a strong chance books of their kind never would be. While this (now classic) work of Net art has in general been understood to signify the massive art historical deficit that has burdened the field of Net art from the start, I shall demonstrate in this paper that Net art practice does not simply elude art history, but conversely, adumbrates the development of emergent art historical methodology.

This paper will describe the evolution of the practice and products of the art historian exemplified in approaches to the historicisation of the niche, web-based movement of Net art. It will introduce the field of Net art practice; explain the factors that forced Net artists to become Net art historians; demonstrate the burgeoning body of art contextual tools and techniques ancillary to Net art practice and suggest how they begin to develop the practice and products of the art historian. Net art historical approaches discussed will include: the production of pluralistic accounts of Net art created in Net art promotional platforms; the artistry of the moderation of and intervention into online mailing lists, and the enactment of Net art context though online ‘performative’ activities. The paper will conclude that these emergent practices of contextualisation themselves require analysis – indeed contextualisation – before their impact upon a wider art historical arena can be fully realised.

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