This final chapter examines how the Curatorial Interface actively shapes exhibition practice for net art. Building upon the preceding analyses of digital space in “From Link to Landscape” and technological infrastructure in “The Interfacial Stack”, this chapter investigates the practical application of these concepts. Net art is compelling precisely because it brings together technology and creativity within a single conceptual framework, resulting in diverse methods of expression and exhibition that challenge traditional models. This chapter is structured to test two propositions through the exhibition Alternative Realities Illustrated. 

The first proposition is that net art, though inherently technological, is most effectively exhibited through hybrid forms that integrate digital and physical environments, rather than relying exclusively on one domain. The subchapter “Hybrid Nature of Net Art Curatorial Practice” examines this idea, while “From URL to IRL: Curating Immateriality in the Physical Space” critically explores the inherent limitations of presenting net art in purely physical spaces, which often lack the native digital context essential to the work.

The second proposition centres on the emergent collaborative dynamic between artist and curator. This research supports the view that net art’s democratic and experimental nature, often operating with limited resources, has fostered a new, symbiotic relationship. The subchapter “Artist/Curator/User” examines this model, where roles merge and collaborate closely, proposing it offers new possibilities for the creation and curation of net art. 

To fully grasp the prerequisite of these propositions, one must understand the historical evolution of net art itself, a transformation as significant as the invention of portable oil paint was for painting. The critical shift was the advent of the social internet (Web 2.0), which catalysed post-internet art and led to the broad, inclusive categorisation of online creative practices we see today. While terms like net.art and post-internet art are now historically specific, the latter critiqued as predicating a type of work with aesthetic tropes "too […] close to New Aesthetics" (Clark in Dekker, 2021, p. 47), 16 they remain crucial markers that shaped digital art's trajectory. 

The term ‘Post-Internet’ demarcates a crucial distinction between art made on the internet and art made after its ubiquity. As Gene McHugh argues, all contemporary work is forced “to deal with this new distribution context or at least acknowledge it” (McHugh, 2011, p. 6). 1 This observation establishes the internet not as a neutral tool but as an unavoidable condition of contemporary production, framing the curator’s primary task as mediating this pervasive context. Net art is, therefore, art for which the internet is a fundamental, constitutive component. 

This evolution began with the exploratory, technically-focused works of the 1990s by pioneers like Olia Lialina, who stated that the internet was open for "artistic self-expression... to develop a net language" (Lialina, 1998), framing early net art as a foundational project of building culture within the digital medium, rather than merely using it for distribution. 

This era, represented by projects like Mark Napier’s The Shredder (1998) or Alexei Shulgin’s Form Art (1997), presented curators with a fundamental dilemma: how to exhibit intangible, systems-based work in physical space. This led to a growing recognition that institutions needed to shift focus "towards art based on systems, not objects” and lose their "fear of machines" (Lambert, McNeil and Quaranta, 2014, p. 14). 1

Early institutional solutions were often awkward. Documenta X (1997) featured an office-like setup with computers for accessing online works, and ZKM’s Net_condition exhibition (1999) employed Jeffrey Shaw’s Net.Art Browser. However, visitors often used these terminals for unrelated browsing, revealing the novelty of the approach. A more effective strategy emerged through ‘materialisation’, presenting net art through physical derivatives, performances, or objects. Projects like Apartment at the 49th Venice Biennale distributed physical ephemera like t-shirts and CDs, a trend Domenico Quaranta observed as highly effective for gallery presentation (Lambert, McNeil and Quaranta, 2014, p. 26). 2 This concept reached a logical conclusion with Mark Tribe’s Net.ephemera (2002), which displayed 25 physical artefacts contributed by net.artists on a gallery wall, acknowledging that transposition into physical space “can radically alter the experience and significance of the work” (Tribe, 2002), underscoring the curatorial paradox of this period: that preserving a net artwork’s authenticity often conflicts with the practical need to make it accessible within an institutional setting.