/ Hybrid Nature of Net Art Curatorial Practice
My analysis in this subchapter aims to complement and build upon significant existing studies of curatorial and exhibition space that show traces of hybridisation in net art. The initial practices of net art exhibition were centred on curating the immaterial, wherein the role of the curator within the decentralised space of the internet was ambiguous and undefined. In her essay ‘Flexible Contexts, Democratic Filtering, and Computer- Aided Curating’ which was published in the book Curating Immateriality: The Work of the Curator in the Age of Network Systems (2006) Christiane Paul argues that “network structures and collaborative models tend to create zones of cultural autonomy” (Paul, 2006, p. 85) 2 where different curatorial approaches develop to fit within the internet parameters. She starts by introducing the online exhibitions organised by the museum. By using the example of Gallery 9, which was an online exhibition space organised by the Walker Art Centre in 1997, Paul argues that even though Gallery 9 geared towards creating a contextualised network, museums and galleries still have an individual approach towards curating net art, which is limiting the participatory nature of the internet. Further in her essay, she looks at the mode of multiple curatorial approach, which is usually established through independent, non-profit organisations; however, this type of platforms are challenged by the traditional notion of the individually selected artworks for prestigious museums and galleries, which might limit their audience reach. She finishes her essay with the ‘public curation’ approach, which “still consists of pre-defined archives but blurs the boundaries between public and curator” (Paul, 2006, p. 95), 3 leading towards a more democratic approach where the collaboration between artists, curator and audience is more prominent.
Similar ideas of curating on the internet can be traced in the essay ‘Art as the Experience: Meet the Active Audience’ by Josephine Bosma, which was published the same year. In her work, Bosma brings forward the ideas on the necessity of audience involvement with the net art practices. She states that “new technologies serve as a cultural vector, and seem capable of enabling earlier cultural and political desires for freedom” (Bosma, 2006, p. 30). 1 Her argument is based on the ability of the internet technology to reach a wider audience and position art within popular culture and social life. Thus, the dependence of the internet on audience engagement is reflected in the net art practices. Using examples of the Rhizome platform and Mouchette (1996-Present) website , Bosma analyses the audience engagement with network art by considering the website accessibility and navigation and the ability of the artwork or digital platform to communicate with the audience in various ways. Bosma concludes that “this sudden implosion of the reproduction environment has in fact scattered the mass experience of art interpretation to a more local, even personal level” (Bosma, 2006, p. 37). 2
The proposition of ‘personal level’ experience is present in the net art practices, with the development of net art towards hybridity, which adds another layer of social experience to it. Though both of the writings are concerned with the net curation and show minimal traces of hybridity, they bring forward the new approaches behind the curatorial practice on the internet. When talking about the hybrid representation of internet art, the analysis includes both physical and digital spaces of exhibition practice, meaning that early attempts to exhibit art on the internet can be used as a guideline for further use of the internet as a complementary space for the physical exhibition.
The understanding of technological tools and diverse methods of internet utilisation, encompassing aspects like audience engagement, the cultural and spatial environment fostered by the internet, and the function of the "public curator," constitute some of the essential factors in constructing an engaging hybrid setting for the presentation of internet art. Nonetheless, a secondary challenge in exhibiting existing internet art projects lies in the use of physical space and its inherent limitations. The chapter Space and Materiality, which is part of the book Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (2010) by Sarah Cook and Beryl Graham, brings forward the concepts around the hybrid exhibition space and challenges that museums or galleries can face when dealing with net art. The chapter begins by drawing parallels between decentralised networks and centralised distribution in traditional art practices, stating that the system of showing art and its distribution can exist in physical networks (exhibition spaces) and be linked to the network of printed media (printed publications). Thus, the decentralised network not only provides the means for distribution but also adds the social meaning to the artwork. “To take artwork out of the studio decontextualised it” (Graham and Cook, 2010, p. 59). 3 The production and exhibition of an artwork on the internet leads to its decontextualization from traditional art canons and fully integrates it into the cultural system without the strict context imposed by museum or gallery space.
This chapter then addresses the difference between traditional art and the new media art by arguing that net-based projects concentrate more on the process of art creation, its engagement and outcome rather than on purely objective outcome. This leads to the ideas of immateriality in new media art. Cook argues that new media art isn’t entirely immaterial, suggesting that “the materiality of new media is variable and hybrid” (Graham and Cook, 2010, p. 62). 4 Even the code-based artworks have the physicality of the networks of people who engage with the software and computer programs. They also exhibit physicality in the webpage design, the position of the windows and search bars. Before moving towards curatorial practices, Cook identifies the final aspect of new media art, which is centred around the site-specific notion of net-based projects. It is usually established through the websites where the work is exhibited and incorporates the ideas of public and social space on the web, for the most part, seen as public space. The main issue that is proposed in this chapter, when curating new media art, is the nature of the web and its use as mostly a storage space and display medium. When put into the museum or gallery context, it tends to lose its site-specific nature of public, social space and instead is presented as a list of categorised works that do not correspond with the traditional art environment.
Another problem that curators tend to come across is the representation of the simulation artworks. This type of projects “that deal with this melding of virtual and physical space is that much harder to “frame” for viewers experience” (Graham and Cook, 2010, p.79). 5 When working with simulation artworks, curators need to define that the awareness of the mediation will be the viewer’s primary experience, by carefully defining space, time and the online for simulated exhibition practices.
More recent writing on the topic of internet art exhibition practice have a more obvious traces of hybridity, with it becoming a common factor for net art. In Made of the Same Stuff: Ryan Trecartin’s Art of Transformation (2015) Michael Wang through the Ryan Trecartin’s art practice brings forward the idea of a “new quasi-physical state of digital media” (Cornell and Halter, 2015, p. xxvii) 1 which allows artworks to exist in constant transition between the physical and digital realms, bringing forward the digital art’s complexity and multiple layer structure.
The similar concepts of multiple layer structures and the vagueness of the boundaries between physical and digital can be traced in Expanded Internet Art Twenty-First-Century Artistic Practice and the Informational Milieu by Cici Moss. She refers to the hybridisation of net art as ‘expanded Internet art’ that she further examines through the Gilbert Simondon concept of ‘milieu’ , which is backed up by Tiziana Terranova’s adaptation of ‘information milieu’. Moss concedes the internet not to be solely the platform for art creation but “a crucial nexus around which to research, assemble, transmit, and present data, both online and offline” (Moss, 2019, p. 219), 1 where the main factor for the net art expansion is the production and transmission of digital information.
The concepts of hybridity are particularly compelling when examining a strictly net-based movement, and they directly inform one of the central propositions I set out to explore as an independent curator working with the interface: how can digitally created and exhibited net art projects be translated into physical space, and to what extent does this add to the experience of the artwork? In my exhibition Alternative Realities Illustrated, I deliberately chose a hybrid format where one exhibition occurs simultaneously in digital space and in a physical room containing print-based elements. The conceptual link bridging these two worlds is an Augmented Reality (AR) code, which connects the spaces to merge them into a cohesive experience. My choice to create a hybrid exhibition came directly from the research outlined above, which demonstrates clear and evolving traces of hybridity in net art exhibition practice. The exhibition serves as a practical test, a real-life application of these theoretical frameworks, allowing me to investigate the extent to which strategic hybridity is not only applicable but essential for creating a resonant, multi-layered encounter with net art today.