Whitney Biennial 2002 Net Art Selection

Category: Exhibition
Year: 2002
Institution: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Comment: The selection of Internet-based art for the 2002 Biennial strives to give an impression of the variety of forms that net art can take and of the multiple themes that have emerged over the years. These forms range from alternative browsers and "hypernarrative" to networked software art—art that resides on a local computer but culls data from the Internet. Among the prominent themes in net art are data visualization and mapping, database aesthetics, gaming paradigms, agent technology, community as well as nomadic devices—all of which surface in the art works included in the 2002 Biennial selection. The Biennial net art selection includes 4 pieces of "networked software art." Mary Flanagan's [collection] and Robert Nideffer's PROXY (both available on-line) need to be downloaded to and installed on your computer. Benjamin Fry's Valence and John Klima's EARTH are not available on-line but the projects' websites feature detailed information about the works. EARTH has a Java module (a simplified browser-enabled version of the limited edition software shown at the Whitney) that is downloadable at the project's website. PROXY is shown on-line only. EARTH and [collection] are presented as small-scale installations. (source: http://artport.whitney.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions.shtml)