The New Museum in New York is devoted exclusively to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, in 2012 the museum unveiled on its website the feature “First Look,” an entirely virtual exhibition hall designed for artists whose work relies on the Internet. The works exhibited each month explore the artistic possibilities afforded by the net. From interactive documentaries to the creation of web sites, here are a few examples of the work to have appeared on the site of this museum nestled into the heart of Manhattan:
Dina Kelberman is an artist who made a name for herself through her blog I Am Google, a never-ending “exquisite corpse” made from images found on Google Images. Her work Smoke and Fire uses only gifs taken from cartoons. Like her blog, the images are linked to each other through shapes and colors and demonstrate the excess of information available on the web.
In another genre, the American artist and photographer Taryn Simon joined forces with the programmer Aaron Swartz to create Images Atlas, which debuted on First Look in 2012. This simple-looking site shows the first image results for a search term in different countries. The results are influenced by the cultural and political trends in each location, as well as the public’s taste at a given moment. A term will bring up vastly different results depending on the country. For example, a search for the word “God” turns up colorful scenes of Indian religion as well as images of old men with beards floating in clouds. In North Korea, however, no results are found. (I’ll leave it to you to see what “Sex” brings up.)
The final work, Cavrncode, which appeared at the end of March, is an application which users can download to their computers. Designed by the young American artist, Brenna Murphy, Cavrncode is described as “ a vast expanse of digital terrain, composed of a patchwork of psychedelic textures, tweaked out statues..”
With First Look, users can take monthly, private visits to museums deeply inspired by the Big Apple, without ever leaving their couch.
http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/online
http://dinakelberman.com/smokeandfire/
http://imageatlas.org/
http://bmruernpnhay.com/cavrncode.html
