The Internet as Art:
In the digital age, the medium is the new message.

This article, by Goran Mijuk and featuring Wikipedia Art, appeared in both the online and print editions of the WSJ

Next time an error message pops up on your computer screen or if your machine succumbs to a software virus, it may be more than just an annoying glitch. It may be a work of art.

Just as video and computer technology attracted pioneering artists in the 1960s and 1970s, the Internet today is inspiring artists to tinker with the possibilities and boundaries of the World Wide Web. What started as a playful and often tongue-in-cheek experimental venture by a few code-savvy artists in the early 1990s has grown into a global art movement that is attracting attention from museums and private collectors.
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But net.art artists aren’t stopping here to question and challenge, criticize and eventually redefine the Internet. They are embracing the Internet’s ability to connect people to share ideas and become active both in the digital and the real world. They’re also exhibiting their works in unusual public spaces, generating more attention than they would in a museum.

South African artist Nathaniel Stern, together with American artist Scott Kildall, for example, have created a mock-Wikipedia art page, wikipediaart.org, where other artists and art lovers can create and edit their own art and discuss aspects of art such as censorship and copyright. The work was originally intended to be part of the actual Wikipedia site, but the online encyclopedia blocked the artists’ initial attempt because the editing process on the their Web site did not conform to Wikipedia’s standards.
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read the article online
download a PDF scan of the print edition