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6168 A site devoted exclusively to net.art. One of the most visually attractive spots on the web, its projects are characterised by a constant demand for interactive e-mail correspondence. The pieces of net.art to be found here are mostly in a written form, open to feedback and continual interaction between the author, the work and the viewer.
ADAWEB One of the most prestigious net.art sites. This space, with its unmistakable design, houses net.works that are already considered to be classics. Jenny Holzer, Muntadas, Jodi, Aitken, and other artists make this site one that is not be missed. The success of this site is due to its being the first site to bring together a selection of net.art chosen with real criteria, and its constant support of artistic development in this medium.
AIR The first 'metasite' in Spanish. Air is a venue for communication and the interconnection for a group of independent websites from the Iberian peninsula, which devote their pages to the problematics of art in today's societies, from wide-ranging perspectives. These pages give us access to its different members, making it possible to explore our region's intensive activity in the fields of art and the Internet.
ALT-X Another site not to be missed. They define themselves as the best site on the Internet for contemporary art and criticism. And with reason: the net.artworks featured here, although not very many, are highly oriented towards the interrelationship between the tradition of critical theory and the new forms of expression made possible by new media, especially the web. Their online Digital|Studies e-xhibition is probably the best net.art show organised to date.
ANTIROM This site's format is one of the most fascinating to be found on the web. Based on a series of interactive shorts (using Shockwave technology), its navigational system is absolutely disorienting, and references to authorship, themes or sources are nonexistent. Excellent pieces that function as an antidote against some of the ills afflicting the 'conventional' art world. Pure Net.art, and, as its name indicates, a project that backs the 'antirom-anticism' of art and artists.
c3 An active Hungarian organisation whose efforts are aimed at creating works for the Internet using diverse technologies, such as Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) and digital video. Developed by the Soros Foundation, it has an excellent homepage. The efforts of this centre, outside the Western art centres, are noteworthy. An example of how on the web, the concept of periphery and centre is irrelevant.
CONSTRUCT Site dedicated to art made for the Internet. Specialised in projects that involve VRML. Both its design and its internal navigation system are very efficient. Projects here vary from virtual reality comics to multimedia installations, as well as three-dimensional visualisations of space.
THE CRASHSITE One of the most irreverent, efficient 'e-zines' on the Internet. Art projects are found in the Trash section, and revolve around this movement's counterculture of rock, comics and iconography. Its aesthetic side is very fresh, and its content is shot through with irony. Its efficiency comes from being a clear example of 'unity of distribution' of a current of thought, that of the (un)generation X.
CTHEORY Site devoted to contemporary theory, technology and culture. Brings together articles and interviews, featuring Baudrillard, Crandall, and many more. A collective effort in favour of free distribution and circulation of contemporary knowledge. Sites like "CTheory" justify the idea that the Internet is one of the counterculture's most efficient parallel systems. A site that should be visited periodically (if you don't have an e-mail subscription to its articles).
FOUNDATION FOR DIGITAL CULTURE The true New York 'metasite'. It is a website about websites. Its members carry out diverse activities, from reflecting on electronic culture to creating works for the web. Its 'intranet' includes organisations as prestigious and interesting as Rhizome, FPY, Theoricon, and ada 'web.
IRATIONAL.ORG A very active site on the net.art scene; one of the most daring in terms of theme and style. Its radically different homepage incites users to continuously reflect on the impact of computers, and by extension, computer networks, in their private lives. Most of its works can be considered politically incorrect. We like that.
JODI According to his friend Vuk Cosic, 'the Spanish net.artist who is unanimously considered the greatest artist of the 20th century. He is unique as an inventor of forms, innovator of styles and techniques, master of various media, and one of the most prolific artists in history. He has created more than 20,000 works'. Si non e vero, e ben trovatto.
KRCF The site for 'knowbotics research', one of the most prestigious, renowned research groups in electronic art. KR+cF is 'interested in opening up fields of action within the processes of existing cognisance.' The site's sections include, among others, 10-dencies, mem-brane, (a media strategy lab), and non-located online, one of the most respected electronic magazines.
MOSCOW www ARTCENTRE A very attractive independent initiative, which questions the pertinence of the idea of art but which, in spite of this, 'uses it so that the navigator does not completely lose his vanishing identity.' Magnificent pieces of net.art, and a radical concept of what their communicative practices involve as far as questioning the institutionalised existence of Art. Their front pages alone would be enough to make this a noteworthy site.
NETTIME Together with Rhizome, the most prestigious data base and mailing list on the Internet. The two issues of its electronic magazine, conceived as a book-in-progress, surely constitute one of the finest existing compilations of theoretical texts on the problems of art on the web. Some beautiful examples of e-mail.art.
PLEXUS One of the most complex and interesting sites, with an elegant yet risky design. The selections of art presented in its galleries are often not up to the level of its magazines. Among these, the electronic version of the mythical lacanian ink.
RHIZOME In Rhizome, everyone in the net.art.community meets and "makes rhizome". It has a data base and two mailing lists that link up and communicate everything happening on the web, offering information on a wide range of topics.
TALKBACK! An electronic magazine on the problematics of art and the web. Its easy-to-read design is restrained, elegant, and uncluttered. Magnificent contributions. Three issues to date. The first treated 'the archive as artwork', the second revolved around the question of 'identity', and the third looks at 'the community', both virtual and 'the other'.
THE THING "The Thing" is one of the pioneer sites for the art community. It sees itself as a kind of forum for artists and people interested in the art world. A venue for many of the best net.art projects produced by American net.artists. Has 'branches' in Berlin, Vienna (the original), Amsterdam and Frankfurt, although they try to reject the philosophy of a localised site, and aim without complete success to blend the content of these different nodes.
VUK This is the site of Vuk Cosic, who, together with Jodi, Alexei Shoulgin and Heat Bunting, is one of the most celebrated net.artists (at least in his own opinion) to date. His site has links to interesting projects by other artists, and contains a complete mirror of the still active dx site.
WHY NOT SNEEZE? A site on art criticism and the Internet. They define themselves as a 'site that is simultaneously an electronic magazine and an experimental laboratory.' Magnificent design and excellent pieces, it is the kind of double-fronted site (artistic practice/critical thought) that can make the best contribution at this time to the strategic development of net.art as a radical practice.
WOMEN AND PERFORMANCE An excellent online magazine that analyses the problematics of gender and sexuality from a feminist point of view, demonstrating that contemporary feminist theory has compiled the best theoretical material for developing criticism of the essentialist concepts of subjectivity. The site includes marvellous yellow pages on these matters. ot to be missed is issue #17, which provides a specific critical analysis of new sexual behaviour in cyberspace.