`Collect the WWWorld` attempts to archive the

10/22/12
'Collect the WWWorld' attempts to archive the internet through art | The Verge
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'Collect the WWWorld' attempts to archive the internet through art
By Adrianne Jeffries 10.20.2012
Domenico Quaranta, curator of Collect the WWWorld.
It was the New York opening of Collect the WWWorld, a collection of internet-inspired art, and an impressive number of stylish Brooklyn creatives had turned out for the
occasion. Sipping Franzia and introducing themselves by saying things like, "I’m from the internet. Actually, from ____ on Tumblr," the patrons were in for a stimulating
display. The exhibit included a wall-sized collage of hundreds of images taken from the internet; a smashed keyboard and desktop computer playing the viral video of an
"angry German kid" destroying his computer in a fit of rage; an oversized absurdist animation projected on a wall, complemented by a soundtrack of loud human grunting.
“"I wanted to make a show that showed the impact of the internet on contemporary art."”
The gallery show was an accompaniment to the digital collection housed on the Collect the WWWorld Tumblr, which has accrued more than 300 works that demonstrate "the
practice of exploring, collecting, archiving, manipulating, reusing huge amounts of visual material produced by popular culture and advertising." Basically, it’s sampling from
the wealth of images, text, and video available on the web, and making art around it.
"I wanted to make a show that showed the impact of the internet on contemporary art, but try to make something that would make sense to the general audience," explained
Domenico Quaranta, an Italian art critic and the curator of Collect the WWWorld.
Attendees at the Collect the WWWorld exhibit in Brooklyn.
It’s possible to experience this art on two levels. Most of the works are irreverent and charming, and can be appreciated simply for their cleverness, like Niko Pricen’s A
Collection of Images, which consists of a list of image file names. But there’s often more insight to be had. For example, Elisa Giardina Papa’s compilation of YouTube clips
of kids begging their webcams for ideas for videos, is cute on its face. But it’s also meant to show how society now pressures ordinary people to produce content for the
internet, even when they’re too young to have something to say. "If you see just one video on YouTube, it doesn’t make sense to you," Quaranta explained. But as a
collection, a thesis emerges.
“As a collection, a thesis emerges”
Similarly, the artist Kevin Bewersdorf builds his works around Google image results for certain keywords. Google image search result for "exhausted" printed onto blanket,
tie, dog leash and golf towel by Walgreens.com, was the one included in the recent exhibit. The blanket, tie, and dog showed a Caucasian man holding a limp and sleeping
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'Collect the WWWorld' attempts to archive the internet through art | The Verge
boy who is presumably his son. Whoever took the picture and uploaded it to the internet probably wasn’t trying to make a statement, but Bewersdorf noticed that the image
bore a striking accidental resemblance to Michaelangelo’s Piata, in which the Virgin Mary holds her dead son.
"In a situation in which everyone is a producer, artists are post-producers who collect everything and give it meaning," Quaranta said.
Kevin Bewersdorf's Google image search result for "exhausted" printed onto blanket, tie, dog leash and golf towel by Walgreens.com.Source: Postmasters.
The project and affiliated artists are part of a new generation of remix art, continuing a tradition that started in the 1960s as part of the contemporary art movement and refined
in later years as "appropriation art." Quaranta compares his collection to the conceptual artists Hans-Peter Feldmann, who rearranges mundane objects and scenes, and the
infamous "re-photographer" Richard Prince, who is being sued for copyright violation for using another photographer’s work in his collages.
“The project is part of a new generation of remix art”
Quaranta’s not sure how long the project will run, and he’s still collecting submissions. The physical exhibition of Collect the WWWorld started in Quaranta’s native Italy a
year ago, before traveling to Switzerland and then to New York. The project has also produced a book with the project’s full name, "Collect the WWWorld: The Artist as
Archivist in the Internet Age."
Collect the WWWorld attempts to encapsulate an art movement with no strict definition or label. However, it’s closely related to the "net art" and "New Aesthetic" digital art
movements. Both terms encompass creative work influenced by an internet-centric culture. The works are usually amalgamations of pieces of the web, best appreciated by
internet connoisseurs who recognize and enjoy the references.
My generation, by Eva and Franco Mattes.
Other works on display included Once Upon, by Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, a triptych of computers displaying mashups between modern websites and their 90s
counterparts. A link list with a grainy picture of Sandra Bullock is labeled "Pinterest," the "dancing baby" animated .gif is superimposed onto YouTube, and a table of avatars
is declared to be "Google+." Another piece, The Universal Texture by Clement Valla, consisted of two blown-up Google Street View images printed on canvases, one on the
floor and one slumped against a wall.
The three-room gallery where the exhibit was held is something of a New York hub for this type of art. The space was founded by Igal Nassima, a programmer, artist, and a
graduate of New York University’s interactive media program, ITP. Nassima runs the space with his co-director, Lindsay Howard. Nassima lives above the gallery with two
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director.
Comments
Wow. The artwork, it’s all so hip… ster.
FLIP.mo - October 20, 2012
“need ideas!?! PLZ!!”
Is it just me or do they all look depressed?
Agentx002 - October 20, 2012
Welcome to the Internet, Please follow me.
http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/232/0/a/welcome_to_the_internet__please_follow_me_by_sharpwriter-d5buwfu.jpg
Agentx002 - October 20, 2012
I need you to know i logged in just to recommend that.
indian2092 - October 20, 2012
He looks like the character from Breaking Bad.
confundo - October 20, 2012
Does it bug anyone else that WWWorld means “World Wide World”?
thatoliver - October 21, 2012
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