Website as original medium
Posted by Chad Mazzola
Back in the late '90s when I first starting going online, it seemed that the idea of using a website as a medium for artistic expression was still being explored. The first site that comes to mind is Kottke's Osil8. The site featured short, self-contained "episodes" mainly composed in the primitive HTML/JPG/GIF language of the day. (Javascript and Flash were introduced as nearly exotic elements.) Most episodes were ironic, inventive riffs on the burgeoning internet culture.
While the self-reflective nature of Osil8 (using the medium to represent the medium) has in no way been abandoned by the web culture that followed it, what does seem to have changed is the use of the web as a legitimate medium for artistic expression. While there has been a proliferation of sites that serve as the distribution channels for photography, illustration, video and audio, websites themselves are less and less treated as genuine expressions of an artistic impulse.
Another star of the '90s internet that c ... more ยป
Posted: May 18, 2008 2:28 am | 1 comment
Tags: art, blogs, internet culture
