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GLOSSARY

BETA

Beta is the second of the Greek letters. Beta version is in the second version stage of software development. The first phase of the internal version Alpha was not stable enough and was only tested internally, as well as many features were not yet fully developed. Compared to the Alpha version, the Beta version is tested for the public and is more stable, but still needs to be completed and new features and content added

Blockchain

Blockchains, also known as "distributed ledgers", can be used to store information. Information is stored in "blocks" that are distributed in a way that links the end of the previous block like a chain. The birth and development of blockchain have been influenced by cryptography, where cryptographers aim to create a record that cannot be tampered with in order to achieve a trustworthy system construction. Due to the important role of technologies such as “timestamp technology” and “blind signature” algorithms in its development, blockchain technologies are thought to be untamperable. The blockchain is also decentralised compared to the widely used of storing information of today. Currently, our information is stored in a number of servers, which can simply be physically stored in a building. If a fire broke out in the building and destroyed the servers, the information would be lost. The decentralised distribution of the blockchain would avoid this massive loss of data, as the servers would not be stored centrally in one building.


Computer art

The term originated in the magazine Computers and Automation in 1963. It refers to art forms that incorporate computer technology into the creation of art. Computer art is often used as an early precursor to “digital art”. It usually is spoken about in the context of early experimentation with computer painting, drawing and image processing, and refers to a specific group of artists who pioneered and contributed greatly to the creation of such digital technologies that we use today for visual processing. Computer art was developed in the early 1970’s through collaborations between artists and technological laboratories. The most famous of which is Dell laboratory that included such pioneering figures as: Claude Shannon, Ken Knowlton, Leon Harmon, Lillian Schwartz, Charles Csuri, A. Michael Noll, Edward Zajec, and Billy Klüver, an engineer who also collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg to form Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT)


Crypto Art

Crypto Art It is an emerging term and there is no very clear and unambiguous explanation or concept of it. From reading and comparing the contexts in which the term appears, it can be tentatively concluded that crypto art is often used to denote the art of linking into a cryptography-based distributed database (blockchain), and therefore crypto art is also equated with NFT art in many cases.


Crypto Mining

Crypto mining is the process of verifying cryptocurrency transactions and adding them to the blockchain. The person who completes this process is known as a "miner". In simple terms, miners use equipment to perform work in support of the blockchain and are rewarded with cryptocurrency by creating a “Proof of Work”. This is a complex term involving computer concepts such as "Hash" and "Peer-to-Peer". Read more: Hash Functions and Cryptocurrency Mining.


Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is also known as a digital asset. Cryptocurrency transactions are based on a decentralised blockchain and are secured using “smart contracts” and other cryptographic technologies, as opposed to the central bank model. Because transactions are carried out by smart contracts and an untamperable record of transactions is recorded on the blockchain, transactions in cryptocurrencies do not need to be regulated by other authorities or guaranteed by third-party institutions.


Digital Technology

Digital technology is characterised by its use of binary code, to emit electronic transmissions that are translated into image, sound and other faculties. . It is usually referring to technology that is developed with the use of computers. The premise of digital technology is related to what is called ‘the multimedia revolution’ - the ability to directly translate different inputs such as light, sound, movement etc. into one language that can then be translated back to an image, sound or a set of data - all on the same device. Digital technology allows us to consume different outputs with one compact device- like our computer or phone - and translate sound to image, image to sound, movement to a set of data that can be translated as an image - etc. Since the conversion of most of our electronic tools and appliances to digital technology, it has become integrated into our day-to-day life, and adopted for various artistic interventions..


Digital art

The concept of digital art is a broad term that had a profound meaning in the early days of the digital revolution but had become ubiquitous as it progressed. Generally speaking, it could be defined as art that is created with the use of digital technology and is presented in forms such as, but not limited to, audio, video, digital painting, digital sculptures, or 3D printing, text, programmes, interactive platforms etc. Read more: V&A: Digital Art.
Interactive art
In traditional art forms, viewers are seen as passive entities in relation to the artwork's shape and interpretation. Subsequently, in such artworks, interaction is largely limited to viewing objects as inanimate and stationary. Interactive art, on the other hand, looks at the artwork as an event, a platform or a space within which the viewer may take an active role. The viewer not only has a direct “contact” with the artwork but also becomes part of it. Interaction can take many shapes and forms, such as sculptures that can be touched and installations that can be moved. Interactive artworks often capture and process live information with the use of computers and a range of sensors, for example.


The Internet of Things

The internet of things refers to the connection of a physical object, or group of physical objects, in reality to the Internet via information sensing devices. It is used in a wide range of industries such as healthcare, construction and industry, for example using devices to monitor patients' physical signs and to process and feedback this data according to agreed protocols. Feel like this needs more explaination.


New media art

New media art is a broad concept that incorporates contemporary media technologies in its creation: video, digitisation, sound, 3D printing and so on, and is therefore distinct from traditional art forms. New media art began to emerge in the 1950s and the quantity and quality of work grew rapidly in the 1990s with the development of internet technology. Maybe say where, Europe?

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)

NFT is often thought to denote artworks that attracted attention around 2020 and that can be traded on the blockchain (see next entry). However, NFT is not an artwork, but is used to record and verify the existence of certain projects and transactions. In other words, the NFT is a credential used to record and prove that the artwork is linked into the blockchain. Not only artworks, but any documents, applications can be stored to the blockchain and mint NFTs.

Post-Internet

This term is closely related to Internet art and is somewhat controversial in the art world. In the absence of a description of the art form, Post-Internet can often only represent an artistic idea and lead to a wider discussion of the Internet age. Post-Internet is also often considered to represent the 21st century art movement that originated from Internet art. I feel like this needs more explanation. What or who triggered this discussion?

Sound art

Sound art does not only refer to pleasant sounds (music, poetry, etc.) but also to forms of artistic creation using sound as a medium. It encompasses a wide range of sound forms: noise, music, etc., and advocates respect for sound and the sense of hearing.

Virtual art

Virtual art is often thought of as the virtualization what is virtualization? of art. VR technology was introduced to art as a result of the huge technological advances of the 1990s. It allows for the creation of a simulated reality for the viewer, capturing their physical information to create an interactive sensory experience. Virtual art is the type of art that is created on the basis of this technology World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web is the "www" in web address. “www” is stored on the Internet as a document, presented as a "page" and displayed by a "web browser The "Web browser" displays these documents on the Internet. These documents on the Internet are linked by a "Hyperlink" and arranged and organized by a "Website".

THIS WEBSITE MUST BE USED ON A COMPUTER. IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT US, WRITE US ON THEBETATOOLKIT@GMAIL.COM
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HISTORY OF NET.ART



Net. Art refers to a group of artists who have worked in the medium of Internet art since 1994. Some of the early adopters and main members of this movement include ︎︎︎Vuk Ćosić, ︎︎︎Jodi.org, ︎︎︎Alexei Shulgin, ︎︎︎Olia Lialina, ︎︎︎Heath Bunting, Daniel García Andújar.

Pit Schultz curated an exhibition entitled Net. Art in Berlin in 1995. This exhibition is considered to be the first Net. art exhibition and is widely considered to be the starting point of Net. art. The artists such as Vuk Cosic, Heath Bunting and JODI were involved in this exhibition. These artists are listed on an email list called Nettime, and more about ︎︎︎Nettime.


“He asked that each of us to give him I forget eight or 16 screenshots of some web-based work. And then he made those little slides, you know, physical slides for Caruso projector, no dire positives, what's the word called the machines. And then she put that machine in a club in Berlin, owned by his brother, who was a big boy at the time Berlin club guy. And he was just shooting those screenshots at the wall at the maximum speed.”

︎︎︎Vuk Cosic Interview ︎︎︎Image



For a more visual experience of the first Net. Art exhibition, panke. gallery has reproduced screenshots of the artists' early works in 2019, here is a link to information about this exhibition ︎︎︎here

︎ Important works in Net.Art History

︎︎︎the digital hijack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . etoy, 1996 The artist Etoy carried out a project called  "the digital hijack" from 31 March to 1 August 1996. The project used software to generate thousands of fake virtual pages by crawling over 2400 keywords such as porsche, madonna. These trapped pages are searched for in search engines and intervene in the user's search process. The theme of this project is a popular topic that Net. Art has been discussing. Intrusions, hijackings or program errors on the Internet, which interfere with users like some kind of "virus", are also an area that many Net artists are keen to study and reflect on.

︎︎︎Documenta done by Vuk Cosic (1997) Vuk Cosic is one of the pioneers of Net. art and a member of Nettime. In 1997, he curated a copy of the Documenta X website, which contained exactly the same information as Kassel Documenta 1997, such as the schedule and staff list. It was an act of piracy in which Vuk Cosic challenged the security of online archives and artistic work in a bold and avant-garde act, and provoked critical thinking about the security of the Internet in terms of individuals, institutions, art and more.


︎︎︎Easylife XXX, by Alexei Shulgin,1997  Alexei Shulgin is one of the first artists to create Net. Art. His work, Easylife XXX, is a website containing explicit sexual content. The site includes two channels, one for over 18s and one for minors. When entering the adult channel, users are presented with explicit sexual content, while if they enter the underage channel they are presented with a page consisting of computer characters. The design of the two pages corresponds, with the characters in the underage channel forming the same image as the adult channel, but using characters to form the image. Shulgin's work provokes a deeper discussion on the language of the internet in terms of restrictive censorship and explores the boundaries of internet language.


︎︎︎ASCII, by Vuk Cosic (1998) ASCII, American Standard Code for Information Interchange, it is a character code for use in computers and contains a variety of codes such as English letters, numbers, punctuation and so on. Vuk Cosic's work ASCII uses this character encoding to create figurative, vivid images, and about the work ASCII, Vuk Cosic talks more in the interview about:




“ ASCII was my let's call it second stage, like the blue period. There was a period before which is like pure net art. ASCII was actually my exit from that art. With the very first weeks and months of availability of the web, or whenever each of us came across this this platform, we should have been asking ourselves exactly, these super fundamental questions that leads to the questions that you've asked.

Majority of us early practitioners that also had some ambitious conceptual, let's say, backgrounds and also intentions. We understood ourselves as refugees from the art system. We understood that one component of our ethos was also that we were not accepting the existing A relationships of power in the art world we were born into.”





︎︎︎LIFE SHARING - ︎︎︎EVA AND FRANCO MATTES (0100101110101101.ORG) (2000 - 2003) Life Sharing by Eva and Franco Mattes, is curated by Steve Dietz. Eva and Franco Mattes expose their lives to the scrutiny of the Internet, where the public can read and download their computer content, such as emails. In this radical way they challenge the boundaries between the public sphere and personal privacy, demonstrating how inseparable people's lives have become from the Internet.


︎︎︎Animated GIF Model, Olia Lialina, 2005 This work documents the interactive language of the internet that emerged around 2005. This link contains several gifs created by Olia Lialina, the most discussed of which is the gif of the hula hoop. The GIFs became a very contemporary language of the internet.

︎︎︎Collection of nur abbas, into time .com by rafaël rozendaal, 2010 (by Rafaël Rozendaal, 2010) This work was created in 2010 by Rafaël Rozendaal using Flash. It is a browser-based work. Into time is bright and colourful and the final page is different depending on how each viewer interacts with it. Because of the strong interactive nature of this work, it is constantly changing and extending in terms of form.



Enjoy

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