What are the best works of art that have been made for the internet?
August 21, 2016 4:56 AM

I am interested in looking at art made for the web. Can you provide great examples?

I am most interested in material that can only exist on the web ... not just something on paper scanned and saved as a JPEG or that would be the same experience if printed out. For example, I love the work of Rafael Rozendaal, which is dynamic, interactive, animated, and can only exist as a webpage. What else is like that?
posted by mortaddams to Media & Arts (13 answers total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
http://dinakelberman.tumblr.com
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 5:57 AM on August 21, 2016


As a resource, you might be interested in Rhizome, specifically their ArtBase.
posted by mustardayonnaise at 6:59 AM on August 21, 2016


Google nightwalk tour of marseille is pretty magical. I think that counts - it's an immersive self guided tour of the southern French city of Marseille, complete with sounds maps and artscape. I consider it artwork anyways and it needs the internet or at least a computer to exist.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:09 AM on August 21, 2016


The webcomic xkcd has done several of these, including the impressive Click and Drag (explained).
posted by Night_owl at 9:29 AM on August 21, 2016


jodi.org have been doing web-browser based glitch-art since the dawn of the internets.
posted by ovvl at 10:29 AM on August 21, 2016


I would also recommend looking at the people list for the School for Poetic Computation and projects at the Studio for Creative Inquiry as some places to start unearthing cool new media works.
posted by dame at 10:39 AM on August 21, 2016


William Gibson's Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) (digital, but slightly predating the web)
White Glove Tracking
The Wilderness Downtown
also: youfellasleepwatchingadvd.com
posted by thejoshu at 11:10 AM on August 21, 2016


Does Homestuck count?
posted by beandip at 11:11 AM on August 21, 2016


Ooh, I haven't thought about jodi.org in almost 20 years. Of similar vintage, still apparently alive and kicking, are Superbad and Entropy8Zuper.
posted by aws17576 at 5:03 PM on August 21, 2016


Around 2000 ish I remember reading a webcomic which was about dolphins and VR and psychedelia. It wasn't particularly interactive but (IIRC) used long scrolling pages which wouldn't have been practical in printed form. My google fu is failing. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:12 PM on August 21, 2016




It's twenty years old now, I realized when looking it up, but I still think 253 by Geoff Ryman is a great example of internet-based art. It's a series of stories about passengers on the same subway train, linked based on where they are in the car, their relationships, if they're thinking about the same thing-- really any different number of reading experiences are possible. And the writing is very good.
posted by Henrietta Stackpole at 10:06 PM on August 21, 2016


Just came across this question, and I immediately thought of this work of Marcus Blättermann (move your mouse around).
posted by panic at 8:33 AM on August 28, 2016


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