Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century (Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture)

Since the turn of the millennium, the Internet has evolved from what was merely a new medium to a true __mass__ medium -- with a deeper and wider cultural reach, greater opportunities for distribution and collaboration, and more complex corporate and political realities. Mapping a loosely chronological series of formative arguments, developments, and happenings, __Mass Effect__ provides an essential guide to understanding the dynamic and ongoing relationship between art and new technologies. __Mass Effect__ brings together nearly forty contributions, including newly commissioned essays and reprints, image portfolios, and transcribed discussion panels and lectures that offer insights and reflections from a wide range of artists, curators, art historians, and bloggers. Among the topics examined are the use of commercial platforms for art practice, what art means in an age of increasing surveillance, and questions surrounding such recent concepts as "postinternet." Other contributions analyze and document particular works by the artists of And/Or Gallery, Cory Arcangel, DIS, Cao Fei, the Radical Software Group, and others. __Mass Effect__ relaunches a publication series initiated by the MIT Press and the New Museum in 1984, which produced six defining volumes for the field of contemporary art. These new volumes will build on this historic partnership and reinvigorate the conversation around contemporary culture once again. Copublished with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York **Contributors**Cory Arcangel, Karen Archey, Michael Bell-Smith, Claire Bishop, Dora Budor, Johanna Burton, Paul Chan, Ian Cheng, Michael Connor, Lauren Cornell, Petra Cortright, Jesse Darling, Anne de Vries, DIS, Aleksandra Domanović, Harm van den Dorpel, Dragan Espenschied, Rózsa Zita Farkas, Azin Feizabadi, Alexander R. Galloway, Boris Groys, Ed Halter, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Jogging, Caitlin Jones, David Joselit, Dina Kafafi, John Kelsey, Alex Kitnick, Tina Kukielski, Oliver Laric, Mark Leckey, David Levine, Olia Lialina, Guthrie Lonergan, Jordan Lord, Jens Maier-Rothe, Shawn Maximo, Jennifer McCoy, Kevin McCoy, Gene McHugh, Tom Moody, Ceci Moss, Katja Novitskova, Marisa Olson, Trevor Paglen, Seth Price, Alexander Provan, Morgan Quaintance, Domenico Quaranta, Raqs Media Collective, Alix Rule, Timur Si-Qin, Josephine Berry Slater, Paul Slocum, Rebecca Solnit, Wolfgang Staehle, Hito Steyerl, Martine Syms, Ben Vickers, Michael Wang, Tim Whidden, Anicka Yi, and Damon Zucconi Do you believe in users?/Turing complete user / Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied -- coming soon: ebay paypal blogs the internet / Cory Arcangel -- Doing assembly : the art of Cory Arcangel / Tina Kukielski -- Dispersion / Seth Price -- Two statements on Carnivore / Alexander R. Galloway -- Digressions from the memory of a minor encounter / Raqs Media Collective -- The different worlds of Cao Fei / Alice Ming Wai Jim -- Net aesthetics 2.0 conversation, New York City, 2006: Part 1 of 3 / Cory Arcangel, Michael Bell-Smith, Michael Connor, Caitlin Jones, Marisa Olson, and Wolfgang Staehle, with Lauren Cornell, Moderator -- Aleksandra Domanović and Oliver Laric in conversation with Caitlin Jones -- A brief history of And/Or Gallery / Paul Slocum -- Internet explorers / Ceci Moss -- Lost not found : the circulation of images in digital visual culture / Marisa Olson -- "We did it ourselves!" aka "My favorites": volume 1, 2005 to 2009 / Guthrie Lonergan -- Excerpts from Post internet / Gene McHugh -- In the long tail / Mark Leckey -- Everybody's autobiography / Alex Kitnick -- A theorem / Paul Chan -- The centaur and the hummingbird / Ed Halter -- The visibility wars / Rebecca Solnit -- Trevor Paglen in conversation with Lauren Cornell -- What to do with pictures / David Joselit -- Net aesthetics 2.0 conversation, New York City, 2008: Part 2 of 3 / Petra Cortright, Jennifer McCoy, Kevin McCoy, Tom Moody, Tim Whidden, and Damon Zucconi, with Ed Halter, Moderator -- Citizens reporting and the fabrication of collective memory / Jens Maier-Rothe, Dina Kafafi, and Azin Feizabadi -- International art English / Alix Rule and David Levine -- Chronicle of a traveling theory / Alexander Provan -- Arcades, mall rats, and Tumblr thugs / Jesse Darling -- Next-level spam / John Kelsey -- Digital divide : contemporary art and new media / Claire Bishop -- Sweeping, dumb and aggressively ignorant!: revisiting 'Digital Divide' / Claire Bishop -- Art workers : between utopia and the archive / Boris Groys -- Black vernacular : reading new media / Martine Syms -- A selection from DISimages: new stock options / DIS Magazine -- Made of the same stuff : Ryan Trecartin's art of transformation / Michael Wang -- Post-Net aesthetics conversation, London, 2013: Part 3 of 3 / Josephine Berry Slater, Rózsa Farkas, Harm van den Dorpel, and Ben Vickers, with Karen Archey, Moderator -- Here I am : telepresent subjecthood in the work of Lotte Rose Kjaer Skau / Morgan Quaintance -- Internet state of mind : where can medium specificity be found in digital art? / Domenico Quaranta -- Too much world: is the Internet dead? / Hito Steyerl -- Bodies in space : identity, sexuality, and the abstraction of the digital and physical / Karen Archey. Essays, discussions, and image portfolios map the evolution of art forms engaged with the Internet. Since the turn of the millennium, the Internet has evolved from what was merely a new medium to a true mass medium -- with a deeper and wider cultural reach, greater opportunities for distribution and collaboration, and more complex corporate and political realities. Mapping a loosely chronological series of formative arguments, developments, and happenings, Mass Effect provides an essential guide to understanding the dynamic and ongoing relationship between art and new technologies. Mass Effect brings together nearly forty contributions, including newly commissioned essays and reprints, image portfolios, and transcribed discussion panels and lectures that offer insights and reflections from a wide range of artists, curators, art historians, and bloggers. Among the topics examined are the use of commercial platforms for art practice, what art means in an age of increasing surveillance, and questions surrounding such recent concepts as "postinternet." Other contributions analyze and document particular works by the artists of And/Or Gallery, Cory Arcangel, DIS, Cao Fei, the Radical Software Group, and others. Mass Effect relaunches a publication series initiated by the MIT Press and the New Museum in 1984, which produced six defining volumes for the field of contemporary art. These new volumes will build on this historic partnership and reinvigorate the conversation around contemporary culture once again. Copublished with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images found in the physical edition. Contributors Cory Arcangel, Karen Archey, Michael Bell-Smith, Claire Bishop, Dora Budor, Johanna Burton, Paul Chan, Ian Cheng, Michael Connor, Lauren Cornell, Petra Cortright, Jesse Darling, Anne de Vries, DIS, Aleksandra Domanovic, Harm van den Dorpel, Dragan Espenschied, Rozsa Zita Farkas, Azin Feizabadi, Alexander R. Galloway, Boris Groys, Ed Halter, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Jogging, Caitlin Jones, David Joselit, Dina Kafafi, John Kelsey, Alex Kitnick, Tina Kukielski, Oliver Laric, Mark Leckey, David Levine, Olia Lialina, Guthrie Lonergan, Jordan Lord, Jens Maier-Rothe, Shawn Maximo, Jennifer McCoy, Kevin McCoy, Gene McHugh, Tom Moody, Ceci Moss, Katja Novitskova, Marisa Olson, Trevor Paglen, Seth Price, Alexander Provan, Morgan Quaintance, Domenico Quaranta, Raqs Media Collective, Alix Rule, Timur Si-Qin, Josephine Berry Slater, Paul Slocum, Rebecca Solnit, Wolfgang Staehle, Hito Steyerl, Martine Syms, Ben Vickers, Michael Wang, Tim Whidden, Anicka Yi, and Damon Zucconi Essays, discussions, and image portfolios map the evolution of art forms engaged with the Internet.Since the turn of the millennium, the Internet has evolved from what was merely a new medium to a true mass medium—with a deeper and wider cultural reach, greater opportunities for distribution and collaboration, and more complex corporate and political realities. Mapping a loosely chronological series of formative arguments, developments, and happenings, Mass Effect provides an essential guide to understanding the dynamic and ongoing relationship between art and new technologies.Mass Effect brings together nearly forty contributions, including newly commissioned essays and reprints, image portfolios, and transcribed discussion panels and lectures that offer insights and reflections from a wide range of artists, curators, art historians, and bloggers. Among the topics examined are the use of commercial platforms for art practice, what art means in an age of increasing surveillance, and questions surrounding such recent concepts as “postinternet.” Other contributions analyze and document particular works by the artists of And/Or Gallery, Cory Arcangel, DIS, Cao Fei, the Radical Software Group, and others. Mass Effect relaunches a publication series initiated by the MIT Press and the New Museum in 1984, which produced six defining volumes for the field of contemporary art. These new volumes will build on this historic partnership and reinvigorate the conversation around contemporary culture once again.Copublished with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New YorkImportant Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images found in the physical edition.ContributorsCory Arcangel, Karen Archey, Michael Bell-Smith, Claire Bishop, Dora Budor, Johanna Burton, Paul Chan, Ian Cheng, Michael Connor, Lauren Cornell, Petra Cortright, Jesse Darling, Anne de Vries, DIS, Aleksandra Domanovic, Harm van den Dorpel, Dragan Espenschied, Rózsa Zita Farkas, Azin Feizabadi, Alexander R. Galloway, Boris Groys, Ed Halter, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Jogging, Caitlin Jones, David Joselit, Dina Kafafi, John Kelsey, Alex Kitnick, Tina Kukielski, Oliver Laric, Mark Leckey, David Levine, Olia Lialina, Guthrie Lonergan, Jordan Lord, Jens Maier-Rothe, Shawn Maximo, Jennifer McCoy, Kevin McCoy, Gene McHugh, Tom Moody, Ceci Moss, Katja Novitskova, Marisa Olson, Trevor Paglen, Seth Price, Alexander Provan, Morgan Quaintance, Domenico Quaranta, Raqs Media Collective, Alix Rule, Timur Si-Qin, Josephine Berry Slater, Paul Slocum, Rebecca Solnit, Wolfgang Staehle, Hito Steyerl, Martine Syms, Ben Vickers, Michael Wang, Tim Whidden, Anicka Yi, and Damon Zucconi Contents 6 Series Preface 10 Director's Foreword 12 Hard Reboot: An Introduction to Mass Effect 16 Do You Believe in Users? 36 coming soon: ebay paypal blogs the internet 50 Doing Assembly 64 Dispersion 86 Two Statements on Carnivore 104 Digressions from the Memory of a Minor Encounter 114 The Different Worlds of Cao Fei 124 Net Aesthetics 2.0 Conversation, New York City, 2006: Part 1 of 3 134 Aleksandra Domanović and Oliver Laric in Conversation with Caitlin Jones 142 A Brief History and/or Gallery 158 Internet Explorers 182 Lost Not Found 194 "We Did It Ourselves!" AKA "My Favorites" 202 Excerpts from Post Internet 220 In the Long Tail 234 Everybody's Autobiography 248 A Theorem 258 The Centaur and the Hummingbird 266 The Visibility Wars 278 Trevor Paglen in Conversation with Lauren Cornell 290 What to Do With Pictures 302 Net Aesthetics 2.0 Conversation, New York City, 2008: Part 2 of 3 320 Citizens Reporting and the Fabrication of Collective Memory 324 International Art English 338 Chronicle of a Traveling Theory 354 Arcades, Mall Rats, and Tumblr Thugs 360 Next-Level Spleen 364 Digital Divide 372 Sweeping, Dumb, and Aggressively Ignorant! Revisiting "Digital Divide" 388 Art Workers 392 Black Vernacular 404 A Selection from DISimages: New Stock Options 428 Made of the Same Stuff 436 Post-Net Aesthetics Conversation, London, 2013: Part 3 of 3 448 Here I Am 454 Internet State of Mind 460 Too Much World 474 Bodies in Space 486 Publication History 504 Contributors 508 Board of Trustees 516 Index 518