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| Cutting Edge Art on the World Wide Web |
Perhaps the most
beautiful aspect of the Internet is the sheer girth it commands.
Because of easy accessibility and an ever-growing, interested audience,
the Internet provides an exceptional location for new and experimental
artists and their work. The sites reviewed for this segment each
possess exciting qualities that are being tested for the first time
on the World Wide Web, all of which are in some way innovative and
unique.
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| Wired Art from Wired Hearts |
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An electronic magazine,
Wired Art is published exclusively online every two months. Each
issue includes original, previously unpublished works in the genres
of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography, and other artwork.
Many of the pieces of art displayed include a link to the artist’s
personal gallery pages. The site also contains an archive of past
issues with links still in place, a bookstore, and a guest book.
The site editor has included a page listing the relatively simple
guidelines for submission; pieces in any of the genres will be considered
for inclusion. Finally, the site offers a set of links suggested
and provided by contributing artists and writers. Though e-zines,
as they’ve come to be known, are a dime a dozen and are often
“published” by writers lacking in the basic skills necessary
for good journalism and authorship, this particular site is thought-provoking,
well edited, and offers astounding works of art as well as high
quality written works.
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| Tower of Babel |
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The first feature
the internet user will undoubtedly notice when visiting this site
is the exceptionally cool use of “wipes” for screen
changes - much like the traditional wipes used to transition scenes
in classic Hollywood films and, in later years, campy cult flicks
of the horror genre. There is nothing horrific about this site,
however, which touts itself as a “multilingual, multicultural
online journal of arts and ideas.” The opening page is designed
in Enlightenment Italian Renaissance style and features 35 flags
from various nations, with instructions for the user to click
a flag to select a presentation language. It’s no joke -
the site employs over 50 artists, writers, and programmers as
well as 165 translators to present content in thirty-five different
languages. The site’s offerings are every bit as impressive:
a welcome page, chat rooms, bulletin boards, language center,
lists of site designers, contributors, and translators, a money
converter, world time zones, search engines, features, columns,
reviews, fiction, exhibit schedules and daily reports on art,
music, and movies. The Tower also has an extensive library of
links organized into the following subjects: architecture, art
history, film/photography, literature, theatre, environmental,
humanitarian, and political. Regardless of the user’s language
or location, this site contains a plethora of accessible information.
So much so that users should indeed beware - the volume of information
can be absolutely overwhelming.
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Created and maintained
by students and faculty of the University of California at San Diego’s
Department of Visual Arts, this site showcases creations in mixed
media done by current and previous students. The site has an index,
helpful technical advice and tips, and an information page. Works
on the site are divided into four art modules, the first of which
is titled “Singular” and displays individual student
creations. Though works seem indiscriminately selected and some
are far better than others, several pieces in this module show the
beginnings of budding talent. The second module is called “Multiple”
and includes group work done on specific themes, such as might be
assigned in class or professionally to a team of advertisers or
designers. The most notable inclusion in this module is a project
entitled le cadavre exquis. “Cold Slab” is the module
where former student works are archived, and much of the work contained
therein is exceptional; it is not difficult to understand why UCSD
leads the West Coast in producing competent and creative visual
artists. The most notable bodies found on the “cold slab”
are Christa Erickson with Degree of Difficulty and COD1NG TR1CKS,
and Brian Hunziker with esc. The fourth module is the “Outerworld”
which is a page of external links. Many art schools and universities
have sites where student work is displayed; what sets this site
apart is the emphasis placed on the “sink or swim” style
they have adopted in the exhibitions, which, in the end, most definitely
benefits their students.
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| Dave Mc’s Image Collection |
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Not only is David
K. McAllister an avid art fan, he’s also an innovative artist
in his own right, and his site reflects all his interests and influences.
The site offers users an M.C. Escher collection with links to companion
sites with more information on this very popular artist. Dave also
has a page reviling pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, as well as links
to the artistry of Andrew Glassner, Dale Chihuly, and David Hockney.
Dave always finds the coolest animated images to showcase (the current
featured image is a jumping tonguemonster!) His personal art collection
is featured in a gallery, and he also has a gallery showcasing a
collection of repeating tile patterns, some of which are highly
creative. Finally, the best part of this site by far is the downloadable
program written by Dave. The program utilizes genetic sequences
to create artwork of astounding quality. This site is proof positive
that one does not have to attend a conservatory or be apprenticed
to a Master to be able to put true talent to work and mine the depths
of the imagination.
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| Julian’s Fractal Page |
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Calling his designs
“fractelligent,” Julian Adamaitis creates gorgeous fractal
images without burdening the viewer with a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo
or geometry lessons. With six galleries set up, images load quickly
and colors are reproduced in vivid array. The site also offers links
to answer curious questions like: what is a fractal? and how are
fractals generated? Julian points viewers and fractal-designing
hopefuls in the direction of free software, tips, and links to a
myriad of other fractal artists and galleries. Julian’s site
has already been showered with awards, most notably his recognition
for excellence from USAToday
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| Critic Presents Underground
Significance |
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This site, based
out of the United Kingdom, reports on and displays worldwide public
graffiti art. The name is a bit of an inside joke, given that many
of the pieces on display in the gallery are living underground -
literally - in subway systems. A warning to the viewer: due to the
graphic intensity of the images on the site, some of the pictures
are quite slow to load. They are, however, worth waiting to see.
Critic, the narrator and editor for the site, divides the artwork
into four categories: wallz, characterz, outlinez, and digital.
The wallz currently on display from London are quite bold, and seem
to acknowledge the genesis of a new school of artwork, that of the
millennium cubists. Meanwhile, wallz from Amsterdam are decidedly
more surrealistic, possibly reflecting the social culture of the
city. Pieces on display in the characterz section depict just that
- character art - ranging in style from stark realism to cartoon
caricature. Outlinez houses graffiti sketches, “clean”
work done before the spray paint can gets rattled, and line drawings
in the graffiti style. The digital section features graffiti art
created on the computer, which has a slightly disappointing feel
since, after all, graffiti gets much of its daring flavor from the
“outlaw” characteristic that usually surrounds it. Equally
as engaging as the galleries is the links page that connects the
user to other sites chronicling graffiti in the United States, Germany,
France, and Japan, just to name a few.
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| Voluta: The Artistry of Cheryl
Mandus |
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Specializing in
contemporary realism and surrealism, Voluta is an online gallery
of the works of Cheryl Mandus. Her front page includes a sample
piece and an essay which describes her feelings about art and about
being a female artist, why she does it and what it all means to
her. The essay is quite poetic and beautifully written, suggesting
that this woman, who has obvious talent as an artist, might also
have substantial talent as a writer. Launched in February of 2000,
the site offers an artist profile, her copyrights, contact information
(she does both private and commercial commissioned work), her online
galleries, and an eclectic group of links (all of which, by the
way, are worth checking out). The online galleries include paintings,
drawings, prints, and posters. Especially notable pieces include
Directions, Heritage, and the exquisite, haunting Masquerade
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| Metal & Magic |
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Metal & Magic
is a site that contains the web portfolios of artists James Trevett
and Ursula Vernon. The flash work on the site makes for fantastic
animation. James’s portfolio is rather more technical, the
“metal” side, with animation, 2D and 3D digital modeling,
some additional works, and his resume. Ursula is the real genius
of the site, however, the “magic” mentioned in the title.
Her page has more of the “morphing” flash art found
on the front page. Ursula’s exceptional works show art nouveau
and pre-raphaelite influences. She works exclusively with digital
painting, explaining the unbelievable online quality of her images.
She has also done magazine work and has branched out to such unusual
art applications as needlepoint design and action figure concept
sketches. Her site is simply awesome - a tribute to what artists
in the 21st century are capable of creating and displaying online.
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| Bill Barminski |
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An artist who began
with racy, underground comic art more than three decades ago, Bill
Barminski now specializes in new, multi- and mixed media. His site,
simply put, is like a candy factory that allows public taste testing.
The front page is an interactive artwork set to music that’s
so much fun, it’s impossible to experience it and not end
up grinning like a loon. In addition to staging real world, bi-coastal
gallery shows of his works every year, Bill also designs advertising
campaigns and has directed music videos. His site offers pages for
his art exhibitions, his recent work for the Absolut vodka campaign,
reviews of his work, and a great little page called “Plasticland.”
Here users can load up interactive artwork that meshes graphics,
animation, music, sound effects, visual effects, and words to create
each piece. Highlights from Plasticland include The Clintonator,
a sort of digital Mr. Potato Head featuring the 20th century’s
favorite over-sexed American leader, and Consume, a treatise on
the many facets of our consumer culture. Barminski’s site
also has links to cool sites (groundbreaking new media), art publications,
services, film and real-world gallery information, as well as contact
information for the artist
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| Sountain |
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Sountain is so
“on the edge” it teeters! Their motto is “all
matter is speed and flame,” and their site certainly delivers
the fastest, hottest work on the internet. These folks are doing
things that make a user’s jaw drop in awe and wonder. The
only recourse is to sit back and keep clicking ‘play’
in the hope that, by watching their clips over and over, eventually
the human eye will find every image and allow the brain to process
it all. They combine animation, movies, commercials, and music to
produce interactive e-collages that amaze, excite, and titillate.
In addition to the interactive works, the site also has a message
board and contact system, and a links page entitled “Inspirations”
that is so enormous it would take a week to work through. It is
simply no wonder the artists are so phenomenal, with the amount
of web-scouring they’ve had to do to accumulate their skills
and develop their style. Especially worth viewing is the love is
a four letter word exhibit and, inside of it, the work by Irene
Chan entitled the most painful distance in the world. The ability
of these digital magicians to so thoroughly convey raw emotion through
interactive web art is absolutely unreal. This site is worth as
much time as a web surfer has to spend there, and then some.
Determining what is “cutting edge” is an immensely hard
job. The personal tastes of art connoisseurs are as individual as
leaves on a tree; what one person deems fascinating and fabulous
may not even fall into another’s definition of art. The sites
reviewed here were chosen for their digital accomplishments, as
well as their unique ideas or methods of presentation, and may not
appeal to all tastes. The delightful aspect of viewing art online,
though, is the ability of each individual user to select what he
or she wishes to see. Should a user stumble upon art he or she considers
confusing, pornographic, or just plain bad, it only takes one click
of the mouse to make it disappear.
Returning to the metaphor employed in the opening paragraph of this
three part series, the sites picked from the three copses of trees
- institutional, commercial, and cutting edge art - are all lush
fruits, offering connoisseurs palatable viewing pleasures and hours
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