Internet-Based Art

In the first part of this chapter, we examine the communities of artists and art users on the Internet and their activities. In this section, we look at artwork that is actually on the network and art that actually is the network. Again, as mentioned earlier, I am primarily focusing on visual art which tends to be a predominant area in online and off-line life. Keep in mind, however, that not all forms of art are represented on the network and that some forms of art are evolving. There may be art forms we have not yet seen which may eventually be so well suited to network interactivity that these forms overshadow the existing media. There are also areas where art forms intersect and overlap. GIFs, for example, may be used to display choreography. We will look at art forms found on the Internet and the Internet itself as an art form.

Art Forms Native to the Internet

Many art forms that have existed in the world of desktop computing have made an easy transition to the Internet. Just about any file format can live on the Internet, and a vast array a file types and program structures can be found. The examples covered next are among the most common and most universal.

Image Files: ASCII, GIF, JPEG, and More

It wasn't long after the first line printers were outputting text-based information that the desire arose for some type of graphic display. ASCII art was the earliest visual computer art form, and it has enjoyed a remarkable longevity. Art work that uses the shapes and locations of text and other ASCII characters forms the basis of graphic signatures, ranging from a simple smile-sized creation all the way to immensely complex pictures. Figure 22.1 is an example of a relatively simple ASCII art file.

ASCII art has grown in its sophistication, as well. Programs exist, for example, that can sample a high-resolution GIF image and then choose ASCII characters that most closely resemble small clusters of pixels, and thus display a detailed gray-scaled image on a text based screen. Figure 20.2 is an example of this style of a gray-scale converted to ASCII file. Newsgroups and archives of ASCII files exist throughout the Internet, and it is an art where the only requirements are a text editor and some patience.

A close cousin of ASCII art is ANSI art. Originally, this art form applied to desktop screen effects that used the extended character sets. These character sets redefined character keys as filled blocks, double lines, corners and so on. Also included are the ANSI escape sequences that cause a character to blink, display in higher intensity, clear a line of text, position the cursor, and so on. Because of the nature of how a vt100 screen refreshes its display, ANSI art has become the low budget animator of the Internet. Clever use of escape sequences (programs exist to facilitate this) allow the creation of animated moving text banners and ASCII cartoons.

Compuserve's GIF standard is a reliable and lossless format that allows the exchange of almost all types of graphic files native to specific computers or graphics packages. A user can, for example create a file in MacPaint and then either save it or convert it to a GIF. It can be uploaded to an archive and downloaded to an Amiga or a PC for viewing or further conversion. GIFs can be mailed through the use of uuencoding. With the proper software and a decent band width, a GIF can be viewed online. Mailers that send and receive MIME understand GIF files, as do Gopher and WWW browsers.

As the demand for visual display increases and as modems get faster and more people connect their computers to the Net via SLIP and PPP, the graphic standard is expanding. Enhanced text effects and fonts and a variety of graphic standards are being supported. Popular formats such as JPEG, compressed image files containing enormous amounts of information, are being exchanged.