Posted inOpinion

A Look Back at Aaron Swartz’s Open-Internet Art Project

Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old internet pioneer, Reddit co-founder, and activist programmer who tragically committed suicide last week, made an intriguing entry into the art world last year at Rhizome’s Seven on Seven conference, which brings creative technologists into collaboration with artists. Swartz participated with Taryn Simon, an American artist who often works to visualize sets of data with her photography.

Posted inArt

10 Pivotal Moments for Digital Art in 2012

2012 was a great year for digital art. As Tumblr rocketed over 25 million hits a month and Instagram became a new venue for creative expression, artists continued to traverse the internet’s sprawling landscape and confront us with the weirdness of our own experiences of virtual space. In this end-of-year roundup, I’ll look at ten events, moments, and trends that marked these past 12 months in digital art.

Posted inArt

What’s Wrong With Technological Art vs. the Maker Faire

“What’s Wrong With Technological Art?” was the vexing question posed by the tony New Museum panel assembled by Megan Heuer featuring Heather Corcoran, the new executive director of Rhizome, and art historians Judith Rodenbeck, and Gloria Sutton. The event indadvertedly dove tailed with the recent September Artforum issue about the frayed divide between the art world and technological art. The bon mot award for the evening came from rehashing the 1967 quote of Philip Leider, editor of Artforum, who once penned the uber snarky statement, “I can’t imagine Artforum ever doing a special issue on electronics or computers in art, but one never knows.”