At The Edge Of Art

A dizzying array of artworks by over fifty creators, illustrated in a dynamic design that challenges conventional art publications. Desktop computer technology and the Internet have opened up new possibilities for artistic creation, distribution, and appreciation. But in addition to projects that might conventionally be described as new-media art, there is now a wide spectrum of work—unclassified until this book—by practitioners not normally thought of as "artists." Engineers, software programmers, biologists, and architects, among others, are producing work on the Internet that can only be described as "art." Or can it? As rapid technological and scientific advances raise new cultural, ethical, and moral issues, while the white walls of the conventional museum or gallery seem to be straitjacketing cultural development, Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito confront our definition of art. The book explores six strands of Code as new artistic possibilities opened up by computer programming; Deep new narrative forms and aesthetics of computer games; the rise of Webcam-based performance art; Designing seemingly real Web sites, used to subvert commercial and political enterprise; Preserving Artificial a new biology established via human-engineered viruses and other digital life-forms; and Reweaving the emergence of an online art world whose fugitive existence resists definition. Over 350 full-color illustrations.