Cultural Logic

Cultural Logic in Cyberspace: Web Art & Postmodernism by Amy Divila
in Journal of New Media Culture, Summer 2002

(…) Flesh & Blood greets its audience with images of a face pressed «between the glass surface of the user‘s screen» and the glass surface of the artist‘s scanner.(34) This initial image represents the «point of contact» between the viewer and the artist, a closeness suggesting that the computer screen is nothing more than a «thin membrane between two beings».(35)

The artist and thus the image representing the artist are obviously nonphysical and as far as the viewer is aware, a presence existing only virtually. Flesh & Blood contrives an atmosphere of intimacy but realistically the «physical closeness between participants is purely theoretical».(36)
The vehicle of web based media permeates through time and space through its nature of accessibility and availability. It can exist simultaneously for one or multiple viewers at any given time of day or night. Light on the Net perfectly conveys the idea that web art can pierce the traditional notions of spatial existence, as the user has the «ability to reach out and turn a switch on a light several thousand miles away».(37) The «telepresence» that the user-visitor experiences creates the sensation of performing a «physical action» and seeing the results.

Cultural Logic in Cyberspace: Web Art & Postmodernism (pdf version)
by Amy Davila, 2001

Full article archived here : Cultural.Logic