The term “net.art” was accidentally coined in 1995. It refers to online communication and graphics, e-mail, texts, and images. Net.art artists had grand ambitions and exploited the characteristics peculiar to the Internet. The internet allowed net.artists to work and talk independently of any bureaucracy or art-world institution. Europe, especially Eastern Europe, and Russia were crucial to its early years as an artistic medium. One thing that I found particularly interesting was Heath Bunting's use of phone booths. He utilized 36 phone booths in and around Kings Cross in London to encourage strangers to interact with one another while creating a disruption in the routine of an urban transportational hub. This was super cool to me because it depicts art in a way that you would not expect. There is a beauty in strangers coming together. I found the cyberfeminism piece interesting as well. With the rise in members of the net.community came a group of cyberfeminists. A group of Australian women came together and created a "Cyberfeminist Manifesto". While few people were involved in affairs such as these, those that did participate in these discussions were told to take it elsewhere. In defiance of this, one female Russian artist continued to post her extraordinary projects which out-competed many of her male colleagues. She won many awards for her works. I found this interesting because this is to be expected. Women finally had a platform where they felt they could come together and it was immediately squashed by men. Of course.
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