Books: You Are Here: Art After the Internet

You Are Here: Art After the Internet, edited by Omar Kholeif, is a brave attempt to convey the unique facets of creativity in the digital age. It contains a series of essays by leading artists, academics and curators who are shaping this field.

But why do we need a book? Wouldn’t this have been better as an ebook, an app or a blog? Kholeif argues that a print book, a solid tangible object in a digital world where creativity is ephemeral and fleeting, is likely to have more longevity than its digital counterpart.

I like the counter-intuitivity of a book about artists’ responses to the digital domain in the same way as I like exhibitions that showcase this area: using one form to reflect on another can be revelatory.

This collection of essays provides those new to this area with a comprehensive overview of creativity in the digital era. In his essay, the artist and writer James Bridle explores “the new aesthetic” – a term he coined for contemporary practice in this field and the way in which artists are blending the physical and the digital.

His term does much to capture a current sensibility, the power of the artist to reach wide audiences, the importance of sharing and the move away from the established art market. Bridle’s work manifests itself in physical installations in galleries and online, and deals with important contemporary issues, one being making visible the invisible world of military drones in his work Dronestagram.

The collection of essays give an insight into current issues. Gene McHugh explores sex in the digital age, including online dating. Brad Troemel reflects on how digital artists have rejected the traditional art market and created their own marketplace using social media to develop personal brands.

Art in an age of replication

However, a financially sustainable selling model is only just emerging, with artists such as Cory Arcangel showing work in commercial art galleries as well as selling work via his web store.

Erika Balsom argues that the nature of the one-off artwork will have to be rethought, given the diversity and range of digital practice. The value system of the art market will need to change.

Brian Droitcour’s essay explores the influence of social media in the video artist Ryan Trecartin’s work. He says: “Some people like to say that Trecartin’s work is all about contemporary networked technologies... it is only true in so far as these technologies are integrated into an array of social techniques and habits characteristic of human life at this point in time.”

Michael Connor argues that the use of digital tools is now totally embedded in the way artists work, saying that internet culture is now just culture.

Jennifer Chan explores the current notion of post-internet art, describing a generation of artists who move fluidly between online and offline art practice. For her, it is not so much about the platform but about the message. She challenges artists to “do something meaningful with your newfound art power. Stand for something.”

Big range of issues

Kholeif complements the essays by including a series of provocations and projects that make tangible many of the issues raised in the book. Jeremy Bailey cleverly redefines the medium of portrait photography for the digital age in his Important Portraits series.

Jamie Shovlin contributes Redact Variations (Baghdad Observer), digitally redacted texts from the Baghdad Observer and, in an interview, James Richards explores his sources of inspiration and interest in digital media. Kholeif also includes a useful glossary of technical terms for readers.

This publication covers an incredible range of issues and is an important primer for those new to this field, providing an introduction to the major issues and key artists working with digital technologies.

There is a lack of critical writing in this area and You Are Here: Art After the Internet is therefore essential reading for those wishing to get to grips with the way in which artists are working creatively with digital tools.

In reality though, none of this is new – artists have been using digital tools for 50 years and it would have been good to have some more historical context in this publication. That said, any new writing in this area is to be applauded.

Conrad Bodman is a film and digital curator whose exhibitions include Game Masters and Digital Revolution, which are currently showing at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and Tekniska Museet in Stockholm respectively. He works for the British Film Institute