Net Affects started because there was no good survey of autonomous work on the web

Net Affects started because there was no good survey of autonomous work on the web (also called net.art). In its short history, the relatively new phenomenon net.art has gone through a tumultuous development. On the one hand this was caused by a small group of artists who put their heart and soul into this new medium, on the other hand it was caused by the rapid technological developments. The Internet started six years ago with simple interactive conceptual (text-based) and image experiments. These were only interactive because a click meant jumping to another page or another image. Now we encounter more complex pieces, which are often supported by sounds. They are made with advanced tools such as Flash, enabling the user to choose from many possibilities. Another development is that artists start to make use of the possibility of a live connection, thus showing their net-based performances live on the net. These are only but a few of the areas in which artists develop work for the web. A wide spectrum of works that use the specific possibilities of the web have emerged. The goal of Net Affects is aimed at giving a survey of all these different kinds of works. Therefore, I firstly made a selection of people from the Netherlands that make autonomous work for the web. Secondly, I selected a number of international net.art sites; they give a broad impression of what is going on and also show the specific position of Dutch net.art. Summarizing, it may be said that Net Affects can been seen as an effort to give a survey of the developments of autonomous work worldwide, with a specific interest in the situation in the Netherlands. Peter Luining read the interview by Josephine Bosma