Simple Net Art Diagram
MTAA
1997
Created by artist duo MTAA, Simple Net Art Diagram (SNAD) is a schematic illustration of two computer terminals connected by a line and a red lightning bolt labeled “The art happens here.” Through an extreme economy of form, the now-iconic image conveys complex concepts about net art: first, that it “happens,” and therefore can be thought of as an action or a performance; and second, that it is defined by in-betweenness.
Since its publication in the late 1990s, Simple Net Art Diagram has functioned as a kind of net art meme, remade by other artists to reflect differing conceptions of net art. Embracing this evolution, MTAA have released it under a Creative Commons license that permits alteration and reuse.
MTAA, Simple Net Art Diagram, ca. 1997. Animated GIF.
Read an interview with MTAA
The Absolutely, Positively Last and Final Interview on the Subject of MTAA’s “Simple Net Art Diagram.” Ever. (AKA The Never-Ending Interview)
VISIT SIMPLE NET ART DIAGRAM ON MTAA’S WEBSITE
“Art as an active site, open to those who care
Information as a stance, opposition in the air
Participation as the norm, inclusion across the board
Time as a fluid state, now to be ignored” —MTAA
SNAD was initially published by the duo as part of their project TIME! (1997), in which participants could purchase a print of their own likeness as seen by the artists via the early videoconferencing system CU-SEE ME.
TIME! thus realized the kind of live, performative, networked encounter illustrated by SNAD. MTAA wanted to convey to audiences that the artwork wasn’t just what was on their screens, but the exchange or dialogue itself.
Belying the diagram’s apparent simplicity, the “here” in SNAD can be interpreted in multiple ways: as the physical infrastructure of the internet, as a network context from which a work cannot be extracted without altering it fundamentally, and as the space between users, where no clear distinction is drawn between author and audience.
In 2003, artist Abe Linkoln (Rick Silva) reimagined the work as the Complex Net Art Diagram, the first in a series of remakes over the ensuing years.
Abe Linkoln (Rick Silva), Complex Net Art Diagram, 2003.
In response, MTAA released the work under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license, explicitly permitting others to reuse and reinterpret it as long as they credit the original authors.
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Kev Bewersdorf, 2008.
Rhizome re-interpreted Simple Net Art Diagram as a large vinyl graphic for exhibition as part of The Art Happens Here: Net Art's Archival Poetics at the New Museum, January 22–May 26, 2019.
Nasty Nets
JOHN MICHAEL BOLING, JOEL HOLMBERG, GUTHRIE LONERGAN, MARISA OLSON, ET AL
2006
- 2012
