Time Shares es el nombre de una serie de exhibiciones online co-presentadas por Rhizome.org y el New Museum of Contemporary Art en la que se muestran diversos trabajos basados en la red. La última se llama Professional Surfer, la cual aborda la navegación en la red con un tono humorístico y crítico desde una perspectiva artística.

Professional Surfer is a group exhibition that considers web browsing (aka ‘surfing’) as an art form.

It brings together websites run by individuals and collectives who re-publish found digital material next to remixed graphics, video, performance and commentary. Framed as individual artworks, the websites employ appropriation in ways that are reminiscent of Pop, video or conceptual art, yet set apart by a deep immersion in their surrounding digital environment. Presented in blog posts, or across a series of interlinked web pages, their projects transform the anarchic territory of the Internet into an aesthetic that could only be borne out of a territory in which commerce and creativity, amateurs and professionals, as well as divergent cultures and styles are in constant flux and uncomfortable proximity.

Significantly, some of the featured artists grew up with the web, and aspects of their work chart the digital half-life of pop cultural images or icons from their youth. Others took up the Internet later on, after working with painting or other mediums. In this way, professional surfing is not restricted to a certain generation but shared by all those who engage the overwhelming atmosphere of the web by embroiling themselves deeper in it. Together, their projects chart the evolution of the web, powerfully blending humor, criticism and a sense of the sublime.

Esta visita sirve para recordar otra muestra que nos interesa especialmente de las publicadas hasta ahora, y es “The Copy and Paste Show”, dedicada al apropiacionismo, el remix, el mash-up y la cultura del corta y pega en general, donde encontramos un proyecto del activista 808 que lleva por nombre MyOwnSpace (una réplica-crítica a ese lugar que todos conocemos). Junto al trabajo de 808 se incluyen otros de Seth Price y del combo Ida Ekblad & Anders Nordby.

The Copy and Paste Show explores the evolution of copy-and-paste culture, through which the copying of digital material has become a major technique in the construction of online identity and style. As with any visual style, web aesthetics often rely on the appropriation of non-original media. In design, people often copy html codes from other websites in order to sample existing material. In constructing online profiles or personal websites, participants often call upon found images, video or graphics. In this context, software and tools gains importance, as they enable new kinds of sharing and distribution amongst cultural producers, and amateurs become empowered to create and distribute sophisticated and layered work. The artists in The Copy and Paste Show explore how technical and digital tools alter web aesthetics, music production, and online and offline relations through the use of copy and paste techniques.