On July 8th, 2002, The New York Times ran an article about Eryk Salvaggio's September 11, 2001. It was one indication that net art was coming into its own--that, especially in light of the September tragedies, when the network proved itself to be both a medium for the exchange of free thought (unlike , unfortunately, the mainstream media, which was all-too-often simply swept into the pro_American rhetoric that quite naturally followed) and a medium for mourning and eulogizing the lost. Eryk's piece was just that--a tribute, requiem, a eulogy for what was lost in the tragedy, not the least of which was the humanity of its victims.
Readers can see Eryk's piece at http://www.salsabomb.com/ , as well as the rest of his excellent body of work.
LL:I read once that you started your artistic life as a graffiti artist. How did you get drawn to electronic networks? Is there a similarity for you between space on the net and a graffiti space?
ES:I had been a graffitti artist in a very casual sense- I can't paint, really, so it was just paint markers and sharpies and getting up little tags or stickers where I could. The idea with graffitti for me was all about being seen, against the invisibility that comes from a culture that talks to everybody in the same way. So there might not be a direct link for me personally from graffitti to net.art, but that's definately a theme in both of them. A lot of the graffitti thing is about answering back to that type of culture, personalizing the world, and so is the internet. The thing is, once you have that type of access there's a lot to be said about what to do with it. It's not so much about protest as it is about just creating your own spaces, and I think that's great. I mean anyone can attack something or criticize something, but to make something that is really new, that's the most important thing to me now.
LL:You mention that your casual involvement with graffiti art was about personalizing a depersonalizing world. Yet net art often makes use of liquified identities--avatars, anonymity, etc. How do you feel you address the issue of identity in your own work?
