Tagging the Network: An Interview with Eryk Salvaggio


is the problem with interactive stuff on the web. A lot of it is interactive because it can be. And flash, don't get me started. There's stuff in flash that is absolutely brilliant; but there's also stuff that is "interactive" because the guy working with it just figured out how to make buttons.

LL:What, then, distinguishes net art from painting, orpoetry, or cinema? Because, interactivity aside, itseems most of this "new media" is just old media on acomputer network.

ES:Well, like I said, the major component of net.art, to me, is the distribution aspect. But also there is a difference between net.art and video, even just the look and the approach of it. Different pieces will approach the net element of it in different ways. The way I see it is, my work counts on the browser to exist. There's no way my work can be seen without a browser -except for a print, which is made from a screenshot of the browser. It uses html to take its form. And there is a "naturalness" to that, I think, like there is working with the grain or against the grain, the way flash does- flash pretends the browser doesn't exist, recreates the entire language of the network to make it "slick" or more "dynamic," or in other words, to make it a showcase for video art. Flash art is its own genre, it's a hybrid of net.art and video. I think it is really important that this distinction is made clear or else its just going to look like true "net.art" is a kind of crappy lo-tech version of flash art, and not that flash art is a kind of interactive video art. Net.art is its own thing. Not worse or better, just different.

LL:As for Flash, I know exactly what you mean. One of thedrawbacks for Flash is the fact that low-levelinteractivity can be made so easily. I detest workthat relies too heavily on buttons, because it shows ageneral lack of coding knowledge. There are otherforms of interactivity one can do with Flash (whichyou could also do in DHTML, really) that are a lotricher than that...

ES:Well it comes down to "why is this there?" Like I have a very literary background, more so than any

The copyright of the article Tagging the Network: An Interview with Eryk Salvaggio in New Media is owned by Lewis laCook. Permission to republish Tagging the Network: An Interview with Eryk Salvaggio in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic

;