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Visionaries predicted that the Internet would spell a revolutionary shift in the way art is created and received. Those people were right, though not many would have predicted that the biggest impact would be on the way art is actually sold; with digital copies threatening artist’s incomes and their rights to their own material, as the debate surrounding that issue appears to be a never ending saga.
A more positive shift is the democratization of art. The Internet allows everybody and anybody to be an artist; to create and publish their material within one minute without having to be a ‘member of the industry.’
Unfortunately the sheer volume of amateur artists has saturated the web with their amateur music, poetry and painting, and so the consumer has become swamped and unable to find what is really of interest to them.
So is there art on the web?
Plenty! The difficult thing is finding the art which is both enjoyable and valuable. Galleries, publishing houses and music labels act in the real world like a quality filter that the online art community does not have, and although they are indeed marketing platforms, and they inevitably create a sort of mundane mainstream, they are integral in the art world beyond the web.
The „generation Internet“, often young, full of ideas and very open minded, creates own sub-genres of art; spawned out of the World Wide Web itself and inextricably tied up in it; often untainted by any commercial interests: The new online-technologies open up exciting doors for everybody to be an artist, and at the same time introduce new platforms for communication.
Self Art
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social networks (but also dedicated communities like Flickr or Deviantart) are used to interact, to get in touch with others, to meet new and interesting people.
People´s self-presentation on the web is becoming a type of art in itself, and just as the 1990´s bloggers have moved into the realms of respected journalism, and singers who rose to stardom via YouTube are now celebrated artists, these pages represent new, hidden pearls of art, even if the message is as base as „beauty.”
Olga Zavershinskaya, Visual Artist and model from Russia, introduces artists who represent this contemporary new style: Different characters and amazing ideas from all around the globe, intense messages and beautiful pictures: "Self Artists" is an eye-opener.
The book is priced at £24.99 / $40.00
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-942357-09-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9564897-7-7
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