Project
by Chad Rossouw
Internet Art in the Global South
One of the projects at this year's Joburg Art Fair was a rare survey show of Internet art practice in the global South. Entitled 'Internet Art in the Global South' (http://jafnetart.digitalarts.wits.ac.za), it consisted of work by 18 artists in 8 countries. The show was produced by the Digital Arts Division of the Wits School of Art and members of Upgrade! International Network, and was curated by Tegan Bristow.
We hear plenty about the Internet art and activities of the North, where undersea cables are a norm and constant connectivity is a way of life. In the global South, it is especially important to document and record these activities and art works where they are less prominent forms of emerging art. Often not consisting of ironic gifs and surf clubs, many of the projects have a refreshing real world component, which serves to iterate that Internet art isn't a small specialist field for Webby nerds.
Some of the highlights from South Africa have already been looked at on this site such as getawayexperiment.net by Nathaniel Stern and Marcus Newstetter and sowetouprisings.com by Ismail Farouk and Babak Fakhamzadeh, both excellent and moving projects. However, it was one of the disappointments of the show that there was little new in terms of South African production, with many familiar faces showing up. This is not necessarily a criticism of the show, but perhaps of the educational climate here which doesn't encourage exploration on the net. It's a pity too that there was no other work from continental Africa.
On the other hand, the works from other parts of the global South were as exciting as they were varied. 'CyberZoo' (http://www.cyberzoo.org/eng/home.htm) by Gustavo Romano of Argentina is a conservation area for the wildest of Artificial Life, preserving viruses and other cybersphere organisms in their natural environment. 'Fallout: A history of upheaval' (http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/fallout/index.php) is an interactive and personal history of Nicaragua by artist Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga. Both these works show a deep intellectual process and understanding of Internet culture.
A collection like this is the vital work that can get artists to explore alternative forms of production, while preserving records of the work.
