web.video the new net.art?

With Constant Dullaart (nl), Petra Cortright (us) and Igor Štromajer (si)

Moderated by Robert Sakrowski (de)

If net art is cashing in on the utopian promise of video art, what dream does net art have left for itself? Has it come full circle? Is net.art now at its end? And is it true what the net art veteran Mark Amerika proclaims via Twitter, that "video is the new net art"?

Perhaps the confusion in the question stems from a too-narrow understanding of net art thanks to the label "net.art", which usually refers only to a small group of artists of a particular time (1995-1999). Such a designation could never really be adequate to the phenomenon of net art, because, like photography, painting, or video art, it is an art form – and art forms are above all defined by their medium. The medium of net art, however, is simply the net: whichever particular form net art takes is irrelevant for its definition. Whether its clients are connecting to the net using stationary computers with browsers or mobile devices with apps, whether their bandwidth speed is fast or slow – "net art will never die!"; since a society without the net is itself now inconceivable (just as it once was without the printing press).