Category: AR / VR

NET-ART Rolling Submissions Forever

NET-ART’s Rolling Open Call for Submissions!

It’s that time again — and it’s bigger than ever!

The NET-ART Open Call is now officially live and accepting submissions on a rolling basis. This is your invitation to create, experiment, and share your work with a global audience through our open education platform.

What is NET-ART on the Commons?

NET-ART on the Commons is a living, breathing archive of digital creativity, experimental pedagogy, and collaborative innovation. We celebrate works that explore the possibilities of the internet, emerging technologies, and contemporary digital tools.

We’re seeking submissions in the following categories:

  • Experimental Electronic Media and Pedagogy
  • Animated GIFs and Motion Graphics
  • Digital Art and AI-Assisted Artwork
  • Video Art / Experimental Film / Short Form Storytelling
  • Browser-Based Net Art Projects (interactive websites, web experiences)
  • Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Art
  • AI-Prompted or AI-Generated Projects
  • Digital and Analog Zines (single artist or group collaborations)
  • Class or Course Collaborative Projects
  • Curatorial Projects (curate and present a group exhibition)
  • Solo Digital Exhibitions
  • Other Interdisciplinary “Otherness” (surprise us!)

Need a spark to get started?

Explore our growing library of Free Digital Tools and Resources that can help you create, publish, and share your work across platforms.

Curious to see what has been done before?
Dive into our Past Projects and Submissions Archive for inspiration.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions are welcome from:

  • CUNY faculty, students (all levels), alumni, and community members
  • CUNY classes and courses (collaborative submissions encouraged)
  • CUNY-affiliated artists collaborating with others beyond the CUNY network

Each submission should include:

  • A clear written description of your project’s vision, context, and meaning
  • Supporting images, links, or media files as needed

Accepted projects will be:

  • Published as feature blog posts
  • Showcased in relevant online galleries
  • Exhibited as individual pages or archives depending on project scope

Participants should be willing to engage with comments, feedback, and public conversations across our platform and social media extensions.

This open call is an opportunity to build a living digital anthology — a shared resource for teaching, learning, reference, and creative exploration across time and communities.

Send your questions, proposals, and submissions to:

📧 [email protected]

The Ultimate Free Digital Art & Creation Tools List (2025 Edition)

The Ultimate Free Digital Art & Creation Tools List (2025 Edition)

Welcome back creators, artists, students, and digital explorers!
As part of refreshing and expanding the resources at The NET-ART Website, I’m excited to share this updated collection of free digital tools you can use to create, experiment, and innovate across many forms of media.

These tools are accessible to all skill levels and are meant to encourage playful exploration, bold storytelling, and creative growth.

Every tool on this list is active and has been verified as of May 2025.

🎨 Free Digital Art and Design Tools

  • Photopea — Photoshop-style online image editor (no download needed!)
  • Pixlr E — Powerful browser-based image editor, great for quick graphic design
  • Kleki — Simple and intuitive online drawing app
  • Canva Free — Graphic design templates for posters, social posts, and more
  • Autodraw — AI-assisted sketching tool that guesses and cleans your drawings

🤖 Free AI Art and Creative Tools

🧩 VR and AR Art Creation Tools

🖼️ Free Image Remix and Experimentation Tools

🎥 Free Video Editing Tools

  • Kapwing — Online video editing for trimming, effects, captions, and GIFs
  • Clipchamp (Free Tier) — Microsoft’s web-based video editor
  • Canva Video Editor — Free simple video editing inside Canva
  • VEED.io — Quick browser video editing for reels, shorts, and presentations

🌐 Research, Remix, and Exploration Resources

  • Internet Archive — A treasure trove of public domain and creative commons media
  • Are.na — Visual bookmarking and research platform
  • Open Processing — Explore creative coding artworks and make your own
  • Rhizome — Explore the history and future of net art

Final Thoughts

The tools listed here are only starting points. The best way to learn them is by playing, remixing, experimenting, and building your own mini-worlds of art and communication.

Your creativity is the true software!

Keep exploring, keep pushing, and stay tuned — we’ll be publishing more resources and challenges soon here at the Net-Art website!

 

An Exhibition in Virtual Reality

a low angle perspective view of the interior of a VR art gallery of digital arts by artist Ryan Seslow

My First VR Gallery: A New Portal Opens

Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with VR and something that feels like a return to a truth I’ve always known:

Art wants to live in worlds, not just walls.

Using a platform called OnCyber, I built my very first VR gallery space. You can watch the video above as a preview, but if you have a VR headset, go to this link (obviously).

It’s a simple structure, but it’s filled with powerful energy, the energy of real work, real time, real effort.

Inside the gallery, you’ll find a collection of my 1/1 Crypto Art originally minted on my SuperRare profile (many of which have not sold yet, which is a perfect reminder that creation doesn’t depend on outcome). Along the floors, I dropped a few of my newest 3D sculpture experiments as well.

They are playful markers of the new worlds I’m beginning to build.

This space wasn’t about selling.
It wasn’t about chasing attention.
It was about honoring the archive and giving life and motion to pieces that otherwise sit quietly behind digital walls.

It’s about creating a new portals where the work can continue breathing, evolving, and radiating its energy. I love my work and deeply believe in its value to inspire my fellow humans.

“The Tessellation Garden” project is coming soon… but this first step felt necessary.

(Oh, and I promise that I will be sharing my full artist residency works / studio with the Loop Art Critique / MUDD foundation here soon too!)
A reminder to myself that building worlds starts with the tiniest acts:
dragging, dropping, rearranging, giving your work a home inside imagination.

In a way, this first VR gallery isn’t just a space.
It’s a seed.

A seed for new worlds, new viewers, new expansions I can’t fully predict yet, but can already feel the buzzing in the air.

 

Thank you for being here!