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NET-ART Required Readings – Full Update

Required Reading and Resource Familiarity

Updated June 5th 2026 – (the page itself is here)

Welcome back to yet another major update to the Net-Art website.. your summer reading has been assigned.

This is a living list. Please help us add to it! Resources are grouped by territory rather than chronology, because the work this course covers now spans too many adjacent practices to manage as a single flat list. Skim what is unfamiliar. Bookmark what is useful. Email or comment with additions and corrections.

Academic Essays, Critical Writing, and Scholarly Hubs

For students, researchers and practitioners who want the deeper reading. A curated set of foundational and current essays on net art, post-internet practice, AI image culture, and the politics of the screen, plus the hubs where ongoing critical writing actually lives. Most of what follows is freely available on the open web. A few items are behind academic paywalls and worth knowing about even if you cannot read them today.

  • Hito Steyerl, “In Defense of the Poor Image” (e-flux journal #10, 2009): one of the most-cited essays of the past fifteen years on digital images, compression, circulation, and the politics of resolution.
  • Olia Lialina, “A Vernacular Web” (2005): the foundational essay on the visual and structural culture of the pre-Web 2.0 internet, by one of net art’s earliest and most enduring voices.
  • Olia Lialina, “Turing Complete User” (2012): a defense of the user as a category in an era of platform-mediated computing. Pairs naturally with “A Vernacular Web.”
  • Gene McHugh, “Post Internet” (2009-2010, restored by Rhizome in 2019): the blog that introduced the term “post-internet” into critical discourse, preserved and re-presented as part of the Net Art Anthology.
  • Artie Vierkant, “The Image Object Post-Internet” (2010): a key statement of the post-internet position, arguing that an image and its physical instantiation should be treated as continuous rather than separate objects.
  • Lev Manovich: long-time theorist of new media, software studies, and AI culture. His full essay archive lives at manovich.net and is freely downloadable. Start with “The Language of New Media” (book) and his more recent writing on AI and cultural analytics.
  • e-flux journal essays on AI and image culture: extensive recent writing by Hito Steyerl, Trevor Paglen, Joanna Zylinska, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Yuk Hui and others on machine vision, generative imagery, and the politics of synthetic media. Browse the journal archive by year for current writing.
  • Rhizome Editorial: Rhizome’s ongoing editorial archive, with substantial critical writing by Michael Connor, Aria Dean, Ceci Moss, and others on net art history, preservation, and current practice.
  • Outland: the most sustained serious critical writing on crypto art, on-chain practice, and decentralized culture as it actually unfolds.
  • Institute of Network Cultures (Geert Lovink et al.): ongoing academic publishing on network culture, platform critique, and digital labor. Many books are free PDF downloads.
  • Monoskop: a remarkable open archive of art and media theory texts, with an enormous library of out-of-print and otherwise hard-to-find scholarly material on net art, conceptual art, and media theory.
  • Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1935): not net art, but the essay every conversation about reproducibility, aura, AI generation, and digital copies eventually circles back to. Many translations are freely available online; the Marxists Internet Archive hosts one at marxists.org.
  • Public Books: serious accessible criticism on technology, image culture, and contemporary art, written by academics for general readers.
  • Logic(s) Magazine: critical writing on technology, labor, and culture from a left perspective, with frequent crossover into art and image politics.
  • Real Life: essays on living with technology, including the visual and design dimensions, archived since 2016 (note: the publication paused in 2022 but the archive remains a significant resource).

A note on access. e-flux journal, Rhizome, Outland, Public Books, Logic, Real Life, and Monoskop are all open access. Many academic journals (October, Grey Room, Critical Inquiry, New Media and Society) sit behind institutional paywalls. If you are a CUNY student or faculty member, the CUNY library system gives you access to most of those. If you are not affiliated with a university, the Internet Archive Scholar at scholar.archive.org and Google Scholar are reasonable starting points for tracking down open versions of paywalled work.

 

Continued -> More Net-Art History and Critical Writing

Foundational and ongoing context for where the practice came from and where it is going.

  • Rhizome: the longest-running organization devoted to born-digital art, affiliated with the New Museum. Editorial archive, commissions, scholarship, and digital preservation work.
  • Rhizome Net Art Anthology: one hundred restored works of net art with critical essays, organized chronologically from the 1980s through the present.
  • UBU WEB: Kenneth Goldsmith’s vast free archive of avant-garde film, video, sound, and writing. Still one of the most essential resources on the open web.
  • e-flux journal: the leading critical journal on contemporary art, frequently engaging with digital, networked, and AI-era practice.
  • Outland: a publication dedicated to crypto and blockchain art criticism, the most serious sustained writing on the subject.
  • The Wrong Biennale: a recurring international online biennial that maps active net art and digital art practice across hundreds of pavilions and embassies worldwide.
  • Beyond New Media Art: Domenico Quaranta’s writing and reading lists on contemporary digital and post-internet art.

 

AI as Creative Collaborator

The category that did not exist five years ago. Treat these as collaborators, not as oracles. Document what you keep and what you discard.

  • Claude (Anthropic): conversational AI for writing, ideation, research, code, prompt refinement, and structured-data generation. Free tier available.
  • ChatGPT (OpenAI): the other major conversational AI. Includes image generation. Free tier available.
  • Gemini (Google): Google’s conversational AI, free tier available.
  • Hugging Face Spaces: enormous open library of free, hosted AI demos. The single best place to experiment with generative tools without subscriptions.
  • Midjourney: image generation known for distinctive stylistic quality.
  • Krea: generative image and video tools oriented toward designers.
  • Recraft: AI image generation tuned for design and brand work, with vector output.
  • Runway: AI-driven video generation and editing, one of the leading tools in moving image.
  • Stability AI: maintainers of open-weight Stable Diffusion models, runnable locally or via numerous interfaces.
  • Black Forest Labs: makers of the Flux family of open-weight image models.

 

GIFs, Memes, and Visual Internet History

The animated GIF remains a foundational form for net art and a serious medium in its own right.

  • Giphy: the largest searchable GIF library on the web.
  • GifCities: the Internet Archive’s searchable corpus of animated GIFs from the GeoCities era. Strange, ugly, beautiful, indispensable.
  • History of the GIF: Giphy Arts’ interactive timeline of GIF history, 1987 to 2013.
  • Know Your Meme: research-grade documentation of meme history and origins.
  • Artnet News: ongoing coverage of digital art including memes, social media art, and the wider net-art ecosystem.

 

Audio, Video, and Motion

Free or low-cost tools for time-based work.

  • ffmpeg: the open-source command-line tool that quietly powers a huge percentage of video processing on the internet. Essential for any serious video work.
  • Audacity: free, open-source audio editor.
  • DaVinci Resolve: professional video editing and color grading, with a generous free version.
  • OBS Studio: free, open-source streaming and screen recording.
  • ImageMagick: command-line image processing for batch operations and unusual transformations.

 

Generative Art and Creative Code

Code as artistic medium.

  • Processing: the original creative coding environment by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, still maintained and still excellent.
  • p5.js: Processing for the browser, by Lauren McCarthy and contributors. The most accessible starting point for creative code on the web.
  • OpenProcessing: shared sketches, classroom tools, and a community around p5.js and Processing.
  • three.js: JavaScript library for 3D graphics in the browser.
  • Blender: free, open-source 3D modeling, animation, and rendering. Industry-grade.
  • TouchDesigner: node-based visual programming for interactive installations and real-time graphics. Free non-commercial license.

 

Image Editing and Design Tools

What you actually use day to day.

  • Affinity by Canva: the three Affinity apps combined into one free desktop application as of October 2025. Professional vector, raster, and layout in a single tool.
  • Photopea: Photoshop in a browser tab, free, opens PSD, AI, XD, Sketch, and Figma files.
  • Figma: the dominant interface and web design tool, with a generous free tier.
  • GIMP: long-standing free, open-source raster editor.
  • Inkscape: free, open-source vector editor.
  • Krita: free, open-source digital painting application.
  • Canva: fast, browser-based design for social and marketing graphics.

 

Web Publishing, Domains, and Owning Your URL

The infrastructure of publishing your own work on your own terms.

  • CUNY Academic Commons: free WordPress-based platform for all CUNY faculty and students.
  • WordPress.org: the open-source publishing platform, self-hosted.
  • WordPress.com: hosted WordPress with various plans including free.
  • Reclaim Hosting: independent hosting for educators and creators, now also the hosting partner for the CUNY Academic Commons.
  • Ghost: open-source publishing platform focused on writers.
  • Tumblr: still alive, owned by Automattic, still customizable.
  • Are.na: a visual research and collaboration platform, the most thoughtful alternative to Pinterest.

 

On-Chain Provenance and the Decentralized Web

The infrastructure for making work that carries verifiable authorship, ownership, and licensing without depending on any single platform.

  • Base: a low-cost Ethereum Layer 2 network, used widely for affordable on-chain provenance and small transactions.
  • Polygon: another widely-used low-cost network.
  • IPFS: decentralized file storage and content addressing, the standard storage layer for most on-chain art.
  • OpenSea: the largest NFT marketplace.
  • Manifold: tools for artists to deploy their own smart contracts and own their work at the protocol level.
  • Coinbase Wallet: a self-custody wallet for getting started with on-chain work.
  • x402: an emerging protocol for HTTP-based machine payments using stablecoins. The infrastructure for agent-to-agent commerce.

 

Museum APIs and Open Collections

Public-domain primary sources for remixing, study, and reference.

 

Spatial Computing, AR, and 3D

The expanding territory of design and art that lives off the flat screen.

  • model-viewer: Google’s free web component for displaying GLB and USDZ 3D models with AR support, the lowest-friction path to AR on the web.
  • A-Frame: open-source web framework for building VR and AR experiences in the browser.
  • WebXR: the open web standard for VR and AR experiences across devices.
  • Niantic Studio (formerly 8th Wall): browser-based WebAR development platform.
  • Snap Lens Studio: Snapchat’s AR creation tool.
  • Apple Reality Composer Pro: Apple’s spatial computing development tools.
  • OnCyber: free VR gallery creator for displaying digital art in 3D space.
  • Spatial: VR and AR meeting spaces, increasingly used for digital exhibitions.
  • Sketchfab: a large platform for hosting, sharing, and embedding 3D models on the web.

 

Terminal, CLI, and Python for Art

The command line as creative surface. See Project #15 in the syllabus for context.

  • Python: the most versatile language for art, automation, and creative computation.
  • Pillow: the Python imaging library, for generating and manipulating images in code.
  • NumPy: numerical computing in Python, foundational for image and signal processing.
  • Claude Code: an agentic command-line tool that lets you describe a transformation in plain language and watch a script materialize and run.
  • ffmpeg: command-line video and audio manipulation.
  • ImageMagick: command-line image processing.

 

Visual Research and Collaboration

Where you keep your references, your inspirations, and your conversations with other practitioners.

  • Are.na: the thoughtful visual research and collaboration platform that most working artists and designers I respect are using right now.
  • Mastodon: the federated social network where much of the serious digital art conversation has migrated.
  • Bluesky: the alternative to X with growing art and design communities.
  • IndieWeb: the community around owning your own URL and resisting platform lock-in.

 

Archives and Public Domain

The deep well of source material that lives outside copyright and platform control.

 

Open Education Resources

Course materials that anyone can teach from or learn from.

  • DS106 Digital Storytelling: the long-running open course in digital storytelling that still informs the methodology here.
  • DS106 Daily Create: a new short creative challenge every day.
  • DS106 Assignment Bank: a community-built library of design, audio, video, visual, web, and writing assignments.
  • Digital Foundations by Xtine Burrough and Michael Mandiberg: open educational resource teaching visual design principles through Bauhaus-inspired exercises.
  • Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals: open textbook on elements and principles, color theory, typography, and layout.
  • OER Commons: the broad open educational resources commons across disciplines.
  • AIGA: the professional association for design, ongoing source for writing on practice and history.

 

Web Standards and Agent-Readable Web

The technical scaffolding for making work that humans and machines can both read.

  • Schema.org: the shared vocabulary for structured data on the web.
  • llms.txt: an emerging convention for telling AI systems what is on your site and how to engage with it.
  • W3C: the World Wide Web Consortium, maintainer of the standards that make the open web possible.
  • Creative Commons: the licensing framework that makes most of the resources on this page legal to reuse.

 

Books worth owning

Texts that have held up across the changes.

  • The Art Happens Here: Net Art Anthology, edited by Michael Connor, Aria Dean, and Dragan Espenschied.
  • Net Art Anthology (the online exhibition itself, linked above, is the digital companion).
  • New Media in Art by Michael Rush.
  • Internet Art by Rachel Greene.
  • The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich.
  • Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips.
  • How To by Michael Bierut.

 

Three URLs to anchor everything else

 

(a retired list below, kept here for posterity and legacy by popular demand)

 

Updated – 5/6/25 –

 

 

(Previous list established 11/4/2017 – legacy list)

1. Rhizome – Net Art Anthology Exhibition – https://anthology.rhizome.org/

2. (removed)

3. Popular Mechanics – Long Live the GIF – http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a21457/the-gif-is-dead-long-live-the-gif/

4. The New World of Net Art, 2013 for Art News – http://www.artnews.com/2013/06/12/the-new-world-of-net-art/

5. The History of the GIF – via Giphy – https://historyofthegif.com/#/timeline/0

6. Tech-Crunch – 30 Years of the GIF – https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/27/30-years-of-the-gif/

7. Net-Art.org – Website – https://www.net-art.org/

8. ArtNet – 7 Masterpieces of Social Media Art – https://news.artnet.com/art-world/best-social-media-art-1182398

9. Are Memes the Pop Culture Art of our Era? Kate Knibbs – https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/when-does-a-meme-become-art/

10. Can Memes be Art? Huff Post – https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/are-internet-memes-a-form_n_1432076.html

11. UBU WEB – Film & Video Art Archive -(Explore and Explore some more!)  http://www.ubu.com/film

 

Books:

1. New Media in Art (World of Art) Michael Rush, Thames & Hudson,1999.

2. Internet Art (World of Art) Rachel Greene, Thames & Hudson,1999.

 

 

Exploring Human Creativity: Insights from a 20-Year College Professor

a composite of various images in and around teaching college level art & design

Two Decades of Teaching, A Reflection Begins..

It is time to tell the stories, the insights, ups, downs and all around experiences, 20 years of college teaching art & design.. Let us begin this series of posts with the most profound and ongoing metaphor, shall we?

Recently, I began reflecting on my 20 years of college-level teaching and was amazed by how much I’ve been able to accomplish. 20 years is a lot of contrast in terms of lineage, right? I have taught and continue to teach both graduate and undergraduate courses in various fields like studio art, graphic design, digital art, illustration, design thinking, new media, web design, digital storytelling, communication technology and various related foundation courses. Over the years, I’ve created new courses, developed curriculum, published content, and installed and generated archival course websites. I’ve had the opportunity to experiment with many new technologies, work with amazing people, and create / curate exhibitions. The list just continues to grow.

Teaching has been one of my greatest educations. (Just a reminder, I am a deaf person who teaches in all mainstream institutions.) Through out life, not just work-life, life situations can seem like they have no immediate solutions, and our ego kicks in to remind us of all the other times of uncertainty. It can be difficult to control these emotions at first, but we can become aware of our behavioral patterns and discover other metaphors around us that appear in the form of otherness. For me, those metaphors have appeared through teaching, follow me below..

 

During my reflection, I realized that I teach an average of 16 – 18 courses per academic year, which amounts to about 270 students per year. This means that I’ve had about 5,400 college students in my classes over my teaching career so far. (Whoa) Each student generates something tangible in each of my courses, which has led to thousands upon thousands of variations of creativity that I witness every day. Even a basic “positive and negative space” assignment can result in countless variations of execution. I have witnessed over 27,000 student examples. Not one of them, not a single one has ever been the same.

As a metaphor, this vastness of creativity becomes “Meta” because it goes beyond my comprehension of something that I thought I had an awareness of. It’s a spiritual metaphor because it’s humbling to realize that the creative potential of humans is so vast and infinite. I see amazing variations and solutions to the same series of project expectations, year after year, student after student. There is one constant thread, the abundance of endless variety, and that things can always be another way. Always.

So, when life circumstances rear their ugly head, I recall that things can always be another way. Always. It may not be in the way that our egos demand it be, be another door will open, and solution will present itself in time.

I cant un-know this. 

Through this reflection, I’ve learned that our everyday occurrences can have much deeper meaning, and the world is showing us things every day whether we are aware of them or not. I continue to share my stories and awareness’s at the beginning of each and every class that I teach. I encourage my students to reflect on their own experiences and find deeper meaning in them as well.

More to come!

Exploring Analog, Digital & Ai Mediums in Art: Layered Image Hacks from Old Slide Libraries

glowing slide hack image

Exploring Analog, Digital & Ai Mediums in Art: Layered Image Hacks from Old Slide Libraries

As an artist, I’m always seeking new ways to create and communicate through visual imagery. In today’s technology-driven world, there are endless ways to be experimental, combining analog, digital and now Ai mediums to generate fresh perspectives. I find to be as exciting as can be!

slides - slide hack project

A looooong time ago as an undergraduate art and design student, I never imagined that I would ever view the slide projector as a medium for future art making. However, in recent years, I have discovered the hidden potential of old slide libraries to help generate and create new artworks. I see this exercise as a great collaborative project for students of all ages! More on that later.

Above, we see a series of scanned remnants from various times, spaces and places. Working with the abandoned slide libraries from a few of the universities I teach for across New York City, I have found my inspiration. The first series of experiments involved layering four intentionally selected slides with strong light source from underneath to create an analog transparency. The resulting images were then edited and juxtaposed for context and composition, resulting in new works of art.

slide hack project

Through my work with these precious “fossils,” I’ve discovered a new way of seeing the world and objects around us. The situational narrative of the abandoned slide libraries have become the inspiration for my art making experiments breathing new life into outdated technology. (I also really love the word “re-contextualize”.) As I continue to develop the series, I am exploring different ways to present these layered images. I picked up an old data projector via Craigs list a while back, and it has been propelled back into action! 

slides - slide hack project

Several of these images are being turned into animations for video and GIFs, adding a dynamic element to the already compelling compositions. Stay tuned for part two, as I delve deeper into the process of creating these layered image hacks. But photo documenting these was obviously not the last stop, I had to see what our new friend “Ai” may do.. keep reading and scrolling for that!

slides - slide hack project

In creating the layered image hacks, I have found that the process is intuitive and immediate, allowing me to tap into inspired energy and create something new and unique. The juxtaposition of historical images with modern technology has led to a new awareness, both for myself as an artist and for those who may view my work. One of the most exciting aspects of this project is the endless possibilities for presentation.

slides - slide hack project

The images can be printed on a variety of materials, from traditional paper to fabric or even metal, to create a tactile and dimensional effect. They can also be projected onto walls, creating a larger-than-life presence that immerses the viewer in the layers of the image. The slide below was projected onto the corner of a wall, as an example.

slides - slide hack project

As I continue to work on this project, I am excited to see where it will take me. As I mentioned, Ai has entered the chat.. By exploring both analog, digital and Ai mediums, I am able to push the boundaries of traditional art-making and generate new ways of looking at the world. I hope to inspire others to see the beauty in the unexpected and to find creativity in even the most mundane of objects. Let’s be honest, we all wrote off slides many years ago!

The new variations generated above and below are by DALL-E 2 added a new dimension to the project, highlighting the possibilities of combining different technologies in the creative process. The outcomes are so good! I further manipulated the variations in adobe photoshop to make them more compelling and spellbinding!

slide hack project

Overall, this project demonstrates the importance of embracing innovation and experimentation in the art making practice. By utilizing both old and new technologies, and exploring different mediums and techniques, we can create works that are truly unique. And by applying these layered image hacks to DALL-E 2, we can open up new possibilities for creative expression and push the boundaries of what is possible in the art world.

Have fun!

7 Tips for Cultivating Empathy and Community in Your College Classroom

a digital illustration of two old computers meeting in prospect park like old friends

7 Tips for Cultivating Empathy and Community in Your College Classroom

Hey fellow educators (& Beyond)!

We are now flowing into week #5 of the Spring 2023 semester -> a belated welcome back!

While there’s aways a lot to catch up on, let’s keep reminding ourselves of the power of patience.

Let’s keep in mind that our students, colleagues, and campus communities need us now more than ever. Whether you’re teaching one course or seven, there are a few keywords to keep in mind:

“patience, empathy, compassion, creativity, accessibility, inclusion, and community”

a gif about patience

Here are a few suggestions to help you create a positive and productive learning environment:

  1. Remember that there’s no room for ego in teaching. Make patience, compassion, empathy, and understanding your mantra. Your energy is contagious, so set a positive tone from the start. Regularly express your gratitude, excitement, appreciation, and enthusiasm for teaching and learning with your students – that positive energy will spread like wildfire!
  2. Acknowledge that your course(s) have the potential to be a unique and powerful learning experience, far beyond the specific content you’ll be covering. We’re all human beings coming together in this shared space and time, and there’s always something we can learn from one another. Keep an open mind and heart, and embrace the diversity of perspectives in your classroom.
  3. Your class is a community, and it’s up to you to help foster that sense of unity. Use the first few classes to get to know your students and encourage them to get to know each other. What are their passions, concerns, and ambitions? Regularly revisit how they work together to achieve their goals!
  4. Collaboration is key – make your course a platform for community building. Encourage your students to share their ideas and work together to create something new. You’ll be amazed by the creativity and innovation that emerges from a truly collaborative learning environment.
  5. Remember, our students have so much to teach us. Each of them brings unique experiences, insights, and perspectives to the table. Make sure to listen and learn from them – you’ll be amazed by what you discover.
  6. Don’t waste your first class reading the entire syllabus – always start by connecting with your students on a human level. Learn their names, share stories, and make that vital connection that sets the tone for a positive and productive semester.
  7. Finally, make sure your course materials are accessible and inclusive. In 2023, there’s no excuse for a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Make sure your audio and video content includes transcripts and closed captions. Use high-contrast visuals and add alt-text to images for screen reader access. And most importantly, ask your students what they need to best receive the teaching materials. Your campus has resources to help you with this, so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Remember, teaching is a journey and a constant work in progress. We’re all in this together.

By prioritizing patience, empathy, compassion, creativity, accessibility, inclusion, and community, you’ll set yourself and your students up for successful and fulfilling semesters!

Situations, Scenes & Circumstances

“The Agent of Ascension”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo hybrid

 

Situations, Scenes & Circumstances

Im excited to share a growing body of work that revolves around the idea of reality perception. Particularly, through the use of an environment. It happens via an existing photograph that I have taken, found or created (with software.) A tension is created between wanting to create the reality mixed with transcending what is already in existence. A hybrid form / mixed reality, but what exactly is “reality”? As 3D software and it’s capabilities accelerate, more and more people will be building their own “realities”.

Perhaps there is a 100th monkey effect energy to that in and of itself…

The tools used below, well, simply, an iPhone for capturing a moment, adobe photoshop for creating assets and manipulating those moments, adobe dimension for applying 3D assets into the existing moments. Output is rendered to JPEG format for all devices to view easily. The process allows for me to push and explore new ways to use and integrate digital photography while also digging into new visual effects and aesthetics for “image-making”. It takes a lot of practice to identify the “gems” but this depends on the viewer. The process is unlimited and so much fun. One of my goals in 2023 is to record my process while I work, most of these pieces happen in immediacy, and take between 10-20 minutes to complete. Should I add these to my YouTube channel?

I also wanted to play with titles. Titles are very important / interesting and give so much context while engaging the viewer to connect.

This is a perfect project for digital storytelling, creative writing prompts and creating narratives. 

Let’s see what we got here below!

 

“The Occurrence of the Arrival Pods”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“Fragments & Byproducts from the Activation Portal”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“A Metaphor at the Station of Your Emotions”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“The Day that You Were Born”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“The Problem Solver”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“A Disturbance in the Matrix”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“A Surprise Visit from the Inner-Agent”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“Bi-Locational Transparency”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

“The Release of the Blue Portal”, 2022, Digital Illustration / Photo Hybrid

 

As always, your feedback and comments are welcome below!

A Sketchbook Tour

A New Sketchbook Has Been Completed, Let’s Tour It!

Well, here we are in the summer of 2022!

Classes are now over, and its time to catch up on some “other-ness.” The category of “other-ness” can mean a lot of things for sure.. like redesigning this website and updating my brand and visual identity! But wait, there will be A LOT of procrastination in between that so I can DRAW, and PAINT, and DRAW some More! This new sketchbook was completed in the month of May 2022, its pretty much a “one drawing or collage per day” kind of gig. Yes, this all happened in between final exams, grading, my client work and life! 

Keeping a sketchbook is so helpful, let’s see why below..

Check out the video tour!

Feel free to pause the video and or revisit that images that you like the most.

I have been filling up sketchbooks since I am a little kid. I have well over 300 of them in my collection.. (OMG!) I use sketchbook’s as a vehicle of immediate expression, intuition and the of recording ideas! There is nothing more liberating than simply allowing myself to make an image! There is no judgement, it is not good or bad, I don’t seek to like it or dislike it, I just allow myself to spill out onto the paper and fill up the pages until they run out. I then repeat the process! 

Share your comments below!

Im going to incorporate this into a class collaboration assignment this coming fall semester!

Caption-Less Abstraction, Another Statement..

Caption-Less Abstraction, Another Statement..

“Caption-Less Abstraction, Another Statement..” is new looping video art work by Ryan Seslow.

The piece is a visual statement, expression and commentary on the continued lack of accessibility and inclusion that Deaf and Hard of Hearing people experience. Often invited and or summoned to attend online meetings, seminars, talks and discussions only to once again discover that basic accessibility and inclusion in the form of closed captioning is not enabled or provided.. What do you think that these meeting experiences looks like for a person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing? How do you think the experience feels for a person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing?

This piece is WHAT it Looks Like. Want to know HOW it feels? Great, now watch the looping video for 20-30 minutes straight.

Let me know how you FEEL after in the comments section below, or post your response to me on twitter.

This art-work is about awareness, there is a story below..

“Caption-less Abstraction, Another Statement..” 2021, Looping Animated Video

This piece is also based on a recent experience where the “Host” of an online event invited me to participate in a group discussion via zoom. There we over 50 people in attendance.. I told the host in advance that I was Deaf and would require (and greatly appreciate) the enabling of the real-time closed captioning feature during the talk. I never got a response. I joined the meeting anyway and immediately noticed that captions were not available. I sent the host a DM, no response.. In American Sign Language I proceeded to sign “NO ACCESS” over a few times and eventually left..

 

“Caption-less Abstraction, Another Statement..” 2021, A still-frame from the pre-animation processing of the video (click the image to enlarge to full size)

This piece was recently added to the current exhibition: “Waking Accessibility Awareness”

https://www.ryanseslow.com/waking-accessibility-awareness/

Creative Fun for the NEW Commons Website!

A Happy New Year to You and Yours!

Welcome to the Spring Semester, 2022!

Allow me to introduce my first post of the new year: “Creative Fun for the NEW Commons Website!”

That’s right, the commons has launched its long awaited update! Its awesome!

Have you checked it out yet? This post is a good place to start if you haven’t. Its very informative and helpful. Not to mention down right inspiring, (you will recognize some of the GIFs and Illustrations, wink wink wink..) I’m always excited to talk about the commons! Im lucky to be a sub-committee member, thats right, I signed up, got hooked, and now they cant get rid of me, and my GIFS!

Lets have some fun talking about the new site and the commons itself, shall we?

But wait, can this blog post be used as pedagogy? Can it be a class assignment example in disguise? Does a blog post have the ability to tell a story? A compelling one… hmmm, lets see..

I’m here to serve, share, learn, revise, connect, contribute, participate and evolve in this wonderful open-source space. I have been teaching a series of my CUNY classes between BMCC and York College via the commons for many years now, I have also created the open-source course from which you are reading this blog post. The fact is, the commons is a brilliant space that is awaiting your energy. It’s a free invitation to break free of anything default (like those prehistoric departmental templates!) Its time to tap into your “highest-creative-pedagogical-self”, (that’s right, that’s a thing now) and let that light been seen here.

There are so many ways to approach this!

Building a course website, portfolio or creating a group on the commons offers many options, and there is so much context to explore.. What do you want to create or experiment with? What would you like share, archive, organize, facilitate or help with? That’s just a starting a point of course. When I first started generating content here I created this site “The NET-Art Site” for fun as an example of the “ideal course” that I would “one day” love to teach… I’m very serious. It is not an actual 3 credit course at BMCC or York college, but it has become something so much more as both of those courses benefit from and contribute to the content. It’s an OPEN resource full of use-value in context to all of my teaching. Its worth way more than 3 credits, I mean, its like 100,000 teaching-karma-credits that gets legacy attached to it! (as sinister music drones into the background…. Im kidding, but then again..) What I’m trying to share is, I simply jumped in. I started making and sharing, creating opportunities and reaching out to others. Things took off and quickly began to shape just by starting and not worrying about how it would be received. The commons community supported it 1000%! Since then, we have collaborated with the NYPL and several other campuses on various projects, including workshops at the GC on graphic design & “play in the classroom” )and a cross-college collab with Gallaudet University.

As the new site was being built, especially in the final stages, I asked if I could help and contribute by making some visual promotional items. I kind of solidified my presence with the subcommittee as an artist and a rouge “GIF maker”.. well, ok, maybe I’m not that rouge but I love to make GIFS! Either way, it all started on a website here on the commons. I was riding the coat tails of my buddy and mentor MBS, who is the one who introduced me to the commons in the first place!  I was hooked right away! This was back in 1977! (which was really 2010-ish but in 2022 year consciousness it feels that long ago!) Anyway, sheesh, I offered to help bring some of the new branding imagery and items to life. A perfect opportunity to contribute and also use the content for pedagogy. Thats right, this blog post becomes yet another example of the potential of how the commons can be used. As well as the potential to share how things can always expand as we place our energy into it. I teach Digital Storytelling at York College. (I love the course so much!) A large portion of the course work is creating a digital identity, learning how to blog and challenge the creative potentials of what a blog post can be. Can it be a vehicle for change, self-expression, self-transformation, activism, empathy, teaching, learning, compassion and creativity all at once? CT-101 students will surely find out as soon as they read this!

Well? Are you not enjoying this? Make a list of words that come to mind, take action and leave them in the comments section below, I’d be happy to help you get started if you need or want that kind of a push. 

Lets give the whole commons team a big big round of applause! I have to say, they really nailed it! The new website is beautiful. Do you remember the old site? I mean, I do miss it a lil, its nostalgia, and all of the late 1990’s feels of those underground style blogs (kidding, kidding, kinda!) I really love the rebranding here. The new site has solved a lot of UX/UI and accessibility issues very effectively. The lighter color palette and integration of clean icons, page formatting, sections, and those light gestural lines makes one’s arrival to the site welcoming and inviting. It helps the visitor navigate effortlessly to where they want go, which may be intentional right away, but it also provokes exploration. I’m excited for my new students to get started this semester! What do you like most about the new site?

I hope that you are enjoying the GIFs and Illustrations as you read through this post. The post is getting a bit wordy and Im known to go off on tangents… stop me! My ambition was to induce some retro-feelings and imagery as metaphors to show the lineage of our Internet experiences. I started teaching college in 2002! I’m at my twenty year mark and this is my 40th semester teaching. (What!?) I actually had that flip phone used above in the illustration, as well as showing course content with slide projectors and VHS tapes! I had to represent VHS! As much as I love all things modern tech, I miss those analog days, and the clunky hardware that came along with it. I know that our friends at Reclaim Hosting agree! The beauty of technology is its ability to unite and connect us through access and inclusiveness. The new site works great on mobile devices now too! The commons has helped me find and meet so many other like minded people doing such cool things. The pandemic slowed the “IRL” experiences but the digital connections strengthened, our overall reach extended and our friendships prevailed. So, in essence the art works are about connection, togetherness and our collective awareness..

 

Thanks for reading along and checking it out!

Feel free to get in touch and say hello! Im easy to find here on the commons as well as on the web!

Twitter is good too!

If you are looking for some creative inspiration, dig into this site and see what you “stumble upon”.

The Legacy & Preservation of an Original Idea

“The Legacy & Preservation of an Original Idea”

2021, Digital Illustration & Animated GIF by Ryan Seslow

A series of two new art-works, 1 animated and 1 static.. its time for a another reactive / reflective writing assignment. Let us view and reflect upon the art work below. The artist has left us with his intention about the work, but does that “add up” for you? What do you see? Let’s first break down the objective aspects of the images and then move on to the subjective and less formal meaning, shall we?

1. The Legacy – The Forever Animated Loop of the Ego..

2. The Preserved – The Forever Static Preservation of the Ego..

The concept of the artwork is derived from our ego-centric human thinking..  

We all want to believe that our individual “ideas” are original, unique and new.. We want to leave a legacy here on this planet.. and we want to make this happen over and over again. We want to believe that we are unique but also a part of the oneness of this world. We grapple with this, especially as artists. Deep down, we know the truth, that all ideas are built by an energetic collective continuum of the creative human potential.. everything is a remix. This series aims to capture the illusion of this statement as a single idea, contained and persevered both static and looped, living on forever..

 

 

  1. Above: (click the image to enlarge)The Legacy & Preservation of an Original Idea, The Legacy, 2021, Animated GIF

 

2. Above: (click the image to enlarge) The Legacy & Preservation of an Original Idea,The Preserved, 2021, Digital Illustration

 

Cut-N-Paste-Analog-N-Electronic-Ness

A new post on process reflection through blogging.

The best teacher I have ever known is the “inner-one” that allows a time for reflection as it wiggles through its narrative from the inside outward.

Here is my take and example.

 

December, late 2021

Back at it. The saga continues. I want to make images, always.. Which is really saying I want to communicate better, or just more, or in new ways. Sometimes the communication is purely fictional. Sometimes the communication is out of frustration because I cant find the words at the moment. Or, sometimes it’s an other worldliness that is using me as a “tool” to make itself known. Either way, it’s a practice and methodology of my expression of “the-self”. My feeling towards art making has always been: “make something and then further extend what has been generated”. I always want to see how that “something” can be taken further. If I make a drawing, I will eventually want to make a painting based on the drawing (sometimes it’s with paint and sometimes the paint is with pixels). After I make the painting it may become the background for the original drawing I made, but the drawing has now been scanned and digitally manipulated. That digital image will get tweaked and revised and also expand. I will then print it, I love old school ink-jet printers and the aesthetic they can produce. Im a “cut-N-paste” lover too, so making collage based works is a must. 

Above, this is a pretty regular perspective I find myself gazing at. Many pieces, parts, fragments and clips awaiting their deployment. I like to see things both on screen and off screen. Printed matter still holds my attention. Its a form of nostalgia and a time-machine into my childhood where art making was always a part of my world. It never stopped and Im sure it wont as long as Im on the planet. Im sure it will continue even when Im off of the planet too, haha.

I suppose, Im always seeking to communicate some form of a “situation or circumstance” in my work. As if “something” was occurring at the moment and the viewer was able to peek in and hit the pause button to freeze the frame of that “something”. I do make quite a bit of animation work too, but that was the natural progression over time as a medium. Plus the tools are so much more accessible today. I never forgot the basics of what I have learned from two-dimensional design in high school. Figure / ground. Foreground, middle-ground and background.. I placed a border around this piece above, perhaps that clean boarder makes the image as a whole seem a bit more important.. or it just emphasizes the moment. The fragments above were not yet glued down, I lay them out and look at them for a while before I make them seemingly permanent. I always take a digital image.. always!

Im really happy with this piece above. The perfect tension between the subjective and the representational. A moment of passing memories, elusive and most likely not even accurate. A portal out of reality and into the imagination. I like to linger there. The image is made from a series of digital photographs and hand drawn illustrations that were manipulated digitally and the full cut-n-paste treatment at its best.. This piece is currently still untitled, for now.. I will surely scan it and bring it back into the digital arena again.

(this piece above is available as a 3/3 edition here – https://hicetnunc.art/objkt/375773 (or click the image)

Ah ha, well, the image above this one was derived from this one! A combination of a manipulated data bent images layered with several glitch renderings. Cut, layered, pasted and cut and pasted again. What works for me the most is the hand cut lines that are visible by their contours. You can see that this was printed and then cut out with a pair of scissors. The lines are not straight, we can only get that perfect line from a ruler and an x-acto knife.. I have no need for making anything “perfect” in such an imperfect world. 

Format change. A horizontal layout variation to switch it up a bit. This piece uses the same process as stated above. It has not yet been glued down and made permanent.. but is that even necessary with digital tools like photoshop? A good question to ponder and what does that mean in the future?

And then, oh yes, the ink-jet bleeding experiments! Did you know about it? Well well well, look at who’s attention just focused in! If you print on matte paper with an ink-jet printer you can use a soft brush and water and create some very cool looking bleeding aesthetics! Im a big fan of this piece! This is surely a subjective and abstract art work, but it still followed the same steps and process as I shared from the beginning. Im going to print some larger scale variations of this, and perhaps have one framed.

I decided to get a bit more formal here in my presentation and laid down a few of these pieces. Sometimes it helps to get the gallery perspective and see one’s work “up on the wall”. The vertical perspective is helpful. Of course these pieces would look better in a more traditional frame, and its this exact exercise that helps me make those decisions. Below, are a few close up versions of each piece. Obviously there is more to come. Thanks for reading!