Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Net.art: Make navigation the composition, assuming back buttons and several windows
- Type
- Set in Net.art's manner (Use default browser fonts and leave underlined links undecorated), and let Surf Club's lettering (Do not choose a typeface. Leaving the default in place is part of the meaning, and replacing it makes something else.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Net.art's material (HTML, GIF, error screens and slow loading treated as material); bring in exactly one thing from Surf Club (Leave found material as found. Keep the compression artefacts, the low resolution and the stock gradients.).
- Colour
- Build on #ffffff, #0000ee, #111111 and admit one accent from #FFFFFF, #0000EE, #CCCCCC.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Digital Art, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Net.art Reproducing the early web look as a flat image leaves nothing that links, transmits or invites participation, and the network that was the site of the work disappears.
- Surf Club Cleaning up the found material and arranging it well removes the found state that the style is actually made of, leaving only collage.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Net.art (Style, 1990s–) and its accent from Surf Club (Style, 2006–2012). Structural cues: Link structures; Browser UI; Errors; Participation and transmission. Accent cues, used sparingly: A default blog template left alone, with posts stacking in date order and no design applied; Screenshots of web searches, targeted ads and stock gradients posted as found; Posts answering other posts, so the same image returns altered by another member; Amateur material sitting in the same column as work, with nothing marking the difference. Composition: Make navigation the composition, assuming back buttons and several windows. Type and lettering: Use default browser fonts and leave underlined links undecorated. Let one material quality come from the second style: Leave found material as found. Keep the compression artefacts, the low resolution and the stock gradients.. Mood: Rebellion, Technology, Play, Nostalgia. Color: build on #ffffff, #0000ee, #111111 with a single accent drawn from #FFFFFF, #0000EE, #CCCCCC. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Net.art 1990s– / Style / Digital Art
Treats the browser, the link, the transmission error and the network itself as both the material and the site of the work.
- Surf Club 2006–2012 / Style / Digital Art
A movement that made the collaborative blog itself the site of the work. Nasty Nets, founded in 2006 by John Michael Boling, Joel Holmberg, Guthrie Lonergan, Marisa Olson and others, was the first to popularize the term surf club, and other collectives took the label up. It grew out of link sharing on del.icio.us, so found images, screenshots of searches and targeted ads pile up in date order inside a default blog template.
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