what i did and said

There can be no doubt that we are spending more and more of our lives online, connected, or plugged in. As a society we are moving more and more of our "real world" activities into the virtual sphere (food gathering, looking for a mate, socializing with the fellas, finding true companionship, bettering yourself and those around you) but what does the space that all of these places inhabit look like? Where do all of the societies and groups that are formed on the internet come together to drink their bad coffee and set up their folding chairs? Perhaps one of the empowering aspects of the web is that it empowers each user to create their own space depending on their own tastes or their software. But as more and more of our daily mundanity moves to the virtual realms, our visual culture will also. Music and movies have been consumed for quite a while now via the web (both legally and otherwise), so it is just a matter of time before the internet, or our virtual reality if you will, becomes our everyday spot for visual culture.
So, the question must be asked; What will it look like? CAIDA and Akamai show us what all the information that flows along the wires looks like. But the substance of the internet is more than just empty information.
There are any number of visualizers available to let us zero in on either our own internet experience, or even what the internet looks like around a particular topic, or even better (this is so fabulous it is beyond description). but if we are really trying to make this space our new home, information just isn't going to cut it. We are aesthetic creatures. If we are going to live on the internet, who are the aestheticians, and the artists who make the experience richer? I hope this blog will help answer those questions as we go along. Below are a collection of five works to consider:

This is not in English, but the site is pretty easy to navigate. Click around and try it out. It is a fascinating take on the usefulness (but ultimately coldness) of Google maps, and the nuances of what makes a space unique.

Mark Napier has been a pioneer in net/art and has some pretty cool stuff on his site. This one (especially the "grass" option) has a particularly peaceful aesthetic to it.

File this one under signs of the times.

I can't help but want to make up my own story about what is going on here.

This one is just to freak you out and make me seem sort of hard core.