Net Art : Mark Napier's 'Shredder'

This is not only a digital art, but also a net art which need network to connect and thus working with it. On the other hand, it suits many characteristics of digital art.

First, digital art has formal instructions. Like Dada or conceptual art, digital art has a role to follow and produce art work. In this website, it always require people to enter a website to finish the other part of it. It seems to that 'Shredder' have something regular to the websites.  

Then it comes the second element which is the emphasis on the concept rather than the art object. Obviously we can not through our eyes to see what the artist is gonna to present. They are just some messy characters and images. There is something to do with the concept which the artist want to provide audiences' different experience of visiting websites which normally include many information given by some association.

The third element is about the participation of the event and audience. The website needs audience to choose an address of the website to enter in the blank to show something. Therefore, it need audience get involved in the art. On the other hand, audience are somehow experiencing the ideas of the artist. So there could be something to do with the interaction.

Digital art also includes an interest in random events or chance. When we enter an address of a website, as I mentioned before, there are some messy characters appearing in the website. Those can be also regarded as a kind of random event. We can see there is no rule to regularly arrange these images and characters. 

Last but not least, digital art borrows existed things to create as well. For this website, it uses the websites that we are very familiar with to recreate a concept. 

To conclude, Although the surface is not as nice as the other art, it pump up a new idea that we have never met before. In other words, it is a special and new kind of art which deserve we look and appreciate it.