Is Internet Art really a movement?

Over the years artists have generally been influenced by the developments in technologies of their era. Through impressionism, we had Monet who saw realistic paintings as redundant after the invention of photography. Instead, Monet focused on capturing how light and shadows affect our impression on a subject. By 1916, Picasso had taken this further and depicted all sides and shapes of reality at once with Cubism. It was technologies of The Industrial Revolution that handed Picasso and other artists their new found freedom and inspiration. Their art was reflected by the attention and understanding they had to the evolving change in times. Since then, technology has changed drastically and artists are constantly using this to their advantage to try and create new distinctive work. (Elizabeth Reoch, 2013)

For many years, artists had to go through a specific channel if they wanted their work to be exhibited. The process involved art critics, curators, collectors, advisors, consultants, gallery owners and anyone else who had an influence in the art world. However, all this began to change in 1969 when the internet was born and as it grew it transformed the way humans live. By 1994 a new movement was created: the Internet art movement also known as the Net.art movement. This movement refers to a style or method with a common goal or intention, in this case the use of the internet. The internet is used as a tool or subject, the medium and message. It is used as a whole and not just the World Wide Web. However, it should be noted that various types of network art already existed before this, such as fax machines for instant exchange of written messages, the use of the telephone for live audio performances and mail art circles which ...

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