Net-art exhibition
So, let's begin!Exhibit #1: vaticano.org
One of my all time favourites. This long-defunct website was one of the first works of net art pioneers Eva and Franco Mattes from Italy. They are also known under the pseudonym 0100101110101101.org. They bought the domain name vaticano.org and made a website visually similar to the official website of the Holy See. The only difference was the sacred texts:
In our version the Pope appropriated pop songs, exalted free love, soft drugs, he invoked the success of student movements and claimed the Church "duty to civil and electronic disobedience".
If you speak Italian or are familiar with the forbidden technique of automatic translation, you can appreciate the archived version of this website here. And don't forget to check out their other works. (Also, take a look at the hell.com archive story) I guarantee, all the content on their website is quite curious.
Exhibit #2: wwwwwwwww.jodi.org
This one is pretty much widely known, but I'd still like to highlight it. That is another creation of a collective of two net-art pioneers, Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans (hence "jodi"). This website is their best known work.
wwwwwwwww.jodi.org is a sick website and you'll probably get lost in the pages of this museum of early net-art. I heavily recommend spending some of your time browsing this website if you have interest in net-art (although, since you're reading the net-art exhibition page, you probably do). The only thing you should be wary of is flashing colors in case you're sensitive to them. Also, be sure to check out map.jodi.org.
By the way, if you are from the Netherlands, you may ocasionally be able to see it exhibited IRL in Upstream Gallery of Amsterdam.
Exhibit #3: art.teleportacia.org
An archive of works made by another net-art pioneer Olia Lialina and some alternative versions by other artists. A lot of interesting ones here. Sadly, not all of them have stood the test of time (e.g. Self-Portrait one with Beaker browser being defunct in 2022 or many remixes of MBCBFTW being lost) but they're still awesome. Warning: not all, but some works require JS to run (a cult classic that is MBCBFTW doesn't, btw), be careful.
Exhibit #4: computerfinearts.com
A good collection of net-art collected from the decade of 1997—2007. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of works but they're all hosted locally and you can easily see them and download them.
Exhibit #5: playdamage.org
A work by Curt Cloninger. (not to be confused with a Christian actor!) Warning: flashing lights, loud music, and google-analytics on his personal website. (not on playdamage, though) Playdamage kinda works without JS, but full experience requires it, unfortunately. Also, check out his other works, articles and the links from internet art course.
Exhibit #6: postbox.garden
An imageboard that only receives posts through physical mail. A fine example of net-art, actually.
Honorable mentions
These links are no worse than the main exhibits. It's just that you can't look at them right now. For some of them you need a downgrade, for some additional research to find the working links and enjoy them fully.
Exhibit #7: Rhizome net art anthology
Rhizome net art anthology. Good one, but sadly many links are now defunct. Warning, cloudfront, chartbeat and google-analytics. Probably also requires JS for some things.
Exhibit #8: Ellen's presents
Ellen's presents. An archive of presents made by Ellen Pronk. A very good collection but sadly, most of them are flash-based. Warning: twitter.com and google-analytics.
Exhibit #9: Sorgfågel Serenity beacons
Once, I was randomly lurking through .onion links. You know, sometimes that is not a pleasant experience. But suddenly I stumbled upon a peaceful website with a lilac bird and a call for mindfullnes. It was an incredible feeling, honestly. Unfortunately, now those beacons seem to be defunct (or at least the one I've found back then is). Sad, but here is a February'20 screenshot of one such beacon I had in my personal archives. The only thing I've found about the project right now is this manifest of freedom on neocities.
Also, I have a page inspired by Sorgfågel Serenity on my website.
One-pagers
Last words Warning: googleapis, requires JS to run
A clear political statement against capital punishment, the project consists of a bot that accesses the Texas Department of Criminal Justice archive of all the last-word statements made by deaths row inmates, ultimately excerpting the sentences that include the word ‘love’.
Cachemonet A mix of random things. Warning: google and facebook trackers, a connection to twitter.com. Requires JS to run.
If you have some exhibits you'd like to add, feel free to contact me.