Rhizome’s ArtBase interface ca. 2013
Rhizome and the online archive of internet art
The online archive of internet art presents multiple challenges, but also opens new possibilities for digital interface and interaction design. Internet artworks are not single, static entities, but rather assemblages of “artifacts, practices and cultural beliefs” (Dekker, 2014; Brock, 2016), contingent on the networked environment. In order to be executed and rendered, internet artworks are dependent on specific software/hardware environments, network protocols and user interactions. Both aesthetics and meaning production in internet artworks are constructed through the ensuing relationships between the constituent parts of the assemblage. Moreover these relationships are not fixed, but instead change over time. The archive of internet artwork challenges traditional archival concepts regarding the archival record itself, as well as its classification and representation.