Week 2 response

Colman ( 2004) uses lofty language to explain to the complexities of internet art vs. art on the Net . She describes how artists from the 1960's like the Fluxus movement , Eat group and and Dadaists were precursors to the idea that art can work through non-traditional mediums like everyday objects, performance and subsequently technology. She also describes a continuation of this type of art created by Dutch artists, Dirk Paesman and Joan Heemskirk . They used web interfaces as their medium by scrambling the html. code, tables, scrollbars and creating defective looking websites. The internet has become much more than a tool for other more important purposes. It is a purpose within itself , like a museum or like the classic art for arts sake stance . Software such as imaging and web developing programs are initially taught to introduce students with tasks that will increase employment potential. Colman seems to imply that learning how to use software for specific job-oriented processes undermines its potential as a medium or resource at times.
Colman (2004), made me reconsider the art of obsolescence, which fuels the technological economy. If obsolete technologies could be reused for art objects, if they could be broken apart and examined , students could learn about the physical engineering of computers as an art object and recreate their own motors. Most internet users just know how to use it but have no idea about how it works and I think this habit of use without understanding could speak to the difference between internet art and art on the Net.
The reading uses a lot of buzz words relevant for education and perceptual reform like, decentralization, continuum, strategies and deconstruction. Some of the research from Alder and Alder and others was interesting. Particularly, the students who defined internet art as a funhouse where the interface wasn't didactic or clear like commercial websites. It made me think of discovery learning vs. passive learning within the interface of the internet. What is the main difference between the web and the internet?