Reading 4 (Network)

Duncan Watts "Six Degrees of Interconnection" (Wired Magazine June 2003)


"To account for this paradox of distance and perception, we need to start thinking of individuals as nodes embedded in a vast and complex web of links that, in human networks, represent social, economic, and organizational ties."

This article is about the way in which people and things are connected through networks both technological and personal. The idea that we are much closer to things and other people than we might think is examined and shown by mapping networks. I find it so interesting that by mapping networks, we are able to observe how something so far removed in physical distance and proximity, can actually be so closely related to something else. The idea that people are only separated by six links is astonishing, but by making my own mapping project, I was able to see and understand the relationship between multiple entities, in my case consisting of baseball players and the teams they have played for.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi "Six Degrees of Separation" (Perseus Books 2002)


"Six degrees of separation is intriguing because it suggests that, despite our society's enormous size, it can easily be navigated by following social links from one person to another-a network of six billion nodes in which any pair of nodes are on average six links from each other."

This article is about the fact that even though there are more people on Earth today than ever before, we are still more closely connected than ever. Through vast tests and studies we are able to demonstrate the relationship of one individual to another and display that information and data by mapping a network. Being social creatures, we are linked to others by the people we know. It is truly amazing to think that anyone can connect to anyone else on the planet through just a maximum of six links, or six degrees of separation. "Every person is a new door opening up into other worlds." My mapping project shows the same type of connectivity and relations as the six degrees of separation network. I was able to show how different professional baseball players who may have never played together, are connected by the teams they have been on.

Artie Vierkant "The Image Object Post-Internet" (2010)


"The second aspect of art after the internet deals with not the nature of the art object but the nature of its reception and social presence."

No longer is art just thought of as the artist and the viewers. Post-internet art defines a new arena where "we are both its subject and the engine behind it." The addition of the viewer changes the way the end product looks and often the end product is different every time. This creates all new aspects of art that need to be dealt with, "artistic production must deal with arrangements and representations of images and objects taken from any cultural context." Figuring out how multiple artists make decisions on things can be challenging, but it can also lead to something truly innovative and amazing.

Pierre Levy "The Art of Cyberspace" (1996)


"Rather than sending out a message to receptors outside the act of creation who are invited to give meaning to the work after the fact, here the artist attempts to establish an environment, an arrangement of communication and production, a collective event which involves the recipients, transforms interpreters into players, and places the interpretation in the same loop as the collective activity."

With the emergence of cyberspace and technological advances, art is undergoing vast changes with new opportunities and ideas never conceived of or possible before. Forever art was thought of as the artist being a separate entity than the viewer, but now the two are becoming one with many cyberspace art works. The idea of an "open work" is that it allows the receivers to fill in the blanks taking the art work to all new and ever changing directions. The collective experience of making art brings about a "rich diversity" fueled by the synergy of people working together. This can lead to unexplored possibilities, continuously pushing the boundaries of art.