Digital Art's Online Presence and Maurice Benayoun's Pioneering Works

Despite the internet's potential to promote digital art, Italy's art system remains largely impermeable to digital media, with exceptions like festivals and the Strozzina center in Florence, which under former director Franziska Nori successfully integrated video, photo, digital media, and installations. Digital art is primarily accessible through artists' websites and archives. French artist Maurice Benayoun's site showcases his digital works, including Emotion Forecast and Occupy Wall Screens from the Mechanics of Emotions series, which measure and depict emotions. These were displayed for a month on the Big Screen Plaza in New York and at various festivals. His 1995 work Tunnel under the Atlantic connected the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) in Paris to the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, exchanging images and messages. In 2012, it evolved into Tunnels under the World, linking cities like San José and Seoul. Benayoun also created Digital Safari, a 3D Cave work reflecting on war through media. Mark Tribe, founder of Rhizome, argues in Taschen's Media Art publication that early digital works were hindered by nascent technology, but should be re-evaluated with fresh interest, akin to early cinema and video art, comparable to the video-electronic signal research of Nam June Paik, Aldo Tambellini, and their group at The Kitchen in New York during the 1960s-70s.