How Much Does the Internet Matter to Artists?

The article traces the history of artistic engagement with telecommunications, from early experiments to Net Art. Canadian artist Robert Adrian X defined the core shift from object to process, emphasizing connections over things. Pioneering works include Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz's Satellite Arts Project (1977) and Hole in Space, which linked New York and Los Angeles via satellite. In the 1980s, artists like Robert Adrian X and Roy Ascott explored interconnected environments with projects like The World In 24 Hours (1982) and Le Plissure du Texte (1983). The arrival of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s spurred Net Art, a radical, critical movement. Artists such as Vuk Ćosić, Alexei Shulgin, Heath Bunting, Jodi.org, Olia Lialina, 0100101110101101.org, and etoy created software, browsers, websites, performances, and installations that deconstructed technology and resisted corporate homogenization. The article argues that this legacy remains ethically and culturally valuable today.