Olia Lialina on net.art's evolution and her identity as a web artist

Olia Lialina, a Moscow native born in 1971, graduated from Moscow State University in 1993, specializing in journalism and film criticism. In the mid-1990s, she played a key role in establishing the CINE FANTOM experimental film club in Moscow. Since 1999, she has been a faculty member at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, concentrating on the New Media Pathway. Acknowledged as a pioneer in net.art, Lialina now identifies as a "web artist," reflecting her evolving perspective. She focuses on narrative challenges in browser storytelling. Her project teleportacia.com, initiated ten years ago, has transitioned into a personal project link collection. Lialina notes that interest in net art has shifted predominantly to America, with commercial involvement from museums. She cites works by Rachel Green and Josephine Bosma that contextualize net art within New Media Art. Currently, she observes a lack of net art activity in Russia. In her courses, she underscores the importance of net art as a medium-aware art form for new media designers. Her recent work with Dragan Espenschied can be found at http://art.teleportacia.org/.