Spirit Surfing by Kevin Bewersdorf

Highlights & Thoughts

• Joseph Cornell — collects tidbits that he comes across in his daily life & sets them into frames. (So archiving? I do this all the time. I find much joy in it)
• Spirit surfers — a “group artist blog where the prevailing subject is internet culture and aesthetics and where lines are blurred between the roles of artist, curator, and archivist.”
• These frames reclaimed the objects through his choice.
• Skepticism around web surfing as an art practice (I feel that it shouldn’t be looked down upon, the net is vast and has many “art” pieces. Isn’t it the same thing as looking for publications as a source of information/inspiration?)
• Web seen as sole a practical entertaining service. (I think you have to be “in the know" to know that is false)
• INFObrats — using the web for obligations in their material and practical lives. i.e. shopping, emailing, paying bills, etc.
• Web as a spiritual realm (I think you can use the web for both, I do personally. But I think this idea was further emphasized by taking this course)
• (This text feels a little pretentious? But in its own right, most likely out of frustration)
• Working towards the glorification of the web and the spirit that constructs it. (I think this can now be translated into the utility of an app, a mobile site, etc.)
• “Surfing is being led by the wave as you make your choices”
• A link is an entry to another surf
• “finding is making” (I agree, or at least it can lead to making, I think personal digital archives are so important)
• INFOmonks are disinterested in physical are or objects
• INFObrats still believe in physical masterpieces, they try to produce physical masterpieces
• INFOspirit is not bound by constrains of the universe; it reveals art that is unreachable but it is right at our fingertips as well

Democratize the Internet Now!

• A website that helps you have affairs; leaked (I feel like I remember hearing this when it happened)
• Because its digital, it felt anonymous to do so (I believe nothing is ever “anonymous” it still can be traced back to you with enough information)
• 35 million signed up (crazy)
• “The Impact Team” making all of this information public; i.e. addresses, names, credit cards, etc. (I feel however, that is a bit wrong…)
• Servers can talk to one another nowadays; publishers and peers
• The search engine has power over pages/ we are no longer peers
• No longer tending to your digital garden, it is tended for.
• “We can still set up a sites as if it were 1995, but, culture changes as do expectations” (This is interesting. We can really no longer make “poorly designed” sites without some remnants of current innovations/stylistic choices. Brutalist websites comes to mind.)
• If you don’t take care of yourself online, someone else will; they are not a peer, they are a mega corporation (agreed!)
• Submissions come with a price — personal info, finances, family connections, etc.
• “When you post something on the web, it should belong to you, not a corporation.” You should own your information and profit from it. You should have your own servers. Your destiny, which you signed over to Facebook in order to avoid learning a few lines of code, would once again be your own.”