8. Network culture

Do you remember when it was the last time you spent on your own? People no longer want to stay on their own, because, currently, it means being disconnection from the rest of the world. It is impossible to omit as network is itself a social paradigm. Even though digital and network era's have derived from the rise of technologies and computing, there are some significant differences in social and cultural sphere. Further I would like to consider and compare peculiarities of social interaction within digital and social cultures and how they are reflected in art. 

In comparison to the digital Postmodernism, network culture is not center-oriented.It demonstrates how the communication technology gets multiple physical modifications that makes it possible to create countless networks no matter the location, from your bed to the mountain pick. This new level of portability have considerably altered the way we live and perceive the world. All the people who have portable devices with connection to the global web have automatically became parts of network culture itself. 

Speaking of digital culture, it more about pushing forward the idea of individuality and human that is not associated with machines.  On the contrary, in the network culture, the idea of connection and being a part of specific cohort where the information is created and shared is more powerful. The devices now are inseparable from people's reality and serve both as a connector to the rest of the world and as a tool of creating your own reality. It's not a surprise that the dominant and the most profitable form of culture are video games. The genre is characterized by thinning of the boundaries between reality and fiction and the global user connection chains.

Another considerable feature of postmodern culture - the history loses it's value, which leads to the loss of deeper meanings and depreciation of originality. Within the network culture, such phenomenon as remix became a typical thing. As to Nicolas Bourriad, contemporary artists don't create, but reorganize. There is no more massive strive to high-standard quality and technical skills. Many people without any artistic background can become artists, the amateurs have a chance to be evaluated by other people within the network. Because of that, we can say that criteria of art quality have moved more to the idea of connecting people, either by creating online 'spaces' or uniting them with experience, like ambient installations and any kinds of interactive art. In other words, art starts to respond to the processes in social sphere. If so, does it mean that art will be shifting more and more to the immaterial digital world just as our interaction/communication did?

'Obliteration Room'

Yayoi Kusama

Reference list:
Kazys, V. (2010). The Meaning of Network Culture.