Net art, net.art, Internet art, Web art, online art... whatever you call it, the concept remains the same: Net art is art that uses the Internet as an artistic medium, and which could not exist without it. The latter characteristic distinguishes it from art that merely appears on a web page. Net artists engage with the Internet as a medium in the same way that painters use paint and musicians use music. And like the fields of painting and music, net art can be as creative, as personal, as political, as forceful or as playful as the artist desires.

This pathfinder is designed to provide introductory research tools to the newcomer to net art. Sources have been grouped as follows:

Net Art 101 (Introduction & Overview)
Here you will find articles, books, and websites that are ideal starting places if this is your first encounter with net art.

Net Art 201 (Advanced Studies)
The sources included here assume you have some prior knowledge of net art. Consider the Net Art 101 readings as prerequisites to this section.

LC Subject Headings
Net art is (of course) a very recent development in art, and the Library of Congress hasn't quite figured out the perfect means of classification. Here you will find lists of LC subject headings that are helpful — as well as ones to avoid.

Precedents and Context in Art
Though the use of the Internet as an artistic medium is new, net art does not spring from or exist in a vacuum. Sources provided here help to place net art in the context of artistic movements of the 20th century, including Dada, Fluxus, Conceptual Art, and the various intersections of art and technology in the past hundred years.

Journals
To my knowledge, there are no artistic or academic journals primarily devoted to net art; the genre may be too young to support such a focus. I have listed a few journals that pay at least some attention to the growing movement.

Web Resources
Much of the curation and investigation of net art is taking place online, as befits the medium. The sites listed here haven been selected as some of the more useful places to pursue further investigation. But before you do that, be sure to visit the following...

10 Works of Net Art
Out of the hundreds of works online, I have selected these 10 as an overview for the beginner. They vary greatly in content, tone, degree of interactivity, and purpose, and collectively illustrate the depth of experiences that await the explorer.

A note about the sources: Because sources of information about net art are spread across so many media, both offline and online — books, articles, websites, lecture transcripts, journals, etc. — I have added to each LC entry a field describing the medium (in parentheses) immediately after the title. Links point to entries in the UNC-CH online catalog when possible; websites are linked directly; and some entries have multiple links if multiple iterations are available.