http://www: a birthday celebration

2019 marks 30 years since the inception of the world wide web! Within this brief time, the internet has radically reshaped the landscape and trajectory of our world, physically and virtually. To commemorate the WWW’s big three-O, Carnation Contemporary presents http://www: a birthday celebration, an exhibition of works on and about the internet. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, a stream of talks, publications, social media feeds, and screenings will celebrate, discuss, challenge and reckon with the complex structure we call the internet.

Perhaps a giant self-portrait of humanity (a meta-selfie, if you will), the internet offers a dizzying array of high and low, frivolous and profound, endless content in a constantly shifting composition. “The web by its nature is surrealist: a shattered, contradictory, and fragmented medium.”* In this spirit, http://www seeks a diverse array of work exploring the internet as content, form, system, medium, and experience. We want to dig into the history, future, materiality, and mechanisms of the internet.

*Kenneth Goldsmith, Wasting Time on the Internet, 2016.

Possible explorations could include:

  • spirituality, fantasy, research, colonization, politics of the internet
  • Web ecology
  • Cultural production in the internet age
  • Information pushers
  • The internet as system
  • The internet as perpetuation
  • The internet as sentient
  • Social media as landscape
  • Self-surveillance and the internet
  • Etc.

The possibilities are as endless as the internet.

For http://www we’ll be accepting three categories of submissions: works for exhibition, web page submissions, and proposals for talks and presentations.

Exhibition
Mediums accepted: All mediums, on and offline are accepted. Artists are responsible for the shipping and insurance of their work as well as providing necessary materials and/or devices.

To submit: Each artist may submit up to 3 completed or proposed works. Please send a pdf including a website, CV, artist statement, up to 10 .jpg images, and a list of works including the title, date, medium, and a brief description. For video works submit a direct link (vimeo, etc). Up to 10 images or 5 minutes of video are accepted. Email all submissions to:  hnewman08@gmail.com

Submission Deadline: Dec. 9, 2018
Notification of Acceptance: December 21, 2018
Exhibition Dates: February 2-23. 2019

Crowd Sourced Internet:
Throughout the show, we’ll be streaming and exploring a variety of web pages recommended by you! Direct us to your favorite corners of the internet, whether funny, critically engaged, or mesmerizing.

To submit: Email up to 3 web urls with a 3-5 sentence description of your thoughts for each site to: hnewman08@gmail.com

Submission Deadline: December 9, 2018

Proposals:
Throughout the month of February, we’ll be hosting a series of talks, screenings, and panels. We’re accepting proposals for those interested in participating or presenting experimental talks, research, or workshops based around the internet, internet art, cultural production and the internet, etc.

To submit: Please email 300-500 page pdf outlining your proposal for a talk, web seminar, social media experience, panel discussion, video screening, etc.

Submission Deadline: December 9, 2018
Notification of Acceptance: December 21, 2018

Exhibition Timeline: February 2-23, 2018
Carnation Contemporary
8371 N Interstate Ave
Portland, OR 97217
carnationcontemporary.com