Martin Wattenberg: IDEA LINE
2001
Martin Wattenberg: IDEA LINE
Martin Wattenberg, screenshot of IDEA LINE, launched Fall 2001
IDEA LINE displays a timeline of net artworks, arranged in a fan of luminous threads. Each thread corresponds to a particular kind of work or a type of technology used in creating it. The brightness of each thread varies with the number of works in each year, so viewers can observe the ebb and flow of different lines of thought over time. As a user moves the mouse over the lines, they open to reveal titles of artworks.
According to Martin Wattenberg, “From the beginning, net art has traveled multiple paths. More than a medium, the net is an environment uniquely hospitable to many diverse media: programming and animation, video and audio, gameplay and community. Each individual artist picks up these threads and weaves them in novel combinations. IDEA LINE is designed to let you follow these threads of thought yourself, and discover how each work is part of a larger tapestry.”
To create the list of artworks, Wattenberg sent out an open call for help to several net art forums. Almost one hundred artists submitted information. In addition, data was entered on many popular or influential artworks that were not suggested by public response.
This project relies on Java applets, emulated through CheerpJ to run in modern browsers.
Martin Wattenberg (b. 1970; Newton, Massachusetts) is a digital artist and computer scientist whose work focuses on creating tools for visual investigations that can foster connection, narrative, and insight. His projects range from artistic explorations such as Fleshmap (with Fernanda Viégas, 2008) and Apartment (with Marek Walczak, 2001), to tools for democratizing data visualization (Many Eyes, with Viégas et al., 2007). He is a professor at Harvard University, where he coleads the Insight + Interaction Lab with longtime collaborator Fernanda Viégas; and a part-time member of Google DeepMind’s PAIR (People + AI Research) initiative, which he cofounded with Viégas.
Wattenberg’s work has been exhibited at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Tate Modern, London; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Wattenberg holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.
artport
View more on artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to internet art and its online gallery space for commissions of net art.