Form Art / Alexei Shulgin
“Russian artist Alexei Shulgin’s Form Art (1997), which used HTML buttons and boxes as the raw material for monochromatic compositions, is at first glance a purely formal study of certain aspects of HTML. But it was also absurd: Form Art transformed the most bureaucratic, functional, and unloved aspects of the web into aesthetic, ludic elements.”
“By rendering these standard forms useless, Shulgin draws attention to the materiality and function of the web. “Bringing them in focus was a declaration of the fact that a computer interface is not a ‘transparent’ invisible layer to be taken for granted,” Shulgin notes, “but something that defines the way we are forced to work and even think.””