Net Artist's Power Shift

The Empire State Building melts in the hands of prominent net artist Mark Napier. His custom code gives the iconic skyscraper a new look for the digital age, while reminding viewers that software, not steel, is the new medium of power.
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Clickto watch Napier's melting Empire from the industrial age.
Image: bitforms gallery and potatoland.org

"Loosely knit networks, information systems, software … these are the mediums by which power is now disseminating in the world," he says. "This transition is as substantial as the industrial revolution or the printing press -- it completely changes the way we think about geography, power and, especially, control."

Napier on the early days of designing artwork solely for the web: "What was really attractive (about the internet) was that you had a space to get art out to the world," says Napier. "Before that, working digitally meant delivering something on a CD."

, another digital piece displayed on screen, images of nude human skin envelop the surface of a generative structure.

While he continues to work with flexible forms and spaces, Napier is putting more focus on the human form in his current projects. The bitforms gallery in Seoul is scheduled to show his future works early next year.