Further Resources
I am a visual artist who produces code-based automated art, live art performance, drawing, painting and sculpture all of which explores the nature of the Internet, it's strengths and failures, producing what has been called a post-Internet art that reflects the networks effect on our society and culture. The Internet is the raw material I appropriate and remix by writing computer code that is automated and runs on a 24/7 schedule producing a form of auto-generated collage I call Cruft. The resulting artwork allows me to investigate broader issues of traditional concepts—such as originality, creativity, authorship and eternal value.
Cruft lacks certainty, it is variable, fragile and impermanent.
The Internet has the ability to provide freedom by connecting us at great distances, democratizing the world's knowledge, and facilitating disruption and resistance to systems of power. It can also simultaneously provide control by restricting and regulating our thoughts and actions while propagating fear, divisiveness, surveillance and repression.
Robert Spahr
Carbondale, IL
April 2022