Form Art
Form Art, which uses 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 is also absurd: Form Art transforms the most bureaucratic, functional, and unloved aspects of the web into aesthetic, ludic elements.
On this website, viewers are invited to explore a labyrinth of recourses composed by the artist, each pathway accessed through forms and hyperlinks. Forms lead to other larger combinations of forms, some coalescing into text while others compose abstract designs. The work's appearance relies largely on whichever operating system the viewer is using to access it, resulting in a morphing aesthetic that updates itself over time.
Form Art, commissioned in 1997 by Hungarian arts organization C3, is an interactive website navigated aimlessly through a series of web forms. "'Forms' are HTML conventions that appear in the guise of menus, checkboxes, radio buttons, dialogue boxes and labels; they are often used when filling out web-based applications, surveys or questionnaires. Small, interactive sections of web documents, forms have a conceptual appeal since their content is often submitted seemingly into the ether (though more likely to a mail server or a web server)" (Greene, 2004). On this website, viewers are invited to explore a labyrinth of recourses composed by the artist, each pathway accessed through forms and hyperlinks. Forms lead to other larger combinations of forms, some coalescing into text while others compose abstract designs. The work's appearance relies largely on whichever operating system the viewer is using to access it, resulting in a morphing aesthetic that updates itself over time, in tandem with software's constant evolution.
An interactive, formalist art site navigated aimlessly by clicking through blank boxes and links.