by Paddy Johnson on September 4, 2015
In 2006, Rhizome’s “Professional Surfer” felt like an important show. Surfing informed the practice of most artists I knew, and seemingly countless artist run blogs existed for the sole purpose of collecting weird shit. This included material like an animated GIF of a flag made in ASCII, MS Paint software instructions, and the largest camera lens you’ve ever seen. It was fun to watch and those with a knack for finding the obscure and truly bizarre were followed religiously.
The online exhibition describes itself as a show that “considers web browsing, aka ‘surfing’ as an art form.” Practically speaking, that meant presenting six websites by artists including Olia Lialina’s Pages in the Middle of Nowhere, Travis Hallenbeck’s Cosmic Disciple, Joel Holmberg’s Chillshesh, John Michael Boling’s 53o’s, and the group blogs Supercentral and Nasty Nets. Each present, combine or recontextualize found material from the web.
Nearly ten years later, we’re still remixing, blogging and collaging material, only we’ve moved to different platforms. Which begs the question: Given the relevance of “Professional Surfer” to today’s online culture, does it hold up as an exhibition and a historical document?
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by Paddy Johnson on August 19, 2015

Accidental Blue Screen by John Michael Boling
Sometimes GIF of the Day isn’t a very accurate description of what’s being discussed. This would be one of those days. This is a screenshot from John Michael Boling’s “Accidental Blue Screen”, a website included in the Rhizome 2006 show curated by Lauren Cornell, “Professional Surfer”. The show considers web browsing “surfing” as a professional practice, highlighting the work of four artists and two collectives. But this suggests a more performative practice then was often the case. All of the artists in this show use pre-existing images in one way or another, and that was a defining characteristic of many artists working at the time (and continues today). Tomorrow we take a more in depth look at the show. For now, here’s the list of artists we’ll be discussing: John Michael Boling, Olia Lialina, Joel Holmberg, Nasty Nets, Travis Hallenbeck, and Supercentral.
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