DSL Magazine: Issue 11

Introduction 1 When we first met in Shanghai in 2012, the Chinese internet is what brought us - the authors of this DSL Magazine issue - together. Years later, the subject still keeps us busy. As the topic of several of our research projects, documented through multiple essays, articles, book chapters, and artworks, the Chinese internet is also the origin of our Chinternet Archive - a collection of vernacular visual content from WeChat that we collected and consolidated over the years. Michelle Proksell’s background as an artist, researcher, and curator also inform this edition. Her previous work as curatorial assistant for And/Or Gallery with Paul Slocum (2007-2009) and having been a participant of an internet art reading group hosted by Brad Troemel in NYC (2010- 2012) are also integral to her connection to net art, supplying her with a unique set of skills and experience useful to approach art on the Chinese internet. Similarly, Gabriele de Seta’s training as a media anthropologist and his expertise in Chinese internet cultures allowed him to analyze online creativity and archival practices from a context-aware perspective. Pooling together our research skills and professional networks, we have also set up an online archive collecting artworks, interviews, and research called Netize.net (or 网 友 网 [wǎngyǒuwǎng] in Chinese, which humorously translates to “Internet Friend Network”). Netize.net strives to document and showcase for international audiences different artists engaging with the Chinternet and post-internet art in China. In doing so, Netize.net offers artists an online space for their explorations of digital media and their ongoing impact on society and culture, ethics and aesthetics. Dedicated to the topic of Chinese artists and the internet, this issue of the DSL Magazine introduces readers to the relationship between the internet and creativity in the Chinese context and outlines a generational approach to this type of work. It also proceeds to introduce multiple artists and collectives who are working in this medium with exciting, provocative and wildly different approaches. We hope that, through our writing, readers will encounter Chinese internet art in an ongoing dialogue with artists and their socio-cultural context, and expand the discussion around this domain of art practice to include non-Western contexts.