Digital art moves at the velocity of the internet, making it challenging to keep up. Fortunately, a plethora of dynamic, digital art-focused publications tick at the speed of the click, keeping us abreast of all that’s happening.
Below is a roundup of media outlets whose DNA is coded with the art of our time, the art of virtuality. By no means does this list intend to be exhaustive, only informative.
24 Hours of Art
24 Hours of Art provides daily updates on key occurrences within the digital art ecosystem. That’s 365 reports per year. 366 if it’s a leap year. Founded by Roger Dickerman in the depths of a crypto bear market, this publication gave tokenized digital art a dedicated, self-affirming voice at a time when many dismissed it.
In a short span, Dickerman’s efforts paid off. He managed to pull the digital art landscape together and reveal to others, and to itself, that “there was more happening than initially expected.” Today, 24 Hours of Art can be described as the Web3 community’s watering hole, where collectors, curators, marketplaces, and artists congregate daily to stay informed.
As Dickerman told me: “While its initial launch in mid-2023 was an experiment, the conviction around it—both internal and external—has grown. People have rallied around the brand and concept. Digital art is no longer being written off. Quite the opposite—it is growing.”
The platform has expanded since inception to include a weekly art show, interviews, articles and art designs (co-created with artist Justin Wetch) that celebrate the news du jour. Accessed via an innovative token-based subscription system, 24 Hours of Art generates value for its subscribers with every sun cycle.
Next up is the creation of an annual report that aims to be a definitive resource both for Web3 creatives and for those curious about it.
Here, as with every one of his endeavors, Dickerman’s motto will apply: “Built from within the culture, accessible outside of it.”
The AI Art Magazine
Newly launched in 2024, this Hamburg-based publication will soon present its second print edition. Their inaugural issue, Celebrating the Fusion, fêted the diversity of generative AI and featured works culled via an open call that saw hundreds of submissions from over 40 countries pour in.
By contrast, The AI Art Magazine’s second edition, Critical Intelligence, follows a thematic thread, exploring how artists critically engage with authorship, bias, representation, and the politics of machine-generated images. Critical Intelligence will feature cover art by pioneering AI artist Kevin Abosch and will launch at ArtVerse in Paris on September 19.
“We wanted to move beyond a superficial fascination with technology,” co-founder Mike Brauner told me in an interview. Nomadic and independent by nature, the editorial team considers themselves unbiased observers with a clear mission: “allow diversity, encourage openness, and give AI art a space where it can be experienced beyond trends and market logic.”
This attitude shapes their pages. They choose a jury for their issues, whose members offer purposefully contrasting perspectives and aesthetic approaches. One feature Brauner is particularly keen to spotlight is the “Golden Ticket,” via which each juror selects an artist whose work resonated and pens a dedicated essay on their work. This ensures that the selected artists will be written about with conviction.
Given the passion with which the magazine is run, expect much more to come.
[ANTI]MATERIA
It’s no small feat for a creative project to survive—and thrive—for a decade, but [ANTI]MATERIA has managed just that. Founded in 2015, this Spanish-language publication is the single-handed effort of the fierce and fearless Doreen Ríos, who originally launched it as a directory of Mexico’s digital arts ecosystem.
When the recently graduated Ríos pitched an article on the local digital art culture to her then-boss, he requested she first summon a list of its “validators.” Ríos reminisced: “I wasn’t fully aware of what ‘validation’ meant in the context of contemporary art, hence the naive reasoning behind my original response, which was to create an online directory of artists, curators, and other art professionals working with/through digital art. This directory was the very first iteration of [ANTI]MATERIA. As I started infiltrating the digital arts community, I realized there were many other things I could do with [ANTI]MATERIA.”
She realized that the most pressing initiative was to create a space for online exhibitions, which debuted on her site from 2016 to 2018.
The platform has evolved together with Ríos’ own evolution. When she began teaching a BA in digital art in 2018, she realized there were scant academic resources on the subject available in Spanish, and even less so emerging from Latin America, so she created a section devoted to pedagogical resources. Then, as her own curatorial career expanded, she saw how lengthy video works had a hard time making it into online exhibitions. Promptly, a new section, La Pixelería, was born, where guest curators select and reflect on extensive video works.
What’s next? Ríos plans to go back and interview those who were part of [ANTI]MATERIA’s 2015 debut, linking their development to her publication’s own evolution. This will be a luxuriously lengthy process, as Ríos mused: “One of the modes of working I’ve been exploring since 2021 is to practice deep observation and slowness. It might feel counterintuitive in today’s technological climate, but in the wake of past-faced content creation, there is something to be said for processes that cook slowly but carefully.”
CLOT
Lula Criado launched CLOT Magazine in 2013, intent on plumbing the intricate intersection of art and technology. A year and a half later, Meritxell Rosell joined the project, and the two multidisciplinary editors, writers, and curators have directed the magazine since.
Their initial goal was to create a platform that highlighted experimental art forms, especially those that challenge conventional boundaries and engage with media theory, philosophy, and cultural studies.
In the twelve years that’ve followed, CLOT Magazine has evolved from a niche digital publication into a voice serving the wider ecosystem, featuring interviews, essays, and curated projects that span from bio-art and body sculptures to artificial intelligence to hybrid art.
Criado and Rosell noted: “This evolution mirrors the broader transformation in digital art itself, where artists increasingly blend disciplines, challenge norms, and utilize emerging technologies to express complex ideas.”
CLOT’s editorial focus has shifted inwards, privileging in-depth explorations of the philosophical, critical, and artistic dimensions of digital and tech-influenced art. “Our ongoing commitment drives us to continue collaborating with artists, curators, universities, and institutions,” reflected Criado and Rosell, “and to expand our reach into other formats, such as a Substack newsletter.”
A few notable examples of CLOT’s tentacular reach include collaborations with Goldsmith’s Digital Arts Computing BSc, helmed by Rachel Falconer, write-ups by the likes of Natalie Mariko, Irem Erkin, Katažyna Jankovska, and Mila Azimonti, and play-by-play reporting on the Mutek AI Ecologies Lab’s hackathon.
Fortunately, their digital pages are just a click away.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/
