Net Art

Net Art seems to be controversially defined. There are a few different definitions in use today and no one is specifically the correct one. From it's accidental origin to what it has now become, nobody really knows how to define this new form of art that is now the most accecible art form on the planet. The definition I have chosen to stick with is: any art made for the purpose of being shared and modified through a network.
The reason we call it Net Art is one argument's strongest point. That is because it is it's origin. Net art comes from "net.art" which was a small part the text of an email virus. The term began to be used to explain the sharing of email, video, photos and sounds online, or on a network.
The truth is, all forms of art that we have known throughout history are now being expressed and shared through the network we call the internet. There is now art form man and not invented that has not been expressed in the medium of the network. We share music, paintings, photography, novels, film, poetry, and even a mix of many of these things. If this is the case we can hardly say that when we share Mozart online, Mozart has now become a net artist. Nor can we say that the person who transfered his work from paper to sound to digital sound to a network is an artist, for he has done nothing involving original creation. Therefore not all art shared on a network is net art. It must be defined as something else.
The internet, and world wide web are just one form a network. When thinking of net art it is the most common idea of what that should be shared on. The world wide web is just what it's name suggests, world wide. When a net artist is choosing a network to display his or her work he would obviously choose the network that can be viewed and contributed internationally. However this is not the only network out there. Networks can be any size, and they don't even have to involve people.
The "growth rendering device" as found on rhizome.org is an art project that works with a network between a machine and a plant. The machine feed the plant nutrients and in response to the machine the plant begins to grow. as the plant grows the machine then responds to the plant by drawing the shadow of the plant on a piece of paper every 24 hours. the point of the art is the communication between two separate objects. In this case it is not two people over the internet it is a plant and machine. A small unusual network but a network none the less. ( http://www.dwbowen.com/growth.html )
Probably the most common form of net art is the video blog. One could find many online at youtube.com. The video blog connects one person with many, through visual and audio means. After one video is posted a response can be posted and before long the original post has grown into 5 10 or thousands of posts.
These projects are made with the purpose of networking. They cannot exist without the hope that one original source will connect with the next. Though net art is not precisely defined in many peoples minds, it should be. It is the newest most accessible form of art in the world today.