Nettime Forms and net.art Begins

In the spring of 1995, Nettime, a mailing list and platform that was instrumental in the formation of net.art, formed. The list gathered the earliest net.art practitioners and was where the term took hold. It consisted of JODI’s Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, Geert Lovink, Heath Bunting, Vuk Ćosić and Alexei Shoulgin.

Organized by Geert Lovink and Pit Schultz, Nettime as a group met in June at the Venice Biennale, laying the foundation for what was to come. By fall, nettime-l had taken root, fostering the exchange of ideas and discourse and some of the earliest net.art. Ćosić explained to the author (Peter Bauman) how in his view JODI were the first net.art practitioners:

“On the nettime list itself we didn’t post net.art pieces that could be displayed or collected but we spoke about it and gave it life. I personally adored the JODI posts that were consistently pushing the idea of net.art as a liberating force. They were the first in many regards.”