Since the eighties Manuel Castells has been writing on the subject of network societies with regards to the information age. He has established the notion of ‘real virtuality’; something that would be typically deemed ‘virtual’ as it exists on the Internet or online but is absolutely real due to it being a central part of our everyday experience. The most prevalent example of this today would be the online networks (Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, etc) that are now widely used internationally. These sites are used so regularly that they act as a practical and leisure tool. They are no longer virtual, they are a real virtuality.

Andy Pepper’s recent projects, ‘One Million Points of Light’ and ‘Artwork or Network’, exist online. They are websites with a predominantly visual element. Both consist of a screen of rectangles that can be lit up by participants and act as a link to a webpage of their choice (usually their own website). They therefore act, not only as online artworks, but also as online networks. Each project allows participants an opportunity to promote themselves via their website, and to link and interact with others taking part in the project by accessing other links. Some participants have even used the opportunity to link to their pages on existing networks such as Myspace. As the projects exist as networks they take on the practical role of real virtuality. The networks on both sites are already international, providing a tool that is mutually beneficial for artists, galleries and other individuals taking part.

‘One Million Points of Light’ aims to be a democratic artwork, allowing anyone to take part and access the work from anywhere in the world by means of a computer. As an artwork it not only observed, but also affected and formed by the individuals taking part. Each time someone lights up a square the work changes. It is constantly evolving as a real virtual network as well as existing as a form of virtual spectacle.

This concept of what constitutes real and virtual is further developed in Pepper’s latest project, ‘Artwork or Network’. The project, which was exhibited alongside a series of exhibitions called ‘The Rules of the Game’ at Nottingham’s Surface Gallery (19th April - 19th May 2007) is comprised of a screen on the wall of the gallery and some postcards with directions on how to take part. The project website states that when all the blocks on the screen are lit up the project will be complete.

The progression from the virtual to the real world is the key element to the new project, which establishes itself as two separate entities. The screen in the gallery space provides a spectacle, as a physical art object, that can be observed, affected and influenced by people taking part at a virtual site on the Internet. The virtual site is much like the previous project and also acts a networking site, but the object that exists within the gallery space, although affected by the networking site, is a real object.

In 1991 another Nottingham based artist, John Newling, set up an installation; ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’, in Nottingham’s market square. The market square is traditionally a site of interaction; buying, selling, meeting and communication. In Newling’s piece the market square was lit up at night with floodlights, in effect highlighting the purpose of the town square by the absence of activity. The screen in the gallery serves a similar function as Newling’s town square. Each lit up rectangle on the screen represents an individual, an opportunity and a connection. As the real object exists in the gallery space it is untouchable, yet as the networking site real interaction can take place on a virtual plane.

Initially it would seem that ‘Artwork or Network’ bridges a gap between real space and virtual space because it links the online networks with a physical object. This gap is widening daily as the Internet develops and expands. This expansion is powered by remote participants much like the development of the changing screen in the gallery space. Pepper’s most recent project is both an artwork and a network. The placement of the screen in the gallery heightens this duality by its existence within a real space. It is the dual aspect of the project that throws up questions as to how virtual spaces become real allowing, by comparison, for the space between them to be examined. The screen, like John Newling’s market square, allows the usable space to be observed, exposing the possibility and potential of the Internet as a real virtual tool and an artistic medium.

Paul Sammut, London.