Network Artifacts
During a period in 2003 my internet connection began to behave as if it were 1997. Surfing medical sites with infographics of the human body could quickly turn into a test of patience. I noticed that many graphics were built from tiny separate images, assembled into a mosaic. This prevented you from saving the complete picture to your computer—you could only keep a fragment of it—a rudimentary attempt at protecting copyright.
Because of the slowness of my connection, sometimes the mosaic would not load completely, or it would take long enough for the missing-image squares to appear. These dysfunctional artifacts revealed both the site’s architecture and those archaic copyright-protection strategies, which were visible across many early pornography and science websites.
The missing image itself has since become an icon, reproduced in different markets. For me it stands as a symbol of the precariousness of the early web, of desire and curiosity, and of the obstacles to accessing information.
Original published in spanish at:
hectorllanquin.com/netartifacts
