Chronically Online: Mika Ben Amar on the Hidden Infrastructure of the Web

Many of your works are minimal in structure yet conceptually dense. How do you make aesthetic decisions when working with extracted or system-generated content?

I feel like my process in general is mostly about making sure things stay as simple as possible while still preserving my ideas. When working with system-generated content or found content I mostly just think of how I can present those in a way that keeps them in context to each other and the idea itself but also doesn't add unnecessary noise. Its usually never about aesthetic decisions as I feel like those might add unnecessary noise to the work. 

It’s always just very technical decisions then it all makes sense aesthetically as well. 

I find that usually the simplest way is to present things in their original forms. With internet.flowers I just presented the images the same way they appeared in my files, as a grid. And with Ad Space I just presented them as they were while using the extension. Literally just the ads. 

When it comes to curating those iI try to stay as authentic as I can, the only curatorial decisions I make is usually just making sure I present all kinds of outputs, like making sure I present all different ad layouts or all different kinds of flowers. 

Do you see your work as part of a lineage of conceptual art, net art, or something different altogether?

I do think my work can be a lineage of net art and also post internet art. While I don't think I want to categorize and label my work in any way, and also don't think I am the person who can do it, I do take a lot of inspiration from net art and post internet practices. 

What tools or technologies are you currently experimenting with that might inform future projects?

I've actually been working on a new project for the last half a year that involves a custom program. It’s a physical media project so I am now beginning the physical production part of it. It’s my first time doing something like that. I wanted to explore and experiment with the idea of physical works that are shaped entirely by a computer program for a long time, i am really excited about it and can't wait to share it. 

When did you begin working with web extensions, what catalysed your interested in them as a medium?

The first time I made a chrome extension work was with https://internet.flowers, I never intentionally wanted to make a chrome extension specifically but the idea came to mind and it made sense to make it using one. 

It's kind of funny but the ads extension is an idea that was inspired by a dream I had (lol) where I was web surfing and everything was gone besides the ads, and I wrote the idea down when I woke up. Both [internet.flowers and Ad Space] explore the infrastructures behind personalized ads so it makes sense. And I think making work using a chrome extension lets you explore the web as it is, while maybe letting you focus on specific aspects of it only? which is something that really excites me. If that makes sense. 

I think I am also inspired by Abstract Browsing by Rafael Rozendaal, it's a work that I really really like which I think opened up for me the idea that I can make chrome extensions as artworks or tools to make artworks. 

How did you curate each piece, the sites you pulled ads from, were you searching for anything in particular? Do you see the works cumulatively as a dataset, a narrative, or an archive?

I was web surfing excessively for the past 2 months looking for all sorts of websites. I was trying to capture all kinds of ads and also different kinds of layouts from the widest range of websites possible. I think in the process my ads stopped being targeted to me and just became random selection of slop ads because I was visiting thousands of random websites that I don't think I would ever visit if not for this work, and accepting cookies in every single one of them. I think around the end of the process the only ads I was getting were ads for IQ tests, which was kind of weird lol .

I think I see all the works together as this kind of archive I guess? I want to collect a lot more in the future. It's really interesting to me, I am also curious to see how those things change in the future and how it will show up in the archive if I keep collecting more of them. 

The works highlight infrastructure that is typically invisible. What do you hope viewers understand about the systems that shape their online experience?

Not much anymore is actually free on the internet, lol :(