Ep. 44: Net Art w/ Kevin Heckart

Kevin Heckart is a Kansas City based artist who created the artwork behind seapunk’s original aesthetic. This special episode coincides with both the one year anniversary of Silent Generation and the relaunch of the seapunk clothing line Mainframe, which features many of Heckart’s designs. The first half of episode is an interview with Heckart that serves as a spiritual threequel to Silent Generation’s prior two seapunk episodes while the later half is a broader conversation about net art and net artists such as Brad Troemel, Hito Steyerl, Laturbo Avendon, and Lorna Mills. Amongst other things they discuss how Heckart has gone viral on Tiktok for hacking animatronic fish and furby toys, how Nathan and Brad Troemel did the same undergrad program, how Hito Steyerl incorporated real life biographies into Factory of the Sun, and how Skibbidy Toilet shows how thoroughly post-internet aesthetics have permeated popular culture. 

 

Links:

mainframehq.net

Mainframe’s Instagram

Kevin Heckart’s Instagram

Kevin Heckart’s Tiktok 

I hacked a singing fish. - Kevin Heckart

“and yet a trace of the true self exists in the false self” meme

HIS BRAIN? NO. HIS HEART Brad Troemel meme

The Post-internet Culture Report by Brad Troemel

Untitled, 2016 by Laura Owens

Trojan Horses: Activist Art and Power by Lucy R. Lippard

Color(ed) Theory Series by Amanda Williams 

Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology

My Boyfriend Came Back from the War by Olia Lialina 

Madison Beer #NoFilter by Dis Magazine

I was Raised on the Internet exhibition at the MCA

Transdimensional Serpent by Jon Rafman

The Jogging Tumblr blog

Army of Ants by Brad Troemel

Giant Arthropods Eating Doritos early meme

Liquidity Inc. by Hito Steyerl screenshot

Factory of the Sun by Hito Steyerl

takeSomeCrime Youtube channel 

In Defense of the Poor Image by Hito Steyerl

In Defense of the Poor Image-esque Instagram post

GIFS by Lorna Mills

Repetition Mindset: Artists as Snowflakes by Brad Troemel

Artwork:

Provided by Kevin Heckart

Recorded on 10/16/2024