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Net.Flag
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net.flag – A Flag for the Net by Mark Napier

Under the title of “Weltkarten – change the map”, Ars Electronica exhibits current world map projections in which geography legitimated by the nation-state system is overlaid by the reciprocities and points of rupture in our modern Information Society. One of these projects is Mark Napier’s net.flag.

Through the acquisition of their visual language, Net.flag examines flags as symbols of territorial identity. In the “borderless” WorldWideWeb, everyone can create their own flag.

net.flag is a flag for the Internet. Through an online flag editor and a database of flag components, net.flag appropriates the visual language of international flags to create a “soft” flag that can be altered by anyone that visits it. The emblems of national identity lose their immutability and become malleable components for this ever-changing flag of the Internet.

The visitor to net.flag not only views the flag but can change it in a moment to reflect his or her own national, political, apolitical or personal agenda. The resulting flag is both an emblem and a micro territory in its own right; a place for confrontation, assertion, communication and play.

Territory: Every nation on earth has a flag that identifies the territory of that nation. One of the most memorable images of the 20th century is a scene of the United States flag planted in the rocky terrain of the moon, the emblem of an earthbound territory apparently identifying the entire planet, or laying claim to the moon itself.

In the new millenium we see nations trying to lay claim to a new kind of territory, the Internet. This virtual territory is not a geographic location, a new land with resources to be claimed. It is a space created by man-made infrastructure that carries the potential of information, group identity, economic and political advantage. Nations and terrorists alike use the Internet to carry out their agendas. Those who control the structures, both hard and soft, that make this new space, control the nature of the space itself, providing or limiting access to the resources of the network.

In the midst of this new space are the users of the Internet, the early pioneers and later visitors that explore the potential of this worldwide public space. These early adopters have had an unprecedented freedom to explore new concepts of national and personal identity in the distributed geography of the net. The familiar 'dot com' of the Internet domain replaces the nation-state in a world where most nations do not yet have official representation. Yet recently we see political powers taking action to control this space. What relationship is possible between national identities and the fluid, distributed domain branding that flourishes on the net?

Will personal and corporate domains replace nation-states, and if so, will flags become obsolete, quaint symbols like the heralds and coats of arms that adorn European castles? As the internet crosses the already porous borders of nations, what new relationships emerge between the individual and the monolithic notion of national identity?

net.flag is created by Mark Napier (design and programming) with Liza Sabater (editor), Josep Arimany Piella (research assistant), and Zachary Lieberman (additional programming). net.flag was commissioned for the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.






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