Christopher Baker, Murmur Study, Installation view, Art(ists) On the Verge, Weisman Art Museum. Photo: Rik Sferra

I can’t help but wonder when we will be able to stop writing about the art formerly known as new media primarily in terms of its technology – or how much it costs. Nevertheless, Christopher Baker, a recent Art(ists) On the Verge grantee received his due in a nice round up in City Pages: “Twin cities arts buzz: Meet the creatives and their productions.”

“Nobody loves contemporary networked life more than Christopher Baker. ‘I would absolutely love it if the internet could be truly “free,”‘ the Minneapolis-based new-media artist emails from Hungary. ‘Free of censorship, free of bandwidth restrictions, free of cost, accessible to all, environmentally free, free of the political influence and the weight of capitalism. At the same time, I think it’s extremely important the people realize that it isn’t.’

Christopher Baker, HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome), Installation view, Art(ists) On the Verge, Weisman Art Museum. Photo: Rik Sferra

“Baker isn’t just talking out of his beret. This year alone, his web-intensive installations and public works have appeared everywhere from the Weisman to art-tech crucible Kitchen Budapest, where the artist finishes a yearlong residency next month—leaving him just enough time to prepare for the November 20 opening of his first Franklin Art Works solo exhibition. With eight shows in locales ranging from Barnsley, U.K., to Fargo, North Dakota, scheduled for the next six months, the poor devil might perish of exhaustion if not for automation.”

via City Pages

Chris’s work is important – and often mesmerizing – for what it says about the human condition, not because he is a “tech artist,” regardless of how facile.