Tim Whidden has given birth to a classic internet Hyper-Runt. It's an image file with humble origins that grew into a mutating visual chain-letter. The seed image is Tim's schematic of the internet, a "Simple Net Art Diagram." An arrow points to a cable which links two computers, accompanied by the text, "The art happens here." Tim insists the funny little diagram was meant to embellish a discourse on interactivity. It was never intended to be anything but a sly joke. However, within the quixotic frenzy of the internet, many people have modified the diagram to put their own spin on the idea of interactive art.

The resulting babble of diagram variations and dialogue seems to create a living embodiment of Tim's original suggestion. A quirky, collectively generated presence is emerging which is still maturing into a personality. But if I'm not mistaken, the thing which has emerged is not art at all, it's a Hyper-Runt. And Tim agrees. At least he did when he suggested "Simple Net Art Diagram" for inclusion in this exhibit. Thanks, Tim. The Hyper-Runt happens here.

Tim Whidden and his internet collaborator, Michael River, have a healthy sense of humor. I've known Tim's work since his indie comix projects in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 1990s. The website Tim and Michael have created is an odd thing composed of one part virtual corporation (MT Enterprises Worldwide) and two parts net art experiments with an air of doubt in the very act of making art. But they make the stuff anyway and the result is a funny, Zenlike self-tickling. It's as if MTAA had created a gentle acid bath for the aging paradigm of art. If I'm not mistaken, they have created a breeding ground for Hyper-Runts.

--Ebon Fisher