Since the early days of the Internet, our browsers have been entrenched in the mythologies of early seafaring expeditions. They go by names like Navigator, Explorer, and later, Safari. The imposing sculpture The Navigator Monument by Simon Dybbroe Møller is based on the Netscape Navigator logo. The former search engine lost its leading position on the Internet to Microsoft Explorer in the late 1990s, during what is often called the first browser war. Dybbroe Møller cast the digital ship's rudder logo in bronze, an extremely durable material that has been used for 5,000 years. As it returns to its maritime context, the salty environment will speed up the patination process and eventually cause the ship's rudder to turn green, just like the original Netscape logo.

The sculpture was placed against the backdrop of an expansive sky and the ever-changing North Sea. We know that the ground below the surface of the water is littered with undersea communications cables, a tangle of long wires that form the physical structure of the Internet. The Internet is a recent technological innovation, the culmination of a sequence of events involving the development of libraries, the Industrial Revolution, and periods of progressive social idealism. Very appropriate that Westende, a city built by the family of Paul Otlet, an internet visionary, today houses this monument to a former internet application.

Triggered to discover other works of art?
Click through to triennalebeaufort.be/nl/kunstwerk/beaufort-beeldpark

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PinionRadlerJan

May 16, 2024

Something hidden in the dunes.

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Location: Middelkerke, Oostende, West Flanders, Flanders, Belgium

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