Monar: Japanese ASCII Art

The Internet has changes all the aspect of contemporary life as long as the one has access. Art, which tend to be classified as high culture, is no exception. ASCII is the abbreviation for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”.[1] ASCII Art (AA) refers to the works of art on the Internet, whose “medium” is the combination of text and signs on the screen. For example, widely used emoticons such as :) and :( are regarded as ASCII Art. Monar is a work of art made by shift_JIS, which is one of the fonts for Japanese.[2] Monar is generally found on the Japanese free and anonymous bulletin board forum called Channel 2 (pronounced as ‘ni-channel’). Channel 2 is referred as a “synonym for the chaos” in the Japanese cyber space, and it does create the chaotic mode of the production, distribution and consumption of the Monar, a work of art. [3]  
Moner has been made and created by numbers of anonymous “AA artists”; the shape of Monar changes as time goes.[4] The production of Monar is thus “no longer an end point but a simple moment in an infinite chain of contribution”.[5] This is same as how information works, because this quote can describe, for example, how anonymous people contribute for the making of Wikipedia.

Monar is on the free and “weightless” distribution mode of the Internet. [6] Boundary between sender and receiver of the information on the Internet has been blurred. This applies to Monar as well, since Monar can be regarded as information due to its “medium”.

The Monar is consumed as a communication tool for the users of Channel 2, just like information. The name, or more accurate to say, the title of the artwork, comes from Japanese “Omaemona”, which means, “You are the same/you too”. [7] This is because Monar is often used in the context that a user criticizes other users by saying “you are the same (as those who you criticize).” [8] Monar thus can be discussed parallel to the way information is consumed online.

Therefore, Monar can be defined as  an “informationalized” work of art, since Monar follows the way  information is produced, distributed and consumed on the Internet. The Monar offers the different kind of sensual experience from the conventional art such as painting and sculpture, because for the Monar’s case, art becomes information, and viewers become users. The Internet thus creates the new notion of art as something viewers can actually use.

[1] “ASCII.” Oxfird Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7^th ed. Oxford University Press 2005. Digital Dictionary.


[2] “モナー(Monar).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 1 May 2011. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A2%E3%83%8A%E3% 83%BC>

[3] Kaigo, Muneo, and Isao Watanabe. "Ethos in Chaos? Reaction to Video Files Depicting Socially Harmful Images in the Channel 2 Japanese Internet Forum." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12. (2007): 1248-1268. Web. 15 May 2011.

[4] “モナー(Monar).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 1 May 2011. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A2%E3%83%8A%E3% 83%BC>

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[5] [6]Bourriaud, Nicolas. Postproduction, Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World. New York: Lukas & Steinberg, 2002, Print.

 [7][8] “モナー(Monar).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 1 May 2011. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A2%E3%83%8A%E3% 83%BC>

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