My B/F came back from the war.

"My Boyfriend Came Back From the War" is Olia Lialina's net-art piece about a couple and the things that transpire after the man returns from a war. Lialina, a Moscow artist, uses images with a threshhold filter assembled in different frames to chronologically lay out the interactions of an unnamed couple. The highly dramatic piece must be sifted through like a game as you try to figure out what images to pick that lead you to the next chapter of the story. The 1996 site leads the eye around the page and by the use of frames ( tables) compartmentalizes each new aspect of the story and engages the viewer anew. This piece seems so easy now with the automated programming of newer programs but the time and investment of energy that must have gone into it 13 years(?) ago is simply amazing. The struggle for the viability that every artist strives for seems especially difficult for net artists. The medium is saturated and cluttered with pre-fabricated cut-outs that make true craftsmanship seem rare.