Ziping Wang "Small lights through daybreak" (2022) (detail)
The advent of the internet, which enabled people worldwide to share information instantly, can be attributed to the establishment of the World Wide Web (WWW) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. In 1990, as the web began, the first image uploaded by CERN was a photo of the parody pop group "Les Horribles Cernettes," created by CERN employee Michele de Gennaro. It was a poster with crude fonts and a poorly synthesized gradient background. If the power of the web had been anticipated, would the image that adorned the first page of internet history have been somewhat different?
