Mark Amerika Discusses Corrupting Lake Como, His Inspirations,
And The Spy State Economy  Lake Como Remix  Today we're all
familiar with the term "net artist"—whether there's a defining
answer to exactly what one is, or does—is another question, but
we know the phrase. But it wasn't always so, back when dial-up
ruled the web artist Mark Amerika was experimenting with this
new (but painfully slow to load) digital world, writing
pioneering hypertext novels and exploring the possibilities of
narrative art in the information age.  His GRAMMATRON
(1997) project, the first in a trilogy of works, is one such
artwork which merged ideas of the novel, net art, gaming, and
cinema to create a transmedia narrative. It's a format and
approach we're much more familiar with now in an age of
increasingly sophisticated viral marketing, where alternative
reality games have long been used as promotional campaigns for
TV series and films.  But Amerika has explored many different
styles in his career and currently has an exhibitio