The emergence of the Internet accounts for probably the largest divergence between a physical studio and the laptop studio. There is the distraction factor (ready access to email, Facebook, YouTube, etc.), the easy research factor (“What painter wrote that essay about post studio practice?”), but most importantly, it provides access to an unprecedented platform for sharing and collaboration. The image of the solitary artistic genius is replaced by a more collaborative mode of production. This collective spirit and its effects on online studio practices can be seen in a number of so-called surf clubs. Nasty Nets, Spirit Surfers, Loshadka and Double Happiness have generated, shared and provided commentary on a lot of content in the past four years. Nasty Nets, one of the earliest and best known of these clubs, is a flexible affiliation of artists, academics and designers. Although they have never published any form of manifesto or general statement of purpose, they have continued to post links, sketches for works and ideas specific to this loose and collegial collective blog. The subject of much debate as to its place in the art world, Nasty Nets was described by contributor John Michael Boiling, in a particularly testy comments thread from October 2007, as a place “where ‘art’ often happens, but just as often as ‘not art’ happens.” This lack of any concrete internal definition is part of what has made Nasty Nets so exciting to follow, as projects or inspirations that will likely never see the inside of a physical gallery find a perfect home online. (via The Function of the Studio (when the studio is a laptop) by Caitlin Jones | ART LIES: A Contemporary Art Quarterly)