Rafaël Rozendaal

If The Internet Is Your Canvas, You Paint In Zeros And Ones

Emily Siner, NPR All Tech Considered, November 3, 2013

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“The creator of ifnoyes.com, Dutch-Brazilian artist Rafaël Rozendaal, points out that websites do have intrinsic worth: In the Internet realm, domain names are financially valuable. No one but Palmer and his wife own the URL ‘ifnoyes.com,’ even though everyone can access it.

Rozendaal even made Palmer sign a contract to keep the website free and accessible to the public. ‘My work is public by nature,’ Rozendaal says. ‘I want to keep it that way.’

It’s the virtual equivalent of owning a sculpture in a public park, he says. There’s a point of pride of being the one who commissioned or paid for it. And the site still identifies the owner: The title of ifnoyes.com says it’s a ‘Collection of Benjamin Palmer & Elizabeth Valleau.’

It seems to be working for Rozendaal: Of the 85 websites he has designed — all of which were coded by an independent programmer — he has sold about a third. He says this one is the first website ever to be sold at an art auction.”

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