CLAUDIA FIGUEIREDO stirs from under the covers to explore new art on the internet

Towards the end of a long winter an appreciator of the arts may need time to come out of cultural hibernation, to stir slowly and tentatively to see what’s about. There is no need to layer on the thermals and venture out into the chill just yet.

To start the creative warm-up, set aside an evening and become your own programmer. With access to the internet choose from video shorts, feature-length films and documentaries scheduled around a live art event.

Become inspired by the wealth of creative talent that chooses to embrace the web as a stage to reach a larger audience.

The internet, with its mass of material, may seem daunting at first. To avoid copyright-infringed material head to The Space, an arts platform showcasing the haul of theatre, film and literature. Featuring projects commissioned for the Cultural Olympiad, The Space is live until the end of March 2013.

Highlights include Macropolis and Nora, A Dolls House Revisited. Nora is a short film, a haunting modern day imagining of Ibsen’s seminal masterpiece.

In brighter contrast, Macropolis is a charming animated family-friendly film shot in Belfast and tells the story of two reject toys who escape from the factory and make their own determined way to a shop.

Ingenious in its execution and level of detail, the film makers ably follow in Aardman Studios’ wake. See thespace.org For a documentary, travel the world with your mouse to explore Parallel Cities, an international visual arts project recorded brilliantly with videos and text; follow original audience members as eight artists make interventions in ubiquitous urban spaces located over various European cities.

See ciudadesparalelas.com Despite the popularity of video as a medium for exhibitions, most galleries and museums avoid sharing entire bodies of work with the desktop viewer, opting instead for previews of artists’ future and past exhibitions.

Dia Art Foundation in the US however has a long running series of web projects. 24 hour Venus by Cecilia Edefalk is a slow paced, mesmerising film, a study of light and time over the Swedish summer solstice.

See diaart.org/artist_web_ projects Finding short films on Vimeo and You Tube is a perfect way to round off an evening. Use as you would a juke box to explore the avant–garde. Type in key words to discover gems such as Muto, an incredible painstakingly made animation by Argentinian graffiti wall painting collaborative Blu.

See http://vimeo.com/993998 London-based performance artist Susannah Hewlett’s hilarious grotesque comedy advertisements for faux shopping channel VSS are at ttp://vimeo.com/susannahhewlett.

Inspired by this wealth of talent and creativity it might just be time to venture out into the creative world, where the call of being part of an audience out of the comfort of home becomes too great to resist.

Luckily Oxford will not disappoint. This month British Composer of the Year for Sonic Art 2012, Ray Lee, will be performing his work Chorus at Oxford Brookes.

Part of Audiograft Sonic Arts Festival 2013, Chorus is a monumental installation of kinetic sound sculptures that transfixes any audience.

See audiograft.com Over at the Radcliffe Observatory, Turner Prize-winning artist Simon Starling will debut Black Drop, specially commissioned by Modern Art Oxford in association with the University of Oxford. The film has been made in response to the rare planetary phenomenon of the transit of Venus and its relationship to the beginnings of moving image technology.

Booking is essential at modernartoxford.org.uk