Tracing Digital Footsteps: A New Zealand Musician in the Internet Age.

Abstract

Since becoming widely accessible in the 1990s, the Internet has had a profound impact on creative fields such as music. The experiences of New Zealand musician Luke Rowell (a.k.a. Disasteradio, Eyeliner) provide an illuminating case study of these changes. First dialling-up in 1998, his online activity and creative development are intertwined in a career spanning several epochs of Internet history. This article explores these connections and the task of tracing an artist's digital footsteps using web archives and other sources. It focuses on three periods: Rowell's involvement with the European demoscene (1999-2002); becoming part of the online vaporwave movement (2011-2013), and contemporary online music distribution (2023).