Re: [-empyre-] galleries & establishments

[valerie <valerie@mobilegaze.com>]

Dear Brandon -

Thanks for you comments. I agree - that many fields (art, music,
cinema etc) are having to adapt - both conceptually and physically -
in their presentation tactics. In curating online works - I have
observed that artist (all types - and I am an artist as well, so I
speak for myself in a way) are more committed to investing time and
energy in exhibition taking place in "real" space. It would seem that
the Web is being utilized for communication in the broader sense
(conversation, information, the weather) more than art.

Concerning you site "bannerart.org" I like very much you subversive
use of the medium of the Web (the quintessential space for
advertising, promotion etc.) as the very same media for art
(banners). However, not to forget, one can almost always "steal" the
html code fro any online project. As I understand, this is how some
of the best designers / artists have taught themselves.

And I can understand your surprise (not unfounded, of course) in
having a site like "bannerart.org" be included as art "art piece". I
think that this is where some of the very interesting interplay
between "art" and "dissemination" occurs. Web has the unique capacity
of being at once the medium of art making and the very same medium of
dissemination.

However - I still ask myself questions about publics - I mean - is
there a public for Web art that goes beyond the community involved in
it already?

And to get back to the issue around text / writing / artists
speaking. I think that there is always room for well thought out
discourse. I do as both an artist and a curator.

Best - Valerie


> Valerie wrote:
>
> > My second question (which has been postulated in recent museum
> > exhibitions at Whitney & SFMoma - and locally in Montreal with
> > events such as the Web section of the Biennale de Montréal) is how
> > to make a transition of presentation to a wider public through
> > museum contexts etc. without sabotaging the wonderful fluidity of
> > production and presentation on the Web? I know that some people
> > have reacted strongly against "museum" exhibitions - however, I
> > also feel that Web artists wish to be a part of the establishment.
> > The reason I ask this question in part is because I am curating an
> > upcoming Web art exhibition at the Musée du Québec (Canada) and
> > these concerns have been raised both outside and inside the
> > institution.
>
> This is a difficult question, and mirrors the concerns that every
> field is facing in adapting old metaphors to a new medium.  Why
> should a website be a gallery or an issue or even a page, other than
> for navigational comfort?  Does relying on the metaphor of place
> automatically suggest a less public presentation--inward looking
> instead of "out there" where people are?
>
> I don't know.
>
> I'm interested in these questions lately as well, since I have been
> developing an online project that play with/against the
> institutional display of net.art.  It may serve well as an example
> in this discussion, so at the risk of looking like a self-promoter,
> I'll talk about it here.  The  Banner Art Collective
> (http://bannerart.org) collects, creates, and distributes net.art
> within the context of web advertising.  To that end, the site has a
> sort of gallery that displays collected work, but also give viewers
> HTML code that they can use in their own pages that will host a work
> on their own site.  The site, then, is a sort of clearing-house, but
> the works are intended to be viewed OUTSIDE the site, in the margins
> of others' sites.  Intriguingly, now the site itself is being
> presented within art festivals, and a gallery in Germany wants to
> incorporate it into a upcoming show.  So the site is moving away
> from the gallery and moving toward it at the same time.
>
> I look forward to this discussion; it looks interesting!
>
> Best,
> Brandon Barr
>
>
>
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