Re: [-empyre-] galleries & establishments

[Chris Campbell <chris@bitdepth.org>]

Hi everyone...

On Wednesday, July 3, 2002, at 09:56  PM, valerie wrote:
> 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?

I think that there is a public beyond those involved with it now... 
there has to be... one of the things that I find being located in a 
small town on the east coast of Canada (Wolfville, NS) is that my main 
exposure to net.art is via my DSL connection... so I don't have many 
chances to see the work presented in a gallery context. When I do get 
out I find the context and interaction provided by the artist or curator 
in person can completely change my interpretation of the work, so when I 
go back and look at it again at home it is something new and something 
more.

It's the same when I go to a film and video festival... the main purpose 
is to see the work, but the greater benefit is to meet the artists and 
be able to talk and debate and interact about what they did and what 
you're doing... none of this exists in a vacuum... we are the essential 
parts in this machine, the medium that art ultimately works within.

Isn't it the process in the development of any medium that you start out 
by doing it (ignoring the scorn of those in the other, lesser media), 
then start to edge your way into the gallery or wider audience, 
establish a canon, get upset at the canon and the status quo and tear it 
down and make it your own again... isn't that what happens all the 
time... isn't that healthy? It also goes both ways in terms of galleries 
and exhibitions. It should be beneficial for the gallery and for the 
artists... you can't help but be changed by the experience of presenting 
something within a different context.

> 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.

The discourse is especially important when a lot of people aren't sure 
what is going on within a medium. The frame helps define the work. 
Whether it is the space of a banner ad, 640x480 pixels, a wall or 24 
fps, the art happens when someone puts something into that space. It's 
the response that the artist makes to the world and having a "why" can 
help prevent a "huh?"

--
Chris Campbell
chris@bitdepth.org
http://www.bitdepth.org/