[-empyre-] Net-centred alternatives to exhibitions

[Jill Walker <jill.walker@uib.no>]

> A few comments in relation to this interesting, perennial discussion 
> about viewing net art at home or in a gallery.
<snip>
> First, your notion of the audience. As Reiner suggests, "a net art 
> show at a museum is a good opportunity for a first introduction of 
> this art [stuff] to a completely new audience." When I recently 
> curated a program of CD-ROMs for regional galleries, among the many 
> moving entries in the comments books was one from an 83 year old man 
> who said it was his first time using a computer! ie. it's worth 
> remembering that audiences to art spaces are more diverse and plural 
> than is sometimes supposed.

Are they? My impression, from visiting my local museums in tiny 
Bergen, Norway, anyway, is that the audience is mostly the 
bourgeousie, dainty grey-haired ladies with expensive bags who want 
to be known as caring about art. Of course, these are certainly one 
group of people who wouldn't see net art on their home computers, so 
showing this stuff in a museum does widen the audience somewhat.

More importantly, I imagine, having a piece in an exhibition is a 
publically recognised mark of approval. I can post as much stuff on 
my blog as I like without doing my CV much good - it's unlikely to 
help me get grants, promotions, whatever. Publications in recognised 
journals are unequivocal "research points" that fit into a system 
that gives me more money and more interesting jobs and project the 
more I can collect. Surely it's the same for artists - only you need 
to exhibit in recognised museums and shows rather than publish in ?

Could there be another model? I know, instead of notching off 
exhibitions or publications, we should just tell our prospective 
funders what our PageRank is with Google 
(http://google.com/technology/index.html). PageRank 1 or 2, you'll be 
lucky to get any funding at all. 5 or 6, decent chances, middle-rung 
position, 8 or 9, you're a professor or guaranteed top funding.

And you know, with higher PageRank and more visibility in the search 
engines (and of course more links pointing to you), you'd reach a 
larger audience as well. Cheaper than exhibitions, too. And saves you 
travelling, which'd do the environment some good.

How about it?

Jill
--

Jill Walker / Dept of Humanistic Informatics / University of Bergen / 
5020 Bergen / Norway
http://cmc.uib.no/jill
jill.walker@uib.no