[-empyre-] geography...

[Sylvie Parent <sylvie_parent@sympatico.ca>]

Thanks Lachlan for your message.
You really put this question of geography into perspective.
(I don?t agree with you about Sean Cubitt though)

In the first years of web art, when the group of people involved was
smaller (less artists, works, critics, museums, etc) there was a
stronger sense of community, and of being able to  go beyond
geographical boundaries. You mention the connections between East-West
European artists (Syndicate, Deep Europe, east-west new media festivals,
etc). This phenomenon supported the belief in a global network less
determined by geography. (but it was just one specific phenomenon) It
seems that the art projects themselves reinforced these dialogues and
this ideal. Many early works, in the tradition of communication arts,
were based on the possibilities to connect people together. Recent art
projects, many of them at least, are less based on the web as a tool for
communication than as a means of dissemination of narrative film-like
works (Generation Flash).  They don?t necessarily encourage two-way (or
multiple) connections but rather, like the film, a type of
creator/viewer relationship that leads to  ?isolation?, which is not
something bad in itself, just different, and somewhat opposed to the
global network ideal.

Sylvie