RE: [-empyre-] real net art

["Millie Niss" <men2@columbia.edu>]

So is there any hope for new people im the field?  I started making wab art
(not net art I think) a year and a half ago.  Whne I started, Flash was
already big so I used it in a lot of projects and indeed made many
non-interactive animations, some of which were vehicles for presenting
poetry and others not.  I also used Flash in more original ways.  But I did
HTML-based hypertext as well and don't think Flash is good for everything
(though now it _can_ be used to program just about anything, particularly
the MX version).  It's just one more tool.

What I haven't done is anything that is truly interactive in the sense that
it is modified each time someone uses it.  I am just leartning server--side
programming, though, and I expect to use it to make web art that does just
that.  But all the projects I am in the middle of now do not really need the
network except that they need a browser to be displayed, and of course I am
distributing them via web.

I have found the part of the web art community that I've met (on webartery)
to be quite welcoming and collegiate.  There does seem to be some
competetiveness though, with some people actively pushing their sites and
their every new work and it gets them ahead like into conference juries and
paid exhibitions, and all they've done is talk about their work more than
other people.  (I'm thinking of some beginniners who have been very
successful, not of the "professonal" type web artists on webartery.)

I would appreciate comments on my site, www.sporkworld.org  There is one
broken link I know of, on the Spork page pointing to Audio Drama.  That
hasn't been done yet.  The rest should be complete.

Millie

-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-admin@imap.cofa.unsw.edu.au
[mailto:empyre-admin@imap.cofa.unsw.edu.au]On Behalf Of voyd
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 11:51 PM
To: empyre@imap.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] real net art


Hello, all.

I'm breaking my vacation as this is a topic that is
very close to my heart, and has almost caused me to
think about writing a manifesto that is distantly
related to this regarding determinism and tech art.

However, this topic disturbs me a little that there
seems to be some feeling that somehow with the
nascent acceptance of net art and tech art forms for
that matter, that somehow the apex of the genrea has
past.  In a way it reminds me of my Alpha
Revisionist Manifesto in that technological ideas
that come to fruition are often bankrupt of the
initial excitement that were imbued within them at
the time of their inception.  By the time they are
implemented, we're so bored with them, it's sime to
go.

However, this is not really my argument.  IT seems
to me that with the attention upon our genres, and
the resultant infusion (however small) of money into
them has drastically changed the landscape.  It
seems that a number of us have now begun the journey
into the museum and gallery circuit, and that the
added attention has spawned a new crop (at times
quite large) hoping to capitalize on the art dot.com
rush.

Even though all this is extremely important, I see
all fo this as a form of noise resulting from the
expected shifts in genres and concepts that is
inherent in contemporary art of what I could
consider the modern era.

In some ways, this nostalgia for net art of the 90's
almost smacks of pining for Picasso's Blue Period,
or even the first three of Blondie's records, before
they were ultimately ruined by their success.

In short, yes - there seem sto be an odd shift in
our larger community - I'm just starting to make
some sense of it.  I think a lot of it is due to
attention, the increased competitiveness of artists
as the stakes go up, the inscription of fashion upon
artists by institutions, etc. etc. etc.   Although
in certain ares such as academia, I feel that a lot
of the bucolic era of the net art community is
waning for the time being.

There are now stakes to be had.

But I for one believe that the most dangerous person
is the one who feels they have nothing to lose.
These are the people to look out for.

However, I reiterate that I agree that we are
shifting, and there is a current being established.
One can go woth the flow if they feel they will have
something to gain, but I still bvelieve in
maintaining a critical perspective on all this.





---- empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au wrote:
> > I do wonder where all the real net art has gone
to?
> > it isn't interactive any any more and i tend tho
think that that is not
> > productive or healthy. why dont artists want to
have dialogue - is it about
> > control, are they scared of being questioned.
will/has internet art as we
> > knew it becomes a blip on the electronic radar
like umatic video -quickly
> > forgotten by everyone.
> > and the internet itself becomes merely a
delivery medium  for commercial
> > content -with limited interactivity. just like a
million channels of bad
> > cable.. nasty to contemplate.
>
> I feel nostalgic, at times, about "real net art"
but I can't help to be
> intrigued by what's coming up next and fascinated
with new explorations
> as well. As we go on with the evolution of the
medium it is important to
> acknowledge the tremendous and inspiring works
created by the
> "pioneers".
>
> In fact, many early web projects were narrative
(Waxweb, to name a
> famous one) and I think that the new film-like
works continue this
> tradition while using recent web technologies and
taking advantage of
> more powerful computers and high bandwidth.
>
> The web has been one more area responding to our
natural appetite for
> stories. Its intimate nature, its technical
possibilities and
> limitations, its accessibility gave birth to very
interesting works that
> would have not been thinkable for cinema (almost
always dictated by
> commercial purpose). Even if these narrative
projects do not encourage
> the global network, the one-to-one relationship is
still a valuable
> option.
>
>
> Sylvie
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyrean/empyre
>
>
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