Re: [-empyre-] real net art

[Chris Campbell <chris@bitdepth.org>]

On Saturday, July 20, 2002, at 11:11  PM, Millie Niss wrote:

> I agree that talking about the technologies can seem brouing and 
> whatnot,
> but there is a big difference I think between people who work 
> primarlity (or
> even started in) flash and older ner arrtists.

But there are also people who were working in interactive, computer 
forms before HTML... coding by hand or using tools such as HyperCard... 
which made things easier than coding things by hand... I remember when I 
first saw QuickTime... it's just over 10 years ago, so depending on your 
perspective the development (and acceptance) of certain technologies can 
be seen as good or bad on the development of the work... it all depends 
when you start to dip your feet in the stream that you choose to swim 
in. Later I saw Macromind (later Macromedia) Director and then you could 
make a CD-ROM... that was it, the peak of achievement...finally an 
interactive platform that artists could use...(but they could also use 
HyperCard, SuperCard, Authorware, mTropolis, etc.) then along came the 
Web, and Flash, etc.

One of my favorite mottos was from the company OSC in their "Audio 
Anarchist Manifesto" that states "tools are not talent"...

It's not the tool or the medium that makes the work but the artist... 
for me the new tools often just delay me making the work... hmmm... if I 
learn how to do this I can make something really interesting, but you 
spend more time playing with fonts and colours than really working.

In the midst of my early infatuation with Director I stumbled into the 
world of MUDs and MOOs which create text-based worlds, originally for 
games, but the strange subculture that I found fascinated was linked 
with the academic, philosophical world. I used a 4.77 MHz computer 
running DOS linking into a university Unix computer. The Postmodern 
Culture MOO was amazing... I spent hours in discussion and debate with 
people and the participants also did rudimentary coding, so sometimes 
when you wandered from one room or discussion to another your gender 
would change or you could pick up a book or essay and read it. It showed 
me that sometimes text is incredibly powerful and compelling, but it was 
the quality of the interaction and words--the content--that was amazing 
and almost 10 years ago... the same experience could be recreated easily 
now with many tools... even with people using cell phones.

Right now it seems like Flash is where a lot of interesting stuff is 
happening, but who knows what tools we'll be using or which tools we'll 
invent or which media we'll warp to suit our ideas.

For me it's always been a struggle to balance my tendency to fetishize 
and obsess over the technology and tools with a deep desire to tell a 
story or share an experience... toys are fun, but art lasts longer.

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