Re: [-empyre-] shared canvas annoyance, wikis, blogs.

["Damien Everett" <damien.everett@rmit.edu.au>]

Greetings :)

>back to shared canvases:

>As someone who's sat and watched shared canvas performances in a 
net.art cafe with projections on all the walls, I can say that this 
stuff can be incredibly boring to watch. Wallpaper. Perhaps it can 
also be fascinating. But I suspect the fascination is in the 
participation and that perhaps performance is not the right word. I 
think the collaboration between artists is wonderful but that the 
artists are speaking (expressing) to each other, not to the audience. 
Watching other people's MOO conversations without participating is, 
likewise, deathly dull.

Hmmm, well perhaps art is as good as the artists "channeling" it... this is like going to a jazz improv performance, its easy for "players" to be self indulgent and selfish, it requires greater skill not to let ones ego get in the way of "serving" good art. A lot of my friends do the V(ideo)J(ockey) thing and some of it is very very good, some of it very very pointless / boring...

Also unless one has been exposed to and developed some form of appreciation for the particular mode of expression it can seem very selfsimilar/boring... distinguishing the subtle expressive nuances can be difficult , especially if they dont really exist ;)

On the otherhand, when really great artists come together and collaborate the results can go far beyond the sum of the parts in a kind of sublime syncronistic chaos... well, at least in particular moments.

I do like to play an active part in shaping the "experience", although sometimes I want to surrender completely to it and let it take me where it will, kinda like the polarity of immersive games vs sitting back and watching a good movie.

warm regards,
damien