Re: [-empyre-] Re: trends in airport novels

[Brendan Howell <mute@netaxs.com>]

On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, Auriea Harvey wrote:

> some commercial 3d engine. i'd never rule out using vrml but Open 
> standards usually equates to inflexible, slow moving, 
> paaasssssssseeeeeeeé ........

Doch!  Passe?  Like TCP/IP, HTML, MIDI, XML, MP3, MPEG, JPEG, etc etc.
Yeah, I suppose some (like MIDI) are outdated and uncool but they are
still prevalent.  It took TCP/IP about 25 years to become trendy.  Show me
a proprietary standard that has lasted as long.  Even, show me a software
company that has lasted as longer than 15 years.  I can only think of
about 2 or 3.  

In any case, I don't think it's a problem of open versus proprietary. 
Either way you can get good quality stuff.  I think the issue is more one
of adoption.  Until a technology reaches a critical mass, it's scope is
limited.  You can use proprietary tech in proprietary situations like
galleries but in the public space (like the net) it usually makes more
sense to use public standards of communication.  Of course sometimes
proprietary tools become widely adopted (like flash) and open standards
die quietly in obscurity and standards food fights.  Anyone update their
gopher site lately?

Which brings me to another point, or more of a question.  People seem to
be lamenting the problems of presentation with net art.  Some seem
frustrated by the lack of control over the browser and screen and all the
details that can change the final rendering of a work.  It begs the
question:  Is the lack of control over presentation a bug or a feature?  I
can only think of one artist who exploits the idiosyncracies and
differences between browsers/screens/plugins and that's jodi.  Is this
part of the essence of 'the digital sublime' or just a fact of life in the
digital world?  Are there other people working with this theme?

Also, I don't mean to limit this to just a discussion of web standards.
There are some similar problems with say video standards.  But sometimes
transferring video from from one mode to another can change the look or
add strange glitch effects.  Sometimes a headache but sometimes
pleasing...

-Brendan