Re: [-empyre-] Introducing Rhizome ArtBase and Kevin McGarry

[Scott Paterson <aisgp@earthlink.net>]

Hi all,
I'd be curious to hear from Kevin how he considers the artbase as an "archive". I've followed the artbase and the debate around it since its inception and it seems to have grown into an unwieldy database of links rather than an archive because very few artists opt for rhizome's cloning feature and choose instead to add their projects as linked objects.  It is my understanding that the cloning option is rarely chosen because Rhizome hadn't made strides towards an agenda for archiving works(the issues around this previously described here quite well by someone at InterPARES) and at one point looked like they might close shop altogether. So before we talk about accessibility I think it's important to find out what one would actually be accessing.
Best,
[sgp]


-----Original Message-----
From: Melinda Rackham <melinda@subtle.net>
Sent: Feb 14, 2005 8:15 PM
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: [-empyre-] Introducing Rhizome ArtBase and Kevin McGarry

Rhizome ArtBase http://www.rhizome.org/art/ has been
mentioned several times during this discussion as a model
for net.art collection. Possibly the largest single archive
of net.art today, containing over 1400 net.art works,  it
has been built up over many years. To discuss the archive,
its content guidelines, and its emulation and migration
strategies,  we are pleased to introduce Kevin McGarry, the
ArtBases Content Coordinator.

Issues frequently mentioned along with this collection,
include one of public accessibility, ie that it is only
accessible online to Rhizome members, except on Fridays when
entrance to Rhizome is freely available. The perception that
the online world is a gift economy and content is a public
service persists despite the dot com crash [pornography and
massively multiplayer gaming being the obvious exceptions].
Combining the lack of financial return for the work with the
slowness with which private collectors and museums have
acquired  net.art  raises larger issues of who pays for
archiving net.art works when they are still privately owned
by the artists who produced them?   What is the public good?

Welcome to the discussion Kevin.


_____________longer bio

Kevin McGarry is a writer and artist working in New York,
where he has acted
as Content Coordinator of Rhizome.org since 2004. At
Rhizome, he oversees
the ArtBase, an online archive of more than 1400 new media
artworks. Kevin
has recently organized two online exhibitions curated by
Mendi and Keith
Obadike and Jillian Mcdonald, for Rhizome.org. Mondo Mondo
Trading Post is a
joint effort, nomadic sharing project realized with partner
Matt Savitsky
and has recently been commissioned for installation at The
Cooper Union and
NYU. Kevin graduated NYU's Film and Television school before
joining
Rhizome.



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