Re: [-empyre-] video killed the radio star

[Michael Arnold Mages <magesm@mesanetworks.net>]

on 6/14/05 7:17 AM, Melinda Rackham at melinda@subtle.net wrote:

> denser fatter boarder forms are freely available,  yet people continue to
> prefer the less sensory immersive option. txt messages are more popular  than
> voice calls. there's more to it than financial considerations..
> its some how about  intense concentration -  of the essence of the concept
> being communicated through strict, tight,  parameters. there is something very
> clever in that..

To me, it seems that new forms of content distribution continually force
change among the old... Like when televisions took the genre of the serial
drama away from the radio.  Radio still existed, but it was forced to find a
new format.  Now the internet, blogging in particular, is supplanting
"traditional media" as a medium for news dissemination.  It is funny to
watch the newspeople speak about weblogging -- it seems that they have to
put quotation marks around the word every time it comes up on the broadcast.

I am interested to know how you all see weblogging as changing practice for
production, distribution and viewing of work in the context of net.art.

The discipline of daily, serial production done by webloggers seems to be
nothing new -- Jack Kerouac, for one, is said to have been devoted to the
idea of writing every day.  The difference is that Kerouac didn't/couldn't
publish every day.

I was wondering, do the guests see the weblog as the end-state for their
work?  Is the blog more of a sketchbook or a performance to you? Obviously,
this question may set up a false dichotomy...  Is it at all like a comedian
who works over an act, night after night on the road, to improve it for
another venue?

One of the most interesting things I see with weblogging, is how content can
be syndicated through the RSS feed.  It seems to be somewhere between
receiving content by email and viewing content through webpages. Do you see
the RSS feed as an extension of your work, or is it more like a promotion,
driving traffic to the weblog/gallery?  Is redisplaying your blog in an RSS
reader, where you have less control of the context, viewing it in a way that
you find appropriate?

Just a few questions that have been banging around in my head since the
start of the month.

Best,
Michael


-- 
Michael Arnold Mages
mailto:marnoldm@du.edu

Digital Media Studies
University of Denver, USA
--