Re: [-empyre-] point of reference

[Chris Ashley <chrisashley@yahoo.com>]

--- Komninos Zervos <k.zervos@griffith.edu.au> wrote:
> it would seem like to fully understand you have to
> engage with the 
> technology, understand its limitations and
> potential, and then use it in 
> an artistic practice, which the four of you do quite
> differently.

Yes, one must understand a mediums limitations and
push up against it.  All of us do that and probably
have interesting things to say about how we do what we
do.  In my case, HTML tables are pretty simple and
dumb.  I value these limitations because while they
close down a lot for me they also make boundaries
quite clear, and so I know what I'm working against.

> would i be right in assuming that as well as
> maintaining your own blogs, 
> and blogart poetics, you work with aggregators and
> actually keep your 
> fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the
> blogosphere.
> so do you have to have a knowledge of xml, php and
> rss?

You would be right in assuming that in my previous
work in educational technology I have kept up with all
of that, but in the art work I do I'm not worry about
xml, php, or rss.  In fact, my rss feed seems partly
broken- the HTML is put out.  I've never bothered to
fix it.  I really don't care.  I'm interested in the
drawings.  When my weblog was getting spammed I turned
off comments and never missed them.

> apart from your obvious tablecodingart skills, which
> you have developed 
> and seem to be endlessly satisfied with this
> development, what technical 
> skills does a person need to get involved in the
> blog art world?

Do I come across as "endlessly satisfied?"  What does
that mean- smug, arrogant, narrow minded?  Is that the
impression you're getting from me?  Or do you mean
something else and I'm getting the wrong impression.

You have two weblog URLs in your signature, so the
second part of your question surprises me:

> http://users.bigpond.net.au/mangolegs
> http://spokenword.blog-city.com

I'm sure you know that the skill level is pretty low
for weblogs.  Being able to type helps.  Being able to
point and click.  Understanding URLs.  You can go a
long way on very little, especially when you have
something to say and aren't relying on lots of skills
and technology to cover the fact that you may not have
something to say.

> check out some html art my first year students do as
> an introductory 
> exercise to learning html coding.
http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/Programs/Cyber/1802art/1802htmlart/index.html

I did check out some of theis work.  What age group is
this?  It's great they learn skills; when do they
learn to think about content?

Chris