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

[Chris Ashley <chrisashley@yahoo.com>]

--- Michael Arnold Mages <magesm@mesanetworks.net>
wrote:

> 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.

I'll be interested to see if anyone besides me answers
this.

I don't make net.art.  However, for my work, no matter
how crappy, mediocre, lukewarm, or wonderful you think
it is, yes, I have complete control over the work's
production and distribution up to its presence on my
weblog.  After that, I can't control how Google,
archive.org, another friendly weblogger, or a hostile
jerk uses it.  But what is important for my overall
art practice is that I'm regular, consistent, and
constantly producing work.

> 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.

Certainly.  Any writer who actually writes can
describe their habits to you.  Artist's need to do the
same.  Parents managing busy schedules need
discipline.

But here's what's different- doing it publicly.  And
not everyone is an "author."  Weblogs don't write
themselves.  The web is littered with thousands and
thousands of weblogs abandonded by people who started
them with good intentions and realized they didn't
have what it takes to do something on a regular basis.

Many non-writers, non-artists, non-authors have
discovered through a regular weblogging practice that
they are actually authors of some type, with
authority, skill, and passion.

In my teaching days working with 9-12 year olds that
was a big part of my teaching program- getting kids to
find a place(s) in some subject(s) where they become
authors and not merely consumers.

I think that a powerful aspect of weblogging is the
place of the weblogger as an author and not merely a
consumer.

> 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?

I honestly don't know the answer to the question.  I
go back and forth.  I've said pretty strongly several
times that the weblog was the end-state, but I always
have in the back of my mind trying to extend what I'm
doing to other areas, and I'd prefer not to get into
that now for a variety of reasons.  Lots of stuff
churning like that- unresolved right now.

> 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?

I'm not the best person to speak about this.  Right
now I just don't care about RSS.  I know how it works,
I know what it does, I know the benefits.  I don't
worry about it much.  When I do think about it I think
about it in terms of promotion, but I'm doing OK
without it.

Chris