<eyebeam><blast> Re: <eyebeam> <blast> Art and Media

["Attila Sohar" <supnurse@hotmail.com>]

Robert Atkins wrote:

> But I suggest that you are thinking far too literally about what it
> means to save a life. (Altho a  Rodin could certainly flatten a 
> rapist.) Figuratively speaking, art (and film and books) saved my 
> life as a kid.

Robert, I was really concentrating on the interactive potential of art
through the net since it is the matrix that is supposed to take art into
another dimension to a new audience(at least it tries),and to that
extent I want to hear if the notion of interactivity can bring art to
save or prevent within our daily lives tragedies that could be avoided
with interaction from others in the real world.

I wasn't thinking in a long therapeutic way,which I did mention that art
does sooth,relieve,entertain,etc...with effectiveness no question, I
think and in long terms art saved,changed many lives in our history;but
since this medium praises itself in the quick accessibility of
information,could it achieve an effective interraction in preventing and
saving in lesser time than a traditonal art display with the individual.
Could it deliver art to our cognition in a way that is as effective as
contemplating a painting , which affect on the soul reaches you after
having scrutinized the work many,many,many times,in different moods
under different lights?Same for a book,film,....but infiltrate us in
lesser time.?

If I was thinking out loud literally,is because this might need a level
of debate that takes into consideration the now intricate aspects of
cyberspace and decompose them in simple terms to be effective in
interractivity.

Michael Rees wrote:

>Last summer I gave a lecture about my work to some high school 
>students.
>The energy of these hormonally challenged teens in the room was
>extraordinary. It was daunting--how would I get some of these ideas
>across to people who wanted to have sex, who wanted to do the 
>opposite of whatever authority told them.

>As the various means of dissemination become more available to us all
>rarefied definition of our disciplines becomes looser, freer. We can 
>be bigger than artists, writers, cultural workers. We can develop 
>along complex lines, more fully. We can realize ourselves in a larger 
>way.

There is nothing more effective in interractive communication than being
there and sharing experience;schools and universities are still the best
forum to share and learn,however since our social and professional
morays makes us spend more time with our computer, most of the time in
the sealed environment of our living spaces,the nature of interactivity
with the individual will need to go beyond the simple computer screen
and integrate the space with art that can save."Cultural workers"would
be a good synonym for artists in the future to come.

Robert Atkins wrote:

>I do however question whether art by itself can alter perceptions.

>Tell that to the Catholic Church during the Renaissance. Altho "by
>itself" may be another matter. As an artist hasn't art altered any of
>your perceptions? (As the most complex form of knowledge, it certainly 
>helped male me the person I am.)

The question I am trying to ask,which Robert found too literal,can art
through the matrix of the net provide an interactive deciphering of "The
most complex form of knowledge"which is at the base of all art forms?In
real time through a new visual language?

>It's remarkable that artists' works--rather than schmaltzy Elton John
>songs and made-for-TV movies--became the iconic symbols and images of
>this epidemic.

As I asked, can art save effectively through the web?We could also ask
can it deliver representational, iconic symbols of persons afflicted by
a tragic epidemic, like aids,that would forgo any"schmaltzy"watered down
images and impersonations through mainstream media,and give us  the real
dillema?A truest perception that only the person afflicted by the
tragedy could convey and the net help translate those invisible aspects
and give it a new imagologic coherence for the net users to experience
through their intimate space.Where intimate means false day,false
perception within your personal cocoon!

>Well, why blame earlier victims? We queers felt like we were dying from 
>invisibilty too (silence=death).

Convenient invisibility provided by our habitable spaces is one major
reason I could see the interactive cyberspace to be more than just
aprogramable art display forum. The invisibilty is what allows that
person to rape a woman at his/her  home. The invisibility is what allows
that mother to drown her newborn infant. An art that saves  through the
net but which can also provide a new  description of"The most complex
form of knowledge" is a necessary field to explore  where the net could
take art to a revolutionary form.

Attila Sohar.




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