Re: Re: <eyebeam><blast> the Net as medium/Other

[Saul Anton <Soainnyc@aol.com>]

There needs to be more discussion of this, but I think that to say that
the net is just another medium, like painting, sculpture, language,
movement, etc. is not something that should be either taken for granted
or made without careful consideration.  The tendency is to do violence
to art and the arts in order to make them compatible with the
informational/binary/logical/communicational structure of the net.  Yet,
is art communication?  No.    So one has to tread lightly here.

The net is a means for communication and fast distribution of
information. Can one say that the postal system is a new medium for
making art?   The net, we can't forget, is essentially about sending and
receiving information and data, coded in one way or another.  Art, or
the arts, on the other hand, are not essentially informational, but
phenomenal (and even then, there should be a discussion of whether or
not that is true).  To say that the net is art is to lump together two
very heterogenous things.

This doesn't mean that net "artists" can't use it to make statements, do
projects, create websites, etc.  But I think that navigating between the
terms needs to be thought through carefully.  I don't see what is gained
by claiming that the net and making art is the same.  It is also not
true that writing and painting are the same, and yet, there is an art of
writing.  This art is not the same as the art of painting.  One can fall
into some deep and funky holes in fabric of the language that is used
and abused to speak about a variety of arts and practices--deep and
funky theoretical holes about what art is.

The subject deserves as much care as one would place in making a work of
art or anything else of value.

Saul Anton





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