art on the internet

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Tue, 17 Oct 1995 01:06:28 -0400 (EDT)

Sensing a possible lassitude at large, I forward for the general amusement
a morsel from September Artforum by David Colman. The question was,
"will artists & institutions of the Internet be playing to an audience
whose highest word of praise is 'cool'?"

Excerpts from answers:
Michael Govan, Director, DIA Center for the Arts:
The Alternative Biennial, the Internet's answer to the Whitney Biennial,
was the most reactionary art you've ever seen -- surrealist,
Renaissance-looking.... [a] bizarre utopian Arcadia.

David Ross, Director Whitney Museum:
..it's very encouraging that the Internet is such an accurate reflection
of the world, in that it's mostly dreck....

Michael Heizer, artist:
I'd be surprised to see major art emerge through the use of a computer
...computers are great for getting paperwork done.

R.U. Sirius, co-founder Mondo 2000, Author Cyberpunk Handbook:
The problem is waiting three minutes to download a picture that has less
quality than what's in your magazine shop.

Keith Seward, producer of CD-Rom magazine BLAM!:
My partner Eric Swenson & I were kicked off the on-line network Echo
because of the esthetic we were propagating on our site, Necro Enema
Amalgamated. They actually put us on trial. After we got kicked off, we
went to a meeting of Echo users in a bar, and it was the most depressing,
pathetic group of people....

Timothy Blum, Art Dealer, Santa Monica:
...the Internet is almost the ideal social sculpture. It's so
egalitarian -- anybody can use it.

Anybody who has a computer and modem, we might add....

Judy