File spoon-archives/avant-garde.archive/avant-garde_2000/avant-garde.0004, message 71


Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 23:35:24 -0600
Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: T NOT P 


Victor Grauer writes:

>I'm a programmer, so I
> know very well the value of constraints and rules.  What bothers me is
> that hordes of very creative but also very naive people are jumping on
> a bandwagon supposedly taking them to that all important "next step"
> but which is in fact, IMO, taking them backward.  And this backward
> step is being hailed as something innovative and progressive by a
> group of people who have absolutely no idea what it means to truly
> innovate.  (I do.) Following the lead of the makers of software like
> Director, VRML, etc., or languages such as Dynamic HTML, Java,
> JavaScript, VBScript, etc., etc., etc. ad nauseum, is NOT being
> innovative.  It is being led around by the nose.  As McLuhan very
> astutely observed, the content of every new medium is the media of the
> past and such software is very specifically designed to accomplish
> just that.

You seem to be arguing here that to be an innovative artist, you have to
make your own paints rather than buy them in a shop. Now I have some
sympathy for this - William Blake was a relentlessly radical - and
sometimes successful - innovator. But we must all use the existing
material things of our culture as the source for the creation of new
things. It depends entirely on whether you want to be a builder or a
decorator....

> Meanwhile those of us (am I the ONLY one?) really pushing the medium
> in the only way it CAN be pushed, by actually programming the
> *computer* (rather than pushing some buttons on a digital "paint by
> numbers kit") to produce something truly new are finding it all but
> impossible to find a place for their work.  I create art by
> programming computers.  I have no interest in "WEB art" because I have
> no patience with the limitations and slowness of the available
> software "venues."  I have no interest in superficial "interactivity."  
> So what I do has no name and no place.  And since I have been doing
> this for a LONG time, with very little outlet for my work anywhere, I
> am getting VERY tired of holding my peace on this topic.

The problem with innovation is that you are necessarily on the periphery.
Hence, you cannot hope to corner a market. That simply goes with the lack
of territory. In the meantime, let those who want to live in the twee
downtowns and suburbs be. They are necessarily followers, rather than
leaders - so they constitute a large majority of like-minded consumers. If
you want to be recognized now for what you do, do like them and fiddle
with existing structures and content. If you want to innovate, then do so,
stop worrying about being accepted and become a curmudgeon, like Brad
Brace. It's the only way to cope.

Brian Leigh Molyneaux

   

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