Thanks Carol for posting this.
I have to say that I don't really understand the point of displaying
websites on computers in galleries. Yes I think there should be public
access machines for people to generally browse the web as well as to view
art sites but when you start putting computers in galleries to do it it
seems like a waste of the physical space. Artists have enough of a job
trying to get gallery space to show traditional physical works without
wasting that space to position a computer just like the one people could use
in libraries, cybercafes, their own homes in fact anywhere else to view
exactly the same content. There is altogether too little space available to
display physical artworks to waste it with computers. The web offers an
alternative way to display artwork outside of the gallery system, in many
ways its power is very similar to mail art's negation of the role of the
gallery in presenting art surely these people at the Whitney realise that.
Maybe they just want to make sure they don't get accused of ignoring new
media, who knows?
Also it seems to me that RTMark has done nothing with this other than be
controversial for its own sake. Why didn't they just exhibit a link to the
hunger site or something like that. To me it says a lot that only 20 pages
have been sent in to be displayed via RTMark...that's quite a lack of
interest! Maybe more people will send stuff but ultimately the whole thing
seems a fairly pointless exercise compared to the somewhat better things
that RTMark has done in the past.
cheers,
Sol.
