Replies: 5 Comments
on Wednesday, October 27th, wking@ccad.edu">walter king said
John,
Yes I understand that it is about inter-cultural communication. I participate in that inter-cultural level quite regularly both through the net and by traveling to various parts of the world. I actually found Ingrid Kamerbeek's point by point supporting statement more clear in its intent to define webism's mission. Thanks Ingrid.
But the first paragraph of Pigoya's blog and quite a bit of the second paragraph IS dedicated to aesthetics hinting that having a scientific underpinning makes this new medium more important by breaking new ground in the arts. When it is, at least so far, primarily the rapid mass communication aspect alone that is breaking new ground. Maybe he just needed a little momentum to get to the point-- no?
Art has been crossing cultural divisions for quite some time before the net. The reality is that the only new thing here is the internet's ability to connect us at such a rapid and demographically large spread across cultural divisions and the idea of capitalising on this by organizing ourselves in relation to that challenge. Pigoya's statement about this ability to communicate is so important that I wouldn't want it to get mixed up with and lost in aesthetic issues that may or may not be relevent (not that I have anything against aesthetic issues in general. It just isn't what he really seems to want to talk about.)
In the long run do you think the internet will simply become the new version of McDonald's by spreading and imposing a western mindset thereby watering down cultures that are not as aggressive due to the need for people of those cultures to make money at their art? I think I've already begun to see this effect taking place first with radio, then television an now the internet. How much of the wave washes back to the west? Of course there is the argument that maybe the western culture is stronger and should simply become the model for other cultures that don't seem to do as well in a material sense. Maybe this is a subject that will intrigue your group as things begin to connect and grow.
I have a friend who so dislikes 'meat space' as he calls it that he simply can't wait for a time when we can download our consiousness into cyberspace. Or would that be an upload? I suppose it would depend on values placed between man and machine.
on Tuesday, October 26th, John Powell said
Webism doesn't look at art in the traditional context.There is a new approach now ,where it explore expressions,from cultures,meaning,it looks deeper/broader not just at esthetics but more so at visual culture.
Artist,
John Powell
on Saturday, October 23rd, walter king said
The computer is here to stay! At least until we are incapable of producing the energy to feed the little devils. But I endorse that statement by making sure all my students are quite capable of working most the current art programs like photoshop, illustrator, quark and in-design, various animation programs--what ever is current in the field.
I do have one problem with an over reaching statement made at the beginning of the blog Pygoya. I hope you'll forgive me for mentioning that while yes the computer is a technological tool, it is certainly not the first time that art and science were combined. The very act of drawing or design requires geometry at a fairly high level. Color on the other hand is an outcome of physics. Color = light. That is the first premise of painting in the more so-called primative tradition. In fact without the impressionists and the post impressionists and their ideas about broken color there would have been no four color or process printing which is the precursor for color TV and hence the computer monitor as it developed from there. And while LCD screens and other technology has since advanced the field it still depends to some extent on fairly old theories of color that go back 500 years or more.
In fact I would argue that unless the artist writes her own code she is merely using the science of others rather than understanding how art and science truly work together, how the two truly interface. Whether or not science and art are influencing each other in any deeply philosophical way may yet remain to be seen.
But don't let me bring you down. Maybe one of your group will figure it out one day soon.
on Saturday, October 23rd, Jonathan White said
I'm one of the Webist Artists. My background is as a Photographer. My webist art consists of using photoshop to interpret my photographs, altering them with filters, combining them with other images, etc.
on Saturday, October 23rd, Ingrid Kamerbeek - Webist said
THANK YOU, PYGOYA, FOR THIS GREAT THOUGHTS!
It's wonderful to share the Webism ideas with Webists around the globe:
WEBISM - a global art movement
Pygoya, October 2003
1. Creates art using any medium to share primarily online and thereby contribute to and expand Cyberculture
2. Contribute digital art, as a product of the same technology that makes the Internet a reality, as the main source for global cyberculture
3. Network artists together with the mission of building Web visual arts culture
4. Promote a sense of the peace through friendship without barriers and expand global consciousness
5. Identify this new specialized form and application of digital art/graphics (monitor size presentation, what- you-see on screen is the 'original' work of art, web page/site environment for the imagery, inclusion even of mixed media elements through high tech tools)
6. Demonstrate the existence of identifiable personal styles among the developed digital artists.
7. Recognize those artists that deserve the world's recognition for excellence within their chosen medium, even if not yet so by the traditional art establishment/market and their critics.
8. Declare the ephemeral digital online image as the original work of art and any print or painting derived from the digital as a copy or 'reproduction;' assists others to realize photographed or scanned painting and sculptures are merely digital 'reproductions,' even at prestigious museum web sites
9. Organize exhibitions online to showcase talent of the artists and the expressive and cognitive statements the works themselves generate
10.Document the activities of the Webists as they unite to form a new worldwide -ism in Art; record their existence and passing for traditional hsitorians to discover thereafter
11. Organize off line exhibits to expand the awareness of more people (both lay public and art institutions) of different regions and cultures of the world of the existence of the Webist movement
12. Assist off line digital artists in the acceptance of their art tools as a legitimate fine arts medium
13. Distinguish for the public the differences in meaning of "graphic artist," "digital artist, "cyberartist," and "Webist."
14. Create opportunities where Webists can physically meet each other, outside of cyberspace and the limitation of email
15. Create and promote an identity of a new group of artists with such common goals as a historic art movement, here conceived and materialized through the new communication modality of the World Wide Web
16. Educate through awareness, the next generation in the schools, of the new generation of digital art available a click away on their computers; try to teach the ethic of not stealing online copyrighted works of art
17. Promote the marketability of signed limited edition prints as worthy commodities to help support Web artists efforts online
To join or for informatio:
Ingrid Kamerbeek, email:
Digital art visualizes abstract science. The working e-artist always knows there is a precise mathematical base concealed within the patterns of chromatic pixels of light. Yet, instead of highlighting the math behind the art, most digital artists select to merely apply the power of the medium to express their own subjective view and feeling of life. The digital image "works" if it induces an emotional or harmonic resonance within the artist who orchestrates the composition.
Taking this refined digital art unto the Internet stage forces the artist to consider the social context in which the work is unveiled. The presentation parameters and audience reach are quite different from the traditional "brick and mortar" exhibition. Virtual show information retrieved from search engines replaces the formal invitation snail-mailed only to the privileged. Art embedded in HTML may be perpetually accessible, ending the regrets of missing "brick and mortar" openings and closings. Mature e-art may eventually include elements in the work that provide credence of intention for the art to be experienced exclusively online. This function and unique platform for display distinguishes Web art from the broader category of "digital art," limited to archival, signed and limited printout. A group could evolve that provides original art in such a new context, adding substance to its content.
Webism could counteract the present "brick and mortar" museum fragmentation into special interest institutions, each splintering restricting collections to the promotion in value of their own cultural artifacts, ignored or underrepresented by the more prominent museums. Surfing online may lead to stumbling upon the more ubiquitous cyberart which could enrich the lives of millions around the planet, many who can only draw a straight line (even digitally)) with the assistance of Paint Box. Online virtual art may well be the only art some will ever see in their culturally deprived real life situation. Hopefully, even without a formal art education, those that do search can see the universal spirituality of all mankind shine through the digital.
