Re: <nettime> "The Without Response" Verbal 3, Call & Response

[Robbin Neal Murphy <rnm7789@is9.nyu.edu>]

On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, Keith Sanborn wrote:

> Another way of putting this might be: for whom was the even
> intended? the cyber-cognoscenti? if so it was preaching to the converted,
> if to the art world, was it a class? and why would they want to know these
> things. What good would it do? Was it to re-establish the Kitchen in its
> tradition role as mediator to the culture of techno-artistic
> experimentation? 


At one point we thought the audience would be the same group of friends
who always show up at these things, and maybe it was, I couldn't tell.

I saw it as a kind of "bookend" to PORT MIT in 97 and a final closure so
we could get on with things. So, in a way, it *was* a class meant for the
art world. I'm not surprised The Kitchen was disappointed since they
assume they are calling the shots, like most art institutions these days.
It is a bargaining chip in the future negotiations that will go on between
artists and art institutions about what constitutes "digital art" (or
whatever we call it). Whatever it was it was definitely NOT the Webbies.

That said, I'm not even sure we should bother with art institutions any
way. We've already shown that we'll keep developing our practice without
their attention. But I do think they have the obligation to support or at
least facilitate artists. Otherwise, they're just mortuaries, or worse,
clubhouses for a small group determining cultural policy for everyone
else.

What was most significant about the event wasn't the event itself but how
it came to be done through what has ended up being called "the Upgrade
meetings" also instigated by by Yael Kanarek. Most of us have been meeting
casually once a month to talk and show each other what we're doing with no
art administrators allowed. Call & Response was a larger version of those
meetings in some ways. So maybe the audience was still each other in some
respects and the whole thing was a lesson in self gratification. Maybe
not. We'll see what happens next.

Rob


Robbin Murphy
robbin.murphy@nyu.edu
http://artnetweb.com/iola/




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