ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: NEW NETWORKS
Friday, March 27, 1998, 3:15 – 4:30 p.m.

FACILITATORS: BRIAN DROLET, Managing Editor of Electronic Publications for the Museum of Natural History; STACY HORN, president and founder of Echo online network; and BENJAMIN WEIL, former curator of Ada’web By: Cassie Rogers

This roundtable discussion centered on the issues surrounding artists’ involvement in digital communities. The primary topics at issue were the success and failure of specific types of digital interaction; essentials for community-building in digital communities; posting work made with other media on the Web vs. creating art specifically for the Web; and identification and curation of digital places for presenting art.

There was debate as to whether artists are particularly good at participating in online communities. As in “real life,” there are both close and perfunctory relationships online. There are numerous and varied examples of ways in which groups, schools, and other vital communities of artists emerged; one question is how and if such history is translatable or applicable to emerging Internet culture. How can artistic collaboration be encouraged? Is the Internet a new medium of artistic communication, a new arts culture, or simply a new marketing venue? Can a community be created for artists, or must it happen organically? One attendee commented that creating an artists’ community is like herding squirrels.

Echo’s (http://www.echonyc.com/) Horn, who is also the author of Cyberville: Clicks, Culture and the Creation of an Online Town (Warner Books) noted that on Echo, an online community with many artist members, “shameless self-promotion” is an actual section of the Echo site; her point was that marketing, which is a fact of life for many artists, seems to work better among people who have already developed a relationship. Simply giving people space on the Internet is not terribly helpful, she commented. Consensus seemed to hold that both mentoring and a context that promotes understanding of their work are helpful components for artists trying to build or foster a sense of community online. Two examples of programs that are working to provide these things mentioned during the discussion were: the Getty’s L.A. Culture Net (http://finearts.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa012098.htm), and the National Endowment for the Arts’ joint venture with the Benton Foundation, Open Studio: The Arts Online. (http://www.openstudio.org). Other interesting sites touched upon included Margaret Morton’s documentation of the plight of the homeless in New York City (http://www.voyagerco.com/fragile/), and Alejandro Fogel’s installations at (http://www.way.com/~afogel/)