***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 11:39:41 -0400
   [From]: Christy Sheffield Sanford <christys@gnv.fdt.net>
     [To]: Cultural Exchange via Internet <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] Re: The Shrinking Web and What to Do About it

Greetings,

When Gerhard first invited me to join this list, he asked if I would
discuss "My Millennium," the recent web-anthology, which I
curated/edited
for trAce, an online community-based organization in Nottingham,
England.  I'm delighted to say two list members, Catherine McGovern and 
Raul Ferrera-Balanquet, were included in the anthology!  

It humbles me to see how much many of you are doing to improve access.  
I only hope to offer a couple of ideas that might prove strategic in  
efforts to be more inclusive.  One is the idea of a theme that can be 
addressed from many cultural perspectives.  The My Millennium project  
focussed on time and the digital revolution.  The show included work
from
Russia, Germany, Australia, England, Canada, Mexico and the U.S.  There 
was an open call for submissions.  

A second idea has to do with the curator as talent scout.  I think many
curators depend too heavily on their existing networks. Exclusionary 
tactics are often not tactics at all.  People don't have enough time or 
impetus to search for new voices.  When selecting work for My Millennium 
and when creating a syllabus for a trace Writer's workshop I felt I 
should seek out and include projects from around the world.  This past 
year, I have met many new fellow artists and writers.

Finally, I offer one opinion, an observation on the current art scene.
Right now, many web artists are creating work for museums and arts
organizations.  Typically, these projects combine social criticism
(often lampooning advertising and commercialism) with a one-of-a-kind java script. I love java scripting especially if it can be freely adapted to new work. I hope for more web-specific projects that present alternatives instead of cynical complaints--work that opens doors to other work.  I'm sure this is a personal preference, but I hope some people will be stimulated to respond.

My Millennium:
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sanford/my_millennium/presents.html
Overview of trAce Projects:
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sanford/overview.html


Best wishes,
Christy Sheffield Sanford
Web-Specific Artist-Writer
http://gnv.fdt.net/~christys/index.html