***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:12:07 -0500
   [From]: Christy Sheffield Sanford <christys@gnv.fdt.net>
     [To]: Cultural Exchange via Internet <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] The Anxiety of Access

Although I know many people in Florida who have email, I know of only
one other person who is creating web-specific work.  There are many
graphic artists in commercial web design, but those who are trying to
use the web as a medium are rare in the South (North Carolina, South
Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana,
Florida, Kentucky).  Many students and professors try one project and
then move on or use the web for putting up lectures and course
information.  It's trendy to create a project on the web but not a
career!

Most English and Art Department members in the U.S. are reluctant to
take the web seriously.  Tradition and the canon are protected.  Access
is fundamental, but that alone will not change consciousness.  I know
people will scoff at this, but actually I feel so close to so many of
the points you've made, Raul.  How many southern black or minority web
artists do I know, do people on this list know?  How many white web
artists from the South?  My way out has been to correspond with people
all over the world, much as you are doing.  But I know German and French
artists creating work in English because not enough people in their
respective countries were interested in the new medium!  You are not
alone in your sense of isolation.  Your anxieties.  You wouldn't think
New York would still have a stranglehold on who gets noticed in the U.S,
but much of the funding is still concentrated there.  The focus on
commercialism as a topic and the novelty of technology as a hook is not
what many of us are about in trying to create a viable medium.

Fortunately, the world is big.  And I have found openings, receptivity
in many climes.

Strength, fellowship. Know many of us are on the same path wherever we
live.

Love, Christy
Christy Sheffield Sanford