Imagination, Innovation And Interface Is new media art circumscribed by commercial software packages? Are the prevailing conventions for user interfaces another example of American cultural imperialism? Artist-programmer John Simon talks with [PoptArtCritic +?]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Decoding Digital Art
Artist John F. Simon, Jr., is the embodiment of media theorist Friedrich Kittler's observation that understanding today's culture requires a knowledge of a natural language and an artificial language. A native English speaker, Simon is that rare digital artist conversant in both art history and computer programming, perhaps the most important artificial language of our era.
He became widely known in the admittedly small world of online-software art through his Webwork, "Alter Stats - Condition of the Web Observer" (1995), which provided the site visitor with a real-time, statistical profile of those accessing the site, including that visitor him- or herself. Simon's interest in the issues intrinsic to programming differentiates him from many artists creating image- or narrative-driven cyber-art. Will new media art be limited and shaped by the commercial software usually used to created it? Or by the conventional Web site and interface formats that predominate among artworks online? Simon also investigates these conceptual concerns offline in drawings and plug-in objects incorporating computer LCD screens and processors. By creating art in varied media, he is beginning to reach wider audiences - and to provide insights into the expansive possibilities of computer-art interactions and the issues they raise.
-Robert Atkins
Robert Atkins: I've heard that you make your digital-art students learn computer programming. Is that true?
John F. Simon, Jr: Yes. When I was teaching in the Computer Art MFA program at the School of Visual Arts [in New York] I taught both programming and systems. The systems class was meant to explain how the computer worked, layer by layer, from "why the user interface looks like a desktop" to "how electricity and transistors can be made to store and manipulate information." I don't think we should allow creative innovators to use application software without showing them how it is all put together.
RA: Why not?
JFS: So many choices that influence the final product are made by the designers of the software package. I first saw computers when their potential was much more broadly considered. Before the ubiquitous Photoshop and Director programs it was possible to imagine all kinds of creative uses for computers. I like to open that door for students, if just for a glimpse of other possibilities.
[http://www.eusocial.com/nato.0+55+3d/242.ircam.html
RA: Do you think software conceived in Silicon Valley is as American a medium as Hollywood films? Is it having that kind of influence on global culture?
JFS: That's a good question and a very complicated one. Electronics are clearly having a profound effect on global culture. But is the computer an American product? Is the telephone? If we think of software writing in general as a reflection of American influence then, yes, because software is now being written everywhere. America defined the PC market and spread the PC worldwide so the world is now using the American concept of a PC. It's the same with operating systems. I don't see many interfaces for PCs which don't use the Windows/Mac Desktop metaphor even though I can imagine far better interfaces.
As far as applications and styles of software published by American companies, I see a lot of coding from Europe that has a distinctly non-American flavor. The attitude is generally more aggressive and less accepting of the limitations of commercial software. Think of projects like Nato, a software for multiple-video-imaging processing and IOD's Webstalker, an alternative to Web browsers like Internet Explorer. Despite that, I'm still not sure that the best way to think about the expanding cultural influence of the electronic - think of the boom of home computing in China - is to differentiate what might be its American elements. I think that the division between those who use electronics and those who don't - the so-called digital divide - is more far reaching than any geo-political boundary.
RA: So AOL Time Warner isn't the next Disney?
JFS: Perhaps a different Disney. I don't think AOL Time Warner intends to build any theme parks. But AOL has been very smart about figuring out what works online and Disney hasn't. American culture is likely to dominate markets for online entertainment, but that's got less to do with being electronic and more to do with the American domination of global pop culture in general.
.....
-end-
kount dzm all
-
Netochka Nezvanova f3.MASCHIN3NKUNST @www.eusocial.com 17.hzV.tRL.478 e | | +---------- | | < \----------------+ | n2t | > e