Re: <nettime> Goodbye Classic ?

["Raphael Mazoyer" <raphael@petitbourgeois.com>]

Hi Florian, all,

> But, at the risk of sounding like a zealot, this is the typical
> example of how proprietary software platforms, and dependency on them
> [which includes dependency on binary compatibility], will always bite
> you in the end. The problem wouldn't exist if those media works had
> been written as Web CGIs in Perl outputting HTML 2.0, or generating
> JPEGs, for example.

You're making a good point, but technology is not neutral, and the
possibilities offered by certain platforms at certain times in the
(brief) history of digital media are significant artistic enablers.

The work of Chris Marker, and of many other people such as HKU
students around David, were made possible by those breakthroughs.
The argument runs: yes, an open platform would have been better, but
I'm more interested in the work that's been done with whatever was
available to the artist or practitioner... And more often than not, it
was by playing with the limitations of that platform that the art was
born.

I agree with you that if good technicians ensure art _can_ be achieved
on open platforms, it's better. It takes a good ear and curiosity and
a good deal of talent, to make sure open tools are available and offer
relevant features. Plus, don't forget that many elements of what we
consider now an open platform did not exist or were irrelevant or were
not open, "back then".

But I think David's point really raises the need for curators: people
who can make sure that works that have been done relying on certain
technologies don't disappear when the platform exits the mainstream.
Mona Lisa would have crumbled if curators hadn't stepped in to
maintain her, same story here.

David, maybe that's something the HKU could do: every couple of years,
it could set aside a couple of machines dedicated to storing and
viewing/using the work that was created for them.

'evening,


    Raphael


--
Rapha??l Mazoyer - raphael@petitbourgeois.com






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