I seem to have had problems with posting this, apologies if you have already received it.

Hello List,

I'd like to pick up on Susan's questions/reflections on her work 'In  
Coversation' as I think they resonate with some of the curatorial  
concerns when working online.

The first one:
- "Where is the work? - is it on the street, on the net or in the  
gallery (in two or three of the installations there was a gallery  
installation showing a live - cinema verite - feed also)"
And here I am thinking on exhibitions whose narrative unfolds across  
different sites that encompass the online and offline dimensions? How  
do we think/write about such exhibitions, and thus such artworks as  
curators, producers, artists and writers perhaps?
I think Saul has just given an interesting example in relation to  
this, using babelfish's translation system and IRC channels, an  
example of the relationship between technology/socio-cultural contexts  
and their often being time specific.

The second:
- "Who (and where) is the viewer? Is it the person on the street  
encountering the (disembodied) voice, the viewer on the net  
interacting with the street or a third person/position, an observer  
watching the action and the conversation/s (perhaps from elsewhere in  
the street or in the gallery) unfold"
How do we address the viewer? How do we envisage his/her role in an  
exhibition, or artwork, scattered through different sites/adopting  
different forms in relation to the medium used? Are there new issues  
that should be taken into consideration, or these issues are just the  
same as for any contemporary artwork, e.g. I could mention the Musée  
de l'Art Moderne, Départment des Aigles by Marcel Broodthaers which  
could be seen as a sort of precedent, a work that encompassed  
different mediums and technologies of its time (often reflecting on  
mass communication, the inside/oustide, the private/public) and  
unfolded through time and different spaces, from the studio, the  
gallery, the book, and the film.

As for the earlier emails re moot/ahrc/software/hardware/tools  
something has struck me in relation to the idea of mediation/re- 
mediation both in terms of software and interface. Both software and  
interface often operates as tools of mediation, and here I am thinking  
of the differences occurring between curating or producing a show or  
work through adopting and already existing web interface, such as  
YouTube, and creating an interface for production and display from  
scratch. As for software, I think it can often be seen as an (artistic/ 
curatorial) tool which offers possibilities as well as limits, and  
here I am thinking about the tensions existing between organizing, for  
example, a radio show using Airtime Pro software vs using a sound  
editing software and uploading the results on SoundCloud as an indexed  
archive or, again, using YouTube as a sound archive and production tool.

Just a series of thoughts. It would be great to hear if there is  
something here that chimes with your practices/experiences.

Thanks,
Marialaura