On 01/10/13 03:53 AM, Charlotte Frost wrote:
>
> So, first up, what was YOUR first experience of online art discussion?
It was 1996 and I had signed up to an art mailing list (I cannot now
remember its name or where the archive of my old [log in to unmask] college
account is).
But I didn't have a handle on the shared academic or specific mailing
list culture that would have allowed me to participate constructively.
This meant that I made a lot of elementary mistakes. For example I
replied to a cross-posted essay as if it was a comment by someone on the
list. This annoyed people and left me feeling alienated.
So my first experience of online art discussion was of its social and
technological form rather than any specific art historical content.
Perhaps I would have done better if I'd tried IRC or the MOOs instead (I
knew about MediaMOO), something more realtime and social. Maybe that's
just technological determinism.
But surely part of the reason for this discussion is the idea that new
tools and new media create new possibilities for discussion. And if this
is the case, the technological and emergent social differences between
the various means of discussing art online will affect the discussions
that take place using them.
- Rob.
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