In 1985, there was no Internet and the WELL was available via dial-up. It
was text only. No graphics. No color. There was a conference on the WELL
called ARTCOM (the name art.com <http://art.com> has subsequently used by
others, as well as "artcom," but the artcom account on the WELL was the
first. We did a lot of conceptual art in Artcom. For example, we posted
short messages each day we called "Status Reports" that was very much like
Twitter, but of course preceded it by more than 20 years. We developed
conventions and games. One of the games was Das Casino in which we pretended
we were in a casino. That led to creating a benefit party (the WELL was
quite poor and needed help upgrading its server) in which we ran a real
casino at the Artcom studios. We even had a show with a chorus line. I have
cced Freddy Hahne who can provide more details.
A media artist, Judy Malloy, did at least two conceptual art pieces using
the WELL, "Uncle Roger" and "Badinfo." I have cced Judy Malloy, who can tell
you more.
In 1994, I put scans of my painting on the Internet via the WELL's member
pages, and in 1995 I moved them to my own website at
http://www.rheingold.com/art . My art is still on exhibit there:
http://rheingold.com/art-gallery/
Howard Rheingold
http://www.rheingold.com
what it is ---> is --->up to us
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