Diane Gutenkauf writes:

> Janis is right. Buzzwords that mean something to the New York art elite mean
> nothing to most of the rest of the country and most of the rest of the country
> could care less.

The New York art elite is having a good laugh over this one since I'm
known for complaining about the use of art jargon. In my original post I
did say I thought the term "ambient museum" was better than "virtual
museum" when thinking about how museums can function effectively on the
Internet. I stand by that and, no, I don't suggest you use it on your
visitors but to help explain things to yourself. It's an "object to
think with" to use another trendy phrase.

For instance, instead of seeing the museum Web site as a reflection or
reproduction of the museum (like an advertisement), how can it actually
fuction as part of the museum and also be part of the ambient (day to
do) environment. One practical application is museum-l, a
self-organizing daily exhibition of ideas and information. I'm sure
there's more than a few non-museum people lurking here (even from South
Carolina!) because they're interested in what museums do. This kind of
access wasn't possible only three years ago.

The rest of the post was a quote from Ebon Fisher, who does like to
indulge in methaphorical writing. I have to admit I'm not quite sure
what bionic partying means but I think Ebon is more James Joyce than
Jacques Lacan. He's also a Quaker and a great deal of his thinking about
art, ritual and ethics comes from that background. He'd be crushed if he
knew people thought he was an elitist. He'd probably suggest we all form
a circle and discuss the situation democratically.

I see artnetweb as part of this "ambient museum" and my job is to
contribute to that environment in a productive way.

--
ROBBIN MURPHY, creative director, artnetweb
[log in to unmask]  -- http://artnetweb.com
426 Broome Street, NYC 10013  212 925-1885
WORK: http://artnetweb.com/murph/work/