In my experience, a true elitist will often be the first to call an honest
thinker an elitist. But this is an elitist discussion anyway.

**************************************************************************
Mark Nielsen
Exhibit Designer/Preparator
University of Michigan Museum of Art
[log in to unmask]      313/647-2068

On Thu, 12 Sep 1996, Murph the Surf wrote:

> 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/
>