| Adrianne Wortzel on 18 Aug 2000 18:01:58 -0000 |
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| [Nettime-bold] arts@large column letters |
For those of you interested in writing letters to the NY Times protesting the end of Mat MIrapaul's arts@large column; in addition to writing to letters@nytimes.com & cybertimes@nytimes.com it wouldn't hurt to also email the following executives directly responsible for this, particularly to Mr. Meislin: Richard J. Meislin, Editor in Chief, The New York Times Electronic Media Co. meislin@nytimes.com Bernard Gwertzman, Editor, The New York Times on the Web begwer@nytimes.com Will Tacy, Managing Editor, The New York Times on the Web will@nytimes.com There is also an online NY Times Forum on Digital Art at http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/index-tech.html where letters can be posted! My letter below: Adrianne ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear ________: I am writing to express my dismay at the announcement that the arts@large column will no longer be published. arts@large is not just a driving force in digital culture, but a driving force in culture at large. The proliferation of digital cultural productions in art, theater, writing, and the current re-emergence of the artist-as-inventor has great repercussions on local, regional, and global levels and it is vital that it remains in public focus. Digital culture is also a force for integrating disciplines such as art and science and for breaking down the arbitrary barriers between them. Productive partnerships are being formed in the arena of digital culture that are unique and will have a deep influence on our future. We are moving from the familiar bipolar consideration of things - either/or , black/white, art/business, to a pluralistic one that will have a whole new order of its own. arts@large is the only forum I know of which has its finger on the pulse of that phenomenon. Is virtual real estate one more neighborhood that artists have pioneered only to be evicted when the big guns of e-commerce move in? Must digital art and culture be placed in the position of minor importance in contrast to the Goliath of e-commerce? Does the Times represent film and theater only in terms of box office receipts? Isn't the Pope simultaneously a deeply religious man AND the head of a large corporation? Matthew Mirapaul is a rare and excellent journalist, capable of highly intelligent focus on a powerful moving target and brilliant at capturing it and conveying its trajectory to a larger public. Its seems a shame to bury this treasure. In the 13th century, Western European cartographers marginalized relatively unexplored territories by depicting their inhabitants as monstrous races at the very edges of the flat earth. Marginalized as they were, at least this population was on the map! By obliterating arts@large from the face of the earth, the Times is bypassing a crucial element of art and culture and losing a the efficacy of its power to represent the world in real time. This an extreme disappointment for this reader of the Times and Cybertimes. I hope you will reconsider. Adrianne Wortzel Associate Professor Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts New York City Technical College of the City University of New York 300 Jay Street, Room 1112 Namm Brooklyn, New York 11201 Phone: 718 260-5512 Fax: 718 254-8555 email: awortzel@nyctc.cuny.edu ______________________________________________________________________ Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art 51 Astor Place New York, New York 10003 Phone: 212 353-4013 muse@cooper.edu ______________________________________________________________________ http://artnetweb.com/wortzel/ ______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold