[Nettime-bold] The Eyes of Rosenblatt: low tech net art, high standards of shipsmancraft

[Nmherman {AT} aol.com]

In a message dated 12/3/2001 5:37:37 PM Central Standard Time, 
mustard {AT} dolfijn.nl writes:


I honestly think that many
> people in the net.art scene resent the prospect that they may someday
> be held to a high standard of craftsmanship. 

Or high standards of shipmanscraft!

No I seriously agree with what mustard is saying him agree with.  Factually 
computer art requires that you know how to work computers.  I have very fast 
(50 wpm) typing so that can genuinely help in writing emails.  I'm not trying 
to be mystical, I'm just saying "hey gang let's never overlook the obvious."  


I think html, maybe moreso early on but still somewhat today, remains a 
fairly skillful kind of composition.  Superbad is in html I believe and it is 
not craftfree.  I also don't think Flash is inherently bad.  Absurd.  I 
myself own a commisioned art work in Flash, called "Fulcrum."  Needless to 
say I value it highly, perhaps to the tune of millions of dollars of art 
venture-capital.  Be that as it may.  

Be that all as it very well may, John Lennon was the superior guitarist to 
Steve Vai.  This isn't a debate among rock fans--real rock fans--much less a 
reason for rockers, music lovers, or rock critics to revile each other.  Rock 
is the pro leagues, the majors,  Live and Let Die.  Rock doesn't care about 
technical skill versus artistic genius.  

No need to divine mysterious clouds in the sky to digest the reason for 
flames:
Net.art is in its Puritanical Embryonic Apocalypse stage.  Bickering, career 
sabotage, peddling of favor, and flat out "non-virtual" litigation is common. 
 Why does this bubble up on Rhizome Raw?  No one knows why, but there seems 
to be a genltemen's agreement about that if you are going to sue someone, you 
announce it on Raw and no other lists.  I'm not saying don't defend your 
legal rights; I'm saying watchout for yourself and your work.  Often people 
have to fight censorship in the highest courts.  Other lists don't want the 
stench of the swine facility, blood death and pollution, for their 
subscribers so it flows to Raw.  Unhappy day.

I'm not just trying to dig at other lists by calling them "puritanical."  
NIMBY is more like it, and the truth might be even more mild a misdemeanor.  
And I am not damning puritanism either; in fact, I think it might be a very 
good way of interpreting what the fuck is going on with the world, and 
therefore internet art and emails.

Puritan phases are literally discovery phases.  The idea of being born again, 
essentially, is one way to look at it.  Puritan phases are violently 
iconoclastic, to follow Zizek's fine logic, and the Puritan ideology pertains 
even to the contemporary demolition of huge ancient statues with high 
explosives.  Puritanism is violent and frankly more or less devoid of mercy 
or pity, right?  US witch trials were about this issue, which, like the 
burning of heretics in Medieval Europe, is a way of bringing hell to the 
sinner here on earth--the sanctification of terror.  The world's oldest 
profession.

Yet Puritanism isn't only about violence.  It's about iconoclasm, freedom, 
new beginnings, and zeal, and these are not evil qualities in life.  I don't 
consider them violent ways of thinking, a priori antipathetic to peace, 
unless you make an assumption--which I am afraid Zizek makes--that all 
thought is "Dasein" or whatever and hence violent as such.   Heidegger is not 
the solution to Habermas--though Zizek does say he dislikes Nietzche.  Anyone 
agree?

I don't know if the idea of Puritanism or perhaps better uncapitalized, is 
either relevant to today's world or even a touchable (i.e. not leprous) 
mindset.  The schoolkids are taught of friendly frugal Puritans here in the 
US, not about the rape of Nanking.  (Whosever reading this, I doubt your 
nation of choice does either, so wipe that grin off your face.)  Is America a 
city on the hill, a beacon to shelter all humanity, or is it a sleazy warlord 
vice-nation?  Probably some of both.

Yours in kindness,

Roger Rosenblatt
roger {AT} rosenblatt.com
++


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