Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!bionet!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: reverend@pro-exchange.cts.com (Mitchell L. Silverman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Telecom Art
Message-ID: <14462@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Nov 90 09:04:40 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: TELECOM Digest
Lines: 49
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 799, Message 1 of 8


This is strange, I know.  But could all the people who post messages
to the TELECOM Digest take a second to make sure that they have a
geographical address in their signatures?  I ask this for two related
reasons.

First: I (and, I assume, other TELECOM Digest readers) are curious to
know the geographic span of messages posted here.  Long-time computer
users (myself included) sometimes get jaded about what their toys can
do, but surely the thought that this Digest enmeshes such a large part
of the globe and connects such a geographically diverse group, must
occasionally instill a sense of wonder in its readers?

Second (and, I admit, my real motive :) ): I am taking a computer art
class, and, rather than sketching pretty pictures using PixelPaint, I
am exploring the wild world of conceptual art.  I was inspired to do
an electronic mail piece by a cutting-edge conceptual piece done in
1969, called "Trans VSI Connection NSCAD-NETCO Sept. 15-Oct 5, 1969."
That conceptual artwork involved, as the book that records the
installation tells, "... an exchange between the Nova Scotia College of
Art and Design and Iain Baxter's N. E. Thing Co., Ltd.[in Vancouver,
British Columbia], via telex, telecopier and telephone.

The N. E. Thing Co. initiated propositions and the college community
responded with some appropriate activity.  The transmissions from the
exhibition are arranged chronologically, with evidence of response
following each." Now telex, facsimile and phone were fine 21 years
ago, but this is the 90s, after all. I did an installation in which I
asked users of a local BBS to send me a word of their choice, then
took their email and some maps and whipped up an interactive
conceptual art installation using HyperCard.  And THAT is what I'd
like to do with the Digest -- conceptual art.  Readers, PAT, what do you
think?


UUCP: crash!pro-exchange!reverend          | Mitchell L. Silverman
ARPA: crash!pro-exchange!reverend@nosc.mil | P.O. Box 25607
INET: reverend@pro-exchange.cts.com        | Tamarac, FL 33320-5607
  Disclaimer?  Why would I need a disclaimer?  I speak for no one.


[Moderator's Note: I must say, yours is a very interesting request.
You make an interesting observation on the far-flung nature of TELECOM
Digest. We have about 40,000 daily readers on Usenet alone, via the
comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup in about a dozen nations of the world, but
the bulk of that is of course in the USA. The mailing list version
reaches a couple thousand more readers. Telenet's Net Exchange BBS has
quite a few readers of the Digest, and there are numerous Fidonet
participants.  PAT]