Research and the Arts

For all of the wonder and power that is the Internet, let's not forget that it's in essence a powerful research tool. Most tasks on the Internet are research. When I first became interested in art on the Internet, I performed rather simplistic whois searches of simple words like art or graphic, and that began to give me some idea of what was (and what was not) out there. As the network grew and my own skills improved, I created more specific archie queries and could thereby get a glimpse of which sites might be fertile and useful. I also learned to open my news reader (I use tin) with wild-card combinations where I guess at strings such as *craft*, *graph*, and *art*. Some searches will, of course, lead nowhere or hit dead ends. Occasionally, a search will open a previously unknown region where much more than expected is found. With the introduction of Veronica and Jughead, it became possible to find and enter news, Gopher directories, and other remote sites on the fly. Similar resources on WWW (World Wide Web), such as WebCrawler, enable this same ability to seek and connect.

I've found that it takes a combination of skill and intuition to use these tools effectively. You have to know not only how to evaluate potential choices of direction but you also need to know the "feel" of your connection. Is a directory really being retrieved or are we hanging? Is the file very big or is the site overloaded and running slow? Is this Gopher link temporarily down or has it been abandoned? If I come up empty handed, is this because there is nothing available or am I just not asking the right questions in the right locations?

Artists, particularly in the commercial field, perform an enormous amount of research. If a client needs to create a new campaign, for example, the artist does not merely conjure up an image. Countless hours are spent studying a wide range of ideas and solutions that others have tried in areas that may resemble or touch upon the particular project. Once an idea has solidified, there still may be research required to obtain the best source of an image or, as in the case of a radio commercial, sound samples. If the presentation will be network-based, as mentioned earlier, thorough familiarity with what network paths will lead a perspective audience to the work will become crucial.

Other specialized and technical uses of Internet research are purely academic and cultural. It's possible, for example, to search all references to pointillism or the works of Calder. Even the popular quest for recreational art and entertainment has its strong presence. One can easily uncover theater schedules in various towns or follow television plots or even find ones way around a botanical garden. The world of network computing has its own in-house entertainment and culture. We have cookie servers, coke machines, electronic pubs and cafes, e-zines, muds and moos, flame-fests, and more.