so upfront, I must say that I assisted in the production of the online venue, but the majority of props must go to programmer and designer, the wonderful Mr Snow and to Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. I was merely the conduit for exchange between these two and also exhibiting artists.

When developing a site like this, over a substantial period of time, you become quite good friends - with the website I mean. You nurture it - it challenges you, you argue with it - it breaks. Then you go about back-stepping until you find the point where it cracked, and look to fixing it up. Until you are back on track on reliable, solid ground and enjoying each others company again.

That said, i thought I’d share some of the reasons that we are friends…

1. Its lo-fi graphics and textural quality have really warmed to me. Exploring the interface reminds me of going through old forgotten notebooks, where little ideas and sketches lay as immediate as the day they were scribbled. In which you may stumble upon a half-baked novel idea, a preposterous artwork, or a perfectly crafted line of poetry. I like this feeling.

2. Its expanding constellation seems to move in real-time, in the way a train of thought might. By linking and connecting seemingly remote ideas, one after the other - pop, pop, pop. Sprouting a collection of thoughts that may indeed lead to a discovery.

3. It challenges all your ideas of what a ‘website’ or ‘gallery’ should be. There is no index, contemporary artist projects are presented alongside YouTube clips, historical texts and links to other websites. Oh gosh, where is the pristine white cube? What does it mean to democratise all of these things? Basically, you have to suspend all your knowledge of using a mouse, a computer, Google, Firefox, Explorer, Safari - whatever your poison, and let go. Let go and meander, the way you might meander through an actual gallery. Not knowing what is upstairs or in the next room, or indeed a ‘few clicks away’. Prepared for the fact that you may miss something along the way, but actually knowing that you are free to visit again to re-experience as often as you see fit. What a shocking, liberating way to interact with your computer… Or perhaps you could just Google yourself?

4. There are new works that have been created for the online venue that could not have existed in the ‘real world’. For instance, Michael Rakowitz’s Live News Tickers were an unmanifested idea for years, until the opportunity emerged to use live news feeds supplied by the CNN and Alljazeera websites. Sam Durant’s Untitled creates a unique cut-and-paste view of themes each time you visit, by using random images from the selected websites. These works only make sense in an online platform, which means the internet is a standalone, autonomous space. Of course this is not new thinking, artists have been using technology and the internet in particular for ages now, but don’t you think its interesting the way it has developed into more than just a ‘replication of something physical’ in a digital space.

I will leave you with some links to view. Watch Christopher Bennie’s The Supernova, then Anastasia Klose’s Rollerskating at ACCA. For me the rousing Bella Caio paired with the hauntingly sung Internationale by Susan Philipsz can only lead to the beautiful Eighty Two Poems: Falta-me Espaço (Lack of Space) by Pedro Barateiro.

If after that you are in need of lifted spirits, check out Tamy Ben-Tor’s Normal, then Tent, Quartet, Bows and Elbows by Ana Prvacki or Big Scream Revolutions, by Damp and collaborators, and then there’s the hilarious a symptom…

oh… and how could I almost forget, my new hero, Luigi Russolo’s Intonamouri, listen to this before visiting the machines that were built in 1914, at Pier 2/3.

And these are but a few of the gems that can be found in the rabbit’s hole that is the 2008 Online Venue revolutionsonline.

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