Joshua Decter :
I'd like to try to make some connections. Lari
spoke about polyphormousness and simultaneity, and I think that sort of plays off
interestingly in terms of the notion of a dispersed or collective authorship that
David was talking about. What is the relationship between an exploded authorship
and the need for a market? This would suggest the need for a new kind of market
that accepts collective authorship, and new forms of distribution.
David A. Ross :
Gene and Barbara Schwartz purchased a Web Site that Douglas Davis had
made. But it was a conceptual purchase; in reality, you can't buy it, even though
the idea is an interesting gesture. Recently, Voyager, CD ROM publisher, offered
a very interesting Web Site. They produced a piece with 69 comic artists called
"The Narrative Corpse," which was an exquisite corpse comic piece that you
subscribed to for three dollars, and they bill your credit card. I understand
that about 30,000 people subscribe to this piece --- and that was 90,000 real
dollars that Voyager got. I assume they divided it among the artists, or maybe they
didn't. I don't know what their deal was, but is one of the first instances that
I've seen of an commercial activity involving art. Art Spiegelman was the
organizer of this piece, and I think it was quite interesting. It has been up for
around 70 days. I mean if an artist had their own Web Site, he or she can charge
a certain amount of money for people to visit the site. There are some Web Sites
-- most notably the sex ones -- that are getting more than 30,000 visits a day.
There will always be an economy of scale that the art world will have a hard time
matching. I do think some kind of economy will develop, and I am not sure that I
agree with you Peter, that there is no market here. The market is a developing
one. I do understand what Peter means by market in terms of a fixed group of
people who discriminate and continue to buy based on that. That doesn't exist yet
for the Web.
