THERE isn't much to look at these days at the McLean Project for the
Arts. That's because the art it's showing doesn't exist, except in
cyberspace.
"Casting a Net: A Survey of Internet Art" is the MPA's first juried
exhibition of Web-based art, part of a pilot program that Exhibitions
Director Andrea Pollan hopes will become a regular event. Right now, the
group show -- featuring such weirdly named international media art stars
as Agricola de Cologne, H-Ray Heine and Stanza, along with locals Robyn
Johnson Ross and Lou Janesko -- can be viewed on your home or office
computer. ("Great story idea for art couch potatoes who are too lazy to
get to a gallery" was Pollan's clever e-mail pitch to the media.)
If you have a slow modem, a small screen and tinny (or no) speakers,
you can still come down to the gallery, where Pollan has set up a computer
station complete with broadband connection and a large, wall-projected
screen image for looking at the digital work. At a panel discussion last
week, the curious mingled with experts over "Webtinis" as Pollan and three
of the show's four jurors (critic George Howell, digital artist James
Huckenpahler and painter/MPA Webmaster Jeffrey Smith) dropped such phrases
as "data needs to be exercised" while exploring questions of who the
audience for Web art is (other than the few people who make it) and what
criteria were used to cull the submissions.
"I pretty much threw out all criteria when I started," Huckenpahler
said with a laugh. "How should I evaluate this stuff? Screw it, man. Does
it rock my world or not?"
One can get away with such a subjective approach because, quite
frankly, there isn't a lot of history or context against which to judge
this brave new art. As Alberto Gaitan, a sound artist in attendance,
observed, "We're in diapers."
Be that as it may, "Casting a Net" features some excellent examples of
the medium's raw potential, including Patrick Lichty's "Sprawl," a dense
musing on urbanization and landscape change in the artist's hometown of
North Canton, Ohio. Incorporating streaming audio and video, panoramic
photography and text, "Sprawl" was one of three winners of last year's
inaugural "New Media/New Century" Awards, given by the Smithsonian
American Art Museum.
Smith admits that not everything in the show is going to rock
everyone's world. "It's called 'Casting a Net' for a reason," he said.
"We're throwing the net out there and seeing what we drag up." Pollan,
too, has encountered her share of criticism. "A friend of mine accused me
of buying into the fetishization of technology."
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Web-based art may be less
warm and fuzzy than traditional media, but that doesn't mean it's
inferior. As painter and digital art booster Y. David Chung said of the
distinction between art that you look at on a computer monitor and art
that you nail to the living room wall: "It's the difference between having
a fish tank and a dog."
"Casting a Net: A Survey of Internet Art" is on view through Dec. 22 at
the McLean Project for the Arts, 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean. In
cyberspace, the exhibition will continue indefinitely at
www.mcleanart.org. Click on "Casting a Net" and then on one of the linked
art projects. The Gallery is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 to 5
and Saturdays from 1 to 5. Free. For more information, call 703/790-1953.
For directions, call 703/790-0123.
-- Michael O'Sullivan
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