User-driven web resources
A site such as Axis can do much to deliver all the things it originally set out to do: both networking opportunities and reliable information. It presents selected information about artists and supports this within a critical context, which is created by the artists, critics, writers, and gallerists themselves. It also recognises the importance of being appropriately linked to the wider world. The context of any artwork is radically changed as anyone surfing the net might follow a path, for example: from artist to gallery where artist exhibited, to gallery café, to gigs at café, and so on. Users often want an end experience, something to go to (and this may have contributed to the proliferation of live events within the art scene) and a thirst not only for a live art happening, but also for talks, gallery openings and meetings. This need is something the Internet supports extremely well: both the lead-up to such events plus the post-analysis and documentation. All of this goes towards creating high levels of familiarity and confidence in the artist and the art.
To avoid becoming either a solely commercial concern, or an instrument of social policy, websites such as Axis must be user-driven: i.e. the user must be both trusting and active. But we cannot rely on any user: by ‘user’ we mean informed, dependable, people who can become advocates for those who want to be ‘in’ on the information.
To echo something Charles Landry, an advisor on creativity and culture within urban planning, talked about: ‘We need these special (cultural) places to reflect the ambitions and aspirations of a society.’ The web is often seen as an entity in itself, and yet we must remember that it is a reflection, and also a catalyst, of our cultural development, supporting the drive for new, and meaningful, experiences. The players remain the same: trained artists, critics and professionals. The web makes for a more fluid and flexible world, where ideas can be published, analyzed, copied or thrown out, at great speed and by a great amount of people.
The idea of community has both changed and remained the same: a bigger place, but still one of shared experience. A problem is identifying what, exactly, constitutes a shared experience and how best to present it. Where contemporary visual art is concerned, trust and association are crucial, and it is the artists who need to be investing in web experiences to make for bigger, and better, real experiences.
