Project Tumbleweed
Project Tumbleweed-the beginnings of a virtual museum-a project in constant motion.
My primary focus at this time is the development of a project with the general title "Tumbleweed" that is organized to be accessed through a foreground platform, an index and guide called i o l a (and yes the html tags for italics are part of the title) but will have any number of methods of access in the future. The URL is:
"http://artnetweb.com/iola"
The entire project is an evolving investigation into the possibilities of multi-dimensional on-line environments and will be one model for what many think of as a "virtual museum." I use this term with hesitation but acknowledge that it has become common to think of an online representation as something virtual, meaning unreal, and is a result of thinking in terms of multimedia CD-ROM and other forms of digital delivery that have become current but are not necessarily applicable to a networked environment like the Internet.
My definition of virtual would be closer to "universal," meaning a museum of the possible. In the end "unreal" and "universal" may mean the same thing in that the term "universe" is a metaphor for what we can't wholly comprehend, a lie we tell ourselves to avoid thinking the unthinkable. So a better term would be potential and that's why I subtitle this project "a potential museum," a "house of the muses" that is based not on a collection education, connoiseurship or any other aspect of our current institutions but on what the muses (the daughters of memory) promise -- potentiality.
As for the use of "tumbleweed" the only reason for using it I can give now is that a tumbleweed only exists in motion, when still it's a dead bush. This may not be very illuminating (or even logical) but it is my perogative as an artist to be oblique.
Robbin Murphy
-http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/beyondinterface/murphy_work.html
Project Tumbleweed is sponsored by artnetweb.com