open question to NEA

hi,

(pls pass on as appropriate, the NEA site is nunclear as to where these queries should be
directed.)

perhaps you can help.

the guidelines for submitting to the NEA state artwork on CD ROM can be images or movies
and must run >3min, by itself. not only would this be a pretty silly subset of what a CD ROM
is for, it pretty much precludes interactive art? or even non-linear art (that has no such thing
as a running time) (The URL requirements are even more vague.)

it's a little like insisting only b/w silent movies be proposed nowadays. it's certainly possible,
but doubt that is at all what you want. non-interactive work is just the way people made art
before, but now it's not the only way and there is no actual reason to favor it. just as no one
really says silent film is a legitimate form of art but talkies aren't.

certainly, you must have something else in mind. a decade ago, when computers were rarer,
a fraction of people stayed online all day, it might have made sense. but now that most
every desk in the US has a computer on it connected 24/7 to the web, we need an update.

where an image is art for the eyes, a film art for the eyes and ears, interactivity is art work
for the eyes, ears, and fingers. where linear art is dictation, interactivity is a conversation.
certainly linear works are viable ingredients in making muiltimedia. perhaps linear work still
holds some nostalgic value for many. but its limitations, cannot be seen as barriers to
exclude modern works without those same limitations.

thanks,
judsoN

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