Artistic standards are leveled as
the democracy of unlimited access to art and literature expands
their public, without effecting a deep rapport, a long-lasting
relation, or a heightened aesthetic expectation. Never before has
more kitsch been produced and more money spent to satisfy the
obsession with celebrity that is the hallmark of this time.
Museums became the new palaces and the new shopping malls,
opening branches all over the world, not unlike MacDonalds and
fashion retail stores. And never before were more technological
and scientific means involved in the practical experience of
art, always on the cutting edge, not only because art is
traditionally associated with innovation. These new experiences
make possible the transition from an individual, private, almost
mystical, experience to a very public activity. Open a virtual
studio on the Web, and chances are that many people will
exercise their calling (or curiosity) on the digital canvas. Not
infrequently, this activity is carried on at the scale of the
integrated world: major concerts viewed on several continents,
attempts to integrate art from all nations into a super-work, the
melange of literatures fused into new writing workshops,
distributed, interactive installations united in the experience
of digital networks. Good taste and bad co-exist; pornography
resides as bits and bytes in formats not different from those of
the most suave examples from art history.
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