The profusion of installation art that I mentioned yesterday has contiued unabated. Ludus Perpetuus, the unofficial webzine of the GameNeverending, documents almost twice as many installations today as it did the last time I looked. I haven’t checked these out—in fact, because of a difficulty my browser has with the whole game, I’ve never seen a single pixel of the appearance of Stencilton (Si tells me it looks cool)—but I have to appreciate a game in which one of the most popular activities doesn’t involve destruction or betrayal, greed or exploitation, but the creation of vast absurd art projects.
This has to be a confirmation of a long-held belief (I’m sure that certified smart guy David Weinberger said something like this, but if he didn’t, I’ll accept credit) that the measure of an invention’s importance lies not in its effectiveness at its intended task, but in the unforeseen uses to which it can be put. The Web, of course, is a paradigmatic example—but so is a multi-user domain that turns into a surrealist/dadaist art colony.
Posted by AKMA at November 6, 2002 10:53 PM | TrackBack