My Way_ Speeches and Poems - Charles Bernstein

76 I DON'T TAKE VOICE MAIL
uals can then post replies to the entire list or to the individual that sent
the post. Lists may be open to anyone to join or may be private. The
potential for discussion and collaboration is appealing-the format mixes
some of the features of correspondence with a discussion group, conference
call, and a panel symposium (with the crucial difference that the distinction
between audience and panel is eroded).
While many cyberspace utopians speak of virtual communities with
much excitement, what is particularly interesting about the interconnectivity
of computer space is its difference from other types of group formation;
for what we are constructing in these spaces might better be called
virtual uncommunities.
The art world remains a difficult place for community or group formations
because the gallery system recognizes value primarily in terms of
individual achievement. In contrast to poetry publishing and criticism, in
which poets playa substantial and perhaps determining role, individual
visual artists are largely restricted to (or restrict themselves to) the role of
producers of potentially saleable objects. Competition among artists is
more common than broad-based alliance, with the occasional exception
of loyalty to a small circle of friends.
At the national level, there are local communities of artists in every
region. Various movements and schools-aesthetic or political or bothcan
also be understood as art communities. Most recently, the connections
of artists within ethnic, gender, or racial groups have been seen in terms
of community. But despite these sites of community among visual artists,
sustained interaction, dialogues, and collaboration remain rare; indeed,
these activities are not generally recognized as values. The internet provides
an extraordinary space for interaction and exchange among artists
living in different places and, perhaps more significantly, encourages collaboration
between visual artists, writers, and computer designers and
engineers. In a way remarkably anticipated by the mail art movements of
the seventies and eighties, the net suggests the possibility of art works created
for their exchange rather than market value-works that may be
altered, augmented, or otherwise transformed as they pass from one screen
to another.-What I am envisioning here is not art from another medium
imported into the net but rather art that takes the unique constraints and
potentials of the net as its medium.
To begin to delineate this and related computer and telecommunications
media, let's start with the "small" screen. We might begin to speak of
the screen arts to suggest the intersection of Video, TV, and computer art
that share the same physical support or monitor. More and more computers
are now equipped with video quality monitors and the screen artsin
this broad sense-will be transmitted via modem, cable, and wireless