RiOt


For some idea of what I'm talking about, please visit Potatoland and explore "RIOT."

 

Offhand, I'd still say Mark Napier is "the artist" in this instance, in a similar way to how Sol Le Wit remains "the artist" in his installations (which just provide dimensions and suggestions for materials rather than specific placement/production on his part). In "RIOT," Napier has created the rules, sort of the physics, of the virtual site we enter and interact with, and our experience of it is altered/determined by our own input, the randomness of the program and the actions of whoever might also be looking at the site at the same time. I guess I'm saying, retroactive "old" conceptual artist that I sometimes am, that IDEA conquers all.

 

After that, I'm not sure I care. No, I'm not just being flip, though I sometimes feel that the arguably "useful" freedom of the Internet, blogs, etc. "allows" me to craft my responses less rigorously, more spontaneously. If I were writing this for "publication," as in something on paper, I might spend more time with it. Instead, I just feel an imperative to get something out there, and spend about as much time with it as I imagine YOU out there spend reading it.