I have been thinking lately about the internet and how it is viewed by artists as this egalitarian medium to convey ideas. Certainly the internet is accessible to alot of people. But still, it isn't something that is accessible to everybody. There are also levels of access to the internet that is based on money. There are things that cannot be experienced by people on a 56k connection that people with faster connections can. These ideas definitely make me think of what it takes for people to look at something as equalizing. Once one gets access to a certain thing, is that when that thing is viewed as a fair consumable. If I am not hungry anymore, is that when I stop being seriously concerned about the parts of the world that are hungry?
I was talking to a canvasser on campus the other day who was asking people to sponsor a kid from another country 22 bucks a month. He was really passionate about it. I asked why their organization always goes to our college campus when most college students are poor and in debt. He told me that college students are more empathetic because they still experience moments of hunger or poverty whereas it is harder to convince executive types that work downtown to donate something because they don't experience those hardships anymore.
This makes me think of bodily memory. When I am sick with a flu or a fever I experience a certain type of pain that I forget once I am not sick anymore. I don't know what that has to do with anything right now but maybe someone has something to add to this..
Anywho, I was thinking about using gif animation as an art practice. There is something about this particular technology that's really interesting in that it is older compared to flash animation, which somewhat makes it easier to make. At the same time it is less accessible because it takes time to load and it has limitations as far as what it can do or communicate.
