My artist is an interactive artist - a computer whizz, a creative genius, a multi-media expert. Disgusted by what he sees as the absurd prices paid for modern works of art which are simply lines on a 16 foot canvas, or a formless blob of metal, he sets out to return art to the people. He swings the brim of his Chicago Cubs baseball cap around to the back of his heads, and starts to work in his Electronic's shop. Soon, he reveals his work in the window of a computer store in downtown Cleveland. A large bank of TV screens is contected to a computer with numerous phone lines and internet connections. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses are advertised in the local papers, and across the internet :
ARE YOU TIRED OF CRITICS AND GOVERNMENT OFFICALS TELLING YOU WHAT IS HIGH CULTURE? ARE YOU SICK OF SEEING THE MAYOR OF YOUR TOWN UNVEILING MILLION DOLLAR PIECES OF CRAP IN YOUR PARKS AND NEIGHBORHOODS AND CALLING IT ART? ARE YOU SICK OF BEING TOLD TO LIKE SOMETHING, AND IF YOU DON'T THEN YOU ARE A HEATHEN? Then join in the people's art revolution. If you have a computer, then you can become not just an artist, but also art. Phone our modem lines at YOU- R-ART or E-Mail us text at art@cleveland.com and we will display it on our video banks at the "Happy Disk Computer Store."Well, the project was a smashing success. People sent in messages, and they were displayed uncensored and commerical-free on the Video Banks. People gathered around the TVs reading the messages, and discussing what they saw. Soon there was a WEB connection to the video banks that allowed you not just to post a message, but to read the message of everyone else. Our original artist had created a whole nation of artists and orators. He was lauded for his orginality and creativity by the art critics. The Municipal government of Los Angeles hired him to put a similar piece in the new city hall. "It will show the people how we are interested in what they have to say," he was told. L.A. was taken by storm, as was New York when a piece was erected in the UN Building. The Artist appeared on Carson and PBS, in Computer magazine and at the Louvre. He started playing with his art, creating different fonts and colours for the text.
Then it happened. A Serbian called up the newly installed piece at the Louvre and said "All Croatians must die." A croatian retaliated, saying that the Serbs must all die. The curator at the Louvre was aghast. The French Government was in an uproar. The Louvre was no place for a discussion of this nature. The French government demanded that the messages be monitored so that an event like that could not happen again. The peices in New York, L.A. and Cleveland were abuzz with the news. "How dare the French Government censor the citizens of the world?" they asked. They demanded that the American ambassador do something! The ambassador ignored the request, then rebuked the request, then showed sympathy to the request, but pleaded for understanding. The people stood strong.
The ambassador went to the President. "Mr. President, we can't have the people of America reacting like this. They don't understand the bigger issues here. They know too much. We can't control them anymore. We need control." The President agreed, and decided to put a monitor on the American pieces to make sure that no anti-american or anti-government messages got posted. The people got bored with the piece. What fun is talking candidly with people around the world if you can't talk candidly? They stopped calling, and the TV screens went blank.
Skip five years ahead into the future, and we see our artist again, installing cable to people's new HyperInterActive TV sets so they can shop and rent movies without every leaving their house. He stands up after testing a newly installed cable connection and wipes his hand across his Chicago Cubs baseball cap, weathered and and torn from years of sitting atop his head, brim facing backwards.