And I personally want to thank her for all her hard work.
You've done a great Job Donna!
Here's the basics of what's on the site now, with new stuff flooding in each week/month; AN INTRODUCTION TO WHAT MUSEA IS ALL ABOUT/An Interview with Art S. Revolutionary by Michael Dittman/WHO IS CORPORATE ART/ A Letter to Corporate Art-Media/ HUNKASAURUS ' RESUME/ THE AACA, ANS, AND OTHER MUSEA LOGOS/Musea issue #69-our most recent issue/ HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH MUSEA/ and I'll Link to That.
The website is not excessively graphical (though it is clever) so it's easy to download. It's very straightforward, self explanatory, and easy to maneuver in and our links are very cool
indeed and worth checking out:
MUSEACOLUMNIST WEASEL BOY/ afterimage gallery, who graciously allows us to reprint some of their photos//PAPERBACKS PLUS.
MUSEA'S READING FUND IS THERE PLUS, ON THEIR WEBSITE, A LISTING OF MUSEA BOOKS AND MUSIC/ zeldman.com, an Internet cool site/ AMUSING YOURSELF TO DEATH, RUEL GAVIOLA'S ZINE REVIEW ZINE.
SO CLICK ON, LOOK-SEE, AND TELL US WHAT YOU THINK- E-mail Donna, or write Musea at the address on the back.
AND SPEAKING OF ROOM: Our server, "Digital Chainsaw" (that's why that name is on our site address) says we've got room for about 10 encyclopedias' worth of material with MORE room if we request it.
SO, I want to invite:
1. ALL MUSEA COLUMNISTS to add as much of your work to our website as you want.
2. ALL MUSEA HALL OF FAME ZINESTERS to add your work to our website.
3. ANYONE WHO'S WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN MUSEA and
4.Maybe even more zinesters/artists etc.
In other words, if you're a talented artist, let Musea be your website too. If you're polite and cooperate and will be patient and will get your material in easy to add form, there's no cost to you (otherwise it's an arm & leg!). The idea is to have one website that showcases the best of `indie' art with... and let me make this perfectly clear,
NO ADS! NO GOVERNMENT GRANTS! NO SPONSORS!
You know that's the Musea way. Also if you already have a site, LET'S LINK UP!! On all of this, contact Donna or Musea and please be patient!
MY 1ST TIME ON THE INTERNET or HUH?
It was getting harder and harder for me to say with a straight face that "Yes, I've got a website, but I don't have a computer and I've never been on the web" so I, editor Art S. Revolutionary, decided it was time. This article is my perspective on that adventure as seen from someone who probably like many of you, doesn't have a clue about computers and the Internet.
I went to Kinkos and said, "I want to go on the net and I know nothing about it" (20 cents a minute-ouch!). With blind faith I asked some ludicrous questions, the upshot being that the employee explained it was $60 for a course on how to use the Internet or push the LEFT side of the mouse. (A mouse is that round gizmo on a chord by your right hand that you move around on its rubber pad and an arrow on the screen moves accordingly. When the arrow changes to
a pointing hand you click the LEFT side and the computer screen changes to what you clicked on. Who knows what the right side does.)
I'm glad I saved my $60 because it's very easy to get started.
Now back to my first visit. After 74 minutes (I had only planned to spend 1 hour, but I got carried away and you will, too) I stopped. So what did I think?
1. COMPUTER CLUTTER. Computers are designed poorly. There's too much info clutter, too many options. It should be designed more simply: title page, then a contents page listing every option. No endless window clutter, or maybe just a single `help' button on one side that lists all the options; but, NOT in goofy icons - there are a million of these - but in straight English. It's obvious that engineers (or tax form writers) devised this clutter and it's confusing! It all should be Mickey Mouse simple. And the handful of options that people use 99% of the time should not he cluttered in with the millions of options the advanced nerds use.
2. There's already a subtle form of discrimination on the net. Here's how it works. If you're looking for something, you go to search engines and ask them to find it for you, BUT it's difficult (and getting more and more difficult because of the sheer number of new sites) to get on the handful of search engines that people use. Sure abc.com is on Yahoo, but Musea? Not yet. (Also I'm concerned about the 2 company gateway monopoly of Netscape and Microsoft. We need more variety and competition.)
3. There needs to be a NO-AD and/or a LOW-AD search engine for those of us who aren't in this strictly for money.
4. As Musea has said before, we need a way to charge small admissions or hourly fees on the websites. If we can charge a nickel or dime per hour to visit our website (and bill you monthly like a phone bill) then we can stay in business and make a profit WITHOUT advertising of any kind. Really cool idea huh? Then sites would get their popularity from quality, not ad dollars. And Corporate Art couldn't take over the web.
5. Don't get your expectations up too high just yet. You must remember that if you don't enjoy getting information and learning new things, then the web will have little appeal to you (outside of chat rooms and porn). After all is said and done, it's basically just a room full of books on your TV set.
Perhaps when all the sites have audio/video, things will change but that's in the future.
AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE IT'S BASICALLY
JUST A ROOM FULL OF BOOKS ON YOUR TV SET. 