Art For Art's Sake, 5 Variation (print/acrylic) / Street Gallery vs The Internet

The internet as a projection screen....contemporary equivalent of Paolozzi showing slides of his 'Bunk' images at the ICA in 1952...

...compared to the SG (street gallery) - is one better than the other?

The supposed kudos of a SG show - based on the Fine Art tradition, which Internet Art supposedly challenges but can never overthrow because the old SG/FA deal is where the money is! Where the credibility stems from! Except that...unless you're already Known it's almost guaranteed to be no more than a lot of work (hanging), expenses (printing, paying the gallery) and no sales...but...you had a show! In a proper Gallery!

A succession of 'slides' then, on the internet, but not controlled by the projector; instead, the viewer chooses both their space (social platform) and the way they see the art, the speed at which they look...how does the swipe of a finger differ from the motion of legs in a SG? 

The SG experience is more tiring...here art is viewed in any position, at any time...lying down, standing at a bus stop, sitting comfortably, in the office (even!)...the SG offers art 'in the flesh', an incredible experience, yet how many people do you see actually examining a work of art? Really getting in close (don't cross the barrier and set off the alarm!)....to study a detail...very few.

Here art detail can be examined at the spread of two fingers...that is, should it first appear interesting. Theoretically, you paid your money for a SG show and should therefore spend more time with each piece, yet shows can be so big, so much work to see, so many rooms! So you walk, looking out for something that catches your eye...

Swiping through art presents a slightly different but related challenge. It's easy to swipe, too easy...a piece must really grab you to warrant the stillness of the finger....

And yet here, on the internet, we see democracy in action. We artists are confronted with exactly the same conundrum as those showing in SGs, namely how much should public reaction influence future works? Assuming the artist has not trapped themselves in one style already, do they create more of what proves popular? Or follow their creative whim? This issue is more relevant to the internet artist than the SG one, the latter only being able to gauge the popularity of a piece if it should sell, whilst the former can see how many 'likes' it gets.

Art on the internet is transient...as they used to say of news in print; it's wrapped in tomorrow's fish'n'chips, or in the case of art on a social platform, forgotten by tomorrow, usually. Perhaps a site like this is a stab at permanence. 

Thanks for calling in.