A Call for Resurrection
By Halaster Fire
January 25, 1998
Today, many of the scenes citizens lament over the perceived
decline of the computer art world. There have been several theories,
explanations, articles and manifestos published over the past few months
in response to this issue. One thing is certain: many of the members of
the art community are dissatisfied with its present productivity and
character. The ever-present, old-school mantra it was better in the old
days has never been so commonly used, and has never been taken so
seriously. Once well-established art groups struggle to release monthly
packs or die off completely. Artists, particularly ANSI artists, toss
down their pens in frustration daily, further thinning the pool of
talent that group leaders need to draw from to keep their organizations
viable. This trend must be reversed, and the entire scene will need to
contribute its part in order to reverse it. While it is impossible to
return to years past, while we cannot reverse the clock and travel back to
the days when artists like Lord Jazz and Iodine produced astounding works
in the ansi medium concurrently with contemporary hi-resolution
visionaries like CatBones and RedMaN, certain aspects and traditions of
the golden-age scene can and must be resurrected to improve our current
time.
As artists like Bedlam and Maestro have asserted, the most
important and oviously necessary ingredients for a thriving art scene are
consistant, talented and productive artists. While the hi-resolution art
arena has grown exponentially in the past few months, the ANSI art medium
has suffered a corresponding decline. As an ANSI artist, I will adress
this specific component of the larger art scene crisis in this article.
Returning once more to Bedlams writings, one finds an emphasis on the
importance of REQUESTS in the art scene relationship to the artist. Quite
simply, artists like to feel like their work serves some purpose - be it
monetary, decorative or thematic. Few artists like to draw solely for
their own eyes, regardless of the motivations behind their creations:
even an artist who refuses to accept payment for his or her work still
needs an audience. At the most fundamental level, a patron, or a person
who requests work, serves as this audience. Speaking from personal
experience, it is a wonderful feeling to know that a sysop or site
maintainer appreciates the work that you have done. The lack of this sort
of positive reinforcement can be seen as the possible cause for the
eventual floundering of many of the scenes art for arts sake projects
such as those begun by artists like Nootropic and Eerie. But I begin to
digress .. to focus once more, REQUESTS are crucial to the continued
existance of the art scene. One source of these requests, especially for
ANSI artists, is the all-but-extinct Electronic Bulletin Board, or BBS.
The Electronic Bulletin Board, the primordial birthing place of
the underground compter art scene .. The BBS, the training grounds for
hoards of the scenes most legendary ANSI artists .. The BBS world used to
serve as the body of the art scene, just as the internet does today.
However, differences in the technological biological makeup of these two
body types have led, in part, to the unsatisfactory state that we now find
ourselves in. BBS systems embodied much of what used to define and
characterize the art scene. The BBS was exclusive, secretive and
intimate. While many people view elitism as a negative thing and rightly
so, the benefits for the artist of a more intimate, personal mode of
communication cannot be ignored. In days of yore, artists would exhibit
unfinished ANSI works on message bases looking for advice or feedback,
also serving to inspire other would-be and established creators. Artists
like Logan of TRiBE even created apprenticeship programs to train new ANSI
artists. I myself was taught many of the basics of ANSI art by Donut
Hole, sysop of The Flying Donuts. Furthermore, BBSes were molded and
controlled by their sysops, shaped into interactive experiences that
reflected much of the sysops aesthetics, values and visions. The Regency
reflects much of my character through its somewhat subdued and precise
setup. Callers to The Heretic Asylum could not help but be impressed by
the boards Jello-green setup, created by a myriad of artists but unified
by the sysops over-riding vision. The comparably homogenious mediums
that we use to communicate today the World Wide Web, IRC, E-Mail lack
this individualistic character. While it can be argued that the medium of
the WWW is more flexible than that of the BBS, it is an undeniable fact
that 90 of the web pages currently published operate under the same
design paradigm, presenting the user with a simple, categorized,
point-and-click interface. While BBSes also operated under a standard,
three-fold paradigm consisting of the Main, Message and Transfer areas,
many systems also had door games, art galleries or real-time chat.
Regardless of the features present, a well-crafted Electronic Bulletin
Board, in my opinion, always had more character and was always more inspiring
than a web page. BBS users were immersed in a sysop-controlled world of
darkness, punctuated and choreographed by carefully designed graphics and
bursts of information. The World Wide Web browser, as an interface, constantly
reminds the user that he or she is viewing something, as opposed to
being immersed in it, through the ever-present scroll bars, 404-errors and
Netscape logo.
Regardless of aesthetic, subjective considerations, one cannot
argue the fact that the BBS has, inherently, a much greater need for ANSI
art than does a web page. As an ANSI artist interested in the survival of
the medium, I only see one escape from the forms current death-row
crisis. The Electronic Bulletin Board must be revived.
As of January 30th, 1998 and for the forseeable future, The
Regency, one of the worlds formost art boards, will be back on-line.* For
now, at least, the board will only be accessable through old-school dialup
access.** My mission will be to capture or create, if necessary, a demand
for this admittedly antiquated form of communication. Over the next few
months, I will be organizing an old-style crashmail network, to be called
aptly enough RegencyNET. The Regencys one famous local message bases
will be accessable by sysops accross the country for a few cents in long
distance dialing charges.***
This is my manifesto: A call to all former art sysops. BRING
BACK YOUR BOARDS! Together, we can revitalize the old, local pockets of
artistic talent that led to this scene, that maintain this scene and whose
current absense is leading to the decline of the ANSI medium and
possibley to the art scene as a whole. Modems need ANSI. Bulletin
Boards need ANSI. The art scene needs ANSI.
Draw.
Spread the word.
Call The Regency.
Halaster halaster+@cmu.edu
Former president of Fire Productions,
Former ACiD/Relic member, Fire ANSI artist,
First and foremost: Sysop.
* The Regency IS up @ 412-687-3066
** Please note that after 7PM, long distance calling under MCI and ATT is
offered at 10 cents per minute, making an hour of calls only six dollars.
A paltry sum of twenty cents per day when spread over a month! Other
cost-saving solutions, like off-line mail readers OLRs are also
available!
*** RegencyNET has actually been scrapped in favor of a message network
dedicated to supporting the BBS revival organization, Resurrection, that
The 4th Disciple, Gunthar and myself have begun. Stay tuned for details
about this group and its goals, or contact me at halaster+@cmu.edu for
more information. Get involved!