On 6 May 1999 Michael Stutz wrote:
> I realize that this list has been very quiet in recent months, and so maybe
> it is time for a meta-discussion on the purpose of this list [...]
>
> This list has more subscribers than ever, but I get a sense that nobody
> knows what to say [...] I don't think this list has to increase traffic to
> 25,50,100 messages a week (I couldn't handle it right now!), but not having
> a sense of who is on this list and why they are here is not good, either.
>
> [...] How can we improve things? For the people subbed to the list right now:
> why are you subscribed, when you could just as easily read the WWW
> archive of the list? What do you want to get out of this list; what
> expectations do you have for it?
The reason I subscribed to the list is to quote its description. It is a
discussion list for artists who use GNU/Linux and other free software in the
creation and distribution of their work. The list has a rather broad scope.
Both theory and practice are welcome here. Discussion concerning free art
(in the GNU sense) is also welcome.
I've been subscribed since 18 March, about eight weeks. I generally prefer
to spend a few days observing discussion in progress before contributing.
To rely only on the evidence provided by this period, and considering the
wide range of relevant discussion that could occur here, I would be tempted
to conclude that artists are very poor at expressing themselves.
This conclusion would be reinforced by Michael's "thanks all for the comments
both on- and off-list." That post of 7 May would refer to *two* comments
on the list. I know neither the number or content of comments *off* the list,
but *closed source* commentary occurs to me of negligible contribution to a
"meta-discussion" or "a sense of who is on this list and why they are here."
Perhaps three decades of advancing postmodernism, recognized or not, have
debilitated artists socially. The first half of this century realized an array
of branching and cross-fertilizing art movements that a map of which would
resemble one of a metropolitan mass transit system. What was then called a
"tendency" was a conscious participation. Today, if one reads of four artists
in Buenos Aires producing works of iconic abstraction with synthetic paints,
it is as likely the fortuitous discovery of a curator searching for a theme.
