Control This

Let's look at examples of artists using the internet as a platform for "working with others." What kinds of problems/issues/exciting developments come up when artists bring ideas of collaboration into their work?

The most pressing issue I see coming up in the idea of collaboration in artwork comes in the idea of control.

Eco claims that works are open ane "quite literally 'unfinished.'" The fundamental issue must then become who controls what creates the "finished" product. Holmes says

Control, in hyper-individualist societies, is a function of the way your attention is modulated bt the content you freely select; but it's also a function of the direction into which your behaviour is guided by the larger devices in which you participate.

This description of social control has very real consequences, and instead of governments or czars, artists have the power to do as they please with the work. If the artist is in control of the device, the artist is in control. A look at "Suns From Flickr" shows this interaction. Umbrico decided to limit the pictures of suns to those found in the search "sunset," even though "sky" or "sun" would have yielded even more options. This may not be practical, but it is an exercise of control over the "collaborative" project. "Crying, while eating" falls into the same ability to control, given those who want to contribute have to send in their submission to the webmaster and get it put on that way.

Lind brings up something that is also pertinent to this discussion: collaboration versus cooperation. Collaboration involves "more than one participant," but cooperation "emphasizes the notion of working together and mutually benefiting from it." The artist also controls whether the artwork is merely collaborative (i.e. "Suns from Flickr") or has cooperation involved (i.e. "Crying, while eating"). Normally an artist has an idea of a target audience or message though it cannot strictly limit interpretation or control how things are perceived. To have control over the depth of partipation, however, truly creates a new dynamic in artwork.

The issue of control on the internet, with YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and other public venues, is then one of the most pertinent issues facing art and life currently and in the future. You may not be able to tell how things will play out once they are in the public sphere, but by controlling the participation and content of art, artists are playing with a great deal of the story involved.