15 July 2002

Valdis Krebs: social network analysis Valdis' work on social networks is fascinating. His software tool, InFlow, allows a visualisation of the connections and influences in a network of people. (Related?: The Brain, which seems to have mutated into a knowledge management tool.) Rodcorp thinks InFlow might be ideal for tracking the relationships between artists or between other creative people in history, eg: artists who taught/influenced/broke away from/competed with other artists. In its simplest sense it could be a art historical genealogy of teacher/student relationships, analogous to a family history (a genealogy of genetics/marriage). In a broader sense, there would be a genealogy/network of ideas. However it's more a network than a strict genealogy because it's wider than merely X taught Y taught Z, and for this reason, using genealogical software seems a little limiting. InFlow's network metrics could be run on the map to see who was most influential in the network. 8:46:32 PM     comments

(Before and) After Raphael (Before and) After Raphael (1995- ) is a "genealogical" project that traces a history of teacher-student relationships (rather than father-son relationships) through art history. Probably electronic, possibly interactive. In sporadic development since 1995, and not yet online. Related: a database of art ideas, tracking the connections between them (how is this different to everything2?): keep all art/other ideas together in one place, updatable, portable, incremental in a form that allows the easy presentation of links between items (including the links that the "cultural detective" has forgotten!). I had a strict rule, which I think the secret services follow, too: No piece of information is superior to any other. Power lies in having them all on file and then finding the connections. There are always connections; you only have to want to find them. Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum (1988), London, Picador, 1990, 225 8:43:24 PM     comments

Some places to buy your art online BritArt.com: paintings, prints etc by the famous (the Peters Blake and Howson), people who should be (Lee, Patsourakis, Ramage) and unknowns. Recommended. Customer service is excellent; but let down by difficult navigation. Score: A- Eyestorm: expensive, glossy site (browser alert!), bankrupt?, with expensive, glossy prints and photos. Highlights: Francis, Sugimoto, Ed Ruscha prints and Michael Light NASA photos sadly sold out. Score: C+ Next Monet: mostly representational (pictures of things) by unknowns. Score: D Counter Editions: prints by biggish contemporary names. Score: A for content, C for breadth. Art 4 Sale: Very broad in scope, but a little messy. Score: none yet Axis Arts: multi-faceted search (nice), hidden behind a consumer data barrier (not so). Score: none yet and a place to look for nutty art things. 7:33:07 PM     comments

Museum of Online Museums "online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of interests and obsessions". However for transit maps, go here. 7:29:53 PM     comments

Visions of the future, from the past What yesterday thought about today and tomorrow [via Sterling] 7:18:11 PM     comments