By Jessica N. Bowles-Martinez
The Bit Screen tries to convince you that the internet is the next
broadcast medium. The site shows first-run internet films and web
series which are made specifically with the internet in mind. Every
week it features four artists and their works which come in different
formats and styles. Some are fairly innovative while others are just
choppy slow paced cartoons.
In the screening room area there is a listing of works and the artists
who created them. After clicking on one of the icons for a work you
are given the option to view the work or read the biography, credits,
and statement provided by the artist. One of the movies was lacking
any form of creativity and was just a copy of cartoon, but being an
imitation with no innovation, it can't be better than what it was
copying, and in this case was much worse. It was choppy and boring
with no real plot, it was just a guy walking down the street and bad
things happened to him. Even the incidents were typical cartoon cliches
and predictable. Considering this site is supposed to highlight innovation
and the advantages of web based art it seems odd that they would have
something that doesn't show creativity or indicate that the uses of
the web were considered.
To make up for this there was an interesting work that has random
shuffles, which are films that reconfigure themselves every time the
site is visited. The entire design takes into account the possibilities
available when something has the flexibility associated with being
online. If this site were more selective it would only allow innovative
contributions of this sort for they do the most for supporting the
sites argument that through innovation the web is the next great medium
for it has abilities not present elsewhere.
Looking at the biographies of those who designed the different works
I noticed that those who are just technical people tend to use a bit
more features than just cartoons but the uses aren't something very
original. For example, there is a work where its just a game of hangman,
and you pick the letters you think complete the word. As you move
around to pick the letters the characters eyes follow you and reacts
if you get it right or wrong. The game isn't at all original, but
it uses more technology than most of the works on the site. The more
original stuff comes from those who, according to their biography,
are artists but are comfortable in the digital medias and have caught
up with the technology. The other end of the spectrum, artists who
are too tied to the more traditional art forms also seem to create
unimpressive results. One seemed too tied to his comic strip and cartoon
roots and as a result only made boring linear story lines that don't
take advantage of the differences between the static nature of printed
work and what can be done online.
The works that I am assuming are aiming for the avant garde audience
take advantage of the non-linear story lines and allow the viewer
to take a slightly more active role. While the commercial mainstream
ones are more like copies of traditional media like television and
only use the internet as a method of distributing a television show.
The avant garde maybe trying to attract those who are interested in
the internet as an alternative to passively consuming data while the
commercial ones are trying to attract those who use the internet as
an escapist method where they get to turn off their brains and just
be spoon fed a plot, in other words, they are competing for the same
audience as television.