Okay, so maybe I spent a bit too much time playing with Unfolding Object. Regardless, in perusing the art sites, I realize that I have quite a liking not only for the art on the web, but for the project of art on the web. Although some of the sites have more of a radical push to them, e.g. detritus, most seem to be content to have a place to display their creative projects. It was interesting to see that not all of the art sites tie themselves exclusively to net art, and instead embrace the democratization of expression in general. Sure, all of these projects need money to keep running, which they will probably have a hard time getting, but these sites arent seeking profits, fame, or critical recognition. They seem to just want to have a space to showcase their art, and I like that. Hopefully, they will continue to have these places.

On a related note (and perhaps this is a topic for later readings), I would like to bring up the idea of education through some of these art sites and through computer technologies. I played around with the flag at the guggenheim, and just by clicking through some of the stuff, I learned a bit about the flags of other countries, what their colors symbolize. Even without really paying attention to the fact, I was learning. Other sites had similar features and results. One of the interesting topics of discussion in our course might be to what extent people used to learning hypertextually (what are sometimes referred to as Digital Natives) should be taught with computers. This is the first course I have had that has embraced the idea that learning can happen on computers, and so far, our class seems to be doing pretty well.