Essay:

g07k3115


The Internet was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in 1990, using a "hyper text mock up language" called HTML for global information sharing. The Internet then moved on into the generation of what is now known as Web 1.0. Web 1.0 is charaterized by the way that it links information from one source to another, and from ther to another.... and so on and so forth. We now live in the internet generation of Web 2.0 whereby information and sites are not just directly linked, but are an intertwining "web" that links various sites through key words and phrases, where resources are freely available through each other and bounce back and forth and not through a "chain" of links, where it is not one person sending out information but many people contributing to a site from opposite ends of the world sending out data simultaneously as well as receiving. Examples of Web 2.0 that are known to most of us are Facebook, youTube, and blogs such as this one...

I will be looking at three art related websites, firstly the South African ArtTimes, secondly the African Asai, and thirdly the International ArtFagCity, and comparing and contrasting them through critiques of how they 1. work well 2. dont work 3. could improve 4. what they do and if it is achieved.


Arttimes is a website that follows the printed publication, it is kept fairly up to date and is informative in the way of feeding readers snippets of news and critiques that are featuring in the publication. The top stories are online and one can view the first few lines and thereafter decide if they wish to view the more of the story. It works well online purely as an "advertising" space for the publication as it is not all encompassing in the South African Art world online, in the way of hyperlinks and links to other related websites etc.... so to that extent it does not take full advantage of Web 2.0. One can engage with the website to a certain degree by being able to view previous weeks articles and stories as well as being able to subscribe for updates via email. It provides information on artists and upcoming or previous/current exhibtions, it also provides news on what one can expect to see at these exhibtions as well as book reviews. There is not a vast amount on this site as there is a publication that the creators would rather have peole subscribe to but for people on the go it is great as they get a few interesting stories to scan over and keep them updated. The site could afford to be more interactive in the way of news feeds and fuller stories online, and possibly have more reviews and feedbacks on the actual website. As far as the pictorial side of the site, it does not have a wide variety, it has the pictures of the week and one or two pictures to view alongside each story. Being a publication that is also online it is refreshing however that the stories are done by various columnists and not one person however one can see through the lack of commenting space that it is primarily a printed publication and that the website is secondary to that publication.


As far as my African website goes, i chose Asai, which is a very interactive and user friendly site, upon entering there is a screen where you click on the topic or category you would like to browse through which has its' own subcategories and links eg : Artists, Events, Bibliographies, Writing with perspective etc... It is primarily an online publication and this shows through bulk of information and links it has, there are fuller stories, conversations, opinions and speeches etc... there are more categories and posts to choose from and the site is pretty easy to navigate around. Asai is very informative in the way of Archives, organisations, Artists and Articles that they post from the book, Third Text Africa. This website aims at rekindling the relationship between the South African Art Scene with the rest of Africa and is directed at those who can't access art information, pictures, exhibtions, publications and reviews and so they are merely a click away from accessing those things now, assuming they have access to the internet. While the site could benefit from more links and feeds from other websites (Web 2.0) and more pictures of exhibtions it works well to fulfill it's primary purpose.


Artfagcity is a New York focussed website that is done in a blog like fashion whereby, there is a list of pictures followed by a story: be it on an artist, exhibition or art news story updates, there are a few links to the fuller versions of the stories and highlights and links within the site but Artfagcity definately does not, in my opinion take advantage of Web 2.0, yes it is applicable to a location specific group, that of artists or art interested people in New York, or people internationally just wanting to see a few subjective highlights on the art scene in new york, but it does not include many feeds or reviews etc.... it is fairly well updated and kept up with current happenings but as far as being interactive goes, this is not the site for that. Many of the titles or links are at the bottom of the page and appear rather muddled - there is not much structure to this site. It does provide a variety of options on accessing the information the site has to offer, just there is no particular layout that allows for easy access to the information on the site. This site would be far more effiecient and beneficial if it were more user friendly and made a greater use of news feeds and information on similiar sites or hyperlinks allowing one to find an abundance of information on the same topic they are discussing...


Through my own critique of the above websites, I would say that yes these sites do serve their purposes but within their own target groups and in order to be more "Web 2.0" compliant that these sites could extend far further into other realms of the online art world and incorporate more information on their focussed groups and feed in even more information from other sites to creat a larger database where whoever may be viewing their site can interact more with the goings on and not just catch snippets of stories or reviews and view more online exhibitions and interact more with other likeminded people and what may be happening all over, simultaneously.