"Another Rubicon was crossed in the mid-'00s with the publication of the GNY05OG (Greater New York 2005 Online Gallery). This Borgesian project began at the instigation of "blogger" James Wagner (as citizen journalists were then known). In response to a Stalinesque ban on photography at the PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, Wagner called for artists to sketch the show and offered to post the drawings to the Internet. The response was astonishing--overcoming their natural territoriality, apathy about other artists' work and fear of not being seen as "playas," hundreds of artists flocked to the institution and submitted drawings to Wagner. The online exhibition was so personal, idiosyncratic and non-hierarchical that critics began describing it as "better than the original show" (Village Voice) and a "case of the map becoming the territory" (October). The art was viewed all over the world, revitalizing New York as a "dynamic center of art rather than just a series of year-round vegetable stalls" (The Guardian).

The show also marked the beginning of a new, meta-art, wherein artists used powers of observation, drawing ability, and Photoshop skills to create an enhanced online product somewhere between the physical and the virtual. The new work had a torqued up effect akin to the sampling phenomenon in music, where tweaked sounds became more punchy and "present" than live playing. Eventually, as we know, museums became physical "sample banks," with real-space objects serving much the same function as plaster casts of still life subjects in the 19th Century academy, that is, mere shells used as starting points for finished electronic work.

Hilarious parody... no wait, I think you really mean it.

Did you see the mention of this project and your name at artnet?

http://artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews8-23-05.asp

"WITH CAMERAS BANNED, ARTISTS TAKE UP PENCILS
As a matter of policy, visitors aren’t allowed to take photographs of the artworks in "Greater New York 2005," Mar. 13-Sept. 26, 2005, the vast survey exhibition of emerging art mounted at the P.S.1 in Long Island City. In response to this "Stalinesque ban" -- to use the words of critic and artist Tom Moody -- the collector James Wagner launched a special "Free the Art" web gallery on his popular art blog, featuring drawings and sketches of works in the show contributed by other artists. So far, eight drawings have come in the e-mail. See www.jameswagner.com"
- chrisashley (guest) 8-25-2005 1:11 am

Thanks, I hadn't seen it yet. "Critic and artist Tom Moody"--hmmm, better start writing some criticism to go with that honorarium.
- tom moody 8-25-2005 4:23 am

Actually, the original idea was from Michael Cambre, who contributed 5 color drawings.
- barry (bloggy.com) (guest) 8-25-2005 4:47 am

Tom, regarding the norton firewall thing, if you can turn off the part about Referer headers under browsing privacy it should be OK. You can even do that just for a given site I believe. I don't use Norton products on my windows box, as I find them a bit unstable. I have a firewall in my router, and just anti-virus software from McAfee.
- barry (bloggy.com) (guest) 8-25-2005 4:50 am