Did anyone else in NY attend the ASCI panel at Cooper, "Collectiblity
and the Digital Print"?

99% of the audience was composed of artists, including at least one of
the net-literati (who was that?) who made a heated point that we should
be using digital media to invent and explore the new paradigms, etc.,
and not wimp out or sell out by trying to insert it into the
pre-existing hierarchy of forms, (ra-ra) (see: historical comparison
with photography).

Most of the discussion however centered on the digital PRINT in its
various incarnations, which tend to be thought of as either Photographs
or Prints, not as a thing unto itself… and someone wondered out loud
why so much attention has been focussed on longevity and permanence of
digitally outputed inks, etc., since so many artists use such fugitive
media as bodily fluids, candy and scotch tape and the collectibility of
their work has never been so relentlessly questioned.

The legendary Henry Wilhelm was on the panel, and has pretty well
established that the ink jet process is no longer as fugitive as one
would assume (see www.hwilhelmresearch.com, I think, or go to the asci
site)–that it long outlasts the Cibachrome, for example–that the
various perfections of the various and sundry cannons (prints, photos)
can be attained more perfectly than ever digitally, and that that
particular revolution is already upon us.

The one museum curator on the panel, David Kiel of the Whitney (Prints),
has not yet felt driven to purchase any digital prints, and persisted in
the excuse that there was no way to know how to conserve them–yet.
Also, that he hadn't seen anything of High enough Quality. This caused
sufficient ruckus. What the panelists didn't realize, but everyone in
the audience knew, is that they sat on a stage behind a table, and
everyone could see what they were doing with their hands and feet under
the table. All that body language was half the discussion.

Any other comments anyone? I thought it was a panel worth commenting on,
but so far have not seen any on the various lists, unless I missed them.