dominique: What is the Genius 2000 Project
(http://www.geocities.com/~genius-2000)?

Max Herman: It's like a discussion. It's just my way of saying what my
values are, I just keep saying "discuss Genius 2000. Think about what it
is." Sure it's very preachy but you take something like the Genius 2000
Video Focus Group Installation, which you can download from
aurorablue.org, now that's a good piece of art from any standpoint. So
maybe it's all a big joke.

D: Do you find the benefits of a networked audience a benefit to your
art, despite working in a relatively 'off-line' media?

MH: What? Nonsense question. Do I use e-mail, yes, etc. My website is me
using a cheap Geocities browser. Is the human brain a medium? New or
old? Off-line media. Time is a line, right? Like a timeline into the
future, to use a math metaphor. I have a good math joke in the video,
G=mt2000.

D: Do you feel that your work is new media? A video can be looked apon
as a bit of a relic in the hyperliterate frenzy of the data web. Do you
find this pressure relevant to the ideas you are trying to present?

MH: See above answer.

D: Also, as a personal thought, I would wonder why you have not
presented the Video in a Streaming Format for the web?

MH: No money to set it up, but I met some people recently so I'll put up
some clips. But also, I think buying the actual video is a good thing
whether I get the money or not. There should be a charity or non-profit.
It's like a relic, real cheap, 20 bucks. I still watch mine, it's cool.

D: And I also would appreciate a clarification of the following
statement: "All new art-historical periods begin when an event or work
catalyzes a large group, and transforms individual insight into
collaboration or similarity."

MH: That's a quote from the Join page of my site. It's like the Yes/No
Project, sort of a joke about the browser I use. But as for whether I
believe what I wrote, I think it does deal with the question of joining
any art-project; from looking at a painting, doing a listserv, or going
to Woodstock, you join the fray.

I also mean it on a more philosophical level. I wrote, "an event or work
catalyzes a large group, and transforms individual insight into
collaboration or similarity."

By this I mean there is a sign to gather and hear some people talk or
whatever, put their heads together. We tend to forget to do this, so art
is like backward progress in that it reminds us to do what we shouldn't
have forgotten to do. I like the part in Yes/No where I chart how
rapidly the art-historical periods are getting shorter and shorter to
the point where there aren't any anymore.

The issues of this "coming together" are problematic though. Who defines
the situation? The whole point is to define the situation yourself, a
simple principle of the Constitution.