/*
10/1/99
Icontext By Andy Deck
http://artcontext.com/icontext
*/

public void init(){
Written pictures, drawn words. Operable ASCII art. Chat
processing. Collaborative connectivity. What's in this
for the participant, and what's brought to it by participants?
What remains when they leave?
}

public void main(){
Icontext, which opens this week at http://artcontext.com,
is a hybrid of telecommunication, drawing, and word processing
software. Icontext serves as a framework for an open-ended
interplay of pictures and text. What visitors do with their
keyboards and mice will determine what subsequent visitors
see and read.
Unlike the artist's previous work, with projects like
GrafficJam, Icontext tries to engage people in writing as well
as drawing. Borrowing ideas from ASCII art and cryptography,
it gives a new meaning to the term "multi-media," because its
products are simultaneously icons and columns of text. Each
letter typed appears also as a color within the emerging icon,
while drawing a line leaves a parallel trail of letters. Not
every image is an interesting text and vice versa, but the
Icontext software lets people negotiate the balance (or
imbalance) between image and text.
A network-based art that depends on voluntary contributions
for a significant part of its content finds itself in a precarious
half-empty, half-full condition. Nevertheless, the completion of
the piece by the public invites analysis that steps beyond the
scrutiny of the artist's motivations and ideosyncracies to the
evaluation of a cultural moment, the behavior of the public, and
the necessary preconditions for successful forms of computer-
mediated collaboration.
Because of the inconsistent quality of contributions to
open projects like this, there are simple mechanisms that let
all visitors reorganize the archived "icontexts." The hyper-text
links that people encounter, leading from one "icontext" to the
next, can be changed; and people are encouraged to classify the
contents of the archive. There is, however, no means to delete
contributions. Although somewhat arbitrary, these rules aim to
make the archive reflect all the submissions rather than the
preferences of a few zealous users.
Other online projects by Andy Deck include Commission Control,
GrafficJam, OpenStudio, and Space Invaders Act 1732. His
artworks deal primarily with the development of collaborative
process in the context of art and connectivity. The artist's
work, which can be found on the web at http://artcontext.com, has
been shown recently at Thing.net, Prix Ars Electronica,
Turbulence.org, Bostoncyberarts.org, and Postmaster's Gallery.
}