I am, of course, Melissa Hayes, and I am a student at Westminster Choir College/Rider University. I have been very interested in art history my whole life, but 2 years ago I took a class called "Art in the News" from Dr. Richard Swain here at Rider. Each week we were assigned to bring in a news article concerning arts issues. I found an article covering an exhibition of computer art and I was invigorated! My boyfriend is active in artificial intelligence music and so I had a little bit of background in computer-related arts. I did my final project on 2 of the artists from the exhibition who approached computer art in very different ways, and I also interviewed my boyfriend. I loved this class so much I decided to take it again, and this time I was sent an article on Rhizome.org by a classmate. So, my final project seemed clear to me: Rhizome.org and New Media Art. This project is an investigative look into Rhizome.org. The project will delve into the services offered by Rhizome and determine what the value of such an online community is to digital artists. I would like to offer an educational and objective view into the benefits and drawbacks of such a community. I am interested in the art and artists represented by Rhizome, as well as what it is that has made Rhizome such a historical and lasting pillar in a world with such short life expectancy. The project will also attempt to serve as a crystal ball of sorts, predicting future developments, and thus, future vitality of this online digital art community. In addition, I am interested in the process of creativity in a New Media Artist. The project will explore how a piece of digital art comes about from inspiration to media selection to subject matter. The project will emphasize the diversity of the artists and explore what has unified people of such varied backgrounds and interests into the genre of New Media Art.
