{"id":1728,"date":"2017-02-11T22:57:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T06:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2017-02-27T22:52:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T06:52:20","slug":"archaic-social-media-arts-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/?p=1728","title":{"rendered":"Archaic social media \u2013 Arts Wire uncovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine it is 1989<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The internet is barely known, email is a strange and difficult idea, and the World Wide Web hasn\u2019t been invented yet. But the censorship wars are raging, the AIDS crisis is hitting artists hard, and debates about public support of the arts in Congress and elsewhere are fiery. Artists and others in the arts need to connect as a community across distances.\u00a0Arts Wire was created to meet that challenge and is now being rediscovered.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Banner headline for Arts Wire’s front page, the “Hub,” November 1992<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What was Arts Wire?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In early 1989, I puzzled over how to spread the news and make the connections that artists needed. I soon learned about the \u201cinformation superhighway\u201d and found mentors in San Francisco and Washington DC. Named Arts Wire later that year, the network was built by a small group of us spread from coast to coast\u2014Seattle, Ann Arbor, the Bay area, New York, Arizona, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and more. The New York Foundation for the Arts was its first supporter and its home base throughout. It got started through paper memos, telephone calls, occasional face-to-face meetings and went online on CompuServe, Sprintnet, and finally the internet. We made our own place online with help from a network provider in Arlington (VA) and later moved to Carnegie Mellon.<\/p>\n

Arts Wire proselytized on behalf of this new tool, and its staff educated and trained new folks to use the then-baffling technology. The news on Arts Wire came from its staff, steering committee, and individual users\u2014artists, arts funders, and staff of arts organizations, public arts agencies, arts service organizations, and arts advocacy groups. Arts Wire enticed associations to join and bring their members online\u2014National Association of Artists Organizations, National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, Native Arts Network, CraftNet, VisualAIDS, Association of Hispanic Arts, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, American Music Center, NewMusNet (led by composer Pauline Oliveros), and many more.<\/p>\n

Despite the ethic of the day\u2014Don\u2019t use paper!\u00a0Save it on floppies!\u2014I just couldn\u2019t give up my attachment to words on paper. While trying to be frugal, I nevertheless printed out many \u201conline captures\u201d of what we were doing. As we\u2019ve learned 25 years later, ink on paper is much more stable than the magnetic coating on floppy disks\u2026rusty paper clips aside.<\/p>\n

\u00a0AND_NOW?<\/strong> Archaic Social Media<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

In 2016, Arts Wire came back into my life as I figured out what to do with my new role as Alum in Residence<\/a> at the University of Washington\u2019s School of Art + Art History + Design. For one, I thought, why not clear out my storage unit? It was stuffed with banker boxes of materials from a life of \u201cprojects.\u201d Interns and I could inventory, discuss, and find a home for them.<\/p>\n