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Letter from the Editor

May.01.2006

It all started when I got the hankering to see Visual Codec host a regional forum on Contemporary Visual Art Criticism, which was immediately followed by the brilliant (or so I thought) idea to host the forum online.

Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the attraction to the notion — nobody would have to physically travel anywhere, everyone would have time to think through their contributions, people could float in and out at will, and the text results could be transferred to publication more easily than a verbal forum — but mind you, none of the apparent 'shortcutting' inherent to the format should be read as an excuse for what was to come.

No, the events that followed these good intentions were of such grand calamity that I feel they deserve an equally grandiose excuse, so I'm calling us down some fair coverage under the claim that we were beset by an Act of God...

And if you understand that, you understand how desperate I am for any excuse.

And yet, I can find none actually plausible. We picked our panelists carefully. We test drove software technology that was reportedly cross-platform friendly. We started coordinating our efforts weeks in advance of the event. We even had a backup technology plan.

And still.

You name it, and I guarantee it was thrown our way. Scheduling conflicts on individual and city-wide levels; technical difficulties with the software involved; inconsistencies between work computers and home computers.

And all this before the forum even started.

Once it did, a whole separate onslaught of locusts set upon us: Entire paragraphs disappeared into thin air; panelists were repeatedly booted out of the forum by the software for no reason we could suss out; and even our backup technology plan went belly up.

I think perhaps life sometimes perverts the efforts of those of us industrious enough to really live it. Maybe to see if we'll be stubborn enough to overcome the obstacles. Or maybe just to give us a good chance to laugh at ourselves every now and then.

At any rate, all I know is that you can only take personal responsibility for Acts of God so many times in the space of a couple of hours...

And now, with all this, you might be wondering just how in hell we have anything at all from the forum to publish in this month's issue. I'll tell you: sheer determination. Not just on my part. Perhaps, even, least of all on my part.

Real credit actually belongs to our panelists, who not only spent hours wrangling their computers into shape before the actual event, but who also wouldn't quit, and wouldn't quit again and again despite the roadblocks thrown up directly in front of them.

And, as a result, we had only two major casualties in our small war with technology, which, take it from me, is flabbergasting considering the tricks that played out on all of us.

Now, I knew our panelists were enthusiastic about the forum. And I know a lot of people are juiced up about this publication in general. But nothing prepared me for the tenacity our panelists displayed in their resolution to be involved, even at such high cost to personal time and effort.

But because of this, in the end, we did win a victory. Representatives from all angles of our regional visual arts equation did cross boundaries of space, time, technology, and status to come together and make a dialogue happen.

And that was exciting. Is exciting. And will continue to be exciting (and even more so just as soon as we here at Visual Codec wrangle some new and actually useful online forum technology to the floor).

So many, many, many thanks are due to those of you out there who were (or tried to be) involved in our first online forum. Your level of dedication to the dialogue and the community at large is inspiring.

Rock on,

m.

Founding Editor
Visual Codec
editor@visualcodec.com