INTRO /
HELLO AGAIN.
I WANT TO START BY THANKING ALL OF YOU WHO HAD REACHED OUT TO ME AFTER MY LAST ‘SLETTER DISAPPEARED INTO THE NIGHT. IT WAS AN EXTREMELY GRATIFYING PROCESS, AND I TRULY MISSED OUR WEEKLY DIALOG. ALSO A VERY SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO BEN, FOR MAKING ME DO THIS. IT WILL BE SO MUCH BETTER THIS WAY.
IT ALSO SEEMED TO RESONATE QUITE WELL WITH MY AUDIENCE. SO MUCH SO THAT IN JUST A FEW MONTHS THERE WERE NEARLY 1,000 READERS FOLLOWING ALONG. LET’S GET BACK TO IT.
THIS TIME AROUND THE FORMAT WILL SEEM FAMILIAR AT TIMES AND WILL INCLUDE LINK DUMPS OF INTERESTING BITS MY MEDIA DIET SURFACES. I WILL ALSO EXPERIMENT WITH A FEW NEW APPROACHES. I LOOK FOWARD TO YOUR COMMENTS, AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE ALL NEW THE·ART·OFFICIAL. REMEMBER, CLICKING ON LINKS IS STILL VERY IMPORTANT TO UNLOCKING EACH ISSUE’S POWER.
NOTE — THE·ART·OFFICIAL IS BEST VIEWED IN A BROWSER OR THE SUBSTACK APP.
LINKED OUT /
I know we have reached “peak-collaboration” with anyone and everything a very long time ago. I am also aware we are also in a post-happy-meal era. But… if you are in LA this week, the McDonalds x Palace “Featured In” drop activation will be cool for a day. It has not been really announced yet but Palace will be pulling up at America’s oldest McDonalds. Want to know more? Ask reddit for more details.
The ongoing hype about the possibilities and possible applications of artificial intelligence (AI) seems currently unlimited. The AI procedures and solutions are praised as true panaceas. However, when viewed soberly, they are just another tool in the toolbox. I have a profound concern about those considering it a core function. Whether that is a core function in your business model, art practice, or general approach. Paul Aaron at Addition finds a great balance. AI could also just be the next Adidas Sambas, or Panda Dunks. IYKYK.
Welcome to Hell. I am guessing less than 1% of the current readership remembers, Kenneth Aronson’s NetArt work www.hell.com. Needless to say the aesthetic of that domain was the primary inspiration for this publication. Beyond pure look and feel, after this post, this publication will adopt its ethos of becoming a private parallel network of acknowledged visionaries with diverse skillsets connecting from multiple locations. At the time hell.com was the most fascinating site on the Internet to me. Mysterious, exclusive, and creative. It was like a private version of superbad.com, which is thankfully still up and running today. So going forward, access to this publication will be limited. Access will be granted. We are not talking paywalls, we are talking community.
OUTSIDE IN /
As I was writing the above paragraph last night about hell.com I thought, what a great idea it would be to reach out the founder of this monumental and very important project and see if Kenneth was down for a quick email interview. This morning he wrote back and agreed. Below is the short transcript of that email thread.
A Brief conversation with Kenneth Aronson /
In 1995, the idea of a private parallel web fascinated me. I feel like you were somehow predicting the world we live in today, living in public, and unable to separate ourselves from exposure. It was the polar opposite of a site like superbad.com, yet somehow they both felt extremely similar in the way they satisfied my curiosities of the early Internet.
TN - What was the key reason for going private and lurking beyond the prying eyes of the general population?
KA - The web circa 1995 was the hint of 24/7/365 hype and a sewer of unedited content and rampant commercialism. hdc was the antithesis of that, It wasn’t about making money, or fame …we were building the fun! Alt reality cyber Disneyland world envisioned of snow crash and lawnmower man..but not for consumers.. in order to get into the park you had to bring a ride.
TN - As the founder and owner of the domain, how long did it take to shape this into the mythical place it became?
KA - 10-15 years
TN - So, who were some of the artists of hell?
KA - The initial members were coders, visionaries, writers, academics, hackers musicians or anyone who could contribute, actually artists were a minority.
TN - How did you curate, or select people to be included in this project?
KA - I invited people that were doing mind-blowing work to join, and then they invited people that they thought were incredible, etc etc. At the early stages of the w3 everyone was knocking off each others codes …but hdc changed that as the members had to contribute a work in an environment with their heroes. It became a VERY intimidating challenge
TN - I feel like the mid-90s was a magical time for many of us. This new global medium awoke me, and ultimately gave me a career path. Word.com, The first years of Razorfish, and PSEUDO were changing everything. As someone who worked in the commercial and NetArt worlds, it is hard to imagine today's "Digital Creators" having any ability to grasp that time.
TN - Do you think a project like hell.com could exist today?
KA - The tool has been coopted for a single purpose: greed [making money /accumulating market share] it won't be used for anything else…. its like a snake eating itself. *
TN - What is the biggest complaint you have about the state of the Internet today?
KA - It’s exactly the shit show I envisioned except 10000x worse. unlimited content without editors / once you open that door you get isis, trump, and influencers. An endless steaming pile of nonsense
The possibility of the internet was great / in 1995. The web was like this incredible tool-like an electron microscope .. but we are using it as a hammer.
*Paradoxically AI will take care of that.
TN - Thank you Kenneth, I could not agree more.
INSIDE OUT /
Ok, so like many other “creatives” I am usually in a constant state of coming up with ideas that I want to some day materialize. The obvious answer is to simply do. If you have an idea, make it. Want to write a song, write it. Want to make a short film, and do it in reverse. Well, that is one thing I am actually working on now. What do I mean about doing it in reverse? Well, create the score, then board out and film to that.
The other idea I had rattling around in my head was the fact that most of us growing up and becoming fans of bands for the most part centered around particular songs and not (for some) around an entire album. So, what would the memory of an album sound like in a single length format, something like 3 minutes long. That being said a few albums that are burned into my mind, in track order are: The Pixies “Doolittle”, De La Soul’s “Three Feet High And Rising“, and the ground-breaking album from Nasir Jones “Illmatic” live in long format in my mind forever.
The Concept /
Step one: Take the mid 90s indie rock, shoegaze, fuzz pop band The Swirlies and their classic under-known album “Blonder Tongue Audio Baton” and reduce it to the most memorable moments I recall. It ended up clocking out to 3:32. Almost a perfect duration for a pop song. Oh and if you ever liked Sonic Youth or bands like My Bloody Valentine, you will see where they got their sound.
Step two: (in development) is to write, direct, shoot, and edit a film to the run-time. I currently have a loose set of shooting boards and locations so far. You can listen to the soundtrack so far, to an unknown film, below.
The Score /
I will publish updates on this project, and if you want to collaborate, LMK.
END /