Above: Artist and author's stamp based on the artwork titled Loop da
Loo.
After Clare Livingstamps (not her real name) bought my art, Loop Da
Loo, I began to think about the story I told her, how Daniel Lowery
had bought the first one of these journal pages, and he then had
commented, “Some day maybe all the people who have these pages will
convene and reassemble the pages, back to their original form.”
What if that happened? It's fun for me to think about, all these
different individuals having this one, single thing in common. It reminds
me of that famous discovery I think is called Six stages of separation—or
something to that effect. And the words on those artworks, my journal
writing I wrote on each page, coming back together would perhaps tell a
story.
Clare may be the first person to play Emeralda—and the first to also
be thinking about more printmaking, a woodcut; She looked over my Japanese
knives one day. On another one of her visits I described to her how my
idea of a printmaking on-line course would work. I envisioned how we’d
go to Olympia every two weeks, for a weekend, and camp out in the studios
at The Evergreen State College. There would be people from all over
Washington State coming.
The game format works this way (or, if not a game, is Emeralda
Stamps ‘N Stories a toy or a tool?): The on-line
multiplayer game works on a 12-week calendar. Players travel to each
island, on their own, picking up information they need to understand how
to do the process they’re studying. Then they meet on those weekend
trips.
Suppose it’s woodcut they’re planning. The first question Clare
asked was about knives. So she leaves Emeralda City, bound for ArtsPort on
the dawn ferry. By 6:00 AM she’s there and attends the breakfast where
the speaker is to talk about knives and the history of woodcuts in the
work of cartography.
At ArtsPort, seaports are emphasized. The speaker is known for her
ability to segue from flatland cartography to hypermedia, and still stay
on the subject of knives, the different kinds, their use, their
maintenance, and their beauty as instruments.
Here's the fun part: In the course of this on-line adventure, Clare
discovers an evil plot, a mystery unfolding. Thus follows her story, and
mystery writing becomes a sideline for her. She begins to play detective
in the midst of this paradise of an art colony. Also, she’s making a
woodcut, which may or may not have anything to do with the story.
How does she use Emeralda, then, to construct her education on line in
woodcut? I believe the kind of higher education we need now in the liberal
arts is one that people construct for themselves. The utility value
of it would be decided by the degree of risk they’d be willing to take,
but it would be risks for their own enterprises—not the enterprises of
other people.
I think the valuable thing I taught in art school was how to bring
content to higher levels in the visual arts. It was intuitive on my part,
and I think most of my students also were in the mood for intuitive
direction.
I didn’t know what I was doing most of the time. But by following my
hunches I introduced new techniques such as video that led eventually to
new contacts with other artists. Think of William O. Smith, the
clarinetist, for example, and the dancers who were working with Joan
Skinner.
Video also had the effect of bringing people into contact to take part
in nonverbal communication, performance, and strange eye-boggling
electronic special effects brought in by video. New images evolved. I
think new content evolved, too.
Then came the first game. We called it Video Game, of course. Looking
back, I can see that we cared most about two things: Visual effects and
socializing. Video gave us both and without constraints of money and time
in an electronic studio (thanks to the fact I was a professor and could
use the facility for free).
Things are different now. Video is old hat, now that video cameras are
everywhere, tapes are cheap to purchase and even special effects come with
many personal computers. Entire movies can be created on a PC for under
$500. Kids can do multimedia arts.
This brings up the question about content and socializing now—both
important, I think, in the arts. Recently I read that it is not longer a
case of content being king; the author said context is king, for without a
participatory angle, content just sits there.
He is Chuck Martin, and he wrote a book about ten years ago called Digital
Estates. His words came back to me when I re-read parts of his book
and it helped me think about Emeralda and Stamps ‘N Stories. Artists’
stamps are interesting in and of themselves, but as prints there’s very
little you can do with them compared to electronic stamps.
That’s why I created Stamps ‘N Stories—to animate and enliven
the stamps, deepen what they mean and open the gates to other peoples’
input.
Finally, in my e-mail today I received another electronic stamp from
Clare Livingstamp. It’s actually an electronic reproduction of a fabric
work she created, which happens to include a printed image on fabric I
made a few months ago in a demonstration on relief printmaking from
linoleum.
Somewhere in all this action, there’s a game and maybe a story.
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Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. is an Itinerate Professor based in Seattle. He
taught college (UW) and after promotion to full professor of printmaking
and media arts, he resigned at 43. He then launched several teaching,
research and practice companies. In 1992 he discovered Emeralda, a fantasy
region accessible only by computer. He invented the rules-of-play and
created an operating system for online interactivity for himself.
He writes for the benefit of discipline, using a PDA when he's
wandering around and a desktop PC to organize his essays. He has a
thousand or more saved, which you can see listed on the ten
"islands" on the Web. An example is www.seanet.com/~ritchie/spzine.html,
on the island of RIISMA in the Emeralda Region.
For
further information contact Bill H Ritchie via e-mail at ritchie@seanet.com.
His professional Web site is at www.seanet.com/~ritchie.
The company name is Emeralda Works, 500 Aloha, Seattle, WA 98109. He can
be reached by telephone at (206) 285-0658. Statistics: 1071 Words. 5113 Characters. 2 Pages. isp30620
Deep Emeralda. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.
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