I do have a minor obsession with online “trailer” videos made to promote things that are not films. Artist Joanna Neborsky made this piece (music by Cleaning Women) to announce the publication of Invalid Format: An Anthology of Triple Canopy, Volume 1, a printed compendium of the online magazine designed by Project Projects. Visual Good Times are Had By All here, but it also manages to craft a clear message around Triple Canopy’s larger mission, which extends well beyond the Internet.
TC editor Molly Kleiman and I shared a panel with the Art Institute of Chicago’s Liz Neely at last week’s Museum Computer Network conference ; it was called Beyond the Blog: New Waves in Digital Arts Publication (because that’s how conference panel titles work, OK?). I, like many of us, have been following TC since its launch in 2008, yet the academic side of me relished hearing Molly talk about the inception of the magazine, from its whiskey fueled conceptual stages (as any conceptual stage worth its weight damn well should be) to its digital brass tacks. “Slow Down the Internet” was the editorial team’s founding credo.
I launched my first blog, Forward Retreat, in 2001. Back then, Joy Garnett, Kriston Capps, Greg Allen, Tyler Green, Tom Moody and a scant handful of others writing about the arts were my online contemporaries. Some came before us and many came thereafter. I have always assumed the position that one should devote a level of close attention to what one publishes on the web. The rise of social media has made it more difficult to maintain that imperative—I struggle with it a lot internally, in fact, even as I participate. Yet I believe that Triple Canopy is giving the Internet a run for its money. So … Triple Canopy memberships for everyone, this holiday season? Consider it.
