Hrag Vartanian

With the new & improved Apple TV my dream of foregoing cable TV and subsisting on content from the World Wide Web has become a reality.

Now that Flickr has joined YouTube and iTunes, the smorgasbord of video, audio and image material is endless.

Some artists may prefer other online mediums to express themselves, like Jenny Holzer’s affinity for Twitter, but YouTube and Flickr are still the mediums of choice for wannabe and established art talents.

My personal faves, most of which aren’t available on cable or elsewhere are:

• ON FLICKR:
  • The Library of Congress‘ amazing photography collection;
  • Eric Parker‘s luscious pics;
  • Snailbooty‘s mind warping photos;
  • C-Monster‘s great pics of crazy things; and
  • A Russian photographer‘s art school-y images–she’s just cool.

• ON YOUTUBE:
  • AlJazeera English—a good palette cleanser for those tired of the American news cycle;
  • Brave New Films and their no-holds-barred approach to fringe Republicans;
  • The Burg sitcom–though the show has lost its edge, it’s still fun to watch the North Brooklyn stereotypes;
  • MoMA videos—including intriguing lecture & installation videos; and
  • James Kalm’s NY gallery visits–when I can’t get to a show this is where I turn…I admit it I can be lazy.

Is art destined to go the way of music and writing? Once record labels, newspapers, and print publishers ruled the world, today iTunes, blogs and the Internet have supplanted them. Even the NY Times is reporting that high-end galleries are going online.

If artists find a way to bypass galleries and deliver art straight to the people then more artists will be able to make money, won’t they?

More importantly, artist branding will not tied to the arcane gallery business and it will make art more accessible….Ok, I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself….there will always be a need for galleries but I don’t think anyone will miss the hoitie toitie places most big galleries have become.

Now for my biggest complaint (and I hope Steve Jobs is listening)…you can’t view the captions of images on Flickr via the Apple TV…not yet anyway.