| Rational Draft #1
DICTIONARY DEFINITION
vir·tu·al (vûrch-l)
adj.
1. Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not
in actual fact, form, or name: the virtual extinction of the
buffalo.
2. Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination.
Used in literary criticism of a text.
3. Computer Science. Created, simulated, or carried on by
means of a computer or computer network: virtual conversations
in a chatroom.
com·mu·ni·ty (ke-myooni-te)
n. pl. com·mu·ni·ties
1. a. A group of people living in the same locality and under
the same government.
b. The district or locality in which such a group lives.
2. a. A group of people having common interests: the scientific
community; the international business community.
b. A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society:
the gay community; the community of color.
3. a. Similarity or identity: a community of interests.
b. Sharing, participation, and fellowship.
4. Society as a whole; the public.
5. Ecology.
a. A group of plants and animals living and interacting with
one another in a specific region under relatively similar
environmental conditions.
b. The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms.
virtual community – a community of people sharing common
interests, ideas, and feelings over the internet or other
collaborative networks. – whatis.com
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THESAURUS
virtual -
basic, constructive, essential, fundamental, implicit, implied,
in conduct, in effect, in practice, indirect, potential, practical,
pragmatic, tacit, unacknowledged
community -
association, body politic, brotherhood, center, colony, commonality,
commonwealth, company, district, general public, hamlet, jungle,
locality, nation, neighborhood, people, populace, public,
residents, society, state, territory, turf, affinity, identity,
kinship, likeness, sameness, semblance, similarity, alliance,
association, clan, clique, club, comradeship, coterie, fellowship,
fraternity, guild, league, order, secret society, society,
sodality, union
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ABSTRACT
What is the value of virtual art communities?
Art teachers’ interests and abilities relating to making
art
The purpose of this study is to examine how virtual communities
may assist and inhibit art making.
What role does the virtual community play in the act of art
making?
How are artists, art educators, and art students using virtual
communities?
How is a web community different from one in the real world?
What does it feel like to belong to a web community?
What defines the moment when you cease to be a tentative newcomer
and start to feel that you are part of a community?
Ritual
Mentors/leaders
Addiction to the technology
Identity within the virtual community
“where everybody knows your name”
This has led me to consider how the Internet impacts and
alters communities, relationships, space, artistic practice,
ideas about public and private, fiction and fact.
How might artists use - and simultaneously - critique electronic
media (especially since analyzing and doing are two distinctly
different cognitive processes not prone to occur simultaneously)?
Why have some artists embraced this technology in their own
artistic development and others have not? Is it due to lack
of interest, time, resources, or training? Or simply because
of comfort zones?
ways virtual communities are likely to change our experience
of the real world, as individuals and communities
pitfalls of mixing technology and human relationships
I suspect that one of the explanations for this phenomenon-
informal public spaces disappear from our real lives.
do things with each other in new ways, and to do altogether
new kinds of things--just as telegraphs, telephones, and televisions
did.
The secondary purpose of my thesis (‘Cut + Paste’)
proposes a virtual community designed specifically for art
educators. It will exist to encourage art teachers to pursue
their own work by sharing their creative needs, concerns,
and inspirations with their peers. By having artist/teachers
share their stories, wisdom, and advice, I hope to inspire
and encourage others to pick up that paint brush again and/or
sign up for that glassblowing class that they have always
wanted to take. Through interviews, an email discussion list,
and excellent creative resources, I'm hoping to admonish the
statement – THOSE WHO CAN’T…TEACH.
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SOURCES
Research Methods and Methodologies for Art Education
Edited by Sharon D. La Pierre and Enid Zimmerman
Communities in Cyberspace
Edited by Marc A. Smith and Peter Kollock
Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace
Rna M. Palloff and Keith Pratt
Connnexity
Geoff Mulgan
The Virtual Community
Howard Rheingold
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
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