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Functions
Gallery focuses on works that share
a theme or common thread. Possible topics for this
gallery are open-ended, and
we welcome your submissions to
be nominated for showcase in this gallery.
At the same time that Beta
Genome was being developed, the whole
community sentiment was becoming a larger part of our thinking.
If the BetaSpace group was really going to produce something that
also included all the wonderful social aspects of the Internet,
it was clear we were going to have to do more to foster a sense
of community for our Web viewers. After all, BetaSpace was about
connecting people over distances, not just putting our work out
there for all to see.
The Functions
Gallery arose out of the desire
to have a more traditional gallery environment online,
that is: carryover the traditional
jury and curator processes in a traditional gallery
into an online setting. A lot of the BetaSpace process
is built on Web democracy – the
idea that individuals exercising communal rights would
hold more legitimacy than the published efforts of
a few. Traditional galleries
do not embrace this idea at all; in fact the traditional
gallery spaces are arguably some of the most elitist
places ever created.
The idea of bringing in a jury process was spawned
because of galleries like Functions where
the group felt like a more traditional process
might be more appropriate by acknowledging the values
of the traditional art world.
Since the Functions
Gallery is based on works that share a theme
or common thread (something which many traditional
gallery shows do), the name arose out of the idea of reusing
material over again
for similar purposes. The term Functions is borrowed
from the concept of computer programming where a set of statements
are to be continually
reused. Since the idea of creating art for the Internet
requires both a solid knowledge of programming and aesthetics,
the name
seemed like a good fit.
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