Before and After the I-Bomb: An Artist in the Information Environment. (Media).

Tom Sherman 

Banff, Canada: Banff Centre Press, 2002

According to Tom Sherman, the I-bomb exploded in the early 1990s when computer networks finally attained the speed and mass required to share and distribute the torrent of information we now take for granted. Like previous milestones with explosive power, this had a widespread impact that could prompt one to ask the usual "where-were-you-when" to pinpoint a defining moment that primarily speaks of a crucial collectivity through its arrival. Sherman's new book, Before & After the I-Bomb: An Artist in the Information Environment addresses how we have evolved from managing technology to becoming an integral part of Its networks and interfaces. The essays reflect Sherman's ideas, observations and passions, combining humor and irony with a distinctive voice. As a video and performance artist, Sherman constructs layered narratives of an artist's perception of the world through the experience of media. His writings similarly oscillate between speculative non-fiction and philosophic prose, questioning the role of tec hnology as it relates to the workplace, psychology, nature and the future of art.

In the section entitled "On the Future of Art" Sherman muses on the multiple definitions of art; he holds up a potentially bleak future for art and artists and then suggests invaluable strategies for removing it from the endangered cultural practices list. In his essay "Tweak" (0995), Sherman circumscribes art as a series of paradoxes; "Art is the reconstruction of self. Art is the transformation of self into community. Art is devolution of self into personal substance without consciousness." Although tweaking is a small maneuver or gesture, its ramifications can be quite profound, much in the same way that art permeates all aspects of culture: "To tweak one's perception or experience or description of life is art."

The essay also refers to the ongoing process of creating art. Sherman further explores this theme in the essay "The Finished Work of Art is a Thing of the Past" from 0995. With the advent of digital technology, preceded by radio and television, art lost its corporeality. Sherman states that art has to be positioned and interpreted as information in order to have value in an information economy. An attendant issue with new technology is the question of finality in reference to the product. With immaterial media such as performance, video and net art, the works never attain final closure. From an artist's perspective, this is a positive attribute. Shared authorship through audience participation, usually subsumed in the heralded notions of interactivity, causes a continuous transformation of the art work, extending its life through myriads of potential renderings.

I am drawn to the prophetic undertones in Sherman's essays. His strength as a writer lies in his ability to combine original insights with intellectual rigor, while maintaining a sense of sometimes subtle, sometimes outrageous humor. Sherman's writings require us to re-examine the ramifications of telecommunications and our dependence upon devices and networks. He leaves us with the thought that the two primary elements in our universe are memory and hope. it is our task as artists and individuals to forth and create worlds never before seen or contemplated, memories never envisioned, senses never experienced.

The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (Vol. 2, No. 1) edited by Jan-christopher Horak. University of Minnesota Press/218 pp./$15.00 (sb).

The X Factory: Inside the American Hardcore Film Industry by Anthony Petkovich. Headpress/208 pp./$19.95 (sb).

Toning aud Handcoloring Photographs by Tony Worobiec. Watson-Guptill Publications/128 pp./$24.95 (sb).

Vilem Flusser: Writings edited by Audreas Strohl. University of Minnesota Press/256 pp./$29.95 (hb).

Walker Evans: Polarsids by Jeff L. Rosenheim. Scalo/184 pp./ $45.00 (hb).

Zalmai: Eclipse with an essay by Daniel Girardin. Umbrage Editions/112 pp./$45.00 (hb).