Two weeks ago, I wrote about the introduction of digital media into the art world, and their inevitable and flourishing relationship. But there are two kinds of digital media that affect artists: that which I spoke about in the previous article, where rather than the medium of paint or charcoal, we use mouse clicks and drags, and there's the kind I'll speak about this week. It's the more widely known definition of digital media for those of any industry, and that is the social interaction the Internet allows.

The Internet began as a platform for people to chat. It essentially took the form of chat rooms that were dedicated to people who had similar interests, or people who worked in the same place. Basically, it was for people to get together and talk to other people about stuff they really liked. And so, as the Internet evolved to include many other — seemingly endless, actually — functions, one thing remained prevalent: people could connect to one another. Eventually, what we now know as social media began to pop up with the launching of Myspace, and virtual reality games, and then Facebook and YouTube and Twitter. The Internet boom had an effect on every industry short of llama farming, and the artists saw that it was not as bullet proof as some thought.

Artists set up shop in one of two camps. They either loved the Internet and believed it to be the new frontier of art that brought exciting ways of creating, or they completely shunned it as another tool to bastardize the sacredness of tactile life. As time has gone on, the opinions remain more or less the same, but those embracing the connectedness of the Internet and social media are being presented with an endless amount of options.

One interesting website that I've happened upon in my exploration of the web is a project called hitRECord. It's an “open collaborative production company” whose aim is to use many artists to create finished pieces of art of all types (music, animation, films, illustrations, writing).

It's a mouthful, so simply: they begin with a piece of work that someone has uploaded, and members then take turns remixing, adding, and developing the projects until they're complete. Then, the company begins to market the project to the public's nonmembers (with the help of the founder, a well-known and dashing movie star). And eventually, when they've gathered enough art pieces and hype, they put on shows, publish books, screen at movie festivals, show at galleries and split the profit with the members who participated in the creations of that project.

hitRECord is just one of many, many collaborative artistic initiatives on the Internet, but it perfectly exemplifies what's possible with the new interconnectedness that's available at our fingertips. The Internet allows us to share information with others. This can lead to getting and giving advice, sharing our work, selling our work, collaboratively creating. I'm sure even the most vivid of imaginations can't anticipate what technology will advance to, but its innovation has already spurred on our creativity, and I can imagine that will stop anytime soon.
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