What’s the smell of blood on the digital tracks? What’s the sound of static deep in the wires? What’s the color of electronic discharges as they bond flesh to the machine? How long does it take for this freakin’ website to load? These are the questions that will float through your mind as you eat some Digital Dirt. This is a heavy-duty multimedia art installation from the same minds that brought you the truly exceptional CTHEORY electronic journal. Whereas CTHEORY is almost purely straight- text, Digital Dirt demands the very latest in bells and whistles from your browser: Java, Flash, shockwave, RealAudio, RealVideo, and a damn fast connection to get the most out of the experience. The speedy, mind-altering effect of reading CTHEORY’s articles is considerably diluted when experienced as murky audio or jerky video in a tiny window, the limits of technology setting the limits of art. You get lots of text from Digital Dirt too. Text that slides, texts that bounces, texts that winks in and out of existence. Is it meaningful? It might be if it were faster. Trying to put this kind of experiment on today’s World Wide Wait is like trying to hum along with an old 78 spinning at 33.3. It’s a site like this that makes me want to fling open my window and yell to the gods of Rogers, “Where is my cable modem?” (DW)
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