4/12/02 6:51 AM Friday
Polished off 4/15/02 6:54 PM

Is there an aesthetic anesthetist in the house?

Rules. Can't stand 'em. Never could.
When I formulate them I am tapping out a code of behavior for someone else. People should follow their own codes of behavior. Hush now! I can hear your negating thoughts. What about crime what about traffic lights what about murder what about pollution what about grammar! I didn't say there shouldn't be ethical behavior. Just said, I can't stand rules, unless (I give you an out) they are intended as guides. Rules should take Virgil's Role in the Inferno (who wants to reside in heaven when all the interesting people have crossed the River Acheron with Charon for the price of a coin), or perhaps Mr. Myagi in Karate Kid. Wax On Wax Off Buddy!

All this talk of rules, ethics and such relates to the massive agita that people who write books about writing or painting or composing music or dressing a turkey or undressing a super model or building an outdoor barbecue pit, give me. The best know that the last thing you should do is pay attention to what they are proposing. And further relates to what Lackzoom Acidophilus in general and I, in particular, as we try to create our little web area in cyber space, are placing under the close scrutiny of considerable consideration.

WebPage Aesthetic 101
Tutorial Version 6.5.2a-30
1. Old form rules don't apply even as guidelines. Present web pages often look like magazine advertisements. After all, are not 3D deep shadowed graphics and glossy print the catchy order of the day? Now add a dollop of some flash animation to grab the attention of the flighty audience. Voila (Pardon my French especially when I can't find my way to the accent grave on the keyboard), a new form is born. The aesthetic is realized, the medium mastered. Possibly not!
2. The nature of the new medium is interactive and demands frequent change. That means rather constant work is required (Please take note you old time Protestant American Work Ethic Mavens). I am told that farmers come to despair at the fact that cows must be milked every day whether or not Ma and Pa want to take a trip over the two lane blacktop to the County Fair for the weekend or just sleep in. Behold the new bovine!
3. The "audience" doesn't have to pay attention to your particular sets of logic. They can manage the hypertext wormholes provided in any order they want, including forsaking you for the open arms of another cyberlover.

Faced with the above stated precepts, I give my thoughts about what Lackzoom Acidophilus is doing while searching for a web aesthetic in the new and possibly already passe (see accent missing aigu again) millennium.

We used to do a lot of radio both prerecorded and real time, when we were on the air circa 1974 - 78 at WYEP then 91.5 FM. Our idols were The Firesign Theater and Stan Freberg. Both used the audio medium in a wonderful manner. An environment was created in which the most adventurous and absurd actions could be described in very textured sound. One of the important aspects of radio, is put forth by Stan, (It is true that I can't describe his example very well in print. Get the picture?), He describes (the audio air full of sounds) a giant strawberry being picked up by several helicopters and then being dropped into the ocean off the New York coast. Finally, as it floats, covered with a frothy layer of whipped cream. "Alright! Now," says Stan (hold for proper emphasis)," do that on TV." Radio is profoundly different from TV. Much that would be visual is left to your rather rabid imagination. Part of what we are exploring is audio.

In our cyberspace, hypermedia, electronic messaging we can also provide the visual, static or moving images, with or without color, with or without sound. This isn't radio. This isn't sound recording. This isn't a live music performance.
It isn't writing. There is an inner depth of meaning and expression that can only be revealed with words, scenes, structure. Can't get it with radio. Can't get it with poetry which is different from writing literature. This isn't poetry either.

Movies, you have to reveal in images, which can be striking, but the weakest film contains a script that explains to you what the film images should be exploring. People, who opine that movies are about writing, don't close their eyes in the theater. Or maybe they do. This isn't the movies.

Comic books, visual novels, animations, TV commercials, TV infomercials, audio books, electronic books, grocery store food labels, MSDS forms, all have their aesthetic. Some even have a definite use. All have proselytizers hawking their revealed rules. I read and listen to what they say, I appreciate some of what they say, but I choose not to follow what they say. If some of it gets incorporated into my personal vision, that's okeedokee with me.

I hate RULES. Rules come at the end of process. At the end of the universe there will be one very pervasive rule. And I won't like it very much!

We thus arrive at the Web Page of Lackzoom Acidophilus. Several of us, all with differing visions, are collaborating. Makes it even harder doesn't it. The RULES given for work in this completely new medium are so desperately formulated by others that they must ignored. The government tries to censor, Recording Companies and Hollywood try to control, Corporations flock to be there to sell.

We are only doing this because it is life and death to us. Like all fun things must be.

We don't have answers. Rules pop in and out of existence like solar neutrinos in a tank of perchlorethene, bathing deep underground. Some even travel backwards in time.

The best of us know that the last thing you should do is pay attention to what we have to say.