What we learn about Mr. Clark as an individual, however, is unsettling and incomplete. He grew up with few luxuries in Plainview, Texas and after being expelled from high school he joined the Navy, permanently leaving his hometown. By the time we encounter him at middle age, Mr. Clark lacks any semblance of emotional maturity. He yells, kicks, and screams. He is greedy, materialistic, and even mean.
We want to find something more heroic in Mr. Clark, more useful. But it's hard to unearth noble qualities in this new breed of economic man. Creations like Netscape, Healtheon, and even Hyperion have only a fleeting significance to Mr. Clark. And each one is like his hometown of Plainview. He ultimately leaves them, never to return.
Mr. Lewis, whose tone wavers between heightened deference and mild reprimand, does a fine job of describing a deeply enigmatic man, yet he fails to judge Mr. Clark explicitly. He never takes the much needed leap from description to analysis. Unfortunately, that task is left to us, as is determining whether or not it's a good thing that we must rely on people like Jim Clark for the new new thing. We suspect it is not, but Mr. Lewis offers little in the way of guidance on this crucial subject.
ART:
In the money-driven tech industry, patrons of the arts are a rare breed. by Francine Sharp
"During the European Renaissance, investment in culture, including the patronage of artists and architects and the purchase of books and manuscripts, was a fundamental expression of the aristocratic way of life."
—Treasures of Florence: The Medici Collection 1400Ð1700
"There may be a Renaissance occurring in Silicon Valley, but it is entirely lacking any artistic sensibility."
—The Economist
At first blush, the intersection of art and the Internet seems congested. Countless museums and galleries have their own Web sites, and, for every artistic inclination, there exists an accommodating online effort.
Fresh from Art History 101? Looking for just the right poster of Monet's Waterlilies (for the girls) or perhaps an Ansel Adams print (for the boys)? Art.com stocks all of the dorm room specials. Just starting a serious art collection, or aspiring to add to your growing store? Artnet.com, NextMonet.com, or Guild.com are right up your alley. Already fantastically wealthy, and eager to purchase the finest of art in the hippest, most anonymous way possible? Christie's, Sotheby's, and Butterfield & Butterfield have each taken their operations to the Web.
Sadly, though, very few who have reaped their Internet fortunes have turned their enormous reserves of cash and energy to the patronage—rather than the business—of art. Some—like Richard Kramlich, co-founder of the technology venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates—are trying. Currently on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), "Seeing Time: Selections from the Pamela and Richard Kramlich Collection of Media Art" not only demonstrates Mr. Kramlich's ambitious artistic vision, it also proves that relationships between the technology industry and the art community can be fruitful. Out of the extensive contemporary art collection that Mr. Kramlich has amassed over the past twenty-five years, "Seeing Time" includes 30 multimedia works—many of which seem more suited to the Web than to a museum—from three generations of uniquely modern artists (from Vito Acconci, to Dara Birnbaum, to Bruce Nauman).
Unfortunately, the wonderment that accompanies a tour of "Seeing Time" is quickly displaced by the chagrin that sets in not long after wandering out of the SFMOMA's edgy multimedia exhibit and into San Francisco's polished "Multimedia Gulch." Despite all of the technology industry's ostensible wealth, Mr. Kramlich's efforts at benefaction remain exceptional. To date, technology's attempts to build bridges into the world of artistic patronage have inevitably included some sort of Web strategy. For Bill Gates, what began as an effort to collect fine art and photography, exists today as yet another Internet business model—Corbis, the Web-based image company he founded in 1989.
The ray of hope that prevents chagrin from spiraling into despondency is that the Internet Age is still in its infancy, and there is still ample time for artistic salvation. Perhaps it will take another generation before aesthetic joys, and not business models, are a priority for potential technology industry benefactors. For now, though, the legacy of the Internet Age still risks being mostly devoid of any purely artistic contribution.
Start
Founders' Note
Dateline
Dispatches about the interaction
of culture and technology.
Through a lens
People use cameras to answer
a question.
Backlash
Killthedot.com
Translator
Software interprets the classics
Send-up
Satire and ridicule.
Features
Silicon Valley
The Enigmatic Craig McCaw
Finish
Fiction
"Cyber-sized"
History of...
the typewriter.
The Watch
Reviews and commentary
Wind-up
Physicist Carver Mead explains why innovation requires courage and luck.
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