Continuous product innovation might be good for capitalism, but it's bad for art. With a constantly shape-shifting tool set, there's too much emphasis on the tool and not on what it can do. Instead of focusing on new ways to tell stories, netizens drop their projects and scurry to download the newest software.
So if you find yourself asking where the Orson Welles of the Web is, remember that when the groundbreaking Citizen Kane was released in 1941, artists had already amassed more than 40 years of creative intelligence. Who knows how long it'll be before the Web reaches a steady state - if it ever does.
After all, perhaps the whole point of the Web is that it destroys the myth of the individual genius artist. The network's the thing, not the individual, right?
- Spencer E. Ante (spencer_ante@pcworld .com) is an editor of the annex.
