When Saul Robbins and the co-curators of the upcoming multimedia exhibit Peepshow 28 were thinking of having videos from the show streamed on their website, they looked inside their wallets and nixed the idea.
That's because when curators are low on cash, selecting part of the show to highlight on the Web doesn't always make a lot of sense.
"It's been too difficult to put it on the Web because we're a low-budget operation," Robbins said. "A lot of our money is going to public relations and travel. We just couldn't afford it."
That sentiment seems to go against the idea that the Web is an inexpensive alternative for artists to showcase their work. But with the costs of streaming video on the Web increasing, maintaining large files on a website can take a bite out of one's budget.
"It is not free nor is it cheap to run an active website, especially when it's a bandwidth-gobbling image gallery," wrote Steve Gliebe, founder of digitalart.org in an e-mail. "Many art sites have vanished, sadly, but others do remain."
Gliebe said the art websites that have stayed alive do so by plastering their sites with more ads, charging for membership, taking donations, and/or gaining sponsorship from Web-hosting companies and software publishers.
In today's world, it's not easy for artists to find sponsors that aren't concerned about making a profit.
"RealNetworks has a lockdown on video streaming, so it's difficult for artists to find cost-efficient ways to show art that takes high bandwidth," said Alex Galloway, director of content and technology for Rhizome, a website for new media art. "There are open-source alternatives, but it's a lot harder to show something on the Web other than flash."
Galloway said the Holland-based company XS4ALL specializes in giving away free bandwidth, but most people don't know about it.
Despite the increased costs associated with putting art on the Web, Galloway said he still hasn't seen a trend of artists moving away from the Internet because staging traditional exhibits is still very expensive.
"It could be that maybe there's a lack of ingenuity (on the curators of Peepshow 28's part)," he said. "You can find free video servers that can do your stuff; and free software and free coding can generally be found on the Web."
