From The Christian Science Monitor, March 24, 2000:

cybercoverage: ArtandCulture.com
Jim Regan -- Site Reviews

"Art" is, to say the least, an exceptionally inclusive noun - especially if you subscribe to the theory that "everything done by an artist is art, and anyone who makes art is an artist." (Better double-check your garbage before you take it to the curb.)

"Culture," too, is a broad term, and if you combine the two, the only category that might cover more territory is "stuff." Naturally, with such a wealth of possibilities, and the infinite capacity of the Web, it would be helpful to have someone willing to separate the wheat from the chaff for us, and ArtandCulture.com is doing just that. This site not only "curates" the best sites on all things artistic and cultural, but through effective visual and Web design, makes it surprisingly easy to find what you're looking for. (And even easier to find the unexpected.)

The visitor's first encounter with ArtandCulture is a "status check" of your browser - specifically, a reminder that you'll need the Flash plug-in to view the site. Though not mentioned, you'll also need to activate JavaScript and be using a 4.x browser. (At least, when I tested with 3.x, I was too busy closing JavaScript error messages to get anywhere.) Once you are confident of your browser's capabilities, you can proceed to the home page (best suited to a 600x800 window), which presents the first of several impressive examples of "combination navigation."

Whether by design or by accident, the eye is first drawn to the bottom of the window, as a series of continually rotating photographs starts filling the spaces above the six departments of A&C's directory listing (Design Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Performing, and Visual Arts). Below the directory is a keyword search window, and above is a navigation toolbar that divides the site into Arts, Culture, Read, calendar, and Shop. (Each toolbar category provides a summary of its contents on mouseover.)

Arts offers visitors access to information in over 1200 categories via Keyword Search (if you're in a hurry), List Browsing (with a column index that looks standard until you realize each category expands or collapses with a click of the mouse), or "The Cloud". The latter feature will be familiar to those who have used the Thinkmap, and is clearly the search method of choice for those open to a bit of tangential exploration. Various words "float" in the Cloud, all related to the name or term in the center, and all linking to more information. Words can include artists, movements, even subjective characterizations, so that James Joyce's Cloud contains not only other writers such as Yeats and Cortazar, but also attributes ("formless" or "playful") that he may share with artists in other disciplines (such as Picasso).

Arriving at a specific destination such as the Joyce entry, A&C displays all of its various methods of navigation without making the page appear cluttered. With the Cloud hovering near the top, the Toolbar and Search window above, and the collapsible index to the left, visitors can change their method of exploration at any time without having to return to "home plate." Pages also include "Lived" and "Worked" timelines (in some cases indicating that an artist worked from birth), brief bios, links to recommended sites with more detailed information, and a preselected list of related artists, movements, and keywords. As you may imagine, someone setting out with all good intentions of a quick search for the answer to a simple question can easily find themselves drawn into hours of aimless and rewarding exploration. After all, who knew that Ernest Hemingway and Jackson Pollock had anything in common?

Culture can occupy as much time, albeit in a different way. Choose an world region, and Culture will take you to a brief intro, and links to sites covering Festivals, Mythology, Alternative Media, and various forms of Travel for each country within the specified area. If you can't wait for a trip, Live Web Cams (a 'wall' of 24, in fact -- one for each time zone) will show you what the rest of the world is doing while you're sitting at your computer -- if you have the time to download all the screens. I attempted the task several times, and since the site apparently doesn't show anything until all the cameras are loaded, and since my browser's STOP button was rendered useless by A&C's single minded determination to load the cams or die trying, I was inevitably compelled to Force Quit the browser in order to regain control over my computer.

Seeing the world on a single page is a great idea, but until we're all using Cable/DSL modems, a page of thumbnails linking to individual cameras is a more practical option. (A less critical, but still annoying form of the same power struggle exists on the home page. The constant download of images for the directory listings seriously interfered with such basic tasks as scrolling the 'New Additions' list that A&C had opened into a second window. Eventually, I ended up 'scrolling' by highlighting the text and dragging down.)

As for the other sections, Read is the home of A&C's online magazine, the Calendar lists - but doesn't link to - arts events around the world, and the Shop takes visitors to recommended ... stuff. With the exception of the Cloud, which exists only in Arts, each section efficiently adopts the same navigational schemes to its own requirements.

To date, ArtandCulture still has a few holes (for example, the Folk Music directory only holds Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell), but art is a big subject and the site is growing constantly. (In fact it doesn't officially launch until "the second quarter of 2000.") Even in its unfinished state, you should budget a significant amount of time for each visit.

ArtandCulture can be found at http://www.artandculture.com.

Jim Regan provides 'Today's Links' to the e--Monitor. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.