Alternative Online Art Networks

Sociarts is an online forum for artists started up by Bita Shafipour, who came over to the US from Iran when she was 19 to study here, and is now a filmmaker. Bita told me she saw the role of the Internet as a means of preserving the quality of the arts; the film industry has completely given in to profit motives to the detriment of artistic quality. But Sociarts is supposed to represent how artists who are socially conscious - not just into making money - can get their social message out with the help of the Internet.

Sociarts is still run as a business and therefore has to make money itself, but the idea is that this online network provides more than just connections to clients and between artists. Rather, the network itself is “alive,” according to Bita. It’s based around common goals and interests, engenders trust and cooperation, and resembles an international community of artists more than a utilitarian artist network. This idea of online community is interesting to me. And the optimism and good intent of the creator are impressive. I just wonder how the artists and clients feel about it.

I’ve met artists who feel excluded from the established networks of artists in LA and perhaps have a slightly different idea of what “social consciousness” is. These artists don’t relate to the Iranian art circuits that are rooted in the spaces of wealth and privilege in West LA. The few I’ve spoken to identify more closely with the struggle of less wealthy Iranians (including those who couldn’t afford to leave Iran), and different ethnic minority groups in other parts of LA. I can’t say the role of the Internet is taking any solid shape yet among the young Iranian American artists I've talked to(who all happen to be women, by the way). However, it’s beginning to become a space for them to share their art with others inside and outside of their regular audiences. They’re learning new things about the consequences of sharing their work online, the difficulties and advantages, and it seems to be something that’s developing.