No Alternatives

An interview with Japanese book artist Shinro Ohtake (see photo) launched the magazine’s coverage in volume 19 of the multi-year Cultural Olympiad, for which Atlanta’s Nexus Press produced five books by international artists from each of the five geographic areas represented by the Olympic rings-the Centennial games preparing to be held in Atlanta the following year. The rise of computer art and the Internet was explored by guest editor Alan Sondheim in an issue on “Future Culture,” a topic the magazine would begin addressing more regularly, while an ongoing interest in art and education was reflected by an issue dealing with art schools. Another historic theme for the publication, the crisis of underfunded and freshly marginalized alternative spaces, was considered in an issue titled “No Alternatives?” that defiantly declared the intention of alternative institutions to stay in business and suggested the possibility of such spaces going online.