The Whitney celebrates online

But there's no need to feel constrained by alphabetical convention. Artists and their works can also be surveyed by Theme (Abstraction, Portraiture, Low-Tech Tech, etc.), while still retaining access to the Text/Visual options. In the Visual mode, relevant thumbnails arrange themselves beside the Theme Index, as the others swarm in grayed-out anonymity at the bottom of the screen. (In text mode, names do the lining up and swarming.) A similar approach is taken to arranging the works on the basis of their medium (Painting, Sculpture, Digital Art...), and as a final alternative (if you want to be absolutely thorough in your explorations), you can simply start at Marina Abramovic and click the "Next Artist" link at the bottom of every biography page until you reach Ms. Zittel.

In addition to perusing the art, visitors can interact with a Dialogue option - which uses an artificial intelligence guide to respond to viewer input with information about the show and additional resources. Much, of course, depends on your input. "Where are you?" returned a perfectly logical listing of the Whitney's street - though not city - address. "What is Digital Art?" on the other hand, resulted in, "Do you like the show?" and, "Click on the screen, and your icon will fly around the screen... Fun!"

Considering the visual nature of the exhibition, there is also a great deal of text at the Biennial site - including a 7-page Director's Welcome, four pages of Curatorial Introduction and some 60 pages of Curatorial Essays. Naturally, visitors aren't required to read all these articles, and the simple totalling of pages ignores the potential usefulness of their content, but the reason I point this out is that text -especially small text- is about the only thing that Flash doesn't do well.

It's tiring enough to read that much content off a computer screen when the letters are sharp, and for anyone but a dedicated enthusiast, reading it in the blurred and muddied text of Flash is too much to ask - especially if this comes after getting through the various artist biographies. Links to HTML or, even better, printer-friendly copies of the essays would have been a great help.

Still, in presenting a large collection and a wide variety ("Ranging from the apocalyptic to the ethereal, the fantastic to the political, and the sensual to the obsessive,...") of art to casual visitors, and in keeping those visitors' interest long enough to move them deeper into the site, the 2004 Biennial is an impressive success. And once inside, it reminds us that (with all due respect) there is more to art than Picassos and Van Goghs.

The 2004 Whitney Biennial can be found at http://www.whitney.org/biennial/.

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