What started out as a pleasant spring rain in the morning turned into a downpour by noon then heavy drifting snow throughout the night. By Tuesday morning there was two feet of the white stuff on the ground, tree limbs blocking streets and powerlines dangling above. I'd planned to leave for New York that morning but all transportation was impossible so Jill Reynolds (her installation "The Shape of Breath" was in the small List Center gallery) and I spent the day shoveling the sidewalk where we were staying and rescuing some bent-over trees.

Remo had gone to stay with a friend in Seekonk but found the power was out there so his plans to work on the PORT catalogue on his computer were foiled (there goes the ecstasy of communication). He spent most of the time trying to keep warm since the heat was out, too.

I came back to New York on Thursday, Remo comes back Saturday and we'll work on the catalogue for the next week or so. We're also working on possible future PORT exhibitions but there's no firm commitments we can announce yet.

Everyone seems busy with new projects: GH Hovagimyan goes to Tennessee to give his unique view of the Internet to the students at a university there; Adrianne Wortzel is preparing to go to the University of Lapland for a residency; FPU and Prema Murthy are working on cable TV projects; John Hopkins is wandering the globe with his powerbook in his backpack; Sawad Brooks will be lecturing on "kinograffiti" at the Museum of Modern Art on April 28 at 6:30 p.m. (check out the series Web site: http://www.tech90s.net). Carmin Karasic will eventually conquer the art world...

Please let me know what you're all up to. I'll mention it in our artnetwebINDEX newsletter that we send out sporadically (http://artnetweb.com/newsletter)

There are numerous PORT-like projects being done in the coming months by other groups. To keep up-to-date be sure to check out the Rhizome Internet listserv (http://rhizome.com).

This State O' Port signals the official end of the PORT-MIT listserv. Thanks to everyone for making this an important and very enjoyable part of PORT.

Remo Campopiano can be contacted at anw@interport.net I can be contacted at murph@artnetweb.com Email for other participants can be found on the PORT Web site: http://artnetweb.com/port

As a participant but also as a netowrking artist I can totally concur with your observations and recommendations about the PORT experience... Of course, the issue of exclusivity I have already pointed out a number of times on the listserv -- something that should always be kept in mind -- how accessible the works are to different users (given that only 10% of the world's population has telephones... uh...).

I find the preparation and planning issue critical -- all too many online projects that I have been invited to participate in or at least check out end up as confused and/or non-operational non-events hobbled by poor preparation, untested technical parameters, and related problems. PORT, thanks to good support seemed less prone than many projects to this kind of failure...

My invited participants in Eight Dialogues can attest that I was bugging them for weeks about testing out IRC connections prior to each Dialogue, but I think it paid off in seven out of the eight events going smoothly and the eighth one permutating as a result of a major backbone failure on the national grid...

In retrospect, I thought I should have prepared weekly statements and reminders like Rick did to prime the listserv and others for the event...

I would like to have seen more of the events myself, but my working hours cut into most of them (although at work I had set up an WinNT machine with most of the gadgets needed to view), it i a pity that some of them couldn't have been "recorded" in their entirety and replayed, impossible with the combination of mediums...

But, there is no doubt that this has been a fruitful exhibition, and I am especially appreciative of the technical support, the facilitatorial prowess of Remo and Robbin, and, of course, interacting with some/all of you on the listserv (I, for one, would definitely like to be on all of your announcement lists for future projects!). Thanks to all!

Also, I do have an index page in my web space with a rolling list of individual/personal web sites <http://www.usa.net/~hopkins/perweb.html -- if you would like to be included on that list, please send your URL to me...

PS, did anybody have success in engaging the MC36 project in the UK?

John Hopkins
private email: hopkins@usa.net
WEB: http://www.usa.net/~hopkins