EDITORIAL STATEMENT

GRIST On-Line #1, a journal of electronic network poetry,
art and culture, October 1, 1993.

GRIST is eclectic. GRIST is open to all language and visual
art forms that develop on the Net. We are rapidly becoming
multimedia artists--the old borderlines between forms are
gone. The Net is an extension of the alternative forms of
communication and InterAction that were initiated by the
break from traditional academic and culturally controlled
forums of the period prior to the mid 60s.

A very limited off-line, papercopy, laser-printed DTP
edition, will be issued quarterly to subscribers and will
contain some material unique to that edition.

Insofar as resources, time and energy allow, GRIST supports
and facilitates dissemination and archiving of e-mail art
appearing in the pages of GRIST On-Line as well as the
results of congresses, shows and other programs that may
arise in the network context.

GRIST On-Line is a place where all the forms of expression
that are coming together on the Net will be presented,
developed, discussed and exhibited. GRIST is a place where
the impact of the Net on the form and content of what we
call poetry and graphic and visual art will be visible and
viable.

(This may not be apparent at once. Much of the what appears
in this first issue does not reflect the impact of the Net--
other than the fact that it is appearing here at this time.
Yet, a reading that includes a consciousness of place of
publication and even, possibly, prescience, might not be out
of place.)

Not a lot of poets, and not a lot of artists, have engaged
electronic production, reproduction and distribution. A
primary goal of GRIST is to facilitate that engagement.
However, what actually appears, month to month, will be a
function of what contributors are doing, not what they might
be doing.

GRIST On-Line supports a philosophy of the Net that is
visionary, free, open, and democratic. However, there will
be nodes, gathering points within that vast freedom, where
people will naturally congregate to share ideas, techniques,
and creations. GRIST intends to be one of those nodes.

Articles, announcements, essays, art work, correspondence
and feedback welcome and solicited at all times.

Any reference to the original GRIST would be incomplete if
there were no indication of the contribution made by co-
editors George Kimball and Charlie Plymell. For many issues
they were, in fact, the editors, while I acted as publisher
(from the thin bankroll of the Abington Book Shop which was
too soon exhausted). They sought out authors, gathered
material, traveled, wrote letters, made phone calls, cajoled
subscribers, designed, laid out, typed, printed, collated,
stapled, stamped and delivered. Without them, GRIST would
not have been what it was. Many more in the Lawrence scene
contributed time and help, Jim McCrary, Rob Rusk and more
too numerous to mention. My thanks to them all.

fowler, September 30, 1993