InteractiveDesignForum      
CD-ROMs: Electronic artists' books?
     
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Issue 7   |   January 2000  
         

A GREAT DEAL!
You can get Scrutiny in the Great Round plus four other art-related titles for $30 by ordering the Love of Art set from CDAccess.

Beside Scrutiny, it includes: Claude Monet Collection; Starry Night (Van Gogh); Painters Painting; and Art & Music: The Twentieth Century.

The disks are like generic book-club editions: they don't include the original packaging or graphics but are electronically intact.

 

 

     

Where do you find them?
I have about 100 interactive CD-ROMs that range from crassly commercial (The Merchant, CD-ROM Catalog Shopping) to intensely personal (Beyond, by Zoe Beloff). Most, not all, were commercially published and distributed, as opposed to self-published. People often ask me where I buy them. Here are a few ideas.

ONLINE RETAILERS
If you know what you want, like the interesting interactive adaptation of Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine book trilogy, called The Ceremony of Innocence, try a big online retailer like Amazon.com. Just type in the title or author's name and see what comes up. This only works for titles in fairly widespread distribution. For others you need to go to a more specialized source.

First try $9.99 Software [www.999software.com]. Their selection is limited, but the price is right. A few CDs from Voyager are available here, and you can buy any of their titles directly from The Voyager Company.

For a bigger selection (the best I've found), check out CD Access [www.cdaccess.com].

There are also titles available in Europe that we can't get here in the states. Check the British distributor Ramesis CD-ROM Warehouse [www.ramesis.com], which lists prices in both US dollars and pounds sterling and accepts credit card orders.

SHOPPING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
Some book and music stores carry CD-ROMs, usually off in the corner under a sign that says "Multimedia." A few years ago I spent way more than I should have buying hard-to-find CDs at the Virgin Records superstore near Times Square in New York City.

Always check out the shops at art museums. I've found unusual titles at the Guggenheim Soho (NYC) and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH, and snagged a bargain or two at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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