artwork designed for download?
Most art is not designed to be seen starting from the top, with the eye slowly scanning down to the bottom until the whole image is visible. Nor is it intended to first be seen at low resolution approximation, and then sharpened or zoomed in on. Rather, IIRC, the plan is generally to have the eye jump to a given significant feature, and then travel around the picture. Or have the viewer start out at a distance, and see more detail (or less) as they approach. So it's interesting to consider the idea of art that is designed to be revieled progressivly, by a download. I wonder if this has been done?
I'm reading the Da Vinci Code, which is a fun book to read just for the references. I've been jumping out to google repeatedly to look up strange sects (yes, they really do exist, and they have a hilariously earnest critique of the book -- google for the other side). Also paintings I'm unfamiliar with or have not looked at in a while, etc. Since it's past 1 am, my phone line is saturated with nightly downloads, so this panel of Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" positively crawled down my screen, and the effect was quite different than if I'd seen it all at once.
It's nice to think that 0.3 k/s throughput might be an advantage in some situation.