The IDEA [Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts]

The IDEA #1 [January 2000]
The IDEA #2 [July 2000]
The IDEA #3 [January 2001]
The IDEA #4 [July 2001]
The IDEA #5 [January 2002]
The IDEA #6 [July 2002]
The IDEA #7 [September 2004]
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The IDEA (Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts) was a series of 7 CD-gazettes that Shankar Barua produced 2000-2004. They were originally intended to catalog, distribute, and archive works and statements from an ever-changing and ever-expanding range of 'Electronic Artists' around India and the world,.. but eventually instead widened Shankar's focus to take in the infinite global domain of 'Experimental Creative Practices & Practitioners' across any and all possible streams of human endeavour,.. which led to him later launching The AeA, CeC, and so on.

Formatted in plain-html so as to be readable and deconstructible across different software and hardware platforms, the entire IDEA series was mirrored online in time by the incredible electroacoustic pioneer and composer Laurie Spiegel on her personal server in New York City, which suddenly went offline when her service provider went bust in 2023-'24.

The links above therefore now lead to the complete mirrors of the 7 CD-Gazettes of The IDEA, within the mirror of Laurie's entire website on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Be forewarned that the old HTML tags that Shankar had used for all of the multimedia content, now simultaneously auto-starts all audio and video within individual feature pages in modern web-browsers. This means you'd want to first stop all but one player in many such pages, before browsing deeper into any one of them.

BELOW ~Participant Responses to receiving their 2 copies each of the The IDEA CD-gazette that they were respectively featured in.
first ~ a line from Laurie Spiegel, who hosted the first mirror of all 7 gazettes online
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Laurie Spiegel:
"It was both my pleasure and my privilege to host your site online, and a trivial thing for me to do compared with your creating this immense compendium of otherwise-probably-forgotten-or-never-seen work, a momentous endeavor."
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Others:

"It was hard to have an appreciation for the final product from your web-site. It is truly amazing!"

"I have been flying through. The more I look and listen the more I enjoy the CD"

"Much better than #5. More written on stone and blood so to speak that the last one"

"I love the mixture of music all along with the digital art and some amazing honesty of some of the artists"

"Amazing stuff from the young and the old put together"

"The only thing that interfered with the experience was the succession of artists and their work with no apparent categorization."

"Thanks for all you've been doing - spectacular!"

"I don't think I wrote to you about how wonderful it has been to see how your IDEAS e-zine has grown within these 6 issues. Thank you for making me a part of so much sharing"

"You have created a masterpiece. The way the art, patterns and music all blend together is just wonderful! It certainly beats viewing it in Photoshop alone. The "Digital Revolution" is so funny"

"You did a beautiful job with this one"

"...It has given me some IDEAs (no pun intended)..."

"Your project is important. Always my friends await the new CD with emotion to have a look at new artworks"

"What a wonderfully varied and complex assortment of projects! I know how much work putting together something like that can be; I really appreciate all of the energy you put into it"

"Let me congratulate you on this new edition of IDEA - magnificently set out and interesting beyond belief"

"I must congratulate you on your tenacity. The new E-Zine impressed me. It certainly has got better"

"I am going through and experiencing the artists slowly one by one enjoying every minute of it. Well, it's after 3 AM and I better quit!"

"Just to let you know that the CD arrived and how beautiful it is!!!!"

"I'm also amazed that you are doing this without, sponsors?...financial backing?...on your own?...Geeez great focus and determination."

"I enjoyed reading the articles and listening to the wonderful music. I appreciate all your hard work and creativity :0)"

"Of all the projects out there featuring and connecting artists from all over the world yours is the most comprehensive and appealing."

"What an amazing project! I can't imagine how you can do all this!"

"I think this vehicle is solid, a "winner" among those many digital pretenders out there."

"Well f^*#@ng done Shankar!!!!!...You are an amazing and dedicated volunteer.... this collection is so much more eclectic/varied...So much to digest..."

"This is the best magazine I ever saw, and I saw a lot zines."

"I shared the CD with my students and staff,.and let me tell you, it was just one of the most wonderful experiences we've had."

"The design is great and the whole issue is very intriguing."

"It´s fantastic. And what a great mix of artists and institutions."

"It's a fabulous issue with an amazing amount of material on it."

"you really do a terrific job with them, the packaging is marvelous!"

"i can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is. the breadth and depth of the content is quite astounding,"

"Just looked at The IDEA #6. Great, really. In fact, the idea of The IDEA as a gazette is really good."

"The layout looks good...simple navigation which is great..."

"I love this presentation of yours"

"Way cool!!! Seriously well done. I'm very impressed. My students LOVED it."

"One of the things I really liked is the simplicity of it...Excellent...And the background weaves...Yeah!...And the CD cover...Yeah!"

"WOW, Shankar!!!! That's great."

"I have not finished exploring the CD/Artists...I will take my time doing so...But I wanted to simply congratulate you on the work you do and the product quality."

"The concept you are working on is a very good one. The design looks good, as is the concept."

"Would it be possible for me to obtain IDEA cds #1, #2, #3, #4 as well. Believe me they will be used to the max within the academic community."

""THE IDEA" is just FANTASTIC!"

"The personality that you're projecting into it is very engaging. I am completely positive!"

".. a fabulous issue with an amazing amount of material on it. Well done!"

"It looks great ... wish I was a part of #6 ... and congratulations!"

"This looks good. It works fine too"

*you do such a great job with the CD Gazette...Loved the packaging design and colourful label on the CD...I have not yet explored all it has to offer but some of the stuff I've seen is certainly motivating and inspirational..."

"You did a beautiful job of it. Thank you!"

"Such a resource! I've used these CDs to introduce many to your collective of talented souls. Many more could benefit from the wonderful cross-cultural, multimedia works your team has assembled."

"... your tremendous work with your great CD's, I think everyone apreciated it a lot and would love that this will be continued."

"I think it looks and feels great! The illustration at the index could be the cover. The music is perfect; I liked your approach when you started and I like it now."

"Thanks for producing this beautiful collection!"

"This project has a labor of love written all over it. I spent several evenings looking through and enjoying the works of many other talented artists. It's a beautiful project"

"I love the CD Rom!"

"What a work, and job. I like the Idea very much, and I gonna show it to all my friends."

"- die Idee ­ 6, it is exellent."

"I hope this bodes well for more such excellent output from you & your working group. Please let me know how I may be of assistance."

"Spent my time with your IDEA #6. Thank you. Was fun."
"This is wonderful work you've been doing, gathering artists from far and wide into what is really a Virtual International Multimedia Museum ("VIMM"???? - nah... I like "IDEA" much better.)"

"It's great how things are growing slowly but continuously!!!!"

"Fabulous content. A treasure chest of info literally- ( hope that doesn't sound too corny!)."

"IDEA is a terrific idea..."

"... take care and thanks for your outstanding work!"

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