Three (in)significant things happened today. Strangely, they propelled me into hyper drive, with my mind barely able to keep up. Unggh. Toooo many ideas. Too many film scenes. Playing through my inner eye. Too much understanding all at once. If only I could project and record my thoughts real-time. Perhaps Strange Days was onto something?

So what happened, you ask?

First, I discovered a major development in the web community. No one will realize the significance of this, except a handful of web specialists. It was only because I subscribe and meticulously track one of them - Tim Bray - that I was alerted to this. Talk about a small technological standard evolving, which will change everything. His post concerning this is here.

Second, I was alerted to the new web-based music service imeem. This site is a clearinghouse for all major music labels and allows people to listen to any music - at full length and (mostly) CD-quality - for free. It is add-supported, so the free is free as in beer, not as in speech, but it's a major breakthrough.

Hmmm - you think. And?

Well, I thought that too, until I started to play around with the site, and I realized what it did to my head ;-) I could access music from various geographies* and moments in my life. I an hour, I had relived many different parts of my life. This is a completely new experience, in that I can travel back and forth along my lifeline, so I can see where I've been. Which then helps me see where I'm going.

Imeem has been able to create a sweet spot in usability, back catalog, ease to find things, jump around among music genres and periods. And it will need to refine and improve over time, as the voracious appetite of the public will demand more, but overall, it's a great new way to access and enjoy art.

The freedom I experienced is creatively intoxicating. Yet one more piece of evidence that art wants to be free. Needs to be free. And the artists need to be free to keep making their unusual observations. I can feel a whole new way of remuneration bubbling under the surface, can't you?

To top all this, I was wondering how accessible back-catalog TV has become. Youtube et al. do provide short clips of course, and the various online sources I mentioned before do provide some access. But think of any great TV show from the 70s or 80s, and you're out of luck. Not available on cable syndication, unless you get lucky, and not available on DVD, unless you want to buy a whole tv-season worth.

Then I rediscovered AOL video. Not a great experience, in no way comparable to imeem, but there are at least some shows I could revisit one by one, streaming down to my desktop. A clunky and buggy interface, a painful way to search, and no way to skip forward in the stream make this not very future-proof. But perhaps the imeem model can be applied by some smart start-up?

It's only a matter of time before all art will be easily accessible. And I can see books, fine art, music, movies, tv shows all ubiquitously present in our lives. Which will lead to wholly new inner realities, more ways to mash up various art forms. It's not the technology that matters, but how it is an expression of our understanding of the world.

"Are we there yet?", asks Isabella. "Almost, smarty-pants. Just do your homework and get enough sleep." As we find new expressions for our understanding of the world, we will most likely find ourselves very very interconnected, and ready to face any global challenge that may come along. Whether we like it or not ;-)

* Until imeem, I could not access European music from iTunes, being in the US myself. Or music from Australia or South America for that matter, as the iTunes store limits access to geography. This is of course based on the property rights that are divided along those lines, and has nothing to with the art itself.