Cybermiles in the Age of Smartphones and Social Media Erase Miles

There are thirty museums participating in the Global Tribute to Rembrandt on five continents including those from the twelve states in USA that have places called JerUSAlem.  The title of the blog posts for the museums in the twelve states shows its distance in miles to Jerusalem in Israel and to Jerusalem in the US state.  

For example: University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor: 6,018 miles from Jerusalem, Israel; 14 miles from Jerusalem, Michigan; or 0 cybermiles, and Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York: 5,698 miles from Jerusalem, Israel; 78 miles from Jerusalem, New York; or 0 cybermiles.  

I coined the word “cybermiles” to highlight the difference between my digital events honoring Rembrandt on the 230^th anniversary of his death in 1989 and on the 250^th anniversary on 2019. Cybermiles symbolizes the shift from the fax generation to the ubiquitous digital culture of smartphones and social media.

On the morning of October 4, 1989, my Rembrandt inspired cyberangel ascended from the AT&T building in New York.  It flew to Amsterdam to Jerusalem to Tokyo to Los Angeles, returning to New York on the same afternoon. It took an hour in each city to receive 28 pages of angel fragments and fax them on to the next city.  After a five-hour flight around the planet, the deconstructed angel was reconstructed for the fifth time at its starting point.  

Unlike fax technology where the cyberangel went from one city to the next on its circumglobal flight, today’s technology sees cyberangels ascend into “The Cloud” and descend into cities throughout the world.  The Cloud describes a vast number of computers interconnected through a real-time communication network such as the Internet. The Cloud is a living network of networks blanketing our planet that expresses the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream ascend into The Cloud and come down throughout the world.

In 1989, the distance between participating cities is measured in miles. Learn more about the circumglobal faxart event at Rembrandt Inspired Cyberangels Circle the Globe.

In 2019, rather than flying from place to place, cyberangels ascend into The Cloud and drop down anywhere in the world.  Cybermiles in the age of smartphones and social media erases miles. Follow my emerging digital homage to Rembrandt as it is happening at this Global Tribute to Rembrandt blog.