Streaming and security of art works on the Web

The inherent characteristics of Web-based communication could be used to extend the "gallery metaphor", of lack of discrete boundaries, idiosyncrasies of transmission of information and an interface-driven environment. Part of the attraction for placing art on the Web related to the scope for interaction and feedback from a viewer base that would not otherwise be feasible, given the "narrowcast" nature of much of the contemporary art circles. The evolving environment of the Web provided a unique challenge for artists to explore these conjunctions of cyberspace, media and audience feedback. The original art works available on the Web provides some form of interactivity, sometimes including video and sound, as opposed to merely digitised work. The multimedia potential of the Internet had provided major appeal for artists wanting to present video or sound clips of their material, and that readily available software permitted compressed video and audio to be streamed on most machines without download delay. This paper focuses on the streaming of art works and advocate combination of technological approaches surrounding the addition of multimedia to Web-based artworks. Furthermore, we present our \´smaller granularity technique\´ (SGT) that supports security of art works streaming with high degree of flexibility and reliability.