There have been a lot of industry firsts in Levy's career. After graduating from San Francisco State University in video and film studies, she came east to attend NYU's ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), where she still teaches today. "They had tons of amusing MACs and I had them at my disposal to play around with," she remembers, "so I used Macromedia's Director and HyperCard to create my master thesis Cyber Rag, which was the first disc-based e-magazine around." Publishing two more issues and distributing them out of her East Village loft and through independent bookstores, she caught the attention of Billy Idol. In 1993, he commissioned her to create what became the world's first interactive electronic press kit for his "Cyberpunk" album. Levy went on to produce the first-ever high-density `disc-novel' entitled Ambulance (using art from Jaime Hernandez's noirish comics Love and Rockets). She then took on interface design in corporate gigs with IBM and Viacom, as well as working independently with clients including Warner Bros., HBO and Sony Music. The advent of the Internet suited Levy's talents beautifully and, in 1996, she co-created WORD.com, a pop-culture Web `zine full of quirky essays and digitized art.

The fat cat of Cyberslacker shows off its prize possession. Courtesy of Electronic Hollywood.

The first incarnation of the `Electronic Hollywood' name was as Levy's second e-`zine disc series published in the mid-'90s; but the moniker morphed into titling her present-day animation studio when she received investment backing in April 1998. Running a full facility in digital production is great, however Levy maintains, "Basically, I'm a storyteller." And that's why Cyberslacker is taking a lot of her attention. Basing the series on her own experiences of daily New York life, Levy is now working with co-writers to flush out the series' progression. The company has similar projects in development and plans more Web pilot productions in order to get the exposure necessary in attracting co-production and/or distribution alliances. Her advice to beginning net animators is simply, "Make it!" Although she doesn't believe in limiting oneself to any single venue, she sees the Internet as "a really great medium of delivery" and encourages all artists to "find your own voice and exploit it. Have fun. If you're not doing something that's fun and you're spending all your time doing it, then what's the point?"

In each new phase of Internet expansion, we have visionariesbright minds working out on the edge of emerging technologies with the age-old dreams of entertaining new audiences by unconventional means. As profiled in the companies above, Silicon Alley is, indeed, nurturing its share of fanciful "right brain/left brain" talent. It's the Manhattan `mind-set' of curious and energetic artists expressing new-fashioned animation across the Web and beyond.

Lee Dannacher is an animation producer/sound track director of over 300 half hours of television films, as well as numerous network and video holiday specials. Currently based in New York, she is freelancing in audio, project development and new media productions.