<div><div dir="auto">Dear Renate I am thankful and delighted engaging in a conversation within -empyre, one of the most valuable fora I am in. Two of the most interesting people I know in the digital field are Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow the founders of Furtherfield, a digital gallery and net activism node. <a href="http://www.furtherfield.org">www.furtherfield.org</a> grunded in 1996. Marc and me shared for a while the same network, Stumble Upon, an early platform to share links articles and pictures.</div><div dir="auto"><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com">www.stumbleupon.com</a></div><div dir="auto">He wrote an interesting piece about my use of StumbleUpon, it’s still possible to read it in <a href="https://post.thing.net/node/1688">https://post.thing.net/node/1688</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Marc and me and many others shared the joy and the hope of the use of digital tools for activism, for anonymity, for freedom.</div><div dir="auto">John Perry Barlow, who sadly passed away recently, was one of the first advocating for the freedom of the information and the freedom of the web. Keeping the web neutrality was and is still an important battle to fight.</div><div dir="auto">Ana</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>sön 11 feb. 2018 kl. 01:35 skrev Renate Terese Ferro <<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu">rferro@cornell.edu</a>>:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
Ana wrote:<br>
Our digital tools give us the illusion of transparency and visibility but instead we live in a giant panopticon where every gesture and word are monitored and watched.<br>
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Hi Ana,<br>
How appropriate to have you as our special guest this week. Your writing practice has reflected changes and shifts in technology throughout the past 35 years. You were an early contributor to –empyre- and on twitter you have 5,624 followers and you follow 6,166 today. I am really looking forward to hearing about the reflections of your political voice within your early writing and if you were ever fearful about being so open? How do you think your voice has shifted over the years? The philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard was known to refuse to type his manuscripts on a computer because he felt that the sense of the pen and writing on paper changed the way he wrote. It was only towards the end of his life when he finally gave in and used the computer to compose his texts. He with many others had a distrust of the tools of technology. In addition to Virillio, I am reminded by Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle, another text that reflects critical judgment on the spectacle of consumer society which certainly includes our obsession with electronics.<br>
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I will add finally that I am very sorry to hear about the death of John Perry Barlow. Barlow was never a contributor to –empyre- as far as I can tell but I was familiar with his writing career.<br>
Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences.<br>
Thanks Ana,<br>
Renate<br>
<br>
Renate Ferro<br>
Visiting Associate Professor<br>
Director of Undergraduate Studies<br>
Department of Art<br>
Tjaden Hall 306<br>
<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu" target="_blank">rferro@cornell.edu</a><br>
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