[-empyre-] the promise

["Tim Jaeger" <tim_in_flux@hotmail.com>]

> >  Technology is not a philosophy or a way of life,

auriea:

> sure it is.

> > it's just tools that make certain tasks easier.

technology as a way of life?  technology has/was/is probably killing us more 
than it's "saving" us, and i'm not putting any faith in Macromedia or for 
that matter Linux operating systems as offering any hope in mapping the 
world around me, in somehow acting as a philosophy. For instance, as 
hypotheticals, Prozac, (fluxotine hydrochloride) and Valium (diazepam), drug 
technologies (and i'm not going to start throwing in Sadie Plant quotes), 
offer more hope statistically speaking than whatever Adobe is putting out!

from alternet.org:
"Statistics show that in 1999 about 3 million prescriptions for 
anti-depressants were written for children and adolescents -- about 11,000 
every weekday."

And as immersive technology, such drugs alter brain functions, serotonin, 
neurotransmitters...you can look away from your URL and end your immersive 
experience, but you can't just log-off once you've popped the pills.  Prozac 
as paradigmatic net.art: zoping up your interaction with other humans since 
1988.

All of this reminds me of a cover of MUTE MAGAZINE i saw a while back (i 
didn't look inside), but it said something like "I AM THE NETWORK" with a 
picture of a single business-dude hanging out. I loved the implications of 
the picture alone..Much of net.art, network art, net.culture, etc. quickly 
reduces itself to a few people hashing it out over a listserv, talking about 
software specs, etc. A lot of it still doesn't compare to lo-fi, analog 
technology like radio, which commands a much higher reception rate measured 
in human listeners..

The pen makes writing easier, but you don't "learn pen" or "learn pencil" 
(the same way today you "learn flash" and "learn C++") in order to write 
better!  you engage in history, thinking, discussion groups, classrooms, 
whatever. same for artmaking practices.

tim jaeger

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