Re: [-empyre-] the promise

[Auriea Harvey <a@e8z.org>]

> > >  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?

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !

>  technology has/was/is probably killing us more than it's "saving" us,

thinning of the herd .

> 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!

but you see i use this computer every day and...

> 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."

thinning of the herd ?

> 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.

haha i see...

> 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.

and this cannot possibly be important ?
is quantity what matters ?

>  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..

is quantity what matters ?

> 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!

true but a pen is alot better designed for its task as well... which 
brings me back to the original point... ah yes... SHOOT THE MESSENGER 
! its fun and the cool thing is you can shoot it all you want and it 
just...won't...go...away...

>  you engage in history, thinking, discussion groups, classrooms, 
> whatever. same for artmaking practices.

yes we must do those things of course of course but many of us must 
also learn C++, learn Flash, learn to think in digital media to get 
our ideas across. This requires on some level thinking about those 
tools , examining those tools, loving/hating those tools we don't get 
to take them for granted like we do with a pen. Software/Hardware 
comes and goes and so far as paradigm's go holding the pen and making 
a mark has no equivalent in terms of using Software. such is nature 
of computing there are many differnt pens and many different ways to 
hold them and many different marks one can make.

This is because the code we use to make code is just as much the work 
of art as the art we are making. + The people programming the 
software do not know what we need, as artists, to make the things we 
are making .. we must let them know. This requires that we know. This 
requires that we tell them. This requires that we make a few demands 
perhaps. Is Macromedia listening? Most likely not. But there are 
others who do.

but on a final note about this... seems to me if you know your 
tools/code, hve opinions about them and learn to use/abuse/refuse 
them well... you will make better work, you will grow as an artist 
(whatever that is... tee-hee)(no, that is not _all one needs and 
everyones milage may very....but....)


ah thank you, thank you,
Auriea.

> tim jaeger



--
+ Auriea Harvey
+ Drama Director
+ Entropy8Zuper!
+ http://e8z.org
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