Re: [-empyre-] Re: developing nations and elitists

["Patrick Lichty" <voyd@voyd.com>]

Jun Ann Wrote:

Having an extensive mobile network is a result of a government's agenda and
budget priorities and these networks amongst other things can exist whilst
ordinary people in any country including developed/ing nations thrash out a
living just trying to survive and feed themselves, maybe their kids.

*********
Exactly. Here in Louisiana, we have a high degree of hunger and poverty
here, which are issues in which I am very active on the local level, as I am
extremely active in anti-globalization on the larger level.

> And let's not limit our scope to developing nations. The US, long a
> developed nation, still struggles to connect most of their population. I
> don't know the figures off-hand but the "digital divide" was on the
Clinton
> agenda.

Well, it's fallen off the map in the Bush Agenda.  He doesn't give a damn if
there's a divide or not.

> Of unethical nations who do watch their people starve whilst building
> advanced digital technology ahead of, let's say, sewerage systems and
clean
> water, their priorities are often criticised by human rights and ethic
> groups.

Well, that's the argument of the sort that pan space programs until we 'fix
the problems down here', which is impossible.  Somewhere, someone will be
killing another, someone will starve, and some injustice will be happening
to someone.  Simple as that.  There must be a balance, and what is required
is a critical engagement with the global climate, both literally and
figratively.  Earth sciences/astrophysics can be of great use if used
properly.

And therein lies the rub.  The use of information, resources, and technology
for the greatest good to all, and not just to humans.

But back to PDA art, to dismiss the emergent genre is similar to those
dismissing any emergent medium as it came about, from photography to cinema
to radio, and so on. The fact is that they exist is evident, and for the
artist to engage with these platforms is highly more preferable to leaving
it to the corporate intellectual monopolists and engineers who haven't a
whit about the implications of their devices than their 8-year old kid.

My point is that to engage with these platforms is to question them, not to
reify. And to dismiss them as something that does not fit one's agenda is
perfectly valid, but to dismiss their existence and the validity of
exploring these milieus is its own form of exclusionary politics, and is
directly counter to many areas of critical art, including cyber-activism,
etc.



My biggest pleasure lately was the elimination of a multi-billion
super-Howitzer from the

> But hey, globalisation is going to save the world right?
>
> JA
>
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