Re: [-empyre-] Re: empyre digest, Vol 1 #130 - 7 msgs

["Damien Everett" <damien.everett@rmit.edu.au>]

greetings all... 

>Balance? Isn't the world out of balance right now? If you think that my
views are didactic then you must live in totally blinkered bliss and should
rethink exactly how much of technology, owned and produced by large
multi-nationals are models of democracy and humanity.

Isnt balance about seeing both extremes in their reality continuum? And that there is not one "right" (morally justifiable) way? Personally I like working in blinkered bliss... tho I also like to look the global picture as well, there is a  social and political dimension but I don't want to deal only with these issues... what matters to me is fundamentally connecting with the individual and transmitting certain encoded experiences. I think intent is the real issue here...  don't mis-interprete / mis-represent the actual intent of the work.

>And I am glad that you clarified your examples Brendan because they did
come across in your original posting as socially irresponsible phallic tech
orgasmic. I would however like to look at more information about the
Bangladeshi women. I look cynically and suspiciously on the culture which
is extremely sexist, and yet prescribes policies that seemingly liberate.

I think perhaps jaxal you are being the sexist one here, and perhaps should remove the cynical and suspicious gender polarising glasses? If you wanted to know more about this you shoulda actually investigated this story before making assumptions. You would have discovered that the main reason woman were prefered over men for these loans was because there were statisically more responsible.  This project creates an income stream and financial independance for the individual, and the bank also makes a small profit, great, everyone benifits!

>"Outmoded" is a state of desire and eventually results from someone else's
profit or ego agenda.
 We are only outmoded because there is something newer
out there to use produced by people who don't really care if the newest
model is necessary or affordable as long as they can create a desire to
sell more. Technology hasn't really made useful leaps. 

Perhaps this "evolution" is actually a natural process, with survival of the fittest apps and hardware , entities that exist in the IT ecosystem. (monoplies are not a good thing!) 

I am astounded  with the progress over the past 30 years... as a sonic artist I do like being able to create almost any imaginable sound in realtime... something impossible back then... I think thats a pretty useful leap ;)

>When did art ever stand on its own without theories and critics? In its
history and development, art has always been made in conjunction with
theory.

I believe every piece of art can exist without theories and critics, it is the thereticians and critics that try to impose a framework for "understanding" it. I feel art can comunicate on a more primal level than this (like a childs fingerpainting)... unless you are actually making work for these people.

To clarify this I come from a background in improvisation, when the music is really "happening", you are not thinking about theory and stuff, you are absorbed in the experience of vibratiory motion... a primal language before words even existed :) But theory can be good providing it doesnt cage you.

>major trends in media art production..in his six rules towards a new
>internet art posted at rhizome a while ago..
>1. No Flash
>2. No introduction pages
>3. No more art for the sake of error
>4. Images must be unique to the sitemaker
>5. Technology is not a subject; the Internet is not a subject
>6. The work stands alone

>Similar in sentiment to the Dogma Manifesto. Cleaning out the pipes once in
a while is a good thing. Aren't we all sick of Flash Art? How boring is
making art that is as stimulating as a hardisk drive? These points do make
sense but I find pt 6 hard to fathom. Nothing stands alone.  And there is
plenty left after this. Or we don't have to follow it at all.

Personally I think these 6 points are patentably ridiculous, imaging telling people what art should be and should not be.

Asides from the poli-tech issues with macromedia, flash is a great platform for net art (esp flash mx).
One of the greatest advantages of the net is possible sharing of media resources... what if the user / site director wants to import some images/video/sound from other sites in a colloborative fashion?

Anything can be a subject... its how you deal with it that makes art. 
love and best wishes,
Damien